JAYWALK PART 5

“Eunbi-ssi…” Sakura uttered before losing consciousness.

“Sakura-ssi? Sakura-ssi!” Eunbi shook Sakura to wake her up. Her eyes shifted to Sakura’s right shoulder bleeding. “Oh my god. Help!” She put pressure on the gunshot wound to slow the bleeding down. She touched Sakura’s neck and felt her pulse weakening.

Eunbi is sitting anxiously in the waiting area. The operating room is still closed, with the operation ongoing for almost 3 hours.

Huge double doors finally opened, taking Eunbi back to reality. Upon seeing a hospital bed being pushed by the nurses, she stood up and saw Sakura still unconscious, her face has a serene expression.

“Doctor! How is she?” Eunbi frantically asked the surgeon.

“She’s fine. Though it might take a while for her to wake up. She almost hit a vital artery responsible for her arm movement.”

“But—”

“But she can manage. She can go back to her normal routine probably in a few months.” The doctor left after a few more reminders.

“Kwon Eunbi-ssi?” She turned around and was greeted by Yena and Yujin who introduced themselves later on. They drove her to the police station for interrogation.

They first took her testament from the hostage case, then asked her about her current condition after almost getting a mild concussion.

“And we’re done with the interrogation, Ms. Kwon,” Yena concludes. Yujin saved the file and turned off the laptop.

“We want to ask you for a favor—” Yujin interrupted and Yena whispered in her ear. She pulled Yujin from her seat and dragged her out of the room. They had a mini argument between themselves. “... You know Cap doesn’t want that.” Eunbi overheard because the door was not fully closed. The pair entered back after a few minutes and sat down in their seats again. Yena elbowed Yujin on her side to start.

“We want to ask you…” she hesitated. “...if it’s not much of a burden… to take care of our captain.” Yujin finally said. “We have no other people we can ask this favor to so…”

“Okay,” Eunbi answered in a beat.

Yena and Yujin stared at her. Well, that was faster than a speeding car.

“Sakura-ssi has done so much for me, saving my life twice. I also just want to return the favor,” Eunbi smiled.

Yena and Yujin bowed in gratefulness. “Thank you Eunbi-ssi. We will visit her from time to time. We just got swamped with work since we have broken the rules when we took on your school's case. Apart from that, we're patching things up from our currently assigned cases.”

"Oh. How come you've broken the rules?"

Yena scratched her head. "Well… unnie— I mean Captain Miyawaki is demoted to a traffic enforcer so she wasn't supposed to take any case outside of her currently assigned division."

"Yeah. But this Chang of an didn't immediately respond to the call and no other team was available so Captain called us to come to your aid," Yujin added.

Eunbi returned later to the hospital after stopping by her apartment for a while. She entered Sakura’s hospital room and settled down on the chair beside the bed. She observed the policewoman and looked back on their previous meetings, until just a while ago.

“So that guy who stopped by during her lunch break that day was the Chang one…” she realized. She remembered how Sakura clapped back at the pretentious Chang and chuckled after. “Hm, the guy totally deserved it.”

Three days later…

Sakura woke up and was welcomed with blinding white lights. After adjusting well to it, she looked around and immediately noticed she was in the hospital.

She tried to sit up and has been struggling to do it.

"Omo, Sakura-ssi!" Eunbi hurried over to Sakura's bed upon entering the room to help her sit up properly, adjusting the pillow to support her back.

"E-Eunbi-ssi?" Sakura is confused when she sees the teacher there.

"I've been watching over you. Your subordinates, Yena and Yujin, asked me to take care of you since they’re busy with work and the school’s case.”

"Ahh... well, it's fine. This is just a gunshot to my shoulder. I can handle myself."

"Oh no. I wouldn't let you do anything on your own."

"But—"

"No buts! I will take care of you in the meantime. The doctor said gunshot injuries may take weeks to heal, and even months for you to use your shoulder without restrictions." Eunbi commanded in a strict tone, then started to peel an apple.

"You're overstretching things," Sakura snickered and responded in a casual tone.

Eunbi turned to look at her and stopped what she was doing. "So we're talking informally now."

Sakura realized this and said, "Oh, I… I'm sorry—"

"Nah. You can just drop the formalities with me," Eunbi smiled then continued peeling the apple. Later on, she served it on a platter and Sakura started eating it. Eunbi was offered to eat too so she also did.

"By the way, I haven't seen anyone else visiting except those two," Eunbi recalled.

"Ah Yujin and Yena? Well, they’re my only friends while my parents are both in Japan."

"Then we should inform your parents about this."

