Sang took the opportunity to check herself out and looked down at her body. The slightly elevated hospital bed gave her the chance to observe her injured shoulder and she noticed it had been bandaged up, although some of the blood had seeped through the bandage and formed a dark slop of colour on the otherwise white dressing. There was an angiocatheter attached to back of her left hand for the entrance of the anaesthetic and another drip. Her arms were pale, more so than they usually were. Wait a minute, Sang thought. Hadn't she been wearing a jumper earlier? She didn't recall wearing anything short-sleeved or sleeveless when she went to the warehouse, so why could she see her bare arms? Her heart stopped as she realised someone must have had removed the cream-coloured jumper she had been wearing. She noticed that she was merely in her bra, with the plain hospital comforter pulled up to just about cover her chest, but expose her shoulders and prominent collarbones. She knew the jumper had to have been removed in order to grant access for whoever had treated her to tend to her gun wound, but she couldn't stop her cheeks reddening due to her being so exposed in front of everyone. Wiggling her fingers and toes, she was happy that she could finally move her body somewhat and breathed a sigh of relief as she realised her jeans were still on. Her jumper was probably ruined though, considering the amount of blood that must have soaked it due to her bleeding wound. Oh well. She'd just have to buy a new one. Or get her attacker to buy her a new one, anything worked really. She was grateful that the guys' attentions were focused on her bandaged shoulder rather than her chest and didn't really expect anything less if she was completely honest. Despite their dealings and exchanges with the drug lackeys, she had been shown the utmost respect and protection by the Academy guys and they didn't disrespect her in any way. Forgetting about her clothing, or lack thereof, she wondered about what Matt was doing right now. Matt! How could she have forgotten about Matt? Oh dear. Her stomach clenched as she thought about her earlier conversation with Matt via text and how she said she'd promised to call him. To be fair, it had been mere minutes after she'd got on the bus that the whole shooting fiasco had happened, so she hadn't really had time to contact him. It was also Gabriel who had unexpectedly called her first, and she had picked up because she really needed to let someone, albeit the 'enemy', know where she was. She had needed someone to count on, and despite their shortcomings, the Academy guys were people she knew would come to her rescue. Her heart sunk as noticed she neither had her phone to text Matt nor to call him. In fact, she would no longer have contact with anyone in the outside world as she was to stay right here in this hospital - she still had no idea which hospital exactly she was in - and would have to wait for her damaged shoulder to repair. She was surprised by the fact that she didn't feel particularly upset or distraught that she couldn't contact Matt, rather she felt relieved in a way to just be by herself for the time being. She loved Matt like a brother but did feel that he could be rather too older-brotherly and overbearing at times and it felt nice to have a small break from his constant presence. She chuckled as she realised she probably felt about him how he felt about Marie - the fact that they both had someone looming over them relentlessly and seldom gave them a break. Matt was not as bad as Marie however, Sang had to give him credit for being there for her and for guiding her over the years that they had known each other.
Sang occasionally did have mixed feelings about Matt but they were usually on good terms and she liked his company. Sang thought back to the time that she had first met him; she had just turned fifteen and was recently recruited by TIBI. She had been so shy and timid she had almost refused to talk to anyone who wasn't Agent Grayson. Agent Grayson had taught her the ropes and everything about their organisation but it was Matt who Agent Grayson had introduced to her who he said would help her with her undercover and field operations. He had been around the same age as Marie at the time and she remembered him looking so confident and sure of himself, he was the total opposite of who she was, even at that age. Although it took her a while, she became more comfortable with his company as they spent more time together and she felt herself warming up to him fairly quickly. He became her first friend from the organisation and he was the one who had introduced her to the others, including Karen. She wasn't as comfortable with the others as she was with him, but she did get along well with them and they took a liking to her immediately. Karen had especially taken a liking to her, as she often told her that Sang had a likeable personality and her shyness was adorable. Sang had found it odd that she'd been described as 'likeable', because all her life she'd been put down and constantly criticised by both her mother and Marie, and so Sang didn't have a very high opinion of herself. She thought people would just take one look at her and deem her too reclusive to be friends with. She was evidently proven false when she had joined TIBI, as everyone seemed to like her and wanted to befriend her. It wasn't that Sang didn't want to get close with her colleagues; it was just that she found it hard to be trusting and intimate with people whom she hadn't known for a long time. After all, she had grown up with her mother and Marie, and they weren't exactly the friendliest people. She couldn't be intimate with people simply because she had never had that kind of deep and trusting relationship with anyone in her life, ever. She did have a father, but he was almost always absent and she was stuck with the two other women in her life the majority of the time. She could probably count on one hand the amount of time she