Chapter 23
Can you protect Everyone?
Jessica POV
I wiped away the remaining tears that trickled down my face. Suddenly, I was overcome with guilt at my sudden outburst. I shouldn’t have lost control like that, I thought to myself. I probably gave him more stress. I shook my head at my behavior. I have to go see him, I thought to myself. As I walked out of my room, I saw Jonghyun limping out of his room as well. I went to go stop him, but saw my mother come out at the same time. Like I did earlier in the day, I snuck into one of the nearby rooms and started to listen on their conversation.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to be doing this, but I couldn’t stop myself b/c no one was letting me in on anything so what other choice did I have. As I continued to listen to their conversation, I became shocked at how conniving my mother was. How could she do this to Jonghyun………..to me? As soon as she finished her last condition, I stepped out of the room and faced my mother. I couldn’t stop myself.
“Umma, what are you doing?” I wanted to scream, but the words only came out in a faint whisper.
“Sooyeon-ah,” Jonghyun said as we walked towards me. I automatically stepped back.
“Tell me the truth and give it to me straight. I’m sick of all the damn B.S. you keep shoving towards me,” I stated icily.
“Jessica, calm down and when you are rational come and speak to me,” my mom said in a condescending tone before she turned back to Jonghyun.
“UMMA!” I screamed. She seemed slightly startled, but regained her composure quickly.
“For once in my life you will listen to what I have to say and you will answer my questions. Why are you doing this umma?” I said in a broken, hoarse voice. She gave me a smirk.
“Why? You want answers? I’ll give you answers. In case you haven’t noticed Jung Sooyeon, your father has just passed away and the head of the company now lies with me. As the head of the company, I’ve decided that I would pass it along to someone I believed to be capable.” I scoffed.
“Mom, please. You’ve spent your whole life trying to deny his existence and now all of the sudden he’s the best person to replace dad. You can’t expect me to believe that,” I said, unable to believe her words.
“You’re right. I can’t. Go to your room Jung Sooyeon,” she told me, as if I was five years old. I opened my mouth, but only silence came out. Jonghyun limped over to me and pushed me back down the hallway. I was too weak to protest as the tears flowed wordlessly down my face. Halfway down the hallway, I heard my mom’s voice.
“Jonghyun-ah, I will need to speak with you after dinner.” I felt him tense next to me, but he didn’t reply, and I was somewhat grateful for that. When we finally made our way back to the room, Jonghyun stumbled beside me. My arms instinctively reached around him and caught him before he fell. Instead of giving me his usual smirk, he pushed my arms away and landed heavily on the bed. I could hear him let out a sharp gasp of pain.
“Jonghyun-ah,” I said in a worried voice as I flitted over to the bed side.
“Leave me alone Sooyeon-ah,” he said weakly. But I wouldn’t abandon him when he was like, no matter what happened. As I tried to wipe his face with the cold towel on the side of the bed, he pushed me away again. I began to get frustrated.
“I said leave me alone,” he managed to say in a strained voice. I firmly grabbed his wrists and pushed it down against his side.
“Will you just shut up and let me take care of you? We’ll deal with everything later alright?” I stated. Jonghyun gave a small whimper of pain before leaning into my side. I could see his fist tightly clenching the bed covers and his whole body was visibly shaking. I offered Jonghyun painkillers, but he wouldn’t take any. Instead he just held onto my hand until he finally passed out. Although he wasn’t conscious, he hand was still wrapped tightly around mine. Instead of taking my hand away, I managed to scoot into the bed-space next to Jonghyun. Within in a few minutes, my world went dark too.
It wasn’t long before Jonghyun had woke me up.
“S-s-sooyeon-ah,” he whispered in a shaky voice. I was barely awake and didn’t really know what was going on.
“Can you get me the painkillers?” he managed to say before I could feel him curl up in pain. It took a moment for me to register what happened, but as soon as it clicked, I fumbled around for the bottle. I took two out and gave it to him with the cup of water beside the bed. Jonghyun’s hand was shaking so much that he wasn’t able to the cup straight. I ended up directly giving the water to Jonghyun. After taking the pills, Jonghyun's head rested heavily on my shoulder.
“I’m not going to do it Sooyeon-ah,” he whispered.
“Jonghyun-ah,” I started to say, but he cut me off.
“No. I’m not going to do it. No one can make me,” he said weakly, sounding like a small child.
“I’m scared,” he hesitantly stated. In all my years that I had known Jonghyun, I had never heard him admit to fear. I ran my hand gently through his hair.
“It’ll get better Jonghyun-ah.” Before I could say more, Jonghyun tightly clenched his fists again. I heard his sharp intakes of breath as he tensed in pain. I wrapped my arms around, doing whatever I could to ease his pain.
“I want it to go away. Make it stop,” he whimpered pitifully. I tried my best to calm my shaking hands to soothe him. I wish everything really would stop.
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