The Truth About Monsters

Chapter 14: This is War

Rosie's coughing subsided with every step Jisoo took on the lustrous, buffed white floor, bringing her closer and closer to Rosie's room.

Jessica was at her side, trying and failing to tell Jisoo that she needed room to check on Rosie.

There was a reason Jisoo never did hospitals.

She couldn't handle the environment, the loss of control, surrendering oneself to a "medical professional", in hopes that they could handle a life so fragile.

Jisoo liked control.

She enjoyed exercising, pushing her body to the extreme limits, running until her legs were weak and her lungs ached. She enjoyed the endurance, the doubt that filled her mind. Sometimes she didn't know if she'd make it through the burn, but she knew the reward to reap was too sweet not to try. It left her with a rush of endorphins, a sweet ease to her insatiable appetite.

Loving Roseanne Park was like that.

Jisoo was shaken from her thoughts as Jessica pushed Rosie's door open, hustling to the side of her bed to sit her up gently.

Jisoo could barely hear over the sound of her pounding heart, the thuds deafening, coupled with the machine's incessant beeping.

Jessica assessed Rosie's vitals. "She's waking up." She murmured calmly.

Jisoo's eyes widened.

Rosie's coughing subsided fully as her eyelids appeared to flutter momentarily, and then, they shot open.

Everything was painted in the cerulean blue of Rosie's eyes.

They were so bright, so sharp, so alive.

She was sitting up, chest rising and falling, blonde locks cleaned and falling around her.

Jisoo's had never been in love with color blue, and now, it was all she ever wanted to see.

Jessica bent down to Rosie's level, brushing a stray hair from her face. "Hey, Rosie." She spoke gently, reassuringly. "You're okay. How are you feeling?"

Rosie tried to croak out something, and it came as a barely audible whisper, followed by a cough or two. "Jisoo..."

Jisoo.

Rosie was calling her, before her mother, before anyone else. Before answering her doctor.

Jisoo was out of the doorframe in seconds, and Rosie's body literally sighed in relief upon seeing her.

Jessica hid a smile. "If you're alright, I'll leave you to it?"

Rosie nodded slowly, tiredly.

Jisoo couldn't breathe. Not yet. It was all so unreal.

Jessica rose, brushing off her scrubs as she turned to face Jisoo.

Jessica gave her a look that said it all. Will she be okay?

Jessica nodded, motioning to the cup of water she'd left by Rosie's bedside. "She'll still be pretty hazy, so no stress, okay?"

Jisoo nodded mutely, barely hearing Jessica prop the door open behind her as she left.

She approached Rosie slowly, unable to fight the moisture clouding her gaze as she came beside her.

She'd thought about this moment, the likelihood of it even happening, for hours and hours.

And now, she didn't know what to say.

Rosie's lazy smile was all she needed, all the urging and prompting she needed to remember the water.