Chapter 4; Test

That year was our tenth anniversary and of course I planned to celebrate it in the most romantic ways. Ten years together and still strong was something to be proud of and worth to celebrate gloriously. I planned to have a candle light dinner with Yi Jeong alone and I planned to send my kids to their grandparent's house. My mother went to her cousin's house to visit her sick aunt which was not too bad and not required me to go.

I already bought all the ingredients for my special dinner but a day before our anniversary, I double check the ingredients and to my horror, my brilliant little girl had found the chocolate bars that I bought to make Yi Jeong's favourite chocolate cake. She finished all the bars with her brothers and of course, how can I make a chocolate cake without a chocolate?

So I waited for Yi Jeong to come home after work and asked him to watch our kids because I wanted to race to the store to buy the chocolate. He playfully asked me why I can't wait to go to the store tomorrow and I scolded him not to ask too much.

My eighteen-months-old youngest son wanted to follow me but I thought if I bring him, he will only slow down my movement. So even when he cried his lungs out, even when he rolled his body on the carpet, even when he jiggled the gate in an attempts to open it and even when he screams "OMMA" over and over again, I willed myself to stay strong to leave him.

I hurriedly walked to the nearest store which about a couple blocks away and immediately bought the chocolate bars. Suddenly I remembered about my youngest kid who I believed still crying for me (not that he hated his father but he was overly clingy to me) and grabbed some candies for him to persuade him to forgive me for leaving him, then I remembered about my second kid who would be jealous if I only bought something for his little brother so I grabbed his favourite choco-pie, then again I remembered about my only daughter who also would sulking all day if I don't have anything for her so I grabbed a cute pink hair band with a butterfly on it so she can bragged to her friends in school. I paid the cashier and hurriedly walked back to my house.

When I neared the last intersection to my house, I saw the green light of pedestrian crossing was blinking so I raced towards the empty road to cross it without even looking at my left or my right. Then it hit me. Something so fast (a speeding car maybe) collided with my body so hard that I flung with my shopping bag and I crashed on the hard asphalt concrete and rolling a few times until I stopped by the gravity.

I can't move but my body trembling with its own. I can't scream although I'm in a great pain. I felt hot red liquid running through my head. I felt the same liquid coming from my nose and when I cough, the same liquid squirting from my mouth. I was so scared. Was it my time already? I had small kids and they need me! My husband needs me! I can't go yet. I don't want to go! Please God, give me more times! Was this how appa felt when he's about to leave me and omma? Was appa also begging for his life too?

I started to feel the difficulty to breathe. My eye lids felt heavy and I tried so hard to stay awake but slowly I succumbed to the tiredness and pain until I lost my consciousness.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes again was Yi Jeong's weary black eyes staring hopefully to mine. He looks skinny and unattended with a messy hair and unshaved stubble. "Annyeong sleeping beauty." Greeted him with a tired smile. "I kissed you every day but I guess the cursed is too strong because the magic only works today."

I smiled back at him and tried to speak but I felt like I have thorns in my throat and it made me coughing a few times. Yi Jeong immediately took a glass of water and spoon it to my mouth and I drank the whole glass because it soothed my dried throat. He put the empty glass on the bedside table and sat beside me on my bed and carefully holds my bandage hand. I cleared my throat and continued to speak; "I see Prince Yi Jeong's charm didn't work on me."

"Yes, sleeping beauty chose to ignore me for three months."

"THREE MONTHS?" I asked in disbelieved.

"Yes, I was tortured for three months. Doctor said it was good for you to heal your wound and heal your broken bones but it was bad for my health."

"What happen? I knew I was hit by something before I lost my consciousness."

"A drunk driver hit you. I heard the ambulance from our house but I never thought it was you. I got a called from the hospital and immediately rushed here with our kids. They said you…you were coding on the operation table but they managed to revive you back. But they had to remove one of your kidney, your spleen and half of your liver because they were badly damage. They had to implant artificial knee on your left leg because the damage was untreatable. Your right wrist was also badly damage but they manage to rearrange back the crush bones so it can grow back naturally. You had a blood clot on your brain but they manage to remove it too."

"Wow!" I can't believe I'm still alive. I guess God heard my pray.

"Yes wow! And you were coding again after the surgery right in front of me." He paused for a while and took some time to stare at my face. Slowly he trailed his finger from my forehead to my nose and ended it at my lips. "I thought I will lose you. I saw you gone for 27 seconds and I think my heart stop too. Please don't do it again. I repeat, do not do it again okay?"

"Okay." I nodded at him. "By the way" I scan the whole room that looks like a five stars hotel; "where am I? Is it a VIP room? Are we afforded to pay for my treatment?"

Yi Jeong just chuckled at my continuous questions. "For all the things that you had to worry, you asking me whether I'm afford or not. It's so like Chu Ga Eul." I pouted my lips and he pinched my nose and continue; "Don't worry, appa owns this hospital."

"WHAT? I thought he only had a small clinic."

"Apparently he cheated his family too because me and omma only know that he had this hospital on the day you were admitted here. Appa is also one of the best heart surgeons in this country. Hyung knows earlier because one of his lecturers knew appa and told him about it but appa asked him to keep it secret from me and omma. No wonder he never goes bankrupt by running his free clinic."

