October 14, 2020
Wooyoung POV:
I have read a lot of books throughout my lifetime. More than I can remember.
Whenever the main character would wake up in the hospital, it would always be described in the same way- he doesn't know where he is at first, his conscience is fuzzy. Then he smells the sharp, nauseating mix of Lysol and rubbing alcohol and is nearly blinded by the fluorescent dark light.
And interestingly enough, it's not much different in real life. Except the room is dark, the curtains drawn closed. And it takes me a good minute or two to remember what I'm doing here, or how I'd even gotten here. And even longer to process the fact that I'm all alone here.
Usually I'd relish even the smallest moment of solitude given to me, a rare occurrence in my life. But this time it only makes me uneasy, the rhythmic "beep-beep-beep" of the machines the only sound breaking the suffocating silence of the darkened hospital room. If I strain hard enough, I can faintly hear the sound of footsteps and hushed voices and rolling gurneys behind the door.
How long has it been? Hours, days, weeks? Or worse, months? Years?
Thankfully my head doesn't hurt nearly half as badly as it had, though my brain still feels like it's being compressed from both sides from the smallest movement. I raise my arm to my head to find it wrapped in a thick layer of gauze.
My right leg, I discovered, is immobile and hoisted in an uncomfortably heavy contraption I presume to be cast. My left wrist is confined in a splint, as are half of my fingers.
I must be a sight to behold. Just how long will it take me to get out of here?
"If you're wondering how long it's been since you'll be discharged- a week or two" a familiar voice chimes from the direction of the doorway. San? "You've been out for a solid week after your surgery. Welcome back to the dark, sad world."
"Surgery?"
"Apparently you had a TBI, a severe concussion, and it was serious enough to require surgery. You were at risk of brain bleeding, you know."
He pauses, hesitant. "You should have told me it was this bad. I wouldn't have left you alone. I would've marched you straight to hospital." Was he worried?
"I didn't know it was gonna be this bad," I murmur. "At first it hurt, pretty bad but nothing I couldn't handle. Thought it would just leave a bump. But in the evening it got so bad I genuinely thought I was dying." A shiver runs down my spine as I recall the agonizing, tearing pain in my head, unlike any I've ever felt before.
"I was fucking worried Jung," his voice cracks, eyes suspiciously moist. He looks like he hasn't slept in days.
"I thought you were gonna die. And when that car came..I was sure you were a goner."
Why do you even care? What have I done for you to make you treat me this way? I don't even deserve it.
"San. Why...why are you here?"
"Oh, I got special permission to be out of school for a week. I go back tomorrow."
"No, that's not what I meant. We...we're not even friends. Borderline enemies, even. Why do you care so much? If I were you I wouldn't have cared less about what happens to the likes of me."
He doesn't answer, the ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, and walks over to the edge of the room, placing the bouquet of baby blue hydrangeas in his arms into a tall glass or water residing on the mosaic countertop. I study him for a minute- the way his thick jet-black hair is slightly greasy at the edges, the dark circles under his eyes more prominent than ever, the hollows of his cheekbones. His black oversized hoodie. The faint smell of peaches and mint gum I'd only recently begun to recognize as his signature scent.
YOU ARE READING
Lucifer : Tainted | Woosan
Fanfiction"If they'd heard us right now, they'd say we'd gone crazy. That we lost our fucking minds." "That's what they'd always said, you know. About you and me."
