“Shin Hye-ssi?”
Her eyes focused on his for a second then her body started trembling. Min Ho held her shoulders. Her whole body was shaking underneath his hands.
“What happened?” he asked Jun Kyung who also looked lost. “Why is she like this?”
“I don’t know. We were just talking and then she just— Shin Hye-yah!”
But she didn’t fall. Shin Hye grabbed Min Ho’s arms tightly, her hands still shaking. He grabbed her arms back lest she lose consciousness and fall.
“Noona, can you open my room?” he asked hurriedly and swept Shin Hye under his arms. Jun Kyung ran to the right wing and quickly opened the door.
“I’m going to call that doctor,” she said hastily after he laid Shin Hye on the bed. Min Ho piled two pillows under her feet and started unzipping her jacket.
“I’m fine,” she murmured. She was taking slower breaths, trying to control her breathing.
“You’re not fine,” he grunted and pulled the jacket’s zipper all the way down and pulled the front apart.
“It’s cold.” Her hands were cold and her trembling had lessened a little but they didn’t stop.
Min ho pulled the jacket close again, frustration clearly on his face.
“You’re still shaking. What am I supposed to do?”
“Just let me breathe,” she said weakly and closed her eyes.
Min Ho sat helplessly by her side, watching as she took slow breaths, her hands clasping the sheets tightly. Not knowing what to do, he grabbed them and squeezed her fisted hands between his. She was grasping something in her right hand and Min Ho could see a glint of silver and something black. Car keys.
He had never seen Shin Hye so vulnerable and weak. Her face was pale, almost ashen white, and her brows were creased as if in pain. She used to get sick with cold or flu, she had fainted before while filming a drama, but not like this. His hands grasped hers tightly. Not like this.
Min Ho could feel the trembling had stopped, her breathing was slow and steady.
“Shin Hye-ssi?” His hands slid to her face and gently tapped her cheeks. “Shin Hye-ssi?”
Her lids opened a bit, revealing listless and glassy eyes. Then her eyes closed again and this time, her hands went limp under his.
An old fear resurfaced within him. His chest tightened. “Don’t do this,” he murmured and cupped her cheeks. “Don’t frighten me like this. Snap out it, dammit!”
The door swung open and then someone pulled him away from the bed.
“What happened?”
He turned to the familiar voice. It was her manager.
“She was trembling but still awake a while ago,” he said, hearing the helplessness in his voice.
“She’s okay. She just fell asleep,” the man sitting on the edge of the bed said. The doctor stared at Min Ho, his jaws set tight. “We’re taking her back to the other villa.”
He turned to Jun and nodded at him. The older man turned to the door and then glanced back at Jun Kyung and Min Ho.
“I need to make sure no one’s going to see Shin Hye being carried out of here.”
“I’ll check downstairs and block anyone entering from the back porch.” The older woman caught on fast. She threw a worried look at Shin Hye and followed Jun. But before she stepped out, she looked back at her brother who was staring back at the doctor. “Min Ho-yah, Ye Won must be looking for you.”
Min Ho clenched his hands as Dennis closed her jacket again.
“What’s wrong with her? Why was she trembling like that?”
The doctor didn’t answer and slipped his left hand under her arm and to her back. The car keys slipped out of her hand. Min Ho watched as Dennis’ face darkened at the sight of the car keys before slipping it inside his coat and heaving Shin Hye onto his arms.
“Is she going to be okay?”
The man looked at Shin Hye and sighed. “She will be. I just need to get her back to the other villa. My things are there.”
“Min Ho-yah,” Jun Kyung called again, this time more urgently.
“Go on.” Dennis prodded him. “She can’t be seen with you.”
His brows creased. “What do you mean by that?”
Dennis just looked at him and gestured for him again to leave first. Min Ho hesitantly went ahead and his sister literally dragged him towards the back. Before they made it to the kitchen, he saw Jun in front of the door going to the front yard. The older man opened the door for the doctor and together, they crossed the yard carefully and disappeared behind the bush.
“I hope she’s fine,” Jun Kyung murmured behind him.
Min Ho whirled around. “What exactly happened? Why were you together inside the storage room?”
“I wanted to thank her for saving you,” his sister said defensively though there’s a glint of guilt in her eyes. “What were you doing upstairs, anyway?”
“I came to get an extra blanket for Ye won,” he muttered and sighed. He completely forgot about it.
“Did you hear anything?” she asked nervously.
