22
Miss. Trouble
“Leerang come here now.” her mother yelled all the whilst she stared at the toys. Leerang sulked, she thought it was unfair that all the other kids received new toys to play with while she had to settle with old ones. “Mommy buy me new toys.” the young girl cried, thus earning looks from other customers. “Some other day.” Leerang wouldn’t agree upon that, she wanted new toys then and there. Not later. “Now, now, now.” she kicked about, her foot connected with the shelf and caused several toys to fall to the ground. “Look what you did now.” her mother reached out and grasped onto her wrist, “it hurts.” Leerang began to cry, tear after tear rolled down and soaked her newly bought shirt. “Why won’t you behave. We can’t afford new toys right now.”
“The heater stopped working, could you come look at it.” Leerang could hear the two adults from her bedroom, how their conversation turned into yelling and screaming. “Mommy and daddy are mad again.” she spoke in a low tone so that only her teddy bear could hear. “Why can you never pay the bills in time. Do you understand how embarrassing it is. To have people staring at you in the supermarket because you can’t afford to buy a simple toy to your kid.” Leerang placed the teddy bear’s soft hands over it’s ears, “you shouldn’t listen, it will only make you sad.”
Her eyes snapped open, it’d only been a dream. However, a light headache throbbed as she slowly let her gaze roam the surroundings. It was white, everything around her was too white. “Mom?” Leerang tried to sit up, but the headache became too much and she laid down again. “Mom?” there was no answer, only a low beeping sound coming from somewhere close by. The fact that she was in the hospital weren’t something that’d dawned just yet. “Can someone help me.” not knowing what was going on were starting to freak her out. Leerang couldn’t even remember anything from what’d happened. Everything was a huge black hole.
There was a low rumble and the door on her right slid open, “oh, it’s good to see that you’re awake.” the girl craned her neck to see better, and that as the person entered. “What’s going on?” the unknown woman stepped around the bed all the whilst Leerang waited for a reply, “you don’t remember anything?” she carefully shook her head, Leerang had no memory of what’d taken place and why she was lying there. “You came here last night with alcohol poisoning.” her eyes widened, last night was totally blank. The only thing she actually could remember was showing up at the party, which turned out to be Seoyoung’s birthday party. “Everything looks completely normal. The tests do as well, so you won’t have to worry about anything.” Leerang wasn’t so certain, as her mother would most definitely scold the girl for ending up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. “Get some more rest now.” it was close to impossible, especially since her brain wouldn’t let her relax. It was working on full speed, trying to figure out what’d gone wrong.
She must’ve, in some way or another, fallen asleep anyhow, since she was startled awake by a loud crash. Scared by the loud and sudden sound she glanced towards the door, only to, with drowsy eyes, spot her mother standing there. “Are you out of your freaking mind. You’ve probably done this on purpose, haven’t you. Anything to make me embarrassed makes you happy, doesn’t it.” Leerang remained silent, as it wouldn’t matter what she said. Nothing did.
“Are you listening to me?” the headache she had got worse whilst her mother continued to yell at her, “you’re grounded for a week.” those words were met with disappointment from Leerang’s side. She had no wish to stay inside for a whole week. But there was nothing the girl could do about it. Once her mother had decided upon something then it was supposed to be followed. “I’m going to tell the nurses to get you ready.”
An argument had broken out between her mother and the personnel, as they wanted her to stay another night just in case. The woman though, wouldn’t agree on that and threatened to fill a complaint if they didn’t do as she said. “Come on, we’re leaving now.” her mother had already called for a cab, which was waiting for them at the entrance. So, it was with a throbbing headache and a knee that hurt she limped after the older woman. “Hurry up, I have a plane to catch in two hours.”
Leerang was immediately sent to her room once the two of them returned home. To make matters worse did her mother take her cell phone away, “you’ll get it back in a week.” not wanting another week of being grounded did she just accept the fact. “The maids will keep an eye on you. So don’t think you can get away just because I’m not around.” Leerang hadn’t even thought about going against the older woman. “I’m going to sleep.” she was still not feeling too well and could only wish that it would be better once she’d gotten some sleep.
Unfortunately though, couldn’t she fall asleep and was left lying there between the blankets with pain pulsating throughout her whole body. The fact that her mother was going at it downstairs didn’t exactly make it any easier either. All the yelling and screaming was slowly becoming too much for the said girl, and before she knew it did she place a pillow over her head to block out the world. Leerang was actually relieved and happy that the older woman would leave, as it meant some peace and quiet. Her stepfather was still out of the country and the girl had no clue of when he would get back to Korea.
There was a sudden knock on the bedroom door, “miss, can I come in?” she pulled away the pillow from her face before replying with a simple yes. “Your mother wanted me to collect your credit card.” the woman was truly making it impossible for Leerang to escape from there. Taking both the phone and credit card was something new. “I’ll get it.” slipping out of bed she slowly walked over to the studydesk, only to, when having made it halfway sway to the side as dizziness overwhelmed her. “Miss are you okay?” closing her eyes she reached up and palmed her cheeks, “I -I think so.” the truth was far from it though, because Leerang felt horrible. The whole world spun and she had a hard time standing straight. “Should I call for a doctor?” there was probably nothing wrong, just a side-effect or something from the alcohol she’d, somehow, managed to drink. “No need to do that.” the girl staggered towards the bed, certain that the dizziness would vanish once she laid down. It was just one problem, Leerang collapsed before reaching there.
For a second time was she rushed to the hospital.
“She got malnutrition and needs to stay overnight.” Leerang listened as the nurse explained to one of the maids, apparently had she not received enough nutrition through the IV. In other terms, it would’ve never taken place if her mother had let her stay in the first place. “I’m terribly sorry for all the trouble.” the maid bowed, thus showing her true appreciation. “Well, it was a good thing your boyfriend came in with you so soon yesterday. It could’ve been a lot worse otherwise.” confused by the choice of words Leerang blinked, she must’ve imagined things, especially since there was no chance that the nurse had used the word boyfriend. “I do -.” she was cut short by a hard knock, one that was followed by the door sliding open. The sight of Lay distracted her enough to forget about everything, “am I interrupting something?”
“No, I was just about to leave. Your girlfriend is perfectly fine, she needs to stay the night though.” Leerang’s cheeks flushed upon hearing the nurse use the word girlfriend like that. But it also caused her heart to flutter. Even more so, since Lay didn’t deny it. “That’s good to hear.” the boy cracked a small, almost insignificant smile before advancing towards the bed, “you’re obviously not much of a drinker.” Leerang’s head hung low in embarrassment and shame. She’d probably made a lot of people worried, “sorry.”
“Miss, I’m going to leave. But I’ll make sure to send someone here tomorrow.” there was a brief pause and the girl nodded her head in acknowledgment, “get some rest now.” silence followed once the two of them were left alone, one that Lay decided to break, “I hope you’re not upset about the whole boy -girlfriend thing. It was the only thing I could think of when the ambulance arrived.” how could she possibly be upset about such an ordeal when she wished they, one day, could be together. “N -no.”
The only reason to why he’d even followed with was because of a bad memory, one that were still not completely buried. Lay wouldn’t be able to take seeing another person pass away through alcohol poisoning. The fact that someone he’d cared about had done so was painful enough.
Comments