Interlude Part 3
Interlude pt 3
A few more days later
"Hello?" said Byung Ho as he answered his phone, but he had to move it away from his ear because of the excessive noise.
"COME HOME!" yelled his wife to block the crying and screaming that could be heard in the background.
"What is wrong? Is that Ha Na crying in the background?"
"YES AND YOU NEED TO COME HOME RIGHT NOW!" yelled Eun Ji again, "SOMETHING IS WRONG AND I AM SCARED." Eun Ji sounded like she was on the edge of crying too.
"Okay okay, just calm down. I will leave right now,"
"RIGHT NOW!"
"Yes, I already got up from my chair. I am putting on my jacket right now. Will you be alright till I get there or do I need to call the neighbor to come over and help?"
"I don't want to involve the neighbors, just-" Eun Ji stopped as Ha Na started crying loudly again and she just yelled: "JUST COME HOME QUICKLY," before she ended the call.
Byung Ho ran out of his office and looked around to see if his secretary was somewhere near. Once he found him he just yelled:
"I am leaving early, my daughter is very sick!" His secretary just nodded.
"I will pass on the message," answered he back.
"Thank you." With those words Byung Ho left the bank and ran to his car. Speed limits weren't something he had time to care for because with every second passing by, he grew more and more worried, both for his daughter but also for his wife.
Luckily he didn't work far from his house and he flew the car into the garage and almost fell as he ran out and towards the door. When he entered the house he was met by the loud cry he heard earlier on the phone and he followed it to Ha Na's bedroom where Eun Ji was sitting with Ha Na in her arms with tears down her cheeks.
"She can barely hold up her head and she won't stop crying. It is like I can't get in touch with her without yelling," said Eun Ji who had a hand under Ha Na's head to support it.
"We are going to the hospital right now!" said Byung Ho and took over for Eun Ji. When Byung Ho lifted Ha Na, Eun Ji just seemed to cry even more, like the heavy weight on her shoulders had been taken away and she could now cry freely.
"Come on," said Byung Ho while he walked through the house with the screaming girl in his arms, "get the keys, you are driving."
"I ca... can't drive..." said Eun Ji between her sobs. Byung Ho turned around and looked directly into the eyes.
"Eun Ji... honey... you need to pull yourself together. I will let you cry your heart out later, but right now I need my wife. I need your support and most importantly, I need you to drive the darn car! Can you do that?" Eun Ji nodded slowly and then took the keys.
The only sound that filled the car on the way to the hospital was Ha Na's crying and Byung who kept trying to calm her down, but she wouldn't listen.
When Byung Ho and Eun Ji entered the doctor's room with Ha Na still crying excessively, the young doctor looked both startled and scared.
"What has happened?" asked the young doctor.
"That is what I would like to ask you? Didn't you say she would get better? Then why the heck is she crying like she is about to die?" Byung Ho's eyes were bloodshot while Eun Ji's eyes were swollen from all the crying, and the young doctor just stood there looking dumbfound.
"Well... I should examine her," said the young doctor.
"You think?"
In spite of Ha Na crying and struggling, the young doctor managed to do the tests, but he just seemed even more confused when he was done. He looked at the crying child and then at the worried parents.
He didn't know what to do.
"I will be right back," said the young doctor.
"Where are you going?" asked Byoung Ho.
"I just, I need to talk to a resident about this."
Even though talking to a resident was the last thing the young doctor wanted to do, he had to, because he knew something was wrong. After finding one of the hospitals residents and building up the courage to talk to him, he started explaining the situation.
"Do you really need to bother me with this right now? I am busy, you know," said the resident.
"This girl has been here three times now, I have prescribed antibiotics, but she seems to be even more sick now than the last time I saw her."
"She is probably allergic to the antibiotics."
"No I already checked, that is not what is wrong." The resident seemed a bit more concerned now and he finally put down the charge he had been looking at and instead looked at the young doctor.
"Alright fill me in once again, what are her symptoms?"
"She... um... She is coughing and has a fever and a runny nose."
"Those all sound like symptoms for a normal flu."
"Yes I know, but she is crying like crazy and the parents are really worried. She seems to feel really sick, she can barely even lift her head."
"Wait what?" The resident looked straight at the young doctor who didn't seem to understand. "You just said she can barely lift her head, does her neck hurt?"
