Derick W J Tan

A gale swept through the hospital lobby.

Ixion stormed through the sliding doors as the two steel ball bearings told him where Yoona was – a third was jamming the lift door to wait for him. He started running. He didn’t care if Tae Yeon saw him, or that the nurses were shouting at him. Someone even tried to stop him – a doctor – but the man was flung against the wall when Ixion created a small vacuum behind him.

Tae Yeon was parking the car but Tiffany was right behind him, rushing into the lift right before the doors closed. He wasn’t waiting for her.

“You need to relax,” she said, her voice shaky but not because she was worried about Yoona. It shook because she was afraid of Ixion. “She’s probably just fine.”

Contrary to what everyone believe, Ixion wasn’t as gentle and loving as he looked. Yes, on normal days when he’s happy Ixion is that kind of person, but his attitude, personality and character takes a complete turn when he’s angry. The only reprieve was that Ixion rarely gets angry. She prayed for Yoona’s manager if Yoona was caught in an accident. But if Yoona was hurt, Tiffany knew whoever hurt her was a dead man. And she was quite sure of it.

Because Ixion had killed before. Many times.

The doors opened and he surged past her, though he was careful not to shove her away, headed straight for the ward Yoona was in. He was already looking at her. There were bandages around her wrists, elbow and left cheek, but what worried him most was the one wrapped around her eyes.

Tiffany apologized to the nurse who got into his way by accident, shoved to the ground. And then to a female doctor, who came out of her office and was watching him storm away, for the disturbance, though it was peculiar how the doctor was looking at him.

“Yoona!” he yelled inside the hospital room, hurrying past the other patients and went straight to her.

“Oppa?” Her manager was sitting next to her bed and he saw her gesturing for him to keep quiet about something. “Oppa–“

“Kwenchana yo? (Are you all right?)” His voice was lowered, the fury on his face dissipated the moment he got near to her. “Huh? Are you all right? What happened? Where are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Her laughter could fool anyone into believing that she was fine, but even if he couldn’t see the bandage around her eyes, he could hear from her voice that she wasn’t fine. “Oppa, you can stop worrying, I’m fine, really! It’s just a few scratches here and there.”

“Here and there where?” There were places he didn’t allow his mental touch to go.

“Huh? Oh, just- just one on my cheek, some on my palm and wrists- oh and the forehead too,” she said, her voice was tender but it was hiding a lot of fear. “Oh, oh and my bum is a little sore too.” Yoona giggled, thinking it would lighten the mood.

“How can you still laugh when you’re like this?” he snapped at her, harshly, but only out of worry. “Do you know how worried oppa was?”

“Mi-mianhe, oppa…” She was startled by his reaction, being the first time he ever snapped at her.

He breathed in deeply. It was impossible to stay mad at any of them for anything longer than five seconds.

“Sorry,” he then said of course. “I shouldn–“

“–You were just–“

“–Don’t get me started with you!” He snapped at the manger, harshly, and he meant it.

“Oppa, it wasn’t Kim Sung oppa’s fault! I just fell on my own…”

Even she could tell that her excuse was plain stupid.

“Don’t lie to your oppa,” he said, gingerly touching her head until he found the bandage around her eyes so he could ask. “What’s this?”

He heard the tiniest gasp from her. “It’s- it’s noth–“

“–Don’t lie to your oppa,” he said again. “Why is there a bandage around your eyes?”

“It’s really nothing! I was worried that the corneas-thingy would get injured, so I told the doctor and she wrapped it up for me just in case.”

She was still lying.

“I see.”

If it was someone else lying to him, he’d yelled at that person already and forced out the truth. But if Yoona didn’t want him to know what happened to her eyes, he’ll just have to find out from someone else.

“Oppa, how did you know I was here?” She quickly changed the subject. “I told Kim Sung oppa not to… call, you…”

She felt like bumping herself on the head for letting that slip.

“Your mother was the one who called me,” he told her. “She thought that I’d wanted to know as soon as possible if you got hurt and she’s right. How could you not tell want to tell me?”

“Because I know oppa loves me very much.” She was starting with her aegyo now, making her voice sound a lot more sweet and child-like. “So he’d definitely rush over immediately to see whether I’m fine once he heard. But I didn’t want to bother oppa so late at night, so I told Kim Sung oppa not to call you until tomorrow.”

Ixion sighed. He should be angry or irritated but it was impossible when she was talking to him with that sweet, baby-like voice.

“I’d knock your head if you weren’t injured,” he told her, holding on to both her hands now.

The first time he met Yoona, she was already blind and her hands kept groping around for someone or something to hold. And the moment he held her hands when he sat on the bed next to her just now, she was gripping very tightly. Even before he arrived, her manager was already holding her hands. It was just something that made her feel safe.

“So are you sure you’re all right?”

Yoona nodded quickly, very sure, but unlike everyone else who tend to forget that his was blind, Yoona also squeezed his hand to indicate her response.

“Good.” She immediately seized his other hand when he let go of her to stroke the back of her head. “You can sleep first if you’re tired. Oppa will carry you over to a private ward once I make the changes.”

“Ah, you don’t have… to…” Her voice faded away when he pulled her into a tight hug.

She began to feel very guilty when she felt her oppa’s body shivering, realizing how scared he must had been – maybe still was – when he heard she was in the hospital. Yet at the same time she was touched by how much he cared for her. But if she was going to cry, it’d be more because of how afraid she was just less than a few hours ago, when she was locked up in wherever by that crazy stalker. Yoona had no intention of telling him about that and she was very thankful he didn’t ask. She already lied to him enough for one day.

