"A-are you okay? Where does it hurt?"
The younger male groaned in pain as his older sister leaned over him, applying some ointment on the open wound on his forehead. He bit his lip and shut his eyes tightly, feeling his sister's delicate fingers pressing softly against his bruised skin.
"I-It was my fault, Mark, I'm sorry for-"
"-Don't," Mark muttered harshly, taking in a deep breath, "It's okay..."
Ning took in a shaky breath, applying the gauze with more strength and brushing it, "We were so worried about you, Mark ah..."
Mark opened his eyes lightly, staring up at his older sister with drowsy eyes.
"...Is Jimin noona okay?...Minjeong noona?"
Ning sighed, taking the gauze off and grabbing some other medicine, applying it in another gauze so that she could later treat her brother's injury with it, "J-Jimin unnie almost died," Ning whispered, leaning up once more and treating Mark's wound, "She was in coma for three weeks...Unnie had to take care of the baby on her own so she moved in for a while but," She lowered down her voice tone, "Jimin unnie was such in a bad condition and unnie was so worried about you that she barely managed to smile."
Mark sat up slightly, leaning his head against the couch.
"...How's the baby?"
"She's okay," Ning began, and breathed out a smile, "Unnie is such a great mother. She has some serious dedication for our Minji...But Jimin unnie is helping her out now because she already got off from the hospital and stuff...They're living at her place," She took the gauze out, and started searching for some stuff inside of the aid kit, "Minji is very pretty and she looks a lot like Jimin unnie. But her eyes' are unnie's...You'll love her."
Mark rolled his eyes to the side as he heard a phone vibrating above the kitchen table, a little far from the living room. Ning looked to the side as soon as her ringtone started playing; and blinked in confusion, wondering who it could be.
She sighed and got up from the floor, but was quickly stopped as Heeseung immediately stood up.
"Don't worry, I'll take it."
"Oh," Ning began, breathing out a smile, "Thank you."
Mark focused his attention back on his sister as she sat down by his side, smiling as the other male walked across the living room and entered the kitchen so that he could answer her call.
"...Together?"
Ning smiled back at her brother, showing him her beautiful smile.
"Two weeks. No one knows yet so keep it a secret," She muttered, chuckling at the end.
"Hello...?...No, this is not Ning, I'm her boyfriend...Do you want to tell her something?"
Ning looked back at her boyfriend as he suddenly went silent, and just heard whatever the caller was saying. She had to admit she was beginning to feel uncomfortable, as uneasiness began growing on her. However, she just decided to ignore it and focused back on her brother, who still looked in a pretty bad state, probably from beating.
She heard steps and that was when she looked at her boyfriend again.
But he didn't look happy at all.
He looked...shocked.
"...Heeseung ah?"
He looked back at his girlfriend, his view lost. He did not know what he should tell her right in that moment, or how he should tell her what he had just known. It was just so shocking, and so unbelievable...He just couldn't believe that something like that could be happening all over again. It almost seemed as if it was a curse, a nightmare.
Ning looked back at Mark for a moment, before breathing out a smile and looking up at her boyfriend playfully, as if trying to relieve some stress and tension from their current situation. She laughed softly as stared at him intently, before talking to him.
"You're so serious, Heeseung ah. Is everything okay with you?"
Seeing that he wasn't changing his reaction at all made her feel nervous.
She felt her uneasiness coming back all of a sudden.
And she knew that, whatever he had to tell her, it just couldn't be good.
Her expression quickly changed; from happy and filled with laughter, to an incredibly serious face. Her muscles tensed and her eyes closed a little, her lips parting as if knowing something really big was coming ahead. She took a shaky breath and shook her head silently and gently, tilting it to the side as she kept staring at her boyfriend attently.
"...What happened, Heeseung ah?"
Heeseung blinked as well, his lips parted as he looked down at her, not even believing himself what he was saying.
"...Minjeong noona was hit by a car."
_____________________________________________________________________
She had almost sprained her ankle in the process, but nothing was going to hold her back from running as fast as she could. She was just glad that she was wearing a knees-length dress and sneakers that day. Otherwise, she would have fallen before.
