Amore||Jake Shim

ten

mr. lee drove ava, rosie, and brooklyn to the hospital, but let ava go in first, while he waited in the car with the two young ones.

"how's jake? is he okay? what happened?" ava asked mrs. shim as she arrived at the hospital.

mrs. shin held back her smile and replied, "jake is .. fine."

ava let out a loud sigh and plopped herself on a chair outside of the room before bringing her hands up to her face.

so many things were going on in ava's mind, but she was more than relieved jake was okay.

mrs. shim sat down next to her and began caressing ava's head.

"jake had only passed out, so it's nothing too serious, but they want to keep him in the hospital overnight."

"do they know why he passed out?" ava asked.

mrs. shin nodded and sighed, "his blood pressure dropped. he hadn't been eating enough and he was lacking sleep."

"it's probably because of his training, isn't it?" ava breathed out.

"most likely."

mrs. shim saw the tenseness ava was displaying and said, "you know .. jake's been up for about ten minutes already and the first thing he said when he woke up was 'where's ava?' "

ava's lips parted as she fought to hold in her smile, failing as she let out a chuckle and looked down.

"ava," mrs. shim began, "if there's anything i can tell you about what i see in you and jake, it's that .. you two are not over each other. no matter what jake says, i know my son still feels something towards you deep inside of him."

"love isn't going to be running away from you, so don't rush into it. and i know jake won't be running away anytime soon either," mrs. shim laughed.

"even if you don't know what you want, who you want, or what you feel, if being with jake makes you happy, then be with him, no matter how long it takes for you to figure out the answers to all your other questions."

"mrs. shim," the doctor called out, walking out of jake's room, "you can go back in."

"let's go in yea?" mrs. shim asked ava, receiving a nod.

mrs. shim headed inside the room first, while ava followed and shut the door behind her, waiting patiently by the door, not wanting jake to see her.

"is ava coming?" jake asked mrs. shim.

ava smiled at jake's question and saw mrs. shim motion for her to walk over.

mrs. shim chuckled, "she's already here."

ava walked closer to jake's hospital bed and her smiling expression quickly changed to a saddened one once she saw all the wires connected to jake.

"well i'm off to go bring mr. lee and the two girls in," mrs. shim stated, leaving the room.

"are you just going to stand there or are you going to give me a hug?" jake asked with a smile.

"i'm afraid that if i come to hug you, i'd cry," ava sighed.

"and i'm afraid that if you don't hug me, i'd cry," jake responded, making ava playfully scoff and walk over to the side of the hospital bed.

jake scooted over, allowing ava to sit on the bed, facing jake as they embraced each other.

this had been their first hug in almost a year and ava had never felt safer than this. with jake's arms wrapped around her body, her heart fluttered at the feeling of his warmth.

the hug was fairly simple, yet ava realized that part of her worries faded away in jake's embrace. his hugs made the world seem to stop and ava's tensed body relaxed as she gently placed her chin on jake's shoulder.

it was something that ava's body yearned for and could have been something signifying that there was still a bit of hope in them.

"i miss this so so much," ava whispered.

"you and me both."

they hesitated to pull away from each other, not wanting to end the moment, and ended up staring into each other's eyes.

jake and ava wanted to pour all their emotions out to each other, but it wasn't the right time. all there was for them to do was express their remaining feelings through each other's eyes.

ava snapped out of her trance and slapped jake's arm, gently enough to not hurt him, but hard enough to make him flinch out of his trance as well.

"ow," jake dramatically said with an attitude.

as much as ava wanted to laugh, she kept a frowning face.

"how could you tell your mom you weren't hungry in front of rosie and i? how could you not eat enough? how could you just ignore your hunger like that? why are you so stubborn jake? why," ava complained.

"i knew i was right when i told you to rest instead of helping out at the studio. i knew i was right, but you didn't listen. how could you jeopardize your health like that? do you know how- how scared i was when i saw you spread out on the bed, not breathing?"

"i know training is important, but watching out for your health should be even more important, especially with all the diets you have to go through. i can't even look at you because i can tell you're more than exhausted by the way you look at me jake."

"and do you know how much that breaks my heart?" ava asked, her voice breaking.

jake stayed silent as he looked down at ava with a slight grin.

"why are you smiling?" ava whined, "this could've been really bad."

"but it wasn't," jake replied, "it wasn't bad and i'm glad it wasn't because i don't think i would hear the end of it from you."

ava scoffed and folded her arms in response as her moods changed quickly.

"but .. i'm glad to see that you still care about me," jake smiled.

"did you think i ever stopped?"

jake's smile faded at ava's question, "i thought about it all the time, everyday when you left."

ava's heart shattered even more, but she managed to force a smile, not wanting to break down in front of the boy again.

"well i'm sorry to have kept you wondering," ava whispered with a smile, her eyes beginning to water.

ava took jake's hand into hers and began caressing it.

"i've never stopped caring about you ..

and i don't think i ever will."