BETTERSWEET

Ch.9

Has anyone else ever wonder how on earth does something end up somewhere they truly do not belong?

You vividly remember this one photo of a fully grown horse that is somehow stuck in between a fence, shown to you by Hyunjung who found it absolutely hilarious, considering she was slapping your shoulder, snorting uncontrollably all the while.

Yeah, so you are kind of feeling that way. Not the laughing at a stuck horse feeling, obviously, but you are wondering about the hows and the whys of something being stuck somewhere it should not be.

In this context, her.

How did she even end up here, lying beside you and holding you in her arms?

You watch her chest rise and fall steadily, still deep in her sleep and unaware of you watching her like this.

You are not watching her creepily, no, you are just doing so full of wonder.

You came back from the hospital last night to find her sleeping on your couch, still in her complete work suits. She had some takeouts ready for you on your dining table, and you really wanted to eat with her, but she just would not budge when you tried to wake her.

Best you could do was save her portion in the fridge and just let her sleep.

That was until you figured out an ever-better solution, which was to join her.

You still think this huge couch of yours is your best purchase, ever. If you had ended up taken with a smaller couch back when you were furniture shopping, you would not have been able to snuggle so closely with her like this. Not at all. It is a lot more probable that one of you would be waking up on the floor instead of in each other's hold.

You dread how her suit blazer would look like after a night of sleeping in it, though.

However, you have more pressing matters to think about, like why she ends up getting closer to you, staying for you and protecting you.

You have always had these kind of questions in your mind, but you do not always have the time to think them over.

But because of her, you are a lot less busy now. You have taken her advice on lessening your overtime hours, and now that you have more time to yourself, it is quite difficult not to ever school your noisy thoughts.

In these rare moments of silence are when you usually end up being overwhelmed by your woes, but these days you hardly entertain the overgrown shadows haunting you.

And you have her to thank.

She has been nothing but a blessing to you. She has taken you out to more quick dates in the past few days, like joining you for lunch at the hospital's cafeteria (and being pleasantly surprised at how delicious the food is, compared to the bland patients' meals she had to eat before), and you have also attempted to make boxed lunch for her that one day you know she'd visit.

Well, the keyword is 'attempted'.

You burnt most of the eggs, and the sausages were in tatters from your complete inability to turn them over in the skillet, so you ended up giving her a store bought boxed lunch instead.

As you watch her eat, you also told her the truth about your own messed up cooking. As an answer, she said she would not mind in the slightest if you asked her to eat your burnt cooking if it would make you happy.

(You would mind, though, you can't have her falling ill from eating your cooking)

You realized then that you really love her, and you think it is easy to tell why.