Sakura waved her hand in disapproval. "Nope. They wouldn't really need to know what happened. I don't want to make them worried. Besides, this kind of thing is part of my profession, so this is normal."

Eunbi gave her a sidelong glance. "But has this kind of thing happened to you already?"

Sakura scratched her head and answered, "Well no, I would usually only get a few scratches. The criminals don’t stand a chance against me,” she smirked.

"Tss. Such a show-off." Eunbi comments jokingly.

"Oh, I suddenly remembered. I heard that day that Lee's daughter studied at your kindergarten." Sakura asked while she munched on an apple slice.

"Yeah, though only for a brief period. But that little girl was adorable and loved by all of her classmates. Until her father got arrested. The kids started to bully her, so her mother had no choice but to drop her kid out of school and go someplace else."

Sakura took a sip of her juice. "Do you know where they currently are?"

Eunbi shook her head. "No. But the girl occasionally writes letters to us. There is an address written by the sender, but we decided not to pry into the matter and let them live a peaceful life. She hasn’t written yet for almost a year now, so I’m not certain if they still live there. They've endured and been through a lot so they deserve more peace these days."

The room fell quiet after that. A few moments later, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Sakura gave her permission for whoever was outside to enter.

"Unnie!"

"Captain!"

Yena and Yujin stuck out their heads to peek then entered the room. They gave her a salute.

“Yah, stop that you two,” Sakura warned them.

“Good morning Eunbi-ssi!” Yujin greeted her cheerfully.

“Good morning, Yena-ssi, Yujin-ssi.” Eunbi greeted them back.

Yena cleared . “Choi Yena reporting recent case developments, ma’am."

Eunbi immediately realized the privacy they needed. “Oh, I’ll go outside then. I’ll just buy some refreshments for us,” Eunbi stood up and walked towards the door.

“Thank you Eunbi.” Sakura thanked her and waited for Eunbi to get outside. She then nodded to give Yena the floor to speak.

“Lee Myeongjin is back behind the rails. We have already taken victim testimonies, including Ms. Kwon’s, and have provided a psychological briefing to everyone, especially the kids.”

Yujin spoke next. “The Jangneul Resto Bar murder case is also wrapped up. We have retraced the victim’s tracks and found a loan shark staking out the establishment after the crime happened. We have successfully apprehended the culprit.”

“We have taken 2 pending cases to solve as Team A was sent to the Disciplinary Committee for a disciplinary hearing. Along with that is a new case that was already assigned to us before we were given Team A's workload. I have spoken to your attending physician, and asked him to permit you to be discharged after this week.” Yena added and gave the tablet to Sakura for her to review their new assignments.

“Unnie, Chang really got it this time,” Yujin gossiped as Sakura was scanning through the documents.

“Yeah! His face, when he was dragged out of the office because he was resisting, was absolute gold!” Yena imitated Chang’s funny face which elicited a hearty laugh from Sakura.

“HAHAHAHAHA— ah ah ow ow ow…” Sakura felt a stinging pain in her shoulder because of moving it slightly due to her boisterous laugh.

“Oops. Sorry, unnie,” Yena apologized as she didn't mean to make Sakura feel uncomfortable.

“No worries, Yena-yah.”

“Ms. Miyawaki, your lunch is here.” The nurse opened the door and pushed a cart filled with a tray of food. She pulled the overbed table to Sakura and placed the tray of food on top. She left right after.

“Oh, unnie, we’ll go back to the station now. You should eat and rest afterward,” Yujin bid goodbye. The two then went out and saw Eunbi walking back to the room.

“You guys are done.”

“Yes, Eunbi-ssi. Thank you for taking care of unnie.”

“No problem Yena-ssi.” Eunbi took 2 cans of soda and gave them to the pair. “Drink this on your way back. Thank you for your hard work.” Eunbi said with a smile.

“Thank you Eunbi-ssi. We’re taking our leave now.”

The pair and Eunbi parted ways. Eunbi entered the room and saw Sakura sticking her tongue out, struggling to take off the plastic seal of the soup.

"Damn this soup. Why was it even sealed like this? Do you want me to eat or not?" Sakura angrily muttered as she wrestled with the plastic seal. Her right arm is actually in a sling to help support the shoulder that was shot.

"Sakura, let me open it for you," Eunbi approached her and offered to do it.

"Oh, I can handle this—"

"Again, Sakura. Let me." Eunbi ‘commanded’ her in a stern voice.

Sakura, like a cat, pouted and slowly pulled her hand away from the sealed paper bowl. Eunbi struggled to take the plastic sheet off and—

Splat!

