Chapter 38
When Taria opened her eyes again, her whole body was burning except her left hand, so she moved her head slowly to know where the comfy cold feeling was coming from, and she saw that it was coming from him. She moved her other hand slowly, and ran her fingers through his hair that was spread on the white bed sheets, then she felt bad that he had to sleep on the floor, putting her health, wounds, and pain aside.
She tried to flip the blanket on him as his temperature was low, yet her injured back prevented her from moving freely. She groaned as the painkillers the doctor gave her started to lose their effect after she woke up, and her voice woke the sleeping Tian up.
"Sorry for waking you up", Taria said with a warm smile, then Tian got up fast and stayed still beside the bed. He wasn't able to differentiate if it was reality or a dream, but when he held her hand again, and felt the warmth of her body that he was used to, he realized that his life was back. No words came out of his mouth as hundreds of sentences were stuck in his throat, preventing him from talking and breathing, but once the first one of them came out, the others couldn't stop flowing.
"Why did you take the shot? Why did you protect me? Why the hell are you always putting me in front of yourself? You can't imagine how many times I wished I was the one laying in this bed instead of you, you can't imagine the pain I felt as I was pressing on your hand waiting for you to press on mine back. Never think about doing that again...", He said while his voice was shaking
"Shhhh, Tian, don't say anything now. Look at yourself, you haven't slept or eaten anything while I wasn't with you, have you? You should have taken care of yourself if you want me to be fine, you are even wearing a hospital…. IS THAT A NEW WOUND IN YOUR HAND, ARE YOU HURT? UGH, ah ouch ouch ouch", Taria said, but the pain stopped her from scolding him any longer.
Tian was happy to be scolded by her. The tears that came out of her eyes after she woke up extinguished his fears and sorrows as water extinguishes fire. He can handle her tears, her craziness, her childishness, and even her devilishness, but he could never handle seeing her closing her eyes helplessly as she was before.
"I will call the doctor", Tian said calmly as all the worries that were exploding inside his heart got wiped away, but Taria held his sleeve softly before he could walk out of the room
"I just woke up, won't you give me a morning kiss?" She said while her eyes were rounded. He leaned towards her slowly and kissed her softly, even though he wanted to hug her tightly and kiss her a hundred times, yet he didn't want to give her any more pain
"I will kiss you every minute if that meant you won't lay in bed like this any more", Tian said
"Don't worr~y. I will always come back to you", Taria said with a bright smile, melting the icy chains that her absence surrounded his heart with
Tian smiled warmly, not giving his pain the chance to break down the warm feeling her smile gave him, then he put his hand on her face, and kissed her lips one more time.
The doctor came, yet instead of checking on Taria he started scolding Tian because his wounded leg started bleeding again, and Taria was scolding him with the doctor. Tian refused to leave the room, so the doctor had no choice other than treating his wound again while he was sitting on the ground.
"Ah, ugh, tsss, ouch, eee"
"Honey, I am the one who is getting his wound stitched", Tian said after Taria was making agonizing sounds and shedding tears
"Does it hurt a lot?" Taria asked
"No, not a lot", Tian said, then the doctor was finally done with his wounds and turned to Taria. Her wounded back was hurting her a lot whenever the doctor touched her, yet she tried to stay strong as Tian was, holding her tears inside her eyes that were rounded and sparkling
"You can cry if you want. I know how painful it is", the doctor said
"It's ok", she said, trying hard to keep calm, yet Tian held her hand with a concerned look in his eyes, breaking down the wall she built around herself to seem strong. Her lips started shaking, then she started crying like a baby
After a while, Ve entered the room, with the same expressionless face but wounded above his eyebrow.
"Are you ok, brother Ve?" Taria said after seeing the bruise on Ve's face
"Get out, Tian", Ve said coldly
"Why?", Tian asked
"I have something to take about with this kid", Ve said, but Tian refused to leave, not after he was finally able to stay by her side
"It's ok, he can stay", Taria said after seeing that Tian didn't want to leave, then Ve took out something from his pocket and handed it to her. Taria's tears started falling down once she saw her mother's diamond-shaped sky blue earring, or to be exact, the earring her father had. The picture was completed in front of her, as she had the earring, her father must have died, and he must be the one who shot her back at the party.
Her tears were falling continuously, but she wasn't crying, she was only unable to believe. Taria knew that her father was a monster, yet a deep part of her kept seeing him as the reason for her existence even after what he did. However, Tian's cold hand that was holding hers gave her a relief
"Sorry, I should be happy that he is dead now. I think I'm just too weak to be happy", Taria said while wiping her tears.
Tian hugged her, gently to avoid hurting her. He wanted to tell her how strong she is, he wanted her to see herself from his eyes, and he wanted to give her everything he can just to regain her lively self. However, he only said "I will always be beside you"
Those words, as well as Ve's hand that was patting her shoulder softly gave her a huge amount of warmth, confidence, and love, calming down her fast heartbeats, just like a calm summer night. The two of them were more than enough for her to fight against the whole world, and she was delighted to have them in her life, even if that meant taking many other shots. Taria smiled warmly while her eyes were still teary, and she hugged Tian back, giving her more physical pain but at the same time physiological comfort.