If I Kissed You
I introduced Sungmin, who sat next to me, to Benny, my younger brother. Benny was a handsome boy, looking more like my father than me or our elder brother Mark. He had short-cut black hair with a few blonde streaks, a straight nose and full lips.
Sungmin did not trust him at all, for good reasons. He kidnapped the girl he loved, almost killed Hankyung, had a gang ready to beat them to a pulp, and Sungmin refused for me to go anywhere with him.
Meanwhile, Kuan’s parents came to see their newly-found daughter in the hospital. The doctors told them that she couldn’t have visitors just yet and that they needed some blood for a quick transplant into Kuan; that they were running low on her blood type O. Both mother and father agreed without a second thought and were ushered into another room for testing and then donation.
A few minutes later, the parents came back, very distressed. Her mother seemed close to tears but Kuan’s father was silently distressed, not letting it show. They explained to the boys that neither of them had blood type O, and their daughter would have to stay in the hospital longer so her body can make more blood naturally. It confused the boys how neither one of Kuan’s parents had type O, but before any of them could question it, Sungmin stood up and said, “I have that blood type, let me give her blood.”
Kuan’s parents looked unsure, but they had no real choice in the matter, so they allowed Sungmin to donate some of his blood for their daughter. The young nurse took Sungmin down the hall, away from me and the others. Benny hadn’t spoken for a long while, and I knew Kuan’s parents were looking at him strangely so I introduced him as being my brother, leaving out the tidbit about him being Kuan’s kidnapper.
About a half hour later Sungmin returned and sat next to me. He told us that Kuan would receive the blood he donated soon, and after about an hour, we can see her. “I don’t know anything about Hankyung-hyung, though. They wouldn’t tell me.”
I sighed and figured they would tell us if anything bad happened to him. I hoped they would.
“Herry,” Kuan’s mother looked at me, poking my arm with a skinny finger. She really resembled a mother right now, her usually perfect black hair was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleeping. “Have you called your mother yet? I’m sure they’re worried about you and Geng.”
I nodded. I hadn’t called mom or Uncle yet, and I’m slightly afraid to tell them Hankyung was unconscious and bleeding in a hospital room, but I guess I have to tell them sometime, yes? So I pulled out my cell phone and put a little distance between myself and the others. Mom picked up after the third ring, asking me where I am, where have I been and the like. “Mom,” I began, “I’m at the hospital.” Mom began to freak out, asking me questions of ‘how’, ‘why’, and ‘where’. “I’m alright, mom. Its Hankyung; he’s unconscious and hasn’t woken up yet,” I told her, almost sobbing as I spoke. I knew mom had heard my voice crack and said something to comfort me, and she said she’d call Uncle and be right there. “Mom,” I said, still sounding miserable. “Benny’s here.”
Mom arrived a half hour later, shocked to see her youngest son sitting in the waiting room with Kuan’s parents, myself and Sungmin. “Benjamin, what are you doing here? Does your father know?”
“Yes, dad knows,” Benny said rather harshly, not turning to look at his mother, whom he hasn’t seen in numerous years, since she left with me in toe. He was bitter about it, everyone knew it. Mom sent him letters all the time, photos sometimes, but he never opened them. Mark, who was older and got over the separation of his parents quicker than Benny did, tried to make Benny see that their mother’s leaving didn’t mean she didn’t love him anymore, just their father who hadn’t loved her for many years. But he held a grudge like a vice and never let go, even for his mother.
Mom sighed and turned to me. “Where is your brother?”
“Geng is in that room,” I said, pointing to a room just a little ways down the hall. I felt a slight tightness in my chest when I saw mom's worried expression. it was a mix between worry for the man i loved and a numbing worry for my mother when she found out about the relationship. “But we can’t see him.” Sungmin, in response to my chocked tone of voice, laid his head against my shoulder and snuggled closer to me. I leaned my head against his, taking comfort from his presence. Mom nodded and took a seat, deciding to wait for Uncle to arrive.
