“…”
All three gathered in the emergency center waiting room couldn’t hide their anxious expressions.
Chris revealed her uneasy emotions while biting her nails.
Did they come too late? Did they worsen Rain’s condition with their clumsy judgment? Since when had her body been so unwell?
Numerous thoughts appeared and disappeared in her mind.
Chris loved games. She had been eagerly waiting for the release date of Astria Online.
At first, she was busy enjoying the game under the pretext of market research work as a capsule company researcher. She played the game chasing the sense of achievement felt while clearing challenging dungeons with reliable party members.
But for the past few months, Chris could find another happiness while enjoying the game. She started enjoying the Astria continent itself.
It’s undeniable that Rain was at the center of that.
It felt like she had found her angel.
Beautiful appearance and cute gestures, the white-silver hair Chris loved, the dizzying smile shown even if small, the graceful swordsmanship like viewing a painting.
A few months on the Astria continent with Rain. During that time, Rain’s existence had grown uncontrollably in Chris’s heart.
It was regrettable that she could only see that appearance in the game, but she prayed that someday she would be able to see that appearance in reality, too. If Rain’s wariness completely disappeared and she fully liked and relied on her, she wanted to meet in reality in forms like offline gatherings.
Chris and Rain’s first meeting took place in a different direction from expectations.
And Rain was continuing a much harder life than imagined.
A swan glides elegantly across a calm lake.
Its long, straight neck and snow-white feathers are like a pure white angel, evoking admiration from those who see it. The swan’s wings gently cut through the water, and gentle ripples spread softly behind it. The appearance on the water’s surface is peaceful and quiet, like a painting. However, behind that elegant exterior, a completely different scene unfolds under the water’s surface. The swan’s two feet move constantly and busily, powerfully churning the water.
Of course, it’s just an expression that has become idiomatic. In fact, they say swans are elegant even when swimming underwater.
Rain, who seemed to blend beautifully with the Astria continent itself and exist as if in a world made for her.
Behind that facade was hidden a struggle for survival.
The emergency treatment room door opened, and a middle-aged doctor came out holding a chart. Chris’s group hurriedly stood up and approached the doctor.
“Rain, um… is the patient okay?”
“Her breathing and pulse have returned to normal and the bleeding has stopped. Since the patient was unconscious, we also did a CT scan under a specialist’s judgment, but fortunately, there are no serious symptoms like cerebral hemorrhage. You can consider that she’s out of the critical situation.”
“Haaaaah…”
Dayeon and Jaewook let out sighs of relief as if the ground had collapsed.
Chris asked the doctor about Rain’s condition in detail.
“For now, we’ll need more precise examinations to know the patient’s exact condition, but there are various causes for bleeding that doesn’t stop easily. Blood coagulation disorders, hormonal changes due to stress, blood pressure rise…”
The doctor slightly raised his glasses and gave Chris a sharp look.
“And there are causes like nutritional deficiency. What is your relationship with the patient?”
If they’re not relatives or legal guardians, they won’t be able to interfere with the patient’s personal matters.
“Uh, well. For now, friends.”
“It’s not just a matter of bleeding. Her bodily functions themselves are seriously weakened. Is the patient eating properly? In a state of nutritional deficiency, mental instability, decreased responsiveness, cardiopulmonary abnormalities, etc., can also occur together. We’ve taken emergency measures for now, but…”
Chris confirmed that Rain had been moved to a hospital room and took Dayeon and Jaewook out to the corridor.
Jaewook scratched his head and grumbled.
“Information provision is limited due to patient privacy? A guardian-like family is needed? This is really complicated.”
“In an emergency situation, necessary urgent examinations and measures can be taken under the doctor’s judgment, but subsequent treatment and examinations require the patient’s decision or guardian’s consent. Medical law is complicated, isn’t it?”
“The doctor scolded us, didn’t he? Saying we brought her dangerously by carrying her. Thanks to that, we had to listen to a long lecture on first aid and emergency procedures. Saying things like they used to teach it in the military, but nowadays there are no military veterans, and so on…”
“No, I definitely did wrong. It’s rather fortunate that I heard it now. My clumsy handling could have put Rain in an even more dangerous situation.”
Chris bit her lip.
