Hyunah saw Yuri walking down the hall now with a smile, holding drinks in her hand. Hyunah was young, but she did pride herself in understanding adult situations and she knew well enough there was an extensive delicacy to what she heard. She needed to act fast, a nurse saw her at the door and looked at her with the concerned look. Hyunah quickly got to her feet and ran towards Yuri. She told Yuri she wanted a drink too, she even used her aegyo, which was rare for her. Yuri told her to go get one, but Hyunah said she didn’t want to go alone. After a trip to the machine they walked to the room and Hyunah quickly knocked on the door before the two walked in. Jessica looked at them with a smile; her eyes were dry but noticeably puffy.

“I got you a Snapple, and brought you your book,” Yuri said walking up to Jessica. Jessica accepted the drink and hugged Yuri warmly. “Were you crying? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just you know. Sunny and the situation... it’s hard to take... do I look bad?” Jessica asked looking at Yuri.

“What? No! You look fine. I’m glad you cried, I was starting to worry you had turned into a robot. You still look pretty, and you didn’t wear any make up today either.” Yuri said, brushing her hand across Jessica’s cheek. Jessica smiled and sat down in the small sofa in the room with Yuri; the two playfully cuddled and didn’t notice that Hyunah’s eyes were on them. After what she heard, it was hard to look at the couple the same. It one of those times when she understood the meaning of ‘ignorance is bliss’ and maybe Yuri was better off not knowing. She couldn’t figure out who to feel bad or sorry for, Yuri or Jessica. It would hurt to love someone who only loved you half-heartedly, but then again it was also bad to be in love with someone who is in love with someone else, yet there they were in a gentle embrace as Jessica scans through her textbook.

“Hyunah, did you have a good day at school today?” Jessica asked. It was a question Sunny normally would have always asked. Hyunah froze momentarily and then answered.

“It was okay, we had reviews for finals. Nothing hard unnie.” Hyunah answered in Korean, remembering how Sunny would have scolded her for not using English. She turned to Sunny and touched her hand, “Sorry unnie, I forgot. English!”

************************

“It doesn’t feel right you know, setting up Christmas decorations and stuff with Sunny in the hospital...” Tiffany said while going through the box of holiday cheer.

“But it was your idea, you’d wanted Sunny to come home to a wonderful... besides you think Sunny would want Christmas ruined on her behalf?” Taeyeon replied, comforting and reassuring the younger girl. “Are you still doing the food and toy drive? You can ask someone else to do it, they’d understand. Coach said he got a card for everyone on the team to sign too...”

“No no, I’m still doing! Look, we already collected so much!” Tiffany said pointing to a box.

“Yah! I was here, Jessica and Sunny just emptied the pantry, that really shouldn’t count,” Taeyeon said in her native tongue which happened periodically when the two are alone. “We should get going, the tree isn’t going anywhere.”

Tiffany and Taeyeon packed up the boxes of canned goods and foods to the campus for the tennis team holiday drive. Tiffany was always charitable and friendly and led many community service projects such as this. The two girls sat the table set out for them collecting can goods and foods and toys for their holiday donation drive. People were more willing to give, in part because of the cuteness that sat behind the table; before the semester started Tiffany had a goal to make the team the best club on campus. With the winning record and multiple community service projects she was quite on track, she couldn’t have done it without the help of her roommates and friends. Sunny had helped with nearly every project, her energy always carried everyone, it was disappointing to have her in the hospital. After cleaning up and moving all the things to her coach’s office, she took the large card that had just about all 40 signatures of the members on the team to give to Sunny.

Holding the card, Tiffany began to tear up thinking more about Sunny and the tears got stronger when she remembered how jealous and guilty she felt learning of bond Sunny had with Jessica and blamed herself for not being closer to Sunny. Snow slowly sprinkled down onto her but she couldn’t feel the chills of the air as she drifted into her world of self-pity and sorrow. Warmth wrapped around her, she returned to realm of reality to find Taeyeon’s arms wrapped around her. The shorter girl didn’t say anything but gently squeezed Tiffany in her arms, hoping to bring a feeling of calmness to her. Tiffany returned the embrace and silently thanked her girlfriend with a kiss. Even with Sunny hurt, Tiffany couldn’t help but feel happy and pleasant to be with Taeyeon. Was it wrong to still feel good while someone else is in pain? She wouldn’t be able to get through any of this without her support and finally it hit her that Taeyeon might be the ‘one’. Tiffany wiped her tears and smiled and suggested they go home to get something to eat and finish the decorating.