When Uncle did arrive, everyone knew it. He was loud and angry, and that was never a good combination. He harassed a poor nurse to try and get his son’s condition from her and she thoroughly refused to tell him. I sighed and Sungmin took my hand, squeezing it, and I decided I really liked Sungmin more than Hankyung’s other friends. His other friends…. oh crap, I was going to get an ear full from them come Monday for not calling them. There was no way I am going to call 12 people right now.
An hour passed and Uncle finally resigned and sat next to Kuan’s father, talking about nothing I understood, when a doctor came to us. He was almost un-godly tall, wearing a white jacket all doctors seemed to have. Glasses hung on his nose and his slick black hair was combed in a way that screamed “GREASER!!”. He came from the direction of Hankyung’s room, and that had everyone looking at him expectantly.
Finally, he said something, “Han Geng is awake. We gave him some pain killers, so he doesn’t feel the extent of his wounds.” Uncle stood up, ready to go to his son’s room, but the doctor stopped him. “He can only have one visitor at a time, and he requested to see a Lau Henli.”
I flinched upon hearing my name, as did Sungmin. I stared dumbly at the doctor, but turned to face Sungmin when he kissed my cheek. Sungmin smiled at me and fixed my messed up hair. He was smiling, almost sadly, and whispered, “go see hyung, ok? Tell him we love him.”
I walked down the hall apprehensively, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. I turned the doorknob slowly, hesitating to go inside. But I did slowly and closed the door behind me quietly. I found myself in yet another white room, with a large photo of some landscape. There was a white bed in the corner of the room, surrounded by machines of all kinds, and in the bed was my boyfriend. He was paler than usual and his black hair was a mess. His eyes were closed like he was sleeping, and he had a needle in his arm and tubes in his nose to help him breathe.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I took a step forward and almost fell to the floor. I looked up, praying to the Lord that I hadn’t woken up Hankyung, only to see his eyes flutter open slowly and fall on me. He smiled, which is very good, but it almost broke my heart. It wasn’t the same Hankyung-slightly-overconfident smile. It was just…a smile.
I did my best to smile back and not burst into tears, but I’m sure it looked strange. Hankyung pat the side of the bed, as best as he could with a needle shoved in his arm and told me to come and sit with him. So I did, hearing the bed creak with my new weight.
“Hey,” he said, his voice tired and sleep-ridden. It looked like he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. “How’re you?”
“I’m fine; just a few bruises,” I said and continued to relay to him the rest of our friends’ conditions, leaving out the fact that it was by own baby brother to cause all this harm. I think I’ll let my mom handle that one. I looked Hankyung over as I spoke and I added, “You don’t look too good.”
Hankyung looked at me and laughed, a weak laugh it was. “Me? Nooo, I’m as fit as an ox!!” he declared and tried to sit up, but failed miserably.
“Yeah,” I agreed, pushing him back down, “Like an Ox with arthritis.” He laughed again, this time a little stronger, and he agreed. We talked more and I told him about mom and uncle being here, and he wasn’t happy to hear that. He groaned when I told him Uncle was probably going to be his next visitor, trying to pull up a white pillow to cover his face, but wasn’t able to crane his arm around far enough to get a good hold on it.
“Whyyy?” he groaned, and I had to blink. I had never heard him whine before, not even about his father. It was an interesting sight and sound.
“Because he’s your father and he’s worried about you,” I told him, fixing the pillow behind his head that he messed up. “Honestly, he bothers me too, and often times I wonder if he is mentally capable of any normalcy, but he’s a good father, and he loves you.”
Hankyung was quiet for a while, as if pondering what I had told him. In all honesty, I think it’s wonderful to have your father worry about you and love you. “Henli,” he called, “where is your father?”
I blinked. “My father?” Hankyung nodded and I looked away, staring out the large window across from me. “America.”
“Will you ever go see him?” he asked, almost like he was afraid of something.
