Capítulo 12: Arc II - By a Thread - Part 6
"Good evening, Mr. Xiao," said Dr. Park as he closed the distance between them.
Xiao Zhan had barely returned the greeting when, without warning, Nurse Jang grabbed the doctor's upper arm and forced him to turn back around. She met no resistance.
"We have to go. We're already late," she said, dragging him.
"Nice to see you again!" Said Dr. Park over his shoulder as he obediently stumbled forward.
Xiao Zhan stood awkwardly in place as they reached the end of the corridor, neither of them looking back at him. Then, before they turned the corner, he saw her slap his arm as she spat angry words at him. As she'd spoken in Korean, he had no idea what she'd said, but he felt a little better seeing that he wasn't the only one on the receiving end of her temper. He stared at the now-empty hallway, trying to make sense of what he'd just witnessed. Then, he suddenly remembered Auntie Wang and hurried to Yibo's bedside.
He found her sitting by her son, brow furrowed as she chewed on the end of a pen. On her lap was a notepad covered in what looked like figures. From time to time, she looked at her cellphone, which she appeared to use as a calculator and jotted down more numbers. She shook her head and sighed.
"Auntie?"
She jumped, her notes slipping to the floor. She rushed to pick the pad up, but Xiao Zhan was quicker.
"Xiao Zhan. You're here," she said, holding out her hand to grab the notepad.
Xiao Zhan couldn't resist looking down at it. It took him only a second to realize that the numbers were tagged with bits of text, each one itemizing the various costs of Yibo's hospitalization. He wasn't quite familiar with the value of wons, but the total seemed to be quite high.
"What is this about?" He asked, finally handing back the notes.
She clutched the pad tightly and sighed again, looking at her son. Xiao Zhan sat down next to her, thus entering her field of vision.
"Did you get a good rest? Why are your trousers wet?" She asked, still ignoring his question.
"I did. I slipped and fell on wet grass. Auntie, what is going on? Nurse Jang told me Yibo's manager came by."
She turned her head, avoiding his gaze.
"It's nothing you should worry about."
He titled his head.
"Auntie…"
"It's fine, really," she said, turning back to him with a forced smile. "Here, you must be hungry."
She tried to give him a clementine. He put his hand on the offered fruit and pushed it down.
"Auntie. Nurse Jang was worried enough to tell me to make sure you were alright," he said.
She shook her head and sighed before putting the clementine back in her bag.
"That girl has the eyes of a hawk."
"Is this about the hospital bill?" Xiao Zhan asked.
Her shoulder slumped slightly. She finally nodded.
"BoBo's manager did come by about an hour ago. He told me that because the accident happened while he was riding his motorcycle on personal time, the agency's insurance wouldn't cover the cost of his hospitalization."
Xiao Zhan blinked, his mouth open with shock.
"But… But don't they normally promote his racing activities?"
She nodded.
"Yes, but apparently, his contract clearly stipulates that any injury incurred outside his professional activities will not be covered as such behaviour is considered a liability. The agency can't prevent him from riding on personal time, but the clause is meant to act as a deterrent."
Knowing Yibo, this had probably gone six feet over his head. Nothing could stand between the man and his motorcycles.
"What about the national healthcare coverage?" He asked.
She shook her head again.
"Because he mostly worked home recently, he hasn't lived in Korea long enough to meet the requirements. He's not covered."
Once again, he looked at the large amount at the bottom of her notes.
"I take it this is quite a big sum?" He asked, pointing.
She converted the amount to yuans. He choked on his saliva. Auntie Wang patted his back as he coughed.
"That's what his bill stands at right now ?" He asked when he could finally speak again.
She pointed at a smaller yet still substantial figure on the page.
"That's now. This total is what it'll come up to if he stays here for two weeks. This is a month," she explained as she showed him the different totals.
He opened his mouth to speak but struggled to put his thoughts into words. That was a preposterous amount of money. It made sense, of course. Korea was one of the, if not the most popular medical tourism destination in the world, and the prices reflected that.
"Didn't he get private insurance for this trip?" he asked in a last-ditch effort, already knowing the answer.
"I checked, but it doesn't seem like it. You know how he is; since the agency covers him when he works, he usually doesn't get extra coverage."
Xiao Zhan had pestered him about this in the past, and they had fought over it. Actually, they had argued about it regarding this trip. He now wished he'd been more insistent.
"Can't the hospital transfer him back home?"
She sighed and looked at Yibo again.
"I asked Dr. Park. He says we shouldn't risk it as long as he's unstable."
