Chapter 4. Her Warrior

“Damn it! I won't fill anything up until you let her into that freaking delivery room!”

His angry voice made her look up to see what was happening as the man shove the paper to the nurse together with the baby bag. She gasped in pain too helpless to think of anything at that moment. This man must have been an angel sent to take care of her at this time that she was all alone in the world. When she opened her eyes again, he was right there looking straight at her with deliberate conviction.

“Don't worry, we will just go to some other hospital...”

She nodded as she closed her eyes once more. The pain was consuming her but the more that it did, the more that she realized how this sudden stranger was fighting with her. The thought was lovely, knowing that God had sent someone for her, to be her protector, her warrior— her guardian angel. “I’m okay…” she managed to say just to give him an assurance but she really was not and he saw through it.

“Okay like sh1t!”

The man cursed but it made her smile instead. She understood the weight of the situation she suddenly shoved into him.

“I’m sorry… you will be alright, I promise.”

Her warrior said softly as if in attempt to erase when he blew up. His voice was the comfort Seohyun needed to at least alleviate the pain and make her turmoil bearable even for a single second. Whoever he is and whether he realized it or not, she’d probably owe her life and her baby’s to him.

She twisted her body to the side when another intense contraction crept so she held on to her belly and felt the warm hand on top of hers. She pursed her lips together and moaned louder until someone came and helped her to her feet. Relief washed over her when she realized that she was finally being wheeled into the delivery room.

Being inside that room and seeing all those people scurrying around her was making her even more frightened with what was about to come. On top of that, the pain was even more painful now. It was so painful that she just wanted to give up but the thought of the life she was about to give the world— her very own flesh and blood, the longing to see her baby became stronger than the pain.

Maybe it was so natural that something inside her made her want to push even before somebody told her to do so. It seemed to take forever as she pushed and pushed whenever she felt the contraction. This time, thinking of seeing her baby soon was a source of courage that she didn't want to blow it by feeling weak. The people surrounding her were also very helpful that they gave her encouragement each time— especially that hand that she was clinging onto.

Seohyun breathed the hardest and let out a final scream when she realized it was minutes away for their first meeting and she wanted it to be seconds so she screamed with all her might. Finally, she heard it, her little baby was screaming on top of her lungs!

The room looked brighter that the light even blinded her as she settled on her bed feeling exhausted to the brink of death. Seohyun found herself smiling with the tears softly streaming down her cheeks. She must have been consumed with fatigue that she just realized that she was still tightly holding his hand. Slowly, she let her fingers loosened until he did the same. She closed her eyes.

“It's a girl.”

Those words excited her more. Now there's the two of them. Just make be it a healthy baby; she would always say before but secretly she wanted it so bad to be a baby girl. A boy might be a little harder for her to handle because of her current situation—since her little one would be growing up without a father or even a figure. Seohyun was still weak for words and when her eyes drifted towards the stranger, he realized he was absentmindedly studying her. She closed her eyes in the attempt to quell the sudden uneasiness that crept through her.

“You can cut the cord now.”

She was still feeling very dizzy and frail that her thoughts rumbled with everything around her until the nurse walked closer to her carrying the crying pink little baby.

“Yes... yes... she is umma...”

Tears stung her eyes once again as her little one continued to scream even when she was laid on her chest. She was perfect— her little angel.

Euna.

Her little Euna was finally home.

“Hello...” she softly mumbled that it was only her baby could hear as she tried to reach for her tiny hand. Amazingly, she stopped crying that made her look up to the nurse thinking there might be something wrong but her smile assured her that everything was fine— perfect even.

“Congratulations, you are a father now...”

The words rang in her ears but she was too weak to refute and worse, the man seemed as dumbfounded to speak. Everybody seemed to be talking all at the same time and buzzing around doing what remained to be done that they hardly noticed the discomfort of two people in the room. Maybe he will just take it back later so she settled comfortably as they prepared her and her baby.

~~~

He brushed his palms together and put them near his nose. The scent of the sanitizer still clung to his skin and the memory of what just transpired brought a mixed feeling of awe,