Chapter Text
I ran, ran like my life depended on it. Because it did.
“No running in the corridor.” I read one of the signs in passing, and slowed my pace to a hyper fast walk. I had to reach him, as soon as possible.
2nd floor, I had been told. My heart pounded, 2nd floor, 2nd floor, I ran up the stairs, two at a time. Her words echoing in my ears.
Accident. Fire. Burn. Come. Quick.
Room 205, I turned left, and bumped into a solid figure.
“I’m sorry Khun”
I stepped past the stranger, not even looking at him properly. I will apologize later if I can. I ran all the way to the end, jostling people here and there, earning some annoyed stares in return.
“How is he?” Were the first words out of my mouth as soon as I saw her.
P’Earth stood up on seeing me. I saw a couple more familiar faces from Ocean Electric, but right now none of that mattered.
“N’Kong…”
“How is he?” I almost cried out, the terror gripping my heart was so strong.
“He’s…Ok, he’ll get better. You have to relax.”
“I can’t relax-”
“Arthit is fine for now. You won’t be helping him by yelling at me.” She said in a gentle voice. I dropped my head, mildly embarrassed.
“I’m sorry P’, I was just-”
“I know. It’s ok.”
“How is P’Arthit?” I asked again, more softly than before.
“He’s…mostly Ok.” She sat next to me. I felt a couple of eyes on me, but I only paid attention to her. “He has a couple of minor burns in his hands. And they have put him in a ventilator, for observation.”
“Ventilator?” I asked in agitation. “What? How? Is it that bad?”
“It’s more of a precaution, because of all the smoke he inhaled. He should be out by tomorrow.”
I sank back into the chair, the cold metal giving me little comfort. Half of me was relieved that nothing too bad had happened. The other half was still reeling with shock, as it had from the moment I received the dreaded phone call.
“How did it happen? You said something about fire at the office?” I suddenly sat up straight. “Are you ok? What about everyone else who was working? How are-”
“Nong, I told you, you need to calm down.” I saw her shift uncomfortably. “A boiler exploded in the production department, everyone who was in that room got hit the worst.
“Oh my god.” I stared at her in shock.
“Most of us were in the lunch area, we got out as soon as the fire alarm started ringing, so we are fine.”
I nodded, but a question still kept running through my head.
“Why did-”
“Kongpob?” I turned towards the other very familiar voice.
“P’Tod.” I greeted him politely, and he smiled, even though it didn’t completely reach his eyes. He casually handed over the drink he was holding to P’Earth, as if he had done it hundreds of times before. I remembered P’Arthit mentioning that they were something of an item, I really didn’t want to dwell on that right now.
“Have you told him about Arthit?”
“Yeah.. most of it.” Seeing her sip on the pinkmilk made me really miss my boyfriend. I fought the tears threatening to fall down my face, now was not the time, especially not in front of my seniors and boyfriend’s work colleagues, who had so graciously waited along with him here all this while, and console me.
“Can’t I go visit him in the room?”
“I-I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the doctors. They’ve been busy too, I saw them running around, looking after all the people who came in at the same time.”
I stood up and began pacing in the corridor, I couldn’t sit still after hearing about everything. I so wished to enter the room where P’Arthit was, I was desperate for information, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
“Who all were affected?”
I looked back and forth between them anxiously when they stayed silent for a little too long.
“P’Yong… was hit the worst.” Tod had a somber expression. “His whole of left hand, chest was burnt. He’s still in the operating room. P’Pat too, he is Ok but got a few 2nd degree burns, and is still under observation. No one else was in the room at the time but…I think a couple of people more had some minor injuries…”
My stomach plummeted hearing the names, especially P’Yong, who I had interned under for quite long. I still couldn’t believe it. I could see P’Som-O weeping at the other end of the corridor, a couple of people surrounding her whom I vaguely recognised.
I saw P’Earth talking to another woman in a white lab coat, who I realised was the doctor. She gave a small smile as I moved towards them.
“...He will be hooked to the ventilator overnight for observation, so he will be free to go tomorrow. His burns are 2nd degree at the most, not too major. They have been cleaned and bandaged, but he will have to come here again to get his dressings changed.”
“Can we go and meet him right now?”
The doctor looked towards me. “You…may, as long as he doesn’t speak or move too much. May I ask who you are, to the patient?”
“I’m P’Arthit’s boyfriend.”
I said without hesitation. I saw the doctor’s eyes widen a little, but didn’t have it in me to give a damn.
“Um…as I was saying, Khun Arthit will be discharged by tomorrow. If you can arrange for someone to stay with him overnight that would be good. You may go and see him if you want.”
I thanked the doctor, and soon I was rushing into the room, seeing my beloved P’ on the bed with machines and tubes running around him. I sat next to him, trying not to scream out loud at the situation. He looked so small, so vulnerable like this, even though I had never considered him like that.
