You Never Walk Alone

chapter four: swollen eyes

A/N: bold text = characters speaking in english

regular text = characters speaking in korean

italicized text = mc's thoughts (unless indicated otherwise)

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You know that feeling you get right after you finish crying your eyes out? The way you feel numb and just a tiny bit empty? And you end up asking yourself, 'Why did I cry so hard?' or 'Was this really something to cry over?' as if invalidating your feelings will somehow make you feel better?

Kyojin's swollen eyes were begging her to go to sleep and her nose was running as snot was threatening to drip out of her nostrils. Kyojin wanted to go back to sleep and forget that any of this ever happened, which ironically, would send her back to square one. She wanted to go back to whatever life she was leading before because surely, nothing could be worse than this right now. She missed her 'old life', but that was silly. How could you miss something you've never known?

Before Kyojin could lay back down into that god-awful hospital bed, she heard a faint knock at the door. The doctor who had told her how she ended up at the hospital had entered slowly and told her that she had some visitors waiting to see her. They had labeled themselves as the other people involved with the crash. To say that Kyojin was surprised was an understatement. She figured that the people who crashed into her would want nothing to do with her since she was admitted into the hospital. From what she knew, these people didn't know her, and she didn't know these people. However, she felt like she didn't have the right to refuse their request of wanting to meet with her. They did take the time to come see her after all. Who knows, maybe they could help her.

As soon as Kyojin gave permission for them to come in, the doctor had held the door open for the visitors as he exited. The first person to walk in was a very tall man with black hair who wasted no time in bowing deeply in Kyojin's general direction. Kyojin's eyes widened and she stammered before she could form words, "Oh, you don't have to-"

"I'm so sorry!" The man blurted out while still in a bow. Behind him were a few more men, looking just as surprised as Kyojin. They quickly gathered their composure before mirroring the older man's actions as well as shouting 'I'm so sorry' in unison.

Kyojin flinched at the loud volume before waving her hands, "Ah, you don't have to bow. . . It's okay."

They each slowly straightened out their postures and they were met with a small, yet forgiving smile. All visibly relaxing at her smile, they thought of how lucky they were that she wasn't upset. At least, not yet.

Kyojin didn't know what to say next. This was awkward. Why were there so many men?? She wondered if she just went to sleep, they would leave. She was beginning to regret her decision but she pushed on.

"Um, may I have your names . . . ?"

"Oh, that's right," The tall man who bowed initially agreed.

"My name is Kim Sejin. I was the one who was driving when I crashed into you and I sincerely apologize," Sejin looked down to the floor while explaining, then he quickly met Kyojin's eyes once again, "But they had absolutely nothing to do with it! It wasn't their fault.

"Your medical bills and car repairments are already completely taken care of, so please don't worry about that either."

Kyojin was in absolute awe. How could some strangers be so nice to her? Could they perhaps want something in return. . . ?

"I, I don't know what to say! Thank you so much. This means a lot," Kyojin admitted. She didn't even think about the fees or her probably wrecked car and she was very thankful that they had thought far ahead so that she didn't have to.