I smiled sadly and shook my head, turning back towards Hankyung again. “No.”
“Kuan, honey,” the woman said, taking her daughter’s hand in her own two. Kuan looked like she was sleeping, a serene look on her paler-than-normal face. Her dark eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the woman in front of her. “Kuan, honey, please, listen,” the woman begged and Kuan just blinked, not really having enough energy to speak. The woman stuttered through a few lines and ended up turning to her husband for help.
“Kuan, when we arrived here, the doctors told us you had lost a fair amount of blood and asked us to donate some for you,” he began, speaking smoothly and surely, much unlike his wife who wasn’t able to utter a syllable. “Well, needless to say, we both agreed and went for the testing; only to find out you have a blood type neither of us has.” Kuan raised her eyebrow, as if saying ‘so what?’.
“Honey, we didn’t wish to tell you like this, but you… we adopted you,” the woman said, finding a new strength somewhere. “Your parents, nice folk, good friends of ours, were killed in a car accident back when we lived in China and when you were really young. We didn’t want to take you to an orphanage, so we kept you and adopted you as our own.”
“we didn’t want to tell you this, because we were scared how you would take it, and, honey, we’re very sorry to lay this on you now, but -”
“if neither of you gave me blood, who did?” Kuan asked, ending her mother’s, or foster mother’s, long apology. Her face was stoic, as per usual, and her eyes fell on neither the woman or man in the room.
“Your friend there,” the man said, “Sungmin, I presume.”
Kuan’s eyes widened, noticeably to the adults who have taken care of her since infancy, and she asked to be left alone for a little while. Her apologetic mother kissed her daughter’s forehead and left, followed by her husband, leaving so willingly to allow the young teenager time to think. Just as the couple shut the door, Kuan allowed her hidden tears to fall, her arms encircled her body and her knees came to her chest as she cried.
--
i took a big liberty in this chapter - Sungmin doesn't have that blood type :P
i made a few ninja-like references to my favorite movies in this chapter ^^;; because I'm a dork
*sigh* well....thats chapter 7!!
Sungmin did not trust him at all, for good reasons. He kidnapped the girl he loved, almost killed Hankyung, had a gang ready to beat them to a pulp, and Sungmin refused for me to go anywhere with him.
Meanwhile, Kuan’s parents came to see their newly-found daughter in the hospital. The doctors told them that she couldn’t have visitors just yet and that they needed some blood for a quick transplant into Kuan; that they were running low on her blood type O. Both mother and father agreed without a second thought and were ushered into another room for testing and then donation.
A few minutes later, the parents came back, very distressed. Her mother seemed close to tears but Kuan’s father was silently distressed, not letting it show. They explained to the boys that neither of them had blood type O, and their daughter would have to stay in the hospital longer so her body can make more blood naturally. It confused the boys how neither one of Kuan’s parents had type O, but before any of them could question it, Sungmin stood up and said, “I have that blood type, let me give her blood.”
Kuan’s parents looked unsure, but they had no real choice in the matter, so they allowed Sungmin to donate some of his blood for their daughter. The young nurse took Sungmin down the hall, away from me and the others. Benny hadn’t spoken for a long while, and I knew Kuan’s parents were looking at him strangely so I introduced him as being my brother, leaving out the tidbit about him being Kuan’s kidnapper.
About a half hour later Sungmin returned and sat next to me. He told us that Kuan would receive the blood he donated soon, and after about an hour, we can see her. “I don’t know anything about Hankyung-hyung, though. They wouldn’t tell me.”
I sighed and figured they would tell us if anything bad happened to him. I hoped they would.
“Herry,” Kuan’s mother looked at me, poking my arm with a skinny finger. She really resembled a mother right now, her usually perfect black hair was a mess and she had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleeping. “Have you called your mother yet? I’m sure they’re worried about you and Geng.”
