*1 AM*
It was after dark already as Hyejoo was still up. She was playing a game on her computer to wait for time to pass.
Around this time is when her and Yeojin would sneak out to go do whatever. Sighing, she grabs her phone and dials her number.
The line rang and Hyejoo almost hang up when someone picks up.
“Hello?” A hoarse whisper answers.
“Yeojinie? Were you asleep?” Hyejoo asks with a little concern.
“What? No, I was earlier when I got home but I woke up. I was just…watching a movie” She answers sounding a little uncertain.
Hyejoo was confused why Yeojin spoke like someone was forcing her.
“Oh okay. Are you going to want to meet up later?” She asks with some hope.
“Uh I’m not feeling good right now. Can we do it tomorrow or Monday?” Yeojin asks in a hurry.
“Oh….thats fine. Feel better so we can do it tomorrow alright?” Hyejoo felt sad at Yeojin not being able to hang out.
“Alright thanks. I got to go now, goodnight”
“Yea goodnight”
They hang up and Hyejoo sighs. She didn’t feel like playing anymore. There was something weird about the way Yeojin was speaking.
It sounded like she was either in pain or someone was forcing her. Hyejoo had a bad feeling in her stomach that she couldn’t ignore.
Sighing, she gets up from her desk and goes to get changed. Hyejoo was going to head to Yeojin’s house to see what’s up with her.
The freshman finished getting ready and opens her window. She tried not to make a lot of noise as she jumps out and lands perfectly on the ground.
Hyejoo carefully walks away from her house and onto the street. She fast walks a little because of her gut feeling.
The younger’s house comes into view as Hyejoo approaches. She notices the lights are off as everyone was probably asleep.
Hyejoo walks around the house and heads to Yeojin’s window on the side.
The freshman closes up on her window and peeks in. It was dark so she pushed the window a bit to open it.
Hyejoo climbed up the window and hopped into her room. She sees something on the floor by the door and walks up to it.
Gasping, Hyejoo runs up to the body laying on the floor. It was Yeojin who had passed out earlier and had what looked like a blood stain on her head.
“Yeojin!”
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*Earlier Before Hyejoo Arrived* (TW:Blood)
The youngest had took a somewhat nap after cleaning herself up. She woke up about thirty minutes later due to some pain on her ribs.
She got up slowly to head to her bathroom and check it out. Her parents were already asleep so she quietly enters the bathroom.
The youngest carefully pulls off her shirt and sees a small stain of blood on the side of her body. She quickly takes off the bandage and almost yells in horror.
The area where her ribs are located had a big ugly bruise. She knew one of her ribs were broken and it looks like it poked her side, which caused for a cut to be made.
It was a small cut but it was bleeding. So Yeojin grabs the first aid kit and pulls out some alcohol wipes to clean it.
She hisses in pain when the wipes make contact with the cut. She tries to hurry up and put on a bandage.
The pain was unbearable as she was almost crying from moving too much. She looks down to finish wrapping up her ribs when a drop of red liquid falls onto the counter.
Yeojin looks at it and her eyes widen. She quickly snaps her head up to look in the mirror. Bad idea as she held her head feeling dizzy.
Her head wound needed stitches but she didn’t want to go to the hospital so she just wrapped it up. She hoped it stopped the bleeding but it made her a little weaker.
Yeojin unwraps the head bandage and grimaces when some blood drips down the side of her head. She quickly tries to wash it off and wrap her head up.
Her vision was a little blurry but it didn’t stop her. The freshman manages to not pass out and wrapped her head with a clean bandage.
She stands still and holds onto the counter. Looking up, she stares at herself and feels a shot of anger shoot through her body. She grips the counter hard making her knuckles turn white.
“Why me? Its always me!” She yells but not as loud as to wake up her parents.
Yeojin felt her tears wanting to fall from her eyes but a vibration from her pocket makes her push ’em back.
She pulls out her phone and sees Hyejoo calling her. Yeojin knew if she didn’t answer then Hyejoo would know something is up.
