Twenty Four.
Lifeline.“Wooshin! I’m home!” Chanhee yells as Wooshin sleepily emerges from his room. Rubbing his right eye with his right fist while wheeling the left wheel of his wheelchair with his left hand.
Leaving the bedroom door wide open behind him, Wooshin wheels himself out and parks his wheelchair right next to the pillow that Chanhee had plopped himself on, exhaustion written all over his face and body language.
“Hyung, you haven’t been home in days. Are you really that busy at work?” Wooshin whines as he tugs on his elder brother’s arm before wrapping both his arms around Chanhee’s neck.
Chanhee shook his head slightly before laying his head on the redhead’s lap. Closing his eyes as he took in his younger brother’s fresh out of the shower scent, he carefully explained about the situation between Jonghyun, Byunghun and himself in detail. How Byunghun’s emotional state had spiraled down adversely ever since the accident and how both Jonghyun and himself had hurt him previously.
Wooshin sat in silence as he listened attentively to Chanhee’s story, his heart aching for Byunghun. The poor boy did sound like he went through hell and Wooshin could understand perfectly well how that feels like. Afterall, it did happen to him once… And it shocked Wooshin to know that Byunghun is indeed Andy Lee’s son, the son of the man who caused him to be strapped to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
“Hyung, could you take me to see Byunghun-sshi?”
After understanding Byunghun’s situation, Wooshin decided to he wanted to talk to the said boy. He was confident of bringing light back into the pediatrician’s life. Like how the pediatrician had brought light back into his brother’s life.
===
“Doctor Choi, can I speak to you for a moment?” the nurse who was assigned to watch over Byunghun meekly approaches Jonghyun as he was about to enter the ward.
Jonghyun raises his eyebrows in concern before tailing the nurse to a relatively quiet corner near Byunghun’s ward. To his horror, his eyes widened as he watched the nurse take out a scalpel stained with blood from her dress pocket and held it out to the houseman.
“Lee Byunghun was cutting himself with this.” She whispered cautiously, Jonghyun guessed she was afraid of how he would react to the news.
“How bad?” Jonghyun questions sternly, trying to access the situation and damage before going into the ward and confront Byunghun about his undesirable actions.
“I walked in while he was doing it and he only calmly glanced at me before trying to hide the scalpel underneath his pillow. I didn’t know what to do and so I waited for him to fall asleep before dressing his wounds and taking this out.” She continued, a little frantic as she held up the scalpel once again.
“His wounds bled quite badly but I didn’t dare to touch him due to his past violent tendencies. Most of us nurses has been pushed and hit by him the past few days when we try to help him.”
Jonghyun let out a somber sigh before waving the nurse off, instructing her to disinfect the scalpel and put all dangerous tools out of Byunghun’s reach. Gingerly opening the door and entering the ward, he finds Byunghun fast asleep peacefully his fringe covering half of his face.
Reminding himself that the boy needs a haircut soon, he silently seats himself in the plastic chair next to the bed before carefully lifting Byunghun’s injured left wrist into his hands trying to inspect the damage under the white gauze.
He was interrupted by a soft groan from the other as Byunghun’s eyes fluttered open indicating that he was awake.
“Byunghun hyung.” Jonghyun
Comments