****************************

“Baby? Can I ask you a question?” Yuri said with hesitation. Jessica answered with an ‘hmm’ which Yuri took as a yes. “What is the medical proxy thing you have with Sunny?”

“Why?” Jessica asked while turning the page of her book.

“I’m curious, it seems really important.”

“Sunny is my medical proxy and I am her’s. It happened just over a year ago. It’s nothing really; we just thought about it and agreed to look out for each other in case something happened... I never really thought it would happen.” Jessica answered, looking away from her textbook to Sunny. It was a partial lie, it wasn’t nothing; Jessica felt the medical proxy agreement made her closer to Sunny because it was something that only the two of them could share.

“She’s lucky to have someone like you watching over her,” Yuri commented.

“Heh, I guess... I’m lucky too,” Jessica chuckled, and then realized that might have come out a bit wrong to Yuri and turned to try and see her reaction. Yuri showed no obvious change or reaction other than a nod of agreement. Yuri’s phone buzzed and she looked to answer the phone and saw it was a text message.

“Oh hey, they’re decorating the tree back at your home, did you want to go help?” Yuri asked Jessica after reading the message.

“Hyunah did you want to go home and decorate for Christmas?” Jessica asked. “So Sunny will have a pretty house to come home to, or stay a little longer?”

“Can we stay a little longer? She might wake up, right?” Hyunah said in a childlike voice. Jessica smiled and agreed.

After another hour they decided to go home and found most of the holiday decorations already up. Tiffany and Taeyeon were gleefully playing about in the kitchen while making food. They must have made some ‘adult’ eggnog because there was a bottle of liquor on the counter. Jessica hadn’t had a sense of excitement or happiness since Sunny was admitted. It played to her guilt because she knew Yuri wanted to cheer her up, but never really allowed it. She went to her room with Yuri and grabbed her gently and kissed her. It was a shameless kiss; no real merit behind it other than putting Yuri at ease. Wait no; maybe the kiss was to put her own mind at ease. She felt some strange misplaced guilt, after all she had confessed her love to Sunny but the weight still remained on her chest.

All this time Jessica had mentally cheated on Yuri with Sunny; she’d be lying if she didn’t imagine or thought about Sunny just a bit when she was kissing Yuri or picturing Sunny’s body when she’s caressing Yuri’s. A confession was supposed to bring some sort of satisfaction or closure. Where is it? All she felt was a tingling guilt. She pushed Yuri onto the bed and crawled on top of her, continuing to press her lips to Yuri’s. She reminded herself, that she likes Yuri. ‘Jessica Jung, you like Kwon Yuri. She is your girlfriend. She deserves more and you’re going to give it to her. She’s so good and kind and you just take it for granted. Why are you so bad Jessica?’ The thoughts ran through her mind as she was pulling off her own sweater. Yuri had a look of anticipation in her eyes which stabbed at Jessica even more; she had given her body and her ‘innocence’ to Yuri. She did so thinking it was the right thing to do, because it was the heat of the moment and with Yuri felt great. It was nice to have Yuri’s warmth on her, nice to brush her hair out of the way, nice to be fed yogurt, nice to be receive a backhug, nice to lock arms with someone else. It was all so very nice, so why couldn’t she just accept it? In that instant she stopped all her movements.

“I’m sorry Yuri. We shouldn’t be doing this right now. I mean people are here, and I’m just really upset, I’m not thinking clearly...” Jessica stammered and she got off of Yuri who said it was okay and grabbed a hold of Jessica’s hand. “I mean the door isn’t even close. I’m just... I’m sorry Yul... tough time right now...”

