"Hey."

I jolt awake, my eyes flashing open and jumping a bit on the uncomfortable plastic chair situated before the hospital bed in the infirmary where the mystery man is still sleeping.

"Hey, Ari." I feel someone clasp their hand over my shoulder and I whip my head to the side to see Yejin standing beside me. "Sorry for waking you up so suddenly," she continued in a whisper. 

I rub my eyes, taking away the sleep from them. They adjust a bit to the minimal amount of light from the lamp at the end of the room. "Is...Is there anything you need?" I croak. My throat is so dry and the chair I'm sitting on continues to bring nothing but discomfort all over my body.

"Well, I need you to rest on a real bed for once," she replies. Despite the dim lighting in the infirmary, I could still spot the look of worry washing over her features. "I can watch him tonight," she offers.

"No, no," I grunt, refusing her offer by shaking my head before clearing my throat. "I'm going to continue watching him. I don't feel sleepy anymore." 

"You haven't been sleeping well for the past three nights," Yejin emphasizes sternly. Even if we keep our voices hushed, it still does not hide how strict she sounds. 

Three days? It's been three days since this man arrived and eventually turned our lives upside down? 

God, I've lost count because of what has been happening. 

We eventually got him to breathe again especially with continuous chest compressions and CPR. A lot of us were working on him to survive by making sure to warm his body up with heavy blankets and changing him into a new set of clothes offered by our guy colleagues. 

Unfortunately, we could not get a hold of a doctor to take out the bullet from his body, but one of the nurse practitioners did it with the assistance of two other nurses in our group. 

This is what we get from working in a remote area. We always have to make do with our resources at hand. 

I have not told anyone about the phone I found. There are times, when I'm free, that I try to turn it on. I fail at every single one of them. Still, I am undeterred. There is this lingering feeling in me saying that I shouldn't trust the man. 

After all, there is a reason as to why he got shot.

"Even then," I murmur, "I still need to stay here and watch over him." 

Yejin huffs, dropping her hand to the side from holding my shoulder. "You've been getting more exhausted lately. We worry about you, especially the kids! Please. Do us all a favor and get some good sleep even if it's just for tonight." 

"...What happens if he's a bad guy, Yejin?" I do not take my eyes away from him. I watch how his chest, covered by a thick blanket, rises slowly and falls in a rhythmic pattern as he continues to sleep. "What happens if he finally wakes up and attacks everyone he sees?"

I hear Yejin sigh heavily. "Unnie…"

"He had a gunshot wound," I state, still not taking my eyes off of him. "Does it not make you wonder how and why he got shot?" 

It takes her a while to reply. "...Of course, I wonder about it," she breathes out after. "But not to the point that I allow it to affect my health and work." 

I avert my gaze from the man to throw a pointed look toward Yejin. She simply raises an eyebrow, peering at me. I click my tongue out of annoyance and look back at the sleeping man. "Whatever," I mumble. If I’m not wary enough, I might be allowing a bad person to enter our sanctuary. I might have placed the kids in danger ever since I had this man brought to the infirmary.

"I'm serious when I say that you should really sleep, though,” Yejin continues, making me stand from the chair and shoving me gently to the door. “Even Sunja is dead worried about you already." 

------------

Mrs. Oh wouldn't stop pressing the back of her hand against my forehead and I'm starting to grow annoyed by it.

"For the nth time, Mrs. Oh, I'm not feeling sick." 

"I can't help it, Ari. I know how you've only been getting a few hours of sleep.” She scrunches her eyebrows at me in growing worry and slides over another glass of water on our cafeteria table. “Drink that, then,” she reaches into her pocket and brings out a vitamin packet, “make sure to drink two capsules of this, okay?”

I breathe out a soft laugh, deciding not to go against her wishes. “Thank you, Mrs. Oh,” I say. 

“Aish, don’t thank me.” She waves a hand in dismissal. Scrunching her face, she throws me an incredulous look. “If you really wish to be thankful then you should listen to all of us who are saying that you need sleep, understand?”

“Yes, Mrs. Oh,” I utter, then purse my lips. “I just can’t shrug off the feeling that I may have brought a bad man into our home.”

“And why do you feel that way?”

I blink, averting my eyes from her to stare down at the table. Even if the cafeteria is loud as the kids around us are enjoying their prepared lunch together with the rest of our colleagues, their voices drown out in my head. 

I’ve been thinking hard these days. It’s all because of that man. I feel like I’ve allowed myself to welcome a wolf hiding in sheep’s clothing. 

As I think of all the dangers that the kids and my colleagues might go through because of me, all the more I can’t find it in me to sleep. 

“Ari?” Mrs. Oh calls my name out softly, breaking me from my train of thought. She leans forward to bring her head down to my level. “Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah,” I stammer, collecting my thoughts. “I...I’ve just been thinking about some...stuff.” 

Mrs. Oh does not say anything else, and I’m silently grateful for that. She sighs, her shoulders heaving out of exaggeration then nods in assent. “Then it’s best if you take a break for the whole day.”

My head instantly flies up to look at her. “What? Mrs. Oh, you don’t have to make me rest today-”

“I insist.” She raises a hand before me. “You think that we can’t function without you?”

