Chapter: XIX
CL's Anatomy
The bar was packed with people of all kinds.
College students probably getting wasted before exams, people in business attire drinking with other employees of their company, and then just the random singles sprinkled throughout. To most, the bar scene was something utterly normal, except to Lee Chaerin. The whole bar thing was major foreign territory to her. Being a doctor, you had no time to go drinking on you days on call, for the hospital could call you any moment. And the chief would have your if you showed up to work hammered. But on your days off, there was no time for drinking when you're that sleep deprived.
Sitting specifically at the elevated, dimly light bar, Chaerin wasn't drinking. There was no way she was ever going to drink after the accident. And, to be honest, Chaerin wasn't sure if she'd really ever feel comfortable even behind the wheel again after that. Every now and then, every so often, she still had flashbacks and nightmares about the crash with a mix of reactive psychosis, but it had almost disappeared when Ji Yong was around her. Whenever Chaerin was around Ji Yong, it was like coming up for fresh air. Like she was drowning, and he was the one to pull her up out of the water. He was her rescuer.
Her knight not in shining armor.
Growing up, she used to read an old fairytale about a princess who had to choose a husband. Three of them were very powerful, arrogant princes in shining silver and gold armor. If she married one of them, she'd have a very comfortable life of solitude while her husband was off doing who knows what. But at the very last moment, a fourth prince, one in rusty, beat up armor arrived and promised to always love her and to never leave her side no matter what. He worked hard to gain his wealth, he'd fought for it. And even though he didn't come from the wealthiest kingdom, but money didn't matter to him.
To Chaerin, that story was like her life. And now, Ji Yong was her prince in that beat up armor. Even though he left, it was for work matters. If Chaerin would've have been offered that(and if her hand didn't hurt so much), she would've accepted and known Ji Yong would've wanted her too.
And now that she wasn't going to be able to see him besides behind the screen of a computer, Chaerin didn't know how she was supposed to handle it. Even know, she just didn't feel right. She didn't feel like Lee Chaerin. Though she knew Ji Yong wasn't her identity(which now that she couldn't operate, she didn't know), she understood that he was a very special part of her. And despite her deliberately not asking him, Chaerin clearly knew that she was one to him as well. He was the one who picked her back up off the ground, dusted her off, and told her that she could do it. It might not seen like much, but it's more than most people in her life have done. It's more than what Seung-Hyun has done in her life.
If Ji Yong had not wiggled his way into Chaerin dark, depression, damaged world, she'd most likely be dead by this point.
"Chaerin! Lee Chaerin!" A voiced yelled at her as she thought, and now she was only now noticing it. "I've been sitting here for at least five minutes, what's wrong?"
"Sorry. Nothing is wrong Seung-Hyun, I was just thinking. What have you been up too recently?" Seung-Hyun wore a black blazer with a red striped T-shirt. To Chaerin, there was something off about him, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She also knew that it was it was unbelievably dangerous to go drinking with Seung-Hyun.
Alcohol changed Choi Seung-Hyun.
The first and last time she went out drinking with him, Chaerin left the bar with a black eye she got trying to pull him away from a fight. She didn't hold that against him, she just vowed never to go drinking with him again. Ever.
"Chaerin! What is on your mind? You haven't been listening to me at all!" She already knew that he'd had a drink, for he never yelled at her over nothing and he knew that sometimes she got lost deep in thought. She couldn't pull her min away after all the events of early, even if her best friend was here.
"Seung-Hyun. Stop this. If all you're going to do is drink and yell at me, get out of here! I went to see my mother today. So just leave me the hell alone." Chaerin took the bottle out of his hand and pushed it away.
But she knew it was too late. He'd already turned into someone else. The someone else who had almost caused her lose an eye. He must've already been drinking before he came there, which made Chaerin would exactly how got there.
"Why would you do that?! How dumb are you Chaerin?"
"Did you drive here drunk?" She gave him a furious glare, then grabbed his collar, "You know I how ing feel about drunk driving. Even before I was hit by one and had my had almost amputated, I hated them! I'm calling you a cab." Chaerin knew that it wasn't really Seung-Hyun talking, but it was still a shot right through her heart. Letting him and beginning to dial a cab service, Seung-Hyun grabbed the phone and stuffed it in his pocket. This was a side of Seung-Hyun that was foreign to her, and only meeting him once and getting hurt.
"I'm ing fine! Where's Ji Yong to come and save you?! See, you should've chosen me." Grasping a different bottle of who knows what from the bartender's hand, he took a big gulp and slammed the bottle down. "I've always loved you, and I've always been there for you. How could you not pick me?"
