Page 52
My worries are gnawing at my insides like ravenous butterflies. In an effort to hold onto my sanity, I try to reason out my feelings: I didn’t need Rafe before he came into my life. So why now?
Halmeoni was finally declared strong enough for surgery, and that’s where she is now. I focus on how the procedure will help her to walk again, and how I can be there for her. Nevertheless, I can’t forget how my father threw down his final command when I called him about his mother’s accident. Was it a mistake to have called him and let him know about her injury? No. One way or another, he’d find out. Besides, if I didn’t apprise him of the accident, who knows what torment he might hit me with for keeping the incident to myself.
Although, he didn’t have an issue this morning reminding me that the concert he set up for Warrior Black is happening in a week. I want to refute his comment since Rafe said he’s canceling the concert, but I keep my mouth shut.
The only good thing to come out of all of this is that my father’s keeping his distance from me now. He’s holed up somewhere else in the hospital until the surgery is finished and Halmeoni comes out of the anesthesia, while I’m sitting in the waiting room alone, like other family members waiting on their loved ones going through surgery.
“Yeong?”
I turn and see my sister in the doorway to the room. I haven’t seen her in years, and she definitely isn’t the little girl I remember. “He Sook.” I quickly stand and hug her. She’s nearly as tall as me, with straight black hair hanging loosely at her shoulders. “You are beautiful.”
“Oppa.” Her arms wrap tight around me. “You look exhausted.”
“I am.” I chuckle against her hair. I pull back and look at eyes so familiar, so reminiscent of our mother’s. The same as mine. “How are you doing?”
“I’m good. School is crazy but I’m doing exceedingly well in all my classes. How are you?” He Sook asks as she sits in the seat next to the one I’ve been occupying since I got here. She holds my hand and studies my face. “You haven’t eaten?”
Right then, my stomach decides to growl like an angry beast. I smile at how astute she still is. “I’m the one who should be asking you that. But no, I haven’t eaten yet.”
“Then let’s go to the cafeteria. The nurse told me that Halmeoni is going to be a while. I just got off work and I’m starving.”
“You’re working too? I thought father was taking care of your needs until you graduate.”
“No,” she says so nonchalantly, like breathing is an option. “He paid for college and I made a deal with him to continue on to med school—my choice, Yeong,” she says without looking at me. She’s hiding something.
“What deal?” I ask, stopping her from exiting the room. “He Sook.”
She finally looks at me, as sadness flashes across her face. “He made me promise to not contact you in any way while you were in the United States,” she confesses, a watery sheen in her eyes. “I’m sorry. Please don’t tell father that I broke that rule.”
I step closer to her and lower my voice. “I would never tell that man anything. Promise. But honestly. He didn’t want you to contact me?”
“He did not.”
“Did he give you a reason?” I ask, but I’m burning inside with fury over the audacity of that man. That he didn’t want my sister to talk to me. It was his plan to totally isolate me from the family. I suspected that, but this proves it. And again, why?
“Yes. It’s a lame one though. He said he wanted you to be punished for ruining our name. His name.” She wipes at her eyes.
“Well, he failed and I’m better off without him. But I’m glad you didn’t listen because I looked forward to our weekly chats.”
“Me too. Especially all those nights I needed a break from studying.” She smiles, as she tugs my hand. “I’m hungry.”
We barely step out of the room when I hear my father calling for my sister. “What are you doing here, He Sook? I told you not to come.”
“And I told you, Father, that I want to be here for Halmeoni.”
My father glares at her, then at me. “This is your influence.”
“No, Father,” she defends, stepping in front of me. “This is my choice. Yeong didn’t know I was coming here until now.”
“That doesn’t matter. Yeong, you are no longer welcome here.” My father’s strident words don’t affect me the way they did when I was a child.
“This is ridiculous,” I hiss.
“Oppa,” He Sook utters in frustration under her breath. “Father, Yeong belongs here as much as I and you do.”
“Then I want both of you to leave here at once. Or I’ll call security and they can throw you out of the hospital.”
I step around my sister to face off with my father. It’s been a long time coming, even though doing this here, in the hospital setting, isn’t good. But I have no choice. Joon So Kim needs to understand that he can’t bully me anymore.
