Baek SeungJo

You’re cute. Every now and then.

There are also times when you’re beautiful. From time to time.

But… Why do I like you?

You’re not that pretty and you’re only cute now and then.

Why would I always miss you?

You… What did you do to me?

 

~

 

As the weeks went by work at the hospital kept building up and I was trapped within the walls for hours on end. Some nights I would just go home, grab a change of clothes and check on HaNi while she was sleeping, then head straight back to work.

 

One reason was that I seriously needed new clothes to change into and the other was because I was worried about HaNi.

 

She is in her 38^th week of pregnancy, and her belly was getting extremely large. Both mother and EunJo have been sending me messages about HaNi, however mother’s messages were more along the line of threats and insults, blaming her ‘irresponsible son’ for HaNi’s pregnancy symptoms by not staying at home by her side. Little did she know…

 

I resorted to EunJo’s updates instead. At first I EunJo was unwilling to update me on his sister-in-law’s conditions, however after a few bribes with money and food he gave in.

 

That little brat EunJo… I could definitely tell he was actually also worried about HaNi, especially with her past record of hurting herself and clumsiness.

 

~

 

I pulled up outside of the house and looked at the windows, they were all dark. Everybody must be asleep. I checked the dashboard, 1:37am.

 

I sighed, it has been a long day, but there is no time to rest now, I’ve been called up on standby in the emergency room at 2:30am.

 

I climbed out of my car and walked towards the house. I closed the front door slowly, careful not to make any sound. Not wanting to wake anyone up, especially mother. I would live in peace without her trapping and torturing me.

 

I crept up the stairs and dropped my bag on the couch outside EunJo and me and Hani’s room. I quietly opened the door to our room, which HaNi was sleeping in.

 

I walked over to the bed where HaNi was wrapped up around her bulging belly. Her legs were tucked under her and her arms sprawled protectively over belly.

 

HaNi used to be a very restless sleeper, and thrashed around quite a lot during her sleep. At first I was horrified that anyone would ever be able to tolerate her, however as time went on I slowly grew used to it. Even waking up in the middle of the night to readjust her position constantly so she wouldn’t fall off the bed or hurt herself.

 

However, since she became pregnant she was not longer able to move around freely without seriously hurting herself or the baby. She resorted to sleeping on one side, in the middle of the night when her body unconsciously began thrashing about she would wake up in pain.

 

When this happened I would pull her close into my chest and hold her tight. When she thrashed about I would constrict her arms and legs holding her in place.

 

Don’t believe me? I have bruises to prove it.

 

Having done that, guilt washed over me as I sat down on the edge of the bed caressing HaNi’s head. A thin layer of sweat covered her face and neck.

 

I gently brushed HaNi’s hair aside, and using the sleeve of my shirt wiped most of the sweat off her.

 

My heart ached to see HaNi in pain, what hurt even more was the fact that I wasn’t there to protect and help her along the way.

 

I leant down and gently kissed her soft plump lips.

 

Gosh, I missed her.

 

At that moment I remembered, earlier that day EunJo sent me an update on HaNi, I flipped out my phone to see the message.

 

Hyung!

 

Hows work going?

 

 I got first place in the whole year level for the recent mathematics assessment! Thank you sooooo much for helping me revise despite your busy work!

 

Oh HaNi’s back pain has been quite severe lately, just moving around the house is difficult for her. Even though she doesn’t complain or say anything, I can tell. Her forehead starts glistening with sweat and breaths become short and ragged when she’s in pain.

 

Something new has also happened, remember 2 days ago when I said I thought she got an allergic reaction to something she ate? Well the rash and swelling is getting worse! Redness, swelling and rashes started on her thighs and belly, and are now spreading down her leg. She didn’t say anything about it, but when mum and I tried taking her to the hospital she wouldn’t go.

 

Stupid Oh HaNi, so stubborn.

 

On the bright side, the baby is moving around more actively than ever! I felt him/her kick quite a few times!

 

Hyung you should come back home. I never wanted to interfere with you and Oh HaNi’s relationship, but things aren’t looking too great for her now, it’s a time when she needs you the most. Hopefully you can be there for her.