She looked back at Xiao Zhan.
"I'm not willing to put his life in danger, but…"
He understood her dilemma. Depending on how long Yibo remained in the ICU, and even if they used Yibo's savings, the final bill could well bring the Wangs to the brink of bankruptcy. They both silently stared at the numbers on the page for a moment. Xiao Zhan was wracking his brain, trying to find a solution. This was a lot of money. Yet, he was already doing some math. Going ahead with his idea would create a massive hole in his savings and set him back a few years. However, it was doable. He was in charge of his finances, so he wouldn't need to justify the expense to anyone. Ironically, the main obstacle would probably be Auntie Wang herself. He didn't want to embarrass her, but he was confident he could reason with her. This was an extreme situation. Yibo's life was at stake. He cleared his throat.
"Auntie, do you need me to help you pay?"
She stared at him as if unable to believe she'd heard him correctly. Then her eyes filled with tears, which she quickly blinked away. She took his hand in hers and gave it a soft squeeze.
"Xiao Zhan, I knew you'd say something like this, and that's why I would have preferred you didn't know about this. It's very nice of you, but I would never dream of asking you to pay. This is a family matter."
For the second time that day, "family" had been invoked in a way that made it clear where people drew the line between Yibo and him. A voice in his head piped up, saying that maybe his mother was right after all. He immediately silenced it, but this split second was long enough for a pained expression to flash on his face. Auntie Wang noticed and squeezed his hand again.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. You are family, Xiao Zhan. You're BoBo's GeGe, and nothing can change that. But I don't want you to shoulder this burden. That is my responsibility as a parent. Do you understand?"
He nodded, but his heart still felt heavy. She returned her hand to her lap.
"I've already called my brother and left him a message. He's been managing Yibo's finances since the beginning, so he shouldn't have any issue transferring me some money from his account when the time comes. Plus, BoBo's manager told me we wouldn't have to pay anything for a while and that the hospital would definitely arrange for a payment plan at the very least. In the meantime, he said he would do his best to find a way to get the agency to foot, if not the entirety, at least part of the bill. I just felt a little overwhelmed, that's all. Things will be alright."
"I hope so," he replied.
"Hope is all we have," she said, getting up.
She started gathering her things.
"Since you're here, I should probably get going. Nurse Jang suggested we take turns at his bedside. I hate to ask you this, but are you alright with staying here at night?"
He nodded. She smiled
"Thank you."
"Speaking of Nurse Jang, did you see her before she left?" Xiao Zhan couldn't resist asking.
Auntie Wang's tired face suddenly lit up, and she looked at him with a mischievous smile. She got closer.
"You saw her, too, right? Dressed to the nine?"
He nodded. She chuckled.
"When I was talking to Dr. Park, he told me he was going to some kind of fundraiser tonight but would be on call if anything happened. He said nothing else, but when I saw Nurse Jang, well…" She said conspiratorially.
So they were a couple, after all, he thought. He couldn't help but smile at the idea of anyone having to put up with her strong personality daily. His admiration for Dr. Park grew tenfold.
"I saw him come to pick her up in front of the nurse station," he whispered in the same tone.
The shock on her face was worth all the grief he would get Nurse Jang in the future.
"I knew it! You see, Mrs. Min and I were talking this afternoon…"
"Who is Mrs. Min?" He interrupted.
"Second bed across," she said, pointing at a woman in her late fifties peeling a tangerine while watching something on a tablet. "Her husband was injured at work."
"Since patient confidentiality rules prevent Nurse Jang from telling us what happened to that little girl across the way yesterday, I asked Mrs. Min if she knew anything."
"Does she also speak Mandarin?" He asked, finding it hard to believe that there were that many Chinese speakers in this Seoul hospital.
"No, no. I used an app!"
Auntie Wang proudly took her phone out of her pocket and showed him how the app recorded her words and then translated them into Korean. Xiao Zhan remembered some of the local staff using something similar while he was on set in Thailand, but he'd forgotten about it since no one had ever tried it on him. He couldn't help but feel his first encounter with Head Nurse Lee might have gone smoother had he thought of it.
"That's pretty clever, Auntie. And what happened to the little girl?" he asked, ultimately more interested in her fate than in Nurse Jang gossip.
Auntie Wang's expression suddenly turned serious.
"The poor thing. Mrs. Min is quite friendly with Head Nurse Lee, and so she asked her what had happened."
So much for patient confidentiality, he thought.
"She told her that the little girl had been beaten by her father. It wasn't the first time, either, apparently. Can you imagine such a thing?"
