Chapter 156
Chapter 156
"You"ve been looking dazed all day . "
"Excuse me?"
Her club president put an arm around her shoulder, she lowered her head with a slight frown . Oh wait, she should"ve smiled here .
"Did something happen?" the president asked .
All the other members were singing gleefully, she listened to the loud music around her for a second before opening her mouth .
"My friend got hurt . "
"Really? Badly?"
"I think so . He"s going to be hospitalized for two weeks . "
"No wonder you looked so depressed all day . "
She clenched her lips together, she tried to look happy and energetic since they received word about pa.s.sing the prelims . She still couldn"t fool the president though .
"Sorry for not noticing," the president said, grabbing her hands .
She shook her head vigorously .
"No, I"m fine . "
"Liar . It"s written all over your face . "
The president twisted her cheek lightly . Was this what it felt like to have an elder sister? It really was heartwarming knowing that there was someone who could understand you .
"You should go . "
"What?"
"We"re almost done over here . Might as well leave a little early . "
"No, I"ll stay . "
"It"s fine . I"ll tell the others about what happened, so let"s leave first . "
The president whispered something to a second year next to her, the second year smiled and waved them goodbye as they left .
"d.a.m.n, there"s so much snow . Do you have an umbrella?"
"Yes, I brought one . "
The snowfall was heavy, seeming to be dumped from the sky . She took out an umbrella from her bag and opened it . The umbrella felt like it would break by all the wind .
"Take care . I"ll see you on Friday . "
The president saw her off to the entrance, she turned around after bidding farewell . Her thankfulness to the president didn"t last long . By the time she got to the bus station, she had a ma.s.sive frown on her face .
"Han Maru . "
She had wondered what happened when the boy didn"t appear at the Myungdong cla.s.s, he wasn"t the type to just skip cla.s.s like that . She learned the next day from instructor Ganghwan that he got himself hurt . Before then, Maru only told her it was "nothing special" . Only when she started pressuring him about it did he tell her everything . A burn, a fracture, and even st.i.tches to boot . . . She was so surprised when she heard details that she couldn"t even say a thing . Fine, she could understand him trying to hide it . It made sense in her head, but her emotions were another matter .
"Ugh, boys!"
She sighed at the bus station before turning to walk into a fruit shop and bought a small basket before getting on the bus . She was mad enough to go empty-handed, but she wasn"t that rude . The bus didn"t have many people, she took a seat somewhere and took a look outside .
"Doesn"t he have any fear?"
At first, she thought he just hurt himself playing soccer . She honestly thought people were joking when they told her he jumped into a fire . It wasn"t a joke, the boy really did jump into a fire . To think he did that to save a few props . . . What if something terrible had happened? It made her mad just thinking about it .
The bus came to a stop in front of a hospital, she stepped off with her umbrella . She could see the white hospital on the other side of the street . She could feel herself getting worried again . Will she be able to scold him like this? She put a hand over her chest and took a deep breath . Hearing about Maru getting hurt made her think of her father, she wasn"t a fan of people close to her getting hurt again .
"I"m going to scold him for sure . "
She steeled herself before stepping into the hospital, walking along the hallway trying to find the right room number . Eventually, she came to a stop after pa.s.sing an old man in a wheelchair .
"Han Maru"
"Oh, it"s here . "
She quietly opened the door . Three of the four beds in the room were empty, she could see Maru near the windowsill . She could also see a girl eating chips with a grin . Probably his sister?
She stared at Maru from the entrance for a second, it didn"t look like he noticed her just yet . Watching the boy flip through the pages of a book so calmly roused her anger . She lost sleep because of him and he had the nerve to be so nonchalant?
That was when Maru turned to look at the entrance . Their eyes met . Maru"s lips flopped downwards slightly before curling back up into a smile . That awkward smile made her open her eyes widely .
"Someone"s here?"
