Remnants of the Heart | Kim Taehyung

26: écouter

ACT 3 — SCENE 2
THEY LISTEN.

           SEOJUNG'S APPETITE had become non-existent. Not even the blueberry cheesecake Taehyung got for her could bring it back and if anything, it only makes her stomach feel more queasy as the seconds tick by.

But perhaps, it's also an effect from the presence of the woman now sitting in front of her. The tense lines of her face make her look a tad older than she probably is, and only now does Seojung notice the bags adorning her almond-shaped eyes. The white nurse uniform only highlights the paleness of the woman's skin, a hue that compliments the lifelessness of her appearance. Seojung's eyes dart to the name tag that reads Kwon Hyejeong.

"Where do you want me to—"

"The beginning. Start from the beginning."

It only hit her now that she's actually scared. Of what, she's not sure of, but it must have something to do with the fact that she's finally going to get the answers she's been looking for for years, all from a stranger, a person she doesn't know she can trust or not. But there's really no other choice available since the likelihood of this woman messing with her is slim, if not non-existent. She's foolish for not having thought about the information she's about to get being ones that aren't pleasing to the ears, that would do nothing to rid her from the pain of being in the dark. But either way, anything is better than nothing.

"I met Jiwon when she was twenty," the woman starts, "she had come to the hospital for a pregnancy test. Quite young for her age then, but of course I was in no position to ask or even judge. Girls younger than her had come for the same thing before, so I wasn't really perplexed."

Twenty. Her mother had her when she was just a year older than Seojung now. She could've been doing so many things then, like focusing on university or figuring out what she wanted to do once she got out of it, but instead she was burdened with a child she was supposed to carry for nine months. It must've been hell.

Seojung feels bad.

"It was just... I don't know how it had happened but I came to grow fond of her over time. You see, I was always the one who was assigned to tend to her whenever she came for her check-ups. Her first few, she was always in a sour mood. So bitter to the nurses and never not with a scowl."

Despite her description, a faint smile is now evident on Hyejeong's face that Seojung guesses is a result of the memories playing in her head. Memories of her mother. It puts her at ease knowing that this woman was someone who her mother relied on, who Seojung assumed had given her the moral support she needed back then. She doesn't know exactly how rough her mother's life had been, but it must've been a series of hurricanes for her to give Seojung up so willingly.

"But as the months passed, I noticed a change in her attitude. She wasn't dismissive anymore. She just became... tired. She started to look like she was fed up with everything and didn't have the energy to tell any of us to piss off. I never asked her about her story. Not once. It was my job to be professional and to leave it to the patient to decide whether or not she wants to confide. But this one time where she came for her check-up without her mother or a friend, my curiosity got the best of me."

Taehyung's hand finds hers under the table, and she's left with the thought of never thinking that the feeling of her fingers interlocked with his would give her so much comfort.