"Is this Kim Mikyung?"
"Yes."
"I'm calling from TBZ Hospital. Miss Kim Mijeong was declared dead on July 16th, at 2:39 PM. My condolences to you and your family..."
The woman on the other end of the phone was saying something, but Mikyung stopped hearing after the words "declared dead." Mere hours after talking about it with Haknyeon, she was dead. Her mother, gone.
"What?" she whispered into the phone, her voice breaking.
"I'm so sorry-" the woman started, but Mikyung hung up. She knew it was rude, but was crying and hurting too much to even care at that moment. Her hands were shaking as she called her father. "Dad?" she whispered, sobbing over the phone. "Did you hear-"
"I did," he interrupted. "Where are you? I'll come pick you up."
"Don't bother," she said, wiping at her eyes. It didn't do any good though. The tears just kept coming. "I'm on my way to the hospital."
She didn't know how she got there. Her body felt almost like a zombie as she got on and off of the bus. She couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks and the sobs from shaking her shoulders. She saw some people cast her worried glances but was grateful when she made it into the hospital without anyone talking to her.
Her father was waiting for her in the lobby.
Mikyung started crying harder when she saw him, and she ran across the lobby and into his arms. He was crying too, but he held her tightly, stroking her hair with one hand. "It'll be okay," he whispered through his own tears. "Everything will be okay," he said, even though he didn't sound as though he believed his own words.
She wasn't even able to say anything in reply. No words would come to her. There was no way to describe the way she was feeling.
"Let's go," her father said softly. "Let's go see your mother."
