At Odds (All Bets Are Off Sequel)

Chapter 5

True to what Dara had promised, she came back the next day at the hospital. And the next. And the next. Each time Donghae opened his eyes from sleep, he would see her with a big smile on her face as she greeted him cheerfully. Then she would arrange his pillows, his blankets, peeling his fruits, arranging his food, feeding him.... She's acting like she's his wife already. He tried not to shudder at the thought but it's completely making him want to jump out of his skin.

And the fact that his mother and his grandmother has become all familiar with her.... It's really too much information to swallow. It's like he had survived an apocalypse only to be enlisted in another one. Dara became a part of his family, even working at The Scope which his grandmother owned. His friends didn't help on the matter either. They were all acting as if he didn't told them Dara was a crazy stalker as they all bantered around with her everytime each of them visited him. Everyone seems to be really fond of her. Except him.

There were a lot of questions he had asked everyone of them and the answers just left him more confused than ever. He was inlove with Dara? He was crazy about Dara? He hit Jaejoong because he likes Dara? He went crazy with panic when Dara was in danger with his drug-addicted cousin? Rick actually came back? And his grandmother knew? He met Dara's mother for permission to marry her? Oh, she had a brother too? All of it seems outrageous! Yeah, he already accepted the fact that he won't be able to remember anything from last year but this revelation is close to being really weird. Did he really do all those things? He couldn't even think on the last memory he's had left before the accident flushed the rest of it away. Eveything is so convoluted.

He gave Dara a surreptitious glance as she stirred the soup before placing it on the overbed table that morning and rolling it over Donghae's. "Eat up so you would be healthy." She was the only person who is inside the room. His mother left saying she needed drop by at the pharmacy. Her voice and the look in her face told him she was lying. He knew she's going to meet his father and probably report his condition like what she had been doing for the last couple of days. That is also one revelation which he really cannot accept. He hadn't seen his father since that day they found out his brain cortex was damaged. And it was all for the better as he doesn't think he would ever want to see him again. He just couldn't understand why his mother forgave his father. He wondered if the reason is valid enough for him to forgive his father too. His mother didn't give any explanation and he didn't ask. It's just gonna be too much information for his suddenly fragile brain to store.

"Soup is healthy?" Donghae couldn't help but ask wryly as he eyed the soup.

"The doctor said it's safer for your stomach to start digesting soft foods while you're on the mend."

Donghae responded dryly, "Soft foods. Which means solid. Not liquid."

Dara raised one of her eyebrows at him. "I seem to remember you whining to your mom like a little kid that your stomach hurt when you ate that tofu and that you think you can't take any solid food yet."

Oh, he didn't realize she had been there. "I just... don't like tofu," he just reasoned.

"Neither do I," Dara said. "So it's a good thing I know how to make soup. Are you gonna eat this or do you want me to feed you?"

Donghae scowled at her as he took the spoon on his hand. For a girlfriend, she seems to be really commanding. Another reason to ask himself what was he thinking when he dated this girl.

Dara smiled as she watched Donghae take a sip of the hot soup with the spoon. He hasn't warmed up to her as of yet. In fact, he's alternately being sarcastic and dry to her. Sometimes, she would catch him studying her with that frown on his face like he's trying to figure out the greatest mystery of his life. She never take offense with that. He can look at her as much as he wants if that would mean he would see her. Like really see her. The girl he had asked to marry. The girl he had been telling I love you every morning, every night, every text messages, every phone calls. Even in every fights. If he can't remember that, then maybe he can find it in himself to actually feel something. She just needs to be patient. He's in a state of shock right now and she can completely understand the confusion he is under.