"So I married with a rich man's son." I playfully winked at him. "How's your mother accept the news? She's always complaint about her poor life."

"Shocked of course but she more worried about you. You know how much she loves you, I think more than she loves me. She and your mother cried all the time but appa promised them to give you the best treatment he can offer. When I think again, appa never fail to give us whatever we wanted. It's omma who always told me and hyung not to burden appa and told us to work to get what we wanted. She made us believed that appa is poor. If I knew I have a rich father, I will asked him to pay for our wedding. I don't need to work so hard in Italy and I will ask him to sponsor our honeymoon outside Korea."

"Try to look in the positive way why he hidden this fact. Look at you and your brother, both of you grew up to be a fine men and not some rich brat who go clubbing and just wasted their parent's money and lazy to work because they'll get what they wanted easily."

.

It took me another month to discharge from the hospital. I needed to do physiotherapy to learn to walk again, to train my hands to function again and I even had to learn to write again. Yi Jeong always by my side during the therapy and I pitied him because he had to juggled between me, our kids and his work. My mother and Yi Jeong's parents also came to visit me regularly but I can't see my kids because they were not allowed to visit me. That's why I can't wait to go home to see them because I missed them terribly.

When I went home Yul Jin and Tae Goon immediately jump on me and they were so happy to see me. I saw a drastic changed in Tae Goon. His chubby cheeks were gone and his ripple-fat hands and legs were gone too. When I carried him, he was lighter than four month ago. Toddlers should be growing in times but Tae Goon was shrinking. I glared at Yi Jeong with questioning eyes and he seemed to understand my silent question and answered; "Tae Goon-ie can't live without you. He's crying for you nonstop. He didn't want to eat and sleep. Since he was born, you are always with him and I tried everything to please him but it was useless. Only after a month he started to eat again without being force by me."

I saw not much different in Yul Jin because I knew he was my most independent kid, one of the advantages of being in the middle. He was more tolerable, the most patient one with not much words to say. Sometimes I pitied him because Ye Eun was close with Yi Jeong and Tae Goon was always with me and he seemed don't know how to fit in between. But we never left him alone. Yi Jeong and I loves him the same and loves to pamper him. To be honest, Yul Jin was my favourite, I know I shouldn't 'rank' my own kids but I can't help it.

Yi Jeong told me he and Ye Eun helps him a lot to watch his little brother.

Speaking about Ye Eun, I scan around the living room and I didn't see her. When I asked Yi Jeong, his face changed a little and let a long sighed. "Ye Eun blame herself for your accident. If only she didn't take that damn chocolate bars, you won't go out and you won't….well I tried so many time to tell her that it was not her fault but she…..I guess she needs to hear from your lips that you never blame her."

Never in a split second I'm blaming her for the accident happens to me. When I went into her room, I saw her lying on her bed and covering her whole body with blanket.

"Ye Eun-ah" I softly called her name but she chose to pretend to sleep; "don't you miss me? Omma miss you so much." I lay beside her and wrapped my arms around her small body. "Thank you so much for helping appa and halmoni to watch your brothers, I don't know how can I survive without you."

I heard a faint sobbed coming from the blanket. "Sorry omma. I should listen to you not to take something that is not mine. You said something bad will happen to me if I broke the law, but why you're the one who suffered because of my action?"

"I can't answer it baby. Your halmoni said that everything happen for a reason. I was destined to hurt that day by fate, not because of you. Anything can lead me to that street. So I forgive you for taking the chocolate but I don't need to forgive you for the accident I had because it was not your fault."

Ye Eun slowly pulled her blanket and revealing her sad face. Her face was wet with tears and her puffy eyes showed she had been crying for a long time. She hugged me back with her small arms and rubbed her wet face at my chest. "I'm so glad you're still alive omma." She mumbled in my chest.

After that my family became normal again but not the same, I'm not the same anymore. The damage had been done to me and the effect permanently changed my body. I relied on medication for the rest of my life and I had to control my diet because I lost a few of my internal organs. Yi Jeong appointed himself as my strict dietician and he meticulously monitored every single food I consumed.

I can't do heavy works too because I'm not as strong as before. My bones pained at night and during winter. Sometimes I can't sleep because the pain was too much and Yi Jeong would try his best to lessen my pain by massaging the pain area with hot balm. But one adjustment I hated the most was I cannot tend my sick children anymore. My immune system was so low that make YI Jeong practically caged me inside the house and only let me out if I wore proper PPE (personal protective equipment) which I found ridiculous. If anyone in my house fall sick, he or she will get a restraining order and cannot go near me. I did break the rules once because Tae Goon got a high fever and he cried nonstop even though my mother tried her best to stop his cry and Yi Jeong was away for work. Of course I can't bear to listen as my heart hurt when I saw him crying for me. So I did what every mother would do and hugged him until he fell asleep in my arms. That night I was rushed to the hospital because my fever got worsens and I was warded for two days.

I became a liability for my family. I pitied Yi Jeong and my mother because they not only had to rush me to the hospital back and forth but they also had to sacrifice most of their time to juggled between me and my small children. After some times, with the help of medication that I never fail to take, my immune system started to improve and I seldom fall sick like before.

Just when I thought that the test was over, another one is coming closer; more dangerous, more painful and more ferocious.