His footsteps echoed in his ears. Walking down the corridor, which was still busy that afternoon, filled with patients, doctors, nurses, janitors, and relatives who visited with their respective activities. The surroundings are crowded, but his brain is not like that. The man couldn't digest the situation, he didn't even have time to speculate why he was the one who was contacted to visit this place. Everything felt empty, only his body moved according to instincts that came from nowhere.
That moment was exactly the 23 minutes since Diaz received a call from the hospital where he is now. That second, right where he was standing in front of the ward of someone who had brought him here, staring blankly as he finally stopped and came face to face with the ward of someone he was supposed to meet soon. But as soon as he saw a familiar name written on the information board attached to the door to the infirmary, Diaz's hasty steps stopped, Diaz, froze for a few seconds that passed until someone approached him with a faint smile—if you don't want to be called a sad smile—rebuked him to death. The man came back from his daydream.
"Mr. Diaz? I am Elise, who called Mr. Diaz using Ms. Claire's cellphone."
Diaz gulped, nodding stiffly in response. He didn't know what to do. His relationship with Claire couldn't even be explained, so why was he in this place? It was the words that had been circling in his mind ever since.
“Can you come with me for a moment? Let the doctor explain how Ms. Claire is now."
And for the umpteenth time, Diaz just nodded in response, following the steps of the woman in front of him without making sure whether the Claire she meant was the Claire he knew or not.
***
Diaz's brain felt full, too full of so much new information he received. The man had just come out of the doctor's office, listening to a long explanation of why he was expected to come to the hospital and how Claire was now.
Confusing indeed, even after hearing all the explanations Diaz still can't understand why he? This question will never get tired of asking Diaz. Why? That's all Diaz wants to find for now, with a complicated situation that makes him not understand why he has to be involved. Even though both the doctor and Elise—who sat beside him when facing the doctor—had repeatedly tried to explain, the explanation that Diaz received was not enough for him to understand why he had to be in this position. It feels like too many threads are broken in this storyline, so even if Diaz tries to connect it, he still can't connect.
"Mr. Diaz…" The confusion in Diaz's brain had to be put to an end for a moment because Elise again asked him to talk after leaving the doctor's office, they chose to be silent in a thousand languages.
The two of them are now sitting on the waiting chairs available at the nurse station instead of going into Claire's treatment room, who knows what's going on in there? Are you aware? Or are you still in the sleep phase?
"As dr. Adam said this is not the first time Ms. Claire ended up here." Elise knows, Diaz may be confused by the situation he is suddenly in, so when the man decided to sit there after leaving the doctor's room, the woman could only follow, giving pause for a moment for the man to adapt to the current situation.
Diaz was about to open his mouth to answer, but Elise added first, "And as before, none of her family was willing to quickly come to be Ms. Claire's guardian."
"As I said on the phone, I am indeed her assistant. But because of the job that Ms. Claire left under these circumstances, I can't always be by her side."
The sentence ended with a small commotion which was then heard approaching them. As if she already knew who had caused it, Elise only let out a short breath when a husband and wife came to her with grumbling that sounded incessant. "Where? Where is she? Where's the kid? Can't he sometimes make our lives calmer?!”
Although reluctant, Elise was forced to stand up from her seat. Welcoming the two people who always behaved the same if a similar incident happened to Claire.
"Ms. Claire over here..." Elise showed the inpatient room where Claire was.
Whether realizing Diaz's presence or not, the two of them just walked away, leaving Diaz and Elise who exchanged glances. Elise wants to show her smile, but it seems her lips are already stiff if only to make Diaz breathe a sigh of relief at the presence of the two people.
"There is a reason why Mr. Diaz that I asked to come to this place, there are several reasons that maybe after this Mr. Diaz will understand. Please don't go yet, at least try to stay here until Ms. Claire wakes up..." Elise gave Diaz a signal to get closer to the hospital room where Claire was staying, following her who was already there.
