Part One
"Baby, look at me... Look at me, I am right here beside you okay. Nothing will happen to you or our baby. You're going to give birth safely and you will be alive to carry our baby, nurture him and together, we will take care of him. All you have to do is to hold on and continue looking at me. Okay, baby. I am here, look at me, I am here with you." Wang Yibo said to his groaning husband, Wang Yin Lin who was being wheeled inside the hospital, heading straight to the labour ward.
Ever since Yin Lin took in and had been going through the process of his nine months with their baby growing healthy in his womb, Wang Yibo had been so happy and grateful to have him as his husband. Words couldn't describe how happy and fortunate he feels.
They dated for a few years, which at first, were just best friends and Wang Yibo had been having a crush on him, but he wasn't able to confess to him how he had been feeling and had mixed feelings for him. He feels he can't just tell his best friend he is completely whipped in love with him.
Yin Lin, on the other hand, was also having a thing for Wang Yibo but he wasn't able to say it either. They're best friends and can't just wake up one day and start telling each other how they feel. They find it very difficult at first, but at last, that beautiful evening, they were having a night out with their friends and were a bit intoxicated and were given a dare to kiss each other by their friends, and before they knew it, they found themselves sleeping with each other.
The next morning, when they were finally sobered up, they confessed how they felt for each other and how they had been dying silently. It was the best day of their lives and ever since then, love blossomed within them finally, Wang Yibo proposed marriage to him, especially after finding out Yin Lin was with child.
They lived happily together, and Wang Yibo did everything he could to take very good care of him during the nine months he carried their child in his womb with so much struggle. The sleepless nights, countless times Yin Lin was taken to the hospital because of complications, he made sure he took absolute care of his pretty wife.
Wang Yibo stood by his lovely husband, stayed awake at night to take care of him, massage his waist and his feet whenever it became uncomfortable for his husband. During those months, Yin Lin understands how much his husband loves him and is willing to do anything and everything he can just to see him happy.
This made Yin Lin love his husband so much and cherish every moment they shared. Yin Lin doesn't know how or why, but he keeps getting this weird feeling that something is going to happen to him. He can't explain it either, but he can feel it ever since he drew near to his nine months.
One night, Wang Yibo was sleeping and Yin Lin who had been awake and was looking at his handsome face, tears making their way down his eyes, looking at Wang Yibo's face and can't imagine what Wang Yibo's life would be without him since he noticed how much Wang Yibo loves him. He noticed how sincerely and undying his husband's strong love for him is and couldn't stop shedding bitter tears, thinking what Wang Yibo's life would be without him. Empty, he guessed.
He was crying and at the same time smiling with his tears and Wang Yibo stirred upon hearing the muffling voice and found his husband ruining his beautiful face with his tears. This hurt Wang Yibo so much that he immediately got up and asked, "Darling, what is it? Why are you crying at this time of the night? Don't you know how much your tears break my heart whenever I see them? Now tell me, where are you feeling the pain? Tell me, baby, and let me kiss away your pain." Wang Yibo asked, his eyes filled with love while looking at his husband who was smiling with his tears and was caressing his face sweetly.
"Baby, you know I love you so much right? And I will do anything it takes just to be with you, right?" Yin Lin asked and looked at his husband with his tears still streaming down while Wang Yibo nodded and brought the soft hands that were caressing his face towards lips and kissed them gently before looking at his husband to continue. Yin Lin smiled, "Baby if anything happens to me, do you promise me to never dwell in my death and move on with your life?"
"God forbid!" Wang Yibo refused to acknowledge such words said to him, he can't even imagine it. He shook his head and looked at his husband, "Baby, I forbid you to ever say that to me, ever. Nothing will happen to you. You will be alive for me and our baby. Don't ever say that to me, okay. I love you so much and we will be together and live together as husbands forever, okay. Don't say that again because nothing will happen to you, instead, let it happen to me." Wang Yibo tears well up on imagining life without his beautiful husband, does he think he can survive? Wang Yibo shooed such negativity and refused to listen to that anymore.
Yin Lin sighed and smiled sadly, "Baby, listen to me first. I didn't say anything was going to happen to me. All I'm saying is for you to learn to live without me. I'm not done yet, so don't interrupt me." Yin Lin warned and glared playfully at his husband on seeing he was about to cut him short again.
