"Where are Yeji Choi's relatives?" The doctor called.
Both me and cry baby ahjussi stood up, I still can't believe he has not called her mother or her grandparents yet, or his wife. What kind of fucked up life has she been living?
"Here!" Ahjussi exclaimed.
"What's the relation?" The doctor narrowed his eyes.
"I'm her father and he's her older brother," ahjussi lied. As long as I can stay with her, I don't mind his stupid lie. "Father and brother," it's a useful lie, since both me and her are partially East-Asian with black hair.
"Mr. Choi, your daughter is in a complicated state. Had her brother not done the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pressed her wrist wounds with your clothes, she would have died. But the problem now is the drug!"
"Drug?" We both gasped, startled. "What drug?" We asked.
Sigh, "Your daughter seems to have consumed a worrisome amount of an extremely strong sleeping pill, with private prescript solely in cases of a mental illness that cause hallucinations. She almost had an overdose. Had she consumed one more pill, that would have been deadly enough to kill her without her going to the length of cutting her wrists and drowning. I'm sorry, but it seems like she really had her mind set in killing herself. Do you know if she's been in a psychiatrist that gave the prescription of these pills? Or if she bought illegally?"
Pills? Why? What the hell is happening here?
Ahjussi gulped loudly, "Yes," what? "She's been taking those pills since she was a child, because she has a peculiar mental… situation. Her mom set her to have psychiatric consults ever since it started."
Oh, no. Zio will be livid when I tell him this. I can't believe her mom was drugging her. Jesus Christ, what a mess. And to think they still are nowhere to be seen, and that this cry baby still hasn't called anyone. What the hell is he thinking?
"I see," the doctor sighed. "She'll be in induced coma for as long as it takes for her to heal. We suggest you, if you have the money, to take her to a private chamber, where she'll be able to be taken care better than here. We've been loaded with patients the even since the June tragedy."
June tragedy? Is he talking about the train accident in Serbia? I had forgotten that the train had parted from Sofia, that sounds awful. "Can you help preparing a ICU in a jet?" I asked before ahjussi could interrupt. "We'll be taking her home to where her mom is, since we've been now living in Chicago, in the US." I felt ahjussi's glare burning my skin, but I ignored him. Now that he lied about me being her brother and his son, he can't say shit about it.
A nod, "Of course. When?"
"Right now. I already sent a message to our pilot, he's waiting," and I did, ten minutes ago, it was the first thing I did, after I zipped my jacket closed and calmed down. Ahjussi didn't notice because he was too busy weeping his ass off. I also sent a message to Four, telling him to tell everyone to prepare an urgent ICU in the penthouse. I said nothing else.
"How long is the flight from here to Chicago approximately?" The doctor asked, contemplatively.
"13 hours and a half," I told him, already on my feet.
"I'll prepare the ambulance with everything," then he left us alone.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Ahjussi snapped at me.
I glared down at him, as I'm about 20cm taller than him, "Ahjussi," I clenched my jaw, "if you want to come with her, then fine, but if not, then stay fucking quiet and out of my way. She's coming home with me, and if you try to get on my way, I won't think twice before making sure you're the one in need of medical surgery!"
He flinched, glaring up back at me. "Ahjussi? That's Korean, didn't you say you were-" he froze, and recognition bloomed in his face. "You are the 19-year-old son of Missy's dad's best friend Yoshihiro Nishimura, with his wife Moon Hyo-rin. Japanese-Korean."
It was my time to blink in shock, "How do you know that?"
"So that's who you are," he snapped his fingers. "Missy told me all she got on her father and his inner circle when she hacked him more than two weeks ago. She did it in front of me, during breakfast, 3 hours in and she broke into their security."
"In three hours?" I gasped, trying to hide my awe. She's incredible.
"What's your full name, kid?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
I blinked, "Didn't she tell you?"
"She only told me the names of your parents, how many kids each of them had, and their ages. I'll ask you again, what's your full name?"
I crossed my arms over my chest, defensively, "I didn't lie, it's Dai Nishimura for short and Dai-Jin Moon Nishimura as a whole."
"What's your Korean name?" He clicked his tongue.
"Moon Seok-jin!"
"Hm. Fine, I'll go with you, I need to stay with her."
This time I narrowed my eyes at him, "Where's her mom?"
He avoided my eyes, "Out of touch."
"And her grandparents?"
"Out of touch," he hissed at me, growing annoyed.
"That's an irresponsible answer!"
"The truth doesn't concern you. If Missy wants any of you to know anything, she will tell you herself. Until she decides on that, I am not saying a word about her family to any of you," why is he mad now?
I'm the one who's angry. "Go pack what she'll need, and what you will need, plus documents, and I'll wait for you in here," I clenched my jaw. "Pack her warm clothes, this year's autumn is especially cold, and she'll need to be as comfortable as possible. Especially after that freezing pool."
"If you leave without me-"
"I have no intention in kidnapping Yeji, ahjussi. I'll wait for you!"
He clicked his tongue, "Rude brat," he hissed under his breath and ran out of the hospital, doing exactly what I told him to.
