About to Break (Holding You)

Part 6

I'm late with the update. Again. Sorry :p

I'm afraid updates will continue to be erratic like this, because I keep rewriting everything and adding new stuff all the time, and then I just simply lack time (or sometimes desire) to edit and post it. My apologies. But worry not, I will finish this story sooner or later hehe

Thank you for your patience.

January

Wheein swiftly and efficiently peels off the tangerine, carefully divides it into pieces, pops one slice into her mouth, and hands the remaining two halves to Hyejin and me. She still frowns at the closed door opposite of our sitting place, and although she's not showing it, I know she is worried. That makes her subtle concern for Hyejin and my empty stomachs all the more touching.

The sweet taste explodes on my tongue and I squint with delight, forgetting for a moment the stack of papers I left waiting on my desk when Wheein called a couple of hours ago. I force myself to relax a bit and stop thinking about work. Byul is in the hospital with appendicitis, how can I even think of anything else? Let alone, about work. And honestly, am I the boss or who? Let Changsub take care of paperwork.

"How did it happen?" Hyejin frowns, spreading her legs to the sides, and looks around the white corridors of the hospital with unease.

"She had one too many tanghulu," Wheein sighs. "Nothing serious, really, you shouldn't have taken off from work like that."

"I'm taking a rest from work," Hyejin replies immediately. "I am free as the wind."

"I'm the boss," I support. "Free as the wind as well."

"Just you see, Byulyi-unnie will burst into tears when she finds out that you showed up at the hospital for her sake at four in the morning," Wheein grins, then looks at her handwatch and sighs. "We should be allowed to see her soon."

I steal a glance at Hyejin. She looks tired. I know it's been a pretty tough month for her, first that thing on Christmas day Hyejin didn't say a word about, then her mother got pneumonia (thank God Mrs. Ahn got over it fairly quickly), and now she has exams upcoming.

My hand reaches out to her on its own, my palm resting gently on her jeans-clad knee, silently offering support. Hyejin smiles with the corners of her lips, her cheeks full of tangerine slices, and I realize that from now on that quiet smile of hers - secret, meant only for me - will always be associated with the sweet smell of citrus and the timid, cold dawn breaking through skyscrapers and hospital windows.

God, Kim Yongsun, get a grip on yourself.

"Moon Byulyi is ready to receive visitors." The nurse appears in front of us absolutely silently and so quickly that Hyejin flinches slightly. "But only for a little while, the anesthesia will wear off soon, and she will be in a bit of pain."

"Thank you," says Wheein, crumpling her hat in her hands.

We get up from our uncomfortable metal bench, bow to the nurse and almost race to the door of the ward.

There are four beds inside, and all four are occupied. Byulyi lies by the window, and as she turns to us, a wide smile spreads open on her pale face.

"Oh, having fun, aren't ya?" Wheein hisses without malice, covering the distance between them in three steps, grabs Byulyi by the cheeks – forcefully and softly at the same time (how does she do it?) – and kisses her forehead soundly. "I think half of South Korea wrote to me in that one hour you were in surgery. How do you have so many friends?"