Author's Note: So I figured I'd finish this chapter before I went to bed. It was playing in my mind so I put on some music and finished it as soon as I could. It took me nearly an hour to finish. I think that's a record for me because sometimes it takes me a couple of hours to finish one chapter. It's a good thing I knew what I wanted to do with this one.
Three and a half more days until it is time for Christmas break! I never thought I would be so excited for the break, but I am. I will be counting down if this story lasts for three more days. I never know anymore. I could get a surge and start writing like crazy.
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Soohyun wanted to scream but she hurt too much to do so. When her scans had come back clean, she had had to stay in the hospital a couple of days to make sure she was strong enough to go home. She had thought that when she had been released she was going to go home and enjoy the silence.
Wrong! As soon as she had walked into her house, she had been greeted with an insane mess. Hyun Joon, Hoon Jin and Kim Won had been in her house doing God knows what and she didn't like it. She was so used to keeping her place spic and span because her job demanded it. She could easily get sick if anything was contaminated. Now these three idiots were screwing it all up.
She blamed Hyun Joon. He had always done things on his own without so much as a question to those it involved. It had gotten him in so much trouble when they had been kids. She remembered he had broken their mother's favorite vase while playing ball in the house. He had asked forgiveness instantly then had gone right back to doing it again. He really didn't care what anyone else thought.
Hoon should have known better. When he had lived with her in France, she had gotten on to him on more than one occasion for leaving his clothes strewn all over the flat. She remembered she had been outside the front door when she had heard a mad scramble in the house. He had tripped over the couch in his mad dash to the laundry basket.
She could forgive Won. The poor bastard was walking into this without too much knowledge. He had only known her for a short while so she expected him to be a little dumb about things. But her brother and Hoon should know better than to let an outsider in without giving them the whole rundown of how she liked things.
As soon as she had seen the mess, she had wanted to clean. In fact it had been an insatiable urge. But the three idiots were smart. As soon as they saw her heading for the kitchen, they headed her off. Out of the three of them Won was by far the largest. His body masked Hoon Jin and Hyun Joon easily. There was no way she was going to get around him so when he had gripped her arm, she had easily gone with him.
Luckily none of them had asked any questions. There wasn't any need. It wasn't that they didn't care, but Hyun Joon had done one good thing by explaining that she wasn't going to talk about it. This was the first occurrence where she had passed out and had to be rushed to the hospital. It more than likely wasn't going to be the last. They knew all the basics so it didn't really matter what she said. At any time things could go south they just had to be ready.
She had been placed on the couch with strict orders not to move. She hadn't moved in three days but had known better than to argue. They were going to win because she was just too tired to fight. So instead of bitching like she wanted to, she had curled up under the blanket on the far couch arm and had gone to sleep. That had been the one thing she hadn't had in the hospital. No matter how hard she had tried to go to sleep, someone had always come in and had woken her up. She was more tired now than she had been before she had collapsed.
Won watched the woman sleep as he worked on things that needed to be done before he went to the office the next morning. He had to finish ordering his wedding gifts for his soon to be in-laws and he had to set up the seating chart for his side of the wedding party. He had plenty of friends coming that he didn't want sitting beside each other. But no matter how hard he tried, he always had someone sitting beside someone they shouldn't.
He wondered how Soohyun could sleep knowing that she had a stranger in her house. That had been one thing Hyun Joon had been nervous about. His sister rarely let anyone stay overnight, including him. It was her space that she didn't share. He had always wondered what she had hidden in her place.
That question had piqued Won's curiosity. He wanted to know if there was anything special hidden in the house. Soohyun was so quiet and gentle when she worked that it was amazing no one ever overlooked her. But it was easy to see why they didn't. Her cooking was the best he had ever tasted. It's what kept her intrigue at its peak with everyone else. How could a woman so quiet and reserved make something so bold and loud?
The doorbell rang. He had ordered takeout because he didn't know what else to do. He couldn't cook in a kitchen he wasn't familiar with, and after they had cleaned up, he was certain Soohyun would kill him. So he had taken the chicken's way out and had ordered a pizza. He hadn't known what kind Soohyun liked but he had taken a chance with a simple supreme. Whatever she didn't like she could pick off.
Just as he was getting the plates for the pizza, he heard a door close. Looking down the hallway, she saw the blanket tossed over the back of the couch and Soohyun missing. Her bedroom door was still open but the bathroom was closed. A few moments later she emerged and walked into the kitchen. She raised her eyebrow at the pizza but didn't say anything as she reached for the medicine bottle on the counter.
"Are you too lazy to cook?" she asked after she had swallowed the three colorful pills.
He shook his head. "No. I didn't want you to kill me like you nearly did last time you saw me in this kitchen."
"Last time I didn't invite you, you brought food."
