Her Voice / han sanghyuk (#14)

Episode 39

Jooeun

I sat down in the living room, waiting for Sanghyuk to come back home and have dinner that I have prepared for him. He told me that he will be staying back for a while because the homeroom teacher needed to speak to him about his one week leave and but it shouldn't take such a long time, it is not like the teacher is going to give him a 3-hour lecture, he was absent from school for a valid reason and now he is back, ready to face people with an improved mindset.

The news of his grandmother passing away has totally changed him as a person and he isn't the person that he used to be anymore, he didn't laugh as much as he did back then, although he smiled a lot at me and towards the other students the entire day, I could tell that he is trying to pretend that nothing ever happened.

It is good that he decided to move onto a new phase of his life in just one week but it is just too soon for someone to collect his emotions and go back to his regular lifestyle. A part of me wished that he take the entire month off and focus on taking care of his mental health but it is not advisable for him to do that because the finals are in a few weeks time and he will miss a lot of lessons if he were to stay at home, or he could choose to be homeschooled for the rest of the school year and then take the college entrance examinations.

The homeroom teacher suggested it to me when Sanghyuk was still recuperating at home, it would be good for him and he will be in a better state of mind if he stays at home. I have even spoken to him once about this matter but he didn't like it, he didn't like going to school, to begin with, but I just don't understand why he still wanted to go back to school.

He doesn't have a lot of friends either, his only friend is me and he had made a lot of enemies during his time in school and people hated him a lot, they would beat him up at every chance they get but he fights them back and then he would warn them to never pick a fight with him again. Maybe he needs to be there in order for chaos to not happen at all, for the past 2 to 3 months since I have transferred, he hasn't fought anyone else other than HakYeon sunbaenim whom he still disliked a lot.

Maybe he is afraid that they might bully me... The door opens and my head turning towards the direction of the door anticipating for Sanghyuk to be behind the door. It could only be him, DaIn unnie told me that she is working late again tonight and she instructed me to keep the leftovers in a container and she would heat it up when she gets home later.

But Sanghyuk didn't look like Sanghyuk when he entered the apartment, he looked really bloody and his clothes were stained with his own blood, it was evident that he got beat up by a gang of people and it is not like him to not fight them back at all. What exactly happened to him?

I stood up and ran towards him, and I hugged him tightly without any hesitation that the blood would stain my clothes. I couldn't care less about that when Sanghyuk is the one getting injured and I have no idea who the hell did this to him when I know that he did nothing at all, and the fact that he allowed them to best him up saddens me.

He is a very strong individual and he is well-trained in martial arts to some extent, based on his skills, he is able to fight anyone without sustaining any heavy injuries unless the person that he is fighting with is a boxer or an MMA fighter. Or he could have just let them hit him because he didn't want to cause any trouble by fighting back.

I know his enemies in school and they might be the ones who beat him up because they were annoyed at him for being so calm after everything that had happened and just wanted to poke fun at his misery, and Sanghyuk just allowed them to hit him because they were right. But it is still cruel to do such a thing to someone who had just lost a significant someone who meant so much to him, I don't understand what is the point of doing it.

"Just go home, Jooeun. I don't need to go to the hospital, I am still okay." He said to me and I shook my head. How can you be okay when you are so heavily injured?

Seeing him as he hurts me even more, he keeps saying that to make me feel reassured and not worry so much about him but honestly him saying that to me just makes me want to protect him even more and take care of him. He shouldn't have returned back to school, he should've stayed at home and all of this wouldn't have happened to him.

"I am really okay, Jooeun. I just need to take a bath and wash all of my clothes, and go to bed afterwards--" He suddenly stopped talking and I knew that he had passed out already, he had lost too much blood and he needed immediate medical attention. I shouldn't have held him for so long, I should've called for an ambulance the moment he came home but he can still be saved in time.

I placed him down on the floor gently before I rushed to the couch to pick up my phone to call for an ambulance by text, I have saved that number just in case that something might happen to me and I am the only one who is available. In less than 10 minutes, I have managed to contact the paramedics and they arrived as fast as they can and they transported Sanghyuk in the ambulance and I travelled together with him. I have also notified his older sister that her younger brother is in the hospital and she will get there as soon as her work ends.

I can't remember how hard I cried ignoring the paramedic that was with me, I only know that I needed to make sure that Sanghyuk is still alive and he wouldn't have to join his grandmother so soon. His older sister needs him a lot and I needed him a lot as well, I don't know what to do with him if he isn't around anymore.