The two of them didn't go in right away, choosing to remain outside the room with the voices they could still hear from inside. Grumblings, nagging, cursing, until curses were heard by Diaz as he got closer to the room. What made Diaz even more silenced, the few words and sentences that were not appropriate to be heard then allowed Diaz to guess the situation, along with the conversation that was going on in there without the intention of eavesdropping—because their voices were too loud for people who should be talking about good family matters. Well—the people there were Claire's uncle and aunt. They were the women's guardians, who were supposed to protect and not hurt Claire with their words.
"Unlucky children, they usually make it difficult for us to go back and forth to the hospital, so people gossip because they think we are taking care of an insane nephew who usually cuts his hands and hurts other parts of his body." The figure of the old man made a sound after his partner finished throwing all the swear words.
His partner sighed tiredly as if all the weight was on his shoulders at the moment. The middle-aged woman hugged herself without wanting to come any closer, preferring to take a safe distance from the figure lying unconscious there, “We can't go on like this, David. We have to force her to marry so that our duties and the title of a guardian are separated from our family. I can't stand her anymore, I don't want to deal with her again for the rest of my life!”
Now her husband, who was breathing heavily, glanced at his partner, trying to exchange their thoughts through their eyes. It wasn't long before he spoke again. "Even without waiting for her to get married, we can be free from her, Emma. Claire is an adult woman, she can already take responsibility for herself."
“It should be like that, but what will the big family say if we let her go with her condition like this? Your mother? Are you sure she will let us who no longer want to be in charge of this child? Your mother definitely won't pass that inheritance to us if we just let Claire go! Not to mention, everyone knows that Claire's late parents gave us custody of Claire. At first, I thought it wouldn't be a problem, but if she continues like this…”
"It's just a matter of waiting for her to hurt us, right? Not just hurting herself anymore."
Hearing that made Diaz's head spin quickly to find the answer in Elise's eyes, to which the woman, unfortunately, replied with a sad look.
If only Elise wasn't there, Diaz somehow calmed her pounding heart when she heard those words. Diaz's disbelieving look after receiving Elise's sad expression was returned by the woman bitterly which means "please understand". It was as if this sentence wasn't the first time Elise had heard it. Even with all the responses he received, Diaz still didn't understand how such a sentence could come out of their mouths. Even though it was clear that their nephew was not in good condition, how could they utter such horrible words? Diaz had been missing from Claire's life for more than ten years and didn't know what happened to his middle school friend. But even for ordinary people, hearing such a curse would not make them understand, what happened and what bad things made Claire worthy of such a curse. Elise gestured to Diaz who was still stunned in his place, asking the man to follow her to stay away from those who were still discussing things not much different there. The woman in an offi
Finally, for the first time, Diaz could see Claire up close. Observing the sleeping face of his junior high school friend whom he had not met for ten years. Not much had changed, the woman's facial features only looked more mature than the last time they met, but what he saw was still the Claire he knew, though when Claire opened her eyes, he don't know if the impression was still the same or not.But that's not the case, the existence of Claire's uncle and aunt who are now sitting opposite Diaz is the main axis now. The atmosphere around him clearly couldn't be said to be friendly, especially after what happened before the three of them ended up gathering in that infirmary.Diaz was still trying to avoid the question that seemed ready to be pointed at him in plain sight by busy observing Claire beside her bed. Before that baritone voice, he heard and couldn't help but draw his attention away from just focusing on Claire."So your name is—Diaz?"Clumsy. Or somehow, Diaz was confused a
"Are you awake?" were the first words that came out of Diaz's mouth as soon as he saw Claire blinking slowly, opening her eyes and trying to adjust the light entering her retinas.He moved the chair that he was sitting on to get closer to the bed Claire was in. Diaz didn't feel the need to overreact, seeing as Claire seemed to be fine in her consciousness, even if something felt Claire and made her body uncomfortable, Diaz would of course rush to call the doctor or nurse on duty."I'm okay," Claire muttered hoarsely, trying to energize every little movement she made. Her body was unbelievably limp, her throat was dry and her eyelids felt heavy until all the movements she was trying to make seemed to slow down. The presence of someone she hadn't seen in a long time didn't necessarily surprise Claire, even though she had just woken up from her subconscious, Claire's brain was used to quickly digesting the situation after what she had experienced before lying in this bed. And Claire coul
