บท 2: Ch 2. Waking Up as a Child
Hearing muffled noises, Kai slowly stirred before opening his eyes. The first thing he noticed was that there was an IV drip attached to his right arm. Confused, he weakly lifted his arm up and the second thing he noticed was that his arm and hand looked way too small.
Thinking that perhaps he was still half asleep, Kai tried to blink his eyes rapidly. But his arm and hand didn't change which caused him to stare in confusion.
Suddenly, the noises got louder and clearer, he could hear footsteps heading in direction towards the room he was in. With the door only covering his room and not being closed, Kai saw as it moved to reveal a mean-looking woman taking a look inside. Noticing that he was awake, she opened the door completely and in a snappy voice said,
"Look, doc! He's awake! We'll be allowed to leave now right?"
Behind her, an old man with a lank build walked inside and Kai saw how the man looked at him with pity.
The woman had come to stand beside the bed he was on and laid her hand on Kai's shoulder. "How are you feeling, Kai? Better right?" She squeezed his shoulder and gave him a sharp look, to which Kai realized that this woman wanted him to say that he was better. But ignoring her hints, he glanced at the old man in a white coat who was clearly a doctor.
"What happened to me?" he asked with a hoarse voice. Kai hadn't forgotten that his trashy relatives had come to visit him and then caused him to fall down the stairs. When he had woken up, he could tell he was in no afterlife with his family and was instead in a hospital room to his disappointment.
"You had a grave fever of a hundred four, boy. Why didn't you say something when you returned to the orphanage from school?" The doctor walked up to him and placed his hand on his forehead, sighing with relief once he noticed that his temperature had greatly dropped.
The woman, however, hearing the old man's words, snorted, "You see, doc. There was nothing serious with this boy. Just a small fever. Now we can leave, right?" With those words and her tone of speaking, Kai could tell that this woman held a disdain against him, but he didn't know who in the world she was and couldn't remember ever meeting her.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice clearer this time and his eyes widened when he heard how high-pitched his voice sounded. What the hell was wrong with him?! He asked, panic and confusion leaking out, "My voice! Why do I sound different? Sir, what's wrong with me?"
The old man gave the woman an angry glance before turning back to look at Kai. "Child, do you not remember this woman?" When Kai shook his head no, the doctor sighed before turning on the woman and berating her, "This is why you bring kids to hospitals once you feel them burning up! To prevent this!" He walked to the door and continued, "It would be best for you to wait outside the room as I check out what's going on with him."
The woman didn't look at Kai but when she muttered, "Bastard," before walking out the room, Kai knew it had been directed at him.
With the room now empty, Kai went over the conversation in his head to grasp what must've happened to him. The doctor had mentioned an orphanage and he didn't know what that was about. Then, they mentioned that he had come to the hospital due to a fever, not because he had fallen down some stairs. And lastly, Kai sat up to look down at his body... The doctor had called him, boy and child, which at first he had dismissed since many elderly people had the habit of calling even middle-aged adults as children. Lifting up the sheet that was covering his legs and throwing it to the side, Kai froze. Instead of seeing his long and toned legs, what he saw were thin, bony legs and small feet.
"What the fuck?" he let out as a whisper, his childish sounding voice also adding more to his alarm. So he hadn't died, Kai reflected, but what had happened to his body? His thoughts were interrupted when the doctor returned back to the room, with a nurse behind him.
As the doctor went to stand in front of a computer, he instructed the nurse to take his IV drip out as the bag had emptied and there was no more need for it. After having scrolled for a minute, the doctor opened a drawer and took a thermometer which he prepared to check on Kai's temperature. Once Kai had his temperature taken, the doctor nodded with relief showing on his face.
"It's good that you're temperature has gone back to normal, kid," he said. "Do you remember what happened before you came to the hospital?"
Kai decided to be truthful. "I fell down the stairs." His response, however, made the doctor look at him with confusion.
"But you have no injuries on you, boy. Nothing broken or out of place," the man said, his brows furrowed. "Do you remember how you woke up yesterday morning?"
"Fine."
"Then, are you able to remember what you did at school yesterday?"
Kai silently stared at the man, his face revealing an expression that read 'What are you talking about?' He said, "I didn't go to school yesterday."
And as if the doctor was trying to figure something out, he asked, "You don't remember going to school and fainting in your teacher's arms?"
"I never did that," Kai replied firmly, at this moment, he had an idea of what might've happened to him but he only needed to confirm it. He had realized his body was in form of a child yet he still had no clue as to where he was or who he was. The doctor continued to ask him questions and Kai would answer honestly a few times and for questions that he felt wouldn't help his situation, he would just say he didn't know. After having finished questioning him, the doctor told the nurse to allow the woman from earlier to enter while he typed something on the computer.
Once the woman entered, the doctor instructed for Kai and her to follow him out of the room, with Kai being wheeled in a wheelchair to conduct physical and x-ray exams on him. When everything was conducted and completed, they returned back to the original room.
Looking at Kai, the doctor asked him quietly, "Do you want to leave the hospital today with your guardian, Miss Britney, or do you want to stay one more day-" He was cut off when the nasty tempered lady, who was apparently Kai's guardian, raised her voice at him to demand to discharge Kai. But the doctor ignored her, waiting for Kai's answer.
Kai understood that the older man, whose name he found out was Dr. Gregory, was concerned for his well-being since the woman who was this boy's guardian showed no genuine intentions of caring for him. But, he mentally was an adult so he knew he could take care of himself very well. Giving his best smile, he reassured the doctor that he would be fine to which Dr. Gregory nodded as he nodded how strangely calm Kai was.
"I've concluded that the boy has lost his memory temporarily. It should be returning very soon," he said, gesturing with his hands to the nurse to help the boy change back into his clothes while continuing his explanation, "Besides being a little underweight and anemic, he seems to be fine. I have prescribed some medication for him to take so that his body and mind can get better, you can pick it up as soon as tomorrow at the pharmacy. As for his memory, I hope you can visit me in a week so that we can see his condition then." The woman listened with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed, responding with an "Hmph" once the doctor had finished explaining. Kai, who was changing out of the hospital robe to the child clothes that the nurse had gave him, took all this information in to figure out what his situation was.
"Kai is only ten but he seems to resemble a seven year old, so Miss Britney, please make sure that he doesn't skip his meals and gets enough sleep every night." Ten? He was a ten year old, now? Kai exclaimed inwardly.
The woman looked at Kai, who had just finished getting ready, and snapped, "Yes, yes. If that is all, we should be on our way now." Grabbing Kai by his wrist, she pulled him with her to the door. "Bye, doc!"
Exiting the hospital, she let go of him and then wiped her hand on the fabric of her pants, the action telling that she found Kai disgusting. "You orphans are a bunch of work," she grumbled as she snapped her fingers at him, "Follow me, now." Kai chose to act mute and obedient, lowering his head a little so that he could give her the impression that he was a bit scared of her when in truth, he was hiding the calculating look on his face.
He hadn't died like he had hoped. Instead, he was still alive, had regressed back into the body of a child, specifically an orphan boy, which meant there were no parents and who knew if this boy had siblings.
About two hours had passed since he had awoken in such a strange condition and Kai was trying his best to sort out his thoughts, knowing that as of the moment, his main priority was to figure out where he was and who he was.
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