Lee Saemin

I was in my office, working till 2am, when the phone on my office table rang, and the receptionist informed me of a visitor that was looking for me, she had sent her up after the visitor protested that she would head up to find me herself but the receptionist thought it was still better to warn me. As soon as I had put the phone down, the door of the office was opened cautiously. Hesitant footsteps were heard but nobody appeared. After a few minutes, I finally knew who it was. Mid-length hair that framed her face, her sunken in cheeks from exhaustion and her pale face gave off her identity, immediately.

I looked around and made sure the office was empty from other nurses and doctors before standing up and asking her, lowly,” What are you doing here?”

“I’ve heard that you got a job here, so I came here to find you since the housekeeper said you weren’t home, every time I stopped by.” She looked at me and murmured.

I slammed my hands against the table,” Who gave you permission to go anywhere near my house?”

Hurt was evident in her eyes as her pupils were shaking, not entirely focused on me.

“I-I was desperate, I’m sorry, but I didn’t meet or had any interactions with anybody else except the housekeeper.”

“You must be, seeing that you’ve came all the way here.” I sneered at her.

Her eyes looked away from mine as I took in her fresh bruises. They were stained deeply purple as compared to the others that were fading and hidden with the help of makeup. Taking in her new found injuries, I scoffed and she had heard me, I was certain but she didn’t say anything.

I took a seat back down on my office chair and continued my work on the computer in front of me, ignoring her standing figure. Before she could take any step further, a doctor came in and paused in his step, glancing between me and her.

“Doctor Lee, this is the file that the nurses told me to hand over to you.” He hesitantly took a step as I reached over and took it from him.

He took one last glance at the lady standing by the door before leaving the room.

“Isn’t it pathetic?” I spat out.

“Coming into the hospital with those bruises? How daring can you be? Aren’t you afraid that somebody would ask you what’s wrong and what would you do? Lie your way through again and hope that nobody looks through those pathetic stories you tell?”

My fist clenched underneath the table as my jaw hardened, I was furious, furious that she was so beaten up, I was more furious that she, the strong women she used to be, was now taking all my insults and swallowing down her pride to come asking for help.

It was as though she was thrown into a dead end, she did the worst thing, I would ever had expected her to do. Her knees buckled under her and she fell straight to the ground, in a way to show her begging stance.

She whispered as tears trickled down her face,” Please, help me. They would take my child away if they had found out that we can’t return the debts. I can’t lose my child, please save my baby.”

Those words, were too familiar. My heads started pounding, the last time I heard those words were a mere two days ago. The pregnant lady begged for us to save her child but we couldn’t. I promised myself, that I’d be a professional doctor and stand up after my fall. But hearing those words come out of gave me a tight slap across the face. The invisible stinging sensation was making my head ring. Looking at her position again, I hit the table with my fist. 

“E-Eomma? What are you doing? Eomma, don’t cry!”

A little boy ran into the room, pushing past the crack of the door. He ran towards her and hugged her tightly as her tears fell freely.

“Please, save us.” She begged me.

Watching the child’s desperate struggle to keep his mother from crying any further stabbed me straight in the heart. He was watching his own mother, begged for survival in that usel