"The ones left behind must go on living. It's okay to cry once in a while, but you should laugh a lot too. You need to be strong too. It's the right thing to do since you've received love."
- Ji Eun-Tak, Goblin
2005- SEONGBUK-DONG, SEONGBUK-GU, SEOUL
Kim Ho-Bin rapidly ascended the stairs to the upper level of his home, taking two steps at a time in his haste to see his family.
He'd seen the terrified look in their housekeeper's eyes when she'd met him at the front door, barely waiting for him to exit his car before sending him upstairs where he was told his wife was urgently waiting for him.
He followed his wife's reassuring voice into their son's bedroom. He could just about make out her soothing voice telling their son that all would be alright. Ho-Bin's heart was in his throat when he saw his precious family huddled on the carpeted floor, their son's bare upper body being cradled and rocked back and forth by his wife.
In a flash he was on his knees beside them, stroking Hyun-Bin's dampened hair from his forehead. Ho-Bin could feel his boy's clammy skin, and he met Sung-Ryung's worried and tearful gaze.
"What happened? How long has he been like this?" He asked his wife.
"A few hours. At first it was just his throat," Sung-Ryung answered him shakily. "So I gave him ibuprofen for the pain and fever and told him to rest. He slept for a few hours then woke up complaining of pain around his middle. He was coming out of the bathroom when he suddenly started swaying. I tried to help him back to bed, but he couldn't make it..."
She broke down then, unable to hold back her emotions from feeling so helpless.
"We need to take him to the hospital," he told Sung-Ryung. It could be a virus or an infection, they just didn't know. They could give him something to lower his fever and wait it out a little longer, but Ho-Bin didn't feel good gambling with his son's health. They needed a professional.
"We'll take him to Samchuk Medical." It was one of the smaller and older hospitals in Seoul.
Ho-Bin simply nodded. It was also not affiliated with YumShin Group. His father would have no influence there. None of the doctors would be reporting to him, or taking instructions on Hyun-Bin's treatment.
He wrapped his son with a blanket to cover his partial nudity and took him from his wife's arms. Hyun-Bin wasn't as tall as Ho-Bin's six feet yet, and still had the build of a boy, so Ho-Bin only struggled a bit in lifting and carrying him downstairs and into the waiting car.
He sat in the back of the sedan with Hyun-Bin while they waited for Sung-Ryung to gather her things together. Hyun-Bin made an occasional whimpering noise, murmuring unintelligible words in his fevered delirium. When Sung-Ryung finally arrived, she carried one of Hyun-Bin's duffle bags. She joined them in the back and Ho-Bin instructed the driver to depart for the hospital.
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2020- SEONGBUK-DONG, SEONGBUK-GU, SEOUL
Hyun Bin barely made it out of his Porsche 911 before vomiting on one of his mother's boxed hedges. He kept heaving until there was nothing left but bile and gastric juices.
His mother was going to kill him, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
He'd sobbed through the entire journey to his parents' home across the Han river nestled in the hills that overlooked Seoul. His head had begun to throb midway, and by the time he'd pulled into their private drive he'd no longer been able to contain the contents of his stomach.
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Something About Ye-Jin
Fanfiction💬'It felt like a thousand shards of glass had embedded into her chest, making her wonder how she was still breathing. How was it that even though she'd always expected that painful moment, the reality was even more devastating? To the day, she stil...
