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WAKE UP
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Taehyung

The subtle but sure movement that I felt within my hand makes my eyes shoot up to look at Yi-Seo’s face, but her eyes are still closed. Pulling myself closer to her, I hold her hand tighter and peer at her face.

“Yi-Seo? Can you hear me? Open your eyes, please,” my low voice trembles, but there’s a glimmer of hope that I’m feeling within that she’s probably hearing my voice.

There’s not a trace of movement on her except for her chest that’s rising and falling at a steady pace, and there are no sounds around us except the weak beeping of the apparatus that’s fitted to her in order to monitor her pulse and blood pressure. My shoulders sink in defeat as I lean back, righting my posture and sitting by holding her hand in mine.

Glancing at the monitor beside her, I’m greatly relieved to see that the readings are normal, based on what I understand from my limited medical knowledge. There are a few bruises on her face and a plaster above her eyebrow that has probably been put there to nurse a bleeding cut. But what worries me more is the large bandage on her right shoulder, which appears as though there has been some major damage.

It rips my heart apart to see her this way, and I’m feeling so helpless and useless being unable to do anything to alleviate her pain and suffering and help her return to normal. I’m missing her terribly, and even though the monitor shows normal readings, I’m still not able to relax fully. I know I wouldn’t be able to until she opens her eyes and looks at me and speaks something to me.

A weak chuckle leaves my lips when I think about how we were in a very similar situation when I first talked to her. She spent a whole night by my side at the hospital, waiting for me to wake up when we barely knew each other. I didn’t even know her name back then, and it wasn’t too long ago as well.

But that was the night that changed everything for me, and it feels like life has come a full circle as I’m waiting here today; waiting for her to wake up, waiting for her to call me Taehyung-ssi, waiting to hold her in my arms and pour my heart out to her.

We were just starting to feel happy and warm with each other, and this devastation is so unwelcome. This morning, we woke up in each other’s arms, and it is so scary how quickly life flips over. This isn’t at all a change that I’m enjoying, and this endless waiting is only bringing more tears to my eyes.

I close my eyes in an attempt to stop them from falling, wanting nothing more than for us to be huddled warm and close to each other at home. I want to hear her talking and see her doing all the little things that she always kept doing; her subtle mannerisms, her cute smiles that hide so much pain, and her comforting touches that never once fail to calm me down no matter how turbulent my mind was.

Rubbing my hands down my face, I throw my head back in frustration, staring at the small fluorescent lights studded in the ceiling above, and then my eyes turn to look at her. I would give away anything to just walk into my living room right now and see her sitting there and looking at me as she always did with a thousand questions swimming about in her irises.

Taking her hand in mine, I lace my fingers through hers and hope to pass on some strength to her as I hold her hand tighter and try to think more rationally and logically at this moment. Being emotional and crying isn’t going to help, and I must find out who was involved in this accident. If anything, getting them punished would be the only thing that will help me feel a little less distressed.

How did she even get into such a bad accident inside the parking lot in the first place?

From what I remember, the basement parking lot at the agency had security cameras that worked fine. And maybe if I talk to manager Nam, I could gather some details of how this happened and who was involved. Probably.

Using my free hand, I pull out my phone and place a call to manager Nam’s phone while my eyes constantly keep flitting between my phone’s screen and Yi-Seo’s face and the monitor beside her bed.

“Manager-nim, this is Taehyung,” I announce softly as soon as he answers the call.

“Taehyung-ssi, how is Miss Kwon? Were you able to see her?” He asks worriedly.

“I’m with her, and she’ll be fine,” I answer hopefully. “Could you do me a favor? Do the parking lots at the agency have security cameras?”

“They do,” he confirms quickly.

“I want to know how this accident happened because, clearly, she wasn’t inside her car when it happened, but she has tried to open her car because the keys were still in her car. And she’s injured beyond what could have just been a careless knock or something. I don’t have a great feeling about this, manager-nim,” I speak in one stretch while keeping my gaze on Yi-Seo’s face, and my eyebrows raise when I feel a slight twitch of her fingers within my hold once again.

“I will ask the security for the footage and see what can be done, Taehyung-ssi. Just give me some time,” manager Nam sounds positive, and I agree before ending the call with him.

Tossing my phone aside, I softly hold her jaw in my hand and lean closer to her face.

“Yi-Seo, wake up, please,” my worried whisper is punctuated by my lips touching her forehead in a soft kiss, but there is no response from her.

A few minutes pass by in complete silence, after which a couple of nurses come in to check on her. I rise from my seat and wait for them to get done before they turn to look at me.

“She’ll be okay, don’t worry. The right side of her head was bleeding when she was brought in, and her right shoulder was also dislocated. The wounds are nursed now, and, luckily, she doesn’t have any other major injuries; just a lot of bruises. She should wake up any moment now once her mild sedation clears up,” one of the nurses informs me with a hopeful smile that I’m unable to return.

“Could you please fill in these details for her? Since it’s an accident case, we have informed the police, and they asked us to let them know whenever someone comes to see her,” the other nurse says as she hands me a clip-pad with a blank form to be filled in.

Nodding, I take the sheet from her hand and sit down to fill in the details asked in the form. I don’t think twice before I declare myself as Yi-Seo’s husband in the relationship with the patient column, and I put my signature on the form before handing it back to the nurse.

Shortly after the nurses leave out the door, Yi-Seo’s eyebrows crinkle a little, and it makes me alert. I feel a wave of thrill and excitement rushing through me; however, I try my best to stay calm and not scare her by making any sounds.

The corners of her lips twitch, and her cheeks twitch a little too, after which her eyelids flutter lightly, and she weakly cracks open her eyes. I feel ecstatic, but I’m also trying not to overreact as I slowly bring a hand to hold her cheek that’s not hurt.

