Hospital - 1
The girl left with those short words and fell asleep as if in a faint.
Her face was deathly pale, her ankle swollen and puffy, sweat dripping down.
Since her body had already exceeded its limits, she passed out the moment she sat on the bench, and people around her began to whisper about the girl.
“I’m fine. Sorry. I called a taxi.”
She had been drawing attention since she climbed onto the deck.
Even though it wasn’t hot in the evening in spring, she was sweating, and she couldn’t walk properly, dragging her legs.
When such a precarious person fell asleep like that, the gazes naturally shifted to the sister who had been moving busily.
“Miss, if I pour this on your ankle, it might help a little…”
“Ah! Thank you so much.”
“Hey, if I put this on your ankle, it might feel better.”
“Ah, I’m so sorry. Thank you.”
It felt like even helping was an intrusion.
Because of that, the people who had hesitated for a long time each gave the help they could and left their spots.
Then, the sister could finally catch her breath, and she looked at the girl sleeping on the quiet bench.
“…Hoo.”
When she exhaled, the first thought that came to mind was that her sleeping face was unexpectedly cute.
Her small lips, her round little nose…
She looked like a fairy, with a pure, innocent appearance.
Because of that, she couldn’t help but recall the sight of her climbing here.
It had been heartbreaking.
Her nails broken and bleeding without care, later her ankle not moving so she dragged her leg like a burden, even her deathly pale lips forcing strength into her arms…
How could someone with such a face do such rough things.
The sister gently stroked the girl’s cheek.
While worrying if the sleeping girl might wake up, she carefully approached from a distance where her fingers might touch.
As she did so and her finger moved to the lips, the smile she had made while looking at herself at the end flashed back.
That smile, while blinking her eyes as if she would collapse at any moment, forcing her lips to curve into a smile.
“What is there to be pretty about…”
And why did she laugh like a child back then.
Why did she laugh as if she would fly away somewhere.
It hurt so much, it felt like it would make her angry.
Why was such a bright and strong girl suffering like this.
Why hadn’t she contacted her even once.
She had the phone number, but she didn’t call even once.
She didn’t lean on her even once.
Why you…
“Haa.”
The sister, fiddling with the cigarette pack in her pocket, had been gently stroking the girl’s cheek for a long time when her phone rang, bringing her back to her senses.
It was the alarm from the taxi she had called in advance.
“Yes, I’ll be down now.”
Let’s go back.
First, go home and think a bit more.
The sister thought that way and carried the girl on her back, and the staff saw the scene and took the carry-on instead.
“I’ll only go to the first floor with you.”
“Thank you.”
But when the staff and then the taxi driver helped her, the sister felt her heart swell with something.
It felt like tears might come out, and her mind was in a mess.
“…Haa.”
Even when she got in the taxi and went home, carefully laid the girl on the bed, finished the shower, the emotions didn’t settle at all.
In the end, the sister grabbed the thick coat hanging on the wall and headed to the smoking room in the corner of the apartment.
The cigarette pack wrinkled from fiddling with it over her clothes, the lighter making a clicking sound as if the gas was running out.
The sister kept flicking the lighter uselessly until it caught fire, then threw the lighter roughly away.
And she put the cigarette in her mouth blankly.
Instead of smoking, she watched it burn, inhaling the unique bitter smell of the dry tobacco leaf burning while lost in thought.
“Ah, I don’t know. Really.”
She hadn’t thought about not helping or anything.
She herself wasn’t free enough to help others, but she couldn’t have a heart that was so bitter as to throw away someone she saw once like that.
But she felt a bit burdened.
Whether she could help, whether the girl would be okay if helped, how okay she would be and how she could endure.
And behind those doubts, she saw herself calculating gains and losses.
Even if she helps, she won’t receive any help from the girl, it’s a stupid thing to do.
The disgust rose in her for thinking such things while helping her little sister, and her mind that had been loosening started to tangle again.
“Keluk! Kek! Kek! Ah, … shit.”
Without thinking, she took a deep drag of the cigarette, and a rough cough burst out.
The cigarette fell with a thud on the dirty floor.
Seeing that, the sister reflexively spat out a rough word, leaned against the pillar, and slid down.
“Ah, really…”
The lighter she had thrown away broke.
