Chapter 25

The next morning I went to the hospital again, anxious on whether yesterday had been a fluke or not. I had mixed emotions on the matter, hoping that Seungho would continue to see me, though I was worried I would turn up and he wouldn’t. The feeling of becoming invisible again to him was a weight that slowed my walking as I travelled through the hallways of the hospital, and I dreaded opening his door.

As soon as I entered though, my fears dispersed. Seungho grinned at my appearance, placing down his iPad and beckoning me over. “Yoomi, you’re here!”

“Morning,” I greeted and then cringed, remembering he couldn’t hear me. So I waved.

He chuckled. “I hope to become the best lip reader around.”

“I hope that for you too.”

He sighed. “But for now, I think we might have to stick to pen and paper?”

I nodded and retrieved my notepad, giggling as I remembered a past incident. “How’s my real handwriting look?”

“Ah, you’re not as bad as I last saw.” He smiled. “I’ve done some research today. About spirits.”

“What have you discovered?”

“Sometimes when a person suffers trauma, they can experience a heightened ability with their mental capacity and their sixth sense becomes more pronounced. So I’m guessing this back injury has weakened me physically, but allowed my mind to develop a new trick, which is seeing you. I hope it can extend into hearing too.”

I smiled and nodded. “That makes a lot of sense actually. Is it permanent?”

“I’m not sure Yoomi, but I really hope it is.” He yawned and looked at me sheepishly. “Will you be leaving any time soon?”

“No, I’ll stay with you today, if you want my company.”

Seungho settled further into his bedding. “The drugs make me tired easily, so I think I’ll take a nap. Sorry you’ve just arrived. But when I wake up, I should be more alert.”

“Rest well.” I relaxed into my chair also, pulling out a book to read. After reading the first couple of pages, I grew bored of the book; Seungho’s even breathing making me feel uncharacteristically tired. I closed my own eyes for a moment, feeling calm.

And then I heard a squeal. My eyes snapped open, and I wasn’t in the hospital room anymore. Instead I was standing on a busy sidewalk, staring at a foreign girl who was laughing. I assumed she had let out the noise I had jolted awake from and so I watched her with interest. She was with her friend, the pair talking animatedly in English. They walked towards me, the girl laughing again. I felt rude for watching the brunette, but at the same time I couldn’t tear my focus off of her.

“What are you doing here?”

I blinked rapidly and found that I was back in Seungho’s hospital room. I had little time to regard the scene I had just seen, my eyes snapping onto Changsun entering with another person. He shot me a weak look as Jihyun clung to his arm. He then looked at Seungho. “Uh, hyung asked me to bring you this since I was filming in the area and he had to run an errand. It’s just some of your things. And your parents will be here this afternoon.”

“I wasn’t meaning you.” Seungho stared at the girl who was smiling meekly. I noticed the cold expression in his eyes.

“I heard you were in hospital Seungho-ssi. Are you alright?”

Seungho didn’t respond.

“I bumped into Jihyun in the foyer, she was asking for your room number so she could visit but the nurses thought she was a fan.” Changsun’s explanation hung awkwardly in the air and I took a deep breath before tearing my eyes off of Jihyun’s grip on Changsun. I should’ve guessed she would turn up again.

Getting up, I moved into Seungho’s adjoining bathroom and closed the door. Jihyun let out a cry and I groaned at my bad habit around the girl.

“Why do things keep closing or turning on whenever I’m around you Channie?!”

“Uh, excuse me for a moment; I need to use the bathroom. Is that okay hyung?” I waited for his arrival, the door opening and then closing. He glanced at me and shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “I’m sorry she just appeared from no where.”

“It’s okay.”

He shook his head. “No it’s not, I saw your face.”

“Alright, it’s not okay,” I admitted and sighed. “Why is she still around Changsun? Can’t you just tell her to leave you alone?”

“It’s not that simple.”

I arched an eyebrow. “It seems perfectly simple to me.”

