Last Saturday

ch.11

It's the day of her surgery.

Hanni wasn't getting any better, and it was the only option left, to everyone's dismay.

Along with a few nurses, they're all walking her to the operating room. The sick woman held her mother's hand on her left and Minji's hand on her right as they passed through the hallways.

"Dad, you cry too much!" Hanni jokes, earning a light slap from her mom and a giggle from her father.

"When will you ever be serious?" Her mom leans down to hug her tightly, running her hands through Hanni's hair.

"I'll be okay."
They arrive at the entrance, and everyone takes their time to talk to Hanni.

jungwon barely cried, but he now looked like an absolute mess talking to his older sister.

"You're strong! You're gonna get through this!" He sobs, Hanni giggling at her younger sibling.

"It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself instead of me. C'mere my little rascal~"

She opens her arms to embrace him, ruffling his hair.

Minji swears she heard him mumble something, somewhere in the context of asking Hanni to stop calling him that.

"Minji..." Hanni finally turns to her, raising her hands and Minji, by instinct, rests her face on Hanni's palms gently stroking her cheeks, melting into her touch.

"I'll be waiting here." She says, and Hanni immediately wipes the tear dropping from her left eye.

"I love you." Hanni whispers, and Minji leans down to peck her forehead.

"I love you too."

And just like that, the four are left waiting after the doors to the room close, uncertain of the future they would face after this surgery.

It's midnight, Minji and jungwon are walking to the convenience store in the other building to buy snacks for everyone as they wait for the surgery to finish. She notices his unusual behavior, the 19 year-old is too silent.
"What's gotten you thinking so much?" She ruffles his hair, and he only sighs deeply.

"Doubts."

Minji didn't urge him to talk more, understanding him.

"She's strong, jungwon. She'll live." Minji says before opening the glass door to the
convenience store. The tiny bell attached to it made a noise, alerting the cashier that they had customers.

_________

The surgeon arrives in the waiting area, Hanni's mother rises from her seat. Minji had just arrived from the bathroom and saw them through the windows. Seeing a trash can across the hallway, she quickly aims, throws, and shoots the empty bag of chips that she's been
fiddling around with to ease her anxiety. It goes straight into the trash can, to her surprise.

When she enters the waiting room, she immediately gets greeted with a hug from Hanni's mother who was sobbing.

"Hanni's alright, she's breathing." The father announces, but Minji still confused by their worried expressions.

"Hanni had severe excess bleeding during surgery, and we had to stop before it got much worse. Although we already managed to drain most of the fluid in her lungs. If they come back quicker than we expect it to, it can highly develop into chronic pulmonary edema. She'll
eventually need to have another surgery in a few days, but the chances of her surviving that one is extremely lower."
Minji feels her world freeze, her sense of hearing going static. The hand rubbing the
mother's hand stops. But before she could even reach the state of complete numbness and hopelessness, Hanni's mom aggressively shakes her back to her senses, grasping Minji's cheeks.