The sweet scent of lilacs overwhelmed Hye Bin as she caught a whiff of a purple cluster on side of the old dirt road. She was headed home after a long day at the restaurant she owned. She felt guilty, being cooped up all day in a smelly restaurant when she could be outside enjoying nature. Her tear-filled eyes looked to the sky to find huge white clouds above her head. She sighed. It was moments like these that she was going to miss terribly.

After gazing dreamily at the few flowers in her garden, Hye Bin opened her front door to be greeted by her daughter with a heartfelt embrace. Hye Bin was about to pull away, when she felt warm tears on her shoulder. She picked up her small daughter and sat on the couch murmuring, “It’s okay, honey. It’s okay.” They sat on the couch for what seemed like hours in the same embrace. When Hye Bin’s daughter appeared to be settling down, and the sobs turned into hiccups, she pulled away and sat her daughter on her lap. Hye Bin’s cheeks were wet as well. They smiled weakly and Hye Bin kissed her daughter’s salty cheek. They embraced one more time before Hye Bin sniffled, rose, and said, “So what would you like for dinner, sweetheart?”

Later that night, when her daughter was sound asleep, Hye Bin got out of bed and went to the kitchen to drink some warm tea. She had been tossing and turning all night and decided that some tea would help her sleep a little better. After all, who could sleep at a time like this? After burning her tongue once, Hye Bin sipped her tea while sitting in an armchair and looking at old photo albums of herself as a child. She gazed at photograph after photograph, watching herself grow older, getting on the bus to go to her first day of school, going to her first school dance, and getting her driver’s license. She saw her kindergarten drawings, her first sentences, and her senior pictures. A lump rose in her throat as she looked at how quickly her life had passed her by.

The next day, at her restaurant, she manned the cash register and helped out her employees because of a shortage of workers that day. She was in the middle of ringing up a customer’s bill, when she caught a glance of the sky outside the window. As if in a trance, she dropped the bill and slowly walked out of the restaurant into the sunlight.

In the middle of the night, Hye Bin sat up suddenly in a fit of coughing. She was trying to suppress the coughs so she wouldn’t wake her daughter, but they still shook the walls of her tiny house. A few minutes after the coughing stopped, her daughter stepped timidly into Hye Bin’s bedroom with her teddy bear. “Are you okay, Mommy?” she asked.

A few months later, the coughing had gotten even worse. Hye Bin had to leave the restaurant for good. She was starting to receive phone calls from long lost relatives, expressing their regrets. This annoyed Hye Bin. She wanted to forget about the whole thing, pretend that nothing was wrong.

One night, Hye Bin was sitting on the porch watching the stars. Her daughter came outside, quietly, and sat next to her. “Mommy,” she whispered. “What am I going to do without you?”

Hye Bin turned to her and said, “Honey, don’t you remember what I told you a few months ago?” Her daughter shook her head. “I said that I will always be with you. Always.”