A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 23

Writer's Note- I am very thankful for every read. I'm realizing how lucky I am for the Reddit community for coming here to read this story. Many writers on wattpad struggle for reads so thank you for your dedication!! I probably have about 100-200 dedicated readers and I want to thank you all for the reads. I'm not sure what more I can do but I'm sending my appreciation (across the oceans and continents to all readers).  Also, please vote.

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I woke up in a hospital bed attached to a couple tubes. I tried to sit up but a hand gently pushed down on my chest, stopping me.

I looked up expecting to see Mike but instead seeing Dr. Nguyen. He had that same cool look on his face like everything was an inconvenience to him.

"What happened?" I said, feeling like some time had passed, "Where's Mike?"

Ky sat in a chair beside my hospital bed, just looking at me. He exhaled deeply like I'd just said something ridiculous. "What happened is that I wasn't able to have lunch with Eun-Jae."

I licked my chapped lips, "I meant-"

His brows rose incrementally, "Oh, you? You fainted. It seems like your magic production increases when you get a little emotional. Today, it looks like it put you on overdrive and your brain decided it needed a break."

"So, I'm fine."

He gave me a long slow blink, "Quite the opposite, really. You'll have to see me nearly everyday so we can work on you getting a better handle on your magic levels. If you keep doing dialysis your secondary magix is going to forget how to do it's job. We need to retrain the muscles."

"I don't know if-"

"Eun-Jae and I can hold you here indefinitely, of course. You're unpredictable and could potentially be a danger to others. Please, don't make me do that. I have a wife and children I'd like to be able to see at regular hours of the day." And yet his voice still sounded hard and emotionless. I couldn't see how he cared much about anything.

"But, the flowers-"

"Yeah your boyfriend seemed to over react and talked to an officer on the phone but I don't think anything came out of it. It's best to put it out of your mind." he looked me up and down slowly, "Can you sit up?"

I sat up gingerly, feeling feverish and weak. "Who was in my room?"

Ky was looking at my chart, writing things down and watching my plasma sac fill with blue plasma. "No one was in this room, just doctors, nurses. Okay, Derrick." he snapped his fingers and I flinched, "I need you to focus."

"Don't snap at me like I'm some dog." I spat out.

Ky absently brushed his hair behind his ear and I saw them for the first time. His hair was long enough to cover both ears. I thought it was a weird haircut and there was something like an earphone there, wrapped around his ear. "You're very agitated right now, can you relax?"

"I. Am. Relaxed." I ground out.

Ky looked hard at me, and I looked away. "Oh." he said quietly. "You're...Afraid of me?"

I swallowed, inching away on the bed. "No. I'm not."

Ky laughed, the sound rich and coming from somewhere deep in his throat. I was surprised at how genuine his laughter sounded and the long dimple going down the side of his cheek as he swiped at his eyes in mirth.

"I see why you and and Dr. Song get along so well. You're both fucking assholes."  I said underneath all of his laughter.

He stopped laughing for a beat, "I guess we do both fuck assholes." And then he started laughing again like I'd just told him the funniest joke in the world.