Stigma ✔

|35|

Irene

Whatever that was going to happen was completely disturbed by the strange monitors in the room that administered my brothers condition. We both ran to his bedside in a frenzy and stood there hopelessly, no clue what to do.

The machines attached to him were beeping and buzzing frantically and that made me panic more. Jin quickly pressed the button that would call the nurses and came to stand by me, his hands on my shoulder, trying to calm me down.

"What's happening?!" I ask, distressed at not knowing what to do.

What is going on? Is something wrong? The doctors had just seen him ten minutes ago and had declared that he should be out of his unconscious state soon.

Jin did not have time to answer my question as the nurses burst into the room, quickly followed by a doctor. They politely pushed they're way past us and approached my brother.

Jin gently took a few steps back and pulled my reluctant self with me to him. I knew he was making space for the doctor to do his work but I couldn't care less. My sole focus was on my brothers well being.

The doctor spoke to the nurses in medical jargon while we stood at the side, silently anxious. From what I could understand, they were not really worried but instead were just reconfirming something.

"Mr. Bae, can you hear me?" The doctor asked softly, as he leaned towards the bed. "Mr. Bae?"

My eyes widened when I heard a low grunt coming from my brother. His eyes moved rapidly under his eye-lids, as if he was desperate to open it but was not able to.

"Okay good. Don't worry, Mr.Bae. You are at the hospital and are completely fine." The doctor assured, "Don't panic. Take a few deep breathes before trying to open your eyes once again."

He did just that. It was quite painful to see his chest painfully expand and deflate as he took trembling breathes. Clearly the wounds were restricting his actions. However, after a few attempts at deep breathing, he slowly opened his eyes.

My breath caught in my chest as I watch him open his eyes. They blinked close the moment they encounter the brightness of the room but then open them again, quickly adjusting to the light. 

The doctors ran a few more tests to make sure he was completely out of the coma before quickly assuring a distracted me that he was fine.

Fine.

He is fine.

As soon as the doctors left the room, I slowly inched towards the bed and looked at my brother. He was looking at me almost as if he was waiting for me to shout at me. Doubt and confusion danced in his eyes.

"Hey" He croaked, flashing me the best smile he could give meat the moment. I smiled in return, not noticing the tears that had made their way down.

"Why do I see tears in such beautiful eyes?", He asked again and a laugh spurted out of me as I rolled my eyes.

"Oh I don't know! I don't really have a reason to cry, apparently." I say, sarcastically but I couldn't keep my smile down for the life of me.