Grateful
SmudgesEver since that day, Johnny began treating you very carefully, making his promise of caring for you come true. He had his own fears when it came to you but he pushed them all aside when it came to caring for you. He understood very clearly that this would be the last chance he had with you and he intended to make good use of this given chance.
-
The first day you were discharged from the hospital, you remembered that you had left a folder with Taeyong and you decided that you wanted it back. You knew that Taeyong would be in the office at this time of the day so you wasted no time in getting yourself back to the office. Walking down the stairs, you noticed that Johnny was in the living room watching the morning news.
"I need to head back to my office. I'll be right back."
"Wait." Before you could question him, he disappeared and came back out wearing a button down shirt with jeans.
"What are you doing?"
"Driving you to work."
"What? No it's fine, I can drive myself."
“But I want to drive you. Let's go."
Johnny snatched up his car keys and was out of the door before you were. You decided to just go with him and for the first time since getting your driver's license, you were sitting in the passenger seat. The ride to your office was silent, soft music from the radio playing in the background. It's only been a day since your discharge from the hospital and you still felt very distant from Johnny and hence the silence, as you didn't know what to say to him. On cue, your stomach growled and alerted Johnny of its mistreatment by you.
"You haven't eaten breakfast yet? Why?"
Out of habit, you said the words you always said.
"I'm not hungry."
Johnny wanted to argue back, saying that your stomach thought otherwise but he decided against it, worried that he might cause you to close back in further, making the process of getting close to you more difficult.
She can't keep doing this... she might become underweight or develop health problems one day...
As the light turned red, Johnny pressed his foot against the brake, bringing the car to a slow stop. As pedestrians passed in front of him, Johnny turned to take to look at you. Finally being able to take a good look at you, what he found shock him.
You looked very thin, your arms like twigs. Your face looked much slimmer, the cheekbones sinking in slightly. Looking down at your legs, he found that the bones in your ankle stood out more. It was as though only the skin was wrapping around your ankles, no flesh or fats. Your collarbone also stood out prominently. Despite having slept from days before and the night before, you looked extremely tired. Overall, you didn't look ghastly enough to cause alarm but it still hurt Johnny to see you lose weight so rapidly.
This won't do. I really need to make her eat more.
"Johnny? The light has turned green."
"Right, sorry."
Changing the gear and pressing on the accelerator, Johnny continued to speed off in the direction of your office.
"Just wait in the car, I'll be right back."
However, when you turned in front to face your office building, you found yourself facing Johnny instead.
"I'll come with you. I've always been curious as to how your workspace looked like."
You raised a quizzical eyebrow at him but said nothing otherwise. He knew how your office looked like, he just wanted to follow you to make sure you didn't stay to work. Walking away first, he trailed after you like a faithful puppy. When people first saw the both of you walk in, a look of bewilderment washed over their faces before they finally regained their senses to greet the both of you. You walked on, trying to ignore the weird stares people were throwing at the both of you. This sort of attention made you squirm inside. Slowly people filed out at different levels, leaving only Johnny and you alone in the compartment for the last 10 floors. The tension hanging in the air was apparent, but you felt more relaxed without people boring holes into your back. The elevator came to a gentle stop, before the clear metal door slid open.
When Taeyong first saw you, his face broke out into a small smile but it quickly turned into a scowl when he noticed the tall figure of Johnny behind you.
"What's he doing here Lydia"
"Insisted on coming along with me, but it's fine. He won't do anything."
"He better not. Eh, what happened to your wrist?" He pointed to your wrist and you mentally cursed at yourself in your head for not covering it up. It had completely slipped your mind.
"I burnt it by accident when I was cooking. Nothing serious and I need the folder back, the one that I gave you a few days ago."
"Ah right. Here you go; what's inside though?"
He passed you the folder and it looked the same as when you had left it with him. You silently breathed a sigh of relief as Taeyong began to speak again.
"There's some papers on your table and if you'd like, you can look through them. I thought I'll say it first before you asked, you're such a workaholic."
"You know me too well Taeyong, I'll take a look at them now."
You walked into your office, leaving Johnny behind and the door slightly ajar. There wasn't much on your table, some documents which you quickly signed and the rest you decided to take with you back home with you. When you lifted your head, the most amusing sight greeted you.
Johnny and Taeyong were actually talking civilly to one another. You knew the
Comments