SEVEN

(Avenue Company)

Minseok was still waiting to receive the phone call from the doctor. It was already 5:30 in the evening and that made him to come to two things in his mind. He was thinking might be Kyungsoo had a serious injury and not yet woken up or might be the doctor forgot to update him about Kyungsoo. Minseok wasn’t sure with himself. He was thinking about Kyungsoo the remaining half of the day, yet he wasn’t sure why.  He let out a sigh as he thought about it. He decided to just pay a visit to the hospital again.

******

(Kim’s House)

The clock had struck 6:00 p.m. sharp. Jongin had tried calling Kyungsoo ten times already, but none of his calls got picked up by her and that made him worried. Probably Kyungsoo was still mad at him or there was something happening and no one to help her. Those were the things that the dark-skinned male was thinking about. Jongin shook his head as he didn’t want to think negatively and then tried his last attempt to call Kyungsoo before he decided to stop.

“Come on, Kyungsoo. Answer the call please~” Jongin begged in his heart.

“Hello?”

“Uh? Kyungsoo-yah?”

Excitement could be sensed by his tone when his call finally got answered. However, his happiness disappeared when the woman said hello for the second time because he noticed the voice  sounded  different. That wasn’t Kyungsoo, and he was really sure of it. With a stern voice, he quickly asked who she was; how come she was the one answering the call, and as the woman introduced herself as Doctor, his eyes widened in surprise.

“What did you say?”

Doctor Lee: Once again, I’m Doctor Lee Hyo Sung from Seoul General Hospital.

Jongin: W-What’s wrong? Why is Kyungsoo at the hospital?! Where is she?! Why are you the one answering the call now?!

Doctor Lee: Sir, I need you to calm down. I came into her room and saw her phone rang and that was why I answered the call. I saw the name of the caller  is ‘My husband’. The patient here was brought by two men who didn’t have any relation with her. Luckily you called this number because we couldn’t reach for her family members before.

Jongin: What happened?

Doctor Lee: She fainted but you don’t have to worry. I’ve checked on her and she’s externally fine. We’ll make a further check-up when she’s awake, to confirm that her internal and external are fine. Urm, before that, may I know your name, Sir?

Jongin: I-I’m Jongin.

Doctor Lee: Well, Jongin-ssi. Can you come to the hospital as soon as possible? Your wife is placed at room 103, and I bet she needs you so much right now. Can you?

Jongin: O—okay, okay. I’ll be right up. Thanks doc!

******

(Seoul General Hospital)

Dr. Lee ended up the call. She put the phone back on the table next to Kyungsoo’s bed. She sighed and stared at her for seconds. “Hmm, she looks so young, but she already got a husband. Young people nowadays,” she thought; was about to leave the room, but heard Kyungsoo slightly groaning. Things were being so coincident on that day, she noticed. She entered the room and saw a phone call from the husband, and now she was about to go out and the patient had finally awake. “Uh, you’re awake.”

******

(Kim’s House)  

“Jagiya, I need to go out for a while. You just take a good rest, okay?” Jongin informed, took out his black jean and dressed quickly.

“Jagi, what’s wrong? Why do you look so clumsy?” she wondered.

“I’ll tell you later. I might be late but just wait for me, alright? Love you. Gotta go now.”

Jongin gave a peck on her lips, but before he could walk out from his room, Jessica had held his arm tightly.

“I don’t know what’s going on and where are you going, but I don’t want to be left alone. I want to go with you,” Jessica said.  

******

(Seoul General Hospital)

Kyungsoo didn’t say a word to the doctor as she was still feeling weak. Dr. Lee took a chair and sat next to her. While rubbing Kyungsoo’s left shoulder softly, she asked, “How are you feeling? Do you remember what had happened to you?”

Kyungsoo stared at her before she slowly nodded her head as a reply.

“I’m Dr. Lee, the one who’s in charge on you. What’s your name?” she asked again.

“I-I’m Kyungsoo.”

“Kyungsoo …” Dr. Lee muttered lowly. “What a nice name,” she added and smiled again.

Kyungsoo was also smiling when she received the praise.

“How … how can I be here?”

“Well, you passed out, and two random men brought you here. They couldn’t be here for so long, but one of them had asked me to inform him about you when you’re awake. Imma tell him after this. That’s not important actually. So, about your condition, I’ve made an external check-up on you and there are no injuries found at all. Since you’re awake now, I want to proceed with the internal check-up, but before that, I need to ask you some questions first.”

The woman doctor explained, and Kyungsoo just nodded.

“Did anything happen before you passed out? I mean, did you suddenly feel light headed or what or you just passed out all of the sudden?” she asked.

“My head felt dizzy, and I guess I know what was wrong with me. I’m just hungry because I haven’t eaten for today,” Kyungsoo said confidently, as if she was the doctor.

“Oh really?” the doctor chuckled. “But you still don’t mind right if I run some experimental check on you?” she asked again with still her gentle voice; just like an adult talking to a little kid.

She admitted that Kyungsoo looked adorable.

“O—of course, doctor. What do you want to do?”

“Any other symptoms you experienced? Your blood test result will be out by 7 p.m. Forty five minutes left.”

