Present..
After Jihyo left the house, Gary slide out a brown box from underneath the bed and set it down on the bed. He brushed his hand over the surface of the lid of the box before opening it.
Seeing the things inside, he ought to feel an overwhelming sense of grieve but he didn't. His heart did ached a little.
He took out the bunny plush and placed it on the bed. The white onesie set box was still unopened. Lying on top of it was the yellow onesie, still in it's original wrapper. He digged further into the box, lifting up the onesie set box slightly, and reached for the piece of glossy paper beneath it.
He flipped it over and looked at the black, fuzzy image. "You would have been a few months old now." He mumbled and brushed his fingertip over the photo.
***
Jihyo started to prepare her materials for the meeting as soon as she reached the office. There were still a few documents that needs to be printed. Thirty minutes later, one of the junior designer, Ju won, came to her office to inform her that the meeting was about to start.
She stacked the files on top of her laptop and carried them to the meeting room. The two junior designers were already in the room when she entered. She settled down her stuff and set up her laptop for the presentation.
A few minutes later, two men dressed in suits entered the room. They introduced themselves as the representatives of 'K' Company, one of the largest company in South Korea that specialized in the marketing and exportation field. They just moved to a new headquarter and required some customised furniture for their new office.
She and the other two designers took turns to explain to the clients regarding the design of the furniture that they wanted. At the end of the one and a half hour meeting, the clients signed the contract and the deal was sealed.
"We will contact you when the manufacturing process starts." Jihyo said to the clients and see them out of the meeting room. Once the clients left, the smile on her face faded and she pursed her lips together and held onto the door handle. She have been enduring a dull aching pain in her upper abdomen throughtout the meeting. Her gastric was acting up again.
"Jihyo ssi, are you alright? You don't look good." Ju won asked as she craned her head to look at her.
She nodded her head. She let out a deep breath and looked at Ju won and the other designer standing behind her. "Sorry that both of you had to come back on a weekend. There's nothing much to do now. Pack up and go home to rest." She said to them.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yes, I am." She managed a smile, "Be careful on the way home." She said and head back to her office.
She pushed open the door and walked towards the chair while pressing against her upper abdomen. She sat down and slide open the top desk drawer. She put back the files that she took out for the meeting and closed the drawer but before she even close it completely, her eyes settled on the brown glass bottle at the corner.
She let go of the handle and picked up the bottle that was empty. A knot formed in the back of her throat as she stared at it.
-
Flashback
It was a normal day like any other day. She was at the factory supervising the manufacturing process. Something which she does every two weeks.
She went back to the company after making sure that everything was going fine.
"Ju won, I need a finalized draft for this design by tomorrow. Se kyung and Min, there are some mistakes in the proposal. Look through it again and hand it to me by tomorrow." she passed them the files and they nodded in response.
She return to her office and continued to work on the stack of paperwork that seems to be endless. She was busy looking through the documents in her laptop when she suddenly felt a dull pain in her abdomen. She glanced at the time on the bottom right of the screen. It was already 1pm. She pulled open the top drawer and reached for the bottle of gastric pills. She swallowed the last two pills with some water and continued on with her work.
Knowing that she skip meals often, Gary would drop by her office during break time, bringing along some food bought from the cafeteria.
An employee pointed to where Jihyo is upon seeing Gary enter the office. He nodded his head in acknowledgement and went towards Jihyo's office. He knocked on the door like how he would usually do. There was no answer. He push the door opened slowly and peered inside. She was resting her head on her folded arms on the table.
"Jihyo." He called her softly and closed the door.
He put the food on the table and went behind her. He rested his hands on her shoulders and gave her a massage. "Busy day?" He asked.
"Hmm.." She mumbled in response. She raised her head and reached for one of his hand on her shoulder, and looked up at him.
He responded by kissing her on her forehead. He took the food out from the plastic bag and slide it across the table to her. There was a chicken wrap and a bottle of orange juice.
"I don't feel like eating." She said softly and felt her abdomen, stroking it gently as though to soothe the pain.
"Are you having gastric pain again?" He furrowed his eyebrows in concern and looked at her.
"I think so.. I ate the pills but it doesn't seem to be working." She screwed her eyes shut as she felt a sudden sharp pain. It was no longer the dull aching pain that she was feeling five minutes before.
"This won't do. Let's go to the doctor." Gary rushed over to help her up but she grabbed his hand and stopped him.
"I'll be fine after resting for awhile." She said but in a little breathy voice.
"Jihyo-yah, this doesn't look normal to me." He felt her forehead. It wasn't feverish instead he felt cold sweat breaking out on her forehead. "You wouldn't look so severely in pain if it's only the old gastric problem."
"I-" A low cry escaped through her mouth. She screwed her eyes shut and clutched her stomach tightly and bent over from the excruciating pain.
"Jihyo, what's wrong? Yeobo!"
The pain was too much for her to reply him. All he could hear was soft whimpering sound coming from her. Without thinking any further, he scooped her up in his arms and pushed the door open with his back. Their colleagues were all staring at him in shock as he rushed out of the office with Jihyo, pale and weak, in his arms.
