Page 45 of Perfect Happiness
While Jiyoo slept, Jane informed the kindergarten that Jiyoo would be absent for the next several days and called her manager to get some time off and reschedule her visit to the Han Yong-un Museum in Baekdamsa Temple for the following week.She then went home to get the things she would need to stay several nights at the hospital: toiletries, blanket, clothes, notebook, and the critical biography of Han Yong-un.
Jane couldn’t tell Yuna of the situation.She had no means of getting ahold of her.Jane’s number was still blocked.She tried calling Yuna through a public payphone, but Yuna still wouldn’t answer.She gave up on trying to get in contact with her.She was able to reign in her anger when she convinced herself to imagine that Yuna simply didn’t exist.
Jiyoo awoke around lunchtime.At first, Jane hadn’t noticed that she was awake.As she organized the items she brought from home, she turned around to find Jiyoo staring at her in silence.
“Jiyoo, you’re awake.”
“Yes.”
Jane walked over to her.
Jiyoo looked Jane in the eye and asked, “Auntie, am I in the hospital?”
“I brought you to the ER earlier this morning.You don’t remember?”
“A little.You called out to me, right?”
“You heard me?”
Jane extended her arm and brushed back Jiyoo’s disheveled bangs.
“I heard your voice in my dream,” Jiyoo said.“I tried to call back, but I couldn’t make a sound.”
“What was your dream about?”
Jiyoo’s eyes bounced around Jane’s face.She looked like she was thinking hard about something.
“I don’t remember.”
Of course she didn’t.With a fever like that, it was amazing that she remembered anything at all.
“Jiyoo, when did you start feeling sick?”
“My head hurt the day I went to Stepfather’s house.”
Jane was just about to ask what day that was when she heard a knock.The door opened and a nurse entered the room.The nurse put Jiyoo’s noontime medicine down on the table and left.After her, the lady who served meals came in and handed them a tray of food.Rice porridge, watery soybean paste soup, tofu, unseasoned steamed white fish, and a side of lightly cooked zucchini.This was the kind of meal that Jane would only eat if she were dying of starvation.Without even batting an eyelash, Jane lied about the food:
“Wow, looks delicious.”
Jane set up the bedside table and put the tray on top of it.She narrated her actions as she sat Jiyoo up for lunch.
“All right, Jiyoo.It’s time for lunch.”
Jiyoo looked down at the tray and sighed with her shoulders.Apparently, she didn’t agree with Jane’s lie that this looked delicious.
“If you spoon some rice porridge, I’ll put side dishes on top.Deal?”
Jiyoo reluctantly picked up her utensils.Jane used her chopsticks to pull fish meat off the bones.Thankfully, Jiyoo seemed to like the side dishes.Although, not enough to swallow, apparently.
“You have to swallow, silly.Once you eat all your food, then you can take your medicine.And once you take your medicine, then your fever will go down.”
Jiyoo winced as she swallowed the food in her mouth.She looked like she was being fed poison.Jane picked up some of the zucchini with her chopsticks.Utilizing all manner of persuasion and coercion, she eventually managed to get Jiyoo to finish a whole bowl of rice porridge.After making Jiyoo take her medicine, Jane fed her two strawberries as a palate cleanser.But when Jane offered her a third strawberry, Jiyoo gave an exaggerated sigh with her shoulders.It was her way of telling Jane not to push her luck.Jane took the hint.
“Jiyoo, can I wash your face before laying you down?”
Jiyoo nodded.
Jane prepared a wet towel and wiped down Jiyoo’s face and hands.As she did this, Jiyoo’s eyelids started to droop.
