The meeting or first day at the hospital
Nayeon looks up and she sees the full moon. She tries to sigh her frustrations away because the full moon means twice as many patients will come into the hospital today. This is not a scientifically proven fact but an observation her and other nurses came up with. But today was weirdly calm. Too calm.
The extra nurses that came to help, what was supposed to be an overwhelming night either left or were asleep in the nurse's room. Nayeon is just wandering around the halls of the hospital trying to get the sleep off of her. She is looking at some of her colleagues checking some of their patients. It is already 4 AM, one hour of her shift left. There is not a very big chance of something happening right now but you can never say such a thing out loud because everything is possible in a hospital.
Half an hour passed and Nayeon thought that it was the perfect time to go pack her things and go home so she wouldn't come home late again. Jihyo, her friend is probably waiting for her to come back so she can start with her own shift. The girl is looking after Nayeon’s daughter right now.
Thinking about going back home has Nayeon stressing a little. Her kid is now at the age of non-stop questioning. The infamous why questions that gets every parent a bit frustrated, but what makes it worse is the fact that Ryujin never asks those questions to anyone else but her, so she waits all day for Nayeon to come back home from work and makes her answer a shit ton of questions. Maybe it’s just the universe punishing her for working hard and not making time for her child enough or they are punishing her for who knows what Nayeon has done.
Nayeon is packed and ready to go but she still has fifteen minutes of her shift left. The higher ups never make a problem of anyone leaving a bit earlier on calm days. She walks towards the lobby and sees the man behind the counter on the phone which is very typical. What is not very typical is the way his eyes widen when he sees Nayeon. He lowers the phone to yell something.
“Chain collision accident five minutes ago 4 patients with two of them probable brain damage. Everyone that is present here today is being expected in the emergency room.”
Every doctor and nurse storm out of the lobby into the emergency room to check the problem themselves. She can’t go now or everyone will be mad at her. She has to be there with an extra pair of helping hands until Jihyo is here and takes over for her.
Nayeon drops her backpack in a corner and rushes to the emergency room, but a voice stops her. A sad voice.
“No, please help us first.”
Whimpering.
Nayeon looks that way and sees a young woman, eyes swollen from crying. And a bloody creature in her hands. The girl has a few scratches on her face.
The nurse looks a bit closer at what the woman is holding and she sees that it’s a dog. The little creature whimpered in the hands of the woman. And it actually hurt her to say this but, “I am sorry ma’am but we do not treat animals in this hospital.”
The eyes of the woman widened. “Please you have to, the closest animal hospital is like hours away.” The woman frowned and looked at the little dog. "He will not survive that long."
“It’s hospital protocol, I am sorry.” The girl started sobbing with her words. The actual hurt in her eyes made Nayeon look away from the pair that needed help.
“I will literally do anything, please just save his life.” The woman held the dog a bit closer to Nayeon. She notices that the wounds do not look as bad as she expected. They were deep but the bleeding has stopped and the only thing she has to do is clean it and put a bandaid on it. What did not look good was the condition the woman who was holding the dog was in. She was still pleading and whispering small pleas to Nayeon.
“Okay,” Nayeon eventually agreed, “Follow me.” She doesn’t lead her to the emergency room like she is supposed to but instead she makes her way to a normal hospital room. There she can find the materials she will need to clean the wounds of the two following her.
The small hospital room was very white, it hurt her eyes when Nayeon switched the light on. There was a small bed and a comfy looking seat. In the bathroom was a little closet with the emergency tools which is mandatory in every hospital room to have.
The girl took the necessary tools to clean the wound of the dog and help with the scratches on the woman’s face.
The dog is a pitbull so Nayeon didn’t need to shave any hair to treat the wound and that made everything a lot easier aside from the crying that had just stopped from the owner of the dog.
All the dog needed was some time to heal from the scratch but the woman standing besides Nayeon wasn’t in the same condition. When the nurse turned around to eye the said woman she actually saw in what kind of condition the woman really was in. The woman had probably hit her head because there was a little bit of blood running down the side of head. Before she could ask to examine it, the woman collapsed into her arms.
This day could not get any worse.
Or maybe it could.
That is what she thought after she came face to face with Jihyo’s wrath. The girl is much shorter and smaller than her but her anger is not something you can take lightly. After she put the woman in the hospital bed to let her rest, she was about to leave the room when an unknown force pushed her back in. The unknown force being Jihyo.
