Mr. Lee rushed from the side of the door the moment his eyes fell on the empty bed. And when he saw blood streaking past the bed from the left side, he blinked twice.
He waited, then slowed his steps until he found Leon lying in a pool of blood.
With careful movement, he managed to help Leon raise himself from the floor.
Leon's eyes were open, but no light emitted from them. Mr. Lee helped him sit on the bed.
The white light of the room stabbed Leon in the eyes when light began to emit from his eyes.
Tiny particles floated wherever he tore his gaze to.
Regaining his vision, the particles vanished, and the room no longer felt alien.
The hum of the machinery echoing in the room was just a sound that registered itself in his ears one at a time.
…
Mr. Lee, who had been dabbing a damp cloth at Leon's temple with a wrinkled cloth, stopped and stared at the boy's skin.
He tilted his gaze from the boy, stared at the bloodied floor, and back