Comfort
I stroked Lee Hyesun's back—she looked as if every last bit of strength had drained out of her—and whispered.
"......It'll be all right."
"......Yeah. Our girl...... Our poor girl......"
Hyesun stared blankly at the hospital floor, her face a wreck of tears and a running nose. Anyone could have seen how desperately she was worried for Hyunji. I said nothing, only stayed with her grief and gently patted her back. Then, all at once, a light flickered in her eyes. Madness. Enough that I flinched.
"......Jiyoung."
"......Yes, ma'am."
"Bring your mother. Now. This instant."
"......Yes. I've already called her."
"I said bring her here. Are you having trouble understanding?"
"I'll go right now."
Hwang Jiyoung went white and spun on her heel, bolting off like a shot. As I watched her go, Hyesun's head dropped heavily onto my shoulder.
"......I'm sorry. I put on every air I had, and when my own daughter's hurting I can't do a single thing to help......"
"What do you have to be sorry for? It was an accident."
"......I'm not letting that Hwang Jiyoung get away with this."
"It was an accident. Calm down. I'm angry too. Even so."
I quietly took her hand. One by one I eased open those bloodless fingers, clenched white with strain, and whispered.
"Hyunji comes first. We need to see that she's all right before anything else. Don't we?"
"......You're right."
"There's something else I wanted to say."
"What?"
"That professor. Can you do something about him? I'm so pissed I can barely stand it."
"......What happened?"
I hated stooping to this kind of underhanded business, but that man was going to catch the edge of my temper. As I went on, Hyesun's mouth fell open by degrees, and the madness flickered back into her eyes.
"......All right. I'll see to it. I'll settle this for you."
"Please. I hate doing things like this, but I can't just let it go."
"You were right to tell me. From now on, you tell me. Insolent......? How dare they......"
And then it happened. The quiet emergency room filled with the rush of approaching footsteps. Hyesun sensed it too. She lifted her head, drew out a handkerchief, and calmly wiped her face—like a general oiling her blade before she marched to war.
"Hah—hah—Ch-Chairwoman......"
Beside Jiyoung stood an older middle-aged woman, gasping for breath, her white bob in disarray. There was something distinctly toad-like about her face. It was hard to believe she was Hwang Jiyoung's mother—especially beside the impeccably kept Hyesun. The difference in how they'd aged was so stark you could have taken them for mother and daughter. Was looking after yourself really that important?
"Only now?"
"The moment—the moment I got the call, I ran......"
"Ten minutes. And from someone who knows me. That only makes me angrier."
"No, truly. I was observing an important surgery......"
"You've been told the situation?"
"Yes. I've already sent every available surgical specialist to the imaging room."
Hyesun nodded at that, then slowly turned her gaze on the woman and rose. I barely dared to breathe. The pressure coming off her was no joke. So this was what she was like.
"......You had better do this perfectly. If even the slightest aftereffect is left on my daughter's body, I don't think I'll be able to stay calm."
"Yes. Please don't worry. Our obstetrics department prides itself on being the finest in the country."
"And."
For an instant her voice was like a ghost-wail seeping up from underground, as if light might burst from her eyes. But perhaps because of what I'd said, she swallowed the rage and growled the words out.
"Hear it from Hwang Jiyoung first. Once you understand the situation, we'll talk. If I explain it myself, I really think I'll lose my temper."
"......W-what......?"
"I said we'll talk later. Didn't I, Director Hwang?"
"Y-yes. I understand......"
The woman glanced at Jiyoung, utterly lost. Jiyoung's face had gone chalk white, sweat pouring off her. I had to give her this much: she wasn't trying to dodge the blame. That wasn't easy at her age. Still, she was in the wrong. Accident or not. She looked at me as if begging, and I quietly refused her, keeping my eyes elsewhere. I didn't want to look at Hwang Jiyoung right now. An apology to Hyunji came first, at the very least.
"......I'm sorry."
"......You'd better explain the situation properly to your mother."
"Yes. I'll apologize to Hyunji too."
"You'd better."
Listening to Hyesun's ice-cold words, I didn't feel the need to add anything of my own. This was enough.
"Jiyoung understands. Look—she's standing here instead of running from it. Let's calm down and talk later."
"......All right."
Director Hwang watched Hyesun nod at my words, looking from one of us to the other as if she couldn't believe it. The moment her eyes met Hyesun's, she dropped her head like a frog before a snake and vanished with Jiyoung.
No one spoke.
And before we knew it, we were sitting quietly in a private room. Between Hyesun and me, where the nurse had led us, Hyunji slept, breathing soft and even, an IV line and a bag of blood in her arm.
Hyesun ground her teeth with her arms folded, furious as a wrathful spirit. I was no different. If it had been a rupture or a hemorrhage, the treatment couldn't possibly have ended this quickly. They'd taken some scan—CT or MRI, I couldn't tell—and the doctor had disappeared saying they'd look it over, and I was in no position to press them further. The two of us watching Hyunji were nearly identical, hawks waiting on an opening.
Knock, knock.
"......Come in."
At the sound I lifted my eyes. The moment I told them to enter, Hyesun looked at me—and then she nodded, as if she rather liked what she saw.
"Ah, hello."
A doctor came in studying a chart. We turned our eyes on her; she looked up, took in the two of us, and went pale with a start.
"The results are in, so I thought I'd report them to you first......"
"......You're saying you came alone?"
"N-no. It's a truly unusual case. The other doctors are rechecking it separately. The moment it's confirmed, they'll be right here."
"......An unusual case?"
"Yes."
The doctor scratched her cheek, glanced at the chart once more, and went on.
