I'll be your light

Melinda arrives at Yukwon’s hospital room to see two police officers questioning Yukwon. “What’s happening?” Melinda asks. The two officers look at each other in confusion then look at Yukwon who is lying conscious in the hospital bed. He explains something to them which they respond positively to. One of the officers leaves and returns with a nurse. “I shall be your translator. These two officers don’t know how to speak English.” The nurse has a heavy accent which makes her English hard to understand, but at least she can speak it.
“I just want to know what is happening here.” Melinda says politely.
The nurse translates and the officers respond.
“The officers need to question him.” She says.
“Why do they need to question him? I think he needs to rest and recover first.”
The same process happens.
“They just want to know how he got so badly injured because those wounds are not self inflicted.”
Before Melinda can speak again the officers say something to the nurse.
“The officers would also like to question you because you are involved.” She says.
“How am I involved?” Melinda asks, shocked.
“He was in your house when the ambulance arrived so they just want to know what you know.”
“Can they just wait until the end of the day until the patient gets some rest and gets better?” Melinda insists.
The officers confirm with the nurse and they walk out of the room with grim expressions.
Melinda calls Yijung and tells him to come over to the hospital and tells him about the questioning. “I would be uneasy without another person in there with me, plus, I need a translator.” He says that he will be there as soon as he can. Melinda takes a seat next to the bed and takes a closer look at Yukwon. He too looks at her, his eyes widen and his heart jumps when he realizes who she is. ‘This is the girl with the sprained ankle. This is the girl in my dreams. This is the girl I saved.’ He thinks unbelievably. “Are you OK?” Melinda asks him. He doesn’t understand English so he cocks his head to the side. Melinda feels helpless because she cannot communicate to Yukwon. She types her sentence into a translator on her phone, she presses the audio button and her sentence comes out in Korean. Yukwon smiles gently and nods. She types ‘Are you sleepy?’ into the translator. He nods and closes his eyes, glad that he is now allowed to relax.

He wakes and jolts. Melinda is still sitting next to him. She sits frowning and swiping up her phone. She glances at him and catches his eye. “You’re awake!” she says happily, and of course he can’t understand her, but he doesn’t remind her of the language barrier because her smile says it all.

Notes