“How do I approach it? Jihyun I’m sorry but I already have a girlfriend, though you can’t see her because she’s dead?! Like that’ll work Yoomi!”

“Do you even have to give her a reason?” I looked down at the ground. “Don’t worry, just go out and enjoy your time with Seungho. I know you have a busy afternoon of filming.”

“Are you coming too?” I shook my head. “Fine. We’ll talk about this later when I’m home.”

I waited until he left the room before I lifted my head back up; trying to decipher what was so hard about telling Jihyun. It seemed harder having her show up unannounced all the time, and I wondered how much more she’d interfere with my relationship with Changsun. I wished to be visible to Jihyun also, and a quick thought of Seungho’s statement of trauma crossed my mind. Knowing that I could never be that wicked, I listened for signs of the pair leaving the hospital room.

“Yoomi, you can come out now,” I heard Seungho call and I stood up, opening the door and looking at him weakly. He smiled. “So you don’t like her either huh?”

I shook my head.

“That makes two of us.”

I grabbed for my pad again and started scribbling. “What is it about that woman that Changsun can’t resist?”

“He hasn’t told you? I doubt he would, he hates talking about her.” Seungho winced as he shifted himself in his bed. “Jihyun was the first woman he devoted himself to when he became an idol. She appeared in his life like a drama, unexpectedly but impacting enough for him to look at her more than once. She used her charms to make him fall for her and it didn’t take him long to become besotted with her.”

“Sounds like her from what I’ve learnt.”

He nodded. “It turned out that she was using him to get to Rain sunbaenim. Naturally Changsun was crushed. He idolises sunbae, but he also was in love with her. Her excuses for breaking his heart were that he didn’t have security as an idol, he didn’t have his own home and he couldn’t provide her with a comfortable future.”

I merely stared at him, things slowly clicking into place in my head.

I sat in the dark on the couch, waiting quietly for Changsun to return from work. After my discovery with Seungho earlier in the day, I had struggled with my thoughts, feeling frustrated with the entire situation. I needed a response from Changsun, and until I got it, I knew I would be unable to do a thing.

The lights a little while later, and I didn’t look over my shoulder to see the exhausted boy enter. “Yoomi? Are you in?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god!” he exclaimed and I finally turned to see him approaching the couch. “Why are you sitting in the dark? You gave me a good fright!”

“Did you have a good day?”

“It was long and tiring, I cannot wait to collapse in bed.” He eyed me warily. “But I feel you have something you want to say first.”

“I do.” I took a deep breath. “Why did you buy this apartment?”

He frowned. “You know why, because I wanted my own space.”

“Is it just for that reason?”

“Why would it be for anything else?” He hesitated in sitting down beside me and opted to remain standing. “What’s the matter?”

“You earn quite a lot of money these days, don’t you?”

“Yoomi, why are material things suddenly an issue? Yes, I’m doing alright for myself. Do you want me to buy something?”

“It seems like you have status now too. They call you a variety idol right?”

He groaned loudly. “Just spit it out Park Yoomi!”

“Three things that you didn’t have when you wanted Jihyun. Now you have them.” I looked at him expectantly. Changsun didn’t respond, his eyes boring a hole into me. I stood up in front of him. “I make sense, don’t I?”

“You are impossible!” Turning on his heel, the tall boy stormed towards the stairs. I raced after him.

“How?! Seungho said-”

“Well I wish he hadn’t of planted that notion in your head!”

I sighed heavily and watched as Changsun flung his clothes off angrily. “Surely you can see that things have changed, and you have those things.”

“For myself!” He stopped what he was doing and ran a hand through his hair agitatedly. “Not for her! But for me, to prove to myself that I could make my own life!”

“Then tell her to leave you alone!”

Changsun groaned again. “Yoomi, why are you pushing this?! I’m with you now!”

“Not to the rest of the world you’re not!” I blurted out and he stopped moving again. I blushed, not realising it was as big of an issue as it sounded within the room.

