Bin quickly glanced at Ye-jin in the passenger seat and saw her smiling while looking out the window.
He couldn't help but smile himself when he noticed she was gently stroking the engagement ring on her finger.
"What are you smiling about?" He asked with curiosity.
She turned her head towards him and gave him a genuine and excited smile. "I'm getting married to my bestfriend."
Bin smiled even bigger as he reached for her hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss. "I can't wait to marry you, Yejie."
"I think we both agree to having a short engagement," Ye-jin said with a chuckle.
"I think so too," he replied with a smile.
They drove home to have breakfast and get ready for the day. They were both so happy that Ye-jin almost forgot about the reason for visiting her dad that morning. When they told him about the proposal, she could tell how genuinely happy he was for them, which made it even harder for her to tell him about her upcoming surgery.
"I was wondering when Bin was going to pop the question," her father said while smiling at them. "I thought he was going to do it in Florida."
The two men laughed and shook their heads, intruiging Ye-jin.
"Wait, what's going on here? Dad, were you already expecting him to propose?"
Mr. Son smiled at Bin before looking at his daughter. "A few days before you were discharged from the hospital, Bin asked if he could talk to me so I took him to the courtyard. He asked for my permission to marry you."
Ye-jin looked at her fiancé in surprise, a smile slowly forming on her face.
"So, when you said you've been wanting to ask me for so long, what exactly did you mean?"
Bin blushed and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, like I said, I've always known it was you, so I've wanted to do it for years," he replied with a chuckle. "But, I've been holding on to the ring since we were in Florida."
"You bought the ring in Florida?" She asked in shock.
He smiled at her and nodded.
Ye-jin looked at him in astonishment and leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're so sneaky."
"I was actually worried you'd find the ring randomly," Bin said with a chuckle.
"So you really hid it from me all those months?"
"Yup," he replied with a grin.
Her father was seated on the other couch and was watching them interact with each other with a smile on his face. He knew that her daughter was in great hands.
Ye-jin caught her dad looking at them with a big smile, making her smile as well. They were never the emotional type and she always felt distant from him, but somehow, after the accident, she became more comfortable around him.
"You have such a nice smile right now, Dad," she pointed out.
"I'm really really happy for you two, Ye-jinah. As a parent, I feel at ease that you have Bin in your life."
She looked up at Bin and gave him a smile. "Don't let that get in your head now," she teased, making him shake his head and giggle.
"Your eomma would have loved him," her dad said with a smile. "Adored him, even."
Upon hearing that from her dad, she felt an immediate lump form in her throat, the smile on her face slowly disappearing. If not for her health issue, hearing that would have made her smile even more, but at that moment, she took it as an opportunity to finally say it.
Mr. Son caught the change in her facial expression. "You miss her, huh? I miss your eomma, too," he said with a sigh.
Ye-jin took a deep breath and sat up slowly. She looked at Bin, who reached across her back to stroke her arm, before looking at her father again.
"Dad, I need to tell you something," she said so quietly, it was almost a whisper.
After struggling to let the words out, Ye-jin finally broke the news to her father. To say that he was devastated was an understatement. She has never seen him that emotional; he was a wreck. He didn't say much, but his facial expression, his tears, his cries said it all.
Ye-jin got up from her seat and made her way to the other couch where her dad was sitting.
"Dad," she said in a whisper as she sat beside him. She placed her hand on his arm, making him turn to her and wrap his arms around her. The room was filled with quiet cries and sniffles, and one could feel the heavy news that Ye-jin just told her father about.
"I can't lose you too, sweetheart," Mr. Son cried quietly while shaking his head. "Not you, too. Not you, too."
"I'll be okay, Dad," she said to try to comfort him. "You've got a racer. I drive till I cross the finish line. I'm gonna fight until I cross the finish line."
"Ye-jinah, you're all I have," her father said as his voice cracked. "You're all I have left."
Ye-jin closed her eyes as tears continued to fall from them. She hugged her dad tighter, not knowing the words to say to lessen his pain. Bin swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched the father and daughter cling on to each other, not wanting to let go. She looked like her father's little girl, seeking his protection against the world.