“Hear what?” he said dismissively. “I’ll go get the blanket.”
“Ania. I’ll go. Just tell Ye Won there’s no thick blanket and that I volunteered to search through her stuff.”
His sister marched back to the second floor. His eyes followed Jun Kyung until she disappeared up the stairs.
____________
Dennis threw his duffle bag in the rear passenger seat and closed the door.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay here?” Worry was evident in his face. He’s going to leave for Seoul and won’t be with her for two weeks.
Shin Hye nodded, her arms crossed over her chest to ward off the cold. “You already told Jun-oppa everything he needs to know. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Dennis sighed.
“If it’s about last night…”
“You still don’t want to share what happened there?”
She stared at her hands.
I want the truth.
“Min Ho was there too, but he only described how he witnessed the onset of the panic attack. I can’t get anything out of him without him asking so many things.”
Shin Hye fidgeted on her feet. She never wanted anybody to witness those moments. It made her look vulnerable, weak. She especially didn’t want Min Ho to see her like that because he might start asking questions that she didn’t want to answer.
“And I hope you don’t take your van’s car keys. I don’t want that happening again, especially that I won’t be with you,” the doctor said, looking past her, his forehead creased. Shin Hye turned her head back but saw nothing.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I wasn’t thinking. I just don’t want to think last night and you know learning to drive again helps me get my mind off things.”
“I know, but even if it helps to clear your mind, it’s still dangerous for you to go on your own.” He held her shoulders and locked his eyes on hers. “I don’t want you escaping again by any means, be it stealing someone’s car keys because you feel trapped or passing out because the past keeps on haunting you. I know it’s hard and you can’t really control it, but if you ever feel the urge again to go off somewhere, call me, Dr. Ahn or ask Jun-hyung for help.”
“Arasso,” she muttered and rocked on her feet. “Stop scolding me like a child.”
“So stop acting like one,” he said, a bit exasperated. “You stole my car keys last night like a rebellious teenager!”
“You’re just mad because you didn’t notice that I took them,” she scoffed at him, one side of her lips curled into a smirk.
Dennis stared at her, unblinking. Then he cupped her face and then pinched her cheeks.
“Yah, do that again.”
“What?” she griped and swatted his hands away.
“You actually smiled a bit,” he said, looking a bit delirious and pulled her cheeks outward.
“You’re starting to imagine things because of the cold,” she muttered and tried to pull away. When she couldn’t, she pushed him towards the car instead.
Dennis laughingly let her cheeks go. “You smiled. What a nice way to send me off. No, actually, I don’t feel like going anymore.”
She opened the car’s door for him. “Two kids trust you to make them better. Go back to Seoul.”
“Arasso,” he chuckled and was about to enter the car when he whirled around to her again.
“I’m going to miss you.”
To her surprise, he closed the distance between them and drew her in for a hug.
_______________
Min Ho’s darkened gaze followed the man’s every move. When he drew her in, the fabric of the floor-length curtain crumpled in his fisted hand. He told himself it was because the man was a doctor and the woman he was hugging was one of his patients. It was unethical. He was taking advantage.
Then he remembered the joy and amusement evident in the man’s face even from the distance, and Min Ho wondered what she said to make him laugh. That he was happy, that she made him happy… He shook the thoughts away. He shouldn’t even be thinking of her. They were long over.
So why did he care if they stayed in a room together all night?
When he asked how Shin Hye was doing last night, her manager said that she’s fine because Dr. Oh was staying with her.
Min Ho remembered bile rose in his mouth. “He’s in Shin Hye’s room?”
The older man must have seen the incredulity in his face because he said, “He’s not just a doctor but he’s also her trusted friend.”
He must be a friend for Shin Hye, but it’s as clear as a cloudless summer day that the doctor sees her as a woman.
“And he’s not exactly her doctor,” Jun added last night but did not explain further when he asked who the man really was in Shin Hye’s life.
That only added to the pile of questions in his mind. And after last night, his mind was in turmoil. It still seemed so surreal to Min Ho. He hadn’t even wrapped his mind around it yet.
Jun Kyung, who took the last train trip back to Seoul last night after the party, wouldn’t tell him anything but swore to him that she didn’t know what caused Shin Hye’s seemingly panic attack.
“Let’s talk when I’m back home,” he said to her, making sure she got the message. He wouldn’t accept her silence on the matter now that he’s sure she knew som