Entering the room, seeing the visage of her friend, Seulgi dropped bonelessly in shock onto the floor.

  Katie was expecting a reaction, but not this. This was the first time that she had ever seen Seulgi lose her composure. However, this was not entirely unexpected.

  As she was still in the hallway when she fell, it was noticed. RNs rushed over to check on her. They found that it was purely shock that made her drop. Katie warned her it was bad, but she guessed that her expnation failed to warn her properly.

  The RNs got Seulgi seated and a cup of water. The only thing that was wrong with Seulgi, other than the mental and emotional shock, was she would have some spectacur bruises on her knees. This would be funny under any other circumstances.

  This was barely noticeable to what was going on with her friend.

  Wendy’s face was bandaged heavily. She had one eye, closed, peeking out from the bandages. Her right arm was bandaged with a splint from her wrist to her elbow. Her left knee was swollen and bruised to the point that it looked like a big bck cantaloupe. From the ragged cloth, it was obvious that the doctors had to sheer away her pant leg to get to her knee.

  Basic triage has been done. She had been cleared of being close to dying. She was stable. She knocked her out with pain meds, otherwise, she’d probably be screaming in pain.

  The cop that followed them, was patiently waiting for Katie to make herself avaible to finish giving details. So, she stepped away. They went to the waiting room, telling Nayeon to go back to the room. This time with a more adequate warning.

  When Nayeon showed up, she saw Seulgi sitting next to her friend, holding her good hand, head on the bed, sobbing quietly enough to not disturb her.

  Then she took a look at Wendy. She was poleaxed despite the warning. She then took another look, closer and getting more details. Wendy was breathing oxygen, but breathing. The EKG had all the squiggly lines that she assumed that she was supposed to have. The Blood pressure machine showed her current reading, which was understandably low, but not dangerous. The same machine was monitoring her blood oxygen level, which she also assumed was OK.

  That was the good news.

  Then she took in the rest and nearly dropped like Seulgi. Good thing she was warned properly first.

  To be fair, Katy was still in a fairly deep shock. Watching Seulgi drop like that didn’t help.

  Nayeon could be the soul of discretion when she wanted to be. So, she grabbed a chair and pced it next to her friend. Sitting next to Seulgi, she pced an arm across her shoulders, she pced her head on her shoulder, and started humming so quietly it was nearly subsonic.

  The physical and mental warmth mixed with the reassuring presence worked its magic. Seulgi stopped crying, her breath steadied, and she came back to herself. She left her head on the bed but took the hand that was on her shoulder and held it.

  Still not saying anything, Nayeon just stayed there, being a still, reassuring warmth. She looked up and saw the standard white, sterile emergency room. Several mystical machines told people who knew what they were saying what was happening with Wendy.

  There was a television on the side of the room, but Nayeon looked at it disdainfully. There was no way to watch anything without being disrespectful to the injured woman. In the unlikely event that Wendy woke up and wanted to watch something, then she’d turn it on. Otherwise, it was staying off.

  Nayeon was just going to stay there, in the moment.

  Seulgi was a mess. Crying her eyes out, she was unable to do much else. She was just hyper-aware of the hand she was holding. Every now and again, a finger would twitch and she would look up to see if Wendy was awake. Only to be met with that single closed eye. She figured that it was just random nerve impulses, not deliberate movement.

  Seulgi let go of Nayeon’s hand and started petting Wendy’s hair. She started to softly sing some of the songs they sang together at karaoke just a while ago. Nayeon joined her. Both sang just loud enough to be heard by Wendy and not disturb anyone else.

  Nayeon pced her free hand on Wendy’s thigh. She didn’t know if it would help, but it might let her know that people were here for her.

  “Did Katie tell you what happened?”

  Seulgi nodded. After a moment, she attempted to start narrating but failed. Nayeon handed her the cup of water, Seulgi raised her head off the bed, sipped, nodded in appreciation then handed the water back and re-lowered her head.

  She then repeated what she was told, nearly word for word.

  Nayeon was gd to have been already seated. She didn’t know that Seulgi had already fallen once from the story along with the sight. But, she might have fallen herself from the brutality of the story.

  She was not sure what the w said, but she was sure that if they found the guy who did this, he’d be up on first-degree attempted murder charges. She prayed to Whomever was listening that it stay ‘attempted murder’.

  Nurses would come in, check on things, and hurry back out. An occasional doctor looks in, checks things then says something to a nurse and leaves as well.

  A nurse intruded into their silent world. She told them that she needed to take Wendy to get x-rayed and a CAT scan to see if there was anything that they missed. She had to ask them to go back to the waiting room for Wendy to return.

  Seulgi started to protest, but Nayeon tugged her hand. They stood up and went back to the waiting room where Katie was waiting patiently. She had finished the conversation with the police a while ago. She also had already called their management to inform their boss what happened.

  Their boss simply asked if he needed to be there. Katie said that she appreciated it, but there were already several people present and he would not be able to get in there to see her. He ordered her to call him at any time to give him any updates. He also gave the next day off so Katie could stay with her without worry if she needed it.

  Seulgi interrupted the call to say that Wendy was on her way to get x-rayed and a CAT scan. Katie reyed that to her boss. The boss reiterated to call him at any time for any reason. He was going to leave his phone on so he will make sure to be avaible.

  Katie thanked him. After hanging up the call, she looked up at Seulgi.