Kill Me Softly

All About You

She pulled out a picture of Yoonbum's uncle. Yoonbum's stomach jumped, and he had no choice but to say the first thing that came into his head.
"Never seen him before. I'm sure there was just a mix up with the addresses."
She looked at him suspiciously for a second, but then looked back down to her folder.
"If you say so, I suppose we have no choice but to trust your word. Secondly, the person who was found with you, wasn't he the same person you reported that same day? What happened?"
Yoonbum's mind raced, trying to figure out a way to cover up his story. "Yes, ah, about that. He's actually my good friend. See, I haven't been feeling well lately. I've been... hearing and seeing things that sometimes aren't real. I guess I must have... uh... hallucinated some things. That must have been why I was acting so strangely at the police station. I, um, tripped and fell down some stairs the other week, and I guess I must have had a pretty bad concussion. Stuff happens, you know? Sorry about all the trouble."
The officer gaped at him, completely incredulous that her time had been wasted. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to speak, but ending up looking like a fish. Yoonbum knew he had done it. It was true that if a concussion was left untreated it could lead to some hallucinations due to brain damage. Of course, Yoonbum hadn't had any hallucinations. He was satisfied that he had protected Sangwoo and completely separated himself from his uncle all at once. She was still staring at Yoonbum like a statue when Yoonbum's nurse re entered.
"I trust everything's all set, officer? Now, if you'll please excuse us, this young man needs to get some rest."
The officer stood up like a robot and left the room, not taking her eyes off Yoonbum the whole time. Yoonbum looked gratefully at the nurse, who gave him a small wink. Once the door was closed, she crossed over to stand beside Yoonbum and said,
"I thought you'd like to be rid of her. Besides, I can't have police in here upsetting my patients. I also have some good news for you. He just woke up."
She smiled kindly at Yoonbum. His eyes widened and he tried to sit up. She immediately pushed him gently back down.
"Now you can't see him just yet because he's still very weak. But if you take your time and rest, I think they'll let him have visitors in a couple days. You should be good to go by then, so we'll let you go home, but he'll have to stay a while. Now listen," she raised her voice as Yoonbum made a noise of protest and tried to sit up again, "he was much worse than you and they'll probably want to keep him a bit longer to make sure he's mentally stable enough to go home. You know he tried to kill himself, and I don't care what you're going to try to say, you know you want him to get help. I know how it feels, so I'm trying to convince them to put him in a program so that he can stay at home and have therapy during the day. That's good enough for you, right? It's going to be okay, darling, I promise."
Yoonbum had started to cry again. He felt so many emotions all at once, he didn't know which one was causing the tears. The nurse looked at him with pain in her eyes and hugged him. Yoonbum hugged her back. Suddenly, he was thinking of his mother. He remembered his father and thought of how Sangwoo could have been another person he lost and started to cry harder. He hugged the nurse as his body shook. She patted his back and told him he was going to be alright. After a while, the tears had stopped and Yoonbum began to feel very tired. His nurse pulled up his blanket and turned to leave.
"Wait," Yoonbum said groggily, "what's your name?"
She turned and smiled at him,
"Kyung-Soon"
She answered.
"Thank you, Kyung-Soon."
She nodded in response and exited the room. Without any reason to stay awake, the emotional and physical trials of the past 24 hours began to catch up to Yoonbum. Knowing Sangwoo would be better soon enough, he quickly fell asleep.
When morning came the next day, Yoonbum ate a simple breakfast, and got ready to start treatment. Since he no longer needed to regain any blood, his treatment would mostly be getting his body back to normal. That day, all he had to do was get up and walk down to the hospital cafeteria for lunch. Kyung-Soon the nurse insisted that he use a walker and that she go with him. He felt silly hobbling down the hallway with her, but he did it anyway. For the rest of the day, he rested. Kyung-Soon made him drink two glasses of water every hour and constantly asked him how he was feeling. Yoonbum thought she really was like a worried mother. After a few days of this, the doctors announced that Yoonbum was allowed to go home. They made him promise to abstain from any hard exercise and to make sure he ate and drank plenty. Once he had promised many times to take good care of himself, he shook the doctor's hands, gave Kyung-Soon a quick hug, and left. He signed himself out at the front desk and exited the building. Once he got outside, he boarded a bus with the money the man at the front desk had given him when he had said he planned to walk home. Yoonbum was not supposed to visit Sangwoo until the next day, but he thought about it the whole ride home. Yoonbum was surprised to find that he felt nervous when he thought about it. He didn't know what he would say to Sangwoo. Everything in their relationship had been so strange and dark recently. Hell, Yoonbum thought, he pretended to be my uncle so I wouldn't leave him. I lied to the police to keep him safe! Strangely, the thought made Yoonbum laugh. The whole thing seemed like a big joke to him now. He had felt so scared when he thought Sangwoo might die, he didn't think he could ever be mad at him. That's unconditional love for you. Yoonbum returned to his apartment, where he found a note from the doctor Sangwoo had hired, declaring his resignation. Yoonbum wasn't surprised, and he couldn't say he cared very much. He went inside and began writing. He wrote a thousand different things to say to Sangwoo the next morning. He couldn't find the right words. When he looked up, he saw the sky was already dark. Yoonbum felt silly that he had been writing for so long, but the twinge of anxiety in his stomach counteracted it. Figuring there was nothing else he could do, Yoonbum broke his promise to the doctors by eating a bag of chips for dinner, and then went to bed. The next day, Yoonbum found himself in a daze. He couldn't think of anything but Sangwoo. He was about to see Sangwoo. What would he say to Sangwoo? He was so glad Sangwoo was okay. Yoonbum didn't have any other thoughts until finally he found himself standing outside the closed door of Sangwoo's hospital room. The noise in his head stopped and he felt his hands grow sweaty. Before he pushed open the door, he had one thought:
This is it.