Chapter Eighteen: Where it All Falls Apart

It was all my fault.

I thought watching over grandpa and keeping him out of a nursing home was what was best for him, but grandpa still managed to fall down and break his hip. Now it didn’t matter what I wanted. Grandpa would have to go get therapy in a nursing home to try and get him to walk again, and I was certain my parents would take this opportunity to make sure he stayed.

“I thought I could watch him,” I sniffled. My mom wrapped her arms around me, rocking me back and forth.

“I know sweetheart. Don’t blame yourself. We couldn’t have guessed this would happen. Grandpa was strong.” She kissed the top of my head, wiping away tears of her own. “Grandpa will be okay. He’s going to get surgery for his hip, and then he’s going to get some therapy.”

Kaeun was in dad’s arms, eyes wide as she stared around the waiting room. I don’t think she really understood what was going on, although my parents had tried to explain it to her. I think she realized this was serious though, because for once she was behaving herself without my parents having to reprimand her.

Namjoon came through the doors, scanning the room until his eyes landed on mine. I raced into his arms, clutching him tightly to me.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he whispered into my hair. “Your grandpa will be fine. They’ll fix his hip and he’ll be good as new.”

Namjoon wasn’t there when the doctors had come in and told us the odds of that. Grandpa had less than a fifty percent chance of ever walking again. It was pure statistics, a painful fact the elderly faced once they aged. I’d like to think grandpa was stubborn and would never allow himself to be held back like that, but the truth was I didn’t know anymore. He was always