I nodded. I hadn’t called mom or Uncle yet, and I’m slightly afraid to tell them Hankyung was unconscious and bleeding in a hospital room, but I guess I have to tell them sometime, yes? So I pulled out my cell phone and put a little distance between myself and the others. Mom picked up after the third ring, asking me where I am, where have I been and the like. “Mom,” I began, “I’m at the hospital.” Mom began to freak out, asking me questions of ‘how’, ‘why’, and ‘where’. “I’m alright, mom. Its Hankyung; he’s unconscious and hasn’t woken up yet,” I told her, almost sobbing as I spoke. I knew mom had heard my voice crack and said something to comfort me, and she said she’d call Uncle and be right there. “Mom,” I said, still sounding miserable. “Benny’s here.”
Mom arrived a half hour later, shocked to see her youngest son sitting in the waiting room with Kuan’s parents, myself and Sungmin. “Benjamin, what are you doing here? Does your father know?”
“Yes, dad knows,” Benny said rather harshly, not turning to look at his mother, whom he hasn’t seen in numerous years, since she left with me in toe. He was bitter about it, everyone knew it. Mom sent him letters all the time, photos sometimes, but he never opened them. Mark, who was older and got over the separation of his parents quicker than Benny did, tried to make Benny see that their mother’s leaving didn’t mean she didn’t love him anymore, just their father who hadn’t loved her for many years. But he held a grudge like a vice and never let go, even for his mother.
Mom sighed and turned to me. “Where is your brother?”
“Geng is in that room,” I said, pointing to a room just a little ways down the hall. I felt a slight tightness in my chest when I saw mom's worried expression. it was a mix between worry for the man i loved and a numbing worry for my mother when she found out about the relationship. “But we can’t see him.” Sungmin, in response to my chocked tone of voice, laid his head against my shoulder and snuggled closer to me. I leaned my head against his, taking comfort from his presence. Mom nodded and took a seat, deciding to wait for Uncle to arrive.
When Uncle did arrive, everyone knew it. He was loud and angry, and that was never a good combination. He harassed a poor nurse to try and get his son’s condition from her and she thoroughly refused to tell him. I sighed and Sungmin took my hand, squeezing it, and I decided I really liked Sungmin more than Hankyung’s other friends. His other friends…. oh crap, I was going to get an ear full from them come Monday for not calling them. There was no way I am going to call 12 people right now.
An hour passed and Uncle finally resigned and sat next to Kuan’s father, talking about nothing I understood, when a doctor came to us. He was almost un-godly tall, wearing a white jacket all doctors seemed to have. Glasses hung on his nose and his slick black hair was combed in a way that screamed “GREASER!!”. He came from the direction of Hankyung’s room, and that had everyone looking at him expectantly.
Finally, he said something, “Han Geng is awake. We gave him some pain killers, so he doesn’t feel the extent of his wounds.” Uncle stood up, ready to go to his son’s room, but the doctor stopped him. “He can only have one visitor at a time, and he requested to see a Lau Henli.”
I flinched upon hearing my name, as did Sungmin. I stared dumbly at the doctor, but turned to face Sungmin when he kissed my cheek. Sungmin smiled at me and fixed my messed up hair. He was smiling, almost sadly, and whispered, “go see hyung, ok? Tell him we love him.”
I walked down the hall apprehensively, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. I turned the doorknob slowly, hesitating to go inside. But I did slowly and closed the door behind me quietly. I found myself in yet another white room, with a large photo of some landscape. There was a white bed in the corner of the room, surrounded by machines of all kinds, and in the bed was my boyfriend. He was paler than usual and his black hair was a mess. His eyes were closed like he was sleeping, and he had a needle in his arm and tubes in his nose to help him breathe.
Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I took a step forward and almost fell to the floor. I looked up, praying to the Lord that I hadn’t woken up Hankyung, only to see his eyes flutter open slowly and fall on me. He smiled, which is very good, but it almost broke my heart. It wasn’t the same Hankyung-slightly-overconfident smile. It was just…a smile.