“Are you that insecure about us? Do you know how ludicrous it sounds when you think of what we are?! And yet, I don’t care about anyone else but you and you’re upset because, because-”

“Because your past is in front of you, and you haven’t shoved her away.”

“I don’t want to argue anymore. I cannot even believe, no actually I can. I’m going to kill Seungho for leading you astray as soon as his back is better.”

“How is this his fault?! You turned up in his hospital room with her! He reacted just as much as I did!”

“That’s it!” Changsun pointed his index finger at me and narrowed his eyes. “This is now a Jihyun free zone. No more talk.”

I stared at him, wondering why he felt it okay to shove away the issue like that. Even though I knew I had overreacted and hurt him, it frustrated me that he couldn’t see how much the woman hurt me back. Squaring my jaw, I pulled my night shirt up off the bed and balled it into my arms.

“No Changsun, this is now a Yoomi free zone.”

_________

Author's Notes...

Hello everyone! I'm in a good mood cos the sun has been shining for the past four days straight so my horses' paddocks are drying out! Hello Spring! And so I happily sat down on my laptop to proof read this chapter for you before continuing on with the rest of my day! I love this chapter, it was something that needed to be done to introduce, reinforce and present many issues for the ending of this fiction! One, Seungho has a reason for his sight now... sounds pretty plausible right? Certainly stops Yoomi from questioning that for too much longer! And then we have Jihyun appearing again, oh boy. What a mess she's caused turning up at the hospital eh? I'm sure you're all glad that Seungho finally answered some of the questions you all have had, as well as Yoomi! Now we know just what kind of person Jihyun is - not that we didn't already >_< And Changsun & Yoomi's confrontation of the subject, who do you think had the stronger stance? Or do you think both are equally alright to feel the way they do about the woman? Should Changsun have told Jihyun to leave him alone by now like Yoomi wishes, or is it something he shouldn't have to do and Yoomi just needs to trust in him? Perhaps though, she does trust in him - but has very good reason not to trust in Jihyun! Many questions I've posed to you all today! Heh! Oh an finally, Yoomi's experience with the foreign girl... any thoughts on that?! Hope you're all enjoying your day! 

Replies...

@Penquin_Panda16; I've explained it -- or should I say that Seungho has -- so I hope that helps love!!

@FlyingHigh; yep, that's the one... I think it's interesting too.

@Maggie; Haha yes it is intriguing! I can't wait to see what your response is after the chapter above! It is a good thing that Seungho is experiencing something with Yoomi, but even with the explanation now of how, it's something that I'm sure many of us would want to be able to do. I like your take on Changsun and how he works to keep her calm, positive and focussed on the right things... he's really lovely like that, isn't he? I love that scene also, completely shows how much he really adores her, to the point that she can make him nervous and hesitant - that's a real connection there!! I love romantic Changsun <3 Haha, my incident with Seoul. Bless her, she was so upset with herself for doing it. Seoul is the horse we took on earlier in the year as a buddy for my other horse Honey. As her name suggests, she's a sweet little thing, and adores us completely. However, she is the epitome of a fangirl when she's close to my friend's gelding who is rather handsome :P My friend turned up with him out of the norm, and both our mares turned into screaming, excited little fangirls (I could word this so differently, I'm being kind lol) over him. And so I didn't realise Seoul was watching him as I approached her. She did see me, but I touched her bottom gently and said "Rugs off time!" and she instantly kicked me. Got both my legs a reallll treat, one bruise on the underside of my right knee and a cut, and a massive bruise in the shape of a hoof on the inner side of my left knee >_< Should have realised that seeing her obsession with a male form would make her sensitive. Though I don't think she really meant to do it... she's been upset since, bless! Hehe, I'm pretty clumsy of late, burnt my hand with scolding water the other night too... people are being wary in my company!! PS, about to email you!

@E_magine; yay I'm glad it won't offend you too much! Really didn't want to do that in the slightest! 

@Kate; Yep, it's interesting. And naw indeed. Thanks!