“Yi-Seo,” I call out very softly as I tenderly run my thumb over her squished cheek, swiping her skin back and forth in soft strokes.

She blinks her eyes a few times, but I’m guessing her vision is not great because she doesn’t have her glasses on. My eyes frantically scan the medicine stand beside the bed for her glasses, but they’re not there as well.

“Yi-Seo, this is Taehyung. You’re safe at the hospital, and you’ll be okay. Don’t worry, your glasses are with the nurses,” I say with a small smile when she squints open her eyes, blinking a few times.

Yi-Seo tries to say something, but her voice is feeble and cracked. I furrow my eyebrows and dip my neck as I inch closer to her and try to hear what she wants to tell me. Only her lips are moving, but all that manages past her throat and the mask that’s suffocating her is just a fog on the inside of the mask.

“Hey, calm down, Yi-Seo. You’re still recovering. I know you’re trying to tell me something, but I can’t quite understand,” I talk to her softly as I stroke her cheek with one hand.

Her fingers around my hand wiggle a little as Yi-Seo frees her hand from mine, and I remove my hand from hers too, puzzled. She places her hand on her lower abdomen, and I’m sure that she’s trying to communicate something to me, but I feel so dumb as I don’t understand what it is.

I bend over and press the button on the bedside to request a nurse for some assistance, and soon enough a nurse rushes in. She removes the mask from Yi-Seo’s face, revealing the deep grooves and red marks that the hood of the mask has left on her face.

The movements of Yi-Seo’s eyelids are dragged and her lips appear parched as she tries to talk, and that’s when the nurse stops her.

“Child,” the older nurse says to Yi-Seo, “your throat will be a little dry right now, and please don’t exert too much. And do not try to move from your place. You’ll be okay in some time,” she runs a comforting hand over Yi-Seo’s head and turns around to look at me.

“She just needs some rest. The duty doctor will be here to check on her in a while,” the nurse informs me before she leaves the room.

Yi-Seo’s hand is still on her stomach, and her eyes are desperately trying to tell me something.

“What’s it, Yi-Seo? Does your stomach hurt?” I ask her, and she weakly shakes her head, grimacing in pain.

What else could it be?

“Are y-” my words get truncated when I finally decipher what her lip movements mean, and my eyes go as wide as saucers.

She’s mouthing Jungkook’s name, and my eyebrows fly skyward in shock; my stomach shoots up to my chest, and my heart races wildly. Yi-Seo’s stomach scars will always be a bitter reminder of him, and now she’s also telling his name, and it doesn’t take long for me to put two and two together.

“Yi-Seo, did Jungkook do this to you?” My voice grows grim as I narrow down, and she closes and opens her eyes in confirmation, causing a lone drop of tear to slide down the side of her face towards her ear.

“Are you sure?” My thumb catches the next few drops of tears that slide down the side of her face as I receive another confirmation from her.

My fists and jaw clench in rage, and this time, I’m determined that I’m definitely not going to keep quiet and let him walk away after hurting her. Not now, not ever again. He has asked for his end by doing this. I will make sure he reaps the consequences of his beastly actions. A powerful vibration on my phone drags me back to the moment as I answer the call from manager Nam.

“Yes, manager-nim,” I answer him with my eyes still on Yi-Seo and her hand inside mine.

“Taehyung-ssi, please don’t panic, but I just saw the footage. A black sports car with a blank license plate chased Miss Kwon around the parking lot, and then it crashed into her,” every word that he says causes the temperature of my blood to rise rapidly.

“The car was actually about to run over her once again, but the security rushed in at that exact moment, and the car just fled the spot. They said that they weren’t able to track down or stop the car even at the building entrance. The driver was reckless, and it surely seemed intentional to me because before chasing her, the car crashed into Miss Kwon’s car and damaged it a little as well,” these words seal the deal for me.

I have no second guesses now. It is Jungkook because if anyone is in Yi-Seo’s bad books, it has to be only him. My grip on my phone tightens as I make up my mind about what to do next.

“Thank you, manager-nim. That helps. I think I know what to do now,” I end the call with him just when Woo-Bin storms into the accident care ward.

“Woo-Bin, please be with Yi-Seo. I need to go somewhere,” I rise from my seat and inform him calmly, and his face twists in confusion.

“Take her car,” he extends Yi-Seo’s car key to me without probing me anything further.

“Call me in case of any emergencies, okay?”

He nods in response, handing me the key, and I take it from him along with her phone. He also has her bag and her file and laptop, and I take them all from him. Turning around, I give Yi-Seo a long glance, and her eyes are looking at me weakly. I don’t want to assure her with just my words this time, so I quietly walk out of the spot, fully determined to put an end to her bitter past that keeps making it hard for her to move on and live in peace.

Quickly making my way to the parking lot, I locate Yi-Seo’s car, the hood of which is badly dented from the earlier crash. I climb into her car and place all her belongings in the backseat before I unlock her phone and locate Jimin’s contact number. I place a call to his phone from my phone as I scroll through her contacts looking for Jungkook’s contact number, and then Jimin answers my call in a few seconds.

“Jimin, this is Taehyung,” I inform him before he could say anything.

“Oh, Taehyung,” he exclaims, sounding a little confused at the same time. “Yes, tell me.” He says, sounding more attentive this time.

“I need to locate a phone. Is it possible?” I know he can because he has done far more research in the past than what most high-paid media folks could do, and I’m pretty sure he has his ways to get this done in a matter of no time.

“That’s pretty easy,” he declares, much to my relief, and I waste not a second in reading out all three blocked phone numbers from Yi-Seo’s phone—all of which, I presume, belong to Jungkook.

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We're almost there.
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Published on : 02/26/2023