“What the hell are you doing?” Nayeon squeals.
“No, I should be the one to ask that, what are you still doing here? You were supposed to be home an hour ago.”
“I had a patient that needed to be taken care of. Where is Ryujin?” Nayeon looks behind Jihyo at the open door, there is no sight of Ryujin.
“She is in the nurses room.” Jihyo looks around the room. She draws her eyebrows together at the sight of the dog sleeping with the mysterious woman. If it was even possible her eyebrows get closer together to form an angry frown. Nayeon would have laughed if that anger was not directed at her.
“Is that your patient?” Her finger is pointing at the pair, at the dog to be exact.
The only thing Nayeon can do is nod. Too scared to say anything.
Jihyo takes a few breaths, her shoulders going up and down. “I’ll take over for you. Go get Ryujin, she missed you today.”
As Nayeon leaves the room, Jihyo checks the two patients and they both look fine. The woman has a few scratches on her face but nothing looks that serious.
After she cleaned the wounds of the woman she left the room and went to the nurses office. She still is not wearing her uniform.
Later, much later when it is too late both of the women will regret leaving this room so fast.
In the nurses room there was no sight of Ryujin, no trace, nothing. Nayeon looks around in the hallway and she still doesn’t find a glimpse of her daughter. It’s not the first time Ryujin has done something like this. She is probably just playing hide and seek with me, Nayeon thinks. Before she starts looking she goes to the cafeteria to get them food, the sandwiches from the cafeteria are the best Nayeon has ever eaten.
Meanwhile Ryujin is not very far away. She is wandering around the halls of the hospital. She has been to the hospital a thousand times. So it’s not unfamiliar for her. The first time Ryujin remembers her mom bringing her here, her father had just left them and her mom couldn’t bring her anywhere else. The first time the hospital seemed too white it hurt her eyes, now she can’t imagine it being any other color.
Her first plan was to go to the children's section where she could play with a few of her friends. But that changed pretty fast when she saw an open door to one of the patient's room.
The stranger in the room was sleeping soundly and the little girl wanted to do her a favor by closing the door. But something caught her attention. The woman was cuddling the cutest looking creature ever! That little thing looks so soft. The girl wanders around the room trying to get a better look of the little creature. She can’t really see what it is. It is very cute though and that is the most important fact she needs to know.
The woman cuddling her object of interest looks unbothered or she is sleeping very deeply. She notices the scratches the both of them have and Ryujin decides that they just need some love, that is what her mother always does to her when she has an ouchie, she kisses them better. With the power of love everything can heal.
Ryujin decides then and there that these two need saving.
—
It’s been a few hours already and Nayeon can not find her daughter anywhere. She was supposed to leave the hospital five hours ago , but all she has done the last few hours is get yelled at by Jihyo, get yelled at by the head surgeon for getting in the way and get yelled at by the family of a few patients for reasons she can’t even sum up because it was too ridiculous. To sum it all up, Nayeon has been getting yelled at a lot today.
Jihyo and some other nurses have been helping for the last hour to look around for her kid, but no one has seen a trace of her. Nayeon knows she should not assume the worst but what else is a mother supposed to do? It’s really all her fault for helping that dog, she knew she shouldn’t have, but the woman looked so sad.
No, don’t think of the what if’s just keep looking, Nayeon thinks to herself. Nothing happened to her. Keep looking.
Keep looking, nothing happened to her.
She goes around the whole hospital again, looking in the emergency rooms, children's section, elderly section everywhere she can think of. She even, as a last resort, has put on her nurse outfit again to look through her patients’ rooms. After a few more minutes of looking through their rooms. She finds her daughter with the weird woman from earlier. The way those two are laughing and having a good time makes Nayeon’s blood boil. She has been looking for her daughter, who is sitting on the stranger's lap petting the injured dog for who knows how long.
Nayeon wants to go in and rip her daughter away from the creepy stranger, but she is standing frozen in the door opening. She wants to go in and give the woman a piece of her mind but she can’t. Nayeon doesn’t know if it’s because she doesn’t want to disturb the peaceful scene or if it’s because she has never seen Ryujin being so gentle and still with anyone or anything.
