❝LEAVEME❞

“Vickie, don't worry, okay?  It'll be alright, trust me.”

“Dad, I- I'm scared.  What if the scanner stops working—”

“Vickie,”  Wu Zheng shushed his daughter.  “Don't worry.  The scanner will not fail.”

“Dad...”  Vickie's voice trembled, then tears fell from her eyes.

“Oh, Vickie.”  Wu Zheng couldn't let his daughter see him cry as she did.  It pained him to see her nervous about something.  All he wished for was to be able to take her nervousness away.

“Mister?  A nurse crept up by the door to Vickie's hospital room.  “Mister Song, we will scan Vickie now.”

Wu Zheng turned around and nodded his head at the nurse.  The nurse gave him a light smile and walked away quickly.  

He wiped Vickie's cheeks,  “Darling, it's alright.  Now, come on, let's go.”

The nurse earlier entered the hospital room to pick up Vickie.  She brought with her a wheelchair to which she instructed Vickie to sit on.  Wu Zheng brushed himself off of any worries that were beginning to cloud his head and followed the nurse and her daughter out of the bedroom.  They ended up in the CT Scan room.

Vickie was carefully lifted out of the wheelchair and onto the CT scan bed.  She locked eyes with her father one last time before settling in, lying down on the blue leather-covered bed and being asked by the doctor if she was nervous.

“I'm alright,”  Vickie said, then the CT scan bed was pulled inside the scanner.

A bright white light seemed to blind Vickie, making her eyes shut close as soon as the CT scan bed was fully inside the scanner.  She felt a warm ray of another light scanning her body continuously, from head to toe.  She thought the ray stayed the longest on her head and on her body.  Vickie felt trapped, like she needed to get out of the scanner as soon as possible.  She was not claustrophobic, but the narrow space made her feel strange.

The CT scan made a beeping sound, and the ray was shut off.  Vickie sighed in relief as the CT scan bed was slowly being pulled back out.  She had her eyes closed the entire time.

“You can open your eyes now,”  said the same nurse who brought her there.

Vickie opened her eyes, blinking rapidly as she readjusted herself to the room's atmosphere.  She groaned as she was being helped up by the nurse to get out of the CT scan bed.  Vickie took a glance over to the glass wall that separated the CT Scan room from the outside.  Her dad was there, smiling brightly at her.  She cracked a crooked smile at him.

It was Doctor Chiu that scanned Vickie.  He asked the nurse to bring Vickie to her other minimal tests and let Wu Zheng know that he needed to talk to him.  The nurse nodded her head and brought Vickie out of the scan room and had Wu Zheng come inside.

An hour has passed and Vickie was done with her final examinations and was now in her room.  She couldn't help but worry about what Doctor Chiu had to talk about with her dad.  Did she really have a disease?  If she did, was it deadly?  Or, hopefully, can it be cured?  But if not, how many days does she have left?  Those questions bothered her so much that she chose to just go to sleep.

Another hour passed and soft knocks on Vickie's door woke her up.  The door creaked, and an exhausted-looking Wu Zheng walked inside Vickie's room.  He closed the door behind him.

“Hey, dad,”  Vickie said weakly, trying to sit up.

Wu Zheng sat in the chair beside Vickie's bed.  “Are you feeling better?”

Vickie nodded her head,  “Much better than yesterday.”

“Doctor Chiu said the results will be out in thirty minutes.”  Wu Zheng sighed.  “In the mean time, what do you want to eat?”

“Dad?”

Wu Zheng looked up at his daughter.  “Yes?”

“How was mom like when she was younger?”  Vickie asked.  This sent Wu Zheng into a complete mental block.

How was Mei Lu like when she was younger?  Wu Zheng returned to the time when he and she were still in college, when he saw her in Kenting.  She was an average-looking girl with glasses that covered more than half of her small face.  But beneath those thick layers of woven clothing and studious attitude was a warm-hearted and  naturally beautiful girl.  Wu Zheng saw through her, and that was when it all started.  And the ending was unexpectedly drastic.

“Mei Lu was just like you,”  Wu Zheng began his story.  “She liked studying, getting good grades.  She liked listening to music.  She liked being happy.  Mei Lu was beautiful, but nobody else saw that.”

Vickie was slowly creating an image of her mother in her head as her father explained.  She pictured a thin woman who carried books in her arms all the time, humming to a song that was stuck in her head, and a beautiful face that nobody else saw other than her dad.  Vickie agreed that her mother was beautiful.

“She's a very strong woman, your mother.  When I first saw her in Kenting she was buying a dish for her mother who was sick in bed.  She told me that in our second meeting, right after her mother died.”  Wu Zheng closed his eyes and sighed.  Vickie placed her hand over his.  He continued his story,  “Before I left Kenting to go back to Keelung, we exchanged home addresses to write to each other.  We did that for years, and from the words she wrote to me I started to fall in love with her.  She's wise with words and very honest.”

“Wow,”  Vickie remarked,  “I guess we aren't the same when it comes to being word wise.”

“I guess you got that from me.”  Wu Zheng snickered before continuing on.  “As you can tell from now, I really adore your mother.  Mei Lu doesn't know what she's capable of, especially when it comes to capturing someone's heart.  She thinks love is mundane, but I think that changed when I asked her to marry me.  It also changed when you were born.”

