Winter's Blooms

Chapter 17: Light Switch

"Don't open your eyes yet, keep them closed." Jimin's mother advised her when Irene's hands busily unwrapped the thin fabric around Minjeong's head. "We have to check your condition first." Minjeong nodded.

Compared to Minjeong, Jimin looked more nervous than anyone in the room. She watched Irene's movement carefully, her breath hitched everytime she felt like the professional was going to make a mistake and elbowed Minjeong's face in the process.

Ningning leaned to her. "Why do you look like you just wrestle a cat for a can of tuna?"

Jimin blinked her eyes at her before looking down on herself.

"If I were you, I would reapply my makeup right now." Jimin gulped when her friend's eyes judgingly went down. "Do you want to borrow my dress?"

"Shut up."

"At least brush your hair."

"Okay." Irene stepped away from Minjeong and Jimin's worries turned back to the florist. The doctor smiled at Minjeong who was still keeping her eyes closed obediently, biting her lip as her hands gripped the rail on her bed. "You're very patient, Minjeong-ssi, just a little bit more." She carefully scanned the skin around Minjeong's eyes and Jimin did the same from a distance.

Amused at her daughter's antics, the other doctor tapped Jimin's arm. "Can you close the blinds, please? The sun might hurt her eyes."

Wordlessly Jimin obeyed, walking backwards around Minjeong's bed and pulled on the curtains while her eyes glued to the doctor and the patient impatiently waiting for her next command.

Irene used a tiny light to scan the florist's skin, and the florist visibly tensed up. "Doctor Bae."

Everyone went quiet, even Doctor Bae herself froze along with Jimin. "Yeah?"

"I think I can see the lights."

And Jimin's knees went weak. The blonde held herself up by grabbing into the window sill, her breath stopped and she bit her lip when she felt the overwhelming emotion rising up her throat as she heard everyone else breathing in a big relief and excitement.

Watching Minjeong's parents step closer to the florist, wrapping her in a warm embrace while the woman herself chuckled breathlessly, Jimin felt herself tearing up in silence.

"Okay, that's good, that's really good." Irene couldn't even contain her personal excitement. She grinned widely and glanced at Jimin before nodding her head. "You can open your eyes now, Minjeong-ssi."

All she wanted to do was to see for herself the look of the woman she loved when she finally could see again, but her legs wouldn't allow her. Jimin was still drowning in her happiness as her tears pooled overwhelmingly when she heard Minjeong's faint gasp.

She watched how Minjeong turned slightly to her parents, hesitantly reaching out to them before they engulfed her in another warm hug that lasted longer than before. "Oh my God." the florist whispered breathlessly, choking up in the process.

Ningning let her tears out along with Minjeong's parents cry of joy while Ryujin and Aeri tried to mask theirs with a big grin. Minjeong eyed them one by one, smiling widely before she frowned.

Then she slowly turned around.

Her brown eyes were greeted by Jimin's tearful smile, fluttering in daze when the blonde choked out a bigger happy one showing her perfect teeth. Minjeong set her feet to the ground and fully turned around.

Still glued to her spot, her pupils darkened as they roamed the sight. With her eyes shifted quickly on Jimin's body, the woman felt bare.

Minjeong didn't have a smile on her face, it was unreadable and all Jimin could feel beside her joy was her own heartbeat.