When Blood Meets Silver

Chapter 34

Hyunjin woke up the next morning with loud voices coming from another room.

"It hurts!" Chaewon cried. "And it looks awful! It's infecting!"

"G-Gowon, calm down, maybe it's part of the healing process-"

"It's not!"

There was a door opening and then shutting, the thud louder than the voices.

"What's all this noise?" Heejin grunted, scooting closer against the crook of Hyunjin's neck.

"Can you hear it?"

"Yeah, way too well. Pretty sure it would have woken me up when I was a human, too."

Hyunjin sighed. "I'm gonna go see what's happening."

After kissing Heejin's forehead, she stood up, leaving her whining behind. Opening the door, she peeked outside, to find Jiwoo doing the same from her room.

"What happened?" Jiwoo asked, scratching the sleepiness from her eyes.

"I don't know."

"Go check on Chaewon, we'll check on Hyejoo."

Hyunjin nodded and made her way down the corridor, quiet sobs sounding from the first floor. Slowly, she made her way downstairs, observing Chaewon crying on the couch with Diana by her side.

"Hey, good morning," Hyunjin said. "Mind if I join you?"

Chaewon sniffed, looking up at her. Hyunjin offered a smile, the most genuine she could at that moment, and Chaewon nodded. Hyunjin sat on her other side, not to disturb Diana.

"Can I take a look at your hand?" Hyunjin asked.

Without a word, Chaewon raised her right arm at her. Hyunjin held on her wrist, carefully turning her arm upwards. Indeed, her hand didn't look pretty. The skin was redder and bubbles of pus seemed to be forming. Not to mention the putrid smell.

"It hurts, Hyunjin." Chaewon sobbed. "And it's hard to move the other fingers. I took the antibiotics Jihyo prescribed me, why is this happening?"

"You need to get this checked. We'll go earlier to Seoul so you can visit Jihyo before our meeting with Vivi."

"Am I going to lose my hand?" Chaewon asked, her voice so scared and painful it hurt Hyunjin.

"You're not." Hyunjin rested a hand in her head, pulling Chaewon to her shoulder. "You're gonna be fine."

She had to be fine. That was what Hyunjin wanted to believe and to make her believe. But the girl seemed so helpless, so overwhelmingly sad it was making Hyunjin want to cry as well. But that was one of those occasions in which she had to be strong. If she broke, everyone would break with her.

A couple minutes later, Heejin, Jiwoo and Jungeun came down, joining them.

"Hey, Chaewon, how are you feeling?" Jiwoo asked, trying her hardest to sound lively even after taking a look at her hand as well.

Chaewon didn't answer, and avoided everyone's eyes on her.

"She needs to get checked. We need to go to Seoul soon, but Jinsol's at work now, and I feel bad for always asking her, honestly."

"We can take the bus there."

"Bus?" Hyunjin irked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it takes roughly the same time. There's one every hour."

Hyunjin sighed in relief. "That's great. You could take it with Jungeun, Chaewon and Hyejoo then, and I'll go with Heejin."

"Sure!"