The sister blankly looked at the cigarette she couldn’t smoke anymore, then roughly stuffed the cigarette pack into her pocket.
Should she drink alcohol instead?
The impulse led her to the nearby convenience store, and on the way home, she couldn’t hold back and opened the can.
But like the cigarette, she didn’t really feel like drinking.
It was just a habit.
A bad habit she got from that shitty company.
“…It can’t be helped.”
Running away.
Doing it even though she knows… it can’t be helped.
In the end, the expensive beer she bought was poured into the ashtray.
“Puh.”
Looking at the beer gushing out, a meaningless smile came out.
She had thought of something really stupid just now.
The sister smiled meaninglessly at that thought and moved her feet to the stairs.
Thud, thud.
Because it was night, the footsteps echoed louder, and every time that happened, the tangled things loosened.
Since there was a guest at home today, she checked the cigarette smell.
Put the unopened can in the fridge, should she hang the coat in the bathroom?
Is there any ointment at home?
Let’s go to the hospital tomorrow.
Since Rin can wake up, I have to be careful entering.
With her head suddenly clearing, the sister smiled for no reason and carefully opened the front door.
“Kueueung…”
The girl moaning in pain even while sleeping.
Her toes or ankle not moving, just twitching her knees, the sister sat carefully beside the girl’s head.
Then, sensing the presence, the girl moved her body and reached out her hand.
The hand that never reached out first when climbing to the viewing platform.
“Yeah, how is it. I was planning to rest for a year.”
She had been saving hard all this time.
So… for a while, it would be okay to take care of you.
Maybe it would be better for me too.
Yeah, that would be good.
Let’s go to the hospital tomorrow.
As she continued that thought, a slow drowsiness came.
It was different from when she was in the smoking room.
It wasn’t forcibly hardened, but gently loosening…
In that pleasant drowsiness, the sister slowly lay down next to the girl, and heard a late whimper.
“…Yo.”
A small voice that was hard to hear.
When she listened to that sound, the girl whispered in a broken voice.
“Sorry, I did it.”
She said.
“Idiot.”
What was there to be sorry about.
She should be the one most sorry for suffering like this.
To apologize while sleeping, that was the biggest problem.
The sister gently stroked the girl’s cheek and then hugged her tightly like before.
Like when the girl was still a boy, tightly.
The girl also hugged the sister tightly.
With her fingers gripping as if in pain, she dove into the warm embrace.
Her lips slightly parted, knees drawn up, like a baby…
“Ah, u…?”
The girl, who had been intoxicated with warmth, opened her eyes and looked at the sister’s shoulder.
No, she saw it.
The arm holding her tightly, the long eyelashes, the red-tinted lips, all of it.
Her body trembled.
No, it shot up and then stiffened.
“Kueueueung!?”
Pain enough to clench her tongue.
Not just the knee, but even the thigh, no, the pelvis couldn’t move at all.
The girl, in pain as if her breath would stop, lowered her head and trembled, and the sister blinked at the movement, then hurriedly stood up and pulled the girl inside the bed.
“Are you in a lot of pain?”
“Hic, huuuk!”
Pain as if her ankle was crushed.
The girl, tears dripping, couldn’t lower her hand and trembled for a long time, and the sister immediately picked her up and ran.
“Rin, sister, can I hold you?”
“Kuehueup! Hic! Huuuk!”
The tone getting more urgent.
When the girl couldn’t even breathe properly, the sister pressed the elevator button repeatedly for no reason.
Even inside the elevator, she couldn’t keep her heels still, and when the door opened, she ran to the parking lot.
She opened the car door carefully but roughly, and pulled the seat back as it was.
“Here, slowly, slowly lean back. Okay?”
Even so, the sister treated the girl with care.
She said to lean back, grabbed her arm, and carefully laid her down on the seat almost in her arms.
She hugged the girl who was trying to hold herself first.
“Endure for just 10 minutes? Got it? You can do it?”
“Heu, heu.”
The girl spat out a rough snort and tightly closed her eyes.
Her stomach was churning.
Because the thought that this couldn’t be done rang.
How could I answer that, me who only caused trouble and failed everywhere?
Without that qualification, how?
“Uhu… kuehueung…”
“Eh? Rin, endure just a little, okay?”
“Yeah…!”
But she answered anyway.