 

Work Hard

 

EunJo

 

I sighed and placed my phone on the bedside table.

 

EunJo is becoming more mature.

 

What does he mean about rashes and swelling on her legs?

 

I carefully pulled back the duvet, not wanting to wake up HaNi. Ever so lightly I pulled back her night shirt to reveal her pregnant belly, her once smooth milky skin was now spotted with vicious red dots and swelling.

 

I gently ran my fingers along the swelling and felt HaNi suddenly twitch. I looked up at her face, and saw that she was grimacing; a light layer of sweat again began dotting her face.

 

Just touching it must be painful for her, even in her sleep. I let out a long breath; to think how much pain she was in. Not once complaining about her discomfort. A fresh wave of guilt crashed over me.

 

“SeungJo?”, a soft voice sounded.

 

I looked up startled to find Oh HaNi’s eyes open staring at me in disbelief.

 

I jumped up quickly as she struggled to pull herself up into a sitting position, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and pushing her back down into the pillows.

 

“W-What are you doing here?” she asked.

 

I looked at her, a smile tugging on the edge of my lips, “What? You don’t want me here? I can go-“

 

“No!” she exclaimed grabbing onto my sleeve tightly with her small fists.

 

I smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her.

 

I stared longingly at her she smiled back at me with her shining eyes despite her deep dark circles hanging low on her face.

 

I cupped her cheek with my hand and gently rubbed my thumb along her dark circles.

 

I sighed, “Oh HaNi, just because I’ve been busy doesn’t mean you can keep secrets from me”

 

She stared at me eyes wide open, “No I hav-“

 

My glare silenced her.

 

She stared back at me uncomfortably, hastily trying to pull down her night shirt to hide the evidence.

 

I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

 

“Oh HaNi, do you know that this could’ve been serious?” I said harshly, anger building up inside.

 

She stared back at me with scared eyes.

 

“You’re lucky that it’s just a pregnancy side effect with the distributions of hormones in your system. A woman’s body is very fragile during pregnancy, and shouldn’t be casually ignored like this!” my hands bunching into tight fists.

 

I stood up forcefully and stomped out of the room to the bathroom. I grabbed a towel and plastic tub out of the bathroom cupboard. I filled the tub with cold water and dunked the towel inside.

 

I walked back into the room, less ferociously this time, letting my anger and frustration reside.

 

I felt HaNi’s gaze follow me as I sat down back on the edge of the bed, picked up the towel and wrung it so it wasn’t dripping with water.

 

I then gently moved her hands away from the hem of her shirt, pulled her shirt back more to fully show the extent of the rash, then place the towel over it.

 

I felt her tense for a second and in a tight breath through her clenched teeth holding in the pain, before letting out a long sigh as the towel began to cool her skin.

 

I kept my eyes on the towel, not wanting to look at HaNi’s expression; she was probably hurt deeply by my ignorant actions before. The third wave of guilt that day tumbled over my head as my chest tightened with shame.

 

“SeungJo-ah, I-“ HaNi whispered as she gently grabbed my hand.

 

I looked up at her face and noticed tear streaks down her cheeks. My already tight chest shattered at the sight.

 

“I just didn’t want you to worry. I understand how you can’t come home because of work, and all the stress… I’m always relying on you; I don’t want to continue giving things to worry about… I-“

 

I cut her off by bending down and pressing my lips against hers. I kissed her gently using one hand to cup her cheek and the other slipped behind her neck pressing her to me.

 

I felt her hands on my chest and her hands gripping onto my shirt tightly.

 

She pulled back to catch her breath, as I lay my forehead against hers.

 

Her cheeks were flushed pink and her tearful eyes stared back at me.

 

I gently kissed both her eyelids and pulled her close into a tight embrace.

 

“I love you for who you are, you don’t have to give up anything for me. Just stay the way you are…” I whispered.

 

I felt HaNi press her face into the nape of my neck and gently kissed my collarbone.

 

I smiled.

 

~

 

“Doctor Baek it’s been 7 hours already, would you like to take a rest and let the other doctor take over?” asked one of the nurses in the operating room.

 

“No, I’m fine, almost done” I said through clenched teeth as I carefully began sewing the veins of a heart transplant patient.