She answers it calmly and tries not to sound like she’s in a lot of pain. The call went by quick and Yeojin felt bad for rejecting Hyejoo’s offer to hang out.
Yeojin ended the call and hoped Hyejoo doesn’t come by. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this because she couldn’t bear to see their reactions.
The freshman gathers herself before carefully and quietly walking back to her room. Her walk is a little slanted because of her feeling light headed.
Yeojin opens her door to enter her room and then closes the door. She turns around to walk to her bed but as soon as she takes a step her head is spinning.
The freshman tries to take a step but her body feels limp. The last thing she hears is someone trying to open her window as she passes out in her bedroom.
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*TW: Blood*
Hyejoo would have never guessed she would see something like this before. One of her best friends laying on the floor with blood seeping out of her head and body full of bruises.
She crouches down by her side and sees her bleeding from her head. Hyejoo carefully cradles her head and tries to wake her by shaking her.
“Yeojin! Come on Yeo! Wake up please!” She yells feeling tears pooling in her eyes. She hated crying but seeing Yeojin like this makes her want to sob.
Hyejoo didn’t care about waking up the youngest’s parents. She hopes they wake up that way they can get Yeojin to a hospital.
Yeojin doesn’t move or even looks like she’s waking up. Hyejoo feels for a pulse on her neck and sighs shakily in relief when she feels one.
“Yeojin please wake up!” Hyejoo continues to yell and shake her friend. Her tears were falling down her cheeks and onto the floor.
Footsteps are heard heading towards the room. Hyejoo hopes its her parents and it is when the door slams open.
Mr. Im comes in first in shorts and a t shirt. Mrs. Im then comes in with a white robe on.
“What’s going on?!” Mrs. Im yells as she enters after her husband. They both gasp seeing their daughter passed out on the floor and bleeding from her head.
Hyejoo looks up at them with wet eyes “I don’t know what happened, I just found her like this” She says and Mr. Im bends down to help pick Yeojin up.
“Hyejoo, go get a towel to stop the bleeding” He tells the freshman and she runs to the bathroom. He then turns to his wife “Call the ambulance, she’s bleeding too much!” She nods and goes to grab her phone.
Mr. Im puts one arm under Yeojin’s shoulders and the other one under her knees. As he picks her up, he feels something wet touch his forearm and he looks to see more blood seep out from a cut on her side.
He looked terrified at how his daughter is badly hurt. Mr. Im never would’ve thought to see his only daughter like this and he doesn’t like it.
He brings her into the living room as Hyejoo comes back with a towel in her hand. He sets her down on the couch and Hyejoo takes off the now red bandage around her head.
Mrs. Im runs into the living room “The ambulance is on its way! They said about five minutes! Oh my god, my baby!” She tells them and yells when she looks down at Yeojin.
Mrs. Im steps forward and hesitantly cups Yeojin’s cheeks. There were tears rolling down her cheeks seeing her daughter look hurt.
Hyejoo pulls away the towel a little to see a open gash on her head “Oh my god! Look at her head!” She yells to get the adults attention.
They both look to where she was pointing and grimace. Mr. Im curses silently as Mrs. Im just cries more.
Hyejoo is still sobbing as she tries to stop the bleeding. Her hand was shaking as she stares at Yeojin’s face. Her face looked paler than when she first found her.
Mrs. Im notices her husband has blood on his forearm “Is that from her head?” She asks with concern. Mr. Im looks down to his arm and frowns.
“No, its from her side” He says with no emotion. Both Hyejoo and Mrs. Im widen their eyes and look at Yeojin’s side to see blood coming out from a cut on her side.
Hyejoo moves the towel to her side on the cut. Sirens were heard in the distance as Mr. Im goes outside to meet with the paramedics.
A few seconds later, bright red and blue lights were flashing against the house. Two paramedics come in with a stretcher and make their way to Yeojin.
One of them, a guy, crouches down by the couch and looks at her injuries. He took out some stuff from the first aid kit and motions for the other, a girl, to help him.
“Do you guys know what happened?” He asks the three of them. But they shake their heads. The paramedics tried to stop the bleeding on her head.