I fell down on my seat exhausted, scared, "Stay alive, please."
|||||||||
"Are you moving in to Chicago with us or something, ahjussi?" I gasped when I saw the amount of luggage he brought with him, and three boxes, which we do when we move somewhere else. "I said only what would be necessary, what's all this, ahjussi?"
"Stop calling me 'ahjussi', rude bastard," he growled annoyed, as he put his stuff in the jet, after the two doctors from the hospital came with Yeji, after I promised to bring them back to Sofia on the jet. I mean, I won't come with them, I'll just send them back. "Only Missy get to call me that!" We've been only speaking in English now.
"Ahjussi," I hissed, not giving a shit. "What's all this?"
He glared at me, "This is all the necessary stuff. Only one of those bags are mine, everything else is Missy's you infuriating brat. She has tons of stuff that she would kill me if I got rid off."
"Well, you should have said that from the start," I snapped.
"Are you always this rude to your elder? Aren't you Korean?"
I rolled my eyes, "Ahjussi, I'm only ⅓ Korean. My father's origins are in Japan, but both him and mom were from Chicago before I was born there. My grandparents are the ones full Korean and fully Japanese. And I do know about their age hierarchy, I just don't give a shit about it," I grinned wolfishly, "and I only use when I find it worthy of it. And you, ahjussi, does not make the cut!"
His jaw dropped in dismay, "Hah, I hate Americans."
"We are two then," I scoffed. "I also hate them."
He stared at me as if I was crazy, "You are American."
"Doesn't that speak volumes about my people then?" I winked.
|||||||||
Three hours into the flight and it was dead silent, which began to really piss me off and make me absolutely uncomfortable. Especially when ahjussi has been burning his eyes on my face ever since he got inside here, as if he could read my fucking brain with those judging eyes.
"Ahjussi," I hissed, finally glaring at him, "stop glaring at me."
"How did you know I was glaring at you," he cocked an eyebrow.
"Because I'm not blunt, ahjussi. And I can feel your brown eyes all but burning two holes of my fucking face. Come on, it's my best asset, stop that, it's making me absolutely uncomfortable. If you want some skin care tips, I can help, ahjussi, it might help with those expression lines marking your face. And you know what? You don't look Korean at all!"
His frown deepened, "Korean? Are you high or something, brat?"
I blinked, "What?"
"I am not Korean, Jesus Christ, I don't even look east-Asian. Where did you get that stupid idea from? I'm half Russian, half Canadian!" He snapped, in pure dismay, as if I was drugged.
"Russian-Canadian?" I frowned in confused. "Ain't you her uncle, ahjussi? Yeji only has one uncle, Julien Kim, and he's Korean."
He slapped his forehead, as if he was dealing with a stupid child, "You stupid brat, family isn't only blood. I'm Felicity and Harmony's best friend from childhood, ever since my family moved to Sofia when I was 7. I'm her family's lawyer, as well her family's conglomerate's. We may not be related by blood, but I'm her uncle regardless. Ask her when she wakes up if you doubt. Hah. Julien? I can't believe you thought I was him!"
My eyes widened, "The one who covered up her arsons!"
His pale skin turned bright red, "How do you know that? How do you know any of this? No… better yet, how the fuck did you even know she was here in Sofia? How?"
"Tell me your full name first," I glared at him. "You know mine!"
He rolled his eyes, "Daniel Saunier Ivanovich. And I'm not married and definitely not to Harmony, stupid brat. I like men, not women," well, now that explains a lot, especially how much of a cry baby he is. "Your turn, answer my questions."
I clicked my tongue, "She deliberately left a cryptic trace behind when she hacked our systems, it took my father a while to get through it, but he did, yesterday. He was able to get a picture of her, her name, the name of all of her family members, to track her here to Sofia, and to get his hands on her criminal record. I recognized her when I saw her picture, since I followed her online, we put everything together, and uncle Silas know in the same instant that she was his daughter. He sent me here."
"Hah, she said she didn't want any of you to know about her, but she gave you an alternative, had your people been skilled enough to find it," he passed a hand over his curly sand blonde hair. "And that was what saved her life in the last minute," he sighed. "I feel bittersweet with what she tried, but I'm thankful that you were there to save her from herself, brat."
"If you start crying again, I'll kick your ass out of the jet, ahjussi!"
He gave me the middle finger, "You are absolutely unbearable."
I winked in response, "It's one of my many charms."
"Charms my foot," he scoffed, "cheeky brat."
"Ahjussi," I swallowed, "what made Yeji want to die this badly?"
"Guilt," he whispered, staring at his hands, haunted.
"Guilt?" I froze, feeling sick. "Of what?"
"This is not my story to tell, brat."
"Ahjussi!" I growled, stressed, frustrated, anxious.
"It is not my story to tell, brat," he hissed. "If she wants to tell you, she will, on her time. It's not about me, it's about her. You can ask me as many times as you want, it won't make it my story to tell you. I will never break Missy's trust, she's already had her fill of betrayal for a lifetime, and I promised her to never get into contact with you, to never tell you anything about her life, and I intend on keeping my promise, because I know she would do the same in my place."
I swallowed, fists clenched, because he's right, and said nothing.
"Rest, brat, I'll do that too," it was all he mumbled before covering his eyes with a sleeping eye mask.
As if I would be able to sleep in this situation.