You Make Me | Lee Eunhyuk

04

As the people in the lobby became calmer, they began to talk amongst themselves. Eun approached the two, who checked on her to make sure she was okay.

"Are you okay?" both of them asked Eun at the same time.

"Me?" she said sarcastically, "What about you two? You both look like a mess."

"Wow, thanks," Jiwon remarked.

Before turning to his best friend, Eunhyuk lightly ruffled his younger sister's hair.

"There's a first aid kit in the manager's office that I can use," Eunhyuk explained, "so let's go."

"All right," Jiwon said, but before they could begin walking, the girl turned to face the man standing nearby. He appeared rough and mobster-like, but he also appeared strong, so he was capable of completing the task she requested.

"Sir," she said, her gaze fixed on the man. "Could you and the others start barricading all of the building's entrances?"

The man nodded at Jiwon as Eunhyuk turned towards the man as well.

"It's clear we're not going anywhere anytime soon," he added.

The tenants' discussion grew louder as the two began to walk away. The two teenagers only hoped that they wouldn't do anything stupid before they returned. Jiwon noticed her duffle bag on the floor and reached down to grab it, temporarily forgetting about her wound, causing her to roughly straighten up out of pain.

"Jiwon, why are you so—" he sighed, before letting her go briefly and grabbing her bag.

When they arrived at the manager's office, Eunhyuk assisted the girl into a chair before putting her bag on the floor and searching for the first aid kit. He eventually discovered it and began rummaging through it, clearly frustrated. He left the room for a few moments.

It was only at this point that Jiwon was able to reflect on what had just happened. She had nearly died. She had no idea what was going on anymore. The streets were crawling with monsters. She wondered if her brother was all right because to her knowledge there were no monsters in the building. She concluded that she needed to find her brother as soon as possible.

Eunhyuk returned, drying his hands before grabbing the first aid kit and walking over to the girl, laying the kit on the ground and crouching in front of her.

To get a better view of the injury, he used scissors to cut a hole in her jeans around the already made slash. He then prodded her wound, causing Jiwon to grimace.

"I'm sorry," he said stiffly.

He quickly followed up with an explanation of her injury "It's not too bad; the muscle kept the cut from getting too deep. You will, however, need stitches."

"Okay, that's fine," she said.

"There's no local anesthetic, so I will have to use only the numbing cream," he stated while looking at the girl, who looked perplexed because she didn't know the difference.

"The numbing cream will only make it feel less painful; it will still hurt a lot," he explained.

"Oh," she thought, before responding, "Well, how much worse can it get, just do the stitches."

He nodded before grabbing the numbing cream and applying it on and around her wound. He prepared the needle for the stitches while waiting for the cream to take effect. He gave her a thick cloth.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" she questioned.

"This will hurt, so bite on the cloth okay?" He said while looking slightly guilty.

"Okay?" Jiwon said, nervously. 

As Eunhyuk prepared to stitch her up, Jiwon put the cloth in her mouth.

He was absolutely correct; the stitches were extremely painful. She could feel the needle going into her skin, which didn't hurt much at first, so she assumed she'd be fine, but as he went to close the injury site, the searing pain she'd felt earlier returned with a vengeance. So she squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on the cloth, trying not to move.

Eunhyuk began covering up her wound just as she thought the pain would never end.

"Okay, you're finished. Make an effort not to move around too much" he instructed.

"Do you have any other clothes you can change into?" he added.

"Yeah, I have some in my bag," she said as she reached for her duffle bag.

"All right, I'll stand outside to make sure no one comes in," he said turning to walk out of the office.

She gently grabbed his wrist as he turned away from her. He returned his gaze to her.

"Thank you, Hyuk," she said, smiling slightly despite the pain she was in. She quickly realized that simply saying thank you might not be enough to express her gratitude, so she stood up and drew the boy into a hug.

She would have died if he hadn't held the shutters for her.

Because they were so close in height, his head rested on her shoulder. He didn't move for a few moments, but eventually, he frowned and wrapped his arms around the girl's waist tightly. Confounded, the girl patted Eunhyuk on the back. As the silence continued, he let out a deep sigh.

"Never do that again. You idiot," he muttered.

Jiwon recognized his concern, but when he called her an idiot, she burst out laughing, pushing him away from her slightly so that she could see his face. Seeing his childish frown made her laugh even harder, and she quickly drew him back into a hug.

"Okay, I won't," she stated.

For a few moments, the two stood there peacefully hugging before hearing arguing from the lobby. In concern, the two let go of each other and turned towards the door.

"Duty calls I guess?" Jiwon spoke, looking back to Eunhyuk "Stand outside, I'll change quick, and then we can go."

Eunhyuk nodded and left the office to stand in front of the frosted glass doors.