Ch. 15
Husband or stranger?It is 5 in the morning, four days later. The hospital is silent, there are only few doctors and nurses who are silently watching over the patients, but other than that the place is silent and dark. The one patient who is on the well secured floor slowly regains consciousness.
Yesung slowly lifts his heavy eyelids and his vision is foggy. He can recognize that he is in some white room and there are dim lights, but that’s all. Some annoying beeping reaches his ears, but Yesung can’t turn his head to see the source. He can’t feel his body, the painkillers they gave him numbed his battered body. Yesung is slowly blinking and doesn’t understand what happened. They punished him for stealing a tiny bit of meat and then …. the water everywhere ….. and then Donghae. But that is all he can remember. Suddenly it hit him.
Donghae told him about the terrible experiments. Experiments with gas, chemical weapons and more. So this is how they are going to kill him. Yesung closed his eyes and few tears escaped them. The beeping sound is now much faster and louder which terrifies Yesung. What does the sound mean? Does it mean that some poisonous gas is going to fill the room soon? A small red light starts to blink in the nurses station and a nurse runs there to see what is happening. When she saw that the patient is awake, she quickly runs to get the doctor. They are relieved that Yesung woke up, but now the real hard work starts. His injuries are bad, doctors are doing everything they can to save him, but it all depends on Yesung’s will to live. They let Siwon to visit Yesung for a few minutes every day, but it isn’t enough. The doctor is trying to be calm and explains Yesung what happened and where he is while Siwon is on his way.
The man is running to see his husband and runs in the hospital room only to be met by a loud screaming. It is Yesung who screams and Siwon stands there in shock. Yesung is trying to fight with the doctor, but it is useless when he can’t get up from the bed or move his legs. Only his left arm is able to move and he is trying to push the doctor and nurses away. After seeing Siwon, Yesung didn’t calm down, ohh no - he starts to scream even more. A nurse pushed Siwon out of the room and Siwon can only imagine what is happening inside. A few seconds later the screaming stopped and after a while the doctor and nurses walk out. The doctor led Siwon in his office and explained that Yesung had a panic attack. He also gave Siwon a list of psychiatrists who have experience with treating refugees from North Korea. It is a long list and Siwon decided to speak with the psychiatrists to choose the right one. At least it takes him a few hours and his brain isn’t thinking about Yesung for these few hours. Then he drives back in the hospital and stands in front of the door of Yesung’s room. He shouldn’t go inside again. There is a small round window in the door and Siwon peeks inside. The drugs the doctor gave him are wearing off and Yesung is weakly tugging on the bed restraints which are binding his wrists and ankles to the railing of his hospital bed. Siwon feels tears forming in his eyes and quickly blinks to get rid of them. This isn’t Yesung. This is just Yesung’s shadow which hates Siwon.
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