Eccedentesiast || Bang Chan

16

"Hey, long time no see hyung!"

The boy sat comfortably on the floor, looking around and searching for the person he came for. "Where's Dani?" He asked. "We haven't video called for a while. I was hoping to surprise her."

"Oh her..." Jihoon looked almost sad. "I barely see her nowadays." He answered. It was true. The only time he would see his sister is when she's asleep in the morning.

A surge of worry struck Chan out of nowhere. He snuck out of their dorm to see her for the first time in weeks. But now he was receiving bad news. "What do you mean?" They also hadn't talked that much, his calls always go to voicemail or his messages would be left unread for days. He was feeling a little bit neglected, but with his job, he dared not complain, now he understood what she felt when he was too busy to even reply to her messages asking if he had eaten or whatnot.

"She works from 6 am to 4 am..." He answered, washing the dishes. "She works three jobs." Jihoon was worried for her, in fact, he too started to look for his dad so they could go back home and stop bothering his sister. In all honesty, he wanted Dani to live her life like how she wanted to because her sister wasn't their mother. After dedicating so much for him and Jiyeon, Dani deserved her freedom. But he knew he was still powerless. They needed an adult to take care of them but there were none.

"H-how is she living like that?!" Chan asked to no one in particular. He was furstrated both at her and to himself. Why had he not asked her if she was alright. Why did he not offer to help her once more to make sure? A lot of what ifs were running through his mind but right now, he tried to focus more on the present. "I told her I would help out with your studies but she wouldn't let me." Chan groaned, rubbing his face, now unsure with how to proceed.

"She's like that because all her life she worked without anyone's help." Jihoon said. "Actually, she's been acting strange for a while now."

"Strange?" Chan asked.

"Well she's always moody everytime we actually talk... She became forgetful too. Those two things, on her doesn't make sense." Jihoon now sat in front of her sister's boyfriend. " She's never had a bad temper. But most of all.... She never forgets things, specially the date today... It's Jiyeon's birthday... She didn't even greet her." What he told Chan was just the tip of the iceberg. Aside from the things he disclosed, he also noticed that her coordination was somehow becoming worse, her balance, very bad. Deep down, Jihoon had an incling, a hunch about what was wrong with his sister. She's sick, that's for sure but he didn't want to hear the details of the truth in fear of what might happen.

"You know, she's working 22 hours with less than 2 hours of sleep..." Chan tried to reason out and explain it to Jihoon. "Working like that is tiring, just try to understand her alright?" Chan smiled sadly, imagining how tired Dani must be for her attitude to change. He too experienced working so hard with no sleep and it led to burn outs. Exhaustion can change a person, not just physically. It can affect the soul too and he believed that's exactly what was happening.

"Yeah... Maybe she didn't forget. She did bring three slices of cake." He muttered. "But I'm afraid she's killing herself working too hard."

"I'm worried about that too... But I will try to talk to her." Chan looked over to a sulking Jiyeon on the corner reading a book. "So it's the little princess' birthday today!"

At that, Jiyeon looked over to chan and ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"What would Jiyeon like as a late present?" Chan asked the little girl who clung onto his side. "Just tell me what you want and I'll bring it over the next time I visit."

"Hmmm... I don't like anything..." She pouted. Actually, she liked a doll simolar to one of her classmate's doll, it was a doll of Elsa. She's a Disney Queen, and almost every girl in her class had Frozen merchandise. It was only her who didn't have one. But at an early age, she understood she couldn't have one, not with lacking financial stability. She'd be happy with a slice of cake and beef on her birthday. Maybe someone would give her a pack of chocolate coated marshmallows as a bonus.

"How about your shoes? You complained that it's too small for you now." Jihoon brought up, making sure his little sister asks for something practical. He already knew what the young child was thinking off, no doubt, useless things. So he was on a mission to have her ask for something that she really really needed.

Chan looked over to the shoe rack by the door. It was then he suddenly felt guilty for owning a pile of branded shoes he doesn't even wear that much. Looking at it now, he noticed Jihoon only had one pair of shoes and it was worn out and dirty. Jiyeon had a pair of rubber shoes and sandals, both worn out and obviously too small. Dani had a barely used converse...

"Alright, grab a ruler. Let's get to measuring your feet, little one!" He smiled, remembering how he used to spoil his siblings back at Sydney. "I'll buy two for Jiyeon and two for Jihoon!" He said, immediately cheering up the two.

"But it isn't my birthday." Jihoon said, handing over a ruler to Chan who had Jiyeon on his lap.

"Nah, I'm sure Jiyeon wants his brother to have a nice pair as well!"

• •
• • •
• •

"Fuck. I'm late!" A groggy Dani stood up. She hadn't even got out of her clothes from yesterday. She hadn't even had 2 hours sleep. Just a few minutes. She stood up in a rush and stumbled a few times. It felt like she was loosing balance because of her lack of sleep. It was simply destroying her. She quickly got changed into clean clothes and as usual, skipped breakfast then ran to the restaurant.

"Dani, you're just in time!" The old lady smiled, welcoming her. "You best get ready for work, door's opening in a few minutes." She said.

"Right." Dani took a step towards the employee's room but she felt like she didn't have legs. The sensation of being able to feel wasn't there. But in a few seconds, the sensation returned and she was able to change her clothes. "Ibuprofen... Ibuprofen..." She muttered, looking for the pill bottle. It was damaging to be that reliant on pain killers but she had to, she knew she had to. It was the only thing keeping her pain in check enough to prevent herself from smacking her own head against a concrete wall.

As usual, she took a few pills then work started. Serving tables was her job. She took orders left and right and she served tables left and right. It was a busy day because it was Sunday and during the rush hours there were mostly families who ate there. The rude customers made her day almost comparably worse than what she thought of hell. They criticized her "half assed" service, told her to get them this and get them that, they asked her to be quicker at service. Dani heard so much voices they were all starting to sound like a buzz in her head. But before they could all turn to buzzing, she heard one customer ask her a favor.

"Can I have another glass of water here?" One customer asked.

"Right away sir!"

Dani was just carrying the glass when she froze, unable to feel her body. Suddenly, her body felt sharp pain and contractions resulting to her dropping the mug. But she stood in her place frozen and in a daze. It almost felt like she wasn't there physically.

"Hey what's the problem?" Dani's boss asked, seeing the waitress frozen. "Dani! Are you alright?!"

It was then she took a sharp inhale as if she had just stopped breathing. "W-what happened?" She asked. "Did I break that?!" She freaked out, already computing how much would be deducted from her pay.

"Calm down sweetie." She smiled. "Sit down and drink some water." She said.

Dani followed her instructions hesitantly but the woman led her to the backroom.. She sat down and gulped water and swallowed a couple pills for her headache, hoping to dull the pain again so she would have enough energy to finish the day. She just had a few hours left before closing time. She could do it if she tried one more time...

But in that moment she stood up, she dropped to the floor, unconscious. All pain was gone.