Treat You Better - Park Jeongwoo

IV

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chapter three
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"Yeri... I'll help you get through this." Jeongwoo said. He meant every syllable he had just said.

"I dint know Jeongwoo..." Yeri said. "I want this child but I also want Haruto to love me and take care of our baby.

"I'll knock some sense into him." Jeongwoo said, getting up. "No...He won't listen. And he mustn't know that you know about this pregnancy."

"Yeri..." Jeongwoo began only to be cut by Yeri's sobs.
"I wanted to graduate university...I wanted to work." Yeri sobbed. "I wanted to build a future for Haruto and I so that I could have a family with him. Not like this..."

Jeongwoo rubbed her back.

"Now he doesn't love me anymore and this baby..."

Jeongwoo wanted her to see all the red flags that Haruto had been showing.

🚩Not wanting the baby
🚩 Breaking up with Yeri the second he found out about the pregnancy
🚩Not wanting anything to do with Yeri
🚩Never talking about Yeri as his 'girlfriend' with his friends
🚩Shaming Yeri
🚩 Hurting Yeri physically and mentally

"any girl like you deserves a gentleman"

***
Jeongwoo's head wasn't in the right space anymore. He couldn't concentrate during his classes anymore and just one thought constantly flowed in him mind.

He couldn't think of a way that Yeri could be happier. There wasn't anything he wanted more than Yeri to be happy.

He wondered if Yeri was really happy when she was with Haruto as she claimed. She felt incomplete without him. Or did she simply not see his red flags? Had she never been treated right?

Yeri would come, sit through class and disappear the rest of the day. She wouldn't be seen the rest of the day, until the next day at class. Jeongwoo wanted to talk to her but Yeri never seemed to want to talk to anyone. It was becoming a pattern.

Jeongwoo hummed a tune strumming his guitar as words started flowing into his brain.
"Treat You Better" by Shawn Mendes.

I won't lie to you
I know he's just not right for you

And you can tell me if I'm off
But I see it on your face
When you say that
he's the one that you want

And you're spending all your time
In this wrong situation
And anytime you want it to stop

Jeongwoo stopped. He could relate to this song on a different level. It was time to admit it to himself, the words he'd been dreading to say for a long time.

"I know I can treat you better than he can." he finally sang in his mellow voice, finally admitting to himself that he loved her.

He sat on the white chair, facing the skyline from his apartment  spacing out.
He was a little startled when he recieved a phone call.

"Yeri?!" Are you okay?!"Jeongwoo asked, standing up as he heard only sniffles from the other side.

(tw: miscarriage)

"The...baby...." Yeri sobbed as Jeongwoo immediately grabbed his car keys and ran out the door.

Jeongwoo drove the fastest he ever had. He never drove this recklessly. He knew Yeri needed him. He reached the address Yeri had just texted him.

"Choi Yeri." Jeongwoo told the woman behind the counter at the hospital.
"You are?" She asked.

"Park Jeongwoo."

"Relation to the patient?" She asked, typing into the computer.
"Boyfriend." Jeongwoo said.

"You can go inside. Room number 307."

Jeongwoo raced into the room he'd been told to go into. "Yeri!" He said when he saw the brunette lying under the covers of the hospital bed.

He took her in his arms. "It'll be okay." He said, hugging her as she sobbed.

"I didn't do anything Jeongwoo..." She sobbed.
"I know...It's not your fault."

"I just woke up and there was blood on my mattress and I freaked out..." She took a break. "Then I came to the hospital and the doctor and she told me that the baby was...gone."

"It'll be okay... It'll be okay Yeri....It's not your fault." Jeongwoo said over and over again.

Jeongwoo stayed at the hospital by her side the entire night.

She felt cold throught the night so Jeongwoo gave her his blanket. He called the doctor in when the fever rose or her IV bag ran out.

They didn't talk all night, but Jeongwoo knew he gave Yeri assurance by just being there.

He didn't sleep. He watched her drift in and out of sleep and wake up, startled. He rubbed her back whenever she woke up crying of pain, and helped her with her meds.

He knew he would have to take care of her for no-one ever came in those three days in the hospital except Hewon.

Yeri feared telling her mom, because she knew it would break her and her dad because she would never be allowed to be a part of their family again.

She told her roommate, Hewon, who bought in stuff Yeri would need and cooked for the three.

Jeongwoo went home once a day to shower after Hewon forced him to go.

"Can you please sign the release papers on a behalf of her family members for Choi Yeri?" The doctor asked, handing Jeongwoo the release papers.

He looked back to find Yeri looking at him. "Yes." He said, before signing the paper.

He paid the hospital bill without Yeri knowing, because he wanted to help. And besides, he came from a rich family and wasn't in short of any money.

Yeri got up, "Where's the bill?" She asked.
"Your boyfriend paid it for you."

Yeri looked at Jeongwoo suspiciously. "Why'd you pay my bill?" Yeri asked.

"Oh..." Jeongwoo fumbled , looking for a reason. "You can pay me back later." He said.

"I can pay for it very well Jeongwoo." Yeri said, sternly.
"I know. I just thought it should be a later deal. You should rest now."

"I'm perfectly fine and my insurance surely covers the bills Jeongwoo." the brunette told him.

"Well then think of it as your insurance paid your bills." Jeongwoo internally smacked himself.

Did he just call himself Yeri's 'Insurance'?!