As her dad talked, Vickie just kept her eyes on the blanket that was covering her lower torso.  Even if Vickie had completely forgotten how her mother looked, she felt as though they were close again.  It was as if she knew Mei Lu ever since she was born.

Just then, somebody knocked on the door.  Wu Zheng stood up to get it; it was Doctor Chiu.  Vickie slightly shivered at the sight of a metal clipboard in his hand.

“Good evening, Mister Song, Vickie,”  Doctor Chiu nodded his head towards Vickie.  He had a straight face on, not smiling nor frowning.  That frightened Vickie even more.

“How are the results?”  Wu Zheng asked, eager to know what the results were.

Doctor Chiu flipped over the papers on his clipboard.  His expression didn't change.  "Vickie has been losing weight.  She was checked in this hospital because she fainted, which was caused by a mild fever.  Bruise on her arm and feeling weak...  there's no doubt about it."

“What is it, Doctor Chiu?”  Wu Zheng was beginning to worry.  Vickie was as well, but she tried to not show it.

“Mister Song, your daughter has been showing symptoms of...  Point-blank, Vickie is suffering from leukemia.  It would have been easier for us if it was chronic, but acute is a different situation.”

Vickie's eyes dilated.  Her head snapped towards the two men's direction.  She was pale and tears were threatening to fall from her already red eyes.  She had to check again.

“L- Leukemia?”  She repeated.

Doctor Chiu turned to her,  “Yes, dear.  Acute lymphocytic leukemia, to be exact.”

She remembered that.  They had learned about leukemia back when she was in college in Seoul.  Her brain slowed its function after remembering how fatal acute leukemia was.  She could be gone in weeks or months if it can't be treated.

“No, no.  No, no, no!  M- My daughter is perfectly healthy!  She can't have leukemia!  S- She can't!  Vickie is alright, she does not have leuke—”

“Mister Song, Mister Song,”  Doctor Chiu tried to calm down the stuttering man.  “Leukemia can be cured.  Please, relax.”

Successfully, Wu Zheng calmed down a bit.  “W- Well, then, please do your best to cure my daughter.  Please, Doctor Chiu.”

Vickie was quietly sobbing so as to not disturb the two men talking.  The thought of being cured made her happy, but at the same time it scared her.  What if, just like her thoughts about the CT scan, the curing doesn't work?  What if she was destined to... die?

“We will,”  Doctor Chiu said,  “But the treatment will not be performed here.  Taiwan does not yet have the cure for leukemia.  We will have to send Vickie to another country to be cured.”

Wu Zheng nodded his head, urging for Doctor Chiu to continue on.  Vickie's mind was blank, as if all her knowledge were removed, only leaving the part where she knows she has leukemia.  However, she still tried to listen to the men's conversation closely.

“Where would that be?”  Wu Zheng asked.

“It is too costly, I'm going to tell you right now.  But the nearest we can locate, with better technology and more effective treatment than ours, is South Korea.”

South Korea.  Those two words bounced off the walls of Vickie's head.  South Korea.  The place she was trying to avoid at the moment.  The place that had given her many memories; in fact, too many memories.  She stayed frozen in her hospital bed, not moving as she was sitting.  There was no way she would meet Jinki, right?  Not after eight years, especially in a hospital.  Vickie held on to that note in her head, hoping she would not see him at all.

“If you have any doubts, Mister Song—”

“No,”  Vickie interrupted, making the two men turn to her,  “If that's the only way, then you can send me over there.”

“Vickie, dear, are you sure?”  Wu Zheng knew what had happened between his daughter and Jinki throughout those eight years.  He was surprised to hear agreement from his daughter.

“Yes, dad.”  Vickie blinked.  “I am.”

Doctor Chiu turned his eyes from Vickie to Wu Zheng.  “Mister Song?”

Wu Zheng looked down before looking up and answering.  “If that's what my daughter wants, then I agree.  I will send her to South Korea.”

Doctor Chiu straightened himself up, lifting the lid of the clipboard over the papers clipped on it.  “Alright, then.  Tomorrow, your daughter is scheduled to go to Korea.  A nurse will let you know when she will be brought to the airport.”

Wu Zheng nodded his head and shook hands with Doctor Chiu, thanking him for the things he have done.  When Doctor Chiu left, Wu Zheng walked over to Vickie's bed and told her that he will just go home to get clothes for her.  He kissed her forehead and left.

The door clicked, leaving a softly weeping Vickie Song in a lonely and dark hospital room.

HURHURHUR~

VICKIE'S GOING BACK TO KOREA ASDFGHJKL;

HEY GUYS! HEY NEW SUBBIE~!

HERE'S AN UPDATE >< I UPDATED A BIT OF THIS DURING HUMAN SERVICES CLASS SINCE THE TEACHER LET ME GET A LAPTOP (OMG) AND YEAH...  THE PEOPLE IN MY TABLE KINDA SAW ME TYPING THIS FJDSKLFSJ

BUT HEEEEEY!!! HEHEH I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THIS!

*I SHIP ONELLA*

THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING!