++3

April 1^st, 2017.

“I’m sorry…Doctor Son.”

Wendy was glad as the human in front of her was no longer crying her eyes out like a while ago, though she was a bit perplexed with the name she heard. “What did you call me?”

“Doctor Son?”

Her name was sounded comically funny coming from this person. She looked down at the written name-tag on her coat and shook her head—she should name it as Wendy instead.

“You don’t need to say sorry at all.” Wendy casually waved her hand as if it was nothing. She briefly pointed at the door and shrugged. “And you don’t need to take her words seriously. That woman’s always cranky though, so there’s nothing new here.”

“I kind perfectly understand her feeling though, because basically with me being here, doing nothing and all, could pass as a burden to you and your companion.” Her eyes that once boring holes on her laps now were angled up to see the corner of Wendy’s lips lifting. She felt guilty almost immediately at the sight of her smiling face and decided to engulf her own hands into a staring battle. “I’m deeply sorry for yelling at you the moment I opened my eyes, Doctor Son. All you did was helping me and I wasn’t even cooperative. I’m truly sorry, please forgive me.” Seulgi’s brows draped down, she was ashamed with her ungrateful antic yesterday. Her eyes refused to meet Wendy’s kind smile. “I can’t even sure how to repay your kindness though…”

“Oh man, don’t call me Doctor Son. I’m a woman, why am I a son then?”

There was a silence in between, might as well imaginary crow flying across them to drop some dots once she finished her words and Wendy nervously raised her hand to swat the air of awkwardness away. Okay, that joke she threw was lame, she admitted, but well, she only wanted to lift up this sudden somber mood and made this person feeling at ease. “You got my point right?”

Seulgi blinked, but nodded her head nonetheless, making Wendy breathe in relief.

Granted when Irene did actually listen to her and leave the room, if not, she would be sure the latter might in and to death for being so lame.

“You were only coping up with things in your own way or so, as I quoted this line from someone.”

The woman with chestnut hair smiled gently as she took a seat beside Seulgi’s bed. “I’m happy for having another company though. It’s actually fun to meet a new friend and you’re definitely not a burden. Oh and it’s fine, I’m not charging up on anything. With you being healthy and kicking is already a good payment for me.”

Seulgi took a moment to respond, how come this person was being so kind to a total stranger like her? Who did nothing but invaded her personal life, bringing unnecessary trouble around her. Even her relatives refused to help her at all. So, how in the world did she deserve meeting this kind of person?

She felt her eyes getting teary and couldn’t help to contain her gratefulness. “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome, Seulgi.”

“Thank you so much…”

“You don’t need to.”

“I can’t help but thank you.”

“It’s okay, really, stop saying thank you. I have enough.” Wendy’s smile was strained and Seulgi mistook it as a sign of discomfort.

“I’m sorry.” Her gaze fell lower as she fumbled with her own hands, blaming herself for being over-enthusiast. “I’m so sorry… It seems like I couldn’t even do something right at all.” It came gradually as a whisper and the doctor had had enough of her self-blaming.

“Oh hey, what’s your name?” She decided to shrug her apologies and beamed at her. “As I’ve introduced myself days ago, though I’m not sure you did catch it, well my name is Son Wendy. So, don’t call me Doctor Son anymore, okay.”

Seulgi mirrored her smile, albeit smaller. “My name is Kang Seulgi.”

“So, Seulgi… How are you feeling?” With other hand resting against the handgrip, Wendy put her chin on her open palm and observed the figure. “Do you have nightmares or something?”

“I’m fi-ne…” She was really fine before. She bit her lip, finally feeling her abdomen tremble with pain the moment she tried to slouch in a more comfortable position. Wendy who had already seated herself beside Seulgi noted her change of expression.

“Ah!” She yelped out of sudden and the doctor quickly stood on her feet, reaching her hand out to check on her. “You move around quite often, right? Does the area around your stomach hurt?”  Seulgi helplessly nodded and watched as Wendy lifted her shirt, her sight was already hazy with tears. “I felt the same pains yesterday, but this time though it seems stronger.”

“It looks fine though you need to take your painkiller regularly from now on.” She tidied her shirt again and straightened her own posture. “Wait here okay, I’ll bring it to you.”

Seulgi gave a feeble “Okay” and took a long breath to ease herself. She wiped her blurry eyes with one hand to see Wendy closing the door in silence.

