Chapter 23

            Two days later, I could not remember the last time I had touched my novel. It all seemed too distracting. Why work on my novel or at the coffee shop when I could be spending those precious moments brushing my mother’s hair, cleaning her feet, massaging her legs? Why divert my attention to such fickle follies when all I really wanted to do was talk to her?

            The next day, Kiseop and SooHyun came by to visit. It was the first time they had had off since the accident, and AJ had practically commanded that they see me and my mother. I welcomed them with a sideways glance and went back to painting my mom’s toenails.

            “Kev,” SooHyun said softly.

            “You came to see my mother, right?”

            “Kevin Woo, look at me!” commanded SooHyun sternly. I moved my head to face him, and he took a half step backwards before taking my chin in his hand and squinting at my face. “When was the last time you slept?” he whispered softly.

            “Can’t remember,” I mumbled, trying to look away. SooHyun held my face in place.

            “And the last thing you ate?”

            “…Soda? Maybe? I’m not sure…” Eventually I wrested my face from his grasp and turned back to the task of painting my mother’s nails. I could feel the worried stares of SooHyun and Kiseop boring into the back of my skull, but I refused to acknowledge them.

            “Kevin,” SooHyun breathed. Tears pricked my eyes at the heavy feeling of being a disappointment. I sniveled a little bit, and SooHyun’s arm was suddenly around me. “It’s okay, Kevin,” he whispered, running his hand up and down my arm comfortingly. At those words, it was as if something inside me had broken, and my tears began pouring out. I turned my face into his chest and sobbed.

            I heard Kiseop shuffle in discomfort and felt SooHyun gesture for him to leave. He whispered goodbye to my mom, and a few seconds later, I heard the door close. When he was gone, SooHyun’s other arm found its way around me.

            “There, there,” he sighed, pulling me close. “It’s alright, Kev, it really is.”

            “No, it’s not,” I sobbed. “She was walking away, and I thought I should offer to drive her, and I didn’t and she got hit and it’s all my fault!” Suddenly angry with myself, I began clawing at SooHyun’s arms, trying to get free. One of his rather large hands found the back of my head and pulled me back while his other arm tightened around me.

            “You couldn’t have known,” he whispered. “Calm down, it was a complete accident… shhh…” My muscles slowly relaxed and my tears began to let up.

            Eventually, my tears were completely gone, and SooHyun held me at arm’s length from him. “Wait here,” he commanded. I nodded and he left the room, returning only a moment later with a damp cloth. He carefully began cleaning the tear streaks from my cheeks and smiled when he was done. “All better?”

            “All better,” I tried to smile.

            “Kevin, can you do something for me?” He asked gently.

            “Mmm?” I mumbled.

            “Let me stay the night with your mom, huh? You need to go home and sleep.”

            I looked at my mother reluctantly and considered declining SooHyun’s offer, but the more sensible (and exhausted) side of me made me nod in agreement. I grabbed my jacket and bag slowly, allowing SooHyun to help me down to the front of the hospital. “Make sure you wash her face and massage her legs, okay?”

            “Okay,” SooHyun grinned, beginning to turn around.

            “Oh! And make sure the nurse puts her meds in her IV!”

            “I’ve got it, Kev!” SooHyun nodded.

            “And don’t forget to brush her hair!” I called.

            “Go home and sleep!” SooHyun said in reply. The automatic hospital doors slid shut between us. I took a deep breath and forced my feet away from the building and to my house.

            When I got there, I was greeted by the surprised face of AJ, who looked like he had been getting ready to leave for the hospital. “Kevin?” he asked.

            That’s all I remember.

            I woke up the next day warm in my bed under piles of blankets. My sleepy eyes found a bright yellow post it note stuck to the lamp beside my bed, and I had to rub my eyes a few times before I was able to read what it said. I guess it’s my turn to give away a little happiness. It was written in AJ’s neat handwriting, and for a moment it didn’t make sense. But then, my eyes found what he had been talking about; it was his grandmother’s locket, carefully placed on the nightstand at the foot of the lamp.

            Tears stung my eyes. I picked up the locket and secured the chain around my neck as carefully as I could, and then forced myself to climb out of my bed and change clothes. I did have a mother to attend to, after all.

            I left the house slightly calmer than before, and was somehow in higher spirits by the time I reached the hospital. I nodded hello to a few somewhat familiar nurses and stepped up to my mother’s hospital room. I did not, however, enter. I was instead halted in my tracks by what was occurring within the room.

            AJ sat beside my mother, instead of SooHyun, who I had been expecting to see. He was brushing her hair and talking to her in a low voice. Being as quiet as possible to avoid being detected, I opened the door a centimeter or so in order to hear what he was saying.

