Third Person POV…

Sohee felt a shiver drill right through her spine and she felt that, she too, would collapse at any time. She reached out her hand to carefully shake Zelo’s shoulder—she noticed how her own hand shook as she drew it out.

“J-Junhong,” she stammered as she gently shook his shoulder. “J-Junhong?” she echoed a little louder. Her voice began to increase from there, all her logic began to melt away as her panic rose.

“W-what should I do?” she cried to herself, her lips trembling. She looked around, her eyes flashed across the mirrors; horror in her eyes, the darkness from the corners of the room creeping in towards her and the body. His body looked ghostly pale.

Is he dead?!

Sohee shrieked. “D-don’t be stupid, Sohee.” She managed to tell herself. Her eyes suddenly locked at a glimpse of light just by the feet of the mirrors, just where she had been sitting a moment ago. She reached across the floor and grabbed her cell phone before whirling back around. She felt her heart miss a beat as they fell back on the boy, and it wasn’t a good missed beat.

Zelo lied sprawled out on his back, his head twisted to the side and lying on his cheek, facing his outstretched arm, his other arm had been thrown above his head and his legs were in an indescribable tangle.

Sohee the phone, her fingers trembling and pressing every wrong button. She could feel her head overheat and her heart sprint a million kilometres per second, panting and complaining too hard to her overheated head for it to function any more. Her eyes were scattered, keeping an eye on the body but not wishing to look at it.

Sohee caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She was crying now, she hadn’t noticed though. She had her phone clasped by her ear, her hair around it a mess. She was weeping as the door opened, letting in blinding light. She looked like a deer in headlights, her eyes maybe too swollen to be a deer’s, as Jongup swept open the door.

Jongup’s eyes grew as he noticed Zelo on the floor and the phone by the girl’s ear still un-dialled. He leapt to the floor as Sohee explained what she knew between sobs.

“I came because Yongguk hyung said Zelo would be practicing,” Jongup explained hastily, “I thought he might’ve wanted to borrow the music.” He checked his junior’s pulse, “then I heard crying...” Jongup looked up at Sohee dead in the eye and instructed her to go out and call a teacher. ‘I’ll call the ambulance’ he had assured her before she stumbled out.

It was all happening too fast. The sound of everything had muted, only the voices played but they echoed over each other. It sounded eerie and dizzy, everything repeating and overlapping with the silence. It was hollow but full; silent and noisy.

“Call the ambulance.”

                “What’s your name?”

                                   “Don’t worry… He’ll be okay.”

                                                               “What’s your relationship?”

“He’s not responding.”

“Does he have any allergies to medication?”

                                                “I need you to calm down.”

“He’s not responding.”

                          “He’s not responding.”

                                                               “He’s not responding.”

                                                                                                                              “He’s not responding.”

“He’s not responding.”

The air smelt clean— too clean— like any other hospital. Sohee sat on the end of a line of spotless chairs. She was staring at her hands on her lap, fiddling with her fingers as beds were wheeled by followed by the rush of feet and then silence before the tinkering of needles in a trolley toddled after them.

Sohee felt her eyes gain weight by the minute, her head bobbing up and down like a buoy. Jongup stood next to her, leaning by the door of Zelo’s room. He was just as anxious and tired as she was, but his face was stiff and unreadable, only flinching when he thought he could hear the girl sob.

The hospital had never felt so foreign to either of them. An eerie uneasy feeling had settled down to the pits of their stomachs but suddenly rose to their throats as a nurse popped out from the door.

Sohee shot up from her chair. “Can we see him?!”

The nurse smiled, nodded and ushered them inside.

Zelo was lying on a slightly elevated bed. He looked uncomfortable in his sleep, but otherwise fine. Fortunately there were no odd tubes or needles sticking out of him to Jongup and Sohee’s relief.

The nurse picked up a clipboard by Zelo’s bed and pulled out a pen, “Can I ask you two a few questions?”

Jongup looked up, nodded his head. “Sure.”

Jongup answered as many of the questions as he could, knowing Sohee wouldn’t want to recall, or better yet describe, what she had experience a couple of hours ago.

The nurse gave a comforting smile as she finished up the last statement. “You two did a good job,” she gave a glance to Zelo. “Do either of you know the patient’s parents’ or caregivers’ contacts?”

“I messaged his parents,” Jongup replied, “but I heard Junhong has lived alone since high school because his parents live faraway.”

The nurse looked taken aback. “Is there anyone who could take care of him after he’s discharged?”

Jongup blinked, thought about it for a moment then turned to Sohee, “Do you know?” he mumbled.

Sohee had to think about it for a while too but to no avail since all his relatives were elsewhere. “I can take care of him for now…” she concluded.

The nurse gave a slightly concerned look but after some persuasive explaining she reconsidered. “It’s better than him being alone,” she decided.

Sohee nodded. “Ah!” she exclaimed before the nurse could take her leave. “He’s okay, right? He’s going to wake up soon…” her eyes began to wander away from the nurse and onto Zelo’s resting face, “right?” Sohee sounded as if she were pleading.