Kyungsoo was about to talk, but there was something that prevented her from doing so. She furrowed her brows and a sudden urge to  throw up built inside her. Dr. Lee immediately helped her sat up when she saw Kyungsoo coughed and trying to get up.

“Kyungsoo, what’s wrong?” she asked worriedly.

Kyungsoo pushed the doctor aside and then with a hand cupping , she ran to the restroom. 

******

“I hope she is still placed in the same room. Urgh! Why didn’t I ask for the doctor’s name or her phone number? It’ll make my task much easier,” Minseok mumbled to himself.

He smiled as he smelled the sweet scent of the baby’s breath flowers that he bought and then walked inside the hospital with a loud huff. He was kind of feeling nervous. It was as if he came there to propose Kyungsoo.

******

“I’m sorry for pushing you just now.” Kyungsoo apologized.

She had finished throwing up, and she felt a little bit better already. Dr. Lee helped her to wipe and brought her to the bed again.

“It’s alright. Kyungsoo, I think I know what’s actually going on with you. It’s not just because of you’re hungry. Let me check you up again before I tell you, alright?”

By hearing that, Kyungsoo became worried. Was she really sick? Was she gonna die? It made her heart ache just to think about that because she was scared. As she had lain down comfortably on her bed, the doctor asked her to take a deep breath, and she did without complaining or asking why. It was just a little awkward how the doctor was pushing and feeling up her chest and asking if it “hurt” when she did that. Kyungsoo admitted that her pectoral muscles ached a little.

“I’m sorry to ask you a personal question. Have you had for the past few weeks?”

Kyungsoo blinked at the doctor’s random question, but … she answered it anyway. She slowly nodded her head for once, when she remembered the she and Jongin had a couple of weeks ago.

“Tw-two weeks ago. Almost three,” she shyly confessed, rubbing her empty stomach that was begging for food.

The doctor smiled when she heard the explanation and that made Kyungsoo wondered. Why was the doctor smiling when she knew that she was about to tell Kyungsoo that she was positively sick?

“D-Doctor, am I alright? Why did you ask the question actually?”

“You take a rest first, okay? As soon as your blood result is out, I’ll tell you. That will confirm everything. I’ll ask a nurse to buy you food,” she answered and was still smiling.

They heard a knock on the door and a voice saying ‘excuse me’,   making them both looked at the direction at the same time. Kyungsoo was staring at the person with question marks while Dr. Lee let out a small gasp.

“Luckily you’re here doctor,” the person said with relief and then entered the room.

“Minseok-ssi, annyeonghaseyo,” she greeted and bowed to him.

“Haish, you don’t have to do that, really,” he said uneasily.

He would feel awkward and uneasy when he got treated like ‘bow to the king’ greeting because he always thought that he wasn’t great enough to have that kind of respect.

“She has just woken up and I was about to call you too, but it was good to see you here again.”

“Okay, what’s going on here actually?” Kyungsoo finally asked. 

“Kyungsoo, this is one of the guys who’ve helped you, Mr. Kim Min Seok,” the doctor introduced. “I’ll let you guys talk. Kyungsoo, I’ll be back as soon as I’ve got the report, alright?”

“N-ne, doctor.”

******

As soon as the doctor left the room, awkwardness took part surrounding the entire space. Kyungsoo smiled at Minseok while twiddling her thumbs uneasily, and the other replied with a smile too.

“Urm … you can sit here if you want to,” Kyungsoo invited, pointing at the chair that the doctor had used to sit.

“Oh okay. Well, here. I bought these flowers for you,” he said and handed the flowers to the patient.

Kyungsoo took it, thanking him and smelled the flowers.

“It smells nice,” she said and then smiled broadly.

Her face while smiling was a true definition of sweetness. Minseok stiffed for seconds when he saw the innocent face of Kyungsoo, and he could feel butterflies in his stomach. Kyungsoo wasn’t beautiful, but there was something that could attract the man’s eyes causing him to blush and heart pounding a little. The feeling that he was having at that time was the same when he first fell in love with his own classmate sixteen years ago. They broke up when they reached twenty and since then, Minseok had been single. After reaching the age of thirty two, he didn’t expect that he would be experiencing that kind of feeling again.

“Urm … thank you for helping me too, Minseok-ssi. I’m Kyungsoo.”

She thanked and introduced herself once again, placing the flowers on the table beside her.

“Uh, ne. It’s nothing. I’m glad that you’re alright. I was quite surprised when I saw you fainted. Right in front of my car,” the man said, and Kyungsoo said a small ‘oh’ as she heard that.

“The doctor has done the final check-up on me, and I’ll get the result after this. I hope that I’m really alright,” she told, smiling uneasily.

“Can I be here until you get your result? And, your family members haven’t known about you. Don’t you wanna call them?”

Kyungsoo’s expression changed at the time she heard the word family. She got no one left beside her father and Jongin, but … her father was not in Seoul and Jongin wasn’t someone whom she had a relationship with anymore, so, there was no one whom could she inform with.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to make them worry. My family is not in town too at this time. I’m alone.” She bluffed. “You can stay by the way,” she added and smiled again with her heart shaped lips.

Minseok didn’t say anything except for nodding; showing that he understood and didn’t want to ask any further. He was smiling back to Kyungsoo, and his heart pounded fast again when he saw her smiling face.