Astonished with her statement, I find myself stuttering, trying to clarify myself, “N-No, that’s...that’s n-not what I meant-”

“I know,” she interrupts with a smile growing on her face. “I was just messing with you.” She juts her chin toward the door leading back to our individual rooms. “Go now. I’m expecting you to be better tomorrow.”

I chuckle under my breath and push myself up with the help of the table. “Aye aye,” I breathe out, giving her a mock salute as I start to saunter toward the exit. 

She tiredly shakes her head at me and shoos me away with both hands until I can’t see her anymore since I’m at the other side of the building. A line of small individual rooms greets me as I stand at the end of the corridor. At exactly the other end is the makeshift infirmary. 

The temptation is too much to handle. I can just walk to the infirmary and continue watching over the man. 

“No, no,” I murmur to myself, closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths to take away the lingering inclination. You need sleep, Ari. You need all the sleep you can get after these past nights of staying awake. 

My bedroom is one of those nearest to the cafeteria, so, at least, I would not have to worry about nearing the infirmary in any possible manner--

CLANG!

I stop dead in my tracks and all my senses heighten. That sound came from somewhere far from me. I’m sure it’s not from the cafeteria because it really sounded distant. It was the clanging of metal that may have fallen to the ground. Where else would metal be in? Could it be in one of the rooms? It would be impossible though because no one is in their rooms at this moment, they are all busy tending to the children. 

Unless…

The beating of my heart doubles as realization dawns on me. “No, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” I grouse, completely knowing that I won’t ever get to rest until I make sure that I’m not overthinking anything. 

I’ve always been told that curiosity killed the cat…

But no one ever bothered to finish it. Curiosity may have killed the cat...but satisfaction brought it back. 

I take one last look at the cafeteria to see Mrs. Oh talking to a table of kids who are still finishing their lunch. With new resolve, I set my lips into a tight line and clench my hands to form them into fists.

I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going to be sleeping just yet. 

I rush through the corridor to the infirmary and stop before the door that is left ajar. I give myself a moment to stare at the small opening before me. I can’t see anything significant from where I’m standing, so I know that it’s a sign for me to enter the room. 

I push open the door before me and it creaks a bit as it moves. I enter the room, making sure that my footsteps are light. 

My eyebrows pinch together when I look around me and see nothing out of the ordinary. The man was still sleeping on the bed and nothing seemed to have moved. 

I continue to walk while looking around the room for any anomalies. My foot suddenly hits something on the floor and I look down to see one of the metal trays that were sitting on the desk near the bed. I bend down and take it. I start to inspect it closely while my mind is running a mile a minute. How did this reach here? The furrow between my brows deepens. 

“Now, this is just weird…” I mutter breathlessly, “or maybe I’m just overthinking these things again.” I decide to go with the latter, knowing that it’s likely that my mind is playing tricks on me due to my lack of sleep. There really is nothing to worry about.

But when something suddenly tackles me to the ground, that is when I scream at the top of my lungs. I fall hard to the ground and try to get up, but the thing that’s on top of me would not budge. 

“W-What the hell?!” I shout out loud, gritting my teeth as I give it my all to move for even just a centimeter. 

The thing on top of me grunts loudly and as it forcefully turns me around to lay on my back, I gasp out loud when my eyes meet the intense and fiery eyes of the man who was just sleeping on the bed seconds ago. “H-Help!” I scream just before his palms pressed against my throat. My mouth stays wide open as his hold around my neck starts to tighten. 

I try to fight back, pulling him back by grabbing the scruff at the back of his neck, but fail miserably since he does not budge nor dwindle with my attempts. He’s too fucking strong.

“Where am I?!” He shouts through gritted teeth, showing no remorse for the pain he’s inflicting on me. 

I can’t answer him. It’s impossible to do so. Yet he doesn’t know that. He keeps on repeating his question. “Where am I? Where did you take me?!” He moves my neck as he speaks out each word. 

I claw my fingers at his hands, even digging my fingernails into his wrists, but all attempts are futile. “H-He..” I used my last breath to call for help. I continue to pry his fingers away, but I’m falling faster into unconsciousness.

My head spins as I try gasping for air. My life starts to flash before my eyes. I could hear the pounding of my heart slowing down. 

Oh, my God…I’m going to die. 

My mind is now all hazy and I can’t move anymore no matter how hard I try. 

I slowly start to lose consciousness and grow weak, until his body falls limp over me. His hold around my neck loosens immediately and small ragged gasps escape my throat as I can’t control myself with how my body is taking in all the air I was deprived of for those few seconds. 

I start to cough violently, pushing the now unconscious man away from me and laying on my side -- spit comes out of my mouth and I can’t stop coughing, though no sounds come out and my throat is burning like hell. 

I look before me with half-lidded eyes and see Yejin holding a wok with both hands, angrily looking at the unconscious man laying on the floor. 

“Ye…” I croak but stop when my throat clenches in pain. I feel exhausted...no, weak.

“Oh, God, you’re right, Unnie,” Yejin utters, “He might really be a bad guy.”

And I am not able to catch any of the words she said afterward because that is when everything goes dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! He's finally awake, but... HAHAHA

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