The place was quiet, only a few people were sitting in one or two chairs scattered in every corner of the room. Diaz was there, one of them, with a cup of coffee he had just bought five minutes ago at one of the drink counters. Diaz spends his afternoons in the hospital canteen with his cell phone to his ear. "Sorry, Ed, I left suddenly. But earlier I called HR for a half-day permit." "I heard from Sonia earlier, that your family has been admitted to the hospital. How are things?" Unbeknownst to Edwin—the person who is currently on the phone with him—Diaz grimaced at the statement as well as the question. The reason is that he did use the excuse of "relatives being hospitalized" to apply for permission to the HRD office, but hearing it from Edwin made him feel like someone who was being caught lying. That excuse sounded stupid now, even though Diaz wasn't lying about himself having to rush to the hospital, but describing Claire as an important family or relative was ridiculous. Jus
Elise closes the door slowly. She even held her breath to make sure that her movements didn't make any disturbing noises. Her lips pressed tightly together, holding her back against the door for a few seconds before deciding to leave without looking back. In her heart with a regretful look on her face, Elise mumbled the word sorry many times. Sorry to the two people who are now isolating themselves and decided to have a one-on-one conversation."Sorry, Mr. Diaz, for making you confused today. And sorry, Ms. Claire, for involving people without Ms. Claire's knowledge and permission..." Elise's lips mumbled as she recited the sentence along with her steps away from the now forbidden room, for her.***Inside, the two high school acquaintances exchanged glances. Neither one relented, nor felt intimidated even though the gazes they gave each other were too sharp for two people who were in an unplanned reunion. For some women who receive Diaz's gaze at this time, perhaps that kind of look
One of his hands touched the surface of the mattress, forcing a movement that was still relatively weak because his body consciousness was functioning less than fifty percent. Almost a minute without finding the object he was looking for by fingering, Diaz finally forced his eyes to open slightly, peeking through the sleepiness that was still attacking. The increasingly deafening sound of the alarm made Diaz move faster to find his cell phone, almost falling off the bed when he reached for the cell phone which turned out to be on the side of the nightstand. He pressed the button to deactivate the alarm, exhaling tiredly just from trying to find the phone in the early hours of the morning.Diaz glanced at the clock on the wall which just showed 6 am. There was still plenty of time for him to get ready for the office, and although he could have chosen to sleep again to fulfill his sleepy desire, Diaz still tried to keep his eyes awake. Rising from the sleeping position, the man pondered
The two people were frozen in place with each other. Just yesterday they had stressed to each other that they should never see each other again, not get involved with each other, and not meddle in personal matters more than they should. But now the two of them are reunited, without planning, without being taken into account by the two of them."Claire?" the sound of breaking broke the silence between both of them. Claire turned her gaze to the person who called out to her, smiling faintly trying to control herself from her surprise.Ryan invited Claire to sit in the space provided, while Diaz followed the figure of the woman who no longer exchanged glances with him at every step the woman took. Out of the corner of his eye, Diaz found Elise who was also surprised to see him in the same place. The girl followed behind Claire and took a seat beside her boss still with grimacing eyes staring at Diaz. Unexpected encounter, isn't it?The meeting started with the formal introduction of the
As soon as she got in, Claire laid her head against the car seat and found a secure spot for her to let go of whatever she had been holding back for a very long time. Emotion? Awkward? Flustered? Afraid? Worried? For roughly the last two hours, Claire had to struggle with her mind since everything was so dreadfully messed up in her head. Grateful that Claire made it through it today despite having struggled mightily to survive for the past two years since accepting the role she currently holds. Of course, there are days and times when Claire fails and loses, not just once or twice, but tens or even more than hundreds of times. Because of all the bad thoughts that she could not overcome at those times, Claire had to end up imprisoned in the hospital like yesterday. Specific time. Elise, who is seated in front of the steering wheel, has a worried expression on her face, indicating that she is aware of what her boss has been through. She must constantly be aware of her surroundings due t