"Get out of my sight now!" the doctor yelled angrily.
"Poor people never have the means, yet they come to our hospital," the doctor mutters.
Hearing this, Dane feels deeply hurt because poverty is such a thing that, when it grips you, you're forced to endure everyone's taunts with your head bowed.
Dane quickly got up from the floor, bowed slightly, and wiped his tears before leaving the office.
He walked out of the hospital, needing some fresh air to clear his mind.
As Dane sat on a bench in the hospital garden, he tilted his head back, gazing at the shining moon surrounded by the dark sky.
'Why is it that only we have to endure so much, God? First, our parents committed suicide without caring about us, and now my sister, as delicate as a flower and my whole life, is in a coma.'
'I don't know what sins I've committed to be facing all this. And now, where will I get 10 million from? I don't want Liya's treatment to stop, but where will the money come from? I'm not capable of paying such a huge amount.'
'Should I sell my kidney? That seems to be the only option left now... God, instead of giving us so much suffering, it would have been better if you had taken our lives too.'
'I wish my parents had taken me and Liya with them when they committed suicide. It would have been better because I'm exhausted now.'
'I know I'm the elder one, and everything is my responsibility, but I can't even take care of myself anymore. I'm completely broken from the inside.'
A deep emptiness filled his heart, consuming him from within. Just then, his phone buzzed with a message.
At first, he ignored the notification, too lost in his thoughts.
But as the notifications kept coming, he finally picked up the phone to check. What he saw made his heart skip a beat.
The first message was a photo, followed by a series of texts.
(In the photo, a girl wearing an expensive golden short western dress was standing outside a pub, kissing a boy. The boy had his arms wrapped around her waist.)
– (Friend) "Dane, look at what your girlfriend is doing with that new waiter."
– (Friend) "Hey, reply quickly! I've been dying to know since I saw this photo on Insta."
– (Friend) "I always felt like your girlfriend was different because she looked at every guy the same way, but turns out she's a cheater."
Dane read the messages, but he wasn't as shocked as one might expect.
He already knew his girlfriend was cheating on him. He had suspected it for a long time.
Yet, he had convinced himself that if he continued to love her unconditionally, maybe one day she would change. But he was wrong.
His girlfriend had only gotten worse—switching to a new guy every day. She wasn't just unfaithful; she was a player.
Dane began typing, and as soon as his friend saw the typing indicator, he felt a wave of relief—he had been dying to hear the full story.
– (Dane) "I already knew about it, but I stayed quiet."
– (Friend) "What?! You knew, and you still didn't do anything? Have you lost your mind?"
– (Friend) "You should've broken up with a girl who was cheating on you!"
– (Dane) "Hmm, I will… whenever I come back."
– (Friend) "By the way, when are you coming back? And how's your sister?"
– (Dane) "Not good. Liya is in a coma, and the hospital bill has reached 10 million—for just one day."
– (Friend) "What kind of hospital charges 10 million for a single day?"
Dane's friend advised him to transfer Liya to another hospital and said he would handle the rest, including finding out if the current hospital was really charging 10 million for just one day.
Dane and his friend kept chatting over messages for an hour, completely unaware of how quickly time had passed.
Dane keeps his mobile beside him and looks up at the sky. His eyes fill with tears, and once again, he starts crying.
Dane couldn't understand what to do next, and still crying, he returns to the hospital.
He lies down on the sofa in Liya's room, gazing at his sister.
After a while, his eyes close, and he drifts off into a world of dreams.
In the middle of the night, when Dane is in a deep sleep, the door to the room opens quietly.
A shadow appears inside. The person enters, moving silently, careful not to make a sound, as even the slightest noise could wake Dane.
The person is wearing a long black coat, black gloves, and their face is covered with a black mask.
The person stands by Liya, gently stroking her head.
After a few minutes, they place a soft kiss on Liya's forehead and leave, without anyone noticing.
The next day, when Dane wakes up and realizes that it's morning, he remembers everything from last night.
A nurse is giving Liya a new IV drip. The nurse was middle-aged, but there was a hint of pity in her eyes as she looked at Liya.
Dane gets up, rubbing his eyes, and walks toward the nurse.
"When will my sister be okay? I mean, when will she come out of the coma?"
"And has her condition improved since yesterday?"
The nurse first finishes her work and then turns toward Dane.
"I can't say anything right now. And you're okay, right? Your eyes look swollen."
"Don't worry too much; your sister will recover soon, but internal wounds take time to heal," the nurse says.
"Glad to hear that actually, I was about to go home. Would you mind taking care of my sister until I get back?"
The nurse nods in agreement after hearing Dane's words.
Dane leaves the hospital.
After stepping out of the hospital, Dane looks at his phone.
It's at 50% charge, and some of his colleagues have called him, but he couldn't hear the calls because his phone was on silent. He then takes the phone off silent mode.
As Dane walks back home from the hospital, he observes his surroundings. Children are heading to school, their mothers carrying their bags.
A thought crosses Dane's mind—what if someone bullied Liya at school?
And who knows, maybe those same people were behind her accident as well.
The possibility troubles Dane deeply, but even if it were true, what could he do about it?
Lost in thought, he reaches his home and sees his neighbor aunt outside. He thinks she might know something.
"Aunty!" Dane calls out to her.
Hearing his voice, the aunt looks at him but immediately runs into her house and locks the door from inside.
Dane is stunned. What was that about? Why did she run away as if she had seen a ghost?
Scratching his head in confusion, Dane looks around and then heads toward his house.
His house is located by the roadside. The door is locked, but there's a small compartment above it where they always keep a spare key.
Dane uses the key to unlock the door but feels as though someone is watching him.
He turns around to look, but no one is there, so he enters the house and locks the door behind him.
But when Dane felt like someone was watching him, it turned out to be true.
Since he left the hospital, someone had been following him, but Dane had no idea.
As soon as Dane enters the house and locks the door, his eyes widen in shock at the state of the house.
"What is all this... was there a robbery in our house?"
"But the door isn't broken, which means it wasn't a robbery. Either the thief knew where we kept our keys."
What he sees inside leaves him in shock. All the clothes from the cupboard are scattered on the floor,
and the entire house is in disarray, as if someone had been searching for something.
Dane walks over and picks up the clothes belonging to him and his sister from the sofa.
It looked like all the clothes from the wardrobe had been taken and thrown onto the living room sofa.
Dane quickly goes to check a small safe in the wardrobe where they keep their money.
When Dane checks, he realizes that the money is safe and untouched in the wardrobe, and nothing seems to be missing from the house.
This means that whatever happened to the house was not the result of a robbery.
"Wasn't life already difficult enough, that now people are breaking into our house and ruining it?"
"I don't know what else is left for me to see... maybe my own death."