"How are you?" Dash, who hadn't rested after coming to see Devon and her family, stared at his girlfriend for a moment. Devon approached Dash, observed all the bruises on his face, and said, "You mentioned it wouldn't be dangerous, what kind of pearls did you have to end up injured like this?"
"The fights were in mixed martial arts, so we couldn't be scored with points. That means the winner was whoever surrendered or couldn't continue fighting." Dash smiled for a moment before stopping, seeing Devon's silent and concerned expression.
While she looked at Dash's hands, she wanted to get angry, but she knew he didn't deserve it, especially now. "You know this bothers me?"
"I do, but I'm whole, and I brought you a gift." Dash raised a bag and handed it to Devon, who seemed very quiet because she saw him in that state.
Devon smiled, walked with Dash to the entrance of the hospital, and said on the way, "I thought you were invincible, but they really gave you a good beating."
"Well, I won the tournament, but they left me much worse than I am now, hahaha." Dash, who had set aside Devon's anger, smiled as they both walked towards Zoé Lee's room.
"Have you thought about what you'll tell my mom when she asks why you're like this?"
"But she already knows, right? I'll just tell her I won the tournament; these injuries are trophies." Dash smiled as he touched Devon's head, who was mostly silent.
"Everything will be fine, I'm totally sure of that..."
Devon stopped, took Dash's hand, and said in a low tone, "I don't want to lose my mom..."
"It's not going to happen!"
Dash took Devon's hands, made her look into his eyes, and whispered, "She will recover; the best doctors will be taking care of her during the operation, so you shouldn't think about negative things."
"Alright..."
Dash had no words of relief that could take away Devon's pain; that concern would be in her until the operation was over, and the result was known. That's why, in this situation, he could only stay by her side.
Mr. Zac, who was about to look for his daughter, stood at the door, sighed, and murmured, "I guess you're not as strong as you thought either. It's good that Dash has come back..."
With the gift in her hands, Devon, sitting on the side of Dash to calm down a bit, opened it and smiled upon seeing a golden frog. Caressing the golden frog, Devon asked Dash with confusion, "What am I supposed to need a golden frog for?"
"Well, they say that anyone who has a golden frog will enjoy good fortune..." Dash, who had closed eyes, opened them, looked at the golden frog, which was a golden figurine, and said, "I bought it from some monks at the airport. Since I haven't checked the luggage, I couldn't take out the other things I bought for you, so that's one of the many gifts I got on this trip."
He couldn't tell her that it was the only gift he had bought. After all, now that he thinks about it, it's not a very appropriate gift for a couple.
"No, I actually like it... It looks a lot like you. Should I call it Dash?" Devon stroked the head of the golden frog and joked for a while.
"Let's go see your mother now since you seem to be in a good mood." Dash walked towards the hospital room where Mrs. Lee was, who, after many scoldings for being so badly injured in the tournament, had left him alone.
It was uncomfortable to have such a bad appearance, for that same reason, he didn't want to be seen like this. Still, following Mr. Chozen's words, he decided to come to greet them. Now that he had arrived, he learned that the operation could happen at any time, and they would have to wait some time to know if it was successful or not. That's how things were, so all that was left was to wait.
After spending some time talking, Devon took him to her house because she wanted to change clothes and needed to eat something real that wasn't from a vending machine. Dash took advantage of this to sleep, although he normally didn't sleep anywhere, it was different being at Devon's house, so he took the opportunity and fell into a deep sleep.