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You could hear a pin drop in this hospital. It's pretty small, but the emptiness makes it feel like a massive expanse of white walls, tiled floors, and soft blue curtains. It's just me in this particular room, sitting up in bed beside an open window looking out at the tomato patches down below. They've got me wrapped in so many bandages, I feel like the living dead--only instead of terrorizing the countryside, I'm bedridden and can't even get up for a glass of water without getting yelled at. Speaking of...

"How are you feeling, Song?" asks Nurse Song (no relation), a friendly nurse if you stay on her good side. She barely made a sound when she entered, so I didn't notice her till she spoke. And I certainly didn't just jump, alright.

"Fine...Can I leave now?" I don't mean to sound grumpy but it just sort of comes out that way.

She glances at my wrapped foot just brief enough I'd miss it if I weren't already looking at her. Nurse Song smiles not unkindly, which is a little weird I have to admit. "We're working hard to have you discharged by this afternoon. Your cousin will be here to pick you up, right? Don't get up just yet."

Cousin?

"Um," I turn the words over in my head a few times. I probably do have one or two somewhere in the world, but certainly, none that I knew of. Unless I got my ass kicked a lot harder than I remember. "Who is picking me up?"

But I may as well have asked the wall because she's already out of sight. Not wanting to spend more time with me than necessary, probably. Definitely more in line with what I'm used, at least. On brand.

I exhale a long breath and lean back against the metal headboard, staring out the door and...waiting for something to happen. Small anxieties settle in my chest the longer I wait. How did I get here, even? I don't remember walking here and I can't imagine anyone carried me here. No...I definitely probably walked. Too spaced out to even register the pain, maybe. Either way, this all poses a huge problem.

How am I supposed to pay for this?

Apparently, I'd been passed out for almost three days. I barely got the money for toilet paper, much less three days in the hospital. Shit. If this were the first floor, I could at least sneak out the window...

My heart jumps at the sudden rush of heavy footsteps stomping towards my room, a familiar face emerging from the open doorway with a worried/angry knot in their brows.

"Ash, what in the world?!"

"Mom?!"

I swing my feet off the bed and nearly trip over the blankets like an idiot. Mom rushes over in a flash to steady me, though her grip on my shoulders is bone-crushing. Her long black hair spills onto my face as she hovers over me, clearly resisting the urge to shake me like she always did. "I heard you got into a fight with some city boy? Where is he? Did you win?!"

"M-Mom, calm down," I'm getting dizzy even without the shaking. I hadn't seen her in so long, the familiar wrinkles and angry snarl bringing back memories of our last heated argument--when she left the house for good. I want to slap her hands off me, curse her out, do something but... Pinpricks of wet, salty tears well up and spill messily over my cheeks. The sudden flood of emotions engulfing me and without having to ask, she wraps her bony arms around me.

I never thought I'd...feel the sway of her embrace again. Not since I was little.

"I wasn't fighting," I sniffled into her hair. Just to make everything clear. Cuz I really wasn't. I'd say more like hunted.

"You have to say thank you to Sulky, okay? Gosh, if he weren't there, what would happen? You stupid brat." Mom ugly snorts into the top of my head.

Who the fuck is Sulky?

As though reading my mind, Mom unwraps herself from around me. "He's gonna take you home, okay? Mummy's gotta pay the bill and then you can leave okay? I have your things together."

She barely has time to even listen to my questions, she's so busy hustling me out of the bed and onto a set of crutches. "Who's waiting?" Mom is a short woman--even shorter than me--but she'll manhandle you like nobody's business, lemme tell you.

I feel like a little kid again with how much Mom and the staff are able to ignore my questions. Like I don't matter. I lean my arm against the counter while Mom checks me out, wincing slightly at a jolt of pain shooting up my arm. How am I supposed to bathe with all these bandages on anyway?

Ah...

It's just a brief moment, but our eyes made contact. His flicks away to some speck on a wall. 

"Hey," murmurs Sulk under his breath. He's holding open the front door and hanging onto the handle. The bastard has the nerve to bring a lit cigarette into the building. I got yelled at for so much shit, but they're fine with him smoking inside? But more importantly--

I swing my body on those crutches as fast as I can until we're standing nose-to-nose. There's even a satisfying flinch. "Hey Young. What was that about?" I crane my neck trying to meet his gaze, but even as close as we are, he just turns his head away. It's kinda funny how the cigarette in his mouth swishes away in the same direction as his eye, but I'm too pissed off appreciate the humor. "Where the fuck did you find that guy, huh? Is this some kinda revenge?" I'm trying to keep my voice down to a whisper, but it's more like soft yelling.

Sulk blinks, glances at me, then finally plucks the cig from his lips. "Oh, that..."

"Yeah, that," I urge on, though it's hard to focus when my arms are quickly going numb.

The damned devil smirks a bit: his signature crooked, toothy grin. "A lot of things happened, you know? I even cleaned up after you."

OH, we gon fight now.