The Jaeha’s question cut the placid atmosphere like a bright lightning. Seungho looked at him and spoke, a lurking rage sounded behind his complaisant smile, “When did ‘maverick’ began to serve ‘researcher’ as a synonym?” For a question like that which didn’t invite an answer, Jaeha replied with a smirk and turned away. But, soon his eyes shifted towards Seungho who rushed to attend the door on seeing Mr. Kim through the glass panel.

The sound of door opening woke Sohyun, and her blurred eyes fell on some familiar figures entering the room. She blinked her eyes rapidly to focus her vision. She saw Mr. Kim taking careful steps towards her. Her vision was clouded by tears, overwhelmed by inexplicable happiness. She felt her dad’s hand gripping her swollen iv injected hands. “If I knew you’d come only if I found myself on this bed, then I would’ve come here earlier”, Sohyun’s breath sounded rather than her voice. With gentle smile, Mr. Kim the stray of hair away from her face and let his tears speak for him. Seungho could read the pain behind Mr. Kim’s gentle smile. He knew, that smile means he has rented out his mind for agony.

No one uttered a word. The quest for sounds, ended in silence; the quest for silence, ended in wisdom. ‘Did I fail…’, these words echoed in everyone’s minds. Seungho could still remember Mr. Kim who once stood like a vast unreachable sky. But, as the sky bends and touches the ground, ‘love’ was felt without needing the sounds to be spelt.

After giving an assuring nod and a pat on Seungho’s shoulder, Mr. Kim took his leave. Sohyun looked at them with a wide smile and engraved that little moment in her memory.

The moment Mr. Kim left, Jaeha fast paced towards Sohyun. Bewildered by his action, Sohyun’s eyes fell on Jaeha and followed him as he approached her. He stopped at her side and waved his hands up and down in front of Sohyun’s face checking if she could see him. Her eyes went along with his hands which was waving up and down. “Looks like you can see me now!”, Jaeha’s words puzzled Sohyun. He continued, “I think I have the power to go invisible, especially when your dad entered…”

Sohyun’s brows drew together as she pleaded softly, “Sorry… my wind completely blank when I saw dad…”

Jaeha gripped her hand saying, “Just kidding, don’t take it to heart-”. Seungho cleared his throat breaking their conversation. Jaeha let go of Sohyun’s hands and glanced at Seungho saying, “I guess you felt that power too…” Seungho furrowed his brows not understanding his words. “The power to go invisible!”, Jaeha smirked at him and directed his attention back to Sohyun saying, “I’ll take my leave now and shall make arrangements for your transfer to our hospital.”

“Transfer?”, she asked.

“Hmm”, Jaeha nodded, “I suggested it to Seungho earlier and he said he’ll ask you when you wake up. You did, so I’ll you directly, will you be ok to get transferred today?”

Sohyun looked at Seungho searching for his words and he stepped up saying, “We’ll discuss and let you know sooner…”

After Jaeha left, Seungho took his seat by Sohyun’s bed and gazed into her eyes asking softly, “How are you feeling?”

Delighted over her dad’s arrival, “I think my dopamine level is on the high”, she answered smiling, to which he let out a chuckle. “But…”, her smile was evanescent, “these medications, this bed, this antiseptic smell, these beeping machines, these needles, visiting doctors and nurses are telling me I’m not healthy, what do I do?”

He placed his palm over her cheek and gently caressed it. His eyes looked gentle but sharp enough to trace every inch on her face. He slowly let out his talk, “Can we talk?” She nodded. “Aren’t you sleepy?”, he asked her again.

She shook her slowly, “Tell me…”, she said. Adjusting herself in the bed, she laid on her side facing him, “I’m all ears… It’s been a long time since I heard that mellifluous tone of yours!”

After giving her a wide smile, he breathed out and started his confessions, “Sohyun-ah, there’s a problem. You’re in danger”, he paused for her to comprehend the gravity of his words, “Because of me and my job. Until our project ends up in safe hands, I want you to be conscious of your surroundings and in a safe place. Because, only then I’ll be comfortable. It’s better to transfer…” “Shall I lean on your shoulder?”, Sohyun cut in his conversation, “Is there any safer place than that?”, she asked gazing into his eyes. He breathed in and his eyes wandered her face, pouring its every intensity to scan her expression and register it. “Silly!”, he remarked and leaned in pressing his lips against her forehead. In all his seriousness he said as he continued to caress her cheeks, “I love you… Honestly, I want you in my arms right now”. Listening to his enunciation which came out of nowhere, she smiled. He breathed in and breathed out slowly, “Don’t make your man beg. So, recover quickly”, he said and stood up. Sohyun’s hands grabbed his, stopping him. She tapped her cheeks with her pointer finger asking for a kiss. With a wide grin, he leaned in cupping her face and planted a firm kiss on her forehead again. With his subtly open lips, he kissed her cheek and withdrew saying, “You just got slapped on one cheek with a kiss, shouldn’t you should turn to the other side too?” and nailed another kiss on her cheek. He withdrew, but he came closing in the gap as his eyes wavered from her eyes and lips. But, when their faces are just an inch away from each other, his eyes stayed on her lips and steady moved in. At the sound of someone clearing the throat, he immediately straightened his back and stood away. Embarrassed, Sohyun turned away while Seungho stood scratching his head.