***********************

Yuri pulled Jessica in for a hug and wrapped the older girl in her arms tight and pulled her head to her chest telling it was okay. She understood that this was emotionally devastating for Jessica; finals, holidays and Sunny in the hospital, there was a lot on her plate. Jessica wasn’t the kind of girl to give herself to anyone, and even their weekly rituals of ‘bedroom exercises’ she could tell that Jessica put in a lot of emotion and thought into committing the act. Yuri remembered their first time, the look of nervousness and excitement mixed together, she remembered how cute it was when Jessica had asked her to ‘be gentle’ and ‘will it hurt’. It was that time that Yuri really noticed the spark in Jessica’s eyes. Yuri believed she felt the real Jessica in their intimate moments, how she could be playful and cute while being incredibly y. Yuri had come a long way from their workout sessions where she used to try and sneak in a ‘feel’ to being able to sleep together. The journey took years, months, days, hours; there was a great deal of investment and time put into building this relationship. This allowed Yuri to truly cherish her moments with Jessica; she had to admit it seemed rushed how they went from A to B but to the hell with being patient. She had waited long enough and now could reap her benefits.

She remembered the steps and progressions that were made, they had fun in bed together and Yuri understood why Jessica wanted to stop. Jessica was punishing herself. She probably thought that would cheer her up or make her forget about all her problems. She would have been right, she wouldn’t have been wrong; people look for distractions from their problems. Yuri understood that Jessica didn’t want to use her as a distraction from all that is going on. It was fine, because Yuri had sort of understood or rather expected some type of ‘pity ’ to help rally Jessica on, and she would have been okay with doing it. Jessica could use the distraction; Tiffany definitely had her distraction. Honestly, Yuri was glad Jessica stopped because their intimate moments had been special to this point, ‘distraction ’ would have ruined that record and for that Yuri was silently thankful. However she was now left with the problem of how to help her girlfriend through these times, and preferably without or alcohol.

Hyunah sat in the living room and saw Jessica walk out of her room with heavy foot-steps. The moment she saw Yuri, her eyes returned to her books. It was still too uncomfortable for her to think of the two. Hyunah figured they talked about something, but knew Jessica didn’t tell Yuri about the confession because if she had, Yuri would have had a huge reaction. Well, Hyunah told herself that she would have a big reaction if she got that kind of news.

********************

“Hyomin eat! You need to eat!” Soyeon said in an angry mom tone. Soyeon had been bringing more Korean food into their kitchen to try to get Hyomin to level out, but she wouldn’t leave her runt. The usual things weren’t working. Jiyeon had even kicked her into wrapping presents and flashcards for finals; she went through the motions like a zombie.

“You’re getting too skinny, you need to eat unnie!” Jiyeon said, throwing a piece of bread at Hyomin’s face. It got Hyomin’s attention and she slowly poked through her meal. Hyomin had work today but no idea how she would muster up and put on a happy smile for customers. Even in her state, she was still able to dress enough for work.

Hyomin slowly got herself up to get out the house to go work. She smiled and chatted with customers and was able to work through the day as if nothing was bothering her. She couldn’t help but think about Sunny. She knew she should not worry, the doctors were taking good care of her, it would be okay. She should stop worrying but it was pretty hard to control. She wanted to visit more, but it was hard for her to see Sunny lying in the bed.

*******************

The week went by rather slowly. Each day seemed reluctant to pass, as if it were clinging for its life. There were still no changes in Sunny condition other than that she was breathing strongly on her own. The drugs that put her to sleep had worn off; so now she remained in a coma simply by her body’s request. She was said to wake up any day now on her own. The swelling in her face had gone done incredibly to where she looked like herself again. Slowly her fingers began to move in tiny twitches and slowly Sunny opened her eyes. She was blinded by the light from the room and incredibly tired, her arms felt like they were made of steel. A nurse noticed this and quickly got a doctor. Dr Dorian rushed to the room to find Sunny slowly looking at her surroundings. Dr. Dorian called out to Sunny softly, it was still enough to make her jump a bit, it was about 9 days since she heard a voice, or been awake even. Sunny looked at Dr. Dorian with confusion, her whole face seemed to point out that she was lost.

“Where am I? Who are you?” Sunny asked, carrying a bit of an accent. Dr. Dorian answered her very simple question. “Why am I here?”

“Okay, don’t move, just relax. You were in a motor vehicle collision. A crash, an accident, and you’ve been asleep for the last few days. We’re so glad you’re awake. We have been waiting for a while now. How do you feel?”

“Tired,” She answered in Korean. No one understood her and she realized why and answered again in English. “I’m tired. And I’m hungry.”

