Emergency Christmas

“I really don’t trust your cooking or baking unnie!”

You turn around the jar of gateau on the table, nose scrunched and eyes suspicious. “You confused custard with mustard last time and made Jongdae oppa throw up on the kitchen floor remember?”

“Yah, it was because I misheard the ingredients!” your sister snaps from the other end of the call. “And not because my cooking is bad. Jongdae still said it’s a good idea to try mustard in jelly puddings instead of custard.” She adds proudly.

“Seriously… love is not just blind. I guess it doesn’t have any of its five senses.”

“Just have the darn gateau and tell me if it’s good…will you?”

“Ugh…fine.”

“See you tomorrow at granny’s place then…bye my little sis…”

A loud smack of a kiss was heard as your sister ends the call, and you shake your head with a grin. No matter how worse your sister is as a cook, she always tries her best to convey her love to the family by trying so hard with it, so you just cannot ignore her endeavors. Just like that, today too, you found this suspicious looking chocolate gateau on your kitchen table when you returned from grocery shopping in the morning.

But there’s this one advantage. you’re sure neither Yeri or Wendy won’t crash in because they’re too busy dolling up for their Christmas dates, so you can just finish off this whole gateau and skip cooking lunch and dinner for yourself.

And if you get hungry, you can just go to your granny’s place tonight without waiting til morning.

You take one huge slice of the treat into a plate, and flop on your sofa and switch on the year-end music festival, eyeing the crystal vase you’ve bought as granny’s Christmas present.

* * *

Trusting your sister’s food is one of the worst decisions you have forever been taking.

You heave and throw up into the toilet for the fifth time, and flush it off, wondering whether there’s anything else left in your systems to be thrown up. And you sit on the bathroom floor, with no strength to get up, you whole body trembling and head spinning with all the vomiting. Your phone is ringing in the living room but you just choose to ignore it, and sit there for another twenty minutes waiting for another wave of nausea.

Half an hour later, you successfully throw up for the sixth time, and that’s when you decide to leave for your grandma’s place.

Granny’s been the best doctor ever. She knew remedies for anything and everything, and her small home remedies made any illness vanish before any of a doctor’s pill would do.

Grabbing your phone and wallet, not bothering to even change the faded jeans and the old Hulk t-shirt, you drag your feet out of your place into the street.

“Number twenty three… Seoyeon street…” you mutter, crawling onto the taxi seat and pulling the door close behind you. The elderly taxi driver turns around and eyes you in concern. “You alright there miss?”

“Fine…ahjussi. I’ll be better once I get there. Take me there please.”

Granny’s place is just fifteen minutes away from yours, but just five minutes into the ride, a searing pain shoot through your abdomen and make you yelp in pain.

“Miss! you okay?” panicked, the driver stops the car and turn around. “Hey! WAKE UP AGASSI!”

You’re rolling on the seat in pain and only manage to whimper in pain, which scare the already panicked driver even more.

“This won’t do. Let’s me take you to a hospital.” He takes a U turn, and head towards the nearest hospital.

* * *

The unpleasant smell of hospitals enter your nostrils and wake you up, with another wave of nausea that makes you retch. You’re in a emergency room, with curtains drawn at just one side of your bed, and the other two sides exposed to the rest of the ward.

Doctors and nurses are rushing here and there tending to various patients, but this emergency room looks much calmer given how people say Christmas eve is quite accident prone.

One nurse notices that you’re awake, and makes her way towards you.

“How are you feeling miss?” she asks, checking the IV drip that is connected to your wrist. “You were unconscious when a taxi driver brought you in. We assume it’s a food poisoning. You have thrown up a few times already haven’t you?”

You nod and realize nodding makes you even more nauseous.

“Is there anything you ate that would have gone wrong?”

“Probably the gateau I ate in the afternoon.”

The nurse nods thoughtfully. “It might have been the gateau’s cream or eggs. The ingredients that can go bad very easily.”

Way to go unnie.

“So will you contact your family then?” the nurse asks. “Or we can do it for you. You’re severely dehydrated after all the vomiting so you have to finish this IV, and the doctor said it’ll be better if you can stay the night here. So we can tend to you until you’re completely better.”

“No need to call my parents!” you quickly reply, trying to sit up on the bed and having the nurse help you with it. “It’s Christmas Eve and they’re gonna watch a movie in a long time together…so I don’t want to worry them. I’ll be discharged in the morning anyway.”

“Okay…if that’s what you want.” She gives you a smile, and turns to leave.

The fairly quiet emergency room suddenly fills with nearly a dozen loud male voices, and a troop of young men barge in following a trolley pushed in by two paramedics. “DOCTOR!” one young man bellows, and runs to the information desk as the rest of his gang follow the trolley brought in. “WHERE’S THE DOCTOR! HE’S HURT! PROBABLY BROKEN A BONE OR TWO! SOMEBODY GET A DOCTOR PLEASE!”

The trolley stops at the empty bed next to yours, and the paramedics moved the patient onto the bed with great effort, with the help of two more guys who had run in with them. Then you see why it was that difficult for them to transfer the patient, as the patient on the bed appears to like a distant relative of Hagrid.

If his legs weren’t bent in pain, the bed would probably be too short for him, and he was clutching one knee with such toned arms that even the nurses walking by stopped to spare a glance. He showed signs of handsomeness even when his eyes were shut tight and face was twisted with pain, and the white blonde bleached hair drenched in sweat was adding to more value to his injured model like guy.

Your nausea would have gone for a few seconds thanks to his distracting looks.

“What happened?” a doctor arrived, and took the patient’s hand off his injured leg and tried to lay his straight. “He was working out in the gym sir,” a panting friend of him answered. “He was running on the tread mill and something went wrong with the machine, it suddenly jerked and stopped and he fell, one leg doubled up underneath him.”

“Is he an athlete? Any previous injuries on the same leg?”

“He’s a basketball player sir. But no injuries on that leg as far as we remember…is the leg broken doctor?”

“Probably not. But there might be a small bone fracture.” The doctor turned to the nearest nurse. “Get his X-ray Mr. Kang, and we’ll see if he needs surgery.”

The doctor and the several nurses walked away, and two ward assistants took the patient with his bed towards the X-ray division.

“Should we call his dad?” one of his friends asked, taking a phone out from his pocket. But another guy snatched the phone away from him, shaking his head warningly. “Not without asking him. You know he hates bothering his parents.”

“Can I get the patient’s details and consent from one of you as his guardian? You are all his team members I guess?”

All the tall young men nodded, looking down at the tiny nurse. “Seoul Hot Shots. Haven’t you seen us on TV?” one of them grinned at her. “Anyways, I’m his team Captain Kris Wu. I’ll sign up as his guardian. His name is Park Chanyeol.”

* * *

The Kris Wu guy chased away his team members saying it’s getting late after the doctors assured his friend doesn’t need any surgery, and he waited until Chanyeol was returned to the emergency room. When he arrived again, the first thing Kris asked was about informing his family, and just as he hoped, Chanyeol had shaken his head. Just leave hyung. I’ll get discharged tomorrow morning.”

“You sure?” Kris asks for the nth time th