Chapter 5

Book Version

Saku slowly opened her eyes… she felt light-headed and her vision was slightly obscured. But after a minute… she was able to distinguish her surroundings. She noticed the white walls and floor… the neat bed she was strapped down to… the IV she was hooked up to… Saku fought against the straps that held her to the bed… She knew she was in a hospital… but she couldn’t remember why…

Suddenly, Saku is startled by the sound of the hospital room door opening. She stares in disbelief as none other than the “Intelligent B*****d” Kim Ji-Hoon walks in… followed by the adorable Amai. Kim Ji-Hoon sits down in one of the hospital chairs next to Saku’s bed and starts the conversation with unnecessary insults, “Are you feeling better drama queen? By the way, how much do you weigh because I had a Hell of a time dragging your butt to this hospital..." He grumbles.

Saku gawks at him… she isn’t pleased with the ‘drama queen’ nickname or the fact that he rudely asked her about her weight. She growls back, “The first thing you say to a sick person… Do I look alright to you?”

The fight was just bubbling when Amai quickly clears his throat loudly to obtain Saku’s attention; he didn’t want the fight to escalate… for Saku’s health and for common courtesy of the hospital, “Saku, do you remember anything from last night?”

Saku ponders the thought… she definitely didn’t remember anything when she first woke up… so, she decided to try to remember again… unfortunately getting no improvements in her missing memory, “…Actually… no, I really don’t remember much…”

Kim Ji-Hoon snickers loudly at her failure to recall last night’s events, “So you don’t remember having a mental breakdown and collapsing in the middle of the night?! Whoo you gave your boss one hell of a night… haha, such drama caused by one little girl!”

Amai punches Ji-Hoon on the shoulder, very upset about his behavior. Amai whispers, more like quietly reprimands Kim Ji-Hoon for his rudeness towards Saku, “Can’t you be a little nice? You don’t know why she had the mental breakdown… It could have been serious in her case…”

The serious side of Amai hasn’t been seen by Saku yet until now… and now she was waiting… for Ji-Hoon looked at Amai, almost as if he was about to make a smart retort to the kind boy’s request… but instead… he nods his head without a complaint… easily surrendering to Amai. Saku notes this in her brain and the quiet thought occurs to her, “Couldn’t he just apologize like that under my request? Well… maybe I shouldn’t have slapped him… What am I thinking?! He deserved it!”

Deciding to disregard the thought, Saku decided to pay more attention to the missing details of her ‘mental breakdown’ from last night. It took a little while… but once she was able to grasp a piece of information… she quickly regretted it… attached to that piece of unfortunate data was the mountain load of misery… She remembered losing her job… she remembered her fear of losing everything… having to live on the streets… her life… crumbling away… slowly… painfully…

Saku began to hyperventilate, “Oh my… I can’t believe I forgot… I… I lost…”

With surprising speed, Kim Ji-Hoon is up and standing by Saku’s side, trying to comfort her, “Saku, calm down!”

Amai stands up as well, “She is panicking about what happened last night!!”

Ji-Hoon continues his failure at soothing, “Saku, breathe! Forget about last night for a minute and breathe!!”

Saku finally listens to Ji-Hoon and squeezes her eyes shut, her tears trailing down her face from the tiring effort of reaching calmness.

Amai is standing on the other side of the hospital bed and is gently rubbing Saku’s head, “Saku, easy… calm down…” His words can’t seem to help her…

“How can I be calm when my damn life is going down the drain?!” Saku shakes her head in anger, as if trying to rid herself of the thoughts. She opens her eyes and stares straight up… she begins to breathe normally, but at the same time she is basically sobbing, “My damn life is a s**t hole… everything is… oh why am I crying like this… especially in front of you two… D****t…” Saku shakes her head again to regain control, “I wasn’t expecting to break like this… d****t… why am I being so pathetic…?”