“Okay, tired is good. We’ll get you something to eat, but first we will need to run through some tests. To make sure you’re okay. So Ms Lee, I need you to open your eyes big and follow the light. Alright good. We’ll get you set up for some more tests and then we’ll get you some real food.” Dr. Dorian said.

“Okay, wait... what do you mean by real food?” Sunny asked. The doctor chuckled and commented that she was better off not knowing. Sunny had performed simple question tests such as answering her name, date of birth and similar questions. She had her head scanned and imaged and they could not find any major damages. Sunny complained it was harder to breathe, and Dr. Dorian explained to her how some of her lung had been removed. He started to reassure her when she had a worried look on her face. Sunny wasn’t easily swayed but he reminded her that she’s in good hands and Dr. Reed brought in a tray of food.

Sunny wasn’t strong enough to handle the food, so a nurse came to help her. It was the first time she had semi-solid food in a while but it wouldn’t last. Waking up meant feeling pain and an hour later the food she ate came back out into a pan. She groaned and screamed in pain. The doctors came back to administer her morphine in her IV drip but she was still complaining of the pain. Dr. Reed decided to give her a light sedative to put her to sleep.

***************

“Listen Francine... you think, maybe someone who just woke up from a drug-induced coma would need some pain medication? Are you REEEEEEEAAAALLLL- HEEEEEEEEEEE a doctor now?” Dr. Cox berated onto Dr. Dorian.

“But Dr. Cox, we ran her through the tests and she didn’t complain during that time. We thought she was fine,” Dr. Reed tired to defend her friend.

“Listen here Barbie, I don’t care if they don’t say ‘ow’. When they wake up…usually… sooner or later… they find out something’s wrong. Oh, they might now have taught you this at your medical school, but people who have to be placed into a coma after a car crash, usually... now this is important, I want you both to hear this one... usually will be in a LOT of pain. Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go help my patients now because I’m a competent doctor.” Dr. Cox said.

“And how is our VIP patient today?” Dr. Bob Kelso asked. Dr. Kelso was the Chief of Medicine, who did make focus on kissing up and taking care of those with money who could help the hospital. “Perry, oil slick and blondie, don’t screw up with Ms. Lee there. There has been a sizable donation to our hospital made in her name, so it’s best if we keep her alive and well... top notch. Don’t you say?”

“Oh blow it out your Bob,” Dr. Cox said and walked around with charts in his hand.

Dr. Perry Cox was the head attending for the ICU, he was one hell of an internist. He was talented with internal medicine, hell medicine in general but he definitely had a different way with people. He would purposely call Dr. Dorian a girl’s name whenever addressing him, Dr. Reed was Barbie and Dr. Turk was usually Gandhi. Dr. Cox didn’t like surgeons very well, and considered them ‘cut and slice’ doctors, because to him ‘any moron can use a knife and cut something open’ but it took a real doctor to fix someone. Dr. Cox was hard on the residents, nurses, hell he was hard on everyone but the man was good at his job. Dr. Dorian touched his hair and whined how it wasn’t slicky or oily at all.

“JD. Didn’t you listen? Dr Cox is right, we should have seen her pain coming” Dr. Reed said to her colleague.

“I know Elliot, but she seemed fine, I should have remembered everyone always scream afterwards” Dr. Dorian answered. “She’s really cute though...”

“JD! Now is not the time. She was in more pain than expected. She seemed to be complaining about more than just a pinched nerve. Maybe we missed something. We need to catch it before Dr. Cox does or we’ll be screwed.” Elliot said looking down the hall at Dr. Cox who gave her a glare. JD talked to the nurse and had her call Jessica and let them know Sunny had woken up.

“Sunny... wake up, I have some visitors for you,” Dr.  Dorian said tapping at her. She slowly opened her eyes. “Hey there you are. Are you feeling some pain? Oh well can you be strong for a bit? I have some visitors for you.”

