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RUN
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Taehyung

“You have two options, inpatient rehab, and outpatient rehab. But first, you need to come in for a consultation and a checkup, and the doctor will run some routine tests on you and put you through with a counselor. The counselor will advise the best mode of treatment for you,” the lady at the rehabilitation extension of the Seoul National University hospital explains to me very patiently.

“That sounds good. When is the earliest date that I can get an appointment?” I ask her as I check the time on my watch, frowning a little when I see that it has been over four hours since Yi-Seo left.

“Just a moment, sir. Kindly be patient while I put your call on hold for a few seconds,” she says politely before putting my call on hold, after which a music box version of Beethoven’s famed Für Elise starts playing on the line.

Pulling the phone away from my ear, I switch the call to the loudspeaker and check for any messages from Yi-Seo, but there are none. It was supposed to be a short meeting with the legal team, and I don’t understand why it would take four hours. And what troubles me more is the fact that she hasn’t sent out any communication.

As my thoughts start getting jumbled up, I begin to nibble my lips and repeatedly comb my hair with my fingers as I pace the length of my living room. Listening to Für Elise has never been so nerve-wracking, and the music on the line, that was seemingly adding to my nervousness and headache, suddenly stops playing, and the voice of the lady returns on the line.

“The earliest available appointment is on the 30th, at 10 am. Would that work for you?” She asks me, but I’m unable to focus on the details.

“Yeah, sure,” I mindlessly answer her in a hurry.

She then asks me for my contact details to confirm the appointment, and I end the call with her soon after giving her the necessary information.

Right away, I call Yi-Seo’s phone, and it quickly gets disconnected, stating that her phone is out of network coverage. Not willing to give up so soon, I try a few more times, and I get the same response each time. My heart picks up pace, and my fingers tremble as my desperation hits a new peak when I begin scrolling through my contacts to decide whom to call now. I must tell someone about this, and I decide to call Woo-Bin first.

“Taehyungie,” he answers my call cheerfully.

“Yah, can you try calling Yi-Seo’s phone? She’s unreachable right now, and I don’t know if it’s just my phone or if it’s really something else. Can you make it fast?” I spit out my instructions rapidly, and Woo-Bin quickly agrees to do it for me.

However, he calls back in a minute to tell me that it’s the same for him.

“She went to the agency for a meeting with the legal team, and it has been over four hours now. I have a wrong feeling about this,” I convey my worries to him as I rise from my seat and begin walking around, as if that was going to fetch me the answers to the questions within my mind.

My eyes land on the bag of cigarettes that I have bundled up and put aside in a corner of the room, and my fingers begin to twitch, wanting to take a puff or two to calm down my nerves.

“Four hours?” Woo-Bin exclaims, not helping my situation one bit, but his voice succeeds in distracting my thoughts from the cigarettes. “That’s a long time. But it would not be anything to worry about. Did you call someone at the agency though? Manager Nam or someone else?” He asks me, trying to be logical and calm me down, but it seems nearly impossible right now.

“I think I’ll go there directly,” I inform him as I quickly make up my mind and gather my key card and check the back pockets of my trousers to confirm if my wallet is still there.

“Don’t panic, Taehyung. Should I come along with you?”

“Can you do that? I’m leaving right now. I’ll meet you directly at the agency,” I’m already out my front door as I answer him.

“I’ll meet you there. You take a taxi, and please call manager Nam on the way, okay?” Woo-Bin asks me, and once I agree, he ends the call shortly after.

My feet move on their own accord as do my fingers that book a taxi while I’m practically jogging my way to the front entrance of Silver Springs. The taxi arrives in less than a minute, and I call manager Nam as soon as I settle in the backseat.

His number isn’t reachable as well, and I click my tongue in frustration, wanting to hurl my phone out the window. The taxi driver notices my discomfort, and he turns off the music, assuming that it was adding to my frustration, which in fact it was. Everything seems to trigger my anxiety and frustration at the moment, and I’m inclined to think of all the negative scenarios that might have happened because of the kind of premonition and unexplained fear I was experiencing since this morning.

