Your hand in mine

Season 1 - 1

Yeong Kim's body looks small on a hospital bed, with tubes attached to him.

"Life support," Jennie says into the phone as she stares at her father, lying lifeless behind the glass. "They had to put him on life support."

"Jesus. I'm so sorry. Do you want me to come get you, or - what should I do? Is there anything I can do?"

She shrugs, but then remembers Kai can't see her. "No," she says. "It's-" she wants to say it's okay, it's fine, but, "there isn't. We wait now."

"And hope," her boyfriend says on the other line, determined but soft.

"Mister Kim is tough. I should know."

Jennie laughs. The sound is hollow. "He never did like it when you called him Yeong. I don't think he liked you all that much." She imagines Kai shrugging at her words, hair falling onto his face with the gesture. He's either in the supply closet or bathroom, hiding from his co-workers to take this call.

"I'll let him punch me when he wakes up." Jennie pretends not to notice Kai uses when, and Kai pretends not to notice she uses the past tense when talking about her father. "Then again, he isn't one for physical violence. Shit - in a minute!" Jennie winces when Kai yells to someone, too sharp and too loud for her right now. "I'm sorry, babe, I gotta go," he addresses her again,regretful. "I'll come over tonight, okay? We will talk and-"

"No." She clears her throat when she realizes she might have sounded too harsh. "I don't - I would like to be alone tonight."

"Oh, Okay." Kai doesn't push. He never does. She likes that the most about him, she thinks. "Well, just let me know if... I'm sorry, I really need to go."

"It's okay. Miss Y/l/n will have you lynched if you don't." she imagines his half-smile, gentle and easy. It doesn't help the heaviness in the pit of her stomach. "Bye, Kai."

"Bye. I love you," he tries. When she doesn't say anything, he only lets out a small sigh she's sure he doesn't realize she's heard, and hangs up.

She continues to stare at her father.

-

In the end, she still calls Kai, high on wine and sorrow. He's at her place five minutes later, almost as if he's been waiting for her. She doesn't want to think about it right now. She just wants to feel just a touch less miserable, a little less empty. She wants to feel as though her father will walk in any moment now, full of life and disapproval at her choice in men. As though he's never slammed his brakes in a desperate attempt to avoid head-on collision with a truck, wheels screeching on black ice. As though- Kai gets it. He lets her use him because he loves her and because he knows she loves him, too. There's something in his eyes when she lets him in; like he's in on a secret Jennie's not privy to, and that secret is the answer to all of her questions.

He doesn't wait for her to ask. Instead, he begins the conversation himself, when they lay there, still struggling to catch their breaths, skin cooling down.

"Life support is a lot of money, Jennie," isn't the best opening he could have come up with. She feels herself bristle before forcing herself to calm down. Kai means well, he always does. So she doesn't say anything, instead letting him talk. He continues. "Money that we don't have."

"You think I don't know that?"

"I know a way, though." He props his head up on his hand, watching her stare at the ceiling. "You'll hate it, but it's a sure one."

She doesn't have much time and much of a choice. "What is it?"

Kai takes a deep breath. When Jennie doesn't react, he slowly releases it. "Miss Y/l/n broke up with her latest girlfriend." The way he says girlfriend hints at something short of distasteful, and Jennie knows it's not because Miss Y/l/n is a woman, as well. They've spent some time discussing his boss's conquests this past year, when he got a job as an assistant manager at one of her corporations. Yes, plural. She's old money. Some of her businesses are inherited, some of it she's built herself. And so young too: she's only a couple of years older than Jennie. She remembers looking her up online when Kai got his job.