She didn’t realize it at first; maybe after thrashing around to overcome her own nightmare thus causing the pain slowly creep in as it had gotten triggered. She reached to hold her stomach and muttered a low hiss of a halted whimper, eyes automatically closed again at the thought of bearing her aching feeling.

Seulgi opened her eyes again as she looked down at her pajamas. She lifted it up to see her chest and ribs wrapped in a bandage; the image of him mercilessly beating her that night was crystal clear and still vividly repeated inside her mind. Her hand gripped tightly on the fabric as somehow, the pains were twice harder to bear than before.

Her eyes trailed even lower to see the thin and long red line on her stomach glaring at her. She gulped, feeling her tears wail up in again. She outlined the red mark, tenderly gliding her finger against the slightly bruised skin, still fresh and all—reminding her of her loss.

“My baby…”    

She whispered, no longer able to keep her feelings intact, it burst out in the form of silence cry.

“I-I’m sorry… I-I should’ve stayed stronger…” She choked in her own tears, hand blindly tracing her stomach, hoping for a miracle to happen. “…for you.”  

She felt in the scar and swallowed hard.

“But I couldn’t…”

Her body shook as the emotion took over her. The realization came hitting her square in the face, mocking the life she lived in with an actual fact she had to accept. She lost her baby and it was because of her own fault. She cried harder, both at the pains she physically felt and the emotional one that drained her energy in endless agony.

+++

Wendy sighed as she stared at the closed door for almost five minutes and didn’t give any sign to move any soon. She was about to step in but the moment she heard Seulgi blaming herself, crying, and apologizing to no one, she chose to let the woman alone until she felt a bit better to face people.

“You look funny standing there with a tray in hands.” Irene sounded from the corner and the smaller woman only glared back in her direction.

“Oh wow… you still mad at me over that?”

She didn’t react, but when she sensed her getting closer thus she finally spoke up.

“Don’t come near here if there’s no nice thing coming from your mouth.”

 “Ouch.”

“I can actually see your similarity with Joy. That explains why both of you are related.”

“Double ouch.”

“You stay here. I’m going to talk to you.”

Wendy disappeared in a blink of an eye and Irene only shrugged her shoulder while making her way to do another meditation. But halfway through Wendy’s peaceful and shaded garden, she found herself entering one of the owner’s study rooms instead.

“What the…” 

“Sit.” Wendy commanded with a stern voice, watching Irene throw a confused look at her in return. “I’ve something to tell you and I hope you take this very seriously.”

“I rarely mad at anyone, especially you. You see?” She firstly highlighted her sentence when Irene took the vacant seat across her desk. “But what you have done to her this morning was plain rude and you should certainly apologize for your wrongdoing. How come you said something like that when she was still mourning over her loss?”  

Wendy asked in disbelief, noticing how the other’s expression changed for a split of second before staying the same—eyes bored in stillness. “Add that to harsh things you said to her on another day, which was whether she still has family left worrying over her or not. I get it perfectly, you hate them, but really Irene, that far?” 

“You invaded my mind?” Irene questioned with a raised brow. “Against my permission?”           

Wendy quietly stared at her, acknowledging her own fault.

“I don’t appreciate you invading my personal space, though if you did…” She shrugged her shoulder while leaning back. “What I do, it’s not your business.” 

“Ok I’m sorry it was wrong but oh my God, Irene. Are you being serious right now? I don’t even understand why in the hell you went that far? Can’t you at least be considerate? She has gone through a lot, I tell you Irene, a lot.” Wendy narrowed her eyes, holding onto whatever was that with all her might not to burst out like a mad person.

Irene was always being like that, aside from being selfish and stubborn to others, being too prideful was another trait she held by heart. And she really needed a wake-up call sooner or later because what Seulgi had been through wasn’t something Irene could brush like it meant nothing at all. No, not only in Seulgi’s case, but whoever was that had been suffering through problems did not deserve to be treated like that.

Although at first, they were foreign with feelings, wondering how it could affect humans to some extent, their kind had come to be accustomed to it as time went by. And Irene was still bad at it, even until now—expressing it out was one thing that made her struggle the most. 

It was a shame though Wendy had known Irene long enough to know that the woman could be a sweetheart, yet she would mostly deny it. She called Irene gently, trying to talk it out in a more civilized way. “Unnie,”     

The latter averted her gaze away and stared outside, mumbling with disinterest. “I was being considerate before. So, yeah no more.”

“Stop putting this act, please. It won’t make you look less than whatever image you want to keep, just because you show some concern towards others though.”