A nurse entered shooting lasers at Seungho. She stopped in front of Seungho and advised, “Shouldn’t you wait until she gets discharged”. She checked her status fuming, “The movies have polluted these kids too much!” When the nurse did her routine again, his embarrassment made him unable to face her and could only bow to thank her.

The night fell, Seungho laid on his side in the sofa to face her and so was she. They just had each other in their views without any words spoken. Though Sohyun’s medications made her eyelids heavy, she was fighting it and kept herself wide awake. “Sohyun-ah…”, he sang, “you should sleep. If the nurse finds out that I’m keeping you awake, she’ll kick me out!”

She let out a soft laugh. “Araso”, she said and closed her eyes. Soon she fell asleep.

Next morning, Sohyun was transferred to her hospital. Seungho looked after her for the next two days, and their parents visit her often. On the third day, Sohyun’s mom and Seungho’s mom took turns in watching her since, Seungho left for office due to some urgent work.

Seungho rushed to the office and upon entering, he asked in amplifying his voice as he made his way to the processing room, “When did it stop?”

“Last night. The owner of this building said, there has been a short circuit! So, our model…”, Yoonpark answered as he followed him.

“The model was running for the past five days, what was the progress when it stopped yesterday?”, Seungho questioned.

“It’s 87%”, Yoonpark handed over the paper bearing the incomplete analysis of their project from the model that stopped midway.

Seungho went through the results and rubbed his forehead. As he continued to read the report, his fingers began to rub his temples. His eyes quivered as he asked, “How consistent are these results?”

“You know it is highly consistent. No matter how many times you repeat, the results won’t change”, Yoonpark reminded.

“Alright!”, he regained his composure, “I’ll try to resume the model somehow. We need to change the algorithm again for it to resume from where it left. And…”, he hesitated but said resolutely, “I want to do the ground truth verification from the results we got from the analysis.”

“Seungho! We need not do the validation! We already told them that we can only give them the probability and percentage of error!”

“Since, we will be submitting the project past the deadline, at least we’ve to do something about the validation!”, Seungho insisted.

“Ya!”, Yoonpark amplified his voice losing his temper but toned down his volume without compromising his anger, “Haven’t you learnt the lesson? Those threat letters, phone call… those don’t matter? I heard Sohyun suffered multiple hit in the accident. She had already been hit by some vehicle before she fell onto the rich lady’s car. Honestly, I doubt if the first hit was an accident… Police couldn’t even verify anything… ”

“That’s why we need to validate so that we can bring the truth to light!”, Seungho stood on his decision.

“Sohyun’s wound are still fresh and she is still in the hospital!! And you’re saying-”

Gritting his teeth in anger, Seungho spoke up cutting in his sentence, “Exactly! Sohyun is still in hospital under medication and with the results of these half-done analysis, do you think I can be at ease?”

Yoonpark stood with his downcast eyes, letting him have his way with an end note, “Be careful!”

Seungho went to the hospital to visit Sohyun. Upon entering the room, he found Sohyun sleeping and Mrs. Kim was by her side sitting on the chair reading a magazine. On seeing Seungho, she put down the magazine and exclaimed softly, “You’re came? I thought you won’t be here early and got myself bunch of magazines” Before he could take a closer look at Sohyun Mrs. Kim’s words stopped him, “Thank you for taking care of her”, he bowed. “That’s my line though”, Mrs. Kim mumbled and returned the bow. Since, he didn’t get the chance to have a clear look at Sohyun, his eyes darted between Mrs. Kim and Sohyun, “I’ll look after her, you can rest Eomunnim” Mrs. Kim who noticed his eyes which went back to Sohyun again, made her smile. “At first, I was wary of her decision to marry you…”, Mrs. Kim admitted. Seungho was taken aback by the sudden confession. “I once saw you fighting with some guys, actually a physical fight…”, Mrs. Kim continued, and he nodded acknowledging her reason. “After marriage, I even blamed you for taking Sohyun away from me… I was angry. Jealous. Annoyed. At that moment, I thought giving her my support will make her come back to me when things go wrong”, Mrs. Kim revealed her thoughts with downcast eyes and Seungho listened to her without interrupting her. “You know, I had big dreams about Sohyun’s marriage. I wanted her under my wings, though I know she didn’t need that protection anymore”, Mrs. Kim said in an embarrassed and guilty note, and looked at Seungho.

Seungho directed his eyes at sleeping Sohyun and said, “I don’t know if I can take care of Sohyun like you did. But, I can give her all my love and all my life to take care of her”, he turned towards Mrs. Kim and asked, “Sounds cliché, right?”

