vớ vẩn 2

chap 20 - Wake Up

When he shoved the check-in area door open he didn't realise how hard he had pushed it because when it hit the opposite wall with a loud thud he jumped in surprise and he saw the woman that was behind the desk did so too. She actually let out a little squeak and took a step back and Hoseok stopped stupidly a few feet away from the desk before his panicked mind remembered what he was doing and he darted over to it to lean on the polished wooden counter. The woman flinched and looked at his hands, one of her own hands reaching up to her breast to seize a handful of her white blouse.

"I need to call an ambulance," he said, trying his hardest to keep his voice calm and not at a shout because he could see that the woman was frightened and he didn't want to scare her any more than he already had. "It's an emergency I have to call an-"

"Hang on," she said as she lifted the receiver up from the cradle, "do you want to call it or do you want me to?" Hoseok went dumb for a moment before finally managing to stutter out that she should call them. Right now he knew that the minute he heard the operator's voice on the line he would just start blabbering nonsense and he couldn't afford to waste any time because this really was an emergency. "OK, OK, I'm dialing the number. What do I need to report?"

"An...an accident. My friend got hit with a glass...a glass bottle and he's...shit there's a shard stuck in his throat and-" the woman's face seemed to pale and her mouth went slack at this as she pressed the receiver against her ear. "He needs an ambulance," Hoseok managed to finish lamely. He had his weight balanced on his wrists but they didn't feel that steady and he thought that they might just give in so he shifted and folded his elbows on it instead. That made him feel a little more stable, for his legs weren't going to hold him up much longer either. They might just need to take him to the hospital too at this rate because he was pretty sure that his heart was going to explode if he didn't find a way to calm himself down.

"What room number are you?" she asked as she waited for the operator to answer her call and he managed to mumble the room number was six and she went silent for a moment. "Hello, yes I need an ambulance." He heard a voice on the other end, a static burst that was indecipherable to his ears and was just a noise. So she quickly gave the address of the hostel and proceeded to give the details that she had, that there had been an accident and a person had been injured by a piece of glass, a throat injury that required emergency treatment.

Hoseok closed his eyes and listened to her voice, taking deep breaths in through his nose and letting them back out again through his mouth. She was talking in a low voice and though she sounded frightened she was trying very hard to keep calm and give the details to the operator. His heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel twin pulses in his throat and his head, just like how his headaches used to feel. When he reached up to rub at his brow he wasn't surprised to feel that it was clammy against the back of his hand.

"OK...OK thank you." The receiver went back into the cradle with a clunking sound and he opened his eyes to see the woman on the desk shifting to grab something. Before he could see what it was he felt her hand against his brow and she started dabbing at his skin with a tissue, the little pink floral box on the counter in front of him. "Take deep breaths, OK? It's going to be OK. Your friend is going to be fine, the ambulance will be here in a few minutes so just take deep breaths and try to calm down."

"...OK."

"You look like you're going to faint," the woman said in a cautious tone, the tissue lightly moving along his brow. "Do you need to sit down? I can get you a chair if you need one?" Hoseok couldn't seem to answer her for a moment because he was so distracted by his own terrified thoughts, eyes glued to the red telephone. But then he managed to say that he was fine, that he didn't need a chair. It wasn't exactly the truth, because he probably should sit down but right now he wasn't important. "I know that you're scared and that you might not be thinking straight but...do I need to call the police?"