Day 16 of my hospital journey. I still have a long way to go before I’m discharged.

The past couple of days were a mess. I don’t remember much of it; they just flew by so fast. Today though was a special day; I’m finally able to do a lot of my basic needs by myself now. My recovery these days has been faster. Unfortunately, I still need a walker to walk. 

I stretched in my hospital bed. 10:32. I slept in today. Instead of having the nurse bring my food, I can finally go to the hospital cafe and get my food. Eunkyung predicted right; my abdomen pain would be gone by the third week. 

I got up and grabbed my walker. I exited my room. I noticed Lee also coming from her room. She was wearing the same thing this time, except her chest-length hair was disorganized.
“Jin, are you going for breakfast?” she called.

Uh oh. It’d be embarrassing if she knew I haven’t eaten breakfast yet. I have to come up with some kind of lie…

I decided to be honest.

“Well, not really…”

She chuckled. “Don’t worry, I haven’t eaten breakfast either. I went to bed late last night.”

We’re in the same boat. I let out a sigh.

“I like to talk to people when I eat breakfast but I haven’t done that in a while. Would you like to have breakfast with me today?”

“Um, sure I guess,” I said, hesitant because I usually eat breakfast alone.

She smiled. “Thanks, Jin.” 

We walked down the hallway of rooms, turned left, climbed down a flight of stairs, and finally turned right to enter the hospital’s cafeteria. Throughout the way, Eunkyung told me a bit about herself. She’s 19 years old and she doesn’t attend college. Her father passed away when she was younger, at around 12 years old. She lives with her mom and works at multiple retail stores to help pay for both of their living expenses. 

The cafeteria was average. It held around 20 tables. Each table could sit four people and wasn’t very spread out. Though, I wouldn’t describe it as a cafeteria but rather a restaurant.

We found the table farthest away from everyone else and sat down across from each other. I picked up a menu. 

“I guess they aren’t serving breakfast anymore,” I said, a bit disappointed. 

Eunkyung shrugged. “Well, I suppose we can just have lunch as our breakfast.”

I nodded. I opened the menu and looked for anything. The food was much more expensive than eating at a restaurant, but it had everything a restaurant had. I ordered hanwoo and namul. Eunkyung had no idea what to order, so she ordered the same as me.

“The cafeteria takes forever to serve,” I complained. 15 minutes have already passed since we ordered our food. I fidgeted with my hospital gown sleeves.

Eunkyung sighed. “I know they take longer. They should have the food within 20 minutes. I’ve been here a few times and they never have exceeded that time.”

Just as I opened my mouth, two bowls with hanwoo appeared on our table.

“Sorry about that, we are quite busy today,” said a waiter, before bowing. The waiter left.

“Well, let’s eat,” Eunkyung suggested.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m starving.”

I took the metal chopsticks from the tissue that the waiter set down. My lunch came with hanwoo sliced into tiny squares, a small number of Brussel sprouts, and a hard-boiled egg. I picked up a piece of hanwoo with my chopsticks and stuffed it into my mouth. Sweet, barbeque flavor filled my mouth as I bit down. 

“This is delicious,” I exclaimed. I glanced at Eunkyung. As she put the beef into her mouth, her eyes widened.

“You're right. This is super delicious,” she said. 

We attacked the meal like tigers that haven’t eaten in years. The filled plates quickly became empty in no time. I wiped my mouth with a napkin. I stacked my plates together. Eunkyung finished her last bites.

“Um, hey Jin. I want to ask you something.”

I glanced at her. She finished wiping her mouth and stacked her plates.

“Yeah, sure. What is it?”

She fiddled around with her napkin for another moment before making eye contact with me.

“Have you been thinking about BHK recently?”

The name BHK hit me like a needle. My heart throbbed. The joy I had with her instantly disappeared. I nodded.

She sighed. “Please don’t chase him. He’s very dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt trying to chase him.”

Weird, is she trying to persuade me not to chase him? How does she know I was going to chase him? Unless she heard me that night… 

“Did you hear me that night?”

She slowly nodded her head and focus on her plate.

So she did hear me…

“Look, I understand. It is your choice after all. I just… don’t want someone I met in real life to get hurt by BHK. Waking up to hear a stranger killed by Black-Hat Killer is one thing. Hearing someone you met is a different story. It reminds me that Black Hat Killer isn’t some far-away killer, and he could kill anybody easily. But, pay no attention to me if you want.”

She turned her head away from me and stared out the window. I was nearly killed by him. How dangerous it is to encounter Black-Hat Killer.

“Well, you have a point,” I said. “ I’ll just, do my thing from far away okay? If that reassures you or anything….”

She didn’t move from her spot. 

I sighed. Was it my fault for ruining this lunch? I looked at the price of the meal. It was about 20,000₩ per meal. I’ll pay it, to make it up to her even if it wasn’t my fault. I put four 10,000₩ bills from my wallet onto the table, before turning around and trudging back to my room.   