"We're going to get you the best medical help there is that specializes in your heart condition, okay? It doesn't matter where it is, I want you to have the best care possible. I need you to make it through, Ye-jinah. Please, Dad needs his little girl to make it through this," Mr. Son said with pleading tone and eyes. "I need you to pull through, sweetheart."
The fear and pain that he felt as a father has grown exponantially considering his wife died of the same disease. There were no words to describe how he felt inside.
She nodded and closed her eyes while her father wiped her tears dry. She felt so strong being in her father's arms but at the same time, she also felt so vulnerable.
"I have a scheduled surgery in two days, Dad," she said quietly to him. "I already have a cardiologist and a surgeon here. We don't have to go anywhere else."
Her father frowned even more upon hearing about her surgery. "In two days?"
She explained her situation to him, making him understand the need for it to be done as scheduled. He wasn't pleased that they couldn't seek a second opinion, but he wanted her to get the medical intervention her doctors have arranged for her.
To say that it was an emotional morning does not even describe the weight the three of them carried on their shoulders.
Bin sat in the kitchen with her father while they talked quietly over coffee. They were both looking towards the living room where Ye-jin had fallen asleep after exhausting herself from crying.
"We can only hope and pray now," Mr. Son said quietly with sadness in his voice.
Bin took a deep breath before taking a sip of his coffee. "I'd fight this battle for her if I could, Sir," he replied quietly, making her father look at him. "But we can only fight this with her."
"I know you would. I would, too. Thank you, Bin, for taking good care of my princess."
He nodded to acknowledge her father's gratitude. The two men sat together for a while, thoughts running wildly in their minds as Ye-jin's surgery was only two days away.
Time flew fast like never before. After talking to her father, both Ye-jin and Bin spent the evening with his family, breaking both the good and bad news to them. Next thing they know, they were already in the pre-operative area early Tuesday morning. She was laying in bed in her hospital gown, just minutes away from being wheeled into the operating room for the surgery to alleviate her symptoms and prolong her life.
Ye-jin took a deep breath and kept her eyes on Bin, who was sitting beside her on a chair, while they held hands.
"Are you nervous?" He asked while rubbing her hand with his thumb. His opposite hand was lightly stroking her chest.
"A little bit," she admitted as she placed a hand on the arm that was resting on her stomach. She loved it when he caresses her chest, right where her heart is. "But not about the procedure itself. It's more on what happens when I wake up."
"I'll be here right when you wake up, Yejie," Bin said softly with a smile. "I'll make sure you see me the moment you open your eyes."
"What if I wake up and see the nurses or doctors first?"
"Hm," Bin pretended to think hard for a second before talking. "Then I'll have to squeeze myself in between them. I'll say you're gonna fight with me if you don't see me the moment you wake up."
Ye-jin laughed and used the palm of her hand to lightly brush against his face. "You're gonna make it sound like your fiancée is a war freak."
Bin loved hearing her refer to herself as his fiancée.
"Nah. You're too adorable to be a war freak." He gave her a sweet smile while his hand reached for her jaw to stroke it with his thumb. He saw her lift her arms up, asking for a hug.
"Yejie would like to ask for a hug from her Beanie."
Bin swallowed the lump in his throat and smiled at her. He stood up, lowered himself over her while carefully avoiding her IV line, and gladly gave her a tight but gentle embrace. "I love you, Yejie. I love you."
"I love you too, Beanie. I love you too."
Ye-jin had to take her engagement ring off prior to being taken into the operating room, so Bin held it close to him for the entire duration of her surgery. He waited with her father in the waiting room, receiving updates from a member of the team every so often.