He could. He'd had a classmate in fourth grade who'd regularly come to school covered in bruises until, one day, he'd stopped coming altogether. No one had ever explained it, but later — He couldn't quite remember how — he'd learn that the boy hadn't simply "moved to a different town."
"They took her away in the middle of the night," he said, his memories of the past overlapping with his recollection of the previous night's anguished mother.
She nodded.
"Yes. Mrs. Min says they couldn't save her this time... She was ten."
Xiao Zhan felt as if he'd been punched in the gut.
"How parents can do this to their own children is beyond me," she added.
They both looked at Yibo for a while, lost in their respective thoughts.
"Anything I should know?" he finally asked, hoping to get out of this negative thought spiral.
She brought a hand to her forehead.
"What a scatterbrain I am. I should have told you this first, sorry."
"It's alright."
He got up to help her put her jacket on.
"For now, all I can tell you is Dr. Park said there was a slight improvement and that he's on his way to being stable. He thinks they might be able to take him off the respirator soon. They also switched one of his medications this morning to see if it'll deal better with the inflammation in his brain. Other than that, he's the same old BoBo."
She walked to the head of his bed and squeezed her son's hand.
"I'm leaving now. Be good, ok? GeGe is going to stay with you."
She then turned around, wished Xiao Zhan goodnight, and was on her way. He watched her say goodbye to Mrs. Min and followed her with his eyes until she was out of the ward. Then, doing his best to avoid looking at the empty bed across the way, he closed the curtain and pulled a chair close to Yibo's bed. He took his hand in his and kissed the palm softly.
"Hey, sleepyhead," he said. "Aren't you bored yet?"
The regular beeping of the machines was his only response. He pressed Yibo's curled fingers against his cheek and stared at his closed eyes.
"If you wanted an expensive gift, you could have just asked, you know. You didn't have to make a scene like this."
He didn't know why he kept making these stupid quips. He realized that if anyone heard him, they would think he was utterly heartless. Yet, he couldn't help it. They'd always enjoyed riling each other up. However, part of him knew that he would spend most of his waking hours crying if he said what really was on his mind. A smaller part of him vainly hoped that teasing Yibo would lead to him waking up and retorting in anger. It was fanciful, but dreaming was free.
He kissed his hand again before gently putting it back down.
"I walked around today. It was really nice and warm outside. You would have liked it."
He then proceeded to tell him about his promenade, the apartment he'd chosen for himself, and the restaurants where he would take him when he got better. When he got to the part about the hotteok vendor, he remembered the treats in his jacket pocket. He took the paper bag out and took a large bite of the cake before showing it to him.
"I got those things you like, see?"
As he shook his hand, some filling fell onto Yibo's hand.
"Shit!"
Xiao Zhan shoved the treat back in the bag and took a quick look around for something to wipe the man's hand. As he did, the thick honey filling began slowly sliding down the side, dangerously at risk of falling on the bedsheet. Without thinking, he dove forward and covered it with his mouth, sucking the syrup off and preventing a mess. At the same exact moment, the curtain slid open.
As soon as his eyes met the confused gaze of Head Nurse Lee, he straightened himself with an embarrassed laugh. There was no time to download a translation app, so he reached for the bag of hotteok and tried to mimic what had happened. She continued to give him a weird look and left as soon as she'd performed her routine check. He heard her laugh before she exited the ward. He covered his hot face and groaned.
"She's going to think I'm a fucking pervert."
Xiao Zhan finished eating one of the cakes and then washed his hands, bringing a towel back to take care of the sticky mess he'd created. This task done, he took off his glasses and put them on a chair. Then he leaned forward and pillowed his head on his right arm, finger touching the tip of Yibo's. The sleep that had eluded him all morning came instantly.
He had no idea how long he'd been asleep when a slight tremor woke him. He opened his eyes and sat back up just as Yibo's body began convulsing violently on the bed, the medical equipment blaring in warning.
"YIBO!!"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
kanmuriwrites
kanmuriwrites —Mini-Theatre—
Taxi drivers: Your pants are wet.
Nurse Jang: Mr. Xiao, your pants are wet.
Dr. Park: Are your trousers wet, Mr. Xiao?
Auntie Wang: Xiao Zhan, your trousers are wet.
Mrs. Min: 소씨, 바지가 젖었어요.
XZ: OMG! CAN YOU STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS??
WY *miraculously waking up*: GeGe?
XZ: YIBO?!
WY: GeGe, your pants are wet.
XZ: * Flips table*
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