"The paramedics did report that the bleeding was heavy enough to suspect a rupture. But on the MRI, it is absolutely not a rupture. The bleeding—sorry. The hemorrhage has already stopped as well. Only the faintest trace is left. And even that isn't what you'd call a common case."
A deep sigh broke from both Hyesun and me. The doctor looked at us a moment, then continued at a glance from me.
"The conclusion we've reached with the other doctors is that a sudden impact triggered a miscarriage, and......"
At what followed, bewilderment rose across both our faces.
"......A miscarriage?"
"......Ah, you didn't know? From the hormone levels, she appears to have been about two or three weeks pregnant. It's an extremely rare situation. The uterine wall seems to have started developing early, and then the nutrition failed partway through. So blood may have pooled while the uterus never properly developed. The prevailing opinion is that it's actually fortunate the bleeding started when it did. Given her profession, it looks like the effect of a severe diet. And thanks to that, there isn't a single wound on the uterine wall. Even if nothing had happened, a spontaneous miscarriage was highly likely."
"And you're telling me that much bleeding makes sense? Enough for her to pass out?"
At Hyesun's sharp voice the doctor flinched, then scratched her cheek and answered.
"The fainting seems to have come from sudden pressure making it hard to breathe. As for the blood, she should only need the bag that's already going in. There may be some residual material in the uterus, but the bloodwork and the MRI are clean...... There's no need to go so far as irrigating it. For her health, it's better if she simply goes about her daily life for a while and lets it pass on its own. Even our doctors are seeing a case like this for the first time."
"All right. You're saying there's nothing more to be done?"
"Our treatment is complete for now. Anything further could amount to overtreatment. You can take it that way."
I nodded at the cheek-scratching doctor and sent her off.
"Understood."
"Yes. It's nothing serious. Early miscarriages are common, after all. Women in their early twenties—especially those who conceive from a first experience—tend to realize it late. She has a boyfriend, so please don't worry too—"
"I said I understand."
It was Hyesun who answered. She had been staring blankly at Hyunji's face; when she turned her eyes, the doctor jerked as if she'd been struck. I hurried to speak.
"Please. Give us a little time to take this in."
"Y-yes. Once the doctors confirm it, the director will come. We've given her painkillers and finished treatment, so the patient should come around soon."
As the doctor fled the room, I looked quietly at Hyesun. Her pupils were dead black, her expression collapsed, as if the madness had never touched her at all. My chest ached. Slowly, I went to her.
"......They said she's all right."
"......A miscarriage. A miscarriage......"
"......I didn't know either."
"How would you have known? This hopeless girl can't even look after her own body......"
Then her voice broke. Tears like silver beads spilled down as she took Hyunji's hand and began to sob.
"I'm sorry. Mom should have...... Mom should have been paying attention......"
"......You didn't know either."
"I heard how happy she was after she met you, and still it's my fault...... Why didn't that thought ever cross my mind......"
I understood well enough. Even without hearing, today, the story of how she had carried Hyunji, I could tell that Hyesun must have been in a shock so deep during that early pregnancy that she couldn't have remembered it clearly.
A mother would feel the guilt. Of course she would......
Even if I hadn't heard what Hyesun told me today, this still wouldn't have been her fault. Not knowing isn't a crime. And they'd been living apart—how could she have known? I knew well enough myself, from the flood of lunch and dinner photos, that Hyunji had been too busy managing her meals around practice to think of anything else.
Even so. This is too cruel.
Maybe the excessive training and the fatigue had kept her from even thinking of a pregnancy test. Lately we'd been more intent on enjoying each other, and on getting to know each other, than on a child. Call it bad luck if you want, but for it all to pile up like this left me with nothing to say. I felt so sorry for Hyunji. And a little guilty myself. I should have paid closer attention.
......It really could have been a rupture.
I couldn't feel that searing heat of the Special Internal Energy at all anymore. My arm only tingled faintly, as if the thing were asleep in my lower abdomen. There was no way of knowing its purpose, or why it existed at all, but for this one thing I was endlessly grateful. Still, Rahee had been so heartbroken over nothing more than her period—and if Hyunji learned about this... I was turning over how to tell her without letting the shock crush her when—
"......Oppa...... Mom......"
At Hyunji's voice, cracked and dry as a parched rice paddy, Hyesun and I jerked our heads up. She wasn't as pale as she'd been on stage, but she still looked drained, and it felt as if my chest were tearing.
"Hyunji! Are you awake?"
"You're up?"
"......I heard......"
Then silver beads gathered in the weak eyes fixed on me. Great fat tears ran down her pale face without pause, tracing lines across it.
"......A miscarriage......?"
"......They said your body's fine. We were worried."
"Mom...... Oppa...... I'm sorry......"
"Mom's the one who's sorry......"
"What do you have to be sorry for?"
The gaze fixed on me, and the face that held it, were full of despair and sorrow, apology and pain. My lips parted at the sight of her collapsed expression, then closed again. I looked at her in silence, and then I spoke quietly to Hyesun.
"Could you give us a moment?"
"......" She drew a wet breath. "All right. I'll step out to the restroom for a bit too."
"Okay."
Perhaps because she knew Hyunji was all right, Hyesun seemed a little calmer. Watching her gather her handbag and leave the room, I felt a rush of gratitude toward Rahee.
If Rahee hadn't grieved like that, I would have been completely lost today.
The sight of her, so heartbroken over nothing more than her period, seemed to lay itself over Hyunji. Of course Hyunji's pain was the greater one, but what mattered was that Rahee's ordeal had kept me from panicking. I quietly sorted out what I meant to say, turned my head, and met Hyunji's eyes.