Inside the surgical theatre, Ye-jin laid unconscious on the operating table, completely unaware of what was happening around and with her. She was surrounded by a sea of surgical staff, tools and equipment that were keeping her alive throughout the surgery. The five hour procedure began with an incision along her sternum then cutting through her breast bone. She was then connected to the heart-lung machine, with the tubes attached to the middle of her chest, to mimic the work of her heart and lungs. The surgeon injected the medication to stop her heart from beating and the monitor sinultaneously showed a flatline, allowing the surgeon to work on removing the thickened septum. Following the completion of the procedure, only the sound heard from the operating room was coming from the machines. Her surgical team had gone eerily quiet as they eagerly watched her heart, waiting for it to beat again. As the muscle began contracting and relaxing, they breathed a sigh of relief as they began disconnecting her from the heart-lung machine and closing up her chest.
The moment Bin stepped into the cardiac ICU, he was stopped in his tracks. He was stunned. She looked nothing like she did after her back surgery. He looked around the white-walled room and felt his chest constrict when he walked in, seeing Ye-jin looking so small and vulnerable in a sea of all the medical equipment around and above her.
Since Ye-jin wasn't fully awake yet, she was still connected to the ventilator through the breathing tube down her throat. There were multiple machines with numbers and lines he knew nothing about that were somehow connected to her. One was connected to the pulmonary arterial catheter that was inserted through the side of her neck, which was one of the two tubes in that area, and another was an arterial line in her wrist. She had intravenous lines in each of her arms that were connected to the IV pumps and channels with multiple tubings running multiple medications and fluids all at once. Just like the rest of her vital signs, her oxygen level was also being constantly monitored by the pulse oximeter on her finger.
It didn't end there. He looked all around her and saw canisters on the floor that were connected to two chest tubes inserted and sutured below her sternum, just inches above her navel. On the other side was the foley catheter inserted in her bladder.
The nurses and doctors were talking amongst themselves, while the sound of all the machines and equipment echoed in his mind. To say that he was overwhelmed was an understatement. The surgeon had gone over the surgery and recovery for them but seeing it first hand, being in the actual situation itself and seeing the love of his life in her state, was a lot different than simply hearing about the procedure and all the wires and tubes they needed to know about.
"I know the sight of her right now is a bit too much to take in, but she's stable. She's still slipping in and out of consciousness so we'll pull out the breathing tube later once she's fully awake. If she remains stable throughout the rest of the day and tomorrow, we can start pulling out some of the other tubes as well."
Bin took a deep breath and nodded at the surgeon who was giving them an update on her status. Once Ye-jin was settled and assessed in the ICU, her medical team briefly stepped out of the room, leaving Bin and Mr. Son in complete silence, except for the sounds of the equipment.
Bin sat to her right while Mr. Son sat on a chair on the left, quietly watching over his daughter. In his head, he was pleading with his wife to give him the chance to spend more time with their child.
"I can never thank you enough for being by her side throughout all this, Binssi," Ye-jin's father said, breaking the silence in the room.
Bin looked at him and found him smiling through his tears, making him tear up as well. He could feel the man's gratitude for him.
"We don't talk much and she doesn't tell me much, but whenever I see her with you, I know just how happy my daughter is," Mr. Son continued, his voice shaking. "She doesn't have to say it for me to know that, Bin. It just comes out of her and I have you to thank for her smile, for her laughter."
He smiled while looking at his fiancée, tears falling forming in his eyes. Bin reached for her hand and held it gently, being very careful not to move it too much.
"I'd give anything to have her smile and laugh all the time, free from anything like she's had to deal with over the past couple of months," Bin said. "If this is hard for us, I can't imagine what it's like for her to be going through this herself."
"That's why I'm even more thankful that she has you, Bin."
"I love her a lot, Sir. Sometimes I don't even know how to express it anymore," he said softly while looking at her father.
"And I know that she loves you a lot too. I think I may have figured that out before she did herself," Mr. Son said with a smile. "As you know, she's not very fond of Korean dishes. She lets me choose the restaurants we eat at unless it's a Korean one, then she'll suggest another one."
Maybe her father didn't know it, but Bin sure knew the reason why.
"One time, this was early on in your friendship and I'll never forget this, I asked what she's been up to. She said she's been learning to cook different dishes, so I asked her what kind. She said she just learned how to cook japchae."