Tiffany, Hyunah and Jessica were there to visit her; they all smiled and tear up a bit seeing her eyes move. She smiled and said hello. Sunny was curious to how things were going, with the holidays coming up. Jessica was outside speaking with Dr. Reed and Dr. Dorian. She was informed that Sunny can’t recall the events leading up to and the accident, which was very common. Sunny seemed to retained her memories, her short-term memory may be a bit off at the moment, she sort of fail and sort passed the test. The doctors had a conversation with her, and asked her to remember the words ‘yellow’, ‘dog’ and ‘bridge’ before the conversation. After the talk, they asked her to recall the words, she remembered ‘bridge’ but said the other words were ‘one was a color and the other was a mammal’. She didn’t remember the words, but cognitive and reasoning skills were still very much in place. Jessica was curious to why Sunny had an accent in her English, which she normally didn’t have. The doctors said they didn’t know what her voice normally sounded like but would have to look into it. They suggest that it’s all very temporary and that it should go away in a few days. Jessica returned to the room to talk with Sunny.

“Did you hear Jessi, they took some of my lungs,” Sunny said, with her playful excitement.

“I know, I told them too,” Jessica replied.

“You did?!? I hate you!” Sunny pouted. She should be mad, but for some reason she wasn’t, and she had been on morphine for quite some time now.

“Yeah, but I saved you didn’t I? I hate you too.” Jessica came back, gently brushing Sunny’s hair.

“Doesn’t make me hate you any less you know!” Sunny stated. Jessica smiled and so did Sunny, it relieved Jessica that Sunny was still the same as she last remembered her. The fear of brain damage to her personality washed away. “Tiffany, why are you crying? I’m okay!”

Hyunah hogged Sunny’s left side and spoke carelessly in Korean to her and Sunny didn’t bother to correct Hyunah. It was just nice to see things were okay after for so long. Sunny asked about Hyomin and Jessica answered for everyone. Jessica even offer to call Hyomin at the moment to let Sunny speak to her. She asked the nurses because she wasn’t sure if cellphone usage was allowed, the nurse said it was alright. Mayo Clinic studies had shown cellphones had no negative impact on hospital equipment so using a phone was okay, but the nurse suggested using speakerphone to keep Sunny from touching the phone. Hyomin answered the phone. Sunny screamed out Hyomin’s name and it caught Hyomin off guard.

“Soyeon! Sunny’s awake! She’s awake!” Hyomin cheered in their room. “Hello Sunny! Are you okay?! How are you!?”

“Don’t yell, I can hear just fine!” Sunny said and converse briefly with Hyomin before letting go because of tiredness. Hyomin said she would go visit Sunny when she got the chance. Jessica hung up the phone and rearranged the flowers on the window sill. The doctors said that Sunny would be very tired and drowsy when they visit her; the damage done to her body was great even if not visible. Sunny was running on  high dosages of pain medication, which in turn also made her sleepy. Sunny wouldn’t be able to go home for a while, until they could wean her off the meds. Her diet was still in flux so she was also given nutrients through the IV.

***************

“I just don’t know what to do,” Hyunah declared lying down with her hands on her chest. “It’s just too much to handle right now. Why did I have to be involved? Did you ever hear something that you shouldn’t have, and you can’t tell anyone because someone would get hurt? What do you do?”

“Hyunah, I thought you came to my room because you needed help studying for math, not a therapy session,” Sunhwa said sitting at her desk with notebooks and textbooks. Hyunah had asked for a study and tutor session at Sunhwa’s dorm on campus and she’d agreed to let the younger girl come but had no idea she’d make herself so at home. “I’m not your therapist. Are we going to study math or what? I have other things I could be doing.”

“Sunhwa, we both know that you don’t have anything else to do. I’m the closest friend you have. I just need to talk about this. It’s been killing me for days. Do you know what it’s like, to see her, and then see her with her, and her with her but she really loves her, but she does like her too but not all the way, and it’s just so mind crazy! Because she doesn’t know about her, and yet they act like they’re okay, and maybe they are, but it’s just.....” Hyunah began to rant and wouldn’t stop. Sunhwa was trapped; she hated how the younger girl always had her way with her but listened anyway. Hyunah hadn’t even mentioned names, yet, which made things all more confusing. Sunhwa wanted to stop her and ask who she was talking about. Sunny had awakened in the hospital some time ago and getting better but that wasn’t the problem.

“Hyunah! Yah! Can you stop? I’m not a therapist. Argh, your voice is killing my brain! Finals are this week, and some of us need to study. So is there anything I can help you with?” Sunhwa asked. Hyunah stopped, thought about the answer and shook her head and said no. She continued on with her dilemma and all Sunhwa could do was release a sigh and listen.

