Chapter Text
Two weeks in a hospital would make anyone cranky. She hates that they are making a fuss. This isn’t really a big deal, not like this is new to them. Unlike any of her other attempts, she thinks this doesn’t warrant a long hospital stay. She’s aware that they are worried. They’ve mentioned it a hundred times over the phone and in therapy.
The doctor who examined her has already ruled out anything suspicious and that there’s nothing wrong with her (both physically and mentally) though there were a few medications prescribed and her planned trip to Spain is now postponed for the time being following her attempt at defying gravity. Well, there’s still ninety-eight ways left and that keeps her optimistic. Ironic, she’s aware.
She wonders if that tall and handsome guardian angel of hers kept her reference book after disappearing with it. For a guardian angel, he’s not very visible. Maybe he only shows up if she makes an attempt to meet his boss again. Or is it too early to be planning her early demise a fourth time? She muses.
As she contemplates on ways to shorten her life span, her hospital room door opens for the third time that day. She expects another specialist to check up on her, see if there’s something wrong, they might find to justify billing the hospital exorbitant fees (never mind that her Great Grandfather built this hospital, and her father probably has the biggest share) and prolong her stay.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, stop with the test already.” She grumbled.
“You should be getting ready to be discharged, then.” She sat up when she heard her father’s voice. As she raises her head, she noticed another pair of dress shoes. Doctors must be pretty well compensated at this hospital to be able to afford alligator leather.
“We’ve decided to move your things back to the main house.” Her father announced. “He’ll be accompanying you for the time being.”
“He?” Titling her head to look at her father’s companion, raising her eyebrow when he avoids eye contact.
He ignores her sarcasm as per usual and stares at her blankly. “Lee Hong Ju.”
“Sorry…”
“This is Kang Hoo Young. He’ll be accompanying you from now on.
“Accompanying me? Like a bodyguard or did you suddenly set me up with a fiancé while I was out cold?”
“He’ll stand as your bodyguard for now.”
“Glad that we’re clear on that.” She focuses her attention on her so-called bodyguard. Standing up and extending her hand to greet him. “Nice to meet you, Kang Hoo Young.”
The man named Kang Hoo Young grabs her hand in a firm handshake but releases it quickly as if burned. This makes her feel triumphant. She keeps eye contact and smiles at him widely. Take that you good looking god sent.
“I’ll have to go now. Have the attendants pack your things. You can leave whenever you’re ready.”
“What about Uni?” she asked as her father is half-way out the door. She doesn’t care about her studies much but if she’s going to be alive for longer than she planned, she might as well go through with it. She’s reminded of the paper she would need to write that’s supposed to be due the following week.
“We’ve also decided to file for a temporary leave on your behalf.”
“How convenient. So, what do you expect me to do for the time being?”
“Take a rest for a year and think of whatever it is you want to do in the future.”
“In the future?”
“You are planning for your future, right?”
She can only stare at her father. He’s either completely oblivious or decisively ignorant of what is happening. “I don’t know maybe the reason I am in this hospital is clue?”
“Lee Hong Ju.” He chastised.
“I want to go home now. This place is beginning to get stuffy.” She doesn’t plan to argue him, and this conversation is making her tired.
Giving the room a last run over, her father nodded to her bodyguard and left for whatever business meeting he is scheduled to attend that day.
The quiet is a welcome distraction to all the thoughts running through her head. The future scares her. She never intends to plan ahead and just focuses on what is needed to be done at that time. Having absentee parents meant that she gets to do whatever she wanted when she wants it. So, there was never really a future to think of. She has always lived like it’s her last and only plans when she wants it to end.
She contemplates on her fascination with death. It might’ve started when she was in middle school. Being the daughter of a family that owns a hospital might be a factor. She wasn’t a sickly child but if you grew up with parents whose major income comes from running a hospital, you tend to be left alone roaming one. She recalls playing with terminally ill patients one day only to come back and find out they’re no longer there. Or maybe it stems from an experience she can now only recall vaguely, she just one day decided she wanted to be the one to go first instead of unknowingly waiting for someone she knows will never come back.
The sound of luggage being wheeled shakes her out of her reverie. “Are you ready to go?” a masculine voice inquired. She didn’t notice the first time that he has a pleasant-sounding voice. It really matches his face. She’d like to hear it again.
“I like your voice.” She teases.
He snorted, completely ignoring her statement.
“Hey… that was a compliment.”
“Your father told me to make sure get home safe.”
Annoyed at being disregarded, she picks up her things and walked ahead of him. She stops when she remembers something. “Wait a minute, where would you be staying?”
“Your house.”
Her face lit up at the confirmation. “My parents are never home, are you aware of that?”
“So?”
“It’s just going to be you and I then.”
“There’s no you and I, princess.”
“There might be if you keep calling me that.” She sing-songs as she exits her hospital room. Living for now might not be that bad.