The soft tinkle of the bell above the shop's door told me that someone was here. My parents loved that sound, "It is the sound of a new customer." They'd say while smiling and then add, "A customer who is open minded to learning new things and letting the books show them the way." Ever since they told me that, I always thought that way too. 

"Hello! Is there anything I can help you find?" I slipped around the counter and went towards the customer, and bowed respectfully.

"Do you work here?" The older man, not too old but not very young, looked at me, a little excited to be having some help.

"Yes I do, sir." A warm smile formed on my lips and his lips did the same.

"Great! I need a book for my granddaughter. She is three years old and I need one for my twelve year old niece too." Twelve, that's how old I was when I lost the most important people in my life. 

"Alright! For the little one, you will want to go over here." I began showing him to the children's section and suggested a few books, then I brought him to the teens and allowed him to poke around for a bit.

"You are very good at your job, yet you are so young! How old are you?" As I scanned his books at the cash register, he asked my age.

"I'm seventeen years old." He nodded, impressed by my words, "This one's on me." I smiled as I handed him the book he picked for his twelve year old niece. 

"What? Why? You are the one that helped pick the perfect book for her, shouldn't I be the one rewarding you?"

"No reason." I let my teeth show in a genuine grin, "I just remember reading this book when I was that age."

"Well maybe I'll come back with her and you two can meet. Do you own this store?"

"Yes. I am in charge of everything."

"Ah is that why this store has weird hours? You have school. I bet your parents are very proud of you." The man smiled pleasantly at me and stuck his hand out for a polite hand shake. We shook hands now feeling friendly.

"Thanks. Come again sir!" I bowed as he left the store, triggering the soft chiming once again. 

"That sound then can only mean one of two things. One, you made the customer very happy and they are leaving with the books they want and the chimes are applauding you. Or two, the customer left empty handed and unhappy and the chimes are scolding you, saying you must do better the next time." My father had pointed to the door as my mother walked a happy customer to it. He had explained what the sound could only mean when it rang out as a person left. I believed that and still do.

The happy rhythm of my ringtone suddenly filled the store, being muffled by my purse. I quickly opened my bag and fished out my glowing phone. "Yeboseyo?" 

"Hello, is this Park Eunmi?" A man's voice filled my right ear.

"Yes, who are you?"

"I'm Mr.Choi, a judge from the writing contest at your school."

"Ah I remember you. So why are you calling?"

"I am calling to inform you that you won first place and the main office of your school has your money. You may collect it anytime you like. Congratulations! The judges loved your story, it made many of us cry. There was so much feeling packed into it, we believe you hold very much potential." My heart skipped a beat and an astonished grin grew on my face.

"Are you serious? Oh my gosh! I really won?!" My childish side couldn't help but take over as I jumped around and squealed. 

"Yep! Keep writing and maybe you will win some more prizes. I have to go, don't forget about your money!"

"Yeah okay no problem. Thanks, bye." I quickly hung up and jumped around in excitement. "I did it! I really did it!" I cheered around but abruptly stopped when the chime above the door sounded. "Hello! How are you today? What can I help you with?" Energy resonated throughout the shop.

"Hi there. Aren't you in a good mood today! I'm just going to be browsing along so don't mind me." A sweet lady, that comes here often, smiled and then went to the nearest isle. In my store, we also allow people to borrow books like in a library, but only if they ask or I feel like they could borrow it.

This day which was meant to be the best day ever, went from the best to the worst.

The rhythm of my phone ringing once again played around me but this time it wasn't muffled because I still had it tightly held in my hand. This time, I knew the caller ID. It was my friend Hana. "Yeboseyo!" No matter what, I thought I was going to stay in a great mood that day.

"Eunmi!" I quickly picked up on the panic in her voice.

"Yes? What's wrong?"

"It's Tao. He's been in an accident." Sweat collected on my forehead and in my palms.

"That's... ehe you must be in a bad area, I can't hear you too well. It's just, I thought you said he was in an accident." I tried to smile, thinking that maybe I had just heard wrong.

"Unnie, he's in the hospital, hurry over here." My arm slowly lowered and my grip on the phone disappeared. The phone tumbled to the ground as a tear slid down my tingling cheek.

"C-customer, the store is now closed. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The lady peered around the end of the shelves with worried eyes. She followed me out of the store and I somehow remembered to lock the doors before bolting off to the hospital.

The actual situation at hand finally hit me as I was running through the darkening streets. The sun was beginning to go down and it began to get cold outside but my skin was already frozen in fear and shock. The harsh wind blew on my bare arms and whipped my face but no matter how hard it thrashed against me, I couldn't pay any mind to it, my mind was somewhere else.

