Yootip Week 2019 Day 6 "Perspective"
By Kimione (Yootip Amino)
"It's okay. Thanks for the ride."
His eyes narrowed at her dismissive tone and he couldn't help the raising suspicion that she was lying. He always had a remarkable talent of detecting lies and this intuition had never failed him so far. His eyes followed her receding back, that stubborn set of shoulders, the disheavled hair but the girl didn't even spare him a backward glance.
Kousuke's eyes narrowed to a slit. She was a stubborn person but he wasn't someone who easily gives up either. He wasn't a force to be underestimated. If one thing is true about Kousuke Hirahara, it is that he gets his way once he sets his mind to it.
With a firmer resolve, he swerved the car towards a nearby parking slot and killed the engine. Within moments, he found himself inside the hospital lobby and it didn't take him long to determine that the girl in question was nowhere in sight. He slowly made his way to the reception counter in the rear part of the room where a nursing staff was engaged in a deep conversation with the receptionist, his eyes still scanning the area for a silhouette in black dress.
"Excuse me, but could you tell me where Mr Yoo is currently posted? I've been told that he works the night shift in the capacity of a nursing staff of this hospital." Kousuke queried.
He was momentarily taken aback by the brief gasp that ensued from the man in green scrubs.
"You.. You.. I mean.. How on earth..?!" he sputtered incoherently.
Kousuke frowned. Has he seen this man somewhere? The face did look vaguely familiar but he couldn't quite place it. His patience was already growing thin at his sluggish response. For all he knew, he was wasting valuable time over some incompetent employee.
Thankfully, the receptionist chose that moment to intercede on the nurse's behalf.
"I'm afraid Mr Yoo is on a leave of absence in light of his recent medical condition. It is difficult to say when he'll report back for duty"
Kousuke took a sharp breath.
So he was right all along. The girl is a terrible liar.
He couldn't help the momentary disappointment that surged inside him. She really didn't trust him enough. But again, he couldn't exactly blame her after what had ensued in the hospital hours earlier.
"Can you at least tell me where he's been admitted?" he inquired.
The lady raised an eyebrow at his presumption but smoothly denied the request since it's against the hospital policy.
"That's alright. I understand", Kousuke nodded briefly. Frustration and impatience was waging a war inside him. If only he had managed to convince her in the car. He should have known better. Her pride is like a double edged sword.
Sparing a transitory glance at the other person in the vicinity (who was slowly getting redder with some kind of indignant expression), Kousuke directed his attention to the visual sign board to the right. And his breath caught in his throat. He could have sworn that he saw a trail of black skirt disappearing around the corner.
"If you'll excuse me", he hastily murmured before chasing that brief glimpse. Shin ae still must be feeling quite sluggish to still be around. He rounded the corner to find a stark white corridor paving the way to a set of private rooms. His mind raced, quickly assessing his options as he made his way down the passage in a near frenzy. Maybe his mind was playing tricks on him. That girl wasn't Shin ae afterall. Frustration engulfed him at the thought of hitting a dead end. He was nearly at the end of the aisle when he heard a familiar voice seeping out through the door ahead. He probably wouldn't even have caught it if it wasn't for the near complete pin drop silence in the vicinity.
To his surprise, the door was partially ajar, letting some light seep in while the rest of the room was plunged in darkness. The girl he was seeking had not even bothered to turn on the lights. Her back was facing the doorway and Kousuke had never seen a more defeated silhouette as Shin ae cried inconsolably over her father's supine profile.
"Who am I kidding? I should have never gone. Everything was supposed to be fine after yesterday night but nothing is! I should have been truthful to you from the start instead of trying to handle things on my own! I should have never gone behind your back to work! You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me! " her cries pierced the still air with a heart wrenching pitch.
"I'm so sorry."
She looked so small and so completely, utterly defeated as her tiny frame rocked with tears and despite Kousuke's every attempt to remain detached and clinical, his heart couldn't help but ache at such a despondent sight. . He clenched his fist as it almost defied logic and wished to reach out to her.
Behind that carefully preserved strong facade, lied a lonely girl who could also crumble easily to pieces. The shoulders that defied even gravity itself were forced to droop down. Hopelessness, despair and loss engulfed her in a tight vice like hold. It's a sad sight to see anyone break, but one as headstrong as Shin ae who faces every challenge head on? The sight is borderline tragic. It felt like a cruel mockery by fate.
She slowly quietened down to incomprehensible sobs as she laid her head on the only family she had in the world, the only person she could count on. Unknowingly to her, there was a shadow enveloping her from behind. A shadow that noticed her in her weakest moment, when she poured out her real self. A shadow that symbolically had her back when she cried herself to sleep, that slowly receded from the room to do some tinkering with the fate itself, for her.
Kousuke drove away that night but his mind was buzzing with words and memories.
"He still has feelings."
"You had me think your son would face backlash from everyone. I couldn't let that happen. Especially if it was due to me in the first place."
"Can't you see your son is uncomfortable?!"
"You took advantage of my situation."
"All this time I thought your son will lose his job because of me."
"But you should talk to him about these things. Let him have a say."
"Would you have given me a job as a favour?"
She had reached out to him in her moment of need and he had proved that her hope was misplaced.
Her words replayed in his mind. She had subjected herself to utter misery so that he could keep his job. She had fought for him, stood up for him when he never even asked her to, when the thought of someone caring for him never even crossed his mind. He had thought that every person has to look out for himself for so long that he himself had forgotten how deeply impactful it is to realise someone cares. No one ever thought he needed that, least of all he himself. Until she came along.
She had tried to shield him in her own way. And it was time that he returned the favour. He could make sure that she's shielded from harm as long as he's out there looking after her from the shadows.
His mind started formulating possible steps to achieve the goal.
A phone just for her. A post right under him. A social help organization.
The rational part of him reasoned that he owed her that much at the least and a small, unreasonable part of him cared enough too.
And knowing Kousuke, he always gets his way when he sets his mind to it.
Fin.