But even if she had fallen...Nothing would be able to stop right in that moment.
She couldn't hear a single thing but her heartbeat; as it pounded strongly inside of her, to the point she felt it in her whole body.
Her lungs had almost ceased to work; but even if she felt like she was suffocating, she didn't want to stop.
She wouldn't stop.
It was just painful to bear...What she was feeling right at that moment.
She took in a shaky breath, turning to her side as she ran in the middle of two people who stared back at her in uttermost confusion.
But she didn't care.
She didn't care about them, as heartless as it could even possibly sound.
She breathed in and out heavily, her feet quickly moving as she fastened her pace up. A sob ripped through her throat as she saw a nurse and a doctor in the end of the hallway, speaking to a middle aged man whom she instantly recognized.
It was her father.
She was taken back for a brief moment, but she just decided to ignore her feelings towards her father. She rushed over to the nurse and the doctor's side, sobbing violently as a million tears fell down her cheeks.
"...Miss Yu Jimin," The nurse said, bowing down to her. Jimin sobbed heavily and her eyes turned to the doctor, as she approached him and grabbed his coat slightly.
She just wanted to hear good news.
She wanted to make sure that what had happened seven years before wasn't going to happen again.
She couldn't bear losing Minjeong all over again.
What would she do without her? What would she tell their children if she didn't surpass this? What was she supposed to do? How was she even supposed to raise their kids alone, on her own, without her there to guide them?
"D-Doctor," She began, her voice trembling with fear, "T-tell me, please," She sobbed, "D-Don't lie t-to me..."
The doctor looked down at the floor, feeling Jimin's hands grabbing fistfuls of his coat.
"...We're not sure if she's going to make it, Miss Yu."
Jimin felt as if her breath got stuck in her throat.
She felt as if she was going to suffocate.
She felt as if she was going to die.
Everything that she had felt all those years before...She was feeling all of it again.
Despair. Sadness. Overwhelm. Confusion.
Her chest constricted in pain and she bit her lip, trying not to sob as tears flowed down her rosy cheeks uncontrollably. She took in a shaky breath and she felt her knees weaken, and she tried her best to keep herself in feet.
Images from that horrible accident 7 years before flashed inside of her head, and she brought her shaky hand up to her head, clutching on her hair as she tried to take those memories away from her mind.
But it was impossible.
She saw it all over again.
Her being hit by that car, falling on her side and hitting her head on the floor hardly as that car speeded away.
Her screaming her name in complete horror.
She ran to her side and tried to bring her up to her arms.
Her screaming for help.
Her clothes and skin were stained with her blood.
"...N-no," She muttered, sobbing, "N-no!"
"Miss Yu, we recommend you to stay calm..."
An agonizing sob left her throat, as she wasn't able to handle her pain inside of her heart anymore.
"...Doctor, I'll speak to her."
Jimin lifted her head up slowly, her blurry and teary eyes recognizing her father's figure standing in front of her. She weakly stood up, gulping down deeply and trying to regain full composure. She could see as the nurse left silently, bowing deeply to her father.
She just stared at him, tears rolling her cheeks as she blinked her eyes.
She gulped down, seeing her father approaching her.
"...Jimin-"
"-Don't touch me," Jimin muttered, her lips trembling as she sobbed, "DON'T YOU DA-"
"-SHE'S NEARLY DYING, JIMIN!"
She stared at him emotionlessly, her eyes brimming up with tears.
Her father took a deep breath.
"...She has an important infection spreading through her organism," Her father began, taking a short breath in between, "If it reaches her blood and vital organs it will be certain death for her...You're a biologist Jimin, you know very well how dangerous a sepsis is."
Jimin felt like her world crumbled right at that moment. It was as if nothing else had a meaning to her right in that moment. It was like time stopped; as if it had never gone by. Her subconscious was praying it was just something her father had misspelled; but she perfectly knew it couldn't be it. Although her father had hurt her so much and so many countless times in the past, she knew he couldn't be lying right in that moment. She knew that look on her father's eyes. The last time she had seen it was years before, when she had first told him she was pregnant with Jeongwoo.