            “…loved cool colors,” he chuckled. “My grandmother was really a er for those blues and greens. She said they looked fresh when you put them on the canvas.” AJ shrugged and paused for a moment. “You know, one time I asked her why she didn’t like yellow. You know what she told me? She said, ‘Now, AJ, since when have you ever seen yellow grass that isn’t dead?’” He laughed aloud, and I couldn’t help but chuckle along with him. He heard me and started at the noise, turning to face me. “Kev!” he exclaimed.

            “Thank you,” I smiled softly. AJ merely nodded and waved me into the room, continuing his anecdotes about his grandmother’s paintings.

            Three days later, we had worked out a schedule. Everyone offered to take shifts, so that way it wouldn’t just be one person by my mother’s side all day and night. We had managed to convince the doctor that DongHo and Hoon were my brother and his husband, respectively. So, that evening, it was Hoon and DongHo’s turn (since, of course, they refused to take separate shifts). Nervous about leaving the two of them alone with my mother’s unconscious body, I opted to spend the night with them, despite many protests from everyone else.

            That evening, DongHo appeared clad in a wildly fluffy pair of pajama pants and two mismatched bedroom slippers. I tried to contain my laughter at the sight, but ended up failing miserably. “I know, I look gorgeous,” DongHo said, posing dramatically in his awful getup.

            “Yes, you do,” Hoon giggled, walking over to me. “Don’t you just love the color coordination between his two slippers?” Hoon asked.

            “Oh, yes, that part is lovely, but I quite prefer how adventurous he was with his textures. What a bold fashion statement!” I cried.

            DongHo stuck out his tongue at the two of us. “You are just jealous that I’m going to be warmer and comfier than the both of you combined!”

            “Yes, of course, that’s exactly it,” I nodded in mock solemnity. DongHo simply rolled his eyes and wandered into the hallway.

            “I’m huuuuungry!” he called.

            Hoon followed DongHo out of the door, crying, “Wait up, I’ll buy you food!” Laughing, I followed my two friends down the hallway and directly to the nearest snack machine. When I got there, DongHo was kicking the machine with one slipper-clad foot and screaming at it to work.

            “DongHo,” I sighed, “you do know that beating the machine into a pulp won’t actually do anything but break it, right?”

            “It doesn’t hurt to try!” he cried.

            Hoon, of course, just stood off to the side laughing ridiculously.

            “Having a row with a machine will never make a difference,” I said in a sing-song-y voice.

            “You think I don’t know that but I actually doooo,” DongHo replied, equally as sing-song-y.

            Finally, Hoon finished guffawing and marched over to where DongHo was, still flailing around the machine like a monkey. He grabbed DongHo by the collar of his red plaid pajama shirt and began pulling DongHo down the hallway and back toward my mother’s hospital room, despite his boyfriend’s raucous protests.

            The next week, I was roused early in my morning by AJ. “Hmm?” I mumbled, still deep within my sleep-induced stupor.

            “Kev, wake up, we have to go to the hospital.”

            That jolted me awake. “What? What’s wrong?”

            “They’re moving her room and they want us to be there,” he shrugged. I quickly rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

            “Why?”

            “Not sure. They said something about her condition no longer being critical? I dunno.”

            “Okay, okay, let’s go!”

            We rushed out the door, and I put my shoes on the wrong feet, but I didn’t really care. We were at the hospital in minutes. A helpful nurse brought us to my mother’s room and I ran in, straight to her side. It took me a moment to realize that she was no longer plugged in to any machines.

            Tears pricked my eyes. “Mom,” I whispered.

            AJ began laughing. I turned toward him to yell at him for being so cruel, but then there was pressure surrounding my hand. “Don’t get mad, Kevin. It doesn’t look pretty.”

            “MOTHER!” I cried, wanting to simultaneously smack her and hug her.

            “See? You’re surprised!” AJ chuckled.

            “YOU ARE HORRIBLE!” I said, turning to face him.

            “It was my idea, Kevin,” my mom chuckled.

            “You’re pretty horrible, too,” I whispered.

            It was nice to have my mother back. Everything seemed to be falling into place. As we spent the rest of the day beside her, often my fingers wandered to the locket around my neck. Happiness. This seemed pretty close to it.

            All I had left to do was finish that ridiculous novel.

A/N: I hate to say it, but, my friends, the end is near. It's lurking on the horizon, close enough that I can see its silhouette and hear it whisper, "come closer." If I can make it two more chapters, I will. A solid 25 chapter story sounds like a grand idea! But, alas, it may only be 24. BUT this would not be the end! I will start, barring the end of this story, and NEW story featuring one-shots that are, essentially, little glimpses into my characters' lives. Who gets married, what little fights they have, whether or not Kevin writes another novel, etc. This chapter was 1,747 words. I have 1,535 more to write before I reach the NaNo finish line. I might reach the end of the story by then, too. It's been great fun! But, we'll save the sappy farewells for the next chapter, eh? <3