SAVE ME - CHOI HYUN WOOK a.k.a AHN SOO HO

11. Flower in the Desert

"I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams..."

From "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The day felt so long. The figure that was reflected by the window looked terrible in contrast with the city lights outside the window, the bandage on her left cheek and neck even her right hand. She didn't know who she was, as if someone had pressed the reset button of her life. One thing that she knows is the empty space in the corner of her heart.

She won. But there's another stage. The trial... which means she'll have to face him. That face she never wanted to see again. That person. Or, worse, that monster. The mere thought of it gave her the creeps.

"I might be okay now, but I wonder if I'll be okay in the future. If he gets out of jail someday, can I be okay or will I have to run away again?"

A knocking sound broke her thought, she sighed, biting her lower lip before lifting the corner of her lips. "Suho-ya."

Her smile turned to the confused one as she looked behind him. "Yeon Si-eun? Oh Beom-seok? Why are you two here?"

Suho sat at the right edge of her bed, holding her bandage hand gently. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not bringing them here." The two other boys stood still in front of the door, looking at them awkwardly.

"I mean, I'm not saying you guys can't come." She mumbled looking at the two shyly as she cleared her throat. "Are you two going to keep standing there?" A grin spread on Suho's face his eyes never left her.

"You guys are suspicious," Subin said out of the blue, narrowing her eyes at them in turn as Si-eun sat on the chair on her left and Beom Seok stood next to him. "What's that all about?" Suho lifted one of his brows.

"First, the three of you came together. Second, Yeon Si-eun, the band-aids on your hands." She spoke slowly as if she was trying to solve a mystery. "Three, your bruised knuckles." She raised the hand that was in hers, showing the reddish spots on her boyfriend's knuckles as he hardly gulped his saliva.

"Four, the nervous look on your face as I speak." She pointed at Beom Seok, making his eyes widen. "Who did this?" Her demanding look stared into the deep of Suho's eyes. "Bin-a, this is not a big deal, let's just drop it, okay? We're not here for this." Suho said bluntly, yanking his hand from her grip.

The air in the room turned cold as the look on her face. Every little thing has made her tense, and her empty heart beats heavily. Exactly as the doctor said, all those were the aftermath of what happened. Her emotions were broken.

"I told you not to fight, didn't I?" She spoke in a low voice, her face reddened. They stared at her in shock. "Even if nothing happens now, then what? Next time? What if- if you get hurt- or worse- what if there's a victim like me? Huh?!" She rambled fast, getting choked up in the middle, and raised her voice on the last sentence, with tears dropping from her reddened eyes.