"Where is Huang Zi Tao?!" My hands hit against the receptionist's desk to stop me from flying over it from the speed I had entered the hospital with.

After she told me what wing of the hospital he was in, my throat created an unnatural sound in response to her words. ER. His condition flared in my head. It was no longer just an incident, it was now a calamity, a disaster, a tragedy. Once the room number had left , I was sprinting down the halls. The number kept repeating through my head, over and over again. 168,168,168.

"Eunmi!" The moment I arrived outside of the room, I was greeted by my friends, Hana, Ming, Yooyoung, and Yongah. Before I tried to go in, I looked at their faces, trying to see if I could tell his condition just from their expressions.

"Does Kris know?" They call him Kris, I call him Yifan but his real name is Fan. But normally when I talk to them about him, I call him Kris so they don't have to try to think too much. 

"No. We haven't had a chance to call him. Besides, isn't he studying for exams? College is very important and I think Tao should be just fine so no need to worry him." Ming smiled a little, trying to lighten the mood.

"My brother loves him! They played together since Tao was just four years old, how could you not tell him?!"

My brother, Wu Fan, isn't someone to throw people away. He grows strong bonds with people and those who break the bond are in for a guilt trip because Yifan is the most trustworthy person I know. But Yifan isn't my full brother, he's my half brother. Our moms are the same but our fathers, different. That's why our surnames aren't the same. Although, his surname is my mom's maiden name because neither of them wanted anything to do with his father. Kris is full Chinese, while I am only half. But his biological father wasn't a good person and my mom and his dad got divorced and he has lived with my family since I was born. To me, he is my full brother and he always will be. After my parents were killed in car accident, he diligently took care of me.

"Listen, Eunmi, he might get more hurt if he knows at this time. Tao isn't quite in the best condition. I don't think he would want to see his childhood friend like this." Yongah's eyes searched for mine.

"Whatever." I pushed my way to the door, shaking off hands that grabbed my wrists.

The moment I walked in through the door, my heart beat paused. The drone sound of his heart monitor let me know that at least he was alive but made me more fearful of what I might find in the bed. Hesitantly, I inched around the corner that was blocking my vision of his body. 

"Tao!" Once I registered his limp body on the white bed, I broke down for real and ran towards him. "Tao get up! Get up!" His body appeared lifeless as I shook him gently by the shoulders and lightly punched his chest.

"Eunmi! Stop!" Yooyoung ran over to me and pulled me off of his unresponsive form.

"Why are you like this?!" Even though Yooyoung was there holding my back, I was talking to Tao, facing him.

"Unnie, he can't hear you. He can't do anything right now." My eyes scanned his injured body. He had a deep gash on his left cheek that had swelled. His right arm was casted and placed oddly, I guessed that he had injured his shoulder. One leg was more clumpy looking than the other under the sheets, I figured that it was casted and broken.

"Tao... why are you just laying there? Get up. Get up!" Tears tore down my face again, tears of guilt.

"Eunmi! Stop it! There is nothing you can do now. All we can do is just wait, outside of his room." Yooyoung pulled a little harder, trying to get me away from Tao.

"It's my fault! He was going to not go but I convinced him to go surprise Yifan since his birthday is this weekend!  If he hadn't gone, he'd be fine!" My legs could no longer hold me. It was as if, all the years of holding my body up weren't enough. Yooyoung couldn't quite hold my full body weight so she eased me to the ground before letting go.

"Eunmi, it's not your fault okay? Listen, it's late and I think that all of us could use a good night's sleep. Yongah, Ming, and I are going over to Hana's place to sleep over. Why don't you come along?" Yooyoung crouched down next to me, trying to meet my eyes.

"No." I looked up and stared straight into her worried eyes. "I am going to stay here, it's something I have to do."

"Okay but Eunmi, please no more harming him. He can't do anything about his state and there is nothing that any of us can do about it now either so please, be gentle. And be calm too, this is a hospital." Sighing at the end, Yooyoung stood up and started to walk away.

"Have we called his parents? Did the hospital call them or...?" I called out to Yooyoung before she left the room.

"They called but got no answer so we kind of let the hospital give his parents you number for when they get the message." She turned back to me and kind of looked around me, maybe looking at Tao.

"Okay that's fine. I'll definitely answer. It's my fault anyway..."

"Eunmi." Her voice was a bit whiny and disappointed, "It's not your fault okay? Blaming yourself isn't going to do you any good." She tried to make her tone stern but gentle, effectively making me listen and take it in.

