24 ~ Call

"The number you have dialled is not available right now. If you would like to leave a message, please---"

Daehyun sighed and cut the call. It was the third time he had called Mihi since he arrived in Shanghai and she wasn't picking up. From where he was sitting on the hotel bed, he glanced over at the clock on the bedside table. It read 8:04 p.m, which meant that it was past 9 in Seoul. The café should've been closed already.

*That's right, I can call the café directly* he thought.

Even if he couldn't see her, he wanted to at least hear her voice again before the end of the night.

As he scrolled through the contacts on his phone for the café's number, he heard a knock on the door. He put away his phone and went to open the door. Mr. Lee, his temporary secretary for this business trip, stood before him.

"Secretary Lee," Daehyun greeted. "Was there something you needed to tell me?"

"Yes Mr. Jung. We will be holding a run-through of tomorrow's first meeting in the conference room on the first floor in ten minutes time."

"I'll be down soon," he answered.

The secretary bowed and left as Daehyun closed the door behind him. He pulled out his phone and quickly found the café's number and called it. He impatiently waited as the phone continued to ring but no one answered it. After ringing for a whole minute, Daehyun finally hung up. He looked at the picture of Mihi and himself together that he had saved as his screen display picture and let out a deep breath.

His colleagues were all waiting for him. The call would have to wait.

~~~

"Mihi, you can head on home first!" Sujin called as she walked around the café looking for her. "Where are you anyway?"

"In the store room!" came her distant voice.

Sujin opened the door of the store room to see that she was standing on a metal ladder, reaching for a giant box of serviettes that was placed on the very top shelf.

"Woah, be careful Mihi!"

"Relax," she reassured. "The box isn't even heavy."

"But it's not like that's the only hazard here."

Sujin watched her worriedly as she grabbed the box. "Here, hand it to me." She took the box from Mihi and set it on the ground. "Be careful now--"

A sudden loud clanging and scream from behind interrupted her. Sujin quickly turned around and saw that Mihi was lying on the ground and was clutching onto her head. The ladder had fallen over beside her.

"Oh my god, Mihi! Are you alright?!"

Mihi whimpered in pain. "O-Oww… My ankle hurts and I hit my head on something..."

She removed her hand from her head and saw blood on her palm. Her eyes widened.

"You're bleeding!" Sujin gasped. "You need to go to the hospital!" She whipped out her phone and quickly called for an ambulance. After that was done, she hurriedly left to get a towel and placed it against Mihi's head wound. "How are you feeling?"

"I… I'm feeling faint," she replied falteringly.

The ambulance was quick to arrive. Soon, Mihi was lifted onto a wheeled bed and pushed into the vehicle. The trip to the hospital did not take very long, but by the time they had arrived, a concerned Youngjae was already there waiting.

"Is Mihi okay? What happened?" he asked Sujin as he watched them roll Mihi into a room.

"I didn't exactly see what happened, but she fell off of a ladder and must've hit her head on something," she explained worriedly. "Her head was bleeding, so they said she needed to get it stitched up quickly. And she sprained her right ankle as well."

Youngjae pulled his phone from his pocket. "We should call Daehyun and tell him what happened."

Sujin nodded as her boyfriend began dialling the number. She watched as he held it to his ear before removing it and calling again, and again, and again.

"He's not picking up," he finally said.

"Then we'll just call him again later," Sujin said.

It wasn't long before Mihi was rolled out of the room in a wheelchair with a bandaged head and ankle. The doctor tending to her was a young man in his late twenties. "Are you the patient's family?" he asked.

"We're her friends," Sujin replied. "How is she, Doctor?"

"The wound on her head has been stitched and the sprained ankle bandaged. She's more or less fine now, but she shouldn't move around too much and should rest in the hospital for at least two days," he explained. "We need to monitor the blood spot in her brain that was detected through the CAT scan, but it's only a small dot, so hopefully it's nothing serious and will disappear within two days time."

"Thank you Doctor," she sighed in relief before bowing gratefully.

"Thank you very much," Mihi also thanked.

The doctor smiled. "The patient will be taken to her room now, so you may follow and keep her company for a bit."

Mihi was taken to a single room and was lifted onto the bed by two nurses after they had changed her into hospital clothing.

"How are you feeling, Mihi?" Youngjae asked.

"I was given a shot for my head, so it doesn't hurt anymore." She looked at her bandaged ankle and frowned. "But this still hurts a lot and I can't walk because of it as well. I might as well say goodbye to baking for the next few days."

Sujin laughed. "Well, it was a well-earned holiday for you, Missy. What happened anyway?"

"The ladder kind of fell over as I was coming down," Mihi replied a little sheepishly. She had her clumsy moments too.

"We should probably try calling Daehyun again," Youngjae said. "I'll go out and make the call."

"No, please don't!" Mihi hastily objected. "It hasn't even been a day yet since he'd left and already this has happened. I don't want to worry Daehyun. It might distract him from his work."

Sujin nodded. "But shouldn't you at least call him?"

Mihi sighed. "I want to, but we can't make calls in a hospital room and I'm not supposed to move around. Even if I could, then he'd want go make a video call." She pointed to the very obvious white bandage circling her head. "I can't let Daehyun see this. He'd worry himself over it and would probably even try to get back on the next flight."

"But you're going to have to talk to him sooner or later, or he'll get worried anyway."

"He'd probably start asking me questions about you too," Youngjae added. "Even if I were to make up some excuse, Daehyun will still wonder why you're not contacting him yourself."

She slumped her shoulders. "I know, I'll work out something. But he doesn't have to know about this." She was adamant about the last part.

Sujin and Youngjae exchanged glances before nodding understandingly. "Don't worry, we won't tell him."

Mihi smiled. "Thanks."

~~~

Daehyun pulled off his suffocating tie as he strode into his hotel room. It had been a long night and he was tired, but he wanted to make that phone call. It was almost midnight in Seoul now. Mihi usually went to bed early, since she had to rise early to start the preparations for the day at the café, so she might have been asleep already. But maybe she called him back earlier while he was in the meeting.

He lay down on the bed and took out his phone. There was a missed call.

Daehyun happily checked the caller I.D, only to find that the person who had called was not Mihi, but Youngjae.

He called the number.

"Hello?" came Youngjae's groggy voice. He was probably already asleep before he answered the call.

"Hey, it's me."

"Daehyun!" He seemed more awake now. "So how's Shanghai?"

Daehyun shrugged to himself. "Haven't been here long enough to judge," he replied. "Hey, I was wondering whether you saw Mihi at the café tonight."

There was a short silence from the other end, but Daehyun just took it that his friend's senses were dulled by his state of being half-asleep.

"Yeah I did. Sujin and Mihi were saying how hectic the night had been, so they were really tired by the time they closed. We took her home, and Sujin said Mihi fell asleep as soon as she lay on her bed. So I'm guessing she hasn't picked up your call yet?"

"No, she hasn't. But it sounds like she's really tired. I'll try again tomorrow."

"Yeah, you sound real tired too. You should get some sleep."

"Will do," Daehyun answered before they hung up.

For some reason, he felt reluctant to put away his phone. He stared at his display screen picture again, and soon found himself calling her number again. Again, she did not pick up.

Daehyun tiredly draped an arm over his eyes. He missed her already, but there wasn't much he could do like this. He'd have to wait until tomorrow to talk to Mihi.

And for some reason, he just had a bad feeling about everything.

--- 

I can see stormy conditions approaching for the couple D: 

What do you think is going to happen...? :P

Once again, welcome new subscribers and thank you for reading ^^