Chapter Four:

Looking at the phone number on her cell phone, Chanmi wondered whether she should call Gray first or wait for his call. It has been three days since they had last met, yet everything still felt like a dream. Because of how dramatic the first day of school was and how scary the audition day was, Chanmi started to wonder what kind of situation would be created if the two of them met again. Why does situations that bring us together always involved crowds of people staring at us? 

Suddenly, her phone started to ring, causing her to almost flip it out of her hand in panic. Frantically trying to securely hold her phone, Chanmi read the caller ID and realized it was only her dad's phone number. 

"Hello?" Chanmi picked up the call to hear her little brother's voice. 

"Chan-hyung?" It was unexpected of him to call her so late at night.

"Noona, don't tell dad  I told you this because he told me not to worry you, but he's pretty sick right now and I am worried for him," Chan-hyung started spilling out the long sentence without rest as if he was in a rush. He must have taken dad's phone without permission, Chanmi thought.

"Okay, don't worry. How sick is he?" Chanmi tried to help her brother calm down. 

"Well, we went to the doctor recently and he said..." Chan-hyung started to choke on his words. "Dad is seriously ill and need to be hospitalized right away."

"What do you mean? Are you in the hospital right now?" Chanmi could feel her entire body tense as her body heat began to rise. She clenched her cellphone close to her face and held her breath. Her father is everything to her, and if anything happens to him when she is away, she could never forgive herself.

"Yes, dad is in the hospital right now and he just fell asleep," Chan-hyung informed his sister, desperate for help from an adult. Chan-hyung was well aware of the fact that his family is not as fortunate as other and has tried his best to be a mature brother, but no matter what, he was only twelve and sometimes, he just needed his sister. 

"What did the doctor say, Chan-hyung?" Chanmi asked in a slow voice, secretly praying in her heart.

"I am not really sure. He said a lot of medical terms that I couldn't really understand and dad won't explain it to me either, but I know it is serious considering how dad can't even work anymore..." Chan-hyung revealed the secret that their father has been trying to hide from his sister. "Also, because he can't work anymore, I don't even know if we have enough for the hospital fees and surgery,"

Listening to his words, Chanmi tried to hold back her tears. She wanted so bad to just pack her things and go back to be right next to her father again, but she knew that was not even an option. All she could do was sit there, holding in her breath so she would not choke on her tears and make Chan-hyung even more worried.

"I see... Don't worry about the money. Noona will deposit some money into dad's bank account somewhere this week," Chanmi promised him. "If anything happens to dad health, you have to call me right away, okay?" Chanmi emphasized on her words.

"Okay, noona." Chan-hyung replied, feeling a bit better knowing his sister is right by his side.

"Do you happen to know what kind of surgery it is?" Chanmi pressed her brother for more information.

"The doctor said it was some surgery for dad's lungs," Chan-hyung answered.

Could it be because of his smoking? Chanmi wondered. Although her father stopped smoking before Chan-hyung was even born, he had spent many years addicted to the horrible thing. Moreover, he had been working on a constructions site in order to support his family so it could also be the dust. There were so many options, but Chanmi did not want to pick any of them to believe. 

"Don't worry, Chan-hyung-ah," Chanmi said in the most soothing voice she could fake at that moment. "Noona will find a way and dad will be alright," She promised with words that she wanted to believe in as well.

After they ended their conversation, Chanmi set her phone down on her notebook and pushed her face against the empty palms of her hands. Forget this calculus , I need to get myself together to help my dad. Chanmi exhaled a breath of air in frustration and closed her text book. 

After wrecking her brain apart for a few minutes, Chanmi decided that the first things she needed to do were find a manageable job and send all her savings over to her dad's account right away. Then... As much as she hate thinking about it, she needed to move out of the dorm. Student dorms are closer to the school, making the commute easier, and the students get the chance to be more social and make new friends when living together, but dorms are much more expensive than other places that allows rent outside. 

Just then, her phone rang again.

~*~

"Hello? Are you conscious right now?" A voice called out to Gray as he opened his eyes and readjusted to the bright light in the washed-out room.

"Am I at the hospital again?" Gray yawned, unfazed by the the image of the doctor in white gown and the IV bag connected to his left arm.

"Yes, you are." The doctor sighed. "You really should take better care of your health and get treatment."

"I'm fine," Gray looked away, annoyed his the doctor's words. He was sick of hearing them again and again. It was not something he could even think about.

"You fainted in the middle of a convenient store until somebody bought you to the emergency room," the doctor gave him a skeptical look before sternly stating, "this is the third time."

"Can I leave now?" Gray blocked all of his words and sat up, not making any eye contact. He knew he had health issues since sophomore year, where the pressure stacked on. Since AOMG started and since the competition in school began to pick up, Gray had been exhausting himself trying to keep up with everything at the same time.  It was not much of an effort to impress his friends or teachers, but more of just trying to make his parents proud, and then it changed to just trying to meet everyone's expectation. Like the name Lee Sunghwa started to disappear, Gray's old nonchalant self began to decay. It was not long since his unhealthy obsessive studying habits and practice schedules for rapping caused him to develop an illness that he never expected; an illness he must hide from everyone and deal on his own.

"No, I am not allowing you to leave alone this time again," said the doctor. "You have to call someone to take you home because it seems to be getting more and more severe."

"Someone to take me home?!" Gray was losing his temper. "I'm not a kid and I feel fine now," He gritted his teeth. There was no way on Earth he can tell any of his friends or family members about his problem. Everyone would look at him differently and treat him like somebody in need. He hated even the thought of it.

"Gray. I've made up my mind. Even if I can't force you to get treatment, I still need to make sure that you are okay," the doctor was obstinate about his decision. "I have other patients to care for. The nurses and security will let you check out once you call someone."

"Are you kidding me? You-" He could not finish his sentence and the doctor was already out of the room. Gray messed up his hair in frustration and