BREAK THE WALL | JENLISA, CHAESOO

Chapter 34

Like usually in life, happiness doesn't last and is sooner or later interrupted by something no one had expected. In Jisoo's case, it was the moment when she received the results of her third week of therapy. They weren't good: apparently the medicine which she was taking improved her health during the first two weeks but then suddenly stopped working. The doctors were stumped about possible reasons and informed her that they needed more time to analyze her results.

That's why after living for one month in Japan, Jisoo was told that she had to stay there longer and even move to the hospital, for an "indefinite amount of time" as they put it. She shed a few tears when she had to tell Rosé over the phone that she wasn't coming back yet. Later the same day, lying in bed in the evening, she completely broke down and cried desperately into the pillow, sobbing convulsively until she finally fell asleep from exhaustion.

"Miss Kim, there's a visitor for you." the nurse's voice woke Jisoo up, she opened her eyes and glanced at the time, it was already past 10 am. It was normal that she overslept, the day before she cried long into the night. Groaning, she fixed her hair a little, hoping that her mom would bring her some fruits, the hospital was really lacking in this department.

"Hi." she heard a familiar voice, turned her head and saw Rosé standing at the door, her face expressing an unusual mix of concern and happiness.

"Oh my god, hi!!!" Jisoo jumped out of bed, not even caring about her puffy face, swollen eyes and messy hair, and ran to her girlfriend to hug her. "What a surprise, I mean I can't believe you'd come visit me here!"

"I had to, I just couldn't stand the idea of not seeing you for another month." Rosé replied, clearly very emotional. "How are you?" she asked softly, knowing already that the answer wouldn't be positive.

"I-" Jisoo wanted to say the she was fine, but decided not to pretend, she felt she could be honest with Rosé. "I'm totally crushed, I hoped the therapy would work and this nightmare would end, but now... now I don't know anymore. The most frightening thing is that no one knows anything, the doctors are confused and... I'm so afraid that-" her voice broke, "that they won't find a way to cure me..."

"Don't even say that, everything will be alright, you'll see." Rosé said with tears already coming to her eyes. "I brought you some mandarins." she handed a bag to Jisoo, changing the topic to hide how deeply concerned she was.

"Thanks." Jisoo replied faintly, once again impressed by how caring and attentive her girlfriend was. But a really huge surprise about Rosé came a few minutes later.

Her doctor, Mr. Nakamura, came to her room to talk about the continuation of her therapy. He began explaining in English his new idea for the therapy and Jisoo was nodding from time to time. Rosé sat nearby, listening intently to his every word.

"So we will double the dose of the first drug, the one you've been taking this month and add a second one, hopefully this new combination will improve your condition. Next week we'll do more analysis to see if it worked. Do you have any questions?" he asked when he finished.

Jisoo shook her head, she wasn't a doctor, what could she even ask? She had to trust the knowledge of her doctors and hope for the best. Mr. Nakamura turned to leave when suddenly Rosé spoke:

"I have a question if you don't mind."

Jisoo gaped at her, impressed by her impeccable English accent.

"Sure, if there's anything I can explain-" the doctor replied politely.

"Actually it's not a question, I just wanted to tell you something which could be... useful." Rosé said shyly and Mr. Nakamura frowned.

"Useful?"

The silver-haired shifted nervously, she didn't want to disrespect the doctor in any way, but she had no choice.

"Forgive me for being so forward about it... but I read about Jisoo's disease a lot and I know it's very rare... So I studied her results and tried to find similar cases from the past in other countries. And I found several of them, so I personally contacted the doctors who treated such cases and one of them responded to my e-mails, professor Bianchi from Italy."

"Yes, I heard about him, he's a respected specialist."

"I sent him the information about Jisoo's symptoms and he sent me back his opinion based on a similar case he treated, he thinks that Jisoo's nervous system somehow built an immunity to the first drug that she has been taking and he suggested changing it to this one." Rosé took out a few pieces of paper with professor Bianchi's recommendations and gave them to Mr. Nakamura.

"Hmm... interesting." the doctor said, reading the notes. "I know the drug he recommends, but we've rejected this option because it could have a negative effect on the heart-"

"Yes, professor Bianchi mentioned it too, but here he explains that the risk is mostly for older patients. And he also mentioned an additional drug specifically to deal with this problem. So according to him the combination of these two drugs should work, one for curing her nervous system and one for protecting her heart."

The doctor kept reading, fascinated, scratching his head from time to time.

"It seems like a valid idea, but I'll have to consult it with other doctors." Mr. Nakamura finally said looking not without a hint of astonishment at the young girl so invested in finding the best cure for her girlfriend.

When he left, Jisoo was still sitting in complete awe for more than a minute, not even minding how stupid she must have looked with her mouth hanging open.

"I'm sorry, I should've told you about it." Rosé broke the silence.

"I can't believe that you did something so..." Jisoo whispered, overwhelmed by gratitude. "There isn't even a good word to describe it, it's so mind-blowing. What exactly did you do, tell me, it's so amazing that I want to hear it from you one more time."

Rosé blushed and shyly looked down but obeyed. "So I studied your case, but since I'm not a doctor, I couldn't do much more... But by analyzing the symptoms I could find on the Internet several publications which described similar cases. Seven cases in total, all around the world: United States, Norway, Brazil, Russia... So I googled up the email addresses of doctors who published those studies and I sent each of them an e-mail asking for an opinion on your case. I was lucky that one professor from Italy replied. We exchanged several emails... and you know the rest."

Jisoo nodded and, feeling tears coming to her eyes, she covered her face with her hands to stop them. It didn't help at all, she sobbed and the first tear made its way down her cheek and fell on the floor.

"Why are you crying?" Rosé's voice was soft like velvet.

"Because... whatever I say or do now won't be enough to thank you for what you did for me-" tears were now dripping on the floor from her eyes. "Nothing will ever be enough-"

"Shh," Rosé moved closer to the brunette, put an arm around her and began whispering in her ear. "Don't cry, please... You did a similar thing for me, remember how you saved me from poverty? Besides, you have to understand that being with you is enough, okay? Just being with you is more than enough for me."

Jisoo put her head on her girlfriend shoulder and a happy smile slowly crept up to her lips, only her wet face and quiet sniffing giving away that she was crying just a few seconds ago.