Saku in her own little world of despair doesn’t notice that Amai and Kim Ji-Hoon are now even more curious than before… While she attempts to regain control of her messed up head, Amai and Ji-Hoon exchange questioning looks. They begin to mouth to each other, not wanting to say anything in front of Saku…

Amai starting, “Do you understand?”

Ji-Hoon shakes his head and mouths back, “Ask her about it.”

Amai quickly shakes his head, “Why me?! What if she breaks down again?!”

Ji-Hoon tilts his head towards Saku, answering back with, “You think if I ask she’ll be better off?!”

“Why are you so nosy?!”

“You want to know too!”

“But-“

“Fine, I’ll ask… but you won’t like the way I do!”

Kim Ji-Hoon was preparing to ask Saku what was causing her so much trouble when the room door opened and in came a nurse. The nurse, when she notices Kim Ji-Hoon and Amai standing by the bed, freezes in place. Kim Ji-Hoon quickly moves over to stand beside Amai and bows slightly to her; Amai quickly following suit. The nurse quickly bows back and comes up blushing like crazy… the sight of the two pretty boys has stunned her.

Saku smirks at the nurse’s reaction to the two boys, “You are falling for which one now, nurse?”

The nurse quickly snaps back to reality at the sound of Saku’s comment, “Oh, you’re awake!” she quickly gets to work, unstrapping Saku from the bed. Once unstrapped, Saku sits up and holds her head, most likely trying to clean her face. The nurse clucks her tongue and sighs, “You were a lot worse off this time around Saku… what happened this time? You were so jumpy and you were throwing yourself all over… you weren’t even conscious and you almost knocked out one of the other nurses…”

Kim Ji-Hoon and Amai’s jaws drop at the comment… surprised at the fact that this wasn’t a first for Sake Hana. Both ask at the same time, “There was a last time?!”

The look Saku gives them obviously foretells that information on the ‘last time’ incident was to be strictly withheld, unless given her permission to tell. She quickly answers them with, “No need for you to know too much… but yes… once before… it was a long while ago…”

The nurse, obviously missing Saku’s ‘Do Not Say Anything’ death glare and “No need for you to know too much” comment, quickly delves further into the incident, “Yes… It was when she lost her parents at the age of… 10 was it? Ah… that news had spread quickly through the hospital… poor Saku fell into depression… medication and therapy was needed… it was good that she was able to get over the depression in a year or two… she was a tough little girl!!”

The nurse pinches Saku’s cheek, who angrily slaps her hand away, “Thanks for spreading my life!! D****t…”

The nurse chuckles, amused by Saku’s childish reaction, but immediately puts on a serious face, “Saku… you need to go into therapy again… we are worried that your depression might come back…”

Saku is clearly unhappy with the decision, “Hell no… therapy was killer back then!! I rather take medication again!!”

The nurse countered Saku’s statement, “Medication isn’t needed right now! You just need to go to therapy for now until we are certain you won’t go into depression or suicidal thoughts won’t occur.”

Saku angrily fought back the nurse’s response with one she hadn’t even meant to let out… but once it was out, she really didn’t care… “And how the hell am I going to afford a therapist, huh? Better yet, how the hell am I going to pay this hospital bill, huh? How am I going to pay anything when I’m already in so much debt to begin with?!” She basically snarled.

At the mention of Saku’s debt, Kim Ji-Hoon’s interest is sparked. His eyes find her body, sitting right beside him, so strong and independent, arguing persistently as if she could have anything she wanted… and yet so many issues threatening to overtake that strong body and reduce it to rubble. Crush that independent soul and throw it into the garbage…

Kim Ji-Hoon never paid attention to Class 3-A’s Saku Hana until she had declared war on him on behalf of someone else… and now he found himself standing right beside her… unknowingly to himself, his feelings briefly showed themselves through his eyes… of course, during the time when only one person might have noticed… At that moment that Kim Ji-Hoon looked at Saku Hana… his eyes had shown sympathy and guilt for the struggling girl before him…

He is pulled back to himself when Amai speaks up, “Saku, you… you’re in debt?”