"...Stop lying," Jimin whispered, taking in a shaky breath as tears came up to her eyes and tears threatened to flow down her cheeks, "D-Don't lie!"
She shook her head from one side to another, closing her eyes tightly together as a heartbroken sob left her throat.
Her eyes widened.
She felt a slight gust of wind; and then, unexpectedly for her, she felt her father's arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug. His left hand cupped her neck nape, as he made her rest her head against his shoulder.
"...I'm sorry."
Jimin didn't even want to believe what was happening.
It was the first time in her life her father was hugging her. She never had felt her father's arms around her and, now, for the very first time, he was hugging her.
And, for the first time ever, he was apologizing.
He had never muttered a single word of apology towards her.
Ever.
A tear rolled down her left cheek; as she could only stay there, lifeless and numb.
"...I'm sorry for hurting you so much, honey."
...
"Congratulations! You're really talented, honey."
Jimin smiled and bowed her head down, showing some respect for the older woman; at the same time she held the bouquet next to her chest.
"Thank you very much."
"You shouldn't thank me! Do you even know how talented you are? Doing 32 fouettés en tournant at 16? That's a total challenge and you pulled it off excellently. Your technique and pointe work is on the spot, absolutely fantastic. You have a bright future ahead."
Jimin breathed out a shy smile, seeing how her father and some of his friends approached her, to what she expected to be to congratulate her for her performance.
"Oh, Mr Yu, your daughter did such an incredible performance," The woman told her father, and Jimin just kept looking at the flowers on her arms with a soft smile plastered on her lips, "You should take her to audition for one of those huge American companies...The way she stood when she did that Arabesque...magnificent."
"...To be honest with you, Miss Im," He started looking at the ballet company director, "I found it quite disappointing. Seems like I put my expectations on my daughter too high."
Jimin looked up at her father, her previous smile now gone away from her face.
"Don't say that, Mr Yu," The woman said, "She sprained her ankle 5 days ago yet she danced beautifully. She wasn't even supposed to dance tonight because of the seriousness of the injury, yet she spent the whole night dancing to be ready for today. She even wanted to give up during breaks in between the acts and even cried out of pain but she didn't give up because she didn't want to disappoint you-"
"-She already did."
...
"...Miss, good morning."
Jimin's eyes fluttered open slowly, and her lips parted slightly. Her lips curved upwards as she saw the butler, Kim Suho, offering her his best smile as he held a cup in his hands.
"...Nothing better than hot chocolate to boost your mood after an exhausting night."
Jimin tried to sit up on the bed, being extremely careful about her swollen ankle. She sat up on the bed and grabbed the cup from the butler's hands, taking it up to herself to take a sip of the hot drink.
"...I heard you danced beautifully last night."
Jimin shook her head, "I'm not a good dancer-"
"-Stop putting yourself down because of what your father says, Miss."
...
"Merry Christmas baby," Jimin whispered with a bright smile, rubbing her six-month belly. She laughed softly in bliss when she felt her son kicking, and paused both of her hands on her swollen tummy, breathing steadily.
She heard the bell of her house's door, and it wasn't long before one of her maids rushed to it, opening the door for whoever was going in. Jimin kept caressing her skin softly, feeling the slight bumps her son was giving her, and smiled as soon as she saw her father entering inside of the house; wearing his business suit and carrying his suitcase on his left hand.
"Merry Christmas, father."
She just lowered down her head, noticing that he blatantly ignored her. She closed her eyes and bit her lip, hearing her father greeting the employees that worked at her home and wishing them a Merry Christmas.
It hurt her to hear that, but she should have known better. She knew he would ignore her from the moment he stepped inside of that house, but she just tried her best to please her father everyday. Maybe, if she showed him she was willing to be a good daughter again, like she had once been, he would accept her son and treat her and her baby like his true family.
But in the end, she knew he wouldn't.
She heard that familiar sound of steps, and she just opened up her eyes, lifting her head up and pursing her lips. She sighed and looked down again, rubbing her swollen belly again.
"...Aren't you going to wish your grandson a Merry Christmas?"
Her father's steps halted, and she could hear him taking in a deep breath. It had been two weeks since they had last exchanged any kind of verbal communication; and since it was Christmas day, she hoped she could hear something nice from him, at least, once in her life.