The girl who seemed to be the little sister asked . She waved her hand with a smile as she walked over with the fruit basket . She could see Maru laying down to try to go to sleep .
"Who are you?"
"This guy"s friend . "
She threw the fruit basket at Maru . The boy caught the basket in his hands with a surprised look .
" . . . You"re here?"
"Yeah . I"m here . "
"It was snowing a lot . "
"A ton . It"s still snowing . It was very hard coming here . "
Should she console him, or should she scold him? Looking at him right now really made her want to scold him .
"Are you Maru"s sister?"
"Yes? Ah, yes . "
"You were surprised, weren"t you? I"m sorry . "
"It"s okay . "
Maru"s sister smiled looking back and forth between her and Maru . What a cute kid . She looked much nicer than Maru over there, who was trying to ignore her on that bed .
"Um, big sis . "
"Yeah?"
"Are you big brother"s girlfriend?"
The sudden question caught her off guard .
"So you are!!"
The happy reaction was welcomed, but that didn"t make any of it less surprising .
"Man, and here I thought my brother was joking . Sis, he’s a waste for someone like you . Why do you go out with him?"
"T-that"s . . . "
"He"s matured a lot recently so he"s better . But oh dear . You"re just way too pretty for him . "
The girl was going around saying embarra.s.sing things despite being so young . She was just like Maru in that regard . Worse, actually .
"Really?"
"Yes . What kind of an idiot jumps straight into a fire? This one, apparently . "
Maru"s sister laughed to herself quietly . She was quite a fan of this girl called Han Bada . The little girl talked about how ridiculous a person Maru was for thirty minutes straight, it really felt amazing gossiping about someone to their face .
"Have some of this, big sis . "
"Thanks . "
They were already so familiar with each other . In the meantime, Maru was just staring outside the window . Like some character from a drama .
"Idiot . Idiot . Idiot . "
Bada wrote "idiot" on Maru"s cast .
"Want to write something too, big sis?"
"Should I?"
Now that she looked at it, there were a ton of words written on Maru"s cast . The one that stuck out to her, in particular, was "get well" . Well, she"d only feel bad if he stayed wounded for a while, so . . .
"get well soon"
"Ohh, sis . "
"What?"
"Watching out for him because you"re his girlfriend?"
"He"s pitiable like this . "
"That"s true . "
As the two of them started talking again, the door to the room opened . Two men entered . It was instructor Ganghwan accompanied by a man in a hat .
"Eh? Instructor?"
"Oof, did we come at a bad time?"
She bowed to the instructor before turning to look at the other man . It was producer Lee Junmin .
"Why is he . . . "
She"s seen the man talk to Maru a few times, but they were close enough for him to come to visit?
"Teacher . "
Junmin stopped Maru when the boy tried to get up .
"Thank goodness, it doesn"t look like you"re that hurt . "
"Yes, I got lucky . "
"Be careful . That body of yours doesn"t belong entirely to you . "
Hm? What an odd choice of words . She looked back and forth between Maru and Junmin . What kind of relations.h.i.+p did those two have? Junmin turned around after a few minutes of talking .
"We"ll take our leave now . It won"t be good if too many people came . We’ll talk again some other time . "
"I"m sorry I can"t see you off . "
"Shush . Getting farewells from a patient is just shameful . "
Junmin gestured for instructor Ganghwan to put down the fruit basket they brought . It was almost too big for the cabinet . As a matter of fact, it would probably be able to fit Bada inside it if it was a little bigger .
"Sir, I don"t know if I can even eat all of this . "
"Just take it . "
The two men left after a curt farewell, it felt like a storm just pa.s.sed over the room .
"Who was that, sis?"
"Someone really famous . "
"Really?"
"Yeah . "
As the two of them stared at the fruit basket, the door opened again . She became a little amazed looking at the woman who opened the door . The woman, who had a big teddy bear in her hands, was incredibly beautiful . White skin, long black hair, a smiling face, everything .
"Oh, sis Soojin . "
"I heard the news . Are you okay?"
