Chapter 2 || Over

There was a blinding sea of whiteness that flooded her vision that instantly caused her to squint and blink a few times to adjust her eyes to the intensity. Her body felt like it weighed a ton and was permanently fixed into the cushiony bed she was situated in. The room smelled of rubber and remnants of rubbing alcohol that had settled in the air long ago. On her right, she could hear a constant beep from some type of machine that she couldn’t quite make out at the moment and behind that distinct beep, she could hear the sound of the crinkling of bed sheets to her side and light footsteps.

Turning her head, she saw a person whose back was towards her. This person was also wearing spotless white clothing that blended in flawlessly with the white surroundings, though her hair that was tied into a neat bun contrasted greatly with everything else. The woman didn’t seem at all alert to Hyojin’s drowsy gaze on her back. She seemed to have been too busy fixing the bed that stood a couple of feet away from Hyojin’s.

Oh, why didn’t she realize sooner. She’s in a hospital and that woman was a nurse.

Hyojin, with a dry mouth, parted her lips in order to call out to the nurse. But something was wrong. The words weren’t coming out. She knew what she wanted to say and she knew exactly how she wanted to say it, but it just wasn’t coming out. It felt as though it was jammed in - no, it felt like it was jammed right in the pit of her stomach.

At a loss of words, she attempted to lift up her right arm in order to reach out for the nurse. But something was also off there too. She couldn’t lift up her arm. In fact, she couldn’t even feel her arm.

Hyojin simply laid there motionlessly. Though it appeared as though she was just lying stationary in bed, an onlooker would have no idea of the inner struggle she was having right now- trying to speak, and trying to move her arm just an inch up. Finally, Hyojin managed to have a small strained squeak push past her lips.

Alerted by the sound, the nurse promptly turned around and looked over at Hyojin. Her initial reaction could have been described as a mixture between shocked and relieved, though it’s unclear as to which she was leaning more towards. “Oh my, welcome back Ms. Hong Hyojin.” She said, her expression now easing into a warm smile. Welcome back? “How are you feeling?”

Hyojin’s eyes were intensely fixated on the nurse. She just needed to answer the question- it could have just been a one worded answer. It was simple, but it wasn’t happening. All she could push out was small sighs and inaudible sounds. The nurse was patient though and awaited an answer. Finally, the impossible was achieved.

“W-whe…re am-m… I…?”

Her own voice sent unnerving chills down her spine and her stomach to contract uncomfortably. Her voice. That sounded nothing like her voice; not like the usual loud and confident voice she was used to hearing. This voice sounded raspy and dried out, not to mention the fact that her words were slurred anything but subtly. What’s wrong with me…??

“You’re in Seoul Hospital of course.” The nurse said, not at all disturbed by Hyojin’s strange voice as she herself was. The nurse reached up above Hyojin and pulled out a clip board that hung above her bed. Taking out a pen, she began casually speaking to Hyojin. “It’s nice to see you're finally awake after so long. If I were you, I’d feel pretty lucky right now.” Hyojin didn’t pay her small talk any mind at all and was too fixated on the tip of her pen that was gliding along against the clipboard. What was she writing?

“I’ll be right back, okay?” she nicely reassured after writing who knows what on the clipboard. Giving Hyojin a small bow, she finally left the room. Hyojin was alone now; alone with nothing more than her own jumbled thoughts.

She laid there for a while, perhaps for about five minutes or even more when she finally realized she was alone in the room. Why did it take her so long to realize anyways? Her eyes aimlessly wandered around the room; at anything that popped in color against all these white walls and furniture that made up this room. Finding this solo game of ‘I Spy’ monotonous, she cast her sights downward onto the blanket that covered her body. It didn’t take long for her to now shift her attention onto her sense of hearing to past the time.

All she heard was the beep of the heart monitor beside her. Gazing upward, she looked onto the black screen with the glowing green lettering and zigzagged line. All the machine did was beep. Forget what the screen said when its beep was just so overpowering on its own.