"I bought some this time too." He motioned to the pizza box. "Sit down. I'll finish getting things down. What do you want to drink?"
"Well you're going to veto alcohol, so a soda would be fine."
Won grabbed two soda cans out of the fridge and set them on top of the plates as he carried them into the living room. Soohyun had already grabbed the pizza and was rearranging the blanket on her lap. He sat beside her and handed her a plate as she opened the box.
"How did you end up with babysitting duty?" Soohyun asked when they were halfway done with their first slices.
"I volunteered. Your brother has your dad to care for and Hoon Jin has his shop," he explained.
"You have a whole company to run. How can you think of babysitting a sick person?"
"You said you'd ask for help if you needed it. Why didn't you tell anyone you weren't taking your medicine?"
"It's not that I wasn't. I'm normally very good at taking my medicine. When I get a job I'm excited for, everything goes out the window, including medicine."
"You were excited for my party?" She nodded as she reached another slice. "Regardless, you have to take your medicine."
She cut her eyes at him and he knew he was treading in dangerous waters. "Until recently, I've never forgotten to take my medicine. It wasn't until I took on your party that it started happening. Actually, if I think about it some more it wasn't until after I met you."
He looked dumbfounded. "Are you blaming this on me?" She tilted her head in silent affirmation. "Do you think that's even fair?"
"Fair or not it's the truth. Ever since I started coming to your company on fairly regular basis did all of this," she motioned her hand in the direction of the medicine cabinet, "start happening."
"You're incredible. What? Do you like me or something?"
Soohyun didn't answer. She didn't have one. She couldn't compete with anything he had in his life. Kang Da Kyung was the heiress to a large company and Jeon Hyeon Joo was a teacher at his school. Both were doing something that was very respectable in the eyes of society. She was just a genius chef who could bring food to life.
Won watched her put her plate down and retreat to her room, leaving the door open so he could see what she was doing. He didn't know why but the thought of her leaving like that even to go fifteen feet away was disconcerting. He hadn't anticipated getting in an argument with her. He had just wanted her to rest.
Staring at the barely eaten pizza, he concluded that there was really no point in him eating anymore and got up to put it away. He washed up their dishes and did the recycling before he finished his work. Hyun Joon was going to ask what had happened during his first night at his sister's. He couldn't tell the man that he had pissed her off.
Because he knew there was no way he was going to be able to work with her angry at him, he ventured into her bedroom. She was on her side facing the huge window that overlooked the city. He didn't know what was so fascinating about it, but he didn't dare bring it up.
He sat on the bed with his back to the headboard and stared out the window just as she did. She shifted back a bit until her shoulder blade hit his knee. She knew he was there but wasn't going to day anything just yet. He should have known. She and her brother were complete opposites.
"Hyun Joon didn't ask me to stay here," he said. "He was talking about how hard it was going to be for him to watch over you and your dad when I volunteered. He's spent the last three days warning about your idiosyncrasies."
She sighed and rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I hate being sick."
"I don't think anyone likes it."
She shook her head. "You don't understand. You've never had a chemical coursing through your veins that kills even good cells. You've never lost your hair or appetite."
It was at that moment that Won saw how really vulnerable she was. She wasn't the type to just out and say what was bothering her. She bottled it up more than anything. Not many people could say they understood what it was like to go through chemo and radiation. She was one in a thousand people.
"What did your brother normally do when you came home from treatment?" Won asked.
"What you're doing. Actually, he or Hoon would make soup if I was hungry. If not, he would sit with me in the bed or in the bathroom. There were plenty of nights when we camped in the bathroom by the toilet because I was too sick to move."
She looked at him. "How old are you now?"
"Thirty-three. When is your birthday?"
"August eighteenth. Hyun Joon makes fun of me because I share the same birthday as G-Dragon from BIGBANG. He's threatened for the last three years to throw me a birthday party where he comes to perform. I doubt it's going to happen but I let him dream."
Won had a thought and was going to make it work if he could. "Who's older?"
"G-Dragon by a year."
He frowned when she shivered. "Are you cold? Get under the covers."
"I'm fine. I shiver even if I'm warm."
Sliding down the bed, Won formed his body to match hers. He pulled her hips into his and crisscrossed his arms across hers. He pulled her head back until it rested in between his neck and shoulder. Somehow he managed to wriggle the blankets out from under her and cover them both up. This was a dangerous situation he was in right now but he felt there was nothing more he could do.
Soohyun felt comforted even though she knew the backlash to this was going to be bad. Won didn't know the whole story at all but he had committed himself to being by her while she was healing. Not many would do that. She only knew a couple who would and they were the closest ones to her.
"Rest," she heard Won whisper. His arms tightened slowly. "You don't have to be anywhere tomorrow. Just focus on feeling better. Once you're back to your usual self, then you can think of going back to work. For now forget about it."