"I know. Now go with Hana and Ming and Yongah, I will stay here. He will wake up eventually and when he does, I don't want him to wake up alone." Yooyoung looked at me with doubtful eyes.

"Okay, take care of yourself. No more weird actions, alright?" I managed a smile as Yooyoung left the room and a few seconds later was back with my other friends, waving at me with heartfelt looks. I just waved back, hoping they would go away faster, I needed some time to myself, some time to think things over.

Eventually they were all gone and the only sound was the repetitive beep of the heart monitor. The sound became comforting to me, letting me know that I wasn't alone in the room, he was still with me.

......

My car sped across the road, I wasn't really worried about my speed since it was an open path. Suddenly ringing began to play around me. My phone! I reached over to get my phone out of my purse which was resting on the passenger's seat. Finally grasping the phone in my hand, I look up at the road. SH*T! When did that person get there?! There was a guy that suddenly appeared in front of me. I slammed on the brakes but my car still hit the guy. I ran out of the running car to find a young boy on the gravel in front of my car. He is lying stomach down. Quickly I flip him onto his back. NO WAY! 

"TAO!" I screamed, jolting out of my dream to realize that my phone was desperately ringing, almost on it's last few notes until it went to voicemail. "Yeboseyo?"

"Is this Park Eunmi?" A female voice filled my ear as I processed whether or not I knew the person whose voice was coming through my mobile device.

"Yes this is Eunmi, may I ask who's speaking?"

"This is Mrs.Huang, Tao's mother."

"Aah I'm sorry, I forgot that I was the one who you were supposed to call. Anyway, I'm sure you already know all about your son's condition. Are you coming in to visit him?" My mood lightened a bit, trying to make them feel less fearful than they probably already were.

"No, no, we are doing no such thing. My husband and I are in Maui right now, have you been before? Anyway, it is beautiful. We don't need him anymore, he probably won't ever wake up, so when he dies, just pay for the funeral service yourselves." I was so taken aback by her words that I gasped for a moment, slightly cutting her off for a moment but she just continued, "If he never dies, he probably won't ever be the same again and we don't want to have to take care of an unintelligent boy like him. Besides, we are still young! We can just have more kids!" She let out a high pitch giggle and waited for my response.

"But what if he is completely normal? What if he comes back even smarter?!"

"Oh darling, we have no more need for him. We were thinking about getting rid of him a while before and then his accident conveniently happened and we were able to really make a decision. If he really does wake up, you guys can just pay for his hospital bills, since you seem to care for him so much."

"But- but he's your child!" I couldn't help but argue, dumbfounded.

"No more buts darling, he is an independent little brat anyway, he'll be fine, he will fit in just fine with you guys."

"I will put up with you insulting me, but I will not ever put up with you insulting Tao! He is one of the best, most honest, most amazing people I know and I can not let you talk sh*t about him behind his back. I can't believe you're not the least bit worried about him, it sickens me."

"Darling, I really think you have been blinded by fantasies, he isn't as magnificent as you make him seem. He really isn't! He deserves to die, honestly, if we keep him and try to nurse him back to health, he'll still be the mistake. It will look bad on our part if we have such a horrible son."

"Honestly, the mistake that will look bad on your part is that you f**king left your seventeen year old son to die on his own! That is just disgusting! He is the one making you guys seem like a fantasy because he is out of a perfect dream while you guys are out of a f**king nightmare!" My voice shrieked out in complete rage.

"Darling," She said, I imagined through gritted teeth, "I suggest you don't talk to me like that. Or you will find that you will be in charge of more of his expenses."

"You think that is a threat?! I would pay for him if he needed me too, he is extremely important to me. I believe that you will immensely regret letting him go because he will wake up and he will be smarter and even better than he was before. And you want to know why? Because he doesn't have to deal with your sh*t anymore!" With that, I hung up very forcefully.

After I hung up and was able to process what I had just done, it hit me that I had no clue what I would do with him. "Yifan would know what to do..." I knew that my friends were mostly right about the consequences of letting Yifan know about Tao's state, but he would hate me for not telling him and he would also know what to do in this situation.

"Wei?" My brother's deep, soothing voice soared into my ear.

"Yifan!" My voice was whiny and childish.

"Eunmi! How have you been? Gosh I am really glad that you called just now because I have had a really stressful day and your voice was just the thing I needed." My chest pressed out a sigh when I realized that my voice would be giving him something very depressing. Then I reconsidered what I was about to do, wondering if maybe I shouldn't tell him.

"Ah I'm sorry oppa. I need to go so please don't stress, it will make me stress too." I tried to make myself sound more cheery. My finger hovered above the end call button when he called out to me.

