[ON-HOLD]
home wasn't a place for her, instead it was in his arms where all her worries disappeared and she finally felt like she could stop and breathe...
sato akina has had many soul-shattering days in her life and kim jungwoo seems to be the onl...
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A NEW PATIENT
As they all stepped out of the car Johnny helped Areum and continued to hold the small girl's hand leading her into the big hospital with the others. As they got into the elevator Yuta and Doyoung were talking to each other. "Doesn't your brother work here Doyoung?"
"Yeah he does but in the ER wing so we won't see him today," responded Doyoung and Yuta nodded to him. The elevator soon dinged as the doors open to reveal the pediatric area. As they all walked out they took notice of the calm atmosphere that the area made. The walls were a warm beige instead of the white that normally stained the walls. Sunshine from the big windows and the light blue furniture added to the warmth that came from the waiting room.
They all started to walk forward to the main desk where they saw a lady behind the desk conversing with a doctor who was leaning against the high counters. "Hello, ma'am I was wondering if we could get an appointment today with a therapist?" Taeyong says to the woman behind the desk. She looks at him with a confused face, "Sir we normally don't do walk-in appointments."
Taeyong looks at her with a smile and pulls out his badge and faces it towards her, "It's for a case we're dealing with." She nods and begins to type on the computer in front of her. "Hello I'm Dr.Choi would you mind telling me the case. I can help you quickly to find a doctor here that could help you with the case." The woman who was conversing with the nurse earlier says to him.
"That little girl right there won't say anything, we think it would be helpful if she was with someone who knows how she can talk without actually doing in verbally," Taeyong responds while gesturing to the little girl who was now sitting beside Doyoung and Johnny in the waiting room. Almost in an instant the doctor nods and thinks for a moment.
"Ah! We have an art therapist here in the clinic, she could help. Nurse Ahn could you page her for us please?" She says turning her head to acknowledge the nurse. She nods again and pressing numbers into the phone beside her.
"Doctor Akina please head to the pediatric wings front desk, Doctor Akina please head to the pediatric wing front desk."
"When she gets up here you can talk to her," the doctor says before sending a smile off to them all then turns her heels to head down the hallway. They all begin to wait for the doctor who could hopefully help them.
♡
As the page went off for Akina midway into her conversation a soft sigh escapes her mouth. She then rises out of the cafeteria seat she was sitting in and Jihoon follows her to the elevator that ascends them to the pediatric floor.
When the doors open Jihoon and her make their way to the front desk. As she walks over she sees two men and a woman waiting there which she assumes is for her. Once she's at the front desk one of the men says, "Hello I'm detective Lee Taeyong and this is detective Kim Doyoung. I was wondering if you would be able to help us?" She looks at the man in front of her and nods quickly.
"We have a witness that can help us with a case but shes unresponsive to really anything." he continues to the doctor. "She's over there her name is Park Areum and she's five years old." Akina looks at the little girl who sits frozen in the waiting area with two other people sat beside her.
"Okay I have time right now I could see her, her guardian will need to fill out some forms. Jihoon can you get those for them?" She says to the detectives. Akina then walks over to the waiting area and bends down to be eye level with the little girl.
"Hi Areum I'm Akina, I was wondering if you would want to go paint with me for a little while?" Akina says to the girl with warmth radiating from her smile. The little girl doesn't respond though and the men beside her look at the doctor with hopelessness on their faces.
"I have other things we could do and I have candy too," she says to the little girl. Instead of responding she grabs Akina's white coat and tugs on it slightly. Seeing this as a yes she stands up helping Areum out of her chair and they walk to her office.
Now that they're in her office which had a calm atmosphere she could tell that Areum was becoming more alert and less zombie-like. She goes to sit down while the little girl follows keeping hold of her sleeve. Grabbing the paints and paper from under the table she sets them up for her and the Areum.
"Okay, Areum lets paint, first lets paint something that brings us joy okay?" Akina says to her. The little girl nods and grabs a paintbrush dipping into a brown color while still holding onto Akina's sleeve.
Akina also begins painting with the girl mixing a black and grey. As the two paint in the silence for the exercise, Akina can't help but wonder what happens to Areum. She knows that eventually she'll found out but knowing that once she figures it out she'll feel the pit in her stomach.
This always happened to her; whenever she finds out about her patient's trauma. She can't help but feel just a fraction of the pain that they must've felt. She feels empathy every time she hears it.
As they finish up the exercise she notices the bear toy that the girl painted. It was brown and fluffy while holding a light pink heart. she then looks at her own drawing which was just her cat that was probably at home sleeping.
"Areum who gave you that bear? Is it at home?" She asks softly. The girl just changes her gaze from the page to Akina. Looking at the girl made her heartache. It was easy to see the amount of pain she was going through. The little girl doesn't say anything but nods to Akina.
She smiles at the girl softly then starts to talk about her cat knowing that the best way to get Areum to feel comfortable in this space would be to open herself up more. After talking to the girl about how her cat loves to be in the sun she then asks if she's hungry and the girl nods again.
"Okay, how about you draw now your favorite food ever and I'll go get you some snacks. Would that be okay?" Akina asks hesitantly. The little girl nods again but more cautiously letting go of her sleeve slowly. Areum then turns her attention to painting her favorite food while Akina grabs the paper of the toy bear and walks out of the room.
When she walks into the waiting room the group of detectives and Areum aunt heads turn to her fast. She walks up to them and hands the paper to the cop she has talked to before.
"This is what Areum drew when I ask her what gives her joy. She told me - well nodded that it's in her house. I recommend you guys get that for her, giving her a comfortable environment with things that she knows will help her be able to give us answers about what she saw." Akina finishes taking a deep breath from talking.
"Okay thank you," Taeyong says while pulling out his phone and clicks on someone's name and puts his phone to his ear. "Hey, Jungwoo I'm going to send you a picture of a toy. Can you go retrieve it from the Park resident? Thank you, bye." He says ending the call.
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I hope you enjoyed, also Jungwoo's name has been spoken! :)
I hope you're liking the plot so far, I can't wait to get to the end of Areum's story.
