Minwoo couldn’t find her anywhere, in every shop inside the hypermarket… Donghyun and the rest also searching for her everywhere, but still no sign of Yukiko. Then, Minwoo decides on something which might annoy Yukiko more. He goes to the Customer Service & Information Room on the second floor of the building. None of his friends know where he went. Minwoo enters the room and talks with the person in-charge that day.

“Your sister lost?” asked the person-in-charge. “How old is…”

“No, no,” interrupted Minwoo. “She is my friend, she’s not missing… I just couldn’t find her.”

The person-in-charge kind of misunderstood once again, asked Minwoo, “Ooohhh… so you’re the one that lost? And you’re trying to look for her?”

Minwoo slaps his forehead as he shook his head, and he just nods, give up to continue the conversation. “Can I do the announcement instead of you?”

The person-in-charge stares at Minwoo for a minute before letting him do the announcement. He arranges the setting of the PA before he does the announcement. Minwoo stands in front of the microphone and begins to make the announcement.

“Hi… Hi, Yukiko,” announced Minwoo from Customer Service and Information room, “Yukiko, I—I—I…” Minwoo stops and looks down, still thinking his words.

The person-in-charge finally understand the whole situation, from Minwoo’s gesture, react, and speech. Then, he does some weird sign, Minwoo looks at him and wonders. Minwoo thought he is out of his mind. Without hesitation, the person-in-charge grab back that microphone from Minwoo, off the microphone for a while and, asked him, “What is your name?”

Minwoo perplexed and answered, “No Minwoo.”

“And hers?”

“Minamoto Yukiko,” Minwoo answered again, he still figures out what that man wants to do with the microphone and their names. The man on the microphone and presses the on-air button, as he begins to call Yukiko and says something that really astounds the entire Hypermarket Nippon-neyo.

At ladies washroom, Yukiko startles once she heard her name had been called by the familiar voice and another man’s voice from Customer Service and Information Room. She feels so embarrassed when she heard her name has been called, and everyone inside the hypermarket also heard her name. She gets out from the ladies washroom and runs to the room where the voice is come from. She pushes the door and enters the room, she stands there and looks at both of them irritation kind of feeling.

“So you are, Minamoto Yukiko. Well I’ll leave everything here to you, Minwoo-chan,” said the person in-charge of the CSI room, after off on-air button manually, and left them alone in the room. “Never let go of her if you really love her.”

Yukiko looks at the man around 30 – 40 with weird looks on her face, she turns towards Minwoo and almost slaps him again. However, this time Minwoo is able to hold her hand and hug her tightly. Yukiko speechless.

“Can we stay like this a little while?” requested Minwoo, still embraces Yukiko.

“What is this all about? What is happening?” thought Yukiko deep in her mind. She looks up at Minwoo’s face. “Can anyone tell me what is this all about?” She is getting tense at the moment, and that brings pain in her heart, she feels she’s going to get major heart attack again because she can feel the different pain of her heart, really different from last night. Her face turns pale and fainted in Minwoo’s arms.

Minwoo shocks and without wasting time, Minwoo carries Yukiko out from the room and runs to get the taxi to the hospital. They reach the nearest hospital, and Yukiko has to stay in the hospital a night for diagnosing her condition. Yukiko’s panel doctor, Arase-sensei meet Minwoo in his office after called Yukiko’s parent. In Arase-sensei’s office…

“How long have you known Minamoto-san?” Arase-sensei asked.

“Since last month,” told Minwoo. “Is her condition is serious?”

Arase-sensei nods, and replied, “This time, yes. Actually, she never had this kind of serious heart attack before. She’s only had a minor. The result of the diagnose will come out soon… and I hope her condition has stabilized at this time around. However, it is not your fault for not knowing her condition.”

“But I still have that guilt…” Minwoo said and look down. He cannot continue his words at the moment—feeling guilty about the incident that happened.

The office door is opened, Yukiko’s father, Mr. Minamoto said, “It’s not your fault, kid. She has this kind of disease since she was born, it is a genetic disease. My grandfather and before his time, all of them had it except my father and I escape from it. However, our daughter seems to inherit the disease from her ancestor.”

Yukiko’s mother, Mrs. Minamoto pats Minwoo’s head, and said, “You don’t have to worry. By the way, young man… can you introduce yourself to us? Because our daughter never have a male friend after entering Junior High and if she has, she will not tell us about them, too. We only heard about her male friend from other resources.”

Minwoo bowed, and then introduced himself to Yukiko’s parent, “My name is No Minwoo, transfer student from Seoul, South Korea. Just attend Junior High in Springfield’s (Boys) International School this year.”

“Oh, that’s mean you’re Korean! How did you get to know our daughter in the first place?” Mr. Minamoto asks wonders.

Minwoo told everything from the day he and his friends met Yukiko outside of their school until the day they meet her at the Haneda-kyo Bookstore in Nippon-neyo Hypermarket. Yukiko’s parent and Arase-sensei listen attentively to Minwoo’s story. Fifteen minutes later, the result of diagnosing finally comes out—the nurse-on-duty passes the documents to Arase-sensei. Arase-sensei opens the document and tells everything that was written in the diagnose report. Fortunately, the report tells the positive result of diagnosing. Yukiko’s condition is stable, however, Arase-sensei warns them to be alert of any time Yukiko will get another attack, and maybe it could be major and very serious.

“Is there any solution for this?” Minwoo asks and looks wondering.

“We still wait for the heart of the donor, that suitable for her heart. You don’t have to worry, Yukiko is very strong than us if you would like to know. For my advice, just don’t stress her too much. It is not good for her heart,” told Arase-sensei to them.

After finishes discussing with Arase-sensei, they walk to the ward where Yukiko is resting. Yukiko falls asleep. Nothing much they can do at this time, Mrs. Minamoto just watches her daughter’s face and then murmuring something with a smile. Mr. Minamoto taps his wife’s shoulder and smile.

“I think we shouldn’t disturb her for a while,” said Arase-sensei, taps Mr. Minamoto’s shoulder.

Mr. Minamoto smiles at his friends; he and his wife offer themselves to send Minwoo to his house. At first, Minwoo gently rejected their offer. After Mrs. Minamoto convinces him, he accepts it with a smile on his face.

While in the car, on the way to Minwoo’s house…

“So, which area of South Korea is your hometown, Noくん?” asked Mrs. Minamoto, smiling.

“Urmmm…you don’t have to call me by my surname, just call me Minwoo,” said Minwoo, “I’m from Anyang.”

“Anyang, is that far from the metropolitan city Seoul?” Mr. Minamoto drives safely while talks to his wife and Minwoo.

“19.2 km from Anyang, Mr. Minamoto,” answered Minwoo. “The price quite reasonable, too. At the moment, I live with my relative in Seoul whenever I return to South Korea for a school holiday.”

They reach Minwoo’s place twenty minutes later… before walks into the house…

“Take care of yourself, Minwooくん,” said Mrs. Minamoto with smiles. “Thank you for taking care of our daughter.”

“No, Mrs. Minamoto. I should be the one to thank you since both of you are so kind to me,” Minwoo appreciates both Yukiko’s parent. Then, he enters the house and Mr. and Mrs. Minamoto drives off to their own destination.

***

The End of Chapter Seven