The Student Therapist

Chapter 17

"Oh, Jennie." My mother practically sighs out of exhaustion. The bags under her eyes darker and deeper set than I'd ever seen before. She gets up from the armchair in the corner of the room and throws her small arms around me. "I'm so glad you're here."

She hugs me tighther, almost as if she didn't want to let go or else I'd disappear. From the embrace of my mother, I glance over at the hospital bed to see a pale, weak looking Jisoo sleeping soundly almost as if she hadn't slept or eaten in days. My heart immediately cracked at the sight.

"How have you been, mom?" I ask anxiously when she finally lets go of me. "How have you been handling things here alone?"

It's one of the first questions I ask every time I see her after being away at school. No matter what, there was always going to be guilt crawling through my body when I considered the fact that the alternative route was to go to school closer to home and be here for her and Jisoo.

"Things have been alright." She sighs, but then her gaze shifts behind me. Perhaps like she's seeing Lisa there for the first time. She straightens up and attempts a smile that I immediately recognized as forced. "Hello, there. You must be the young girl who brought my daughter home."

Lisa steps up and takes her hand in hers to shake it, her other hand covering the outsife of my mom hands almosts like she wanted to keep it warm.

"Yes ma'am. My name is Lisa, it's nice to finally meet you." She introduces herself maturely and calmy. For some reason, I immediately felt stomach become warmer.

"Likewise." My mom's smile becomes more genuine as she looks into Lisa's eyes. "Thank you for driving Jennie home. That was very kind of you."

Without missing a beat, Lisa said, "Of course. I'm happy to help."

The sound of a phone vibrating cuts my mom off from saying whatever she had opened her mouth to exhale, and she turns to dig into her purse to stop the source. She looks at us apologetically and excuses us while she takes the phone call outside of the hospital room.

I take the moment of silence to turn to my little sister and walk to her bedside. You could tell she was sick even if she wasn't in a hospital bed. She had been more energetic, more full of life these past few months. But now, she resembled her weak form at last year.

"So this is the famous Jisoo." Lisa says slowly, as if she's unsure how I'm going to react to her being here for this intimate moment.

My eyes swell with tears that I force not to fall onto my cheeks as I nod. "This is her." My voice comes out in a cracked whisper, and a stray tear falls down my cheek. "She doesn't deserve this."

I hear Lisa shuffle towards me before wrapping an arm around my waist to draw me closer. "No, she doesn't. But she's a hell of a fighter."

I rest my head in Lisa's chest for just a moment, long enough to take a deep shaky breath and attempt to calm down when I hear the door open again. I look up at my mom with Lisa's arm still around me and I can tell by her flustered appearance that she just got called into work.

"I've told them what's going on. But the manager keeps insisting I go in." She explains in a huff. "I'm scared I might lose—"

To spare Lisa from listening to my mom contemplate losing her job, I interrupt her and say, "It's okay mom. We'll stay here."

There's still a bit of skepticism in her eyes when they land on me. But the moment they flutter to Jisoo laying in the hospital bed, the same realization hirs her. We need the money. So she lets out a deflated breath and nods. Her worry lines already crinkling at the base of her mouth and her forehead.