Haerin's POV:
Danielle joins me outside, "You're right, I don't know what it's like, but I do know what it's like to feel betrayed, my brother betrayed me, my parents betrayed me, all for money!" she extorts.
"If you understand the feeling, why'd you let it happen to me, why didn't you say anything when you realized you all started to like me!" I yell back, throwing my hands in the air.
"Because! It would terrify you!"
"Of course it would!" I can feel the blood in my body rush to my face, and I begin to walk to the car before I can get even more angrier.
"Haerin! Wait!" I hear Danielle yell, and I turn around to see the blonde waitress from earlier with a gun in her hand.
I don't get to react before it all happens.
The pop noise is the first thing I hear and then suddenly I feel like something has shoved me to the ground.
When I finally make the hard hit against the sandy ground, I start to feel the pain on the side of my stomach.
I gasp, carefully placing my shaking hand on the spot where the pain of the hole in my stomach shot up my body like fire. I shiver.
It's making me dizzy. The pain like needles, needles on fire being jammed into me. Like an electric shock literally burning throughout me.
I look at my hand and see the blood, so much that my entire hand is covered, the string ruin smell clouding my brain.
I hear a few more popping noises along with Danielle yelling my name, I keep my hand on my stomach, staring at the blue sky.
The thought of dying distracts me from the pain, or the amount of blood I feel gushing against my hand.
For some odd reason the thought of dying doesn't sound so bad, and I smile at the pretty white clouds, whoever is up there watching me slowly leave.
My stomach starts aching again, this time louder almost, I hear a ringing, and I feel something coming out of my ears.
Shit.
The pop noise probably bursted them.
The ache won't stop, and I scream, starting to cry.
'Just take me away, quickly.' the voice in my head begs.
I scream louder, the blood running all over me, under me, onto me.
"Haerin, keep breathing, we can fix this." I suddenly see Danielle kneeling beside me, blood splattered on her face.
I want to ask her what she did, but it hurts, it hurts too much to even breathe.
She takes my hand off my body and pressed both her hands on my stomach, I scream again, groaning at the pain.
"I'm sorry, we need to stop the blood." she whimpers, pressing a little more.
"Stop, please!" I breathe out, just wanting to die, just wanting to go.
There's nothing left for me here anyway.
She suddenly lifts me up, bridal style, and starts running to the car.
I feel like I'm in a haze, slipping in and out of unconsciousness.
She very carefully places me on the passenger's seat, sliding her arms out and closing the door, running to the driver's seat.
She gets in and turns on the ignition, she puts her hand on the wheel and that's when I notice all the blood on her hands, and I panic, how much blood is really coming out of me?
I look down at the wound covered in red, it keeps flowing.
"A lot of blood." I can only mumble and she looks at me, fear obviously displayed on her face.
"I know. Don't look at it, just hold on, please." she says frantically and begins to drive.
I have given up on trying to keep my eyes open by the time she stops the car and gets out, which I assume means we arrived.
She carries me out again, running, "Help!" she yells and it sounds like she's crying, "Please!" she yells again, and I finally confirm she really is crying when her voice breaks.
"What the fuck happened?!" I hear Hanni's voice yell.
"He has his workers all over the place, she got shot by one, just please take her, help her, she lost so much blood already." Danielle cries and I feel another hand grip me, quickly taking me in somewhere.
It feels like I'm placed on the ground, and I hear a few other voices yell and ask questions.
"Jesus, her ears!" I hear Eunchae wail.
"The wound first." Hanni breathes and pulls my shirt up, my hear metal cling around before something starts burning in my stomach.
Like sharp fuzz being thrown at me, the insides of my body being tumbled and turned, like someone has stabbed me and turned the knife around multiple times before taking it out.
I feel so nauseous, so sick.
I yelp, my voice vibrating through the room, "Hold on, Haerin!" Hanni yells over me.
"I can't!" I yell back, shaking my head, I don't dare opening my eyes.
The pain keeps intensifying, and I hear a thud on the ground, and now the hole in me screams, aching.
"It's out." she says, breathing heavily. (a/n: 🤨🤨🤨)
The she lifts one side of me up and starts sticking something on me, before wrapping and wrapping and wrapping something around my waist.
"She's going to be fine." Hanni says and I hear a few sighs of relief in response.
"What about her ears?" Leeseo asks.
"She replied to Hanni, I think they're going to be okay." Minji replies.
"I want to sleep." I mumble and I get lifted up again, feeling myself being placed on the soft mattress.
"Take this." Hanni mutters, and runs her finger across my lip, so I open my mouth.
She puts a bitter pill into my mouth before giving me a chug of water, "It helps reducing the pain." she explains before covering me with a blanket.
"Mhm." I mumble, before digging my head into the soft pillow, ignoring the shattering pain in my stomach, I'm too tired from all the surviving.
"You've been through so much and you continue to live." she says, and I feel her hand caressing the hair away from my forehead.
I don't want her to touch me, not anymore, but it's comforting me, and the burn of her hand on me distracts me from the burn in my abdomen.
I just let it happen.
- - - - -
I feel a sudden sting in my body which wakes me up, groaning.
"Fuck." I mutter, putting my hand over my stomach.
"What's wrong?" I hear a voice and sit up immediately, hurting myself more.
"Hanni? Why are you here? Fuck!" I scream again, the pain throbbing.
"To keep an eye on you." she sits up, "I think I wrapped it too loose." she adds, brushing her hand over the wrap.
"I can take care of myself." I mumble, looking down at the blood soaked cotton.
"I know you can, but just for the first few days I need to take care of the wound." she says, getting up and looking for something on the desk.
"Fine." I give up, I'm in too much pain to argue.
She comes back to the bed with a bowl that holds a few bottles and tools in it, and begins to unwrap the gauze, carefully handling me.
"Abdominal wounds need a lot of pressure, you're lucky it's so far from your stomach, if it hit an organ in there it would've leaked gastrointestinal fluid into your abdominal cavity." she says, putting the gauze to the side.
"How do you know all of this?" I ask with a shaky voice, the pain swelling.
"I'm the one who treats all the injuries, we always get hit." she says with a low voice, wiping the dry blood around my stomach with a wet cloth.
I look at the red numbers on the digital clock across the room, it reads '3:00 AM'
"Danielle got shot in the leg trying to kill her." she admits and I look back up at her, the only source of light in the room is from the weak lamp by Hanni's bedside.
"She killed her?" I ask, trying not to hurt myself by making any movement.
"She had to." she says, "We have to do all of this. It's bad, but it's our job."
"You can stop." I mutter and she shakes her head.
"We can't. We're criminals, wanted criminals, we'd get caught trying to do anything, getting a job, buying a house, anything." she says and begins to wrap the guaze around my abdomen again.
This time tighter, I whimper at the pain.
"It needs pressure, it'll hurt less when I'm done." she explains and continues, her one hand around my waist.
"How long does it take for this to heal?" I ask, falling back down on the bed when she's done.
"You need to go to the hospital when we get back, we can't go with you though." she says and walks to the bathroom to wash her hands.
I'm leaving them when I go back.
How do I tell her that?
"Hanni-" she cuts me off.
"Sleep. It helps, less stress on the body." she says and gets on her side.
I'll tell her later.
"This is the end of this, isn't it?" she suddenly asks.
"What?" I ask and I hear her wiggle around in the bed.
"Everything." she answers and I shut my eyes.
"I don't know." I honestly answer.
"Do you want it to be?" she says, the bed sheets moving around again.
"You know, in a weird way I wish the lie continued, I wish I never turned the TV on." I admit and she sighs.
"I wish we told you sooner." she admits too.
~