"Yes... I think... it is hard to ask her since she just keeps crying. But I think her neck is hurting a lot." The resident reached for his head while sighing loudly.
"You really are an idiot!"
Byung Ho and Eun Ji were still sitting in the examination room waiting impatiently for the young doctor to return. Finally the door opened and the young doctor entered together with the resident he had been talking to. The young doctor looked sad and a bit ashamed, but Byung Ho just focused on the resident who seemed much more confident.
"Hello, my name is Dr. Choi," said the doctor, "I hear your daughter isn't feeling so well. Doctor Lee just filled me in and I think your daughter has meningitis." Byung Ho's eyes widened and Eun Ji once again started crying.
"What are you talking about? I thought she just had the flu?"
"It can look like that, but neck pain is often a symptom of meningitis. So I would like to do a lumbar puncture and also do some blood tests. We will keep her in the hospital until we have test results."
"Thank you doctor," said Byung Ho and shook his hand.
"No need to thank me, now let us find out how we can help this poor girl."
After getting a hospital room the doctor made sure to give Ha Na some pain killers and soon she fell asleep in her hospital bed. Eun Ji sat beside her bed and soon fell asleep too, from exhaustion. Byung Ho then picked up his phone and called their land line.
"This is Kim Namjoon," said Namjoon when he picked up the phone.
"It is dad."
"Where is everyone?"
"We are at the hospital, Ha Na isn't feeling too good."
"Is she going to be alright?"
"Yes, we got a really nice doctor. Now if you stay home I will come pick you up. We can grab something to eat on the way back to the hospital."
"Okay, I will wait here."
"You are a good boy, I will be there as fast as I can." Byung Ho ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. He then grabbed his jacket and his keys. Before leaving the hospital room, he gently put a blanket over Eun Ji and stroke her cheek. He smiled and then left without making a sound.
***
It only took a few days to get the result and it was indeed meningitis, so the doctor hurried and began the treatment.
"So she will get better now?" asked Eun Ji the doctor.
"Yes, this should make her feel much better."
"I am so relieved, did you hear that Ha Na, you are going to feel much better," said Eun Ji to Ha Na, but she didn't react, "Ha Na," said Eun Ji again and even took her hand to make her look at her. But Ha Na just looked at Eun Ji with dead eyes.
"Ha Na?" said Eun Ji but there was still no reaction.
"What is wrong with her?" asked Byung Ho.
"It is like she doesn't understand me, or like... she doesn't hear me." Eun Ji understood the meaning of her own statement and soon became very scared. "Ha Na? HA NA? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" yelled Eun Ji and Byung Ho hurried to her side and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Don't shout honey," Byung Ho said and then looked at doctor Choi, "doctor, what is wrong? Why won't she answer?"
Doctor Choi made a quick examination and then looked at the parents with a sad face.
"This was what I was afraid of. She had seemed a bit distant the last two days, but I hoped it was just from the exhaustion. Sadly that wasn't the case. I should explain; meningitis can in some cases lead to loss of hearing."
"Are you saying my daughter is going to be deaf?" asked Eun Ji.
Namjoon was standing in the background looking at Ha Na with horror in his eyes. He might not understand everything the grown-ups were talking about, but "loss of hearing" and "deaf" were words that were in his vocabulary and he didn't like hearing them mentioned in connection to his sister.
"Let us not jump to conclusions. After receiving treatment she could regain her hearing. So let us just wait and see and pray for the best." Eun Ji looked at her daughter who still had the confused look in her eyes. A tear left Eun Ji's eye, but Ha Na extended her arm and wiped away the tear with her finger.
"It is going to be alright," said Eun Ji to calm herself, "we... we are going figure this out... together..."
Hello everyone!
Fact #3 about sign language
I'm gonna teach you all an international sign. Okay I know the first thing I said was that sign language isn't universal/international. BUT! The sign for "I Love You" is, so I'm gonna teach you how.
The sign is connected by the three letters I + L + Y, so when you put them together they look like this emoji: 🤟🏻
The sign is known by deaf people all around the world and it is commonly used when meeting a deaf person who doesn't speak the same sign language as you. So there you go.
Remember to stay safe and leave a comment before you move on to the next chapter!
Love, Annalise~