Last Saturday

4

It's the day of her surgery.

Jiwoo wasn't getting any better, and it was the only option left, to everyone's dismay.

Along with a few nurses, they're all walking her to the operating room. The sick woman held her mother's hand on her left and Sooyoung's hand on her right as they passed through the hallways.

"Dad, you cry too much!" Jiwoo jokes, earning a light slap from her mom and a giggle from her father.

"When will you ever be serious?" Her mom leans down to hug her tightly, running her hands through Jiwoo's hair.

"I'll be okay."

They arrive at the entrance, and everyone takes their time to talk to Jiwoo.
Jongho barely cried, but he now looked like an absolute mess talking to his older sister.

"You're strong! You're gonna get through this!" He sobs, Jiwoo giggling at her younger sibling.

"It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself instead of me. C'mere my little rascal~" She opens her arms to embrace him, ruffling his hair.

Sooyoung swears she heard him mumble something, somewhere in the context of asking Jiwoo to stop calling him that.

"Sooyoung..." Jiwoo finally turns to her, raising her hands and Sooyoung, by instinct, rests her face on Jiwoo's palms gently stroking her cheeks, melting into her touch.

"I'll be waiting here." She says, and Jiwoo immediately wipes the tear dropping from her left eye.

"I love you." Jiwoo whispers, and Sooyoung leans down to peck her forehead.

"I love you too."

And just like that, the four are left waiting after the doors to the room close, uncertain of the future they would face after this surgery.

It's midnight, Sooyoung and Jongho are walking to the convenience store in the other building to buy snacks for everyone as they wait for the surgery to finish. She notices his unusual behavior, the 19 year-old is too silent.

"What's gotten you thinking so much?" She ruffles his hair, and he only sighs deeply.

"Doubts."

Sooyoung didn't urge him to talk more, understanding him.

"She's strong, Jongho. She'll live." Sooyoung says before opening the glass door to the convenience store. The tiny bell attached to it made a noise, alerting the cashier that they had customers.

—————————————————————

The surgeon arrives in the waiting area, Jiwoo's mother rises from her seat. Sooyoung had just arrived from the bathroom and saw them through the windows. Seeing a trash can across the hallway, she quickly aims, throws, and shoots the empty bag of chips that she's been fiddling around with to ease her anxiety. It goes straight into the trash can, to her surprise.

When she enters the waiting room, she immediately gets greeted with a hug from Jiwoo's mother who was sobbing.

"Jiwoo's alright, she's breathing." The father announces, but Sooyoung's still confused by their worried expressions.

"Jiwoo had severe excess bleeding during surgery, and we had to stop before it got much worse. Although we already managed to drain most of the fluid in her lungs. If they come back quicker than we expect it to, it can highly develop into chronic pulmonary edema. She'll eventually need to have another surgery in a few days, but the chances of her surviving that one is extremely lower."