“It’s Min Jaewon.” She told the nurse in the emergency room.
“Oh, that student? Please tell him and his friends to be quiet. I’ve warned them so many times.”
The nurse pointed Jae-hee to a bed. Jae-hee pressed down on her constantly twitching arm with one hand. As the nurse said, it was noisy. Boys in ragged clothes were giggling and laughing. Jae-hee had met them a few times.
“You’re a nice little punk. Did you hit a Mercedes?”
“I told you to knock it out of mischief, but you big punk.”
“What do you think? Isn’t your big bro cool?”
She could see Jae-won’s face smiling brightly through the curtains closed by the patient next to him. Other than a slight bruise there were no other injuries. Jae-hee stopped walking and looked at him smiling normally.
“Huh? Hey, your sister is here.”
Then the smile disappeared from Jae-won’s face.
‘Am I the one who makes you look like that?’
Jae-hee felt like bitter water was clogging her mouth again. When she approached the bed, the children shuddered away.
“What did the doctor say?”
“There’s a slight crack in the leg bone. Very slightly.”
Jae-won was already shaking one leg in a cast and said playfully as if he had hardened his expression only when he looked at Jaehee.
“I’m glad.”
Only those words came out of her mouth
‘If I lose you, I’m really left alone in the world. I don’t want to lose anyone again.’
With that in mind, the moment Jae-hee was about to place her hand on Jae-won’s forehead, he turned his head to avoid it.
“I am not a child. Did you hear that the car I hit was a Mercedes. It’s also top-class. According to my friends, only a few cars came to Korea, and they even had tuned it. Hundreds of millions of dollars.”
When Jae-hee confirmed that Jaewon was not seriously injured, the reality was waiting for her. ‘I think ahjussi told me about that, but I was in a hurry when I heard that Jae-won was injured.’
“I heard that person brought you to the hospital. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I guess he’s out there.”
How much will the repair cost be? These hospital expenses would not harm the money she had been collecting little by little in preparation for when Jae-won went to college. I hope it will work out somehow.
‘I saw articles on TV or the Internet saying that a foreign car would cost tens of thousands to repair just by brushing them. I would never drive a car for the rest of my life, so it seemed like someone else’s business.’
Jaehee turned around steadfastly in front of Jaewon, but after turning around, her nervous fingertips trembled again.
Jaewon was about to say something but soon shut his mouth. It was painful to see Jaehee turning around and leaving without strength.
“I’ll go to school and spread the word. You became a hero overnight.”
He looked away from Jae-hee’s small back to a friend who tapped him on the shoulder. And laughed at his friends.
“Excuse me… The person who brought in Min Jaewon, do you know where he is?”
“He was going outside earlier. He’s wearing a navy suit. He looked like a model. There was a lot of fuss about who he was.”
It was late in the evening, so the emergency room was quiet except for a few patients. There was a tall, handsome man. It was rare in the vicinity for such a man to appear suddenly, and the nurses on duty were in an uproar. It was actually pitiful to hear from everyone that “a high school student drove a motorcycle and hit a Mercedes”. After all, it was not their business.
“I think it will cost a lot to repair it.”
Nurse Park, who secretly followed the man out to the bathroom, said that everything from the Mercedes bonnet to the trunk was scratched. She went to ask for his contact information, but when she saw the Mercedes Benz, she was frustrated and made a fuss that it would probably take thousands to replace it all. So sympathy was mixed in the eyes of the nurse who was looking at Jae-hee.
‘How come you have a brother like that?’
Jaehee swallowed dry saliva when she could read her face without her(nurse) saying a word.
‘Several thousand.’ It was not a penny for her. ‘There was no such thing as money. I’ve barely started to raise money for Jae-won’s college by avoiding my aunts and debtors.’
‘This must be another misfortune.’
Every step she took towards the place the nurse told her was heavy as if she was going to hell.
‘It’s okay, Min Jae-hee since Jaewon is safe. This is good enough, it’s okay.’
After avoiding her aunt and debtors, she barely started collecting college tuition.
Even if she thought it was okay, she could feel the unhappiness that always grabbed her ankle and wouldn’t let her go surrounding her.
“Tuk, tuk.”
Jaehee was looking only at her toes when she realized that water droplets were spreading over her old black winter boots. She had bought it at the market for 5,000 won. Her right hand stiffened again. She habitually pressed her right hand with her left hand, hoping that her trembling hands would calm down. ‘Also, what would you do with these dreary tears?’
[T/N: 1000 won=1 Dollar]
‘I am not weak. Obviously, these are not tears of fear, but tears of relief from the fact that Min Jae-won is safe. Okay. It’s not the worst situation you thought it would be, Jaehee. so you are fine.’
“Hello, Min Jaehee sunbae.”
More about my translations can be found here.
https://aistea-translations.carrd.co/