"Seung-Hyun stop! All I wanted to do was have a decent time. I thought you had stopped drinking, but I guess not." Chaerin thought that meeting at a bar would be casual and calm, but she was wrong. When Seung-Hyun entered the hospital, he vowed to stop drinking for health reasons. Whenever he and Chaerin went to dinner, Seung-Hyun didn't even order a simple glass of wine. It impressed Chaerin that he was so committed, and even if they went out for a simple day of catching up, Seung-Hyun would always stick to soda.
"Well I'm not dying anymore. I want gain the years back that I lost being a victim to my tumor. You know now that I'm tumor free-" Just as he was about to go off on the blonde, the object in his pocket began to vibrate. "Oh I wonder who that is?!" Fishing the item out, he answered it. "Well hello Ji Yong. Chaerin is too busy yelling her of at me to talk. Call back when she's not being such a little ."
"Seung-Hyun, what the hell? I'm really appalled by your behavior. You're supposed to be my friend whose there for me. And this also isn't the right way to regain those years, but drinking all night only to sleep all day then repeat. It about spending time with loved ones. But right now, you're just making me want to leave and never see you again! Goodbye Seung-Hyun. Don't come see me until you're sober enough to remember what happened and how you acted." Yanking her phone out of the hand out her friend, Chaerin stormed out of the bar only to be followed by the same guy who'd caused her a horrible night.
"Lee Chaerin! Stop! Wait, this has been a huge misunderstanding! I'm sorry for drinking, I've just had a rough day."
"You think you've had a rough day?! You don't even know bad days until you're me!" Chaerin fastened her pace, trying not to look back to see how close behind he was.
"Then please, come here and tell me about it." Seung-Hyun sounded desperate, but Lee Chaerin knew this was just another part of the whole alcohol symptoms.
Just as she was turning the corner, a muscular hand grabbed her wrist and being pulling. "Hey! Stop! What do you think you're doing?" Looking to see that it was a club bouncer, she immediately started yelling at him in English. The hand yet go, and its owner began to apologize profusely.
"Who the hell are you?! Why are you treating my Chaerin with such disrespect?" Seung-Hyun walked up to the club bouncer both astonished and enraged by his actions. Raising his fist, Chaerin quickly jumped in the path of it.
Lee Chaerin was a surgeon, she was supposed to save people from injuries. If someone was in danger of being injured or simply in any kind of danger, she was required to try to help or save whoever it was.
The last she remembered was the bright flashing red lights and a flood of emotion as if she was reliving the accident. Her nose ached and just before everything went completely black, Chaerin brought her hand to her nose and gentle tapped it. At the slightest touch, it felt like someone threw a brick at her. Pulling the hand away, Chaerin saw a red, warm liquid dripping from her dainty fingers.
If this was how life was going to be while Ji Yong was away, she might as well quit now.
No, actually. That's what the old, broken Chaerin would've said. Chaerin would fix all these problems herself so she could go back to doing the one she loved more than anything and did best.
And that's take hearts apart, fixing them, then put them back together.
As he boarded the plane, not scheduled to take off until tomorrow but was leaving early to avoid weather issues, Kwon Ji Yong could not help but only think about what Chaerin said on the phone before he lost connection. He'd try to call her back, but when he did, someone that sounded kind of familiar answered and hung up just as quick.
A baby? A real living, breathing human being?
Was that really what she wanted. If(and in no was Ji Yong agreeing) Chaerin did have come to the decision to become a mother, she'd have really no choice to quit her job. Or at least work out some schedule with chief because Ji Yong knew Chaerin was not the "stay at home mom" type.
Throughout the whole ten hour flight, Ji Yong sat in his first class seat comfortably, but he still couldn't pull his mind away from the question.
He knew that Chaerin would be such a good mother.
She was kind, compassionate, caring, and had a killer protection instinct.
What he was worried about was that if he would ever be a good enough father to match her. If he was a neurosurgeon with a child, it'd be hard to take the time to see either his girlfriend(who he wanted to make his wife) or child. The reason work had been so flexible in the pat was because of Chaerin's mental state. The chief wanted to make sure that his finest cardio thoracic wasn't jumping off the deep end of insanity, to the point of no return.
Irregardless of that, Ji Yong knew that he certainly wanted Lee Chaerin to be the mother to his children no matter what. And he'd be there by her side, holding her hand every step of the way.
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