Time To Fulfil Hers

The landscape stretched out as far as she could make out, enveloping her in a sea of pure white. The sensation of water embraced her, bringing with it a feeling of weightlessness she hadn't experienced in years.

A compelling beam of light shone from the top, she could feel herself being pulled towards it.

She slowly swam upwards, her right arm gingerly stretched out in front of her, ready to break the barrier standing between her and the light.

Suddenly, a sharp tug downwards called her attention, she was met with heavy metal chains fixing themselves around her torso. More appeared from thin air coming from every direction and binding to each of her limbs

Her struggle seemed futile as every force of rebellion was met with an equal force of pain. She could slowly feel herself sinking into the darkness below her, and sighed in resignation at her fate,

The impending crash loomed before her as she braced for impact, but then

BAM

As her eyes fluttered open, she jolted upright, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Good, you're awake", he said noticing her movements beside him, "Are you hungry?"

She nodded slowly taking the bento box from him, she was still visibly disoriented and hadn't even fully processed his words, but she closed her eyes willing her senses back to normal.

He subtly watched her as she began to eat, but refused to pry typing away at his laptop. The past two hours had been spent working and answering questions from the company's shareholders about his sudden disappearance from the office

He forced down the eighth sigh of exasperation and its accompanying eye roll, why couldn't those old men just mind their business, it wasn't like a one-day missed attendance would disrupt the inflow of cash into their pockets, he wished they would keep their fake concern to themselves

Liling stared at him silently, she was done eating and she could feel guilt wash over her, she had taken his attention away from the company and forced him to stay and take care of her

'Wait a minute' she thought, the feeling of guilt dissipating as fast as it came, 'I didn't ask him to come here, he came of his own accord', that reminded her, what was he even doing here? she had forgotten to ask him in the first place

Her eyebrows pulled together as she turned a scrutinizing gaze at him, " I didn't get to ask, why are you even h..."

The red light abruptly went off cutting her line of enquiry short, 

The surgeon walked out just then, wearing his blood-stained scrubs, and a look of tiredness on his aged face,

It took a lot of restraint for her not to shoot out of her chair to enquire about her brother, standing up slowly and walking towards him, she could feel a lump forming in her throat as she tried to speak,

The surgeon noticed her hesitation, so he decided to speak up first "Fortunately the operation was a success, he's no longer in danger", his words sent a wave of relief over her, her brother was going to be okay,

"Since there's always a risk of his body rejecting the new heart, he will need to be kept in the ICU, if there are no complications, he will be moved to a normal ward, where we will continue monitoring his recovery,"

The doctor went on describing how after the discharge he would need to return for biopsies and tests, and that he would need to take drugs, other than that, her brain couldn't pick up anything else, the fact that her brother could return to his normal life after spending so much time in the hospital, he could finally be okay, it suddenly overwhelmed her

The doctor left and she watched her brother being wheeled out by nurses, she could feel the year's worth of tears threatening to spill, and the smile tugging at her lips, 

She turned her attention to Li Hao, he was standing up now, just a few steps away from her, she could easily make out the obvious relief in his expression, and she felt more than grateful for his support

However, there was a nagging thought at the back of her mind, he had fulfilled part of their agreement, and it was time to fulfil hers.