Trapped Freedom

chapter 24

The winter season had finally come to South Korea. Everyone had gotten back to their normal lives. Yoona and Bogum liked each other but they didn't feel a connection. They decided to stay friends. Yoona didn't mind too much and just focused on herself. She also noticed all the things Changwook would try to do to make her happy. It would do from small things like making her a cup of coffee to things like planning events for her but not saying they are for her specifically. Although she felt bad for making him have to go through these lengths, she still couldn't fully say she trust him. Money and favors don't build trust and despite her telling him he didn't have to do it he insisted. Minyoung didn't come around as she did anymore.
There seemed to be no progress at all until one day. Changwook had planned another company workshop but he didn't seem to be doing too well. They were staying at a hotel and Changwook was running back and forth between everything. He looked more tired than normal. He was pale, he had red eyes, his lips were dry, and he seemed to be breathing heavier than normal. Yoona seemed to be the only one who really noticed. She would ask around but no one could say what was wrong with him. She also noticed how he was trying to avoid everyone but still do what he needed to. When the day finally came to an end, everyone was in their rooms but Yoona stood outside of Changwook's. It was now snowing really hard outside but Yoona had gone to get him something warm to eat. She could tell he was sick but was trying to hide it by acting normal and avoiding everyone. She knocked on his door and after a minute he opened it. "Yoona? What are you doing here?" He asked trying to fix his hair? She didn't say anything but just held up the bag of food.

"Why didn't you just cancel the trip, you're in no condition to be doing what you were." "You all we're really looking forward to it. I couldn't just stop everything. I'm fine." He says as she served him the food on the couch. "The flu is fine, I know you're busy but time to take care of yourself needs to be squeezed in your tight schedule as well." She says adding more blankets to his bed for when he laid down later. "Since you are here, you can catch it too." "No, you see, I make time to take care of myself. I got my shots so I will be fine. You are the problem." She says taking a seat across from him. Chuckling softly he nodded his head. "You're right. One of my biggest problems is my tendency to forget my needs in general." "Yeah, that's a problem. If you keep barring yourself with work, you will miss a lot of stuff in life."  She says with a warning tone. He was going to brush it off like he normally did. But before he could, the lights in the room went out. Surprised, yoona went to the switch to see what happened but it wouldn't turn back on. Looking into the hallway, she could see the lights were out as well. "Yoona? What's going on?" Their phones sounded with loud beeps? Reading that a very strong Snow and Wind storm was now taking place they understood what was going. The wind must have been messing with power.

Yoona's pov
I hurried and confirmed that there was no heat coming from the heater. "Mr. Ji, hurry let's get you into the bed. It's gonna get cold in here really fast." Yoona helped him to bed and pulled out her phone. At that moment, Seohyun called. "Hello? Yeah, I'm fine, I came to Mr. Ji's room because he's sick. Yeah, I'll just say here, I don't want to leave him alone. Okay, be careful. Bye." I hung up my call. "Seohyun?" I nodded. "She wanted to make sure I wasn't still outside. Anyway back to what I was saying."
"Now you sound like everyone else around me." He says with a nose stuffed chuckle. "Well, they aren't wrong. Do you know how many people die due to overworking, stress, or neglecting themselves and their needs? I don't want you to be one of those people. You are way too young to die and there is too much you may have not done yet. If or when you and your future wife have kids, they will nearly get to see you. You won't be as close and some parents want to be. And say something happens to you, what will happen to them?" He nodded in understanding. "You wanna know something sad? I never thought that much about it. My idea is work so to take care of everyone who depends on you." I sighed. "Well, there are a lot of people who grew up with a not so privileged life but grew up to be very happy people. Take me for example, I free up with not the most money in the world but I had my dad, my unnies and people who cared about me. I turned out the way I am but there are some who were not as lucky as I am. Some people lose the ones they love because of things like that." He nodded I took a seat on a chair and tried to keep moving in some sort of way because it was slowly starting to get colder. For a while we were silent. "Yoona, I'm still cold." Him having a fever didn't help the situation. "Hold on, I will look for any extra covers. I looked through the closest and brought them back. Thickly layering him up, I could see he was feeling warmer. I was going to sit back down but he pushed the covers. " what are you doing?" "Get in." It caught me off guard. "What?" "The heat is out, all the blankets are here, and the human body generates a lot of heat." He was right but it was too much.