The New Girl | 𝘈𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘡

Right Here

I was on my way home from my first semester at Stanford when a huge winter storm hit Chicago. I knew that roads were too icy. I wanted to tell my brother and father that I would delay my flight to the next day, but we already had tickets to see The Nutcracker then. It had been our tradition since before our mom had died three years ago, but we kept going as a way of holding onto her.

And suddenly, I can feel it happening all over again.

The jolt of the impact when that bus slid on the black ice into our car...

The icy daggers of glass sliding across my face and tearing into my jacket...

The cold wind bursting into the car as we slid across the traffic...

The voices of paramedics as they pulled us from the car and rushed us to the hospital...

The beeping and alarms all around me that drowned out my own voice as I called out to my family...

"Jason?" I screamed, but it was as if no one could hear me.

"Dad? Jason?"

"Where's my family?"

I broke down in tears, feeling helpless not being able to find them or help them, not knowing if they were okay.

I feel a hand stroke my hair, and when I look up, my brother is standing above me with his usual goofy grin. "Jason?"

"You're okay, Anna," he says softly. "I'm right here, don't worry."

"How are you here?" I sniffle. "You died here. In this hospital."

"It's okay, Anna," he assures me. "I'm right here."

"Am I dead?" I whimper, hoping that he will say no. That somehow the crash was all a dream.

"Open your eyes, Anna," Jason tells me, which confuses me.

"Jason?" His voice sounds different than it usually does.

"It's okay," he continues, "just open your eyes."

My body suddenly jolts in the bed, and when I open my eyes, I'm not in the hospital anymore.

I'm with Seonghwa as he sits on the edge of my bed and pets my hair. "You sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"I was," I say meekly.

"Was it about your family?" He asks in a gentle tone. "I heard you calling out your brother's name."

"Yeah," I admit, suddenly in the mood to confess my secrets. "My mom passed away a few years ago from cancer, but my dad and brother... the three of us were in a car crash before Christmas... my dad died on impact, but Jason died in the hospital a few hours later."

"Oh my god," Seonghwa reaches for my hand and gently grasps it in his. "Anna, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how awful that was."

"That's why I came to Korea," I tell him. "I wanted to come back to my home country, but I also had to get the hell out of America. I couldn't stay after everything that happened."

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," he tells me, but I shake my head and sit up straight.

"Actually, it feels good to tell someone," I admit. "None of my friend's knew how to talk to me after the accident, and my parents didn't really have any extended family, so I was kind of left on my own. I'm much happier since I got here. I did nothing but cry and sit by myself for weeks and weeks. It feels nice to be a normal person again."

"Well, I'm extremely glad to hear that you feel at all better but seriously, if you ever need someone to vent to, I'm here for you." Seonghwa pulls me to his chest and rubs my back for a while, and I doubt that I'll ever find the motivation to pull away from him. "Do you want me to stay with you tonight?"

I sleepily nod against his chest, and chuckles. I scoot over on the bed to make room for him, and the moment that he's under the covers, he pulls me to lay my head on his chest.

"Thank you for staying," I mumble against his shirt.

"It's my pleasure," he whispers before placing a kiss to my hair. "Get some sleep, pretty girl. I'll be right here when you wake up."

"Okay," I manage to reply before sleep comes back to overtake me once more.