 

This was the most crucial part of the operation, the stitches must be clean and quick, within 4 minutes. Otherwise the patient would die without a heart pumping blood through their veins.

 

Sweat glistened on my forehead and my hands worked at top speed, sewing through human flesh.

 

The final stitch was made with 30 seconds left to go. I just have to get the heart beating now.

 

I directly stuck my hand into the patient’s chest and began manually pumping the heart with my hand.

 

I stared at the heart monitor jaw clenched tight. The entire operating room held their breath.

 

With 6 seconds to go the heart monitor beeped to life and the heart began beating at a steady pace.

 

I sighed heavily in relief and pulled my hand back.

 

At that exact moment the phone in the operating room rang, one of the nurses went to pick up the phone.

 

She beckoned for me to go over to her, and indicated that the person was looking for me.

 

I walked over to her, holding my hands in the air away from anything that could contaminate my gloves.

 

The nurse held the phone up to my ear for me as I listened.

 

“Hello? This is Baek SeungJo.” I said calmly.

 

“Doctor Baek SeungJo?! Is that you?” another frantic male voice replied from the other side.

 

“Yes it is. Is everything alright?” I asked.

 

“You’re wife is Oh HaNi, correct?” he asked.

 

“Yes she is,” I replied, starting to get suspicious, what happened?

 

“She has just been admitted to the hospital, she went into labor due to some sort of incident and is in the emergency room right now! She’s unconscious and in serious danger!” exclaimed the person on the other side.

 

My heart stammered unevenly and chest tightened.

 

I immediately turned to the nurse holding the phone, “Quickly call Doctor Im in here now, I need to go”

 

Without looking back at the heart surgery patient or the rest of my operating team, I rushed out through the sliding operation room doors pulling off my bloody gloves, facemask and scrubs, dumping them in a bin and racing off towards the emergency unit.

 

Mother wasn’t home that week, one of her friends booked a cruise for her to go on. Despite HaNi in her last stages of pregnancy she ushered mother on the holiday with a bright smile.

 

I raced along the corridors as my doctor’s cape billowing behind me.

 

Pulling up into the emergency maternity hallway I saw EunJo sitting on a bench outside the emergency delivery room.

 

He was twisting his hands  nervously in his lap.

 

I ran over to him and knelt down in front of him.

 

“EunJo-ah, wheres Oh HaNi? Is she alright? What happened?” I asked hurriedly.

 

EunJo looked up at me with tears running down him face.

 

That caught me offguard.

 

“EunJo-ah… what happened, why are you crying?” I asked worriedly gently gripping his shoulders.

 

He looked back at me with pained bloodshot eyes.

 

“I-I didn’t m-mean to…” he stammered.

 

“Mean to do what?” I asked heart thumping loudly in my ears.

 

“Hyung! I’m so sorry! I d-didn’t mean to p-push her…” he cried.

 

My eyes widened.

 

“I-I… didn’t know she was there… a-and I pushed my chair back and made her s-slip and fall o-on t-the concrete” EunJo cried even harder.

 

I pulled him into a tight hug and his hair.

 

“It’s okay, don’t worry. Oh HaNi is a strong young girl, she will be fine…” I chocked.

 

“B-but there w-was so much b-blood” EunJo stammered.

 

My jaw tensed and throat tightened at the thought, but continued to hold onto my little brother.

 

“It’s not your fault EunJo… Don’t worry, she will be fine.” I whispered.

 

However I wasn’t sure if I was telling the truth myself.

 

~~~

 

Hi Guys! New Update!

 

I’m rly sorry if the story is getting a little boring L Give me some feedback! I would love to know what you guys truly think about this story!

 

I want to know if you guys are enjoying the lovey dovey things between SJ and HN or do u guys prefer the bickering couple?? Tell me so I can write something that you guys would like!

 

As for now most people would like the baby to be a girl! As much as I would love to write about a baby girl, the thought of writing about a baby boy is also drawing on my attention.

 

Sigh… hard decision to make

 

U guys might just have to see later who I will chose? XD

 

Thank you for the support guys!

 

Until next time

 

xoxo