“P’Arthit…” I caressed his hand, looking at the mask on his mouth, connecting to the ventilator, and the bandages circling his arms at multiple places. I couldn’t stop the tears springing up in my eyes. My P’ didn’t deserve this. No one deserved this. In the midst of my crying I didn’t notice his hand move, not until it was right in front of my face, wiping my tears away.
“P’…”
He shook his head lightly, I could see he was trying to say something under his mask.
“K-Ko-”
“Shh- don’t speak…” I held his hand, tightly gripping on. “I’m here P’, I’m not going anywhere. I will be here with you the whole time ,till you are discharged.”
He let out a faint hum, and a small smile came on his face. Seeing that even I gave him a watery smile from my part.
As I had told him, I prepared to stay with him the entire evening. I had taken a brief trip all the way to my uni dorm, packing some essentials, food, water for the stay. I rode my way back in full speed, I’m sure I must have broken a couple of speed limits on the way.
I sat there in the chair, right beside him. Alternating between looking at his masked face and his bandaged hands. It had gotten late, ideally I should be eating my dinner right about now. I felt little hunger, nothing mattered right now.
I remembered P’Earth’s words right before she went home, along with P’Tod. She was telling me to take care of Arthit, and also of myself alongside him. I thanked her so many times, she really is a gem, like an older sister to both P’Arthit and me. I saw the crowd dwindle over time, the familiar faces from Ocean were gone. I wondered how were the rest doing, I heard P’Yong’s brother had come to take care of him, but I didn’t know anything else over that.
None of this should have happened. Boilers don’t just spontaneously explode. Someone was going to answer some serious questions when the time came. I wondered if P’Arthit could have just avoided all this if he had just run out on time instead of running back into the production department. Because yes, my boyfriend was a total hero today.
I mulled over what I had heard already about the explosion, I caught so many whispers running around. As far as I could make out, Arthit was just outside the production room when the explosion happened. He hadn’t been hurt too badly initially, but then had made the brave(stupid!) decision of running inside the room, then somehow managing to pull P’Yong out of the smoldering place before collapsing outside.
I sat in shock for several minutes when I heard that story. My P’, he saved his senior. He would usually complain to me about acting like a hero, now look at you P’. You didn’t have to. The ventilator is the price of that, of all the excess smoke he inhaled in his second entry. The doctor told me it could have been worse. Much, much worse. P’Arthit had gotten really lucky. Running into a burning room is the stupidest decision one can take. I shuddered just thinking about all this. I couldn’t even fathom losing my love like this, so early. My heart was gripped in sheer terror at the thought of losing him. It was only now, sitting right next to his sleeping form that I shuddered thinking just what a close call it had been.
I stroked his hair gently, and he sub-consciously leaned into my touch. Even in sleep he knows who I am, the thought made me smile.
“Sleep P’…I’ll be right back. You won’t even know I was gone.” I placed a small kiss in his hair, before leaving the room. Even though I didn’t feel like, I had to eat. It wouldn’t do for me to faint in the middle of the night or something. I needed the energy to take care of him.
I came face to face with a middle aged woman, who had a tense expression on her face. Her round face seemed familiar, kind of.
“Room 105?”
I nodded, and she shoved me away with surprising strength to enter. She had disappeared behind the door before I could understand what was happening.
“Oon…”
I heard her voice call out P’Arthit’s nickname, and my heart skipped a beat in the moment of sudden realization.
Shit.
Out of all the possible scenarios, every single possible situation I had ever run across my mind, this was the last, absolute last place I had expected to meet my boyfriend’s mother for the very first time.
I had thought there would be dinner, maybe an invitation to her home, maybe having to grovel and convince her to my very best why I would be the best partner for P’Arthit to live his life with. I had definitely imagined P’ sitting right next to me.
Not like this, in a hospital, with bleeping machines and my P’ hooked to a ventilator. Speaking of whom, I could see them conversing softly, and his mother was now occupying the empty chair I was sitting on for so long.
I couldn’t exactly understand what they were talking. I stood frozen, too encumbered in the fact that my boyfriend’s mother was here, right in front of me, and I didn’t even know what I was going to do.
For a brief moment I saw them looking at me, then his mother held his hand and kissed his head (almost at the the exact same spot where I had kissed him a few moments back). Almost like a movie running in my head, I saw her stand up and slowly walk towards the exit, towards me.
“Khun…”
She frowned, as she closed the door behind her, as if trying to think what to say.
“You…umm…you brought him here, to the hospital?”
“No…” I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. This was not the time to be overwhelmed.
“Actually no, the emergency services brought him, his work colleagues came along.”
“Emergency? What exactly happened? How did all this happen!? ”