My gut instincts don’t usually deceive me, and I’m growing more paranoid with every second that passes while the taxi crawls its way to the agency building. Today, the usually thirty-minute-long drive seems to take forever, and, at this point, I’m literally holding on to the edge of the seat, ready to jump out the moment the car reaches its destination.

After what seems like a few years, the taxi finally arrives at the agency building, and I hop out after quickly paying. I expected my reunion with this building and the heap loads of memories that it holds to be a joyous one, filled with heavy sentiments and even some tears.

But today, I’m experiencing none of that. Fear and panic are coursing through my veins as I barge into the reception, causing the eyes of the few people scattered around there to land on me.

They speak in hushed whispers, and I succeed in ignoring all that as I amble forward to talk to the receptionist. However, fortunately, I happen to see manager Nam talking to someone over his phone at the lobby, and he sees me too.

“Taehyung-ssi,” he ends the call and takes long strides towards me.

“Manager-nim, I’m here for Miss Kwon. Is she done with the meeting yet?” I walk up to him, and my voice sounds not like mine at all. I’m pretty sure that manager Nam noticed how badly my hands are shaking, even though I’m trying hard to conceal it from him by stuffing them into my trouser pockets.

“I’ll check with them. Please come with me,” he motions for me to lead the way, and I nod in agreement, walking through the maze of hallways down to the elevator lobby with native familiarity. In ten years, nothing much has changed about the old wing of this building except that it looks a little brighter now.

Once we reach the fifth level and step out of the elevator, I receive a call from Woo-Bin, and he tells me that he is at the main entrance gate of the building. I request manager Nam to help him reach wherever we were going, and he quickly makes a phone call to get it done.

He then takes me to his room, and while I wait there, Woo-Bin joins me as well, and we sit by as manager Nam places a call to the legal team.

“Yeah, Miss Kwon Yi-Seo, and the meeting was at 2 pm,” he adjusts his glasses, his eyes lifting to meet our expectant gazes.

“Oh, is it?” His face twists in confusion, and I turn to look at Woo-Bin, feeling as if my veins are about to explode from all the heavy rush of blood and the tension and anxiety that I’m feeling.

“Could you please connect me to the security team?” Manager Nam asks quite firmly, nodding his head thereafter.

“Security team?” I mutter under my breath as my brows pinch together, and I move to the edge of my seat, my teeth brutally assaulting my inner cheeks and making me taste my own blood.

“Yeah, this is manager Nam Ji-Sung from the old wing. I need to know the entry and exit details of Miss Kwon Yi-Seo, who was here for a meeting with the legal team at 2 pm,” his voice sounds calm as opposed to the pandemonium within my head.

My body is sweating profusely, and a drop of sweat rolls down my temple as I grab a pen from his table, and with trembling hands, I write down Yi-Seo’s phone number on a piece of paper. I push the paper towards him, and he keeps his gaze lowered on it.

“License plate number 15 나 (na) 6321,” he scribbles down on the same piece of paper, and I confirm that it’s the right number by giving him a firm nod of my head.

“That’s right,” he answers, and I have no idea what it is for.

Woo-Bin reaches out to hold my hand reassuringly, but absolutely nothing is helping my current state. I need to know that Yi-Seo is okay, and I need to see her right away to feel like myself once again. Nothing else is going to work.

I watch closely as manager Nam’s face suddenly grows pale and devoid of all color as he blankly hums in agreement and jots down some details on the paper. It looks illegible to me even when I narrow my eyes and peer at it. He soon ends the call and rises from his seat, and so do Woo-bin and I at once.

“What happened, manager-nim? Is the meeting over? Is Yi-Seo still here?” I ask him, feeling a distant wave of nausea swirling in the pit of my stomach.

I know something isn’t right.

“Taehyung-ssi,” his gaze briefly flits between me and Woo-Bin, and finally they settle on me. “There has been a run-over accident in the basement parking lot a few hours ago, and the security team has confirmed that it was the person using this car that was hit,” his words sound muffled and dragged to my ears, and I stumble a little from the shock; my eyes are wide, and my mouth agape.

