Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Quietly, Yongguk lets his hand fall to his lap, the phone loosely held in his hand, about to slip and hit the white tiled floor with a thud. The flashing screen indicates the end of the call but Yongguk lets it keep on beeping. The repetitive and monotonous sounds goes on and on like a heart rate monitor.

Yongguk shakes his head before he completely drifts away and glares at the phone in his hand. He presses ‘Call’ again.

He puts the phone to his ear and listens intently to the ringing but it never ends. The woman that speaks at the other end when the ringing finally ended isn’t the one he’s looking for.

“Sorry, the number you have dial—“

He redials again, blood boiling and heart beat racing like a wild horse—it’s crazed.

He keeps on redialing and calling, redialing and calling, redialing and calling…

But no one ever picks up.

“I know you’re there! Why won’t you answer me!”

“Sorry, the num—“

The phone hits the wall and breaks into parts and pieces as they slide across the floor, dismantled.

A frustrated growl scrapes his dry throat at he tears it out of his lungs, uncaring of the disapproving stares and looks from passers-by. Nurses stop their steps around him, afraid to get any closer to warn the panting young man with the piercing eyes.

He’s so angry.

He’s so angry the tears came out hot. They scald his skin.

He races back down the familiar corridor and runs into the wall beside his father’s room. Like so many times before, he cries. He turns back to the wall and leans against it until his legs give way. Sobbing, Yongguk slowly brings his knees close to his body, forming a human cocoon, wrapping himself up as he rocks slightly with each jerk of his shoulders. The feelings inside him are messed up. They confuse him. He feels so sad for that man lying on the bed behind the wall before him that he’s feeling anger.

It flicks like a candle’s flame only to grow larger and larger as it spreads like a wild bush fire.

“Yongguk!”

Maria’s voice bounce off the walls of the corridor. She just came from the house, making sure everything is still the same as it is before Mr Bang fell ill—because everything’s going to back to as it is before.

“Yongguk, dear, what’s wrong?” Maria’s heart lurches as she thought of all the possibilities for Yongguk’s breakdown, and all of them are not what she anticipates. Yongguk glares behind the hot tears and they roll down his cheeks like a never-ending flow.

“I called Mom.”

The last word left a strange taste on his tongue.

Maria just stares at Yongguk with wide eyes.

“She said she doesn’t know him.”

Maria’s eyebrows raises slightly before easing to a soft furrow, her eyes glistening under the bright hospital lights as she wraps a hand around Yongguk’s, squeezing it comfortingly. Yongguk feels another tear roll down his cheek, cooled by the air conditioner.

“He deserves it doesn’t he?”

Yongguk’s fists clench tightly and Maria winced at the painful grip on her hand.

“Because he was so bad to her, she doesn’t want to see him anymore! She hates him!” Yongguk’s face looks almost hysterical if not for the broken look in his eyes that makes Maria’s heart cle