I did my best to smile back and not burst into tears, but I’m sure it looked strange. Hankyung pat the side of the bed, as best as he could with a needle shoved in his arm and told me to come and sit with him. So I did, hearing the bed creak with my new weight.
“Hey,” he said, his voice tired and sleep-ridden. It looked like he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. “How’re you?”
“I’m fine; just a few bruises,” I said and continued to relay to him the rest of our friends’ conditions, leaving out the fact that it was by own baby brother to cause all this harm. I think I’ll let my mom handle that one. I looked Hankyung over as I spoke and I added, “You don’t look too good.”
Hankyung looked at me and laughed, a weak laugh it was. “Me? Nooo, I’m as fit as an ox!!” he declared and tried to sit up, but failed miserably.
“Yeah,” I agreed, pushing him back down, “Like an Ox with arthritis.” He laughed again, this time a little stronger, and he agreed. We talked more and I told him about mom and uncle being here, and he wasn’t happy to hear that. He groaned when I told him Uncle was probably going to be his next visitor, trying to pull up a white pillow to cover his face, but wasn’t able to crane his arm around far enough to get a good hold on it.
“Whyyy?” he groaned, and I had to blink. I had never heard him whine before, not even about his father. It was an interesting sight and sound.
“Because he’s your father and he’s worried about you,” I told him, fixing the pillow behind his head that he messed up. “Honestly, he bothers me too, and often times I wonder if he is mentally capable of any normalcy, but he’s a good father, and he loves you.”
Hankyung was quiet for a while, as if pondering what I had told him. In all honesty, I think it’s wonderful to have your father worry about you and love you. “Henli,” he called, “where is your father?”
I blinked. “My father?” Hankyung nodded and I looked away, staring out the large window across from me. “America.”
“Will you ever go see him?” he asked, almost like he was afraid of something.
I smiled sadly and shook my head, turning back towards Hankyung again. “No.”
“Kuan, honey,” the woman said, taking her daughter’s hand in her own two. Kuan looked like she was sleeping, a serene look on her paler-than-normal face. Her dark eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the woman in front of her. “Kuan, honey, please, listen,” the woman begged and Kuan just blinked, not really having enough energy to speak. The woman stuttered through a few lines and ended up turning to her husband for help.
“Kuan, when we arrived here, the doctors told us you had lost a fair amount of blood and asked us to donate some for you,” he began, speaking smoothly and surely, much unlike his wife who wasn’t able to utter a syllable. “Well, needless to say, we both agreed and went for the testing; only to find out you have a blood type neither of us has.” Kuan raised her eyebrow, as if saying ‘so what?’.
“Honey, we didn’t wish to tell you like this, but you… we adopted you,” the woman said, finding a new strength somewhere. “Your parents, nice folk, good friends of ours, were killed in a car accident back when we lived in China and when you were really young. We didn’t want to take you to an orphanage, so we kept you and adopted you as our own.”
“we didn’t want to tell you this, because we were scared how you would take it, and, honey, we’re very sorry to lay this on you now, but -”
“if neither of you gave me blood, who did?” Kuan asked, ending her mother’s, or foster mother’s, long apology. Her face was stoic, as per usual, and her eyes fell on neither the woman or man in the room.
“Your friend there,” the man said, “Sungmin, I presume.”
Kuan’s eyes widened, noticeably to the adults who have taken care of her since infancy, and she asked to be left alone for a little while. Her apologetic mother kissed her daughter’s forehead and left, followed by her husband, leaving so willingly to allow the young teenager time to think. Just as the couple shut the door, Kuan allowed her hidden tears to fall, her arms encircled her body and her knees came to her chest as she cried.
--
i took a big liberty in this chapter - Sungmin doesn't have that blood type :P
i made a few ninja-like references to my favorite movies in this chapter ^^;; because I'm a dork
*sigh* well....thats chapter 7!!