Lisa
As we walk inside I call for my father, but I'm informed he's in surgery at the moment. That really fucking sucks because normally he could come and we'd be in and out in an hour.
We check in at the front counter. Jennie is unable to write with her injured wrist so I fill out her paperwork while she stands over me, feeding me the information. She eyes my script for a while and finally says, "You have very neat handwriting."
I'm not sure if she's insulting or complimenting me. I'm finding it difficult to figure her out. Warily I say, "Thank you."
She nods. "It's not very manly, though," she adds. She nudges me with her elbow and pulls at my shirt.
Is she serious? I lean close to her and, with my voice low, say, "You're more than welcome to find out tonight."
Her eyes quickly dart to meet mine, and she flushes a deep red. This girl is something else entirely. I'd pay any amount of money to know what she's thinking right now.
Give or take a few seconds for recovery and she clears her throat. "You said you have to go back to Busan."
"I do."
She shrugs. "Some other time, then," she says coyly. She keeps her eyes diverted, refusing to look at me.
Holy shit... seriously? Or is she fucking with me again? I can never tell with her. Slightly frustrated, I stand up to return the paperwork. Jennie follows me.
The secretary takes the paperwork and asks, "Do you have a medical doctor, Miss Kim?"
"No."
"We'd really like to be seen by Dr. Manoban, if that's possible," I say, polite but authoritative. Jennie's eyes widen and she pales; the secretary cocks an eyebrow.
"That will be up to the attending E.R. physician," she says. "Please have a seat in the triage room." She points. "A nurse will take your vitals and ask you questions."
I sigh. Of-fucking-course. I hear Jennie let out a breath of relief as we make our way to the small room. She looks at me, determined. "I don't need your dad here!" she whispers.
I just shrug. "He's the only doctor I trust."
We spend less than ten minutes in this room, and then we're led to room number five. It's small, with a stiff stretcher, one chair, a heart monitor and a twenty-inch TV set mounted high on the wall. We're told the nurse will be with us shortly.
Jennie sighs loudly and hops onto the stretcher. There's no pillow on it. "Here we go again," she mumbles - I don't bother asking what she means. She turns to me. "I should probably call Jisoo. Can I borrow your phone?"
"Sure." I fish my iPhone from my pocket and hand it over.
"Ooh, snazzy," she remarks, grinning. She begins pressing the screen with her left hand and eventually speaks. "Hey Jisoo... No, it's Lisa's number." Pause. "No, Jisoo. I can't talk right now." Her eyes quickly dart to mine and back again. Interesting... "I'm actually at the E.R. I hurt my wrist.... No, it's a long story; I'll tell you about it later." Pause. "Well, Lisa has to go to Busan soon so I was wondering if you could come get me in a little while." Pause. "No, she drove me here. My car is at the waterfront. Can I call you when it looks like they're close to being done?" Pause. "Okay, thanks. Bye."
She hangs up, but rather than hand my phone back she begins going through its contents. What the fuck!? I lunge at her, quickly taking it from her hand. There's far too many text messages that she shouldn't be reading - or I should say messages that would cause her to want nothing to do with me. I need to remember to delete them tonight.
She looks startled. "What's wrong?" she asks.
"There are private things on here," I mumble.
She crosses her arms, sceptical. "Uh-huh. What sort of private things, Manoban?"
"Just private things."
"Big bad secrets, Manoban?"
"Something like that..."
She shrugs. "Oh well, I can tell you are quite the sneaky sort."
"Hey, that's not a fair comment."
"Whatever, Manoban."
A nurse tech comes in, interrupting us. She hooks Jennie up to the blood pressure machine and gets her vitals again. A nurse soon follows, a young woman with coarse, black hair, and she pokes and prods Jennie's wrist. "Looks like you did yourself a number there," she comments. "Does it hurt?"
"Yes."
"On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the worst pain you've ever felt and one being no pain, what would you rate it?"
"A seven," Jennie says promptly. She's probably used to this shit.
"Does it hurt when you move it?"
"Yes."
"What about when I touch it?"
"Ouch! Yes!"
"Okay, I'm going to get you an ice pack. Dr. Carr should be in to see you soon."
She disappears and we're alone again. Jennie turns to me. "You don't have to stay, you know."
I'm taken aback. "What? I'm not leaving you here by yourself."
"Jisoo will be here soon."
"You said you were going to call her when you're ready."
"No, she said she'd be here in a half hour. So you can go."
"Don't be ridiculous, Jennie," I scoff. "I'm not leaving you."