The little girl is a lot like her mother, she doesn't know her own strength, Nayeon was not very strong growing up so it never really caused her any trouble but the little girl has the strength of pulling two countries together, figuratively. The girl probably got her strength from her father, the only thing that man was good at was opening jars.
Nayeon slowly steps into the room. Her daughter does not immediately notice her, but the stranger with the dog does. She looks up with an easy smile on her face. She doesn’t look like the woman from only a few hours ago, anxious and bloody. She looks nice enough, Nayeon thinks. If someone truly forced her to say it, she would maybe potentially admit that the woman is attractive or good looking, if someone really wanted her to say it. No one does so Nayeon does not think about it nor feel anything.
No actually she does feel something, she feels anger. The blood boiling from earlier started again and Nayeon storms to the bed the other woman is laying in and she snatches Ryujin out of her lap.
The little girl lets out a sound of shock but gets on her feet pretty fast when she notices that her mother was the one carrying and putting her on the floor. The little girl is sad that they have to leave already. So she tries to get in one last pet to the friendly dog, Tantan before her mother takes her away.
“Do not get in my daughter's vicinity again, you creep.” Nayeon growels at the woman. The woman’s smile falters a bit but returns full force back.
“You saved Tantan’s life.” She says pointing at Nayeon, she gives a meaningful look to Ryujin, as if to tell her the thing she said aloud but this time with only her eyes. Ryujin looks up at her mother. Her eyes glistening, the same look she gives to the man inside the ice cream car. The look she gives to her heroes. The same way the weird woman is looking at her.
“You saved Tantan’s life?” This came from her daughter, a question not a statement like the other womans was. Ryujin is also pointing with a little finger at her mother and her eyebrows are scrunched high in her little face as if she can’t believe her mother could ever do a heroic act like that.
“If that’s his name then yes i saved him.” Nayeon puts her gentle voice to use again. She can be a bit neglecting as a mother but she will never raise her voice to her own daughter.
Ryujin lets the sounds of glee out. She jumps up and down. “My mommy is a hero?” She says but it sounds more like a question than a statement. She keeps jumping up and down with her two little fists in the air. The other woman is mimicking her and she also puts her two fists in the air. “Hell yeah, your mother is a real hero!”
“Shall we go already?” Nayeon asks her daughter, it is not really a question but a statement. She wants to go. It's been an exhausting day and Nayeon doesn’t think she can stay a little bit longer in this hospital.
“Yes, let’s go!” Ryujin says, it’s the first time she has agreed to something so fast, and without asking any questions. “Bye Jeongyeon-unnie” Ryujin goes to give the woman who’s name is apparently Jeongyeon, a hug. And a more gentle hug to the little animal on Jeongyeon’s lap.
Ryujin took her mothers hand and waved goodbye to her two new friends. “Bye Jeongyeon, bye Tantan, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow Ryujin!” The cheery girl responded.
Nayeon frowned upon hearing that, “You are not going to be seeing each other tomorrow.”
The other woman looks up at her, her smile dimming. “What are you talking about?”
Nayeon doesn’t even know if she should even answer that woman. What does she even mean by that? Ryujin is her child and she is not visiting this woman tomorrow.
Ryujin is nudging her arm, “Mommy, Aren’t we coming here tomorrow?” Ryujin looks up at her mother with the biggest puppy eyes, the little girl never seemed this willing to come to her workplace. Ever. The reason Nayeon is bringing her tomorrow is because there is an event for the children section tomorrow and the hospital workers want to bring as many children as they can. There are also artists coming that are going to perform for the kids.
“Yes, we are Ryujin but she will not be here.” Nayeon says pointing at the woman sitting up on the bed with her dog resting on her leg.
The smile returned full force to the other woman, “I have been hired for the event tomorrow.”
The only thing Nayeon could do was roll her eyes and make sure Ryujin plays with the other kids instead of this weird older woman. To be fair the woman is not older looking, she looks even younger than Nayeon but she would not like to admit that.
“We have to go, Ryujin.” She started walking out of the room, when the other woman started talking again.
“Wait for me, I overstayed my visit anyways, I’ll come with you guys till the parking lot.” She got up and put the dog on the ground. The dog is very obedient and follows Jeongyeon wherever she goes.
