Black & White [COMPLETED]

Chapter 23: The Aftermath

I woke up the following day in a hospital bed. It seemed I had fainted due to exhaustion and a panic attack. But despite knowing this, it wasn't easy to stop worrying about Dad's whereabouts. It was as if I went back to the time before I got kidnapped by Junsu, when I was frantically calling Dad's phone to see if he would ever pick up.

Was he okay? Where was he exactly? Were they searching for him? I didn't want Jiho to get out of the stuff he did just like that, but I wanted Dad back. I haven't seen him in months. He was all I had left.

I kept waiting, hoping for someone to walk through that door. And then all of a sudden my vision got distorted. I saw Junsu open the door. He came in and just sat down on the floor, like he used to when I was kidnapped. I blinked a few times, and he was gone again. My heart was racing like crazy. It looked so real. It felt like he was really here. If just laying on a bed made me go this paranoid, how was I going to get over this?

But the hallucinations didn't stop. Every time someone came in I would freak out in some way, imagining it to be Junsu. After my screaming and trying to break free from the tubes stuck to my body, eventually I would calm down again. Once I came to again, I would realize that it was just a nurse or a doctor.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

One of the nurses seemed genuinely worried about me. She waited until I was done having my episode to talk to me.

"No," I said simply, my voice cracking a bit.

"Fair enough," she said, taking a seat on the stool next to my bed, "It's just that I wish you didn't have to go through this pain alone."

I didn't know what to say to this. I just stared at my white linen sheets wrapped around my body.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" the nurse asked me.

"Water," I requested.

But as soon as she started making her way to the door, I started panicking again. The nurse ran back to me.
"Hey, don't worry," she said, holding my hand, "It'll be alright. I'm going to leave the door open this time, and I'll let you know that I'm coming."

I nodded. I looked at her. I got a warm fuzzy feeling in my chest. She reminded me of someone, but who?

"If you feel like you're about to panic again, close your eyes and take slow deep breaths," she continued, "Okay?"

"Okay," I said.

She smiled at me and gave me a light squeeze on my hand. Then she turned and left the room. But, as promised, she left the door open. I tried hard to remember if I've seen that nurse somewhere before. That is, until it hit me: she reminded me of Mom. I barely knew her, but I could tell she was just as sweet as Mom.

I glanced at the door every few minutes, but she hadn't returned yet. Was she going to come back? I frowned. Of course she was. Why was I being so paranoid about this? I started thinking about Dad again. Bad idea. I had to calm down.

I did as I was told and closed my eyes. I took a couple of deep breaths. I didn't want to think about losing Dad. Being in the hospital made it hard for me to keep up to date with what was going on. Of course I didn't have a cellphone or anything with me either, so I couldn't call the police station and ask them about the case. I was forced to wait.

A knock at the door made me open my eyes. The nurse was back, smiling at me.

"I got you a glass of cold water," she said walking towards me.

"Thank you," I told her, grabbing hold of the glass.

It felt weird holding something in my hands again. My hands were cuffed for so long that I forgot how that felt. Junsu used to feed me after all. I got that same feeling when the officer gave me coffee yesterday.