Ixion didn’t even realize he was shaking because his heart was just beginning to settle down, after pounding like mad since his phone started ringing. He was so worried about Yoona when he answered the phone, and so afraid when he heard what happened  that he was ready to the blast his way through the hospital until he got to her. And he knew he was going to kill the person who had hurt his precious little dongsaeng (sister).

He gave her one last tight squeeze before letting her go.

“Alright, rest now while I go get your room changed- don’t argue with your oppa. You have no say when it comes to how comfortable you want to be. Oppa has already decided that you’ll get the best.” He bent forward and peck her on the forehead before turning to her manager. “You, outside, now.”

The manager got up and quickly told Yoona to rest well before he followed Ixion outside.

“Wa-wait!” Yoona called after them.

“Don’t worry,” said Tiffany, who was standing in front of the bed silently the entire time. “I’ll stay here with you.”

She sat down next to Yoona and held her hands.

“Hey, when Tae Yeon comes up, can one of you go downstairs and help me change Yoona’s ward to whichever is the best one?”

“Su-sure, but the lift–“

Ixion twitched his fingers. “It’s working now.”

“Alright, I’ll go and change her ward later. Oh, and I think one of the doctors here knows you. I saw a bunch of security guards outside just now but she told them that everything was fine.”

“Alright, thanks for letting me know.” He tapped the ground with his cane and left the ward. Outside, he turned and faced the manager. “You’re a good guy and I respect you, but if you don’t answer my next question truthfully, I will hurt you.”

The man twenty years his senior nodded firmly.

“What happened to her?”

“According to Yoona,” Kim Sung began, “she was kidnapped by a man, a stalker most likely, and he was going to do something to her before she scared him off with the taser you bought for her. He tied her hands and legs up, knocked her out and left her in a storage room before he ran off to find her co-star.”

He had explained many things to this Ixion guy before, mostly about Yoona’s safety and welfare. And although the guy could be quite forceful at times, Kim Sung fully understands why he behaved as such, because he had a little sister himself. Anyone who ever bullied his little sister knew how violent he could get. He was just glad for Yoona that she had such a caring oppa who loved and worried about her so much.

Ixion nodded before he continued.

“Apparently the stalker ran off to look for Yoona’s co-star with the intention of hurting him, most probably because they play lovers in the show, but the stalker got beaten up by her co-star instead. We got the whole film crew to look for Yoona after that and we found her thirty minutes later in a storage room, unconscious with just a few scratches but otherwise untouched.”

“Her clothes and everything was still on?”

“Yes. She was dressed quite thickly and everything was still on.”

He watched as Yoona’s oppa nodded, satisfied, and then bowed a full ninety-degree, thanking him. He bowed back and apologized for not taking better care of Yoona, and wasn’t surprised when her oppa said nothing after that.

“And I think you know that Yoona’s lying about her eyesight,” he added, for he himself always knew when his little sister lied to him. “You’ll have to ask the doctor about that, as well as- oh, that’s her doctor right there.”

Ixion turned and sent a ripple forward to search for the doc–

“–You’re a dead man if your mental touch goes up my shirt, Might.”

He jerked and tightened his grip on his cane, releasing the three steel ball bearings again. Whoever this person was, she knew about the Project and knew exactly who he was.

“In my office,” she then said and entered a room. “Now.”

Ixion paused for a moment to consider the situation. If this doctor meant him harm then she could have hurt him the moment he entered the hospital. But that doesn’t make her a friend still. Rather than contemplating on whether it was safe, he nodded at Kim Sung before he hurried to the doctor’s office, cautiously, keeping an extended barrier of his mental touch all around his body.

“Shut the door and help me find that spider,” the woman said once he entered.

She tossed an empty mug into the air and he seized it just before it shattered on the ground. Still on the defence, he sent a pulse through the room and willed the mug under the sofa. This woman also knew that he doesn’t harm living creatures unnecessarily.

But Ixion considers it a necessity if that living thing harmed any of his friends.

“Tell me who–“

“–Shut up and sit down,” she interrupted him. “I’m Rivera’s daughter.”

“Doc?” said Ixion.

Doctor Preston C. Rivera was the doctor in charged of them – the four specimens – when they were released from the Project about ten years ago. Ixion hadn’t seen the doctor for almost two years now, having decided that the man could barely do anything but pointless body checkups for them.

“Old man kicked the bucket already,” said Doctor Rivera, the daughter. “Would have been nice if the fourth wasn’t the only one who went to his funeral.”

“I was never informed.”

“Really?” she said, surprised, busy scribbling away on a report. “Oh well. He wouldn’t have really cared anyway.”

He sent another ripple forward to see how she looked–

–she threw a pencil sharper at him in return.

“Keep doing that, Might, and it’ll be my chair next.”

Ixion’s brows furrowed, stepping forward to seat himself in front of her desk as he set the sharper back down. His hands still gripping tightly on his cane. She glanced at him before pulling out a folder, flipping through the contents untidily before she closed it and tossed it aside. She murmured that it was the wrong folder. The next one was the correct one.

“Yoona is permanently blind,” she said, her tone indifferent like she could hardly care. “And Soo Young was raped. Oh and she’s three weeks pregnant too.”

- Chapter 22 (Information)