IV

“Wendy, can I grab dinner with you? I just want to apologize for earlier…” Irene says.

Wendy is having a hard time processing the information due to her headache. Yerim knows this is important to Wendy and makes the decision for her.

“You can. Go ahead, Seungwan. I’ll just get room service. Don’t worry.” Yerim disappears soon after, leaving Wendy with Irene.

“I’ve booked a place already. Shall we go?” Irene asks.

Wendy can only nod. Her head is throbbing with pain and she really wants to lie down. A cab arrives and the two of them slide in. Wendy has never felt so grateful to be able to sit down. By the time they are halfway there, Wendy is close to losing consciousness already. Irene notices Wendy being quiet, too quiet, and immediately senses something wrong.

“Are you okay, Wendy? You look pale.”

Irene reaches out to feel Wendy’s forehead, only to find it burning.

“Wendy! You’re burning up! I need to get you to the hospital.”

Wendy grabs her wrist blindly. “No. Not the hospital.”

“No, you’re burning, Wendy!”

“Not the hospital,” Wendy breathes.

If she’s sent to the hospital, her father will know and she doesn’t want to see her father.

“Can I at least send you back to the hotel?”

“Not the hotel either,” Wendy struggles to talk.

Her head feels too heavy and she has no choice but to lean on Irene. Irene suddenly feels a dead weight on her shoulder and she realizes that Wendy must have passed out.

“Wendy!” Irene shakes her gently but she doesn’t regain consciousness.

She really wants to send Wendy to the hospital but Wendy seemed so adamant on not going. She doesn’t know what else to do. She quickly tells the driver the address to her own apartment, having no place else to go.

When they reach her apartment building, the driver volunteers to carry her upstairs and she thanks him when Wendy is settled on her bed.

The driver frowns, “She really should be in a hospital.”

“I know,” Irene says worriedly.

She pays the driver and thanks him again. She rings up her family doctor and asks for advice. Her doctor diagnoses it as a migraine due to stress and she sighs in relief. There’s not much she can do, except to lower Wendy’s body temperature with an ice pack and prepare lots of fluids for her to drink.

Wendy stays unconsciousness throughout the night and Irene remains by her side, making sure the ice pack on her forehead remains cold.

///

Wendy awakens in an unfamiliar place the next morning. She can barely remember what happened yesterday night and her head still hurts a little. There’s an ice pack on her head and she places it on the bedside counter, only to realize Irene is on the floor with her head on the bed, sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. Wendy quietly slips out of bed, not wanting to wake the girl up. She finds the kitchen and sees porridge in a pot on the stove.

Irene really took care of her.

The corner of her lips tug upwards into a smile automatically. She goes back to the living room and admires the cosy apartment. The apartment is mostly painted white, with light shades of purple here and there. There are stacks of dvds beside the tv, the remote control missing somehow. There are sticky notes pasted all over the walls and Wendy chuckles upon reading one of them.

Reminder:

Seulgi’s birthday on the 10th of Feb! Remember to get her a present – if not you’ll be pabo Joohyun!

Wendy feels like she has been living in a hotel for too long. She forgot what home feels like. Irene’s apartment feels like a real home. Wendy feels at ease somehow as she takes a deep breath. The air smells of mostly fabric softeners and she remembers Irene smells like fabric softeners too.

“Wendy?” Irene is standing at the doorway and she’s rubbing the sleep away from her eyes, looking like a child.

Wendy’s heart goes out to this woman, who takes care of her, cooks for her and even tells her off. She cannot help but wrap her arms around Irene, squeezing her tightly.

“Wendy?” Irene sounds very confused.

“Joohyun,” Wendy breathes her name.

“Are you better now?”

“All better, thanks to you. Thank you, Joohyun