Saku lets out an irritated sigh, “Yes d****t! I’m in freakin’ debt! That’s the whole reason I had an episode last night!!” She takes a deep breath to calm herself and then pushes herself off of the bed. The nurse quickly rushes to aid Saku when she wobbles, but Saku swings her arm in a wide ark, clearly wanting no help from anyone at the time. She stands tall before them, “I feel better now… I think that panic attack was able to help me get my troubles out… It’s better to cry then hold it in… which is what I should have done sooner… Anyway, I have a plan… I might be able to lower my debt considerably… There is a tennis tournament coming up tomorrow and the winner will get a check for $1,000,000… my debt is actually a good $1,000 over so… if I win, then I’ll have nothing to worry about… but if I lose… then I am done for…”

When Saku begins to wobble again, Amai steps forward to help. Knowing that she’ll need to drop the tough act, Saku allows Amai to help her.

While Amai was helping Saku stand, Kim Ji-Hoon finally spoke up after a moment of silence, “Saku what will you do if you fail?”

The nurse is now helping Amai with Saku’s unsteady feet. Saku leans onto Amai for support and answers Ji-Hoon’s question, “I’ll need to go home now… and Ji-Hoon… this ‘drama queen’ won’t have a home to go to if she loses…”

Amai stiffens from the response… Saku could feel him tense up at the possibility of her losing her home, “… Saku… are you sure you’re okay? And can’t anyone help you with your… problem?”

Saku ignores his sympathy… she’d be fine once she got home and wept it all out before the tournament… “Amai, nurse… I can stand so leave me and let me get home… I just need to rest and prepare to go… I have to travel…”

When Saku begins to walk on her own, the nurse and Amai both back away to give her space. Saku begins to search the room, “Where are my clothes? I can’t walk home in this…”

The nurse seems to want to object to Saku returning home after only one night of rest… but the fire dies out and she reluctantly helps Saku locate her clothing.

Saku Hana has made it home and is now recuperating for the challenge ahead of her. Meanwhile, Kim Ji-Hoon and Amai are walking through the park together. It is quiet for a moment, until Amai starts up a conversation, “I never knew Saku had those kinds of problems… she lost her parents and is dealing with debt?”

Ji-Hoon remains silent… his mind seems a bit distracted. So Amai continues to speak, “You know… you should apologize--” He starts to say before Ji-Hoon’s growl cuts him off.

“Amai, we spoke about the apology…” Kim Ji-Hoon wasn’t planning to apologize for simply putting a girl down on one of his bad days… plus, he didn’t really like saying ‘I’m sorry’…

“Ji-Hoon you were way too cruel to that girl! And Saku declared war on you for it! Don’t you think you can lessen her troubles?” Amai pleaded.

Ji-Hoon shrugs the plea off… his mind was now contradicting itself… using the sight of Saku as an excuse to soften his recently cruel actions which he had originally planned to toss aside…

“I know you were having a bad day already, but come on… you could be like Saku right now. Come on… please?” Amai continues to beg.

Kim Ji-Hoon stops to stare at Amai. After a long while, he began to find it hard to keep letting the poor kid beg. Ji-Hoon never liked to see Amai beg… or be sad… so, just for Amai… he nods, “Alright fine…”

Amai smiles and punches Kim Ji-Hoon’s arm, “Thanks!!”

Confused, Ji-Hoon begins to walk again, “For what?”

Amai walks next to him and smiles, “… For listening to me!”

Reviews

[Gretchen Clarke]

So the rude Ji-Hoon is capable of kindness after all...
Another amazing chapter!
Keep up the awesome work!

[Japanese Cherry]

Your reviews keep making my day!! :D

[Gretchen Clarke]

Aw, it's nothing. Besides, good writing makes my day.