“Some concern you think, huh? Tell that to Bogum who stupidly killed himself because he was being that considerate to humans.” Irene snapped back, laughing dryly amidst the silence gnawing inside the room. “What a ridiculous reason to actually die, he sacrificed his own life for them.”

Wendy’s gaze turned soft as she saw her blinking nonchalantly, probably wanting to erase the sudden surge of flashback—recollection memories of her loved ones. “I’m sorry, Irene... I-I really didn’t mean to bring up that topic…”

“No need to say sorry, he was just that stupid.” She curtly commented, slowly standing on her feet and watching Wendy do the same. Her face was still looking guilty after their brought up topics and she inwardly shook her head.

“Oh hey, I’ll be going home.” Irene sighed as she ran her fingers against her own hair. “Just watch over that human on my behalf okay?”

+++

Irene came home to see her place being wrecked like it was literally being swamped by a heavy tornado a while ago.  

The smell of alcohol oozed strongly from every part of her house. She had a hard time taking the sight in front of her as it still barely registered inside her mind the once beautiful clean house of her was turned into a freaking mess in the hand of Park Sooyoung. 

“Where the heck are those maids?” She scanned the room one by one and found none of them lurking around her house like usual. She walked back to where she originally stood, head pounding at the chaos before her.

“This mess…” She mumbled with heavy breaths, “I can’t believe it.”

It was too much for her eyesight to take in the view.

Paper cups were scattered and thrown carelessly, dirty glasses along with used plates were lining on the dining table and kitchen island. The sight of sprawled confetti and colorful ribbons on the tiles was hurting her eyes; it was such an eyesore. Curtains were being drawn forcefully until it went away on the side, draping loosely onto the ground. Old paintings she hardly collected way back then were displayed on the wall reversely, clearly facing a wrong direction—one even had it located upside down, making Irene flare her nose in disbelief because it was her particular portray.

What the is this.

She gritted her teeth, still having her eyes planted on the current photo. She rarely cussed, but her cousin could be ridiculous at times—so Irene had every right to be mad right now.  Park Sooyoung, I know you perfectly hear me so I suggest you to ing answer before I drag you here by the hair.

Chuckling sounds were echoed inside her head and she mentally wanted to whack this person’s head nonstop for simply being an . Oh… hi, Joohyun unnie! Well, I very much thank you for generously lending us your place though it was such a shame because you refused to join us! It was such a lit though!

please! Irene massaged her temple as she remembered that day vividly. She could almost picture her cousin smiling brightly at her right now, judging from how hard the other person tried to stifle her laughter. You practically took over my place without my consent! 

I threw a birthday party for you! It sure didn’t need your consent because the element of surprise was what I aim~

But what have you done to my house? You were literally going rampage! She looked at her surroundings and sighed loudly, hand restlessly combing her own hair—feeling stressed already. She slowly breathed and made up her mind after done screaming, there wasn’t any use of it because her cousin would never come if she decided to threaten her. Just come and clear your mess up, I won’t do anything to you. Yup, definitely won’t whip your with rope. Nope, so you better come here.

Irene rolled her eyes when Joy didn’t respond to her words. Hey… blondie, you have to be responsible with it because I couldn’t even find my maids anywhere near my house to clean everything.

Uh… I may or may not tell your maids to take a long break…

A timid and hesitant voice came up and it took a quite amount of self-control as Irene nearly cursed in her reply. WHAT? The nerve of –

I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Unnie here listen, but something very very urgent comes up so I need to go!

Irene could heat some leftover dinner with her hands if she wanted too, hyperbolic indeed but well, she was that fumed. How dare you!

 I will help you, I swear! I’m sorry!!! But now, I need to go, bye unnie!

She gaped at the messy state of her house again and internally sighed to herself. “Find a little peace in the middle of the warzone. Yup, this is it.”

Hello all! First of all, I would like to thank you for subscribing, commenting, and upvoting this story! Or for taking your time to read this, oh my God I appreciate it all so thank you very very much! 
And oh I surely cant wait to see SM going to drop the teaser in the end of June but surely SM isn't that kind so I won't expect it too much until maybe the first week of July hahaha though I still can't believe that RV is going to make juice for fans at that melon radio hahahaha *having a good flashback of Seulrene who sabotaged the whole smoothies in ootn era* 
So yeah stay tuned for RV's teaser my fellow Reveluvs~ *Another bags under my eyes are visible*
Have a very very nice day!!! ^^