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“Yah, leave me alone.”
“Ow, you mad already? What did I do now?”
Gotak slumped into his seat, glaring at Hyeori’s, which was in the next row, a few seats down from his, scowling as he muttered under his breath.
Baku followed his gaze, frowning, before turning back to him. “What?”
“You think he’s her boyfriend?” he asked suddenly, looking at his friend, eyes wide, hoping he’d say no.
“Who?”
“That idiot… Sieun. You think he’s Hyeori’s boyfriend?”
Baku saw the glint in his friend’s eyes and the slight pout of his lips – minimal, but enough for him. He liked messing with him. “Yeah, actually. I wasn’t gonna tell you, but I’m glad to know you’re not as dumb as you look.”
“Yah!” Gotak threw an eraser at him, which Baku caught easily, making him laugh. “Idiot, you were supposed to say no…”
“Why? Honesty’s always the best policy. Besides… she’s too pretty to be single…” Gotak looked his friend up and down before getting up and heading for the exit. “Hey, don’t get mad. Come on, she’s a pretty girl. Why is my fault if she’s into weirdos?”
* * *
“Oh! Did you get that? Did you record your boyfriend breaking his record?”
Hyeori watched her boyfriend’s smile on her phone screen, her own eyes a little watery. Pausing the video, she kept looking at that smiling face, feeling her nose begin to tingle as his laughter echoed in her ears.
She missed him so much.
When the bus seemed to reach its final stop, she stood up, tucked her phone into her jacket pocket, and got off, walking a few blocks without much hurry.
It was a Sooho visiting day.
The bus dropped her off just two blocks from the hospital, so she always took the same one on these days. When she entered the hospital, she went to the reception desk, asked for the visitor’s log, signed it as usual, and felt a little warmth seeing Sieun’s name among all the signatures on the nearly full page.
Wooyoung’s words still echoed in her mind, no matter how much she wanted to erase them, to diminish them. Every time she saw the boy, it was like reliving everything that had happened a year and some months ago.
“Hi, honey,” she murmured as she entered the boy’s room, startled when a nurse suddenly appeared. “Oh, God…”
The woman, familiar by now, chuckled softly and greeted her. “I’m sorry, I was just doing his nightly check-up.”
“No, no, don’t worry…” Hyeori shook her head, smiling faintly before glancing at the boy for a second and then back to her. “Any changes?”
The woman gave a small smile, the kind Hyeori didn’t like because it looked like she pitied her. “The usual… Although…” Hyeori looked at her immediately, watching as the woman glanced at the boy’s bed. “One of these nights, his pulse was irregular.”
“Irregular?”
“Is that bad?”
“It is.” Hyeori felt as if she’d been slapped; her breathing grew a little heavier, but her expression didn’t change much. “An irregular pulse can mean many things, but none of them good.”
“Like what?”
“Well…”
“It’s not ICP, is it?” Hyeori murmured, interrupting her, recalling the term from a medical book she’d read a while ago. “Is it his brain pressure?”
The woman shook her head, trying to reassure her. “No, honey. Sooho’s been in a coma for over a year; it’d be impossible for his brain to swell at this point…” she explained. “For now, we’re ruling out a possible infection.”
Hyeori looked at Sooho, peaceful as ever. “Infection?”
“He was intubated for a long time, so we ran tests to rule out pneumonia,” the woman said, wincing. “However, if I’m being honest, honey, I think Sooho’s issue might be a type of brainstem dysfunction… you know, from the inactivity… I’ve seen many cases, and believe me, an irregular pulse is always the start of this kind of failure.”
“That sounds really serious…” she murmured, her hand on her head, looking at Sooho with a dull ache in her chest. “I suppose it is, right?”
“It’s complicated… Because if he does wake up… I don’t think he’ll be able to do many of the things he used to do before he ended up like this.”
Hyeori frowned, looking at the woman with a hint of doubt, not understanding what she meant.
“Sooho might wake up, but if it’s what I think it is… he could have significant cognitive damage. Meaning, if he wakes up, he might lose his memory or not remember many things for a short period… His body could also suffer a lot of damage… And I hope it’s not the case… but he might wake up and not be able to walk again, or need rehabilitation to do so properly… There are many more complications that worry me a bit…”
Hyeori looked back at Sooho, her hands and legs already trembling, her breathing heavy, and her eyes stinging a little. “But there’s a way to control it, right? I mean, the doctors can do something…”
“They can, honey, but you know procedures with neurologists are a bit expensive… We mentioned this to his grandmother, but I suppose her situation isn’t the best, so she asked us to do what we could…”
“What is it they do in cases like this?”
“While an infection is being ruled out – whether pneumonia or even in his kidneys – they would focus on his brain. They’d connect brain monitors to see if there’s any suspicious activity or anything indicating he might be waking up… Cardiac and respiratory monitoring, they also monitor the oxygen level in his brain… That kind of thing is higher priority care, you know? That’s why it’s a bit more expensive…”
Hyeori stared at the floor, her hands sweating a little from the nerves all this had caused. “Who do I need to talk to so Sooho can get that care?”
The woman looked at her, a little surprised. She knew this girl was very loyal to the poor boy lying in bed, but it was a lot of money at stake.
“Well, first you’d need authorization from his guardian, meaning his grandmother. Then you’d just have to talk to his attending physician; he would give you the necessary procedure to make changes to his care and all that…”
The girl nodded, thanking her for the information. Walking over to the bed, she let the nurse leave. When the door closed, she looked back at Sooho with a grimace. “You heard that, right?” she asked as if he could answer. “You don’t feel well?”