“I just found her on the floor in her room and her head was bleeding” Hyejoo answers as she tries to stop sobbing. Mrs. Im sees that and gets up to go comfort her.
The paramedic nods as he checks Yeojin’s head. Seeing a wound, he gets a better look at it and notices how she needs stitches.
Then, the girl sees that her side is also bleeding so she pulls up Yeojin’s shirt a little. Her and the guy look at each other and nod knowing its not good.
“Okay, we have to get her to the hospital. Her head needs stitches and it seems that two of her ribs are broken” The guy says as he and the girl put Yeojin on the stretcher.
“What?! What do you mean her ribs are broken?! How does this happen?!” Mr. Im yells at them angrily.
Mrs. Im was comforting Hyejoo but let’s go of her to hold onto Yeojin’s hand. Hyejoo just shakes and sobs harder hearing she needs to go to the hospital.
The paramedics roll Yeojin out of the house with the three trailing behind. With ease, they lift up the stretcher with Yeojin on it and into the ambulance.
Turning around, the guy looks at them “Only one person is allowed to go with her. We’re taking her to Kings’ Medical” He says and quickly enters the ambulance as the girl gets into the drivers seat.
Mrs. Im looks at her husband “I’ll go, just follow us okay” She tells him and he nods. He helps her onto the ambulance and closes the door.
The ambulance quickly drives off with the lights and sirens blaring. Hyejoo just stares at the truck drive away with her best friend. Mr. Im wipes his tears that slipped out and turns to her.
“You’re coming with me. You’re going to explain how you found her, okay? Let me go get the keys” He tells her quickly and runs inside to grab his keys and phone.
Hyejoo waits beside his car as she has somewhat calmed down. Her cheeks were wet from her tears but she felt scared, angry and disappointed.
She felt disappointed in herself because she couldn’t protect Yeojin. She had promised herself that she would protect her and the girls no matter what. But now Yeojin is hurt and she’s blaming herself.
—————————————————————
Mr. Im runs out and slams the door shut. He opens the car as they both hop in. Turning on the car, he hurriedly pulls out of the driveway and onto the road.
It was quiet at first with the radio softly playing. The clock on the dashboard flashed 2:15 a.m. They were both just thinking about Yeojin and how she had gotten beat up.
Mr. Im shakily inhales before speaking “Did you sneak out to come over, Hyejoo?” He asks her while keeping his eyes on the road.
Hyejoo looks up at him and then turns away “Y-yes I did because I had called her earlier to ask if she wanted to play online but she said she wasn’t feeling well” She starts and he hums.
Continuing, she puts her eyes on the road “But she sounded like she was in pain when we spoke. I had this gut feeling that she wasn’t okay so I came by to check it out. I climbed through her window and saw her passed out. I tried to wake her up but she didn’t”
Hyejoo finishes and feels a few streak of tears fall. Mr. Im could hear how heart broken she was by her voice cracking a little. He also felt tears wanting to fall again but wiped them away.
“I’m glad you came because if you didn’t and yell to wake us up, I don’t want to think about would’ve happened to her” His voice breaks a little at the end and he sniffs away the tears threatening to fall.
Hyejoo nods and turns to look at him. She can see how much he and Mrs. Im love Yeojin. She was their only child and they made sure to give her all the love and support she needs.
The freshman then remembers seeing how Yeojin tried to cover up the bruises and cuts. She sighs thinking that Yeojin wasn’t going to tell anyone what happened to her.
Hyejoo then thinks about the other girls. How is she going to tell them that their precious maknae got beat up and is in the hospital. She can’t bear to see them all wretched when they see Yeojin.
Especially Yerim, the girl was too much of a sunshine that she couldn’t see her sad. And it happened after their first date which makes it more depressing.
The hospital comes into view as Mr. Im pulls into the parking lot. He quickly parks the car and they hop out.
Both of them head into the emergency room and look around for Mrs. Im. Hyejoo’s eyes land on her sitting in the corner of the waiting room with her head in her hands.
