Chapter 10: Totally Unexpected

manga!

Saku woke up abruptly when she heard a crash from the living room. Moving slowly out of the bed, Saku groggily walked out towards the living room, only to almost get bombarded by Kim Ji-Hoon’s body, which was currently running to his room. Saku could tell something was terribly wrong by how frantic he was compared to his normally composed self…

-Saku turned the lights on and blushed when Ji-Hoon stripped off his shirt, exposing the toned muscle of his stomach and chest

“… Uh… Kim Ji-Hoon…?”

 -Ji-Hoon slipped on a different shirt and looked at Saku, his eyes hysterical

“I just got a call from the hospital… my aunt got into a car accident and the kids were with her!”

-Saku’s eyes widened and she ran from the room to the bathroom after grabbing a pair of jeans and another shirt

-Ji-Hoon finished changing and met Saku by the front door

-The two quickly ran off in the direction of the hospital

 

In the hospital, Saku and Kim Ji-Hoon split up. While Ji-Hoon searched for his aunt, Saku ran to find the children. When Saku arrived at the specified room that Seo-Hyun and Hyun-Woo were occupying, she stopped where she stood and sucked in a deep breath…

-Saku walked into the room slowly… the kids were asleep

-Hyun-Woo’s left arm was placed in a cast and his right arm was bandaged

-Seo-Hyun only had her legs were wrapped in gauze

-Both kids had cuts and bruises on their faces

-Saku let out a sigh

“You poor things… Oh I can only imagine how your mother is faring!”

 

Kim Ji-Hoon never felt more scared in his life. He ran as fast as he could, his aunt and his cousins the only thing swimming through his head. When the doctor had called him in, he felt himself freeze at the mention that his aunt’s condition was very serious… Ji-Hoon didn’t know how bad her condition was but he certainly hoped that it wouldn’t be something she couldn’t recover from…

-Ji-Hoon skidded to a halt before a closed door

-Gasping for breath, he placed his hand on the door knob

-Slowly, as if opening the door might cause the whole structure of the hospital to collapse, Kim Ji-Hoon entered his aunt’s hospital room

“… Imo…!”

Yoo Ji-Min was unconscious on the hospital bed… she was using a breathing tube and had a great number of IVs hooked up to her. Bandages covered most of her body… and whatever skin was showing was mostly bruised… a horrible wreck…

-Ji-Hoon stood paralyzed in the middle of the room… only registering the sound of the heart monitor beeping

-Only when Saku entered the room with a horrified gasp did Kim Ji-Hoon finally react

-Slowly, as if everything would disappear before his eyes, Ji-Hoon walked up to the side of Ji-Min’s bed

-He placed a gentle hand to her cheek

“Why did this happen to you?”

-Saku took careful steps towards Kim Ji-Hoon

-It took her a moment to get the courage to hug him from behind

“Are… are you going to be okay?”

-Saku felt Ji-Hoon trembling slightly and tightened her grip

“Ji-Hoon, are you going to be okay?”

-Ji-Hoon took a ragged breath

“… Yeah… I think…”

 -Saku could hear the doubt in the tone of his voice and began to worry

-Before either could speak again, a doctor entered the room

“Kim Ji-Hoon?”

-Ji-Hoon took a deep breath before masking his growing hysteria at the sight of his damaged aunt

“Yes… that is me…”

“She… she won’t be waking any time soon…”

“… What the hell happened?!”

“It was a drunk driver. He spun out of control and hit your aunt’s car full force. Most of the collision was on the driver’s side, so your aunt took most of the damage. Your cousins are fine though, no serious injuries… However, we aren’t completely sure how Yoo Ji-Min will turn out. She lost a lot of blood and she might have trauma to the brain after hitting the steering wheel, a fractured skull maybe… she’s in a comatose state right now and we don’t know when she’ll wake… or if she will wake… To be honest… we really don’t think she is going to… wake up again…”

-Kim Ji-Hoon took a moment to absorb all the information before responding to the doctor

“Thank you…”

-The doctor simply nodded before leaving the room

-Back in the almost silence, Saku watched Kim Ji-Hoon closely

-He appeared to be calm and collective, but she knew that was just a façade… one that she used plenty a time herself

 

“Yoo Ji-Min is the only person he has left to care about… she and her children… are the only people he has here to support him… and I take it nothing serious like this has ever happened… how is he going to react?”

 

-Saku set a hand on Ji-Hoon’s shoulder

“Don’t worry Ji-Hoon… She’ll wake up… have a little faith… she’ll wake up, okay?”

-Ji-Hoon merely nodded to Saku’s words… taking a few minutes to reply

“… She is the only family I have here… I… don’t want anything to happen to her… and Seo-Hyun and Hyun-Woo don’t deserve to lose another parent…”

-Saku smiled softly and moved in front of Ji-Hoon

-Looking him in the eye, she repeated

“Hey, listen to me. Nothing is going to happen. Yoo Ji-Min-san is going to wake up soon and she’ll recover… and then she’ll be back to her normal self.”

-When Ji-Hoon suddenly wrapped his arms around Saku, she was too surprised to even react

-An unusually quiet voice reached her ear

 “… How can you be so sure? Even the doctors are doubting!”

-Saku let out a sigh when she felt him shaking again, most likely trying to hold back his tears

 

 “This has broken him and he needs all the support I can give him…”

 

-Slowly, Saku returned Ji-Hoon’s embrace

“You know, it is okay to cry… You’re worried and that is alright… but if you don’t remain positive then all you are going to do is cry… just believe that your aunt will be fine, that the doctors were wrong and she’ll wake up again… that is all you can do…”

-When Saku felt warm tears on her shoulder, Saku knew that Ji-Hoon’s façade finally cracked

-He cried silently, and Saku comforted him

“I’m not sure at all if she’ll wake, but we just have to believe that she will…”

-As Saku comforted Ji-Hoon, she began to remember the past

 

“Saku, they aren’t going to wake up again…”

-Tsuyoi stood before a ten year old Saku

“They’re dead Saku…”

“They can’t be dead! They just can’t! They’ll wake up! The doctors said they were just in a coma a couple weeks ago!!”

-Tsuyoi pulled Saku into a warm embrace, letting her cry freely

“I’m so sorry Saku… I’m so sorry… they aren’t coming back…”

 

-Saku took a deep breath and repeated herself

“Yoo Ji-Min will wake up… she is going to come back…”

Author's Note

Ji-Hoon can cry!