Two months have passed since the epilogue of omniscient reader's viewpoint had been published. It has been officially ended, and it took four years for Han Sooyoung to finish it. However, in this 4 years, Kim Dokja didn't open his eyes yet.
"You made me look like a pathetic guy in that novel of yours." Yoo Joonghyuk sighed as he said.
Han Sooyoung turned around as she heard Yoo Joonghyuk's voice. She scoffed as she heard him complaining.
"It's because you're a pathetic guy."
Yoo Joonghyuk frowned, but he didn't have the energy to argue with her.
"Is that novel famous?"
"It's good enough to recommend others."
"Why did you make me the second main character?"
"It's because that squid seems to admire you."
A faint smile-like expression floated up on Yoo Joonghyuk's lips before vanishing completely. As that was a rather un-Yu Joonghyuk-like behaviour, Han Sooyoung ended up frowning deeply.
"....You actually smiled?"
"I didn't."
"You sunfish bastard."
They were in the hospital yard, they could see Kim Dokja's room clearly from there. For some reason, coincidentally, Kim Dokja's mother, Yoo Sangah and others came to visit him that day. Anyway, when they found Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk in the hospital yard, they started chit chatting.
In the last chapter of the novel, it wasn't mentioned that if Kim Dokja woke up or not.
Han Sooyoung couldn't write it. She couldn't write that Kim Dokja in the novel woke up while looking at the real Kim Dokja. The Kim Dokja in real life was still unconscious. At least, his soul isn't scattered like the novel's Kim Dokja.
There isn't even a single day in past 4 years, where Han Sooyoung didn't imagine about Kim Dokja, how he will wake up and how will he react after reading his own story.
She still imagines about him. No... Actually the past 4 years were solely for Kim Dokja.
"Did you... make an ending like this because you give up on Dokja?"
Yoo Joonghyuk wordlessly stared at Han Sooyoung. How long passed by like this? Han Sooyoung's voice began trembling.
"I-i didn't... That fool... Why didn't that fool ever dream of his own happiness?"
An existence who had never imagined his own happiness. The 'Kim Dokja' they knew was such a person.
"I also know that! I knew that Kim Dokja was such a person... Why do you think I started writing this story in the first place? Why, why I have...."
Drops of something wet were falling onto the backs of her feet. She wanted to say something, anything. To shout out, to grab hold onto Yoo Joonghyuk's neck and choke him, shake him around. However, she couldn't.
A voice mixed with indescribable fatigue entered her ears.
"... You did well."
Han Sooyoung raised her head at Yoo Joonghyuk's voice fleeting past.
"You knew better than anyone that Kim Dokja loved stories."
She glared at him with her reddened, tearful eyes. "That's not something I wanted to hear from a bastard like you."
They were silent for a long time, until the silence was broken by a hospital staff.
"Are you people the visitor of the patient in ward 4951?"
Both of them looked at the guy confusingly, as they had already visited Kim Dokja. Han Sooyoung became concerned.
"Is there something wrong?"
"The patient has regained consciousness."
Everyone raised their heads at the staff's words.
Han Sooyoung stared at Yoo Joonghyuk, but he was looking back at her with the exact same eyes as hers.
They started running hurriedly to enter the hospital, Yoo Sangah and the others didn't fail to follow them.
Han Sooyoung didn't know what the conclusion of this story was.
Will Kim Dokja wake up and recognize them... Or will he end up like the omniscient reader's Kim Dokja?
"Su-Yeong-ssi! Over there!"
They could see the hospital ward of Kim Dokja in the distance, the hospital ward they were all intimately familiar with.
Han Sooyoung ran out of breath rather quickly. Yoo Joonghyuk supported her and kept running. Shin Yoosung rushing up the stairs tripped and fell. Others reached out and helped her up.
This desire, a wish, of those who went their separate ways a long time ago to become one once more.
To grieve for someone else, to celebrate, to get angry, and to despair. And eventually, wishing to become that someone else.
Someone was sympathising with their story. As her breathing grew heavier and heavier, Han Sooyoung kept thinking to herself over and over again.
'If you regained just a little of your memories and remember us just one more time...'
"Over there!"
'....Then I'll keep writing the epilogue for you until the end of the time, for eternity.'
She reached before the hospital room's door, completely out of breath. Han Sooyoung was now standing before the very room that she came to visit every single day for the past four years.
The rest of the people running up the staircase one step behind were now looking at her. She looked back, and began recalling the very last paragraph to the conclusion.
「This story is just for that one reader.」
She then heard Jeong Hui-Won shouting out.
"Han Su-Yeong!"
Everyone had came to see that very person.
Han Sooyoung's trembling hand grasped the door's handle.
She was scared. What if Kim Dokja was still lying lifelessly beyond this door?
What if all this was nothing more than a sweet lie?
She looked to her side, and saw Yoo Joonghyuk nodding his head.
No matter what was waiting for them beyond this door, they were now ready to witness it. The door creaked noisily as it opened. Faint rays of sunlight entered through the wide-open window.
A figure who was sitting on the hospital bed while looking outside the window, looked at them as they opened the door.
He smiled brightly.
"You guys are back."
Tears dropped from Han Sooyoung's cheek and she grinned like a idiot. Shin Yoosung and Lee Gilyeong ran and brushed past them.
"Hyung!"
"Ahjussi!"
The kids hugged Kim Dokja tightly as they cried.
"I'm sorry... I'm late."
Han Sooyoung smacked his back.
"Hey! What was that–"
Kim Dokja paused when he looked at the tearful Han Sooyoung.
"You... You bastard... I won't forgive you."
She hugged him as she kept crying. Not only her, one by one, Yoo Sangah, Jung Heewon, Kim Dokja's mother, Lee Hyunsung, Lee Jihye, Kim Nawmoon... All of them embraced him. Yoo Joonghyuk punched his hand and hugged him.
"You're late, you damn squid."
***
"Ugh, these bastards..." Kim Dokja frowned in annoyance as he looked at his mother.
"How cute." Dokja's mother smiled as she said. "These kids must have been tired because of past few days."
"But why do they have to sleep on my shoulders?! I'm the patient here!"
Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk were sleeping soundly on Kim Dokja's shoulder.
Others already went home, so they were supposed to drop Kim Dokja at home with his mom, so all of them took the subway. His mother sat across to them, but it looks like they made Kim Dokja a squid pillow.
But then again, it felt peaceful to Kim Dokja. At least, he wasn't alone anymore in the subway.
The story that started in the subway with the reader... That very story ended in the same subway, along with the the author, the protagonist and the reader. Even though this story has ended, it won't end until the readers of this story doesn't give up on this story.
[THE END]
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Thank you for reading this fan fiction all along, I didn't expect to get this many interactions and support in my story! Months ago, I gave up on this story thinking that it wasn't good enough to read. But after reopening the app after several months, I was surprised with the comments and reviews! I'm really grateful to the readers, who supported me even after I gave up. Without you guys, I couldn't have reach the ending of this fanfic.
Apart from the ending, I've written something for Yoo Joonghyuk's birthday with someone's help. I've posted it in the next chapter, make sure to check it out! Have a great day!