Bin smiled widely at him before looking at Ye-jin. Mr. Son was also smiling at her.
"She said it was your favourite dish. She wouldn't even eat at a Korean restaurant with me, but there she was, cooking Korean food for you."
"I'm just as blessed to have her in my life too," he said to her father with a smile.
Ye-jin continued to slip in and out of consciousness for the mext hour. The nurses and doctors were consistently at her bedside, closely monitoring her. When she finally opened her eyes, they took the opportunity to encourage her to fully wake up.
"Ye-jin, open your eyes," the doctor instructed once she was becoming more alert.
She was already moving her hand and her head, but she just couldn't keep her eyes open. Her eyes felt so heavy that she felt like she would fall asleep any second again, but she could clearly hear the people talking all around her. Out of all the voices in the room, she listened carefully for a particular one and once she heard him talk, it was as though relief washed over her.
"Yejie," Bin said while putting a hand over hers.
Ye-jin was able to slightly open her eyes but they were so droopy that she ended up closing them again.
"Ye-jin, can you look at us and keep your eyes open?" She heard an unfamiliar voice say.
Bin stood by her, softly coaching her to open her eyes. "Look at me, babe, let me see those beautiful eyes."
Her throat was so sore and dry from the breathing tube but she couldn't help smile at his request. The staff laughed with them when they saw the corners of her lips slightly curve upward, showing her attempt to smile.
"There you go, I think we just need the boyfriend to keep coaching her," a nurse said.
She wanted to protest and say he was her fiancé but she couldn't talk since she was still connected to the ventilator.
"Sweetheart, try again," she heard her father say.
"Alright, babe, you can open your eyes now," Bin said with a smile. "Didn't you miss your handsome fiancé's face?"
Her eyes flickered until she was able to keep it open longer than the last time. She turned her hand upside down, asking for him to hold her hand.
"There it is," he said while gently grasping her hand in his. "Hi, Yejie," Bin said with a sincere smile.
She closed her eyes again before opening them to look at him. Since she couldn't talk yet, she gave his hand a weak squeeze as her way of saying 'hi'. The feeling of having the breathing tube stuck down her throat was uncomfortable. Seeing him right when she woke up brought her immense comfort, despite all the other discomfort she was starting to have as the anesthesia was wearing off.
Shortly after that, Ye-jin was fully alert and awake and was able to keep her eyes open. She noted all that she was attached to before her eyes landed on Bin.
"I'm right here, Yejie, I'm right here," he said with a smile while holding her hand. "Are you okay so far?"
She slightly nodded her head and kept her eyes on him. There was a lot of talking around her but all she focused on was the man holding her hand. At that moment, he was all she needed. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again when she heard that they were ready to disconnect her from the ventilator. She couldn't wait to get the tube out of her throat.
"They're going to pull the breathing tube out now, okay?" The nurse said.
"Here's a pillow, Ye-jin," another nurse said. "Hug it on your chest and if you ever need to cough when the tube is being pulled out, okay? Your sternum needs the extra support."
Bin stayed by her side the entire time, his hand never letting her go. He felt her weakly squeeze it as they pulled the tube up from her throat and out of her mouth. They put her on supplementary oxygen to allow her to adjust from being taken off of the ventilator.
"Try saying something, Ye-jin," the respiratory therapist said.
Ye-jin opened her mouth to talk but it was so dry that she struggled to get a word out. She closed her mouth before trying again. Her eyes wandered around the group of people around her before landing on Bin again.
"I...." She attempted to talk but no sound came out.
"That's okay, keep trying."
"I l...I lo..."
Bin smiled even more while caressing her hand.
"I...I love...you," she mouthed to him. No sound came out of her yet but he knew exactly what she said.
"I love you too, Yejie, I love you too," Bin replied with a smile.
The next couple hours consisted of Ye-jin falling asleep on and off. She was still groggy from the surgery but from what Bin observed when she was awake, she looked much more settled this time despite looking more fragile than she did after the crash. Bin hoped that this time around, her recovery will be smoother than the last.