She wasn’t feeling right. She started to feel fidgety and anxious the more times the machine beeped. Was it her imagination, or was it getting louder and more painful to listen too? It wasn’t stopping at all, and it was agonizingly echoing around in her mind. Breaking her gaze away from the machine, she looked down at her arm. There was a tiny IV needle stuck into her arm. The sight only made her uneasiness and racing mind even worse.

Hyojin felt herself now breaking into a cold sweat and a pounding migraine beginning to form. She frantically looked around the room. The white walls, the white floors, the white beds, the white ceilings- it was overwhelming her, she just couldn’t get away from it. Clenching her eyes tightly shut, she could feel herself uncontrollably panting; practically hyperventilating. She was mere seconds away from losing her mind.

All at once, she was knocked out of her hectic trance when the sound of the door opening broke through the chaos around her. Through the door came the same nurse from before (or it could have been another nurse- she couldn’t remember), holding a tray of food with the same smile etched across her face. Following soon after her was an older yet handsome looking man in glasses and a white coat, most likely a doctor.

The nurse walked over to Hyojin but just being a few feet away, Hyojin felt her nerves finally overwhelm her and she let out a terrified shriek. The nurse jolted up and eased back a couple of steps, looking onto Hyojin with widened eyes.

The nurse looked over at the doctor, who placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be afraid, she’s just having a panic attack.” He nodded to the nurse. The nurse nodded back in return as the doctor slowly and cautiously took light steps towards Hyojin’s bedside. “Hyojin, please don’t be afraid.” The doctor carefully said, managing to make it to Hyojin’s side. He gently placed his hand onto her arm, but Hyojin instantly seized up under his grasp and let out another petrified scream.

The doctor put a finger to his lips and calmly hushed her until she finally calmed down. Taking the tray of food away from the nurse, the doctor pulled the rolling table over Hyojin and placed the tray on it. “You can leave now. Your assistance was greatly appreciated.” He nodded to the nurse. Bowing politely, the nurse quietly left the room.

Pulling a wooden chair from the side out to sit beside Hyojin, the doctor sat down and stared down at Hyojin. The look in his eyes and the smile he bore gave off a sort of fatherly feel to it, though Hyojin was way too engrossed in her own panicked thoughts to notice this. Appearing to still be jittery, the doctor was careful when he spoke.

“Hello Hyojin. I’m Dr. Ahn Chilhyun- Dr. Ahn for short.” He slowly and clearly announced. He seemed very mindful of the words he used when he spoke to Hyojin. “I’ve been your doctor since the very day you first came here, but I’m sure you probably don’t remember a day so long ago. So, how are you feeling?”

Hyojin opened to speak but once again, words just weren’t coming out. Hyojin’s eyebrows knitted together in pure frustration.

“It’s okay not to answer.” Her doctor said, seeming to know exactly what distressed her. “For now, all you have to do is listen, okay? If you have any objections while I’m talking, just lightly pat the bed.” Reaching his hand over, he lightly gave the bed a few light thumps to illustrate his directions. Immediately after he added, “Use your left hand, not your right hand. Okay?”

“So as you can see, you’re inside a hospital. You remember how you got here right? Yes?” He nodded his head. “Or no?” He shook his head. It took Hyojin quite some time to retain the question before she finally shook her head just once. Dr. Ahn gave off a small chuckle at the delay of her response. “Would you like to eat something before I go on? You should eat so you can take some of your medication.” Hyojin shook her head once more. Dr. Ahn quietly sighed and nodded. With another sigh, he continued.

“So you’re wondering how you got here, right?” Hyojin nodded, once again after a long pause. “Well… you were in a car accident. Actually, it was a truck that had done the damage to you.” Hyojin stared in disbelief at the older man. “It was a semi-trailer truck- about ten wheels from what the police reports said. The accident you were in, in simple terms, was very, very serious. You were in a three and a half month coma because of it.” T-three…??