"...He's moving a lot now," Jimin muttered, rubbing her belly, "Maybe he's waiting for you to say-"
"-I already told you bastards have no place in this family."
...
Jimin trembled in her father's embrace, feeling him pulling her even closer to him.
She just couldn't believe his words.
He had hurt her in so many ways in the past, so many times...And he was now apologizing.
"...I'm sorry, Jimin...Minjeong...I always accused her of being a gold-digger and humiliated her but she...she saved my life without thinking twice and now she..."
Jimin pressed her eyes tightly, feeling tears pouring down her eyes.
"...I need to see her."
_____________________________________________________________________
Jimin's steps halted as she reached the bed she was laying at.
She felt her breath stuck on her throat, as if she couldn't breathe.
She just couldn't believe what she was seeing.
There she was, laying on a hospital bed. Peacefully sleeping, her eyes gently closed and her lips slightly parted as half of her face was covered up by the oxygen mask.
Her shaky hand paused above hers.
It was warm.
This time, it was warm.
She choked up a sob and covered her mouth with her free hand, letting her tears fall down her cheeks. She leaned her head down, biting her trembling lips and holding both of her hands tightly, as if trying to hold herself from hurting even more than what she already was.
It just reminded her of everything. Everything they had been through. It was like all of what happened between both of them was replaying inside of her head over and over again. It was like those hurtful memories were glued to her memory.
She leaned her head up, feeling movement between her hands.
She could see her fingers moving.
She choked on her breath, and looked up at her, as Minjeong opened her eyes slowly.
"...Minjeong ah," Jimin began, trying to compose herself, "A-are you okay?"
Minjeong looked at her faintly, her eyes half closed. Jimin blinked her eyes, breathing in shakily.
"...I'm sorry," She whispered faintly, making her hold her hand tighter. Jimin chuckled lightly, a tear rolling down her left cheek despite her efforts to try to be strong in front of her.
"...What for?"
Minjeong blinked slowly, her chest heaving up and down steadily.
"...Mexican food...I dropped it..."
"It's okay," Jimin whispered back, caressing her hair with her fingers softly, "You're way more important than a damn burrito."
"...Stop crying...Rina..."
She bit her lip, nodding effusively at her remark. Minjeong lowered down her view and looked around, her eyes clearly reflecting sadness. Jimin stared at her silently, wondering what kind of thoughts were running through her head right in that moment, as she just looked around, engulfed in silence.
"...Rina..."
"Mmm?"
Minjeong blinked her eyes quickly, and Jimin could see her soft smile under her oxygen mask.
"...Do you remember...do you remember when you told me...you were pregnant by Minji...?"
Jimin nodded effusively, smiling a little.
"...I was so...mad at you...But when I first held her in my arms...I was so happy..."
Jimin stared at her silently, trying to avoid herself from crying.
"...When she grows up...tell her mama loves her-"
"-What are you saying?"
A tear ran down Jimin's right cheek without herself even realizing it.
"...Tell our son...That I love him too-"
"-Stop," Jimin whispered in the middle of a heartbreaking sob, more tears flowing down her cheeks, "...S-stop..."
"...I don't think I'll be there...Jimin-"
"-Who'll walk our girl down the aisle when she gets married if not you then?"
Minjeong squeezed her hand back, smiling softly.
"...Jeongwoo will..."
Jimin was not able to suppress her tears anymore. Minjeong could feel her hands shaking as she held hers in between, Jimin's heartbreaking sobs coming out of her throat again and again.
"...I'm supposed to make you happy...but I'm the one who makes you cry the most..."
"...I'm sorry but I can't."
Jimin took in a shaky breath, staring at her.
"I can't and I won't let you go again. Even if I have to pay a billion won for you to leave this hospital room. I don't care," She looked into Minjeong's eyes, "You will fucking pick up Minji at the kindergarten. You will fucking pay pay her university tuitions. And you will fucking walk her down the aisle, and our son will be the bestman. You fucking understand that, Kim Minjeong?! I'll do everything. Everything."
"...Rina-"
"-Don't you even dare to give up now."