Chapter 19

‘Stay away from her!!’

‘No, don’t do it. Please calm down.’

‘NO!!’

The next thing she remembered was waking up in a hospital with her teacher sitting on the chair near her bed, her right arm in a sling and her head nodding off, asleep. She wiggled her fingers and realized that her hands were heavy which may be due to the drugs but she couldn’t feel her leg at all. She whimpered in pain when she tried to force herself to sit up and it effectively woke her teacher up.

‘Seul Hee-ah, you’re awake.’

‘Teacher, I don’t feel anything on my leg. What happened to it?’

‘Just lie down first. I’ll call the doctor.’

She couldn’t believe her ears when the doctor said that she probably can’t walk properly and needed to take rehab sessions so she could stand on her two own feet without help. She was withdrawn from her family and won’t accept any visitors for a month and throughout the four weeks, Amber had watched over her from afar and she did it without either Seul Hee or her mother noticing. She felt guilty about her student’s condition and had apologized to the mother several times when they had accidentally met. Amber herself was also admitted into the hospital for injuries sustained from the same incident as Seul Hee’s.

She snapped back to reality when the car behind her honked repeatedly, angry that she was not moving when the light turned green moments ago. She switched her gear to ‘drive’ and kept her speed at 90km/h so as not to further frustrate the driver behind her. She drove her sports car into the Seoul PD HQ and met Victoria outside the elevator.

Victoria could tell that her partner was upset about something by just looking at her face. Amber was, in fact, expressionless and she wore her sunglasses which hid her eyes effectively, as if she didn’t want anyone to figure out what she was thinking. Also, she was constantly switching from gripping her backpack strap to releasing her grip and back again.

“You okay, Amber?”

“Yea, fine.”

Victoria decided to let the matter slide as they both got into the elevator and she punched in the 2^nd floor button.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not really.”

“Luna cooked extras so you might want to grab a bite before we go through the volunteer list,” Victoria suggested.

“Alright.”

They didn’t exchange anymore words as they reached the second floor and while Victoria headed for the break room, Amber just went straight to her desk. She put down her backpack, took off her sunglasses and pinched the bridge of her nose as she landed on her seat. A mug of steaming cocoa was placed in her table and she traced the hand back to its owner, Victoria.

“Drink it. Your sugar level must have hit rock bottom.”

“Sorry Vic-unnie.”

“A thank you would be nicer. I’ll go and print out the list so take your time to regain composure,” Victoria told her as she walked to her office.

Amber wrapped her hands around the mug and kept them there for about a minute before bringing the drink to her lips. Even though the weather was hot, she appreciated the warmth given off by the cocoa as it travelled down . The sweetness helped ease her headache and she felt much better as her head cleared up. Just as she was finishing the drink, Victoria had come out of her office with a bundle of papers in her hand.

“That’s a long list alright,” Amber admitted as she stood to help her.

“They sent us the volunteers’ profile instead of just a name list. There are about a hundred volunteers in total so it’ll take a long time for us to sift through it all.”

Amber took a copy of the list for herself and scanned through the first page.

Name. Age. Contact info. Reasons for joining. Tasks. Medical complication. Application date.

”I think we should filter the list first,” Amber suggested.

“Based on what?”

“First, divide them by their task. We should focus on those who work closely with her and work from there on.”

“That sounds like a good start.”

Victoria flipped through several pages of her own copy of list and took note about the positions the volunteers have within the organization.

“There are managers, assistant managers, ICT people, media relations, refreshment people, errand people, clerks, medics and apparently bodyguards. That is to be expected I guess, since any NGO often get threats because they were accused of hypocrisy.”

“It’s scary to live in this world where people don’t trust other people to do good deeds out of good will. Not everyone did it for the fame or publicity. I believe there are people out there willing to do anything to help others out just because of pure love.”

“I’m with you all the way. Let’s get started so we could bring the person who did this to justice.”

Deflextion

The trio had wiped the pot clean as they had been starving after their various activities including chasing down each other to the ice cream truck where the loser will be buying the sweet treat, comparing the flavors and they went around the town in search for more pre-summer festivals. They are not to be underestimated of their eating ability (or mukbang) despite their body frame, especially SooJung. 

"Where did you have the stomach for more?"

"Luna-unnie, you know me. If others have a separate stomach for desserts, for me it's meat," she replied as she brought her chopsticks to the dish in front of her. 

"I wonder how much food expense Jessica-unnie had allocated for you in a month," Luna said weakly, seeing as her stock of meat depleting fast. 

"I'm full. Thank you for the great food," she replied. 

"Luna-unnie, thank you for the lovely meal."

"It's no problem," Luna smiled.  

Maybe it's because they were younger than her that she tend to spoil them as much as she can and she always want to help them and care for them like her blood sisters. She had been apart from her twin because the latter had lived abroad since her Academy days to study. There had been days when Luna wanted to pack up and join her twin but she was resolved to graduate from the Academy and uphold justice for the weak. 

"I'll help with the dishes," JiYoung offered. 

"But you are a guest. I'll do it later," Luna declined. 

Ignoring her, she cleared off the table and carried the dirty dishes to the sink. Sulli and Krystal had opted to wipe the table clean and proceeded to join JiYoung at the sink. Luna shook her head watching their antics and let them do as they please. 

"Are you going now and hang out some more or stay here and chat?"

"We'll take it easy and stay here. Maybe we can catch a variety show together or do you have a movie you want to watch?"

"I don't mind either way."

"Then let's do that."

ps: Sorry for the long wait. Hope you guys are still reading this. I've been busy these past few days [got three important interviews] And sorry that the chapter is so short. I hope to get inspiration soon so I can present a high quality read. Thank You