Dr. Ahn brought his hand up and lightly ran his fingers on the back of his own head. “I had to give you many, many stitches right here in this very spot.” Dr. Ahn glided his fingers down the entire length of his head. So the injury was that big? “When you got hit by the truck, you hit your head pretty badly on the pavement various times. Not only that, but you injured your right arm. Your radius was split in two when you came into the emergency room that day.” Hyojin looked over at her lifeless right arm that laid by her side. “It’s had time to heal while you were here though, so its condition as of now is pretty good.” He reassured. Hyojin gave the bed a few uneven thumps and Dr. Ahn looked onto her attentively.

“W-wha…t h-happened to… me-e…?” Hyojin struggled to ask, looking back over into her doctor’s eyes. Dr. Ahn’s eyes now began to fill with pure remorse at the question. Following a brief moment of silence, Dr. Ahn finally spoke.

“I just told you about your cracked head and broken arm. That alone would have been enough of an answer for some people, but you can already tell something else is very off about you.” He averted his eyes from Hyojin’s and nervously wrings his hands together. “I’ll… just tell you this. Because of the accident, you won’t be able to speak as well. You won’t be able to hear or even see as well as before either. Your coordination will be a bit off too. Your concentration and memory will not be as keen as before, and the littlest of things might confuse you- it might even cause you to get anxious and panic.” He trailed his eyes over to gaze at her blanketed legs. “Balancing while standing upright will be difficult, so you will have some trouble walking.”

As Dr. Ahn took a moment to plan out his wording, Hyojin managed to speak. “Wh…at… h-happen…ed to m-me?” she repeated. He silently stared at her, appearing to be lost of a response. “Tell… me…!” Hyojin raised her voice. After getting another minute of nothing, Hyojin found herself getting angry. “ANS-SWER ME!!!”

“Due to the severity of your head injury, you've developed a very severe case of brain damage.”

Once again, Hyojin’s ears were filled with the beeps of the heart monitor. Everything else had completely stopped in time and vanished of sound, all expect for that heart monitor. But even now, the beeps sounded as though it was beginning to fade away into the distance. Hyojin breathed out a very slow breath out. How long has she been holding her breath anyways? It wasn’t like she cared at this point though. What else could she possibly care about after hearing something like this?

“Please don’t think this is the end of the world, Hyojin.” Dr. Ahn quickly assured. “That’s the last thing you want to do. In your current state, you can get emotional very easily and it can become very destructive on your part. What I’m trying to say is, you have to accept thi-“

“W-why sho…uld I-I?!!!” Hyojin struggled to voice, getting even more upset over her inability to get the words out.

“For all we know, this could be permanent!!” Dr. Ahn immediately tensed up, regretting the last words that slipped out. Hyojin stared at Dr. Ahn with rounded eyes, completely speechless and vacant of thought. Before the both of them even knew it, Hyojin’s hysteric sobs filled the room and her eyes were now overflowing with tears.

Dr. Ahn uneasily rubbed his neck and took off his glasses to rub his eyes after. Looking over at Hyojin, he felt himself moments away from tearing up himself. “This is why you have to accept this, Hyojin. You can’t run away from this… and you have to learn to live with this.”

Hyojin didn’t seem to hear him at all through her uncontrollably weeps. “I’m sorry Hyojin. But, just look on the bright side. You can still live your life to the fullest- you can still live a happy life by all means just like everyone else. It’s just that… you will have to live it with a few more… difficulties than others…” Not one thing this man could say was going to comfort her or stop her tears from falling.

No matter how he tried to soften it up, there was no denying the truth behind all of this.

Hong Hyojin’s life… was now over.       
 

NOW THERE'S A PLOT ASDFGHJKL!!!! You guys have no idea how much I researched up on this thing lol I'm not a smart person so if I was able to come off as just a tad bit intelligent in this then my hardwork paid off! So yeah, since there was no Channie in this chapter, I think I might do a double update today because he's in the third chapter! 

BTW, Dr. Ahn is KANGTA! Ahn Chilhyun is just his real name just in case you didn't know.

And thank you all for the lovely comments!!! I'm so glad y'all like this weird fanfic and my baby Hyojin! (; w ;) Your support is what made me continue on with this fic because to be honest, I wasn't planning on putting this much time or effort into this until now. So THANK YOU!!!! (Why am I thanking you, I don't remember lol)