Hour Before Dawn

Chapter 17

Ye-jin woke up the next morning to the sound of humming and beeping from the machines around her. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Bin sitting on a chair beside her bed, already looking at her.

"Hi," he said so softly with a smile while he reached for her face. "Good morning, Yejie."

She gave him a weak smile before closing her eyes as she felt his thumb slowly caress her cheeks. "Good morning, Beanie," she said after opening her eyes again.

"How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

"Tired, but not too bad," Ye-jin answered. Her voice was still low and hoarse but she could definitely hold a conversation now, as opposed to the day before. She reached for his hand on her face and snuggled with it, closing her eyes again. She realized the ring was back on her finger. "I love you."

Bin smiled and just looked at his fiancé while he tilted his head a bit. "I love you, Yejie."

After all the years of keeping their true feelings for each other to themselves, both Bin and Ye-jin feel as though they could never express their feelings for each other enough. They could exchange 'I love yous' as frequent as they do but they still can't get enough of hearing it from one another, and they feel as though they can't say it often enough.

"Are you okay, Yejie? Do you need anything? The nurse said she was gonna come right back."

Ye-jin shook her head slowly with her eyes still closed, her hand still holding on to Bin's and continued to snuggle with it. "Not right now."

She was still really tired despite sleeping for most of the previous day and night and she was starting to feel the soreness from the surgery, but other than that, she actually felt okay. It could be that she hasn't moved much yet, but so far, she was feeling better than she expected; better than she felt after her spinal surgery.

Just as she slowly opened her eyes again, the nurse greeted her when she walked into the room and briefly laid out their plan of care for the day.

"We'll get you up in bed this morning and sit you up in the chair, okay? We'll do it again later today. Does that sound like something you can do today?"

Ye-jin looked at Bin, who immediately saw the worry in her, before looking at the nurse again. "Sounds good," she answered softly, trying to dismiss her hesitation.

She couldn't help but worry about getting out of bed because she could still remember what it was like after the crash. Bin could see it in her eyes so he gave her hand a gentle stroke in an attempt to comfort her.

Not long after that, Ye-jin was given pain medication before the nurses and physiotherapists helped sit her up in bed.

"Hug the pillow, Ye-jin, and hold it against your chest," the nurse instructed. The pillow was to act as support and protection for her chest as she moves around since her sternum was wired together after they cut through it in surgery.

"Ready? On the count of three, we're gonna sit you up, okay?" The PT said to her while she positioned herself beside the bed along with the other nurse.

Bin stood by the foot of the bed to give them room while still able to keep an eye on her.

Ye-jin took slow deep breaths to prepare herself before nodding. "Ready."

On three, Bin watched her sit up with the help of the therapists and nurses. He carefully watched for her expression to see how she was feeling and noticed that she closed her eyes half way through sitting up, her eyebrows meeting in the middle of her forehead.