Chapter 129 - Dae Won Must Live

Jun Hyeon felt the side impact when Dae Won was pushed against him, and the impact jerked his body forward, taking his breath away completely. He saw the front panel shatter and instinctively closed his eyes. He felt a diffuse pain in his head, and then his chest hurt, due to the impact on the airbag. It has triggered the alarms. Taking a deep breath, he realized that no vital organ was injured. Still a little dizzy, he looked away.

Then he saw Dae Won, squeezed against him and between the side and front airbags on the driver's side. The light pole the car crashed against advanced far into the car and the crumpled bodywork on Dae Won's side.

Strangely, the blond man seemed to have a strange smile on his bloodstained face.

Getting rid of his own seat belt, Dr. Kim assessed the situation before attempting to remove Dae Won. His heartbeats his blood loss, breathing, and eyes responsiveness. He realized that the musician's left hand had been caught between the pole and the car door, and he tried to remove it carefully, to get him out of there. He placed Dae Won with caution over his shoulder to get him out of the car. 

"Shhhh ... Don't worry, I'll save you too ..." after making a gesture of silence, Dae Won spoke with the same smile, looking into his face, before passing out. Jun Hyeon blinked several times, astonished. 'What did he mean by that?! Will he… save me? Does he want me to keep quiet?!'

On the way to the hospital, in the same ambulance, Jun Hyeon made the urgent calls and then looked at his intubated friend, just in case. He wasn't in immediate danger of death, according to paramedics, but was unconscious due to concussion. But Dae Won had hurt his left arm and hand badly, and the plastic surgeon anticipated that perhaps one or more surgeries would be necessary.

It was ironic that he, Jun Hyeon, had only suffered scratches, or so he thought. He would be sure after some exams. 

Naturally, he felt responsible. He had caused the accident and Dae Won could have died, because of him. It was Dae Won passed out there, not him.

His fingers ran to Ye Rim's number without his noticing. Hearing her voice saying that everything would be okay was all he wanted to ease his confused and guilty mind.

But she was on another call, apparently.

°°°

"You shouldn't be calling me, who I'm a close friend of stylist Jung, just because you think I'm going to tell you who she is, what she does, how much she charges and who she dates," said Ye Rim, holding the phone between the chin and the shoulder while drying the dishes. 

"Reporter Lee, it's okay, I'll be understanding but I won't reveal my friend's secrets. She is a reserved person with many creation rituals. Her customers are looking for exclusivity and impeccable cut, but they like a touch of irreverence, don't they? Yes, you know that award, the ... what's the name? Ah, I don't remember, but it was a year ago. The host was that actor, the ... well, I suck at names, but you can research it. He was wearing a shirt from the Eun Ha's collection. She doesn't like advertising. Her craftsmanship and concept of creation is beyond advertising. She went to the Fashion Ball because Stylist Zhang made sure she attended!" 

Getting more acting classes was already doing wonders for her improvisation skills, Ye Rim thought. She was receiving several calls on her personal phone from people who discovered that she was best friends with the mysterious fashion stylist Jung. The new sensation of Korean fashion.

Her unnie deserved all the spotlight, but Ye Rim was shocked as the press was running after this 'fresh news' with voracity. The singer was sure that it was Cha Eun Mi who gave her phone to the press. Eun Ha had turned off her phone because of the constant calls, and actually left a little earlier, and went to the bank. But of course, Ye Rim could boost her unnie's surrounding myth.

"Eun Ha has a very strong connection with the tradition of our culture, but she likes to reinterpret them in a way to reestablish the contact of the modern with the intrinsic of being, you know? She may be inspired by the subway, the fish market or the theater, but the process of cutting the fabric for the first time is sacred and,…"

Maybe she spent about 10 minutes chattering about Eun Ha's weird ways as if they were rituals. She talked about the detached, ecological lifestyle, and her conscious choices about a simple life. Sharing the apartment was a space-saving option; and riding a bus was a decision to reduce pollutant emissions. She traveled twice a year to alternative communities in different parts of the world, looking for new sustainable ideas to create fashion. She usually donated money to struggling artists.

She just needed to remember to tell Eun Ha all these things later, haha. The part of donating money to struggling artists was true, as Eun Ha has practically supported her throughout the last year.

Apparently the reporter was very grateful and asked if she knew how Stylist Jung had met actor Ryan Lee and what she thought of the controversy with rapper J-Mancer.

Taken by surprise because she didn't know what the reporter was talking about, Ye Rim turned to the internet to a quick research,

"Uhn, Ryan Lee… Well, I don't know. I don't know him personally, but Eun Ha… OMO!"

She knew whom those choc abs belong to! "I need to hang up!"

She sat down, opening the photos and watching Kang Dae, her neighbor Kang Dae, fighting with a famous rapper at the Fashion Ball. "What did you do, Eun Ha and Kang Dae?!"

Abandoning household chores, Ye Rim went down to the Yoo's grocery store as quickly as she could. How could they do such a risky thing?!

But Chang Mi was alone in the grocery store, closing doors to end the shift.

"Ye Rim Noona ...?" he asked suspiciously, and Ye Rim was sure he knew everything.

"Chang Mi, where's your brother? What did those two get that your brother is in all the magazines? How did your brother hit a celebrity?"

"Technically, it wasn't him, but an actor named Ryan Lee," Chang Mi replied with a chuckle. Ye Rim threatened him with a fist,

"You're hilarious, but they don't stop calling after him. Where is he?"

"Well noona, Kang Dae is in hiding. Things didn't go very well for him after he went into hiding with noona Eun Ha, but ended up showing off shirtless nationwide! He's really, really in trouble, and it's neither the paparazzi nor the rapper that worries him!" the mocking boy shrugged as he finished his job.

Ye Rim imagined that if Kang Dae was in trouble, Eun Ha had better never need a lettuce again in her  life. Mrs. Yoo, a widow who ran the grocery store with iron hands and was known for being highly jealous of her sons. At the same time, she admired her friend's audacity and nerve.

"But where is noona, anyway?" asked Chang Mi.

°°°

"This afternoon, musician Lee Dae Won and plastic surgeon Kim Jun Hyeon had an accident on the access road ..." as soon as the anchorman spoke, in the evening newspaper, Ji Hyeon thought she'd pass out again, but she struggled not to panic and hear the news until the end. It was important, and perhaps it was the only time she would see this news on television.

"... the doctor is doing well, but the musician is under observation. According to the medical record, he is not at risk of death but should remain hospitalized for a few days. The car accident caused a two-kilometer traffic jam tonight on the access road…"

"Oh! OH!  Doing Well! He's Doing well! Wohoo! That means everything is fine! It's okay with Jun, that's it. Calm down now girl. Calm down. Dae Won didn't kill Jun. In fact, he was the  one in observation. Hahaha, he got hurt! Hahahaha!" Ji Hyeon laughed at the irony. Her twin was fine, and Dae Won…

But then an important fact fell with the weight an anvil on her head.

'If something happens to that bastard Dae Won, am I going to remain locked up here until I die? Am I going to… die here from starvation?'

Ji Hyeon ran to the shelves and the fridge, to check her food supply. It wasn't much. Dae Won always brought ready-made meals, and all she had  in the bas.e.m.e.nt were snacks, fruit and shakes. Nor did she have a lot of drinking water either. But, how long would he be gone?

But if something happened to Dae Won, and it impeded him to return home, someone would inevitably come to the house, right?

Probably.

But ... How long would it take for someone to think about visiting the bas.e.m.e.nt?

Ji Hyeon did not believe that one day she would look forward to the return of her jailer.