Teach Me How To Love [mxmxm]

XXIV

[Jae Lim]

"It looks like you're experiencing drug withdrawal symptoms."

"What?"

"The shaking. The chills. The cold sweat. You can't stop thinking about whatever they gave you, right?" The doctor, Mrs. Kim, listed off with undeniable certainty. "We ran a tox screen on you, but it didn't show anything, so what they used must be off the streets or lab-made, something that we haven't seen in great quantities. We're keeping you here on medical detox for a week. You'll be released after that week, and we recommend you go to a rehabilitation center or therapy."

All of her information was trying to sink into my brain but it left me speechless. Dr. Kim just took noona's acknowledgment and left the room when we failed to procure any questions for her.

"Drug withdrawal?" Heat built uncontrollably in my chest, the overwhelming rage that flooded my senses while I tried to keep it at bay by digging the sharp edge of my nails into the flesh of my palms. "Fuck! Those fucking bitches!"

"Jae, it's ok." Noona tried to keep my frustration from building any more than it already had. "It'll be a week in here and then we can work on..."

"Like fuck that matters. I'm hunting down that fucking doctor and I'll kill that bitch So-Young myself."

"She's already in our hands. We'll deal with her. All you have to do is focus on resting and recovering. For real this time." Noona shot me a pointed look and my eyes almost saw the back of my head as I rolled my eyes dramatically.

She didn't reprimand me for my behavior and just sighed.

See? Even noona would get tired of my stupid fucking behavior.

"Oh. And you've got a couple of visitors. They've been waiting to come in since you got admitted."

"If fucking Valeriya shows up through that door, you can tell her to kiss her ass goodbye. I'm still not over it."

Noona rolled her eyes but got up from her seat, opening the door to my hospital room and waving someone in. I should've known that it wouldn't be Valeriya but I wasn't expecting Triads to walk through the door—and especially not the two men I expected to be gone by now.

"What are you still doing here?" The words spilled out my lips without any hesitation, venom unintentionally coating the words.

"We can't be worried about you?" Qi asked quietly.

They were unusually quiet for a pair that filled their time by torturing me with their presence. Xunan couldn't even look at me and Qi's eyes wandered the expanse of the room, occasionally flitting over my body. Typical of them to switch it up so quickly—one minute, they can't keep their mouths shut and the other, they can't even look at me. If it was that hard for them to even look me in the eyes, why come? It was obvious they wanted to be anywhere else but here.

Not that I cared. They weren't important. They would leave sooner or later, unable to deal with me the way that noona could. It was all only a matter of time. Look at Valeriya. She couldn't wait to hand me off to some strangers.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room when my lack of answers failed to initiate any sort of connection between the two. My eyes failed to meet theirs and instead rested on the white covers beneath my trembling hands. Noona probably couldn't stand suffocating in this air, seeing that she dismissed herself from the room with promises of residing right outside the door to the patient room.

"You really scared us, you know," Xunan began in an attempt to make conversation despite his inability to even look in my direction.

If it was so hard for him, I would make it easier. Turning my head away from them to gaze out the window several stories high, I bit out a response in hopes that it would give them the fucking hint. "You didn't need to concern yourselves with me. I was perfectly fine."