"Wait! Eunmi, is there something you wanted to tell me?" His voice caught me by surprise.

"Ah no oppa, don't worry about it." Once again, I tried to hang up.

"Eunmi, you better tell me right now. I can tell when you are keeping things from me." Before I explained myself, I heaved out a reluctant sigh.

"Alright... Yifan, please stay calm okay?" He murmured and 'okay' and so I continued, "Tao has been in an accident, a pretty bad one and he has now been abandoned by his parents. They said some of the most sickening things to me and left me in charge of everything having to do with him. I called you because I know you hate it when people don't tell you things but also because I don't know what to do anymore." At the end of my speech, I was stifling sobs. I waited for a reply from Yifan but there was nothing, just silence, "Yifan?" There was a little noise so I moved the phone away from my face only to realize he had just hung up on me. "Argh!" My shaky hands gripped tightly in my hair in frustration.

"Ma'am?" A small voice made me look up from the ground, "I'm Jinhee, a nurse here. I've been assigned here to help take care of patient.. uh.." She looked down at her clipboard, "Ah patient Zi Tao."

"Oh. I'm Eunmi, I am Tao's friend or... I guess his only family as well."

"Oh are you related to him?"

"Related? No but he has been left in my care." She looked curiously at me but didn't say anything more about it.

"Okay well it's nice to meet you, I guess I'll be seeing a lot of you from now until his discharge." She smiled cheerfully, having cheeriness around in a hospital is always a good thing. "So I am here to check all of his vitals and also to check on his open wound." Her delicate index finger pointed out at Tao's left cheek where he had his deep gash. 

"Is it going to scar?"

"Is i-ah what?" Jinhee suddenly became all flustered.

"His gash, will it become a scar?"

"Oh ah yes it most likely will be a bad scar." I looked at her as if wanting a little more, "Well think of it this way; A brand new book was just given to someone from the library. It comes back though, with a nasty tare in it's cover and you try everything to make it look brand new again but there is nothing you can do to completely get rid of it. All you can do is tape it or glue it or staple it to make it look the best it can and to prevent it from getting worse. For him, we need to cover it and maybe try to get some stitches in to prevent any infection. Make sense?" Her book reference lit up my eyes.

"Yes it makes lots of sense! So when will he wake up?" 

"Well right now, he is in a coma. He did hit his head pretty hard and so he sent himself into a coma. But from the looks of it, we're hoping he will wake up within a couple months but you can never be too sure when it comes to comas. The wake up point of comas can't really be predicted because some people looked good but never woke up." I nodded, processing the options for his fate. "Unfortunately, he could be brain dead and then it's up to a guardian to decide whether they want him to live or die."

"Oh... what are the chances of him being brain dead?"

"We haven't tested it yet but I don't think he's brain dead because he has someone as pretty as you, waiting for him." She smiled but that didn't help my nerves. "He is hooked up to a breathing machine and everything but we do that to all head trauma patients."

"Aigoo Jinhee, stop scaring this poor child. Sweetie, he isn't brain dead. He is in a coma, we already did the tests and got the results." A man's voice floated around us as a tall and thin looking guy filed into the room. Jinhee turn around at his presence. 

"B-but sir that's not what my papers say." Jinhee sifted through her papers that were clipped securely to her clipboard.

"You were accidentally given the wrong ones. Those were from when he was first admitted here." The man swung his own clipboard, that he held behind his back, in front of him. He took a moment to flip through some pages and when he finally found Tao's, he pulled it out swiftly. "Here, unclip yours and I'll trade you." He watched her struggle with the clip for a bit before looking down at me and smiling kindly. His features were great. He was gorgeous, slightly feminine looking, but still manly.

"Here you are sir." Finally, Jinhee got Tao's papers out and switched clumsily with the man. She turned to face me with her new and updated paperwork, "Oh I'm sorry, this is Dr.Jung, he is head doctor in the E.R wing. He's very talented and also, only hires nurses and apprenticing doctors who are nice and full of a certain amount of energy because he says it makes everyone feel just a bit better and more comfortable. He is super duper sweet too!" She blushed a bit when she said the last part and I could tell there was a little something between them so I jumped in to make it less awkward.

"Yes! I'm glad, it makes me feel so much better, honestly. And naturally, he would have to be sweet himself." Jinhee looked gratefully at me and I just smiled.

"Well we will just need to track his progress, meaning his brain activity, heart rate, breathing rate, etc." I in a deep breath of sanitized, hospital air, knowing that this was going to be a tough ride.

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Hey! I hope you are enjoying it! Let me know in the comments what you think!^^