off limits | petalz

2

During the one day that Kazuha had in between meeting Sakura and watching her brother lose the last semblances of sanity, she went out.

There was a local hospital by Kento's house, and Kazuha visited often. One of Kazuha's upperclassmen, Huh Yunjin, had a relative currently hospitalized there, and the two had been childhood friends, so out of respect she went to visit too. The girl in the ward was named Hong Eunchae, and she was Yunjin's adopted baby sister.

Yunjin and Eunchae had been joined at the hip for as long as Kazuha could remember. Eunchae was five years younger than Yunjin and two years younger than Kazuha, and she had more life in her than most people- her baby face, her sweet eyes, her sunny disposition. However, at age sixteen- only last year- she had been in a car accident, paralyzing her from the waist down. Yunjin opted to have Eunchae stay at the hospital only because their situation at home wasn't good, had never been good, and had only been worsened by the accident.

"Yun!" Kazuha called amicably, waving at her friend, who sat beside Eunchae in the children's ward. Although Eunchae was definitely old enough to be moved out of it, she enjoyed rolling around in her wheelchair and making friends in the area, and Yunjin was more than happy to agree. Yunjin visited Eunchae as much as possible and slept over at the hospital some days.

"Zuha!" Yunjin yelled back, waving her over. Eunchae was currently engrossed in a serious game of chess with another patient, Jang Kyujin, who from what Kazuha knew was diagnosed with some heart illness. "You came!"

"Of course," Kazuha grinned, plopping down next to the three. Since Kazuha had moved to Korea to attend college because her brother was there as well, she spoke near-fluent Korean, and Yunjin's Japanese was passable enough to converse with Kazuha like that sometimes.

"Kazuha-chan!" Eunchae greeted delightedly, albeit with a distracted note as she focused on the game, moving her pawn. Kyujin promptly moved her knight to take Eunchae's pawn, resulting in disappointed yelps from Eunchae and giggles from Kyujin.

"Hi, Manchae," Kazuha grinned. She ruffled Eunchae's hair and plopped down on the floor next to Yunjin. "How's it going?"

"Good," Eunchae answered. "But Jinjin has a crush."

Kazuha's jaw dropped and she stared at Yunjin. "What? On who?!"

Eunchae and Kyujin both giggled.

Yunjin shook her head wildly, her dark hair flipping in all directions. "No, no! I don't! I don't know what you're talking about. I do not have a crush. Nope. Eunchae, get back to your chess game."

Eunchae huffed and shook her head. "You totally do! I see your face every time that pretty nurse comes over to check on me and do physical therapy and that sort of stuff." Yunjin's face reddened progressively as Eunchae spoke. "Your face goes all red and you just stare at her. One time she tried to ask you something and you answered so fast she didn't even hear you! You totally like her, Jinnie! It's n-"

"O-kay, thank you, Eunchae," Yunjin cut off abruptly as she shook her head again, turning to Kazuha. "I don't have a crush on-"

Just then, a woman walked over, dressed in white scrubs. She had short black hair and dark eyes, and was a little shorter than all of the girls seated around the chess table. Her name tag was in Japanese, but the character arrangement made Kazuha blink for a moment as she processed what was written.

"Kyujin-chan?"

The nurse looked down at Kyujin, who looked up at her curiously. The nurse- whose name tag read "Nurse Kim"- smiled, bending down to meet Kyujin's eyes. "There are some guests waiting for you in the waiting room. Would you like me to take you to see them?"