Ryujin squeals from happiness because Jeongyeon started to walk next to them. She quickly lets go of her mother’s hand to climb onto Jeongyeon. The woman lets her of course, with a bigger smile than when she was still laying on the bed.
Nayeon wonders what happened in the few hours she lost her daughter that these two could develop a friendship this quickly. She regrets getting the sandwiches before looking for her daughter. She still has the food in her handbag though, so she will enjoy the food later.
The duo are walking side by side with Ryujin in the middle clutching both of their hands. The little girl is blabbering about all sorts of things, she was talking about her favorite chocolates a minute ago but if Nayeon listened now all she could hear was arguing between Jeongyeon and Ryujin about which pokemon you should choose as your first.
“No, Pikachu and Charmander are the best ones you can have.” Ryujin responds to something Jeongyeon said a minute ago.
“But if you pick Bulbasaur you can spin any pokemon around till they are dizzy and you can capture everything.” Jeongyeon rebuts to Ryujins argument.
“Pikachu can electrocute everyone though and Charmander can burn everything.” Ryujin says with full conviction. Nayeon’s little girl has been obsessed with pokemon ever since her mother in law gave Ryujin her fathers old pokemon cards collection. Now she tries to memorize every single pokemon imaginable and watches the series.
“But you gotta pick one Charmander or Pikachu?” Jeongyeon asks amusedly, she herself knows that it is an impossible choice to make between one's favorite characters.
The two’s arguing or better said conversation doesn’t take long because Nayeon arrives at her car that is parked in the private parking lot for the workers.
As Nayeon is fishing for her keys inside of her handbag, the two new friends say goodbye. “Bye Ryujin, I am going to miss you.” The little girl responds with an I’ll miss you too. And the two girls hug like they will never see each other tomorrow.
After a while the older of the two let go of the tight hug to come eye to eye with Nayeon. The woman has her big smile on again. It looks more cocky than earlier in the day. “So, I did not catch your name.” She says moving her eyebrows up and down. Nayeon does not know if the woman actually thinks she looks cool or if she is just trying to be annoying, because if it’s the latter it is definitely working.
Nayeon holds her hand in front of the woman's face. “It’s because I did not give you one.” She moves the woman away and goes into her car with Ryujin following her to sit beside her.
“No Ryujin, you have to sit in the back.” Nayeon says and she goes out of the car to seat her daughter in the back of the car like a child is supposed to do.
“No, but I don’t want to sit in the back.” Ryujin says and quickly looks outside through the mirror to debunk the argument that she can feel is about to start. And the little girl knows she can’t win those but she can make her mom have a hard time at least when she is having an argument.
Nayeon is already at the car door on the other side of the driver's seat. “Come on Ryujin, please don’t force me to pull you out of the car.” Nayeon says. she is a bit embarrassed because Jeongyeon is still watching them. The woman is looking watchfully at the interaction.
Ryujin does not move. The only thing the mother can do is bribe her child into sitting in the back peacefully, to not create a scene in front of the other woman.
“Okay Ryujin, if you cooperate I will give you one chocolate bar and a lollipop.” Ryujin turns her head at her mother now looking intently at her. The girl looks as if she never ever gets any candy at their house.
“I want three chocolate bars,” She puts three fingers up, “And two chocolate bars.” She puts one of her fingers down again to indicate what she wants with her fingers.
Nayeon can only sigh, she agrees only because she doesn’t want to create any scenes before the woman, who is still staring. Nayeon wants to flip at her. Taking the anger of today out on that woman would feel very good. She doesn’t. She wouldn’t do something like that. She is better than that.
Ryujin happily leaves the passenger seat to sit at the back. Before going into the vehicle she gives her new friend, who was giving a big thumbs up. It feels like they have planned this. Nayeon does not like this.
“Wow, Ryujin, you look like a celebrity sitting in the back.” Hearing that Ryujin has the biggest smile on her face. The woman waves one last time to Nayeon’s daughter and turns to the mother in hand.
“So, have you changed your mind yet?” The woman says, and Nayeon doesn’t know if she should just leave and never talk to this woman again. Then she reminds her that they will probably see each other again tomorrow.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll get your name eventually anyways.” She winks and walks away from Nayeon.
Seeing the strange woman walk away Nayeon can only think what she could have done so wrong in her life to be punished by the gods this way?
Nayeon wants to scream, why, why me and why now? But she doesn't.