- THREE -

Jisoo felt like fainting. It was a horrible, there was too much blood and her head was so dizzy she wanted to throw up. It was two after midnight when she woke up by the sound of someone throwing up right outside her bedroom. She wasn’t exactly a light sleeper herself, was she usually not even awaken by the jarring thunder sound, but that night there was something that encouraged her to open her eyes and tightened her senses.

She even struggled to fight her shock to reach for her phone to call 119, and did the thing she knew she would've never done out of the normality—she wiped the blood away from his mouth, and changed his clothes to a new one because he was conscious enough to ask for it. Maybe it was the adrenalin, because she had never been a big fan of blood. Even when Yeonseok slit open the woman’s neck back in their flight, she had to turn away avoiding the sight of that hideous liquid.

It felt like hours later when someone called her name and put her off from sleep, she woke up in the couch. Jongdae kneeled in front of her with the worry look on his face.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t get to come earlier. I went as soon as mom got the phone call from the hospital. Come here you.” He said while pulling her to a big hug.

She yawned, a little bit disoriented at the moment. It was when she passed on her gaze around the room and found her dad laid at the patient’s bed, she awakened from her deep slumber. Her arms wrapped around Jongdae’s neck spontaneously and rested her head at the crook of his neck, seeking for comfort. Now when she had a shoulder to cry on, Jisoo realized how scared she was after everything that had happened.

“What happened? Uncle looked fine last night, then why suddenly…”

“I don’t know.” Jisoo shook her head, she was just as clueless as he was.

The on-call doctor at the ER didn’t say anything much, but a bleeding was probably coming from his stomach. Since he was rushed in midnight, there was not much procedure they could do after a consult with the specialist. She only remembered the nurses took him for a CT, then the on-call doctor told her things she couldn’t apprehend—probably because the adrenalin was still taking the bigger side of her that her mind was blank. And she was so tired, so when she told them that her dad was a doctor for Hanguk General Hospital, then they transferred them to VIP suit so she could take a rest while waiting for her dad’s exam finished. It didn't take long for Jisoo to dose off, once she found a couch in the corner of the room she curled up on it and immediately fell asleep.

“It happened so fast, and so sudden.” She proceeded, “I woke up and heard something weird, like someone puking loudly. And I found dad on the floor. God, there’s so much blood everywhere, Jongdae, it’s awful. How come he threw up that so much blood…”

“Alright, it’s okay. I’ve told my mom to send someone to clean it.” He said when she then told him that did she have no chance to mop the blood or clean the mess when the ambulance took her dad to the hospital.

At this kind of state, Jisoo was thankful to have Jongdae around. Although the boy sometimes annoyed her, in times of crisis he could be a very reliable person.

They were practically twin siblings in the family. Their moms were pregnant at the same time, and Jisoo was born just three days later after him. For almost six months after giving birth, they live in their grandparents’ residence and there were times that their moms would feed the two babies when the other one was not around. It’s not a surprise when occasionally Jongdae would introduce her as his unusual twinning sister just to make people stop questioning his vexatious protectiveness over her.

“Anyway, I brought you breakfast and some clothes. You need to change that shirt or people would think you just gobbled down a human.” He said pointing at her bloody shirt a moment later and handed her a duffle bag full of her needs. ”I wasn’t sure what to bring, so I just stuffed everything in there. There’s also your toothbrush, makeups, and what not.”

“Thanks. You’re the best.” She took the first thing she saw in the bag, pulling out a light blue floral dress with its skirt just above the knee—her dad bought her that dress from his conference trip to Maldives last year—and made a beeline to the bathroom to change her clothes. Jongdae had set the breakfast made by her aunt on the table when she got out. Since she got no appetite to eat anything, Jisoo made a turn to take a look at her dad and stood by his bed side.

While caressing the side of his face, Jisoo wondered how everything changed in a matter of hours. He was fine yesterday, they had dinner together and talked about her days in the US, he even laughed at her adapting difficulty. Now he had IV drip on his hand canalizing blood transfusion, and a nasogastric tube installed through his nose to—as what the doctor said—irrigate his stomach from residual bleeding. He looked so pale and soulless, it broke her heart. She put her hand on his, the one free from the IV drip, and squeezed it softly. The movement awaked him, and he smiled as he patted her hand.

A knock at the door distracted their quietness. Jisoo turned to see Yeonseok came with a nurse pushing an echo cart, and she was quite confused to find him there. It was much later when she came to realize that the ambulance had rushed them to Shinsegae instead of Hanguk General where his dad worked in—because it was closer from her house.

Yeonseok gave her a light smile and a nod before he greeted her dad with a soft touch on his arm.

“Good morning, Doctor, how’s your feeling?”

“A little bit dizzy." That’s actually an unexpected answer coming from her dad. She never thought of him a someone who would feel anything bad to his body, since she was never ever heard any single complain about his health.

Yeonseok told them that he’s going to do an echo imaging to check on his stomach, and Jisoo turned to join Jongdae back in the couch, letting him feed her despite the lack of appetite while the doctor exchanging words with his dad more about the procedure.

“Have you told Sehun about this?” Jongdae whispered while Jisoo couldn’t let her eyes off from Yeonseok putting gel then the echo probe on his dad’s belly.

This question turned Jisoo to him. It became aware to her that she’d been totally forgotten about him, she finally remembered that they supposed to have a date today.

“God, I forgot.” She sighed while searching for her phone on the couch, only to realize that she had left it in her dad’s room last night. “He wanted to take me to this art festival in Paju, but, I think I—can I use your phone? I think I left it when dad asked me to get clothes to change.”

“It’s okay. I’ll let him know you’re here, and I’ll text mom so she can have it with her when she come here later.”

Jisoo let out another loud relieved breath, then leaned her back on the couch. “Thanks, Bro.”

“Oh, shut it.” Jongdae waved her while he put out his phone from his jeans pocket and typed something on it.

It took about ten minutes for Yeonseok to have his examination. He said something again to her dad in a low voice, something that she couldn’t hear clearly then wished him a good rest before he walked up to her.

“Good morning, you must be Kim Jongdae.” Yeonseok extended his hand to greet her cousin, who was surprised to find that the doctor was familiar with his name at their first met. Jisoo had to explain who the doctor was and Jongdae seem