“Are you her guardian?”
I was woken up by an unfamiliar voice. I tried to tilt my head a little and slowly open my eyes; I realized I was in a Hospital. I was confused for a moment, and I instantly tried to sit on the hospital bed where I was lying.
“Be careful,”
I heard a deep soft voice from my back; that voice, whoever he is, is trying to guide me into sitting up properly. I tried to look back and see the person behind me, but the nurse standing beside my bed called my attention.
“Hi! How are you feeling?” she said while doing these whole charades of things we all see on Korean Drama.
“I am feeling fine, I think. What happened?” I asked.
The person behind me finally revealed his face. He is a young man who looks like on his late twenties, with broad shoulders and fair skin. He seems decent enough even if he is just wearing a gray hoodie and jogger pants, it appears that he is jogging, either about to jog or is done jogging. I am not sure.
“I caught you just right on time before you lost consciousness in front of a car,” he said while looking at me straight in the eye.
I was looking at him intentively because he seems to look familiar for some reason. Have you ever had that feeling that the person in front of you seems to look familiar, but you just can’t point out where you saw them before? It is that kind of feeling.
“You look familiar. Have I met you before?” I asked. He just smiled. I am not even sure if it is a smile or smirk- I think it is something in-between.
“Please follow me,” The nurse directed him to follow. “You need to fill out some paperwork for the patient,” The nurse added.
I was looking at him from behind. I still do not fully understand why I am here and what has happened to me. I am just glad no worse thing happened. The man is coming back now from the nurse’s station. I feel some sort of familiarity with him, but I am not sure where or when I saw him before.
“괜찮아요? ( gwenchanayo)” he said with a smile on his face.
“Yes, I cannot remember where I saw you before, but you do seem familiar,” I responded while looking at him.
“That’s disappointing,” He whispered while look down, “Anyways, If you are already feeling better, the doctor said you can be discharged now; I think you will need to have a follow-up check-up soonest, you can have it scheduled on the desk,” He all said this while looking at me in the eyes, why do I have this feeling that I somehow forget something.
“I understand. Thank you so much for being here tonight. I am feeling a little better. I think you can go now. I do not want to inconvenience you anymore,” I said while smiling and looking at this stranger in front of me. I realized he is tall because looking at him like this makes my neck hurt, but I am sitting on the hospital bed, and he is quite near me. I think he is around 6 foot five inches, not sure exactly but around that height bracket.
He looked at his watch and said, “Anyways, I need to go now; it is already 2:00 AM, and I also have work tomorrow.”
“Thank you very much for all your help today. I will repay you in the future, I promise,” I said gaily.
He just laughs a bit and then said, “I will wait for that day,”
After he left, I tried to look for my phone, so I asked the nurse on the next bed about my belongings, they handed it out to me. I was about to call Kyle, but I didn’t. I was thinking he might be sleeping or on night duty. Being a Surgeon is no easy task. So I just opened my phone on Facebook and watched some funny videos; I didn’t notice that I dozed off after a while.
“Hey! Wake-up!”
I was woken up by a familiar voice. I slowly opened my eyes and noticed the recognizable figure wearing a lab coat with broad shoulders.
“Hey! Are you allowed to be rude to patients like this?” I murmured as a form of defiance to his rude way of waking me.
“Wake up now.” He said in a stern voice while crossing his hands over his chest.
“What is wrong with you?” I annoyingly said while slowly trying to sit on my hospital bed.
He said, “Why are you here?”
“Ow, I am on vacation, I guess?” I answered sarcastically.
“Don’t play cute to me. What are you doing here? Why did you not call me?” Kyle said in a serious tone; however, you can see the care in his eyes. He always has the weirdest way of showing he cares, but I got used to it already. Kyle is not a sweet talker; he is stern and straightforward; if you are the type of person who gets easily offended, you will not get along with him.
“I was about to call, howe..” Kyle cut me mid-sentence.
“about?” he said annoyingly.
“Yes, but It was late, so I thought..” He cut me mid-sentence again; this time, I am a bit annoyed.
“You thought?” he said while placing his hands on his ways.
“What a minute, will you let me talk or not? And why are you here anyway? Don’t you have duty today?” I retorted.
“I am at work, can’t you see I have your chart in here, and you, miss, is my annoying patient, so you better tell me, what happened before I rip your mouth,” he said while showing me that he is holding my chart in his hands.
“Okay, I don’t remember a lot. When I woke up, I am already here. I remembered I was just about to drive to your home because if you can REMEMBER, went AWOL on me,” I told him while crossing my hands on my chest and raising my eyebrows, and looking at him through the corner of my eyes, tilting my face a little bit towards his. He is now sitting in front of me on the edge of my hospital bed. He pushed my head away using his index finger and looked away from me while saying, “You look horrible today,” I just smirked and shrugged.
“Anyway, who is this punk who brought you here? Do you know him?” he continued.
“Who?” I said
“This James Seva, who brought you here last night, do you know him? I don’t think you mentioned this name even once before,” he questioned me.
“Well, I don’t necessarily know him, but for some reason, he seems to be familiar. I don’t even know that that is his name, haha,” I said
Kyle’s reaction changed drastically, and I was stunned when he almost shouted at me while saying, “Are you stupid? Why did you let a complete stranger bring you here?!”
“Hey! Why are you shouting at me? Are you really my friend? Are you are supposed to be happy because, after that incident, I am still safe and sound!” I retorted. “And I am actually thankful for that person because even if he is a stranger, he still brought me here to the hospital instead of bringing me somewhere else. I think he has a good heart, and he looks nice too. You should have seen him,” I told him.
“Whatever, I will never understand your logic. I will have the nurse help you with anything you need; wait for me in the hospital lobby we will have lunch together. You understand?” Kyle said to me authoritatively.
“Okay-okay, do you work now? You are not being paid here to chat,” I teased him while pointing to the door.
“I’ll see you later. I am a busy person, as you can see, unlike someone I know,” then he looked at me up and down, implying that I am that person. I snubbed him and pointed to the door again, saying, “go.” He just smiled and went on his way.
After his rounds, just about lunchtime, Kyle drove me home from the hospital. We bought some take-out from his favorite fast food and eat lunch at my house. When we are almost done eating our hearty lunch, I asked him, “So why did you went AWOL last night? He just stared at me blankly; I think he was about to say something when my phone vibrated. There is an unlisted number calling me. I wonder who it is…