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 .