Hyeori sat on her usual bench, caressing his cheeks as she looked at him with a touch of sadness, tears already welling in the corners of her eyes, waiting to fall.
“Does anything hurt?” Her voice was a little shakier. “Do you need new medicine? Hmm?” The tears fell, silent, as she watched the brown-haired boy’s peaceful face. “Do you want to wake up already? You know you can, right?”
The young woman now caressed his hand, her soft fingers stroking his skin, now a little smoother.
“If you’re tired of sleeping so much, if you’re hungry… You can wake up, Sooho-yah… Hyeori-ssi is waiting for you…” she murmured, smiling a little, trying to hold back the sob tightening her throat. “Even if I’m not here when you wake up… I’ll come right away when you do… Um, I’ll skip math class if I have to… You’ll have me here, okay?” Her lips pressed together as the sob grew bigger and heavier in her throat. “You don’t have to be afraid to wake up… Hyeori-ssi isn’t mad at you… If you wake up… I promise I won’t be angry… So… just do it, don’t be scared… Open your pretty eyes… The sun misses them so much, Sooho-yah.”
* * *
Hyeori watched the court in front of her. Baku and Gotak were there with a few other guys, playing basketball, while she sat with Sieun and Juntae, the three of them watching the boys play.
“Are you okay?” Sieun’s voice made her look at him with a confused expression. “You look thoughtful, that’s all.”
She nodded, not saying much, but she knew it was a lie. She wasn’t okay. The nurse’s words about Sooho’s condition, the thought that better medical treatment would be even more expensive and she didn’t have the means right then, nor could she work because if her mother found out, she might even take away the apartment she was currently living in – everything was a mess in her mind.
“But you… you still haven’t told me why you went to the principal’s office if it wasn’t for an award,” she murmured, tilting her head as she looked at him curiously. “I heard you got into trouble.”
“It was nothing.”
“Juntae-ah…”
“Hey…”
“What happened? Why did even you go to the office that day?” She completely ignored Juntae, who narrowed his eyes slightly before sighing in defeat.
She was just as persistent as her boyfriend.
“In the tunnel… Hyoman and his friends attacked us, that’s all, noona.”
Hyeori quickly turned to Sieun, taking his hand to check for any bruises or scratches on it, or on his face, but there was nothing. And though that relaxed her a bit, it wasn’t enough to stop her from turning to Juntae and doing the same. “Ah, you… Why didn’t you tell me what happened?” she complained to Sieun, seeing him just look at her as if nothing was wrong, but his big, bright eyes showed how guilty he felt. “What if something had happened to you? What if you’d been seriously hurt?”
“But it didn’t… I’m fine.”
Hyeori felt a slight tightness in her chest hearing those words. Nothing will happen, I’ll be fine…
“Don’t hide these things from me,” she pleaded, her hands clutching the hem of her uniform skirt. “If you’re in danger… I don’t want… Just…”
Sieun took her hand, lacing their fingers together. He didn’t look at her, just at their hands, noticing the difference in their skin, as well as the temperature. Her hands were cold, too cold, even sweating a little, but he just tightened his grip, making sure to give her that confidence, that security he knew she wanted.
“Nothing will happen… I promise.”
Hyeori nodded, but it was clear she didn’t believe him, especially thinking about a group of guys against him. If they could do that to Sooho, she didn’t even want to think about what they might be capable of doing to Sieun. Looking at Juntae, she took his arm. “You too, don’t hide things like this from me… If there’s danger… noona will look out for you.”
Juntae smiled, nodding at the young woman’s bright, worried gaze. “But don’t worry, noona. Things are calm thanks to Baku,” he began, making the pair of friends look at the boy, who seemed to be doing a strange celebration with his other friend. “Baku protects us all.”
“Protect you?”
“From what?”
“There’s a group,” the boy started, feeling Hyeori fidget with the fabric of her jacket while still watching the guys. “It’s called ‘the Union.’ All the schools in the area are part of this Union.”
“What, are they criminals?” she asked, frowning, not quite understanding how it worked.
“Something like that… They say Na Baekjin from Yeoil High, Geum Seongje from Ganghak High, Do Seongmok and Baek Dongha from Yeonsung High… along with many others, run that organization like it’s a gang.”
Hyeori frowned, looking at Juntae with a lot of doubt in her eyes. “Geum Seongje?”
“Yeah… From what I hear, he’s a psychopath…” the younger boy murmured, fiddling with the coffee cup in his hands. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an old man, if you get in his way… he could tear you to pieces.”
Seongje? The Seongje who buys me seaweed soup every time we meet?
“Choi Hyoman was stealing phones to try and get into the Union, but Baku said he wasn’t interested in that stuff, so Eujang was the only school left out of it.”
Hyeori suddenly seemed more interested in that, and Sieun noticed – the way she tensed up, the way she stopped watching the guys on the court and looked at her trembling hands, now in her lap, made him realize something had her rattled.
“…After that, the Union guys started attacking us, beating us up, robbing us… But that pissed Baku off, so he gave them a thrashing, warning them not to mess with Eujang… That’s why he’s like the king around here… The king of Eujang…”
“Even if he is… he likes to fight, doesn’t he?”
Hyeori sighed, her hands suddenly clenching into fists. The idea of Seongje hurting people who had done absolutely nothing to him was terrifying. She knew the guy had a malicious look about him; she’d met him because he’d punched a man who was following her home, but to her, it was an action anyone would have taken in that situation.
The drunk was following her and trying to touch her; Seongje told him to stop, and when he didn’t, he punched him. She hadn’t thought it was anything really bad. But hearing this now, it was like getting a whole new version of what had happened.
And she didn’t know if discovering this side of the boy had been a good thing for her.
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