Mrs. Kim shook her head, “Sounds reassuring!” and smiled.

After Mrs. Kim left with light heart, Seungho stayed by Sohyun. Doctors who visited Sohyun said, her condition is steadily improving. For every medicine or therapy, Seungho was on his guard throwing lots of questions at the nurse and the interns. Fed up by his non-stop questions one intern muttered, “Why don’t you ask your wife? I think she has recuperated enough to speak without any difficulties…” But, that didn’t stop Seungho from asking his doubts.

When Sohyun woke up in the evening, after throwing a short smile, Seungho asked her, “You, ok?” “I’m feeling better”, she replied. He then, bombarded her with questions, “Are these medicines familiar to you?”

“Mmm”, she nodded.

“Are there any new medicines recommended for you?”, he probed again.

“I don’t think so”, she answered.

“Not even subtle variations?”

Sohyun looked at him in agape. “What’s with the questions? I’m not in the mood to answer those questions!”, she cried and tossed over on the bed to sleep again.

He coated a wide smile across his face, went near her and shook her up to wake her. With a soft voice, he said, “Wake up, it’s not good to sleep immediately after eating”

“I’m not sleeping. Just giving my eyes its rest”, she answered.

“Get up, don’t close your eyes… You can answer my questions to get rid of the boredom!”, he pleaded her.

“I won’t”, she whined.

“What you won’t?”

“I won’t budge from here”, she said and turned to lay on her side and pulled the sheets over her head.

He pouted at her rejection. But, a chord struck him and gave him an idea to get the answers from her. He went under the sheets joining her and rested his chin gently on her shoulder. He tried to coerce her, “I love you!”, he said and planted a kiss on her cheeks and continued, “Sweetheart… my love… please get up”, she didn’t bat an eye, and he continued, “Be a darling, please. My sweet gooseberry, please get up!”

She opened her eyes in bewilderment asking, “Gooseberry?!”

“Fine, strawberry then! Please get-”, he stopped when he heard the footsteps approaching their room.

“That would be the nurse”, Sohyun warned.

On remembering the embarrassing incident in the previous hospital, Seungho immediately got himself out of the sheets and positioned himself on the couch pretending to look casual. But, it was just someone passing by. On realizing he was fooled by Sohyun, Seungho bit his lips while shooting daggers at Sohyun. And, she took the sheets away from her face and chortled.

“Saying ‘I love you’ isn’t enough!”, Sohyun said.

“Then?”, he furrowed his brows looking forward to her reply.

She counted with her fingers, “You have to call me every day even if we see each other every day; you should make surprise visits and take me out; and most importantly… there shouldn’t be a day without ‘You’re beautiful!”

“Ok, my beautifu-”, he was cut in by her remark, “All those should happen without being reminded by me”, she pouted.

He breathed out and looked at her with his gentle eyes, “Sohyun-ah… I’m not a man of words. I’m a man of action!”

“Let’s see”, Sohyun said leaving the validation of his words to time.

After a moment of silence, Seungho started, “But, Sohyun-ah, this is really important…”, he said pouring out his seriousness. “Are there any new medicines recommended to you?”

Jaeha entered the room answering, “If Dr. Oh isn’t in-charge of her treatment, then the probability of a new medicine being recommended is low”

Seungho directed his attention towards Jaeha and asked, “Since, when have you been here?”

“Since at your mention of ‘important’”, he said wearing a sly smile.

“Why do I find that hard to believe?”, Seungho replied nonchalantly and looked at him furrowing his brows and doubtful eyes.

Jaeha shrugged his shoulders leaving Seungho to decide for himself. After exchanging few words about her well-being Jaeha bid goodbye.

“He left so soon?!”, Seungho exclaimed.

“Research keeps him really busy. Once he gets engrossed in his study, he will shut himself from everything and even digest his appetite until he finishes what he planned. Everyone would comment that he is betting his life on the research…”, Sohyun explained.

“What kind of research?”, Seungho probed.

“Ask him yourself!”, Sohyun sulked, “What’s with your questions? Changed your job to an investigator?”

Seungho hesitated for a second and fidgeted walking back and forth in thought. She is aware that whenever he contemplates or try to pronounce the words that he planned swallow, he fidgets. So, she patiently waited for him to open up.

With his sharp eyes he looked at his reflection in her eyes and said, “We’re creating a database in our project… And, with the help of the model we developed, we found that your hospital topped the list…”

Reading his eyes, she asked, “And that’s not a good thing?”

He nodded.

She inhaled in deeply through , her pupils felt lost in the vast white sclera of her eye. “And?”, she asked slowly.

Author's thoughts:

Hello dear readers! Hope you're having a good time (fingers crossed)! Really sorry for the late update! 

Thesis have tied me down! This chapter was originally drafted to reveal many, but, due to time constraints I cut it short. Sorry! But, don't worry I will try my best to unravel the knots soon!

Take care! Have a lovely day and great week! (Sending infinite hearts your way :)