admirer • jongho

sixty-seven

"mom!" hyunjin exclaimed as soon as he arrived in front of the ER where his dad was in.

the three rushed to where their mother was stood. hyejin instantly crashed onto her mother for a hug. she cried onto her mother.

"your father's in surgery" their mother choked out. yeji bit her lip nervously. hyunjin sighed. together the four of them waited for hours and hours outside at the waiting area.

just as they were getting tired, two doctors walked out in their surgery attire. they all immediately stood up, waiting for the results.

the doctors exchanged a look before focusing back to the family in front of them.

"we've done our best. the surgery went well, but there might be a chance that he won't wake up.."

the siblings widened their eyes in horror. mrs. hwang fell limply onto the floor. hyunjin kneeled down to support their mother. hyejin broke into tears. yeji shook her head in disbelief.

"no... dad.."

a tear slipped down his cheek. hyunjin quickly wiped it away. he continued to stare at the streets from his window seat. it was raining heavily outside on a saturday afternoon.

jisung, seungmin and jeongin came over to his place. jeongin was with hyejin in her room doing homeworks while the other two were in his room. jisung was pacing all over the room while seungmin was sitting cross-legged on hyunjin's bed.

"i really think it's jisu though" jisung complained. he looked at his two friends. seungmin remained quiet.

hyunjin sighed. he gave jisung a stern look. "it's not her. i trust her"

jisung sat down on hyunjin's study chair frustratingly. "what? because of that promise?? hyunjin, anyone could break a promise!"

hyunjin stood up. "i know.. i just-"

"you what?"

"i just trust her, alright?!" hyunjin responsed.

"for fuck's sake why do you trust her so much??" jisung questioned. hyunjin shut his eyes, swallowing away the tears that's about to fall.

"yeji trust her. so i trust her too"

the room turned quiet. hyunjin opened his eyes. jisung slowly nodded, understanding.

"fine then" jisung quietly said. his eyes met with hyunjin's own broken ones. "so how are we going to stop this? who else would know about your past??" jisung asked.

hyunjin sighed for the umpteenth time. he sat down beside seungmin.

"i don't know.. all i can think of now is just to stay by hyejin's side"

seungmin placed his hand on his shoulder firmly. "of course, jinnie. hyejin's our sister too"

"hell yeah. i will punch anyone who dares to break her" jisung huffed. hyunjin smiled sadly. "thanks guys"

meanwhile in the other room, hyejin stared boredly at a frustrated yang jeongin. the boy whined for the umpteenth time.

"hyejinnie i hate maths.."

"does that stop mr. kim from giving you his homeworks?" hyejin boredly asked. the boy whined again before shaking his head.

"exactly. now finish your damn work so we can steal jisung's snacks"

the boy huffed. "fine" his bandaged hand picked up the pencil and began writing down some formulas.

hyejin shook her head seeing his hand. turns out, jeongin punched siwoo a bit too hard that his hand was sprained. the boy received an earful of nagging from hyejin and her mom.

however, deep inside, hyejin was thankful to have him and minhee as her friends who stood up for her. she didn't want to admit it  but she's in fact, a coward when it comes to standing up for herself. without those two, hyejin would have just cried and let the people bully her.

she sighed.

'yeji was right.

i'm only good at crying'