I mark day number thirteen which leaves exactly thirteen days until Taecyeon comes back. Pressing my hands over my temples, I cringe as I hear mother's deteriorating coughing.

She has been sick for two days, coughing and a bit feverish as well as losing her appetite as soon as she smells food. I suggested we go to the doctor but she refused saying that it was fine and a little fever is like the tide, comes and goes.

However, ever since this morning and she's been shaking and trembling, whining from a headache and sweating from her high temperature.

"Momma, let's go to the doctor," I insist again, knowing that she's not doing anything to ameliorate her detrimental state.

"No," wheezes out of and she coughs again, it sounds as if claws are gnawing and I can picture blood draining in and I lean towards her, not knowing where she's exactly, I leave my hand at my side and search with my benighted eyes, tears welling up.

She's getting worse.

"Momma,"

"Shush," she barely interrupts.

"I'm calling Mrs. Carcax," I walk off from where she is reclining and move to the telephone, dialing Mrs. Carcax's number while hearing my mother weakly yell in anger and disfavor.

The older woman replies and I talk whisperingly to her but urgently, informing her about mother's sickness. Meredith Carcax promises me to drop by in five minutes and advises me to prepare cool towels if I can and gather all the blankets in the house to tuck my mother in. I nod and murmur my thanks, my eyes a blur from the salt dews within the glassy surface of my eyes.

"Be strong, she's fine," she assures and kills the line.

I do as she says, a big bowl of freezing cold water filled with ice cubes, three towels and five blankets settle near mother. I sense my mother's reclining body from the panting of her chest and I place each quilt over her figure, one after the other. She complains that I put one on her face and then says "be careful you'll spill the water," and I can't help but be meticulously attentive.

As promised, Mrs. Carcax stands on our porch, ringing the door bell incessantly. I excuse myself from mother's countenance and head to open the door and when I did, I hear the crumbling of paper bags and other plastic bags. "Where's your mother?" she asks in a tone filled with concern, so alarming and sudden; so much for reassuring me.

My heart beats so fast, I feel like I'm suffocating. I mutter, "In the living room," then bite my lower lip until it almost bled.

"Don't worry," she says, panting as she makes her way to the living room.

She gasps and I swear my heart jumped out of its place, "What?" I almost yell. Praying to God that in just this moment, I can see what is wrong with mother. I start to weep, with no tricks within my power to deceive my blindness.

"Nothing," Mrs. Carcax says. Then she fishes for her cell phone and starts dialing a number.

"What's going on, Mrs. Carcax?" my head is spinning, my heart feels like it's being clutched in an ogre's strong grasp, perspiration dewed on my forehead and temples. My whole frame dithering. "Please," my voice strangles and quavers. "Tell me," and breaks at the end.

She ignores me and speaks without delay to John, her eldest son. Then, the sound of water trickling from a submerged towel emit and then my mother's breathing soothes as I assume Mrs. Carcax placing the towel over her forehead. "She's too feverish," she murmurs to herself.

I grab anything within the vicinity to support myself. I hate myself for being blind, I hate my eyes for being deformed in this moment and my body involuntarily curl into a ball, my arms locks around my legs and my back rocks back and forth, my eyes bulging out, as if the more wider they get, the more I can see but that's a foolish idea only the fatuous believes in it. "Momma?" I ask, my voice so detached and different, I contemplate it for a moment as I repeat my question. However the voice is frail and feeble, distant and vague.

I focus as my mother coughs again and suddenly, Mrs. Carcax exclaims, "What in God's name is this?"

My head shoots upward in the direction of the voice, her sound breaks the shell of fragility and penetrates my mind, yet I hear her again, "Phlegm," as she answers her own question.

I sigh, wiping slowly the tears that seem to stream infinitely and sniff, refusing to be at the mercy of debility. I almost crawl my way to my feet, holding with one hand an arm of a chair beside me. Meanwhile, the doorbell rings again and Mrs. Carcax orders me to open the door for John, I swiftly do what I'm told, trying hard to avoid surrendering to the weakness again.

"Good afternoon," he says, his voice deep and profound.

I nudge my head, "Come in, please," I move my body and widen the door to its extent, not knowing what size is the man.

"John, prepare the car, we're going to the hospital," Mrs. Carcax announces abruptly.

"Hospital?!" I cry out. "Why?! What's wrong with my mother, Mrs. Carcax?" I want to grip Mrs. Carcax's shoulder and shake her with every ounce of power I posses, I want to just explain my misery through my words but I guess that didn't happen because she ignores me again and urges her son, howsoever, I interrupt angrily and persistently, "No! You will tell me what's going on,"

For a few seconds, I can't hear but mother's loud breathing, Mrs. Carcax's  sigh and Mr. Carcax's even respiration.

"You're mother is very sick. She needs to be hospitalized," her tone dry and states a matter of a fact.

I nod vigorously as if that would help me quit crying. Mrs. Carcax rubs my arm, trying to somehow mollify my insatiable anxiety.

…

We all get in Mr. Carcax's car, I sit beside my mother in the rear, holding her hand securely in mine and feeling the quaking of it so engagingly horrifying and the old woman settles beside her son. We drive speedily to the hospital where I hear John bringing a wheelchair to my mother. Extending my cane on the ground and holding Mrs. Carcax's hand, we walk to register mother in the hospital and move her to the emergency section.

As the doctor checks on her, John is with him getting information about her illness. As for me, I take a seat, helplessly looking at nothing; whispering silent prayers with Mrs. Carcax who keeps squeezing my hand over and over which worries me, something bad must've happened to mother.

John Carcax walks out with the doctor and he traipses to us, "It's Pneumonia," he begins. Both our faces fill with wonder which leads John to explain that it is a form of bacteria that invades the body and causes all these symptoms. Then he turns to me, "Is your mother asthmatic?"

I nod unconsciously, still flickering the idea of the illness.

A large warm hand covers my head and ruffles my hair, "Don't worry, kid. She's going to be alright," his voice brighter than earlier. Then he excuses himself and tows his mother to a fair distant away from my hearing range but I'm able to catch a few words from Mrs. Carcax, "I'll be working on that,".

Meredith returns to me, her feet heavy on the floor which mostly likely be a sign of reluctance. Although her tone is hesitant and she even stutters, she says quickly, "Your mother will be hospitalized for now. The doctors are going to check on her state. They're not sure if it is alright to release her from the hospital grounds,"

My mind is but vacuous as her words sink in deeper and deeper. I nod exaggeratingly slowly, "that's good, I think," I rustle, my vocal cords only baring the weight of a whispery tone.

........................................................

This is probably the longest chapter I've written for this fanfic. Just wanted to infrom my lovely subscribers that the event of her going to Korea is happening soon, I'm so excited because I just arranged the relationship between her and the other members and how they develop. <3 

Comment and subscribe please ^ w ^