Slowly but Surely - Hopefully, Part 3 (Hae-Ri)
Hae-Ri's heart dropped as countless horrifying scenarios crossed her mind before she managed to turn around, which took her but a fraction of a second. To her relief, she saw Dal-Geon struggling to stand up, clinging to the wall with wobbly legs, swaying dangerously. She stood there for a moment, assessing his battle against his weakened self as he tried to pushed forward, debating with herself whether she should intervene or not. He looked so miserable as he struggled, moving so slowly, that though she was extremely happy to see him on his feet, she doubted he could manage to make the short distance to the bathroom on his own.
"Do you need any help?", she asked, hoping that his mind was still foggy enough with fever for him to forget his ego and stubbornness and just be honest, but disappointment soon followed.
"I'm fine", he replied coldly after a moment, his voice thick with long hours of intermittent sleep and unconsciousness.
It was obvious that he was not fine at all, that he was struggling, and that he could use her help, but apparently, Dal-Geon was lucid enough to go back to his unpleasant self. And though she didn't mind taking care of him at all, and would have done so even if she hadn't decided to give him a chance to explain himself, even if she would have been determined to never forgive him, she would have still nursed him back to health. Even so, hearing once again the annoyingly distant tone even as she was caring for him, irritated her to the extreme. Though she was happy he was well enough to be in his right mind, she couldn't help but miss the fever-stricken Dal-Geon that was this asshole's polar opposite.
"Lying even about that?", she spat, sneering, unable to hold herself back.
She was already on edge after the crazy day she had, spending most of it fearing she was about to lose him again, this time forever, worrying that she wasn't skilled enough to take care of him, and doing everything in her ability to tend to his needs as best as she could. Considering all that, his attitude was just a bit too much, and after all that she's been through to take care of that ingrate jackass, she couldn't find it within herself to put up with him at the moment.
He turned around, wearing an expression that could only be described as shock, his gaze meeting hers. His face displayed none of the icy indifference that was so prominent in his words a moment ago, and Hae-Ri was taken aback. His eyes were watery, glistening with fever under the pale light, turning her rage to tenderness in an instant. This was not the time to get upset over this sort of thing. He was still unwell, his fever was still running high, and he was anything but in the clear. They still had a difficult journey ahead, and upsetting him will only hinder his recovery. Right now, his health was all that mattered. Deciding to be the bigger person and leave everything aside until he was well enough to lash out on him, may come the need, she took a deep breath to clear her mind before speaking again.
"Call me if you need help, I'll check on you in a few minutes", she said, and though her anger has somewhat subsided, her tone was still rigid.
"I'll come inside if you won't answer", she warmed, remembering his habit to flat out ignore her over their last few days together.
She turned around and walked into the bedroom, feeling extremely anxious to let him out of her sight. She dumped the pillow and blanket on the floor and went to hide behind the separating wall, secretly watching him as he slowly made his way to the bathroom, still clinging to the walls and doorframe. Finally, he got in, closing the door behind him. Remembering the last time he was there alone with a closed door, Hae-Ri was starting to panic. Though his fever was thankfully nowhere near the high 40's in which it was before, she still couldn't calm her mind while he was in there. She quickly started to crossed the room over to the bathroom, meaning to listen in to make sure he was alright, then after passing the coffee table, she thought better of violating his privacy, turned around, and made her way back to the bedroom.
She was restless, unable to keep still, she kept glancing over at the closed door while fidgeting, running her fingers through her hair several times, messing it up. She walked the lengths of the large room along the separating wall, wondering how long was too long, when finally, a sign of life came from behind the closed door when the toilet was flushed. Sighing in relief, she reflexively put a hand over her chest, as if to calm her heart, and closed her eyes as she tried to control her breathing in order to lower the quickened rate of her heart.
When she was decently reassured, yet still couldn't help herself from glancing over to the bathroom door, she picked the pillow off the floor and stripped the pillowcase that Dal-Geon spent a considerable part of the day sweating on, tossing the naked pillow on the bed, then went on to strip the blanket, leaving it with the pillow. She fished fresh linen out of the chest of drawers and replaced it for the used ones, which she put in a pile by the entrance of the room for future reference. She neatly spread the blanket over the bed, and couldn't help but think that after this exhausting day, the freshly made bed looked pretty inviting.
Thinking that she had waited long enough, she marched out of the room and hurried to the bathroom, knocking on the door with no delay. It took a couple of seconds that felt like forever for him to respond.
"I'm okay", she instantly relaxed when finally, his muffled reply reached her ears. Once more, she sighed in relief.
Leaving him be after making sure that he was alright, finally feeling a bit better after checking up in him, she went on to fill a glass with water and put it on the nightstand next to the bad, then went back to the front room just in time to see Dal-Geon painfully making his way to the living room. She quickly closed the distance between them and grabbed him under his bare arm. Even though his fever was significantly lower, his skin was still shockingly hot to the touch, and she couldn't help but feel anxious after getting a reminder that the insistent fever wasn't planning to go away so quickly.