The lady called Soojin handed over the teddy bear to Maru . Why a doll, though?
"h.e.l.lo . "
"Ah, yes, h.e.l.lo . "
" . . . h.e.l.lo . "
She and Bada took the woman"s greeting awkwardly . Soojin and Maru talked together for a bit, the two of them seemed incredibly friendly with each other .
"Dowook told me . "
"How are you two nowadays?"
"Good enough to call each other?"
"Wonderful . "
"All thanks to you . We"re going to have a meal together soon . Want to join?"
"I shouldn"t stick my head into family affairs . "
"Come on, you"re no stranger to our family . Dad wants to see you too, so come join . "
"Okay . "
"Did Dowook drop by?"
"I got a call from him, so I told him to not waste his time . "
"I see . "
Soojin nodded with a smile . She watched Soojin alertly from the side, she felt like she was losing to this woman somehow .
"Can I write something too?"
"Of course . "
Soojin wrote "health" with a marker . They talked for a few more minutes before Soojin finally got up .
"I"ll get going then . Take care . "
"Yes, see you . "
"I"m sorry for interrupting, you two . "
Soojin was polite until the very end . She looked at Maru along with Bada as soon as the woman left, they needed an explanation . But before Maru could say anything, the door opened again .
"Oh, so it"s here . "
Again, a woman . If Soojin from earlier felt innocent, this woman felt very provocative . As a matter of fact, she was even wearing a very deep v-neck s.h.i.+rt . The woman in the leather jacket walked forward, click, clack, in her high heels . She, too, was very beautiful .
"Remember me?"
"Ah, yes . I do . "
"Oh, that makes me so happy . "
Looking at the woman made her think of a fox right away, a very fierce one at that .
"h.e.l.lo!"
" . . . h.e.l.lo . "
"Who are you two?"
Bada was the first one to respond .
"Sister . "
She put a bit more strength behind her throat as she replied "girlfriend", she felt a tiny bit embarra.s.sed to say it .
"Oh, so Maru had such a cute girlfriend with him . "
The woman put the potted plant she brought on the windowsill .
"Perfect . How is it?"
"Well, it"s alright . "
"You"re not happy that I"m here?"
"Just surprised . We don"t know each other that well . "
"Well, you"re surprisingly cold . "
The woman sat down on the edge of the bed with a smile, she clenched her fist right then . This felt weird . Soojin felt like a friend when she talked . This woman was vastly different, the smiles she put on didn"t really feel like a smile . They probably wouldn"t become friends with each other .
"Ah!"
Bada shouted with a hand over her mouth . Why? She turned to look at the woman again . The woman had taken off her sungla.s.ses and she too realized why Bada made that reaction .
"Suyeon, right? I saw you in a drama!"
Bada was shouting pretty gleefully . The woman, no, Suyeon smiled as she grabbed Bada"s hand .
"Thanks for recognizing me . People don"t often recognize me since I"m a no-name actress . "
"No-name? No way! I"m your superfan . I loved your drama . "
"Oh, I"m glad to hear that . Thanks for the compliments . "
Suyeon pat Bada"s hair with a smile, even that felt fake to her right now .
"This isn"t right . "
Judging a person was a bad habit to have . Plus, this person came to visit Maru when he was hurt . There was no reason for her to have a bad impression . Right then .
"Oh? There"s a lot of people already . "
" . . . Again?"
She audibly commented without even realizing it, she put a hand over her mouth when she noticed all eyes in the room turning towards her . The woman on the door was someone with short hair . Again, beautiful . She looked healthy, too .
"What"s this?"
She felt depressed . She was getting increasingly conscious of her looks just because of how pretty all the visitors were . She was starting to get embarra.s.sed about herself, even .
"Instructor Miso," Maru said .
So the woman was called Miso .
"Wooow, you"re quite popular, aren"t you, Maru?"
Miso walked in with a loud laugh .