Pleased To Meet You
"Damn," was her first coherent utterance, gods her world was spinning. Kaoru didn't dare move from her position, fearing the worse.
She had done most of her internship in the E.R., and she had seen her fair share of trauma victims that resulted from vehicular accidents. What if she broke her spine?! What if she suffered a concussion? What if she was internally bleeding?
What if she broke her spine, suffered a concussion, and was internally bleeding?!
The med graduate paused, her life flashing dramatically before her eyes.
All the happy memories and the sad,
The image of her on a rainy night as she swore before her father's grave, "I'm not giving up, papa…"
Her teenage brother reaching out to her, holding her hand as they stuck another 18gauge needle in his arm for yet another blood transfusion, "I'm scared, Onee-san."
And her, standing by the bayside road across the street, staring in longing at the beautiful house settled on the hill that would never be hers again…
She shouldn't die!
"Hey." Drifted a sudden voice, and it snapped her back into reality. Kaoru spun around, and for a moment there she heaved a breath of immense relief. There was no shooting pain, no creaking bones, no vertigo.
She blinked up, at the man standing before her.
He was well-dressed, she could tell by the expensive suit he was wearing, and the pedigree refinement that was his face, but she tore her eyes away from his perfect majesty and drifted towards the expensive car… with a dent on the hood…
And a crack on the windshield.
"Ughh…" Kaoru moaned. She tried to stand up but she couldn't. "Mister, I'm—"
"What the hell were you doing, daydreaming while crossing the road!" The man suddenly yelled. She didn't have time to close her gaping mouth when the man continued, "Didn't your mommy tell you not to go biking around at this time of—"
"Excuse ME?" Kaoru snapped, "I don't know what planet you came from, but pedestrians have the right of way, especially in a PEDESTRIAN crossing!"
The man blinked, and he seemed to step back. But there was something that flashed in his eyes… something conniving. He tilted his haughty nose up, and he gave her the most arrogant, infuriating smirk.
"W-what?" Kaoru drew back.
"You think you're smart, little girl?" The perfect majesty folded his arms in his chest, "I know what you're trying to do—darting before a running vehicle, pretending not to see my oncoming car.
You're trying to con yourself into a lawsuit!"
Kaoru's jaw fell.
"Hn, typical of the middle-class. Did you purposely crash yourself, seeing this was a Bentley? You thought you could milk out a lot of money from this naïve driver?"
"What?" Kaoru gaped in disbelief, "Why the hell would I do that?" Kaoru pointed angrily past him, and the white-haired jerk turned around.
It was the pedestrian walk-light, and it was still flashing, in bold, white capital letters: WALK.
Then the man's gaze drifted to the stoplight. It was still red on the traffic's side, and only then did it turn GREEN.
"YOU were running through a red light. I'd be damned if you win such a lawsuit." She said, pointing at the traffic cam.
The stranger's jaw dropped, realizing that HE was at total fault.
Kaoru gathered herself and assessed for any broken bones. There were still some aches but the pain was tolerable, save for the torn material on the knees of her (only) good jeans.
Her knees were scraped, raw and bleeding,
But there was nothing critically wrong.
She took out her phone to check the time and realized, amid cracked screen, her phone was already dead. "You'll be thankful I won't sue you for this," she mumbled. How much would it cost to upgrade her phone? Her contract wasn't even halfway yet… and speaking of phone bills, she was backed up from two months due… oh how her heart sank…
"Stop exaggerating." Came the not-so sympathetic reply.
Exaggerating?!
" Well, I'm sorry for trusting the traffic lights, but whatever caused you to be distracted—" She turned around, and she gasped.
She had not seen it before because she was too dazed, but now, something was staring straight at her, it was impossible not to see.
Kaoru's ranting mouth completely shut like a clam, her face flared cherry red.
She had seen countless of those in her internship, but she was always in a professional setting, she never really tried to mind the sight.
But right now it was right in front of her, and it was swaying and hanging like a flaccid tongue.
From cherry red from embarrassment she was now flame red from something else: anger.
"I can't believe it! You ran over a law-abiding pedestrian because you were jacking off in your car?!"
Realization hit the man, and his eyes widened. His gaze snapped down to the open fly of his expensive pants.
"Please," Kaoru pulled her hair in sheer anguish, "For holy purity's sake, just tuck that thing back in!"
The man scrambled to tuck his appendage back in when something from his car shifted.
A little-black-dress-clad woman stepped out, still in a daze from the accident, her hair disheveled and lipstick smeared on her cheeks.
There was a curious white liquid all over her lips, and it was dripping at the side of her mouth.
Kaoru didn't need to go to medical school just to know what it was. "Kami, what have I done to deserve such fate?!" she wailed.
"Uh," the dazed woman reached out to her, "Little miss, are you alri—"
"Don't come any closer, or else I call the police on you and your pervert boyfriend!" Kaoru shut her eyes and covered her ears.
And she calmed herself down, stopped her ranting mouth. She hoped the man would at least offer her a ride to her destination, seeing that her bicycle was mangled into a twisted lump of carbon-fiber.
Or he would at least apologize.
She still believed that there was hope and kindness in the world.
But she opened her eyes, and smoke from his expensive toy exploded on her face.
The flashy Bentley sped off, leaving her alone, coughing from the inhaled fumes, injured and bike-less in the now quiet street.
She sighed in exhaustion and picked up her broken bike. "Spoiled rich kids," Kaoru murmured. "Ugh, I hope I never see him again."
