They’re in Jiwoo’s room, her family convincing Sooyoung to stay the night despite the fact that her house was just a 20-minute drive, but she agrees anyway. In fact, she appreciated how the Kims’ enjoyed her company. 

Grateful is an understatement. Jiwoo’s family treated Sooyoung as if she was part of them already. She’s more than thankful to have people who accept her.

In her 25 years of living, she’d never felt so alive. Jiwoo really changed her whole perspective on humanity, sure it does sound a little exaggerated, but it’s what the woman truly feels. 

She still gets negative thoughts, the ones that prevent her from loving freely without any worries, the fear of hurting everyone else in the future, but Jiwoo always manages to read through her, and she never forgets to remind Sooyoung that her past doesn’t define her personality now. She reminds her that she feels loved and cared for, and often makes sure to tell Sooyoung how great she is, not only as her lover, but as a person, a living human being.

She remembers Jinsoul’s words again, 

“Standing still would torture you more than trying to change. How are you going to achieve that when you always choose to hide?”

And for once, Sooyoung knows that she finally did something right. 

Sooyoung’s pulled out of her trance when Jiwoo calls her name, the girl asking her to get an extra painting palette from her drawer. She was working on something new, with this time being from a café business. The owner apparently found her art on social media and reached out to her himself. This was probably one of Jiwoo’s biggest arrangements, hence why she was so unusually quiet and focused, and also why Sooyoung has been zoning out on her bed unable to talk to her for the past hour. 

Once Sooyoung pulls the drawer, she does see the loaded amount of palettes stacked neatly on the side, but she’s more distracted by the ridiculous amount of pills and medicines Jiwoo has scattered on the other, which were right next to her painting palettes.

She couldn’t help but take them, reading most of them one by one. Most of them were cough medicines, from Dextromethorphan, Guaifenesin, syrups, antibiotics- 

“They’re for my dry cough.” Jiwoo seemed to have noticed Sooyoung standing in front of her drawer for a little too long.

“I can see that…” Sooyoung replies softly, remembering what she initially opened the drawer for, taking a palette and handing it to her girlfriend. 

“Have you ever considered going to a doctor?” Sooyoung sits on the floor next to her, removing the stray hair blocking Jiwoo’s face. 

“Of course, and that explains why I have a whole pharmacy in my drawer.” She jokes.

Sooyoung laughs, but her state of worry doesn’t subside, and it lasts for the whole night. 

—————————————————————

Two weeks later, it’s 4am in the morning and Sooyoung’s busy working on her monthly report, the insanely wordy documents, folders, and binders scattered on the dining table, her laptop screen showing an excel file she needs to finish. She’s in the kitchen for a short break, waiting for her water to finish boiling in the kettle so she can make coffee, only to be interrupted by her doorbell ringing not once, but thrice . 

She opens it, greeted by Jiwoo’s family still in their sleeping clothes, and the only family member missing was Jiwoo herself. Sooyoung’s about to let them enter due to the cold weather but the mother suddenly speaks in worry, 

“Have you seen Jiwoo? She’s not yet home.”

“She went out at 10pm saying that she would go buy yogurt at the convenience store but she still hasn’t contacted us. We kept calling her phone and she wouldn’t answer. We figured that you might be the only one who can call her.” Her younger brother added. 

Sooyoung’s completely confused, because she and Jiwoo had texted only an hour ago, Jiwoo’s last message consisting of multiple hearts and I love you’s after mentioning that she would go to sleep already. She shows this to her family, and they’re confused as well, the panic slowly starting getting to their heads. Sooyoung immediately calls Jiwoo, her girlfriend only picking up after the 4th ring. 

“Sooyoungie?” Jiwoo speaks, her voice coming off as exhausted. 

She starts out calmly first, not wanting to surprise Jiwoo, as well as her family in front of her, “Hello Wooming, did I wake you up?” 

“Not really…” she coughs.. “I was just about to fall asleep.”

“Hey, where are you?” Sooyoung had to get straight to the point now.

“I’m at home with my family of course, why would you ask that?” She giggles, and Sooyoung could hear the nervousness laced in her tone.

“Jiwoo, your entire family is here, at my house…” 

“I- what?“

“Yeah? You can tell me.” Sooyoung softly encourages her to speak, not wanting to scare her.

“Sooyoung…I’m- I’m in the hospital.” She admits. Sooyoung bites back the urge of gasping in shock, her eyes widened.

“Text me the location, we’ll be going there. I love you.” She calmly says before hanging up. She figures that it would be better to tell this to Jiwoo’s parents herself, sensing Jiwoo’s tone of discomfort at the mention of her family.

“Where is she? How is my daughter?” The father asks her.

“I don’t know how, but Jiwoo’s in the hospital. I’ll be driving all of us there.” She immediately reaches for her car keys, leading the family out of her gate.

The three are surprised, asking why Jiwoo didn’t even bother to inform her own family, but Sooyoung doesn’t know either since her girlfriend also never told her about this, leaving all of them bothered, the ride to the hospital filled with many unanswered questions. 

These questions get answered immediately as they arrive at the hospital and enter Jiwoo’s room, the doctor wasting no time to converse with her parents. Sooyoung and Jiwoo’s brother leave them to it, approaching the haggard looking girl lying on her hospital bed. 

She gently holds Jiwoo’s hand, “Why didn’t you tell any of us?” 

“I’m alright, you know.” Jiwoo fails to convince them, softly giggling when the both of them only look at her with eyes full of confusion and worry mixed together.

“What even happened to you?” Jongho asks.

“Long story.” Jiwoo only chuckles.

