༺Masterpiece༻

XIV :: Dustsceawang

"There ain't no woman scrutinized
More than that a visibly pregnant,
With a future beheld in her belly,
Growing on people's judgement.

The worth of man and nature,
Experience and Illusion.
She had wondered,
Was it really her that had conceived?
Or was it the mother in her that did."

⊱ ───ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ─── ⊰

"Mai!" Seokjin had gasped when he rushed to the poor girls room after hearing her scream. It was only an hour past midnight and the town was dead asleep. Seokjin couldn't sleep that night.

His mind repeatedly went back to the letter Lee Cheon Seok had written to him. Cheon Seok was heavily injured but the war was supposed to last only 2 more weeks. Cheon Seok had written that he had recently lost some blood but was effectively convalescing.

He had also revealed that his beloved was expecting their first child and should be nearly 38 weeks. A free spirit.

Seokjin had choked on his glass noodles that evening, coughing while laughing. He had zero ideas on whether he was tremendously happy or afraid to death. 38 weeks, that's a risky pregnancy time! And Cheon Seok wasn't even sure if his girlfriend, Seokjin's Mai, was exactly 38 weeks or more. What would he do if she had an early delivery? Why hadn't she told anybody?

Why does she not look like a pregnant woman? Or was it only he who couldn't notice the visible indication that she was carrying a life inside her?

Seokjin was mildly laughing and blushing, he was very happy for the two. He was only planning a wedding for them when he heard his Mai screaming upstairs. Seokjin rushed to see her partially passed out on the floor, a thin stream of fluid flowing from her vagina. She was tired and moaning in pain, her hand clasped onto her stomach.

"Mai, wh-what... What do I do? What, Mai!"

"Get... Get some... somebody." She spoke heavier.

"God, who?"

"Some midwife, please."

"Mid... Midwife, who's a midwife... Ahyun! Ahyun!" Seokjin yelled at his highest pitch, waking up most of the children and the adults living in the facility. His wife, Kim Ahyun, had their two year old daughter in her arms when she ran towards the source of her husband's voice.

"What? Why are you so panicked?"

"Mai, she... She was pregnant!"

"Eh? What?" Ahyun was momentarily frozen and then burst out in a fit of laughter, full of joy.

"Ahyun, we don't have the time to celebrate. She's in labour, her water broke. We need a midwife!"

"Eh? What?" No other words left her mouth. The words that came out of joy a while ago turned into a cold dread almost immediately. It was well past midnight, everyone in the village was asleep. And no woman was going to get to their aid. How would they get a doctor between the war?

Had they known she was pregnant, they'd have prepared everything.

Cheon Seok's girlfriend screamed, the pain of labour taking over her. It almost felt like the cry of a dying woman, her bones and skull being crushed under a hydraulic press.