The nurse gave a reassuring smile and nodded. “I’ll call in the doctor to tell you the details.”

“TBI, a Traumatic Brain Injury—a head injury in other words, caused by sudden impact. Your friend’s lucky though, fortunately it’s only moderate—nothing too severe. From what you’ve told the nurse, it was probably when he attempted doing that flip. He’ll wake up in a few hours hopefully but we’ll have to keep him in hospital overnight for observation. If there’s no further injury then your friend can be discharged tomorrow morning. It might take a while for him to recover though—it’ll take around 6 to 9 months for him to fully recover.” The doctor exhaled and nodded satisfactorily to his own explanation. He then headed for the door, looking too carefree to be of any high expertise.

“Take care and—oh!” The doctor swung back around and pointed to Jongup, then Sohee then swiftly between the two of them as if playing eenie meenie.  “There’s a limit of one person staying after 6pm. Hospital rules,” he hastily explained before taking his leave.

Sohee sighed in relief as she sunk in the chair beside the bed. She stared softly at Zelo’s face, he looked surprisingly peaceful considering his situation. Sohee rested her cheek on the side of his bed and gazed up at him for a while, worry still lingering in her face.

Oddly enough, there were no other beds in the room—there was a bulky little television in the top corner, a bedside table by the head of the bed, a window and cupboards. Everything was painted neutral, leaving the room silent.

Sohee sighed as she moved away strands of hair from Zelo’s face. “You’re always getting yourself into trouble,” she muttered.

The light from the window slid across the room, bending up and down the highs and lows of the Zelo’s face. Sohee sighed again and gradually found herself holding onto Zelo’s hand, relieved to find them warm between hers.   

Jongup leaned against the wall. He knocked softly against the door to catch Sohee’s attention without startling her assuming she had forgotten his existence. “I’m going to get going now,” he said softly, “it’s getting late and I don’t want to leave Jisu at home alone,” he explained. Honestly that was only partially the reason—it also bothered him slightly how much history Zelo and Sohee had, how much feelings she had still lingering around, and most of all it bothered him how guilty he felt for being bothered about such a thing.

“Will you be alright alone?” Jongup asked with some concern as he wondered whether or not she may have been holding her affections back because he was still around.

Sohee nodded, “I’ll be okay,” she assured him.

Jongup nodded and with some sort of discomfort settling in him made his way out.

“Take care,” Sohee called as she forced on a smile and waved him off. She was still too worried to give him a genuine one.

Sohee waited a moment before the silence sunk in. Despite whatever may have been happening outside those stocky doors, she could hardly make it out. After a moment more of dense silence Sohee decided she could not handle the pressure of it and began humming.

Sohee stopped momentarily, her eyes still wandering the room. “Hey, Junhong…” she murmured to the boy as her eyes found their way back on him. “Do you remember when we were kids and you used to always climb the trees.”

She smiled to herself as the memory flooded back to her. The musky fragrance of leaves gliding in the wind and the soothing coo of the sun seemed to make their way into the room. Sohee continued, engulfing herself in a familiar child’s world.

“I’d follow after you but you’d always climb higher. It was scary… I was scared to fall—” Sohee suddenly flinched as a memory hit her. She bit back her tears and held desperately onto the hem of the boy’s hospital gown as she saw a memory of him falling from the top branch of a tree.

Sohee’s bottom lip quivered as she urged herself to finish.  “Wh-whenever you fell,” her voice sounded croaky and she began to wonder whether she was trying to comfort herself at all, “you got right up… so… so… why—wh—?!” Sohee had broken into tears now. They stung her dry eyes but continued to flow as she rubbed them away. “You’ll wake up any moment now, right?! You promised!!” she pleaded. Sohee was hiccupping, squelching between each abrupt burst of freshly stinging tears as she recalled their childhood.

Sohee was still desperately clutching the hem of Zelo’s hospital gown after a solid ten minutes of bawling. Her nails were digging into the skin on her palm but she felt too numb to feel it. Her whole body was trembling, her head still throbbing slightly. Memories thrashed through her mind, threatening to tip her over the edge again.

Gradually Sohee’s face had sunken down into the sheets of the hospital bed, a pool of tears had soaked up an area of the duvet. Her eyes stung and were obviously swollen from continuously rubbing them. Her breaths had evened up with the occasional hiccup.

Sohee had found she was holding Zelo’s hand again. She picked it up with both her hands, brought it to her lips and kissed the top of his knuckles.  “When will you wake up?” she whispered gently.

--

Yeah... sorry about the hiatus between chapters. I can't colour this like usual because it's difficult on my phone ;;; I just had so much school work all of a sudden while writing this chapter so it took awhile to find time and write the last half. once again sorry to leave you guys on a cliff edge ;;; don't kill me.

I had to do some research on Zelo's injury since I want this to be fairly realistic... I don't know if this is accurate . really I should have researched this before hurting him (I'm sorry Zelo)

I hope you enjoyed the chapter ! I feel like I've apologized a lot so I'll work harder from now on !