Sun-kissed

Chapter 6

The room was quiet as Amina worked on cleansing the wound and inspecting the sutures.  Boss was asleep on his cot in the corner of the room. The only sounds in the apartment came from within the dining area where the boys were having their dinner. Every once in a while, a burst of laughter could be heard. Amina smiled and looked up at Youngbae.  "Sounds like they're having fun out there. Do you always have your meals together?"

"Sometimes. When we're on tour, it's almost a ritual.  But now that it's over, and we're on to other projects, it's whenever. They just so happened to be here tonight because it’s my first night home."

"Where's your manager?"

"Oh," Youngbae grinned.  "Manager's night out."

"Really?" she smiled in surprise.

"Well, technically Boram hyung is not supposed to be working right now anyway. He was supposed to go on vacation for a couple of weeks to visit his family.  But with my accident, he had to post-pone his events. Normally, all the managers go out at least once a week to get away... from us, I suppose," he added sheepishly.  "They usually go on a Friday, but I guess the hospital stay was a little too much for him."

Amina nodded in understanding.  "I can't blame him.  From what I heard, we had to bulk up our security quite a bit and the nursing staff was rotated often. It was chaotic, to say the least.  You have quite a few fans."

"That was my concern.  When I heard some fans were camping out at the hospital, something had to be done.  Their safety is always a concern of ours, but I can understand their curiosity.  The show ended abruptly so there wasn't any closure.  I suppose we'll have to a little comeback show once I'm fully healed to make up for it."

"Wow," she remarked. "You're always working.  Do you guys ever get a break?"

"Normally, after tour we get a month or so to break in between projects.  But it seems this time, there's been a lot of overlap in our schedules with solos and movies."  He grunted in discomfort when she touched his skin. 

"Mianhae." She winced at his pain.

"Nan gwenchana..."

Amina proceeded to work more carefully, trying her best to not cause him any more pain.  "So, no breaks huh?"

"Well, this time of the year is usually quiet for us, because we spend the holidays with our families."  He paused then shyly admitted, "But I'm a little behind on my solo release, so I'll probably be spending my Christmas with Teddy hyung at the YG building this year."

She smiled.  "But you get to do what you love, so I guess that's not too bad, right?"  She removed the soiled wrap from underneath his leg and brought out new gauze to dress the wound. 

"Yes, I've been fortunate to make a living doing something that I love." He watched her as she carefully applied ointment to his leg.  Her touch was gentle, but firm, and her hands were steady and confident.  He imagined how it would feel if those hands were on other parts of his body.  He cleared his throat to clear his mind.  "How about you?  Have you always wanted to get into medicine?"

It took her awhile to respond.  "To be honest, no."  She looked up at him and he could see lingering sadness in her eyes.  He wondered what that was all about.

"I was brought up to know and understand the family business, so that when I was old enough I could take over from my father.  But I had a change of heart when I finished high school.  As you can imagine, my parents disapproved of my decisions." She bit her lower lip slightly as she put forth more effort on concentrating on the task at hand rather than the emotions that were starting to spill out.