BETTERSWEET

Ch.16

There are certain questions you don't think you'll ever find a true answer.

Or at least, answers that are not from a love magazine full of straight couples' cringe.

You are still unsure of how you got from being unaware such magazines exist to where you are now, reading them religiously.

(Luda even offered to get you a subscription because you keep asking for her copies)

(Of course, you had to decline and only ask to borrow them in exchange of favors, and luckily for you, Luda's favors are rather easily returned with a delivery of hearty fruit bowls every other week)

What sort of questions are you in desperate need of answers to, that you are too afraid to ask?

Unfortunately, you are unable to answer even that.

You peek under the magazine towards the kitchen counter as you lay on a new, softer and fluffier couch, watching the person who has been running on some intense marathon in your mind for a very long while.

She is humming while she chops away, content to leave you out of the whole cooking process this time around.

"I want to spoil you." she said with a big grin on her face when you asked why you were being chased out of your own kitchen around twenty minutes ago.

As if she has not been doing enough spoiling for as long as you can remember.

"Juyeon-ah." you grumble from your spot on the couch, unsettled despite all the comfort the couch should have given you.

"Yes, my love?"

Your cheeks dust with red still when she calls you so endearingly. "Are you sure you don't want me to help?"

"Nope!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!" she chirps happily. "I know this week has been exhausting for you. Just rest up."

"How can you tell?"

"You have eye bags under your eye bags, Jiyeon."

Your hands fly to the spot under your eyes, feeling them. "No, I don't! I've been sleeping well lately."

"Didn't have to fret over me anymore, huh?" she teases you.

"I will yell at you."

Her hands stop working. "I'm sorry, please don't."

You let out a small sigh. "I'm not tired."

"What's with the long sighs and stiff shoulders, then?" she asks, her tone nonchalant, as if telling you that no matter how hard you try to hide your troubles, she can tell what exactly is happening. "Got a difficult case at the hospital?"

You let go of your hold on the magazine, allowing it to drape over your face as you think. "There was a patient..."

She hums, letting you know that she is following you.

"She got a nasty head injury from an accident, lone car, smashed against dividers. She arrived at the emergency room with profuse bleeding and cracked skull. I did what I could to prep her for surgery, but I knew she had no chance... There was just too much damage."

The constant chopping sound is soothing to you, it regulates your heartbeat, and somehow, makes it easier for you to talk.

"As I feared, the neurologist declared her brain dead after the surgery," your voice is a bit muffled by the magazine, so you move it further up. "Then her emergency contact arrived. It's her lover, just flown in from Ulsan. Her body was shaking, her tears falling free when she got the news."