“Ah AH AHHH HOT HOT HOT!” Sakura breathed out of her gritted teeth and waved her free hand quickly to relieve the burning pain she was feeling.

“OH MY GOD I’M SO SORRY!” Eunbi immediately reached for the tissue box and pulled out a couple of them and dabbed it on Sakura’s hospital gown which got wet from the soup that spilled.

“Y-yah! Stop right there!” Sakura panically warned her when the tissue reached her lower torso. “I’ll do it...”

“Oh— okay,” Eunbi realized where she was about to dab the tissue, and blushed embarrassingly. She walked out to the nurse’s station to ask for a new set of hospital gown and went back right after. Sakura hopped off the bed and continued to dry out the wet areas of her hospital gown.

“Uhm, here, change into these.” Eunbi handed over the clothes which Sakura timidly accepted. She trudged her way to the bathroom to change. Sakura slowly ed the polo and was about to take it off when she realized that she couldn't because of her slung arm. She took a peek and saw Eunbi facing away from the bathroom with her shoulders hunched up.

Actually, Eunbi had been muttering and reprimanding herself, still embarrassed by what happened earlier.

"Aish Eunbi. What the hell were you about to do? Aghhhhh," Eunbi scolded herself in a whisper.

"Eunbi."

"Oh my goodness—!"

Eunbi almost jumped out in surprise at Sakura's voice calling out to her. She turned to face her and found her peeking her head out of the door with a conflicting expression.

"Can you… help me…?" Sakura asked.

Eunbi composed herself then answered, "Sure." Eunbi walked to the bathroom.

"I can't really take my polo off because of this sling," Sakura said as Eunbi entered.

"No worries, I told you I'd take care of you," Eunbi replied. She gestured to Sakura that she'll start and the injured woman responded with a brief glance. She started by taking off the sling carefully and took the sleeve off from the uninjured left arm. She let go of the sleeve and saw Sakura's abs. She suddenly got shy and looked down at her feet. She would take a quick glance from time to time to make sure she wouldn't hurt Sakura. After a while, she was able to fully take the polo off. Eunbi took the clean polo and stood in front of Sakura. Their eyes met briefly and the atmosphere fell into awkwardness. She started to slide the sleeve into Sakura's right arm first, then went over to her left arm, and quickly buttoned it up. She attached the sling back and made sure it securely supported Sakura's arm. Eunbi took the pants next and Sakura immediately spoke.

"I'll handle this one. Thank you Eunbi."

A few minutes later, Sakura got back up on the bed. Eunbi asked for another serving of the soup and walked over to the bedside table to open it.

Eunbi set up the food on the overbed table. Sakura took the chopsticks and paused.

Eunbi smiled and took the chopsticks from her grasp. “I’ll do it.” She took the paper wrapper off and broke the chopsticks in half. She also took the spoon out of its wrapper. The whole meal consisted of a healthy, balanced, Korean meal packed with delightful side dishes. Eunbi took a small scoop of rice, and picked up a slice of bulgogi, and topped it on the rice.

“Ah.”

Sakura stared at the spoon and took a bite from it after much thought. She continued to eat whatever Eunbi is feeding her, but her eyes have been staring down at the hot and fresh kimchi jjigae.

“How’s your spacing out project there, Sakura?” Eunbi asked jokingly.

“You’re not in class Eunbi-seonsaengnim,” Sakura retorted back at her.

Eunbi snickered, “Yeah right. Then don’t hesitate to ask me if you need anything. You’ve been eyeing the kimchi jjigae for minutes.” She pulled the bowl of the dish towards her and took a spoonful of it. She blew on it gently and signaled Sakura to eat it, which the woman did.

A week flew by so fast, Sakura is discharged from the hospital.

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A/N:

I underestimated a gunshot to the shoulder. If a bullet hits a major artery located in the shoulder, it could even cost someone's life. Just a little TMI right there. This had been sitting on my drafts for MONTHS. I am struggling to find the right path in the story to develop their relationship, and I can't think of any suitable titles anymore as I really at them (maybe I'll just add them later on). I'm just gonna make another update after this and then maybe just publish shorts on how their relationship will turn out. I need to finish this soon because I've got a lot of kkubi ideas I wanted to write T^T.

Thank you and till the next read!

P.S:

Been watching Le Sserafim's documentary, and my heart broke many times seeing their sad moments. From Haruka's removal from the lineup to each of their own struggles, Le Ssera girls have come a long way indeed... and LE SSERAFIM IS COMING BACK!!!