After a while, Talotkan managed to gather herself and walked away, carrying her sorrow deep within her heart.
Meanwhile, at the clinic, Yim sat in utter silence. She looked less like a living person and more like a lifeless doll placed on the chair. Today was the most heartbreaking day of her life. On this very day, years ago, her entire family had been consumed by flames in a tragic accident...leaving her utterly alone in this world.
In her trembling hands, she held a photograph....one that captured her mother, father, brother, two sisters, and herself, all smiling happily. The moment her eyes fell upon that picture, her heart grew unbearably heavy, as if something deep inside her shattered all over again. She clutched the photo tightly against her chest and wept with everything she had...until her eyes turned crimson, until the veins on her forehead throbbed painfully.
Though seven long years had passed since that tragedy, to her, it still felt as if it had happened only yesterday.
At the same time, Talotkan had returned home. After placing the vegetables she'd brought from the market in the kitchen, she walked straight to her grandmother, who had dozed off in her chair.
A faint smile bloomed across Talotkan's face...a small, genuine smile, as if she were gazing upon her entire world and finding peace in that sight. Quietly, she sat down on the floor, resting her head gently in her grandmother's lap, and soon drifted into sleep herself.
Some time later, her grandmother stirred awake. When her eyes fell upon Talotkan sleeping with her head in her lap, they welled up...not with sorrow, but with love and happiness. After all, tears of joy are the most precious tears of all, reserved only for those who live in your heart, not merely in your mind.
Talotkan opened her eyes as well. Her grandmother could read the unspoken questions in them.
In a soft, almost trembling voice, Talotkan asked,
"Grandmother... does being alone... hurt?"
The old woman instantly understood why her granddaughter had asked such a question. With a tender smile, she began to explain in the most loving tone,
"My child… when we choose solitude, it is not pain...it is peace. But when solitude chooses us… when we are abandoned… then it feels like a curse. Every day, every moment feels empty, no matter how many smiles surround you. And those who suffer from this loneliness… there is only one thing in this world that can give them true happiness."
And for those suffering from that emptiness, only one thing can truly bring happiness."
Talotkan's eyes widened. She shot up, eager, desperate, as though she had just glimpsed the answer to the greatest question of her life.
"What is it, Grandmother?"
The old woman cupped her granddaughter's cheek with her warm, wrinkled hand and spoke softly, with a smile that carried a lifetime of wisdom,
"Love, my child… Always remember this: just as sweetness can turn even poison into nectar, love holds the power to erase all darkness. Hatred. Loneliness. Pain. Everything can be conquered… by love."