had interacted with her father during her adolescent years. The saddest thing of all, however, was the fact that no one had even bothered to tell her that her 'mother', or rather, Marie's mother, wasn't even her real biological parent. Sang had stumbled upon it one day while cleaning her mothers room as per her request. According to her mother, Sang obviously hadn't been doing a very good job at being swift while cleaning as her mother had ended up yelling at her and forcing her to kneel on hard rice grains as a punishment. She vividly remembered her mother getting so exasperated that she'd shouted right at her, her mothers face turning an angry purple colour. Marie had been there, standing by the door, expressionless and without a hint of sympathy at Sang's fate. "Look at her, Marie! She's absolutely pathetic... she just can't do anything right! She's just like her mother!" her mother had yelled, her frail frame shaking in rage. Sang had been confused at her mothers sudden exclamation. Sang was just like her mother? Why would her own mother compare Sang's inability to complete a task to being like herself? Why would her own mother insult herself? Sang was both petrified and perplexed at this and had thought about it for hours afterwards. It was only when she came across an old box under her parent's bed that she had dug out while her mother was asleep that she realised what had actually meant. Sang had let her curiosity get the better of her as she opened up the shoebox. She had hoped to find inside some sort of hospital or birth certificate of hers but had instead unearthed a scattering of old photographs. There was one of her mother or rather her stepmother, and her father. They both looked to be in their mid-twenties, her 'mother' had an actual grin on her face for a change and she genuinely looked... happy? That was not an emotion she had ever seen on her mother's face before. She had seen sad, angry, depressed, and every negative emotion in between but had never actually seen her mother so content and joyful. Her father stood next to her, an arm around her waist, also smiling at the camera. The picture had brought a smile to Sang's face to see her parents so happy, but her smile had disappeared the moment she saw the picture underneath it. It seemed to be an older photograph, and consisted of her father when he was younger with an unfamiliar woman. The photograph was not the clearest of images but Sang felt a pang in her chest as she studied the woman whom her father was holding hands with. The woman was relatively young, around twenty or so with a slight build and pale skin. Her head was tilted slightly to the side in the photograph; a cheerful smile on her face and long blonde locks caught swaying in a soft breeze. It was by focusing in on her bright green eyes that Sang was overcome by the awareness that she was related to this mysterious woman. The resemblance was just too uncanny, and Sang knew right then that that was her real mother. Her glance slid over to her father who matched her mother's smile with a genuine one of his own, his eyes squinting with mirth. They both looked so overjoyed in the photograph, that Sang found herself holding back tears as her vision became blurry. She had quickly taken that particular picture out of the shoebox and placed the box back under the bed. She had scurried back into her room, needing privacy and had cried for hours alone in her bedroom with the picture at hand. She had cried for a multitude of reasons, the first being that she had no memory of her real mother and the fact that she had never got to spend time with her. How nice it would have been to know this woman and to grow up in a normal house with her actual mother and father and no sinister sister breathing down her back. She wondered what it would have been like to have a loving family who loved her and cherished her, and having her love them back. Sang cried because she so desperately wanted to know what it would be like, her eyes had become puffy and red, and her nose had run and become blocked. It was after hours of reckless sobs that Sang lay in her bed surrounded by tissues and the dejected feeling of despair. She decided right then that she would find out more about her mother and why she had lived her entire life with a woman who had absolutely no regard for her or her health and had endlessly abused her. Sang had eventually found out that it was because her mother had died giving birth to her that she had no recollection of her. It was not her actual father, but her stepmother who had disclosed this information. Despite her disgusted and revolted tone of voice when she told her, Sang was grateful for the information. It still saddened her that she was mother-less, but Sang had thought Marie's mother was her own for so long that she had simply, albeit reluctantly, continued calling her 'mother' even though she knew she technically wasn't. Sang had a tough upbringing but was determined to become something of herself and to not hurt others in the way that she had been hurt time and time again by those who were supposed to love her. She was not a vengeful person, but was definitely glad that her mother was now completely out of her life and no longer there with her tedious remarks and punishments. Life was good for now, and despite the whole getting shot disaster, she was proud of what she had accomplished and was always up for a challenge.
"Should we call your parents?" Owen asked, interrupting her thoughts. "Is there anyone we should contact to let them know that you're here?" inquired Owen, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.
"N-no. I don't live with my parents," Sang stuttered, "I live by myself. My parents aren't in the picture anymore. Don't worry about them." She finished, her eyes dropping downwards. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room.
"Very well," was the only thing Owen said, before they one by one exited the room, giving her final pitiful and sympathetic looks.
