Chereads / Legends I Never Knew / Chapter 11 - Under The Fluorescent Light

Chapter 11 - Under The Fluorescent Light

Beep... beep... beep... beep... Chan Jeol feels insanely groggy. He slowly becomes more aware of himself, and how heavly he feels. He trys to lift up an arm, but it won't listen to him. The beeping noise continues steadily.

Beep... beep... beep... He wishes Ari would turn off the stove. He was sleeping so deeply...

Beep... beep... beep... beep... hearing a pair of voices around him. They are deep, much deeper than Ari's or his. Before he can manage to fully wake up again, he sink back down into his peaceful, deep sleep.

Beep... beep... beep... He feels uncomfortable. He finally manages to open his eyes, but he can't see anything; it's too bright. The beeping increases steadily in frequency. He suddenly starts choking on something lodged deep in his throat. He can't breathe. He start panicking and the beeping goes wild. All of a sudden there are people around him, none of whom he recognizes and they keep a hold of him, pressing him down onto whatever he's lying on, and his vision goes dark as his plunged into the abyss of darkness once again.

The next time he regains consciousness, the beeping noise is no longer accompanying him. He feels a dull ache in his body, but no pain. It's a strange sensation. He's eyelids flutter open lazily, and he is once again met by the blinding white light. It slowly disappears and he looks awey and trys understanding where he is. He's lying on a plain white bed surrounded by green curtains on all sides. He hooked up to a machine.

Without thinking, Chan Jeol rips out the needles sticking into his left arm, which is now encased in a thick cast with some steel pins sticking out. He notices he is dressed in what looks like a thin hospital gown. He swings his legs off the side of the bed, placing his feet down on the cold floor. He struggles for a while to find the strength to stand up without leaning against the bed -his legs feel like they no longer include bones to support him, but eventually, he dose find his balance.

He peeks through the curtains surrounding his bed. He's in a big, open room with the same green curtains pulled around his beds. It's silent, only the noise of the machines inside the wall of green can be heard. He slowly walks out of the room and enters a stark, cold hallway. He is definitely in a hospital, there is an unmanned reception desk and along the hallway are signs in Romanian and Hungarian indicating the way to different areas of the hospital. There is no one around, so he starts walking down the hallway away from the reception. He passes light, wooden doors with different names on them, but he dosn't stop. He dosn't know what he's looking for exactly, but it seems like his legs have a plan as they take him down the hall.

He finally rounds a corner and instinctively jumps back behind it. There are two men, dressed in combat gear with swords standing guard in the hallway. Luckily, they did not seem to notice him as they are deep in conversation, their voices echoing off the walls of the hallway.

"-whether or not it was on purpose.' One of them says and the other agrees enthusiastically. Chan Jeol dares to sneak a peek around the corner. They do not seem to be specifically interested in keeping watch, as they're both stood facing the door, looking through a small glass window on the door into the room.

"I don't get why we need to be standing here." One of the men whines to the other.

"My feet are hurting, man. I mean god nothing has happened for the past ten hours."

"She just lies there." The other agrees, switching his weight from one foot onto the other.

"Fuck, I'm seriously falling asleep here." The man starts turning around and he quickly hides behind the corner again. He has a pretty good idea of what they're guarding.

"Dude, me too. Shit, I mean it's four in the morning, we've got what, two more hours to go?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna die if I can't get a coffee some time soon."

"Shit, a coffee would go down so well. Huh, wouldn't you like a coffee too, missy crazy?" He hears a loud bang and he looks round the corner just in time to see the men laughingly turn away from the door.

One of them snickers somthing ChanJeol can't make out.

"Seriously though, man, I thought Johnson was tripping when he said she was hot, but yo I'd tap that if it wasn't insane."

"Ha, me too."

Chan Jeol feels nauseous hearing them say that. Men with swords, especially stupid men with sword seem to always lose any semblance of conscience or morals. He knows that from experience. He thought it would get easier once he graduated the academy training and became a fully-fledged agent, but wherever they sent him he couldn't escape the idiot gangs. He tunes in again when he hears the guards have gone back to talking about coffee.

"Shit, shall I just go get us coffees?"

"Whatever man there's no one here and that women ain't going nowhere, I'll just come with you, I need to stretch my legs anyway."

Chan Jeol panics as he hears their footsteps getting closer. He looks around and hopes for the best as he pulls down on the silver handle on the nearest door to his right. It opens softly and he sneak in without bothering to look around the room. He pulls the door almost shut behind him. He looks up at the bed in the room and he sees a old man sleeping on it. He dosent think much of it so lookes through the small crack between the door and the frame. The two men pases him, now deeply in a conversation about what sounds like times they almost died, but didn't, because of how cool they both are. He waits for a second, then opens the door again and soundlessly closes it behind him as the agents walk towards the reception, completely unaware of their surroundings. He rolls his eyes at how anyone coud be handed a sword in this facilitly.

He slowly but fast walks back around the corner into the now empty hallway and walks up to the door the agents were guarding. He looks around him once more, focusing on any sounds around him, but he's alone. He looks through the opening in the door. He sees a brightly lit room with all white walls and cabins and a bed in the middle of it, and on the bed is Hwang. She's propped up high on pillows behind her back. In addition to the shackles he placed on her, she is now also sporting regular handcuffs holding her arms and legs in place, and the shock collar around her neck. She's hooked up to an IV, her chest slowly and steadily rising and falling. She's wearing a similar hospital gown to his. Her head is turned to the side, leaning against the pillows, her hair falling down in front of her face. Her ankles and wrists look bruised. He softly tap on the glass, trying to get her attention. She doesn't move. He taps again and again slightly harder. Nothing.

"Hwang." He whisper loudly, his voice coming out rough. He taps the glass again, but she doesn't move.

He realizes he can hear voices growing louder and turns around just as the two agents round the corner. They stop talking and stare at him, confused. He has nowhere to escape so he plasters on a friendly smile.

"Hey!" One of them shouts. "What are you doing?"

"Get away from the door!" The other one pipes up.

He throws his hands in the air and trys to look as convincingly not menacing as he can. Shouldn't be too hard, one hand in a cast dressed in this stupid flimsy gown. "I'm so sorry," he beggins his lies.

"I'm with Eun Woo and his team. I just woke up and couldn't find anyone, and I must have gotten lost. Do you two know where I could find a nurse?"

They exchange a looks, and he can tell they've bought it. They come to a halt in front of him, one of them peering into Hwang's room. Pleased with what he sees, he looks back at him.

"Reception, probably."

"Oh, of course." He exclaimes in a confused voice. "What way is that?"

"Just round the corner there." The agent points with his thumb.

"Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good evening." He smiles sweetly at them and walk past them. As he rounds the corner he can hear them whisper:

"Was he the one who-"

"Yeah, I think so."

Chan Jeol walks back through the hallway the way he came throug, feeling a lot more tired all of a sudden. He's feet have grown uncomfortably cold against the floor. When he reaches reception, a nurse is sitting behind the desk, looking up, surprised, from her paperwork.

"What are-" She begins. "You should not be out of your bed!"

"Sorry, I..." he say, feeling lightheaded all of a sudden.

"Let me help you back." The nurse says and comes to grab a hold of his elbow, and begins steering him back into the open room.

She finds him his bed and he climbs back onto it. He let her inject the needles again without saying a word, but feeling her disapproving glances on him. Once she is done she leaves him alone and pulls the curtains back around his bed, leaving him all alone again. He unconsciously start dozing off, feeling very confused as to how He's ended up here when the last thing he can remember is Hwang holding his hand.