***************

It been a week since Sunny woke up and from what Jessica said, she was quite popular at the hospital. Sunny, even in a hospital bed, she could charm people. Yuri felt a great relief that Sunny woke up and was okay but her fragments of guilt still ran rapid. It was frustrating that she felt that way and to douse gasoline over the fire, Jessica had been spending more time at the hospital visiting Sunny, without her. Taeyeon wouldn’t stop bothering Yuri either about the holiday preparations. She needed to call the airline to confirm the flight and make sure things were ready for the visit from her cousin Yoona from Korea. She really wanted to go see Jessica, but last she heard Sunny’s parents and uncle had flown into town so that was strictly a private matter between that household.

“Where is she going to sleep?! Huh? It’s your cousin yet I’m doing all the work! Yuri I’m serious sometimes I just want to beat you!” Taeyeon complained. The tiny girl ran around the apartment huffing and puffing. Yuri had been rather negligent on her chores and Taeyeon had been ‘kind’ enough to pick up the slack. Their house had been lightly decorated because Tiffany had already invited them over to the holidays, so there was no reason to really put up too much. Taeyeon hoped Yoona would be warm and open to Tiffany, Jessica and the rest. “Could you at least make us something to eat?! Please?!”

*************

“Sunny... what are you doing?!” Hyomin asked in a whiny voice, clearly demanding attention from her girlfriend.

“JD says I need to keep playing to make sure my brain is working. Oh, Dr. Dorian said it was okay for me to call him JD,” Sunny answered noticing Hyomin’s need and concern. Sunny was given a little electronic game to play that tested concentration and memory. It had four buttons, each a different color and would go off in a pattern. Sunny repeated the patterns over and over, failing several times. Even though with ‘Simon’ there is no way to win, it would just keep going until you fail. Sunny had made improvements daily on her condition; she showed no permanent brain damage other than the concussion. The doctors checked every other day for any underlying problems such as aneurysms or serve nerve damages, anything that could be missed during the initial ‘life saving’ portion of her care. Doctors found bone bruising in her right arm which had went unnoticed initially because bone bruises are very subtle in imaging, and requires a conscious patient to diagnose. With unconscious trauma and MVC (motor vehicle collisions, the medical world stopped calling them ‘accidents’) patients, imaging was meant to look for fractures in bones, so the radiologist and ER staff would easily turn down subtle marks on the bone.

Sunny’s current pain medication handled the pain associated with the bruising along with all her other injuries, and as a precaution she was fitted with a soft splint to help remind her to limit her movements with the right arm. Sunny was becoming overly frustrated as she couldn’t get past the 20th round of Simon. Sunny finally had enough and put the electronic toy down, allowing Hyomin to make her splash. Hyomin was still a bit timid around Sunny at the hospital because it wasn’t something she was used to, but she had her camera anyways. Hyomin apologized about the car but Sunny said it was okay and that she couldn’t be blamed. Sunny’s family was due to visit and Sunny had invited Hyomin to meet them but she’d declined. Hyomin said she was only there to make sure Sunny had something to eat.

“Open wide! Ahhhhh! Good girl! Hehe,” Hyomin teased while feeding Sunny. An aid had brought Sunny’s meal and Hyomin volunteered to feed Sunny. Sunny was right handed and still weak from the incident, Hyomin reasoned it would have been a mess for Sunny to try and feed herself using her left hand. “Open, again!” Hyomin completely enjoyed floating the spoon about Sunny’s mouth; the great Sunny was not powerless to give herself Jell-O and well, whatever the rest of the food is. Sunny chuckled and said that Hyomin was having too much fun and warned her to be careful, but she wouldn’t be in the bed forever. “Sunny... before I go to work... I need to know, are you under that gown?” Sunny yelled at Hyomin and laughed and ran out the door. She stopped and turned around and said goodbye before leaving. Sunny blew a kiss and waved her girlfriend goodbye and reclined into her bed. Half an hour later her parents, uncle, Jessica and Tiffany came into the room.

********************************************************

This is the shorter and unevent chapter, So I do apologize. hope January is living up to your expectations.