exotic | k.th

6 ‣ call me

"Hey, sweet girl." You take your sister's cold hands into your own, looking at her with your own eyes fighting tears as she slowly turns her head to look up at you. Her face tries it's hardest to give you some sort of smile. You return the gesture painfully, losing yourself in the emptiness of Aria's shining dark eyes. "It's okay. You're gonna be just fine, Ari." You squeeze her hand, knowing it's all a lie. "You'll be okay. This is just another bump in the road."

"You—can cry." Aria's small, fragile voice leaves her pale lips plagued with shaky air. She struggles to keep her eyes open but she's determined to keep looking up at you. "I know you want to. It's okay." Aria does her best to squeeze your hand back. You press your lips together into another weak smile and shake your head. Aria looks down at her gown. "D-Did you.." she trails off, catching her breath, "did you see Dad?" She asks quietly.

"I—yeah, I did." You answer, glancing up at Joni who waits for you outside the room, behind the glass. "He, um.. he said he misses you a bunch." You look back down at Aria, who tries to smile again at your words on your father's behalf. She doesn't know what he did. She doesn't know how bad of a person he is. He's her father and she loves him. You don't find a reason for her to harbor hate for anyone when her life is scheduled to be so short. All she knows is that he's in jail for something.

"I miss him, too." Aria whispers, losing the fight with her heavy eyelids as they just seem to get heavier and heavier as the seconds pass by. Her eyes slowly close but her small smile doesn't fade quite yet. "Next time, tell him I'm sorry for not visiting." She leans her head back comfortably on the pillow. "I'll try harder next time." Her breathing gets slower. You feel her hand gradually loose its grip on your fingers as she drifts away. Now, you allow the tears to slip down your face.

After a few minutes, you let the nurses take over and walk back out to the hallway with Joni and the doctor who explained Aria's condition to you prior to letting you go see her. He looks at you with soft eyes as you wipe your tears and try your hardest to compose yourself. You've been through this many times. Aria's had more death scares than you can count. And not once does it get any easier. Every single time you have to prepare yourself for the worst because she can die at any given second.

"Ms. Lee," Dr. Jeong begins, "as we've done a couple times before, I'd like to keep Aria here overnight or as long as we need to for observation." He tells you gently. "There's always hope that she will get better again and continue her life as she has.." He pauses as you close your eyes. "But you and I both know she can also get much, much worse." His tone softens, glancing over at the little girl sleeping, connected to all those machines. "And if that were to happen, I just want you to be prepared."

You take a deep breath and give him a small nod. "Thank you, Doctor." You look over at Aria, too, feeling your heartbeat pound in your temples. Dr. Jeong nods back kindly, understanding that you can't look him in the eyes right now. This is an impossible situation, and you've had to undergo its suffocating weight an impossible amount of times. "Um," you look down and clench your jaw, "how long do you think she'll have to stay this time?"

"There really is no telling at these heights, I'm sorry." Dr. Jeong respectfully places his hand on your shoulder in hopes to provide you some sort of comfort. "I hope it's not long. I know the both of you hate hospitals."

"I—I have to work to pay off the treatment, so," you exhale, turning to find Joni sitting on some waiting chairs by the I.C.U. desk, "I won't be around much during the day, but I'll try my best to be here whenever I can. Joni—will come by, probably." You feel guilty even having to hear those words leave your mouth, but you don't have much of a choice with words and options right now. "If anything happens, I don't care what time it is, you call me." You turn back to Dr. Jeong.