Love of a Sinner

Ch 26 - Wounds

- How is he-... ?

Joohee bit her lip, trying to hide the trembling in her voice, that hindered her to speak clearly and nearly break in tears after what she just heard. She was yet somehow holding herself as it were Siwon that had seen everything and couldn't even put it in words what happened with Jiwook, his voice seemed to her so distressed and pained that she could only roughly grasp the gravity of the unspoken part.

At first she felt such a great relief when she heard they found Jiwook, but in an instant, it crumbled with the stretched grievous silence Siwon gave her instead of an reply and Joohee was left to guess for herself how bad it all was.

After long dense moments of none of them speaking, Siwon told her finally bits of what was Jiwook's condition and almost nothing about what really happened to him. Joohee could only swallow it and force herself to not ask for anything more though she so badly wanted to know, to understand, to help. Did they consider her too young or weak-hearted for that?! It might as well be, as her brother always shielded her excessively even though she wasn't the scared little girl from the past anymore. Nevertheless he wouldn't change it and never let her help him instead. He never let anyone close to him.

Except Jiwook.

Goddess, how was her brother facing all of this?

- My brother is he there? Is he alright? He doesn't take my calls.

- ...

Joohee didn't know why, but the second silence was somehow more rigid and heavier, which threw her right away into an alarmed state.

- D-did something happen to oppa? Is- is he hurt?

Her voice broke at the end unable to control her increasing worry.

- No... yes. No wait, I mean, we didn't confront any of the assaulters, so he wasn't hurt, but... he might be too... shocked perhaps. I'm not sure he was strange the whole time we waited during the surgery. And then they told us about Jiwook's condition, he didn't... take it well. He hurt himself. His hands... that, he was getting treated but he then run out of the room. I didn't see him anymore. It was... around 2 hours since then. Did... did he not come home by now?

Joohee put her hand on her mouth to muffle her gasps in dismay of what Siwon was saying. She could imagine Joohoon throwing and crushing everything or maybe even run after the bastards who did that to Jiwook, but hurt himself? And..."strange". What ... how was he strange?! To other people he could seem indeed strange, but for her, for those who knew him well at least, it was just him, Joohoon with his peculiar personality. However, for Siwon to say that, the way he described it, she knew something was wrong.

So, so wrong.

...

She came running to her grandmother's house praying to see her brother there, but she found it empty, as if frozen in time, with traces of Jiwook's presence still so painfully vivid that you'll expect him to come out of it at any moment. She could understand why Joohoon didn't dare to come near the house at all those two days.

Yet that was the only place she could think of.

Joohee took her phone and tapped to call Taejoon and ask if he might have seen him, but she stopped at the quiet scratching sound of the gate door slowly being pushed back. Her eyes jerked right that instant on it and she saw him.

- Oppa, you finally are here-

She was running to him but froze in place at the sight of the blood on him. His hands were soaked in blood, still dripping down, right hand in a red damp mess of bandages, while his left was clenched tightly just as red, his knees and down his feet were dyed a dull dark red, like it had dried already, and his face, his mouth, his forehead - half his face was wiped with blood and Joohee's first thought was Joohoon killed someone, because the way he stood and moved, wasn't of someone who was hurt to the point of bleeding, therefore the blood wasn't his... was it?