“What? What happened to her? Where is she now? Is she okay?” I bolt forward and hold his arms in my hands as I question him desperately, searching his bewildered eyes for an answer.

My vision gets clouded, and my hands go cold and sweaty when he picks up the paper from the table and hands it over to me.

“She was injured, and the security team personnel have sent her to the Kang-Dong hospital nearby,” he shows me the piece of paper where he has written down something, but my eyesight is terribly blurred, and I push him away as I grab the paper from his hand and charge out of his room.

I’m running towards the elevator while wiping away my bitter tears that are pouring nonstop, and I can hear Woo-Bin calling out to me from behind. I don’t know what to do now, and I don’t know what happened to her, but I only know that I must go to her right away.

Woo-Bin finally grabs my arm and stops me, and I turn to look at him as I erase the falling tears with the back of my hand.

“Taehyung, my car is here, but I don’t think you can drive safely now. Take a taxi and go there first. I’ll collect Yi-Seo’s car from the security team and join you. They have her car key,” he says in a rush, and I nod my head many times, as if in a state of trance.

The sprint down the hallways leading to the main lobby, and the dash down the busy street to the nearest available taxi seems blurry and insignificant to me. The taxi, fortunately, doesn’t test the limits of my patience, and it takes me to the Kang-Dong hospital in a short while. During the ride, even though I tried my best to calm down and think positively, I couldn’t catch even a single strand of positivity from the murkiness within my head.

A quick stop at the front desk gives me the information that I need, and, if anything, it only worsens my fears because they have directed me to the accident trauma ward. I somehow manage to find my way there despite how weak my legs feel, and how burned out my whole body feels.

Before I step into the ward, I take a moment to brace myself for what awaits me inside. Yi-Seo could be hurt badly, and there might be tubes and wires connected to her body, and I tell myself to stay grounded and calm. Unbeknownst to my own self, I stand there for a few seconds until I’m finally unable to bear the pain of not seeing her for so many hours. Drying my tears with my hands, I push my hair back and force out a heavy, deep breath before I softly open the door to the accident trauma ward.

As I glance at the line of beds inside the cold and silent space, where a handful of other injured patients are present, my eyes find my woman at the far end. My eyes freeze on her, and from where I am right now, her body is almost invisible as she lies buried inside the sheets.

Closing the door behind me, I take slow and gentle steps and reach the side of her bed, slightly tilting my head to look at her sleeping face. She’s lying small in the last, cold hospital bed, dwarfed by the devices around her. My tears begin trickling down as I hastily get closer to her and look at a sight that kills me.

Yi-Seo’s head is bandaged, and so is her right shoulder. Her eyes are closed, but I’m positive that she’s only sleeping now as I softly sit down on the bed right next to her.

A weak smile tugs at the corners of my lips, contrasting the outburst of my tears, and my hands begin to tremble a little when I see her lying motionless and in a state of complete peace as opposed to how I’m used to seeing her all the time.

The only movement on her is the faint rise and fall of her chest. Her left hand is connected to the bottle of medicine hanging upside down from its stand, a breathing mask is fitted over her nose and mouth, and her right hand rests beside her.

I move closer to her, keeping my gaze glued to her face. Using one hand, I tenderly stroke the top of her head, softly nuzzling her hair with my fingers, and then I carefully take her right hand in mine.

“I knew it…” My voice quivers, “I knew something was not right about today,” I whisper in a tone thick with worry and pain, feeling my vision getting blurred once again with the swelling tears.

“Can you hear me now? Are you okay, Yi-Seo?” I dip my neck, biting down on my lips to hide my pouring tears from her as if she was watching me cry in pain, and then I suddenly feel her fingers twitching within my hold.

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I can't believe that we're just 2 chapters away from the epilogue. Nooo! Where did the past 57 days go?
😭😭😭

Published on : 02/25/2023