He chuckled and continued, "My love, it will gladden my heart to always see you happy and I want you to always be happy. If anything ever happens to me, please, don't mourn me forever. Just be happy and find someone else who will love and take care of you exactly the way you're doing to me and please, do take care of that person. Promise me, baby..."
"How do you expect me to promise you such, baby? You're not going anywhere nor are you going to die, so why are you saying this to me? Why are you making me feel terrible and at the same time, miserable with your spoken words? I refused to acknowledge this. I don't want to acknowledge it either." Wang Yibo's tears dripped down while looking at his husband.
Why is he suddenly talking as if he'll die sooner or later? They just got married and here is he talking about death? Don't he know he'll die as well if anything happens to him? Wang Yibo thought whilst looking at his husband with a heart full of pain and eyes filled with tears.
"I am not making you feel terrible and not proposing that you acknowledge my death either. I'm here now, right? I just want you to promise me that. Promise me, darling... please... please..."
"Alright, fine. I promise you, but I know you're not going anywhere. You will never leave me, okay. Now come, let your hubby take your thoughts away and replace them with something else. Something more pleasurable." Wang Yibo said and pulled his wife into a deep kiss before taking him that night.
And now, it seems his husband was right after all. He watched his husband struggling between life and death and he didn't even know what to do. All he could do now is to give him words of encouragement and believe nothing will happen to the love of his life, his crush, his best friend.
Wang Yibo was at his office and was busy looking at the file his secretary was showing concerning the new business deal that needed his approval before they set a meeting with the company when he received a call from his maids and was informed of his husband going into labour. They told him how he was bleeding even before the labour pain became more severe.
Wang Yibo's world came crumbling for a sec and when he finally snapped out of his trances, he replied and told the maid to call for an emergency and they did as he instructed. Wang Yibo drove straight to the hospital instead of going home. He was driving in when he saw the emergency bus also driving inside the hospital. He rushed to them when they opened the doors and choked on seeing his wife drenched in blood and more blood was still gushing out even as they wheeled him inside the ward.
"Baby... I'm tired... The pain is too much for me to bear. I want this pain to end... Ugh! My strength is leaving me...I can't anymore"
"Baby, stop talking and save your strength, okay. Everything will be fine. Just keep your eyes open and look at me! I am here with you... Doctor! What are they still waiting for! Doctor!" Wang Yibo screamed.
He looked at his husband who was groaning in pain and down to his body and saw blood still soaking his pants and the hospital bed his husband was now lying on. Wang Yibo doesn't know who to attend to, is it to leave his husband and go to drag those fools that are delaying or to be with his husband who's struggling to breathe.
"Baby, stay with me... Doctor! Doctor! Where are the fucking doctors! Tell them to come and tend to my husband!" Wang Yibo screamed at the nurses that were coming inside with piles of blood and things that needed to be used in attending to his bleeding husband.
The doctors dashed in, all dressed and ready. The nurses brought out scissors and used them to cut the clothes Yin Lin was putting on and Immediately, they changed him into hospital clothes, changed him to another bed and were ready to help him give birth.
The doctor checked on him and shook his head. He looked at the panicking man that was consoling his husband and said, "Mr. Wang, your husband has lost so much blood, all we can hope for is for the blood given to him to help him. I would've suggested an operation, but he has lost so much blood for that. Just encourage him to push, the baby is near and the pelvic is open. So, help us let's see if we can save him and the baby.."
"I don't care for the baby... Just save my husband and that's all that matters. Save him for me!" Wang Yibo went back to his husband and held his hand with one hand and the other hand wiping his sweat away. "Baby, our child is near, all you have to do is to push okay. Just push... Look at me, you can do it." Wang Yibo smiled at his weak husband and kissed his forehead lovely.
Yin Lin breathed in and out and gathered his strength and pushed for long, but he was only pushing but the force wasn't going down his abdomen, and the more he pushed, the more he lost blood. "I'm tired... I can't push anymore... The pain is unbearable ugh! Ahhhhhh!..."He gritted his teeth, groaning and crying in so much pain.
