Let Me Protect You (Sahyo)

Chapter 6

Jihyo wasn’t sure what exactly woke her up, but she didn’t feel well-rested in the least. Her head was heavy on her shoulders, her spine cracking in protest as she tried to get up from her position on the two-seater sofa. There was a much longer four-seater beside it but she decided that the leather looked way too expensive for her to be okay with throwing her feet on it. A light snore could be heard when she cracked open the bedroom door, finding Sana's sleeping form moving with her breaths under the swaddle of blankets. She tiptoed her way to the bed, tugging at a corner of the blanket until it properly covered Sana's exposed leg, before slipping out of the room again.

She located the fridge quickly, some fancy fridge with a touchscreen on its door saying good morning to her as she opened it. Surprisingly, the fridge was well stocked, with neat rows of ingredients like boiled eggs, greens, fruits and frozen rice. Jihyo began gathering the ingredients she needed, the ox bone and beef packed away neatly in freezer bags while the soybean sprouts, white radishes and green onions were in their specified fresh veggies section of the fridge. With as little noise as possible, she busied herself with preparing the stew of haejangguk, anticipating that Sana would be dying with a hangover once she woke up, and she could personally vouch for the anti-hangover effects of this recipe.

With the broth in the slow cooker and the rice in the steamer, there was time for a short nap before everything was ready. She went back to the small sofa, curling in on herself and falling asleep easier than she expected herself to.

Sana woke up to the smell of something herbal, a smile forming on her face even before her eyes opened. If I begged nicely would my neighbours let me have whatever they were cooking? She let out a little yawn as she roused from sleep. A harsh pang across her temples hit her, however, and it suddenly all came back to her. She did not remember going home and definitely did not remember changing out of her clothes. In the corner, the pieces of her outfit from last night were folded neatly and placed on the floor. There was nothing else out of the ordinary around the room, so she figured that being incredibly meticulous with dirty laundry was just another quirk Drunk Sana had.

She threw aside the mountain of blankets, tumbling out of bed groggily, and stepped out into the living room. There was something amiss. She froze, lowering her stance before continuing into the space. An army green backpack was resting against her loveseat, something she knew didn’t belong to her nor Momo but was sure she saw it somewhere before. She crept over, not missing the fragrance of herbal broth getting stronger as she neared her kitchen.

Her hand was raised in front of her, ready to attack whoever was hiding on her couch. She counted herself down in her racing mind, before peeking over the headrest. There, curled up to fit into the small space of the couch, was her bodyguard. Jihyo was clearly asleep, but her forehead was drenched in sweat, a frown deep set on her brows and her whole body trembling. She was having a nightmare.

Sana's hand dropped immediately, and she rounded the sofa to crouch in front of Jihyo.

“Hyo, wake up.” She shook the girl’s arm very lightly, but it was enough to do the job.

Jihyo's eyes shot open, still arrested with fear. Her hands gripped onto her own shirt in a practiced method to ground herself, her erratic breaths slowing itself when she regained her bearings and saw the red cotton of the couch she was lying on.

“Are you okay? What kind of nightmare was that?" Sana turned Jihyo by her shoulders to face her as she wiped her damp hair away from her face.

The kind that I would never want to talk about. Especially not to you.

"I'm okay, just a normal nightmare. Nothing special." Jihyo replied nonchalantly, hoping that she won’t harp on it.

"You sure? Never seen you look this scared before." sana pressed, skeptical that ‘just a normal nightmare’ can make this seemingly fearless bodyguard break out in cold sweat..