Her mind went blank, and she couldn’t make rational judgments. Fortunately, Rain could be safe thanks to quick measures, but recklessly carrying her and heading to the hospital wasn’t the right action.
Chris, Dayeon, Jaewook. Although they’re all adults who have become university students, they were just fresh blood that had just entered society.
Chris, who let out a sigh mixed with relief and self-blame, clapped her hands like leading a raid party in the game and focused Dayeon and Jaewook’s attention.
“I’ll stay by Rain’s side. You guys can go back first.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we stay together too?”
Dayeon said those words and looked at Jaewook’s expression. Jaewook didn’t seem to want to leave either. But Chris shook her head.
“I’ll let you know when Rain wakes up. From Rain’s perspective, people she doesn’t know well carried her and brought her to the hospital, right?”
“Uh, umm. I guess it could be seen that way.”
Chris looked towards Rain’s hospital room with a hardened expression.
“I’ll become Rain’s guardian.”
After Dayeon and Jaewook left, Chris, who was left alone, collapsed sitting in the corridor as strength left her legs.
She showed a strong appearance in front of her juniors, but Chris was the person who worried more than anyone else.
The sight of Rain collapsed, bleeding.
The wheelchair spinning idly.
Rain’s body condition heard fragmentarily from the doctor.
A girl who can’t even properly support her body alone is living alone in a poor environment.
All of these things tore at Chris’s heart.
Chris clutched her chest and sat collapsed in the corridor for a while.
* * *
Pitter-patter.
Urgent footsteps echoed in the hospital corridor.
And those footsteps finally reached in front of the hospital room.
“Phew.”
The owner of the footsteps took a deep breath and carefully opened the hospital room door.
Chris’s eyes took in the sight of a girl sitting up in the hospital bed, looking out the window.
The day had already dawned.
The girl’s white hair, receiving sunlight seeping through the curtains, shone mixed with silver.
An IV needle stuck in her slender arm.
Her long hair reaching down to her waist was spread out on the hospital’s pure white bedding.
The girl’s head turned, and her eyes faced Chris.
Chris unconsciously swallowed.
She thought her own appearance wasn’t lacking anywhere. But in front of the beauty of the girl before her eyes, her confidence in her appearance seemed to disappear.
A beautiful girl with a slightly calmer feeling than Rain moves alive before Chris’s eyes.
It’s truly an unreal appearance.
Calmly settled, beautiful obsidian eyes. That gaze that seems to look somewhere a bit far away is similar to Rain’s eyes, yet feels a bit different.
Chris felt a slight sense of discomfort.
There wouldn’t be two people with such an appearance and hair color.
Surely that girl must be ‘Astria Online’s Rain, herself.
“Rain…?”
Chris’s voice rose slightly at the end, revealing her doubt.
The girl’s obsidian eyes widened a little.
And after a moment, a familiar sweet voice flowed from the girl’s throat.
“…I’m Lee Seulbi.”
Lee Seulbi.
It must be the girl’s real name.
Chris slowly moved her footsteps towards the girl.
And sat in the chair beside the bed and looked into the girl’s eyes.
There, with the bright smile, she often sent to Rain.
“…Hello, I’m Chris.”
A long silence continued. Rain didn’t say anything and just stared at Chris intently.
And at some point, a strange light settled in the girl’s eyes.
The girl’s mouth opened, and uttered those words.
“Chris …unnie.”
“…!”
The moment she heard those words, an irrepressible emotion surged in Chris’s chest.
It’s Rain.
Surely, it’s her angel Rain.
Chris held Rain’s hand, lowered her head, and trembled.
Rain didn’t reject Chris’s touch. She carefully held her hand back.
And the other hand came and stroked Chris’s lowered head.
“Thank you for cherishing Rain.”
Who should cry?
Who should be comforted?
“Thank you for saving Lee Seulbi.”
The girl who lived hard alone in a world without anyone to rely on, with a frail body in tatters, with legs that don’t move?
The ignorant and foolish Chris who only noticed the girl’s situation when it came to this point?
I don’t know.
But Chris cried.
Rain didn’t cry.
She just silently stroked the head of Chris, who was sobbing quietly.
Chris’s red and Rain’s white blended.
Here, not in another world, but in reality.