As I have nothing to give you, I give you my heart (IU Verse Book#1)

Chapter 7

          There was a lump forming in her throat when he didn't respond to her as he lay motionless on the ground beside her. Jieun shakily reached her hand out to touch his wrist and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding when she felt a tiny pulse. It was faint, but it was still a pulse. She sat there shaking him gently and calling out his name desperately, but all she met was silence. Hanteo and Seri had reached them, and it took Seri an immense amount of strength to pull Jieun away from jihyuk's limped body. Hanteo had reached Jihyuk and lifted him up and out of the shattered shards of glass that surrounded his body. He carried the younger man towards the exit with Seri and Jieun trailing after them. Seri had her arms around Jieun to support her shaking figure. Once they were out of the town hall, they heard sirens as police cars and a few ambulances pulled up in front of the building. The guests were immediately getting treated by the paramedics who were already there. A couple of paramedics rushed towards them with a stretcher as Hanteo placed Jihyuk gently onto it.

         Jieun watched as the paramedics rolled the stretcher onto the ambulance as she went limp against Seri, who had tried to support her to keep her from falling.

         Hanteo had asked one of the paramedics there for a blanket and used it to wrap around Jieun. He picked her up as she had no energy to even walk and carried her to their car, where they drove behind the ambulance to the hospital.

         The three of them reached the hospital in no time. Jieun had regained her energy and rushed out of the car, following the paramedics who were wheeling Jihyuk into the building. She caught sight of his pale face and the injuries on his body as they had taken off his suit jacket, leaving his thin dress shirt on and unbuttoned. She saw a glimpse of cuts and bruises and felt pain in her chest as they wheeled him into the emergency room.

         She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the pain that was gnawing inside her chest.

          Hanteo and Seri came soon afterwards and coached her to sit at the bench of the waiting room.

          When the doctor came out of the emergency room two hours later, the three stood abruptly from their seats and went up to him. Jieun found her voice and asked the doctor about Jihyuk's condition, in which the doctor took off his mask and gave her a small smile.

           "We were able to remove the shards off of him and treat his injuries. There were a few pieces of glass that hit him deep and so we had to remove them surgically, but don't worry, it went well. But It was hard to distinguish between the cuts from the glass and the bruises and scars that he already has prior to the accident. You can visit the patient once we move him from the ER to a proper room."

          Seri and Hanteo thanked the doctor before he left them to themselves. Once the doctor was gone, Seri turned to Jieun, a shocked expression on his face.

          "When did he get those bruises and scars before the accident? Did you guys run into something the day before? Was this the second time you were attacked?"

          Jieun shook her head. "Jihyuk ssi had grown up in an orphanage, so maybe that's where he had gotten them. Or maybe he had gotten it from his job as an agent for the Nation Police Agency. I don't really know."

          Jieun sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was momentarily relieved when the doctor said that they were able to treat him and reassured herself that he was going to be okay, but her thoughts kept diverging back to the accident and she couldn't help but blame herself for what happened. If she hadn't gone back there and just stayed where she was, he wouldn't have to get himself hurt by protecting her. She thought about the way he had protected her; how he had his own body thrown in front of her to protect her from the chandelier falling and even kept his arms around her the whole time in order to prevent any glass from hitting her. She was okay, heck, all of them were okay because of him.