It's going to be okay, she tried to calm herself, it's only been a day, she thought as she helped Dal-Geon to the room. She could feel that he tried to resist and pull his arm out of her grasp, and though she would have been overpowered in an instant on a normal day, he stood no chance against her in his weakened state.
"You're sleeping in the bedroom tonight", she told him when he showed no signs of giving up his futile struggle.
"It's fine", he started to say in the same infuriatingly detached and icy tone, but she was having none of it. For him to recover quickly, he had to get a lot of decent rest, and she planned to make sure that he got plenty of that while his body was fighting the infection, even if it meant tying him to the bed, which he well deserved after keeping her cuffed for almost an entire day not even a week ago.
"Save it. The room is darker and warmer, you'll get better rest there", she said firmly, and to her surprise and satisfaction, he didn't argue further and gave up his resistance, and instead followed her obediently into the room.
She tossed the blanket aside, making room for him to sit down, and guided him to bed. He sat, slightly swaying and blinking heavily, looking like he was about to pass out again any moment now, as she turned around to extract a shirt out of a drawer, while praying he won't fall forward face first during the brief moment that she wasn't watching him. Luckily, he didn't.
"Here, wear this," she gave him the shirt, and he seemed to have come alive momentarily as he got into the it using only one arm, which was pretty impressive until he tried to get his injured arm in. She gave him a moment, thinking he might be able to pull it off, but when he didn't, she gave him a hand.
Though he was sweating now while the pills were still doing their job, she feared that during the night they might wear off and so he'd be rendered cold and shivering if, or rather, when his fever went back up. A short-sleeved t-shirt wasn't much, but it still provided him with an extra layer, as light as it might be, in case he needed it. And besides, he seemed happy enough to wear it. Though she didn't mind at all, it looked like he wasn't too comfortable walking around half naked.
"There's a glass of water on the nightstand, drink it before you go to sleep", she instructed before leaving the room, and as per usual, got no response from him, which forced her annoyance level to rise again. Much like before, Dal-Geon seemed determined to keep their communication to a minimum unless it was absolutely necessary for him to speak up, even while he was extremely sick.
Hae-Ri picked up the discarded sheets off the floor and made her way to the bathroom, and dumped everything in the hamper, too tired to do another load. She then went back out to the front room and turned off all the lights but the one by the entrance, then turned off the TV as well. Though Dal-Geon seemed to be sleeping with the surveillance footage streaming in the background, she saw no reason to keep the TV on.
The room was nice and dark, and now that the sun has long since set, even though she bumped the temperature of the AC up for Dal-Geon's sake earlier, the room was nice and chilly too. She took the jacket she had been using on and off from the kitchen table where she left it, put it on and zipped it up, then went to lie down on the sofa. Although she was very tired, as taking care Dal-Geon was no easy task, she didn't fall asleep immediately.
This day has been so full of occurrences with not even a single moment left for her to let everything sink in, making it seem like it's been weeks since she first encountered her captor, since she found out that Dal-Geon was alive, and days rather than hours since she told him that she knew it was him behind the mask. It was all very surreal. And though he was still persistently treating her coldly just like he did when he was posing as her captor, there were a few things that seemed off.
Even though he made it clear that he had no intention to tell her anything in their short and painful exchange earlier today, stating with no compromise that there's nothing for them to talk about, he seemed to have plenty to say to her as he called out her name with teary eyes while half-conscious on the bathroom floor. And though he was putting on a tough-guy front, he was still doing what she told him to do, he still allowed her take care of him instead of rejecting her help.
His fever played the largest part in his change in attitude, and though she couldn't be sure, she thought that even though his ever was extremely high, it couldn't have created things that weren't there to begin with, so suddenly and out of the blue. Dal-Geon apologized to her. He was suffering a very high fever and was probably delusional, but he apologized. He didn't push her away, he wasn't indifferent or cold, and cried as he caressed her cheek while calling her name and apologizing to her. There was no way his fever made this attitude come out of nowhere... right?
There had to be something behind it, she told herself. She had no doubt that there were a lot of things he was hiding from her, and she desperately wanted to believe that those things held the key to solve everything between them, rather than to ruin it further. She wholeheartedly wished that there was a good reason for everything, that what pushed him to do what he did was justified, that it was unavoidable, that it was forgivable. And though she hoped for that, she knew that even if it was the case, their first exchange reflected Dal-Geon's intentions accurately. He was not planning to talk, he was not going to tell her anything, he was going to keep ignoring her and answer none of her questions. Even so, she would find out. Once he recovered, she would get it out of him, no matter what.
She had nothing but time while being trapped in this house with him, and he couldn't run away from her while they were there. If he wanted to leave her behind and run away, he would have already done so. All that she had to do was come up with a plan to get him to talk. There had to be a way.
She could go on a hunger strike, or threaten to kill herself, or sneak up on him while he was asleep and tie him down, refusing to release him until he spilled the beans, maybe break his finger... her mind was starting to wander when finally, she couldn't remember what it was that she was thinking about, and slowly drifted into a well-deserved dreamless sleep.