Unloved To Loved | Daerin

Chapter 3

Much to Danielle's dismay, she had been rostered onto day shifts. The last time she had seen her mysterious patient, Kang Haerin was three weeks ago.

Frustratingly for her, Danielle could not get the woman out of her mind. She had so many questions that plagued her every waking moment.

Danielle had so many questions she knew the other woman wouldn't answer. She was sure of it.

Haerin had kept her answers very general both nights, leaving Danielle's mind to try and fill in the blanks. She had been creating her own stories of Haerin, fantasising about the life the fighter led.

Three weeks had passed. Every day since, Daniel would make a point to ask if Haerin had been admitted when night shift would hand over to her day shift.

Every day she would always receive the same answer. No.

Danielle wanted to assume this was a good thing, that Haerin was winning her fights and not succumbing to injuries that would bring her into the hospital.

She had a creative mind though. At her desk or lying in bed at night Danielle would worry.
Was Haerin okay? Had Haerin moved away? Would she come back to her? Was she (god forbid) dead? She could not bear it. Her heart ached for a woman she hardly knew.

From the basement of her heart, Danielle knew Haerin needed someone. From what she had gathered, Haerin lived her life like a leopard, muscular yet agile, solo and not owing anyone anything.

She wondered if Haerin ever felt lonely or had someone to love and care for her.
Danielle had checked the younger woman's information on the hospital records. She had no emergency contact and had never come to the hospital with anyone else.

Danielle went as far as to try and find her on social media; her search fell short when she could not find any accounts under Haerin's name.

Haerin was a ghost, remnants of her life were immortalised with old newspaper articles online. Danielle learned Haerin had run a lot of track in high school until she seemingly stopped half way through high school.

Danielle's mind wreaked havoc. Restless and unable to sleep, she rolled over to pick up her phone.

She decided to further her investigations. Haerin had mentioned she was a mixed martial arts fighter and maybe something would come up.

Tapping her fingers to search, Danielle decided to start with the local known MMA clubs.

Scouring their Instagram and facebook pages.

Perhaps her eagle eyes would pick up Haerin's face in the background of photos or maybe if she was lucky there would be a photo posted of Haerin after she had won a fight.

Danielle had well and truly spiralled by the time she came across a trainer called Minji.

Minji seemed to be well involved with fighters from most rings around Korea. Training them and supporting them, most fighters were raving about the woman.

Danielle's heart palpitated as she scrolled slightly down Minji's feed to see a photo of the trainer with Haerin.

She had never pressed on a post faster than the one she had just found. It was captioned, I push this one to her limits and she goes further. #fightundergroundring
Much to Danielle's delight, Minji had posted multiple pictures of Haerin.

Minji had taken action shots of Cruz training, there was a selfie of the two smiling and the last photo was Haerin inside a cage standing over her downed opponent covered in their blood screaming to the sky that she had won.

Maybe it was because she was delirious after a long day's work and that it was 1AM in the morning or maybe she had a crush. Danielle found herself smiling goofily at her phone, like she was sixteen again.