Jiwoo really was on her way to buy yogurt in the convenience store. It wasn't even that far from the subdivision, located at the gas station right across the entrance of their village. She was walking peacefully, coughing from time to time, and she’s been like this ever since, but Jiwoo only stops shrugging it off when she coughs a little too dryly than usual, her chest starts to hurt, and she suddenly has a hard time breathing. She feels as if the oxygen was recklessly being pulled out of her lungs.

Jiwoo calls a taxi, instructing the driver to quickly take her to the hospital, using the money she had originally brought to buy yogurt and other snacks for paying the fare instead.

She knows it's silly , not calling any of her family members, her girlfriend, or even her friends, to inform them about her whereabouts. She did contemplate telling Sooyoung when they were texting, but she still kept it to herself, not wanting anyone to worry about her furthermore,

Which also ends up being an obviously much more unintelligent move since she still had her loved ones worry about her, leaving them in a worse state of absolute distress just because she didn’t tell anyone about why she would spend 4 hours outside to simply buy yoghurt in the convenience store when that clearly wasn’t the case. 

If you asked her to be honest, Jiwoo thought that she was only gonna spend an hour in the hospital, her doctor prescribing her more medicines, and she’d be back happily buying what she needed from the store and going home with no questions from her family. She certainly did not expect herself on a hospital bed, wearing a nasal cannula to stop her own respiratory system from quitting on her.

Jiwoo just wanted to buy some darn yogurt. What a beautiful day has it been for her.

Sooyoung could only run her thumb along Jiwoo’s hand in concern as her family continues to question and talk to her.

“I was really gonna tell all of you earlier, I just couldn’t seem to do it. Couldn’t find the right time...” Jiwoo sighs.

“It’s okay sweetie, what matters is your condition now. Don’t be afraid to tell us if you’re hurting somewhere.” Her mother embraces her before she leaves to sit with her father.

“We can go home or stay here, but the doctor recommends that you stay for another week.” 

Jiwoo chokes, coughing once again, Sooyoung tries to calm her down, “But how about my jobs?! The café is the biggest offer I got yet, I can’t just throw it away!” 

“Oh come on Jiwoo, why don’t you think about yourself once in a while! I’m sure the owner would understand your situation.” Jongho disputes in concern, Jiwoo only huffing in reply.

Sooyoung suddenly gets an idea, letting go of Jiwoo’s hand to walk to her parents, who were now sitting on the couch, seemingly discussing something serious.

“Oh, Sooyoung.” The father chuckles, “we were just worrying about who would watch over Jiwoo after the doctor told us all of this.” 

The mother gestures for Sooyoung to sit down next to them, also wanting to hear her suggestions if she had any.

“Jiwoo says she can’t stay in the hospital. I can’t leave the bakery running on its own with only one employee, my husband also can’t let his car shop operate without his presence. You have to work at the mall, and Jongho’s in university, he only visits during the weekends-”

“I’ll take care of her for the meantime.” Sooyoung speaks up so casually, and Jiwoo’s parents are shocked, laughing in embarrassment seconds after.

“Oh no, no Sooyoung. Your work is important, I’m pretty sure my wife and I are capable of adjusting our schedules.”

“I can do my work from home. I’ll just call up my boss and inform her about it, she’ll understand. It’s not like I talk to customers anyway.” 

“Are you sure? Please remember that you don’t have to do all of this because you’re her girlfriend. We love and appreciate you Sooyoung, but you also have your own responsibilities to deal with.” The mother rests her hands on Sooyoung’s.

“Ms. Kim, at this point, I consider all of you my family already. I’m doing this because I want to.” Sooyoung smiles, reassuring her parents. 

Her mother tears up, hugging Sooyoung in gratitude. “We’re all so thankful for you. I’m so glad that Jiwoo is being loved so well, we trust you so much, Sooyoung.” 

Sooyoung manages to stop herself from tearing up as well. 

These people came into her life and changed it for the better. It used to be rare to see Sooyoung act like how she is now. She isn’t doing all this for the fact that they taught her how to live life happily, but because she loves and cares for all of them. Not only her girlfriend, but her whole family. 

Jiwoo stays in Sooyoung’s home for the whole week, her parents suggesting this since the woman had much more space to move around with an oxygen tank unlike the Kims’ home, which was a little tighter due to how long they’ve been living there, they even had to make their guest room into a storage area, filled with old things that are worth decades. Sooyoung had Jongho help her transfer all of Jiwoo’s art materials for her orders, and some clothes for her stay, with Jiwoo unfortunately unable to join them, only instructing them what to bring through video calls. 

Sooyoung turned her own guest room into Jiwoo’s personal work area. She knows she’s probably doing too much, but she doesn’t care.

—————————————————————

“You look like an elementary schooler.” Sooyoung teases, earning a glare from Jiwoo. 

She was sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone but getting distracted by her girlfriend walking back and forth from the kitchen to her guest room. Sooyoung didn’t mind at first, putting her phone down, watching Jiwoo in amusement, the girl pulling her trolley where the oxygen tank was placed, pacing around the two rooms. She finally decides to speak up when Jiwoo hasn't been stopping at all, her movements obviously showing that she was conflicted.

Sooyoung ignores her glare, completely unfazed, “What are you even looking for?” She stands up, walking to stand beside Jiwoo who was erratically tapping her fingers on the kitchen countertop. 

“I’m not looking for anything, I just can’t focus right now and I’m supposed to give that…” she points at the huge canvas across the room half-painted and unfinished, “and the other two paintings to the owner next week.” 

Sooyoung listens, moving from her standing position beside Jiwoo to give her a back hug, resting her chin on the shorter girl’s shoulder, which manages to calm her down and lean into Sooyoung’s embrace. “And you think walking around like this would help?” Sooyoung replies, Jiwoo giggling as the taller nuzzles through her hair, deeply inhaling her scent when she reaches the crook of