Jasmines In June

Endless cough

Jasmine started to turn around to leave. She was ready to quit. Now she understood when Jun said none of his aid ever lasted. She merely lasted a few minutes before she was ready to disappear and never come back. Nobody wants to be treated like dirt even if it was for a large salary. 

"Wait!" Hoon called out to her in his panicked stricken voice. 

Jasmine ignored him. She couldn't care less. 

"Jasmine wait!" Hoon's voice cracked. His throat had been hoarse for days. Hours upon hours of caughing usually at night strained his wind pipe. "Jasmine!"

Jasmine heard him call her name twice and hesitated. She had not expected Hoon to know or remember her name, melting her into softness for a spit second. Although not even that was enough to make her change her mind. She kept on on her way out.

"Jasm..." Hoon began to cough badly, bringing his hand to his mouth. His eyes swept to a desk by the window, clutter of mess lain around chaoticly on the table. His bottle of prescription cough medication buried amongst the mess. Hoon started to reach for it when a wave of severe coughing stopped him. His lungs burned, Hoon coughed and coughed barely able to catch a breath in between. Soon he was bent over about to pass out from lack of air. 

Jasmine heard his struggle. Her first instinc was to look for help. She recalled Wen telling her that there's always a medical professional around. Jasmine had walked around the house earlier and saw no one. 

Shit. 

She began to worry deciding to come to his aid. "Hoon! Are you okay?"

She saw him by the his work desk. His palm pressed on the table trying to hold himself from falling.

"Hold on!" She said, but her voice was drown by a volley of his coughs that wouldn't stop. 

Hoon soon lost his balance and folded on his weight. She tried to dash catching him but he'd been too heavy for her. She was at least able to break his fall catching him with her legs. She crambled to get him to her lap and reached for the bottle of medicine he'd been so desperate to grab. Jasmine hurriedly openned it shaking the content on his palm. Hoon swallowed his pills dry. 

In that moment, Jasmine decided to stay, at least for today. She held Hoon on her lap ocasionally wiping the beads sweat that started to form on his forehead - until the medicine worked on his blood and his coughing waned. 

After about a few minutes or so, Hoon started to roll himself out her warmth. His face gained back its color and some of his strenght returned to his muscles. He turned around to face her, now getting a real good look at her. 

Jasmine noticed it too. The familiarity in his face. His eyes mostly. It is as though she can stare at them and see his soul though them. The recognition was vague unlike the time when she first met Jun - but she couldn't deny the tug on her soul that made her chest ached in longing. 

"Are you okay?" She asked Hoon softly. 

Hoon nodded, "I apologize for the way I acted. I'm not used to being disturbed in my office."

"It was my fault. I should've checked first."

Hoon lifted to his knees with a wobble. "No, Wen should've briefed you of my expectations."

Jasmine rummaged through her mind, she was half paying attention to Wen when he was talking. He may or may have mentioned of not disturbing Hoon in his office, but it's too late for that now. Who can remember all those instructions?