My legs were sore by the time I reached my room. Even though I promised Eunkyung that I couldn’t approach the battlefield directly, I can always do research. A seed of hope felt like it was planted in my chest. There’s still hope. I can still help from the sideline. I made a mental note to begin tomorrow.

I opened the door to my room. Eunkyung’s room is next to mine, so we’ll likely meet up again. I need to think about what I’ll say to her next time we meet. 

I sighed and sat down on the one-seat couch the hospital provided. Who should I blame for that? Her? Me? I have no clue. But regardless, it’s all water underneath the bridge. What I do now can’t change the past. What I can do is change the future. I glanced at the notebook, where I wrote in detail what happened in the nightmare I had a couple of nights ago. It’s time to gather my supplies to begin my research! Even though the investigators don’t have much information, I’ll try to get as much information as possible. 

I glanced at the clock. 14:02, that’s still plenty of time. Today will just be for gathering my supplies. I’d have to go to some nearby stores to gather my supplies. Temporary leaves from the hospital are kind of annoying; there’s just such a long process for it when you leave and return. But this is something that I’ve got to do.

I dragged myself to my doctor’s office and knocked on his door. He should be free at this time…

The door opened. “Hello, Jin. What brings you here?” 

He was wearing a white lab coat and his badge.
“I would like to take a temporary leave,” I bluntly said.

He raised an eyebrow. “I see. Are you familiar with what information we are going to need to allow it?”

I nodded. “I can provide it now.”

My doctor nodded. “Alright then, come into my room.”

I went into his room and he closed the door behind me. His room was about the size of an average bedroom. On the left was his workbench. The other side had a lot of cabinets and a mini-fridge. 

“Take a seat,” he said, gesturing to a chair that was in front of his desk. 

“So, what do you want to take a leave for?” he asked.

“I’ll just be leaving for a couple of hours to gather some supplies I need to work on a project. I’ll probably just be visiting some nearby stores, like the 7-Eleven nearby.”

“I see, that’s still quite a walk. About a mile. Will there be anyone to accompany you?”

I shook my head.

“Okay,” he said, writing a bunch of scribbles onto the paper he had in front of him on a clipboard. His pencil stopped moving and he looked up from his paper.

“How are you feeling right now?” 

“Pretty healthy; my abdomen doesn’t hurt and things are going well.”
“No fevers or anything?”

I shook my head. “None.”

He nodded. “Alright, I think we can authorize you but we will have to do some evaluation on your body. I’m thinking of a CT scan, some body measurements, and some evaluation on your injury, okay?”

I nodded. “That sounds great.” 

The doctor smiled. “We’ll start with your injury evaluation okay?”

We left his room and he led me to one of the treatment rooms. The room looked like a regular, generic hospital room. I was instructed to sit on the bed the room had. He opened my hospital gown and took off the bandages around it. 

“The last time I saw this wound was when you were unconscious. I never got to tell you that you’re quite fit. You must work out a lot.”

I glanced down at my abdomen. I let out a lighthearted laugh. 

“Maybe 4-5 times a week.”

The stitches were still there, but nothing else seemed to be wrong. It was a little bit bloody.

“Does it hurt?” asked the doctor.

I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t. Not anymore.”

The doctor replaced my bandage and closed my hospital gown. “Alright, you’re all good to go. We can do the CT scan and measurements after you return okay?”

I nodded.

The doctor reached into one of his drawers and pulled out a pad of notes. He wrote his name on it and the time.

“When do you think you’ll return?”

I thought for a moment. Just to be safe, I should probably allocate four hours. I glanced at the clock sitting on his desk. 15:00. 

“I’ll be back by 19:00 if that’s okay.”

He nodded. “Four hours, that’s fine. Take care and call us if you ever need help or anything.”

He handed me the pass.

“Thank you very much. Have a great day.” I bowed my head to show respect, before leaving the room. I climbed down the stairs and crossed the cafeteria. For some reason, my eyes could still see Eunkyung sitting by herself with her head turned away from me. I rubbed my eyes and checked again if I was seeing reality, and just like I thought, it was an illusion. She disappeared. Man, she must’ve gotten into my mind. I let out a sigh, before finishing my straight walk forward through the front entrance. I found a bathroom nearby and put on a red sweatshirt and white long pants on top of my hospital gown. All visible parts of the hospital gown were tucked into the clothes so they aren’t visible. I reached the front entrance and gave my doctor’s note.

I stepped outside and was greeted by the hot summer breeze. The sun is still high in the sky. My skin started to sweat. I’ve been stuck in the hospital so long, that I forgot it was still summer. That’s why I wore the sweatshirt and long pants on top of a hospital gown. I was too lazy to take it off and I didn’t think it’ll make much of a difference. Kind of annoying I forgot… 

At least the wind today was high though to make it up. Constant breezes blew across me whenever I felt too hot. 

It felt pretty good to be outside though after 16 days of waiting. I smiled and walked out of the hospital’s parking lot and down the streets. Some people I passed by seemed to recognize me; they gave me weird glances as I walked past them. They probably recognized me as the person that was attacked on the news. It makes me wonder how different my life would become once I get discharged.