Last Saturday

Ch.16

Minji stirs awake the next day, it was extremely off for her to wake up so early in the
morning without an alarm. It was seven in the morning, everyone else was still asleep, except for Mrs. Pham, who she sees making coffee.
She gets off the small couch, glancing at Hanni before greeting her mother. Mrs. Pham offers her a cup of coffee, to which Minji eagerly accepts.
"The hospital room became our home." Mrs. Pham laughs.
Minji giggles, "Indeed, we even brought one of your coffee makers from the bakery."
They continue to talk, sitting in front of each other at the folded table. The others eventually wake too. Mr. Pham makes himself a cup of tea, while Jungwon leaves, headed to the hospital
cafeteria to buy breakfast for all of them.
It's been months that they've lived like this, Hanni's parents going back to Cheong-sam to
check on their family businesses and to clean their home, Minji also goes to her home to clean, passing by and visiting the office every time she does. Jungwon's on summer vacation, so he got to stay with them longer.
Yet it still feels so new every time Minji wakes up. She still hasn't been used to such a
lifestyle. She lived by herself and didn't have many friends back then, her only routine was going to work, visiting the park, and going home. Minji never imagined her life to turn out like this, being apart of a family, and loving a person who dearly reciprocates her
feelings.
Though this life comforts her in such a way she can't seem to explain. It's new yet she feels safe. She's thankful that she's got people to be with, a family to love. Minji knows she's done something right for once, and she's glad that she's chosen to change.
They're all eating breakfast peacefully as they watch the morning news channel on the
television, when Hanni's father abruptly stands up from his seat in shock, making everyone flinch.
"Her eyes are open..." The one phrase is enough to make the whole family run to Hanni's
bed looking like famished ants who finally found a crumb of leftover food on the ground.
Her eyes were indeed open.
One of them aggressively presses the button that called the doctors, and they arrive after a minute or two. The nurses write her vitals down while the doctors check her breathing, her eyes, ears, and everything else Minji couldn't see. There were so many people surrounding her bed.
Hanni looked lost, she looked as if she was trying to comprehend what was going on. She wasn't speaking.
The doctors leave them once they're done, and the whole family can't help but stare at her cautiously as she just quietly stays seated on her bed. They've always been told to talk only if she talked first, so they're all waiting. Minji just knows all of them piercing glares into her soul would make her even more confused and scared, so she calmly stands up, and casually stacks all the dishes they ate from breakfast, like Hanni wasn't there. Fortunately, everyone else gets the signal, and they all go back to talking with each other.
Of course, they do this with a few glances at Hanni, seeing if she'll finally understand and
remember what was going on.
Minji's been looking for her chapstick since last week. A perfect situation she can use
right now. She searches for it, and attempts to stand near Hanni's bed, opening and closing the drawers.
"Hey." Minji hears her whisper and she looks up to see Hanni staring right at her. She manages to hide her own shock from Hanni and raises her eyebrows.
"Why is no one talking to me? Why are you not talking to me? What happened to you during my surgery? What happened to ME during surgery?" Hanni genuinely wanted to know everything she missed. Minji wants to cry and laugh at the same time. She's awake.
"Why don't you let me hug you first?" She stands up and gently embraces Hanni, running her hands through her hair and giggling hard when she hugs her back so tightly that Minji has a hard time breathing.
The family instinctively walks over to them as well. When Minji lets go, Hanni's lower lip begins to wobble, "God, I thought I turned into a ghost after the doctors left. None of you were noticing me-" She sniffs, and then full-on cries.
The three immediately hug her, a dissonance of ugly cries in unison, making Minji
laugh.

And Minji never found her missing chapstick after that.

___________

She feels her cheek repeatedly getting tapped. Minji realizes she'd been zoning out for too long.
"You aren't listening to me." Hanni snickers.
Minji lies, "I was!" And Hanni rolls her eyes, not believing her in the slightest.
"I was asking if we could visit the flower shop you went to earlier when I get discharged tomorrow! We could even visit more after."
"But I just bought you flowers-"
" And? " Hanni tries to hold in her laughter from Minji's reaction. She made a face that was seemingly displeased, and offended
"Do you not like the tulips I gave you?"
"Of course I do! I simply want to check the store out, if I come across something I'd like then I'll most probably buy a couple too. Let's also look for periwinkles to plant in your garden.
After that, we can have lunch in the new restaurant that just opened a week ago. Oh! Did you know that there was also a newly-opened milk tea shop near the park? I went through the reviews and..."
Hanni goes on and on. Minji only manages to register half of the words she blurted out,
too focused on staring at how excited and joyful the love of her life looks.
It's not that Hanni had too many requests, but Minji needs to let her know that she basically can't do a ton of activities yet. So she explains how she needs to take things slow for now, to which Hanni pouts at, but ends up agreeing. She's self-aware, she hasn't done anything athletic for the past months, and her body would react really badly if she startles
herself. She doesn't want to end up in the hospital again. Definitely the last event she wants to happen is to feel like icky gum stuck to the bed.
Now she feels Hanni's hands on her, fiddling with the bottom hem of her hoodie. Minji knows her too well, she knew Hanni wanted to say something, but was too embarrassed to even start.
"What is it, Han?" She looks at her lovingly like she usually does, and Hanni starts blushing, to her surprise.
"Well, I was wondering...if I could... move in with you. Like, I know most of my stuff is there in your guest room anyway but that was when my parents couldn't free up space at home, I just, really wanted it to be official. Also, speaking of my parents, you don't have to worry about them because I'd already informed about wanting to live with you and they're
totally fine with it, but if you aren't then it's also totally fine with me , I can go ask Jungwon to help me in moving my things out and-"
Minji leans in and gives her a quick, short, and soft peck on the lips. She pulls away and
sees Hanni freeze in genuine confusion after. Cute .
"Shut up." Minji chuckles, gently holding her chin and pulling her in for a longer one this time, her girlfriend eagerly reciprocating her kisses. When Minji pulls away again, leaving only their foreheads touching, she laughs, because Hanni still looked so lost.
"Is that supposed to be a yes or not?" Hanni asks.
Minji holds her hand that was fiddling with the hem of her hoodie, "Why would I kiss
you if it was a no?"
"I'm still not sure, though. I think I need to hear the answer again." Hanni's eyes had a glint of mischievousness, making Minji snort.
"Quit playing, of course I'd let us live in the same home." She takes Hanni's arms and begins to wrap them around her neck, effectively hugging her until she pins her down on the bed, giggles echoing through the room.
Minji softly says, "Quick hug before I go, I still need to go outside in a few minutes."
"Where are you going?"
"Garden duties." Minji replies, and they share a giggle. "Haven't visited home yesterday, I bet they're all thirsty."
Minji hears Hanni mumbling something on her shoulder, but she couldn't decipher the
words, her hoodie making the sentences all muffled, so she slightly lifts herself up using her elbows, and Hanni cradles her cheeks.
"Stay with me."
"And leave my plants to die? Let my home be dusted with filthy germs? I need to make it look good before you can come back in."
Hanni rolls her eyes, shoving her palm into Minji's face, but the woman doesn't mind,
laughing even harder and resting her head in the crook of Hanni's neck.
"Fine. I stay two hours. Then I'll get going. Deal?" She plants a tiny peck on the spot right under Hanni's ear.
Hanni fake snores, and Minji swears she's one breath away from biting her neck, literally. So she gives her own type of revenge, pretending to get up and leave the room, but
Hanni strongly pulls her arms back down, and she ends up landing back heavily with an
"oof."
"Deal."