It Just Happened That Way || JEONGIN from skz!

44

Yeona's POV

Beep. Beep. Beep.

There's rustling around in the room. My eyelids feel so heavy, and something is squeezing my hand. There's a weight on the side of my thigh. It smells like...a hospital? The beeps continue, and I realize it's from the monitor next to me.

With my eyes still closed, memories start to flood back into my mind. I see the angry eyes of the super fan, I see the fear in Jess's eyes. I remember the twisting feeling in my ankle as I am shoved off of the curb. I remember the pain as a car hits me. Did it swerve to try to avoid my falling body?

Oh. Oh the pain, I can still feel it with every breath. My ribs are sore. I search my body silently, twitching my fingers, my toes, ankles, wincing slightly at the pain and stiffness in my leg and my wrist.

Tears start to well up, and spill over my eyes as I think about all of the preparation I had done for the climbing competition. All gone. Down the drain. Will I ever be this strong again?

"Yeona?"

I push my eyes open, and look at the ceiling tiles. I turn my head slightly, and find that it's restricted by a neck brace.

"Don't move. It's okay." Jeongin gets up from his stool, I feel the weight lift from my thigh. It must've been his head leaning against it. He looks at me. Looking at his worried eyes, I can't help but to cry again. He wipes away my endless tears, giving me a gentle kiss on the forehead.

"I was so worried. I'm so glad you are okay." Does he mean to say alive?

"Jeongin..."

"Yeona, there will be more competitions." He knew exactly why I was crying. My life was climbing — my body was my temple. I was nothing without my strength and my agility.

The door to my room slides open. I see Jeongin's manager walk in slowly. "Hey Yeona, you're awake."

I try to prop myself up to a seated position, but am stopped by Jeongin, who presses the bed controller's button, bringing me to a seated position.

"We found the girl who caused this accident. She's been a sasaeng on our list for a while now because she had been taking pictures and stalking the boys around. In particular, she's been after Jeongin."

Jeongin nods. "I saw a picture of her from the gym's CCTV and recognize her."

I slowly nod as I take it in. I had genuinely been attacked by a super fan, a sasaeng. And for what? Because I happened to move in next door to Jeongin all those years ago, because we happened to be compatible, because we happened to fall in love. It had been so long since all of these things happened that it felt surreal that the fan world was still trying to keep up with the past events. We were living in a different reality than they were, years ahead.

Jeongin grabs my hand gently, squeezing it as he watched me process everything.

His manager continues. "We have a restraining order processing, as well as a lawsuit. I... I'm so sorry Yeona."

Jeongin nods, grimacing. "Yeona, I should've protected you better. I'm so sorry," he says, tearing up, sinking back into his stool.

I tear up a little as I shake my head. "No, Jeongin," I shakily say, "there wasn't a lot you could've done. This wasn't preventable." 

I tried hard not to cry more. I didn't want to cause any more guilt...but I couldn't help it. I already missed the feeling of the rough plastic holds on my finger tips, the stinging as I conquered every climb. As the tears continued to slip out, the manager left the room quietly and Jeongin began crying into the blankets as he leaned his forehead against my thigh.