They approach her and she looks up. Her expression was so gloomy that Hyejoo had a bad feeling about Yeojin’s injuries.
“Did they say anything about her injuries?” Mr. Im asks as he sits down next to her and wraps his arm around her shoulders.
Mrs. Im sniffs a little “The doctor came out to check her out and noticed her ribs. So they had pull her into the operating room because it looks like her ribs are broken and need to be treated immediately” She answers and bursts out sobbing again.
Mr. Im hugs her as she lays her head against his chest. His tears slipped out but tried to stay calm for his wife. Hyejoo sat down after hearing that because if she didn’t, then she would’ve passed out.
Yeojin was suffering and she couldn’t do anything about it. Her tears fell like Niagara falls as she pulls her knees up to her chest.
Hyejoo kept blaming herself for Yeojin being hurt. She vowed to protect her with everything yet here she was in the hospital. She looks up to the couple with teary eyes.
“I’m so sorry this happened! I couldn’t do anything to stop her from being hurt! I’m sorry please don’t hate me!” She tells them as she sobs harder.
The couple stare at her with worried eyes. They didn’t blame her for Yeojin being in the hospital. Mrs. Im unwraps herself from her husband and reaches over to hold Hyejoo’s hand.
“This is not your fault, Hyejoo-ah. You had no idea this happened to her. She didn’t tell anyone and hoped that we wouldn’t notice. So please don’t blame yourself for her being hurt, understand? Do not feel guilty for this because you did not cause this”
Mrs. Im tells her firmly and Hyejoo looks into her eyes. She was shaking a little and knew it wasn’t her fault but she just couldn’t stop feeling guilty.
Hyejoo nods slowly “I understand but I vowed to protect her. I promised myself to always protect her no matter what and look what happened” She says with a broken voice.
Shaking her head, Mrs. Im moves over to sit next to the freshman. She hugs the girl with a motherly feeling and comforts her.
“I know you will never break that promise but this is not your fault. No one knew this would happen and especially not when she had her first date with Yerim. Please and I mean please, do not feel guilty about this. Yeojin wouldn’t want you blaming yourself for something like this. Who knows, you maybe had just saved her life”
The mother told her with a soft voice. Hyejoo felt how she wanted to make sure she wasn’t blaming herself. She probably did save her life they’ll never know. Nodding, she hugs back Mrs. Im tightly.
Mr. Im was watching with teary eyes but he stopped crying. He let out a soft smile seeing how Hyejoo really loves Yeojin. He’s glad his daughter has the greatest friends ever.
The three sat in the waiting room feeling anxious about Yeojin. Mr. Im had gotten up and grabbed some coffee for his wife. Hyejoo just sat with her knees tucked under her chin staring at the floor.
Mrs. Im looks at Hyejoo and felt blessed for her daughter. She appreciates Hyejoo for worrying about Yeojin and knows that she’s going to stick by her side for a long time.
It felt like its been hours when its actually only been two hours. Mr. Im looks at his watch and sees that its already 4:30 a.m. The sun would be rising in about an hour and hoped for the doctor to come out already.
As if his thoughts were heard, a middle aged man walks out of the operating room. He had on the typical white coat with a badge on it. The doctor had a grim expression as he approached the three.
Mr. Im looks at him and gets a bad feeling. Mrs. Im stands up and holds onto her husband seeing the doctor’s expression.
Hyejoo stands up as well and prays that Yeojin is alright. She needs to fine because she just had her date with Yerim and she probably wants to go on more dates with her.
The doctor bows “Hello my name is Dr. Lee Yoonhyuk. Are you three related to Ms. Im Yeojin?” He introduced himself and asks them.
They nod “Yes we’re her parents and she’s her best friend. Please tell us Yeojin is going to be fine” Mrs. Im answers with anticipation.
They hold their breath as the doctor begins speaking.
Dr. Lee sighs and looks at them “I’m sorry to say this….but Yeojin…..”
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A/N: oof cliffhanger! Also, the worlds greatest best friend award goes to Ms. Son Hyejoo!! Everyone needs a Hyejoo in their life 🙂
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