"Mr. Wang Yin, the baby's head is already showing, just push out the head, we will help you with the rest. You can do it..."The doctor encouraged him and smiled, but looking down and seeing the blood oozing out, he shook his head, feeling pity for the young man.
"Baby, do you know I love you so much? You once told me this, right? Please, push the baby and that will make me happier. I love you, darling. You can do it... " Wang Yibo blinked back his tears and smiled for his husband who also smiled with his tears while looking at him.
Yin Lin threw back his head on the hospital pillow and gasped for enough breath. He looked back at Wang Yibo and pushed with all his last strength in him and on doing that, he pushed out the baby's head and buried his head back in the pillow on hearing the baby's cries. The nurse pressed his stomach and with that, they pushed the baby's body out and showed the baby to Yibo and his breathless husband.
Wang Yibo kissed his wife's lips and smiled brightly. "You did it, baby... Thank you for giving me a bouncing pretty baby boy that looks like you... I'm now a father..." Wang Yibo smiled but the smile slowly disappeared from his face on seeing how his husband's eyes rolled and how he was gasping to breathe.
"Doctor! What is happening! Lin! Lin! Don't do this to me! Lin, look at me, they're cleaning our baby, please, look at me! Baby!" Whilst screaming, Wang Yibo was shaking his husband and the doctors were trying all they could to stop the bleeding, but the blood kept flowing out, very thick. "Doctor, do something! Do not let anything happen to my husband! Lin! Baby, open your eyes, please! Our baby is out now, just stay with me! Please...." Wang Yibo cried bitterly.
Yin Lin seemed to calm down a bit. He looked at Wang Yibo and smiled at him. He breathed out. "Baby... You... Remembered... What you promised me.... right? You promise to be happy and remarry another person who will love you more than the way I do, right? You... Promise to not mourn me... Forever... Right? Please... Don't do that, it will hurt me so much. You need someone to... To... To...take care of you and our son... Promise me to be happy?"
"Baby, please... Don't say that! Doctor, do something! Save my husband for me!" Wang Yibo nodded for his wife but he still couldn't look at him. "I promise..."
"Good... Now...kiss me, baby.." Wang Yibo obliged his request and kissed him. Lin Yin caressed his face while letting his husband kiss him. When they broke the kiss, Yin Lin smiled one last time with his tears and mouthed, "I love you..." Before he slowly closed his eyelids to his final rest.
Wang Yibo already sees that he is gone but he refused to admit that, even when the machine attached to his husband was all beeping, Wang Yibo still refused to acknowledge his husband's death. The doctors and nurses who were looking at them shook their heads and watched as the young man was weeping for his deceased wife. "Do something! Baby, wake up! Baby, our baby is there, wake up! Doctor, do something! Please wake my husband up!"
The doctor went to him and patted his shoulder, "I'm sorry, but your husband is dead..."
Wang Yibo gripped the doctor's collar and screamed, "Don't just stand there and utter that rubbish to me! Wake him up! Just wake him up!" His hands loosened and he collapsed on the floor, curled himself in a ball and cried bitterly.
Wang Yibo watched as they removed all the syringes attached to his husband's cold body, cleared all the equipment they used and also changed his clothes that were having dried blood. They covered his face and wheeled him out of the ward, taking him to their cold room.
Wang Yibo walked soulless outside and saw their family members all waiting for him. They all sympathized with him and helped him to carry the baby that was brought out along with him. A baby that wasn't given the privilege to embrace his mother, not even before his mother's last breath.
After settling the bills, they all left the hospital and went back home. Wang Yibo went upstairs and looked at the bed he slept in and woke up this morning with his husband. He climbed on his bed, pulled his husband's pillow and bawled his eyes out while sniffing his husband's scent that was still lingering on the pillow.
Everything and everywhere reminds him of his beautiful husband. He was immersed in his loss when he heard his baby crying, he went and took him from the maids that had been doing all they could to hush him. Wang Yibo carried his baby embraced the only part of his husband in his bosom and cried himself to sleep along with his baby.
Three days later, he buried his husband with tears that never stopped streaming. He stood and watched his husband buried six feet under and blamed no one but death for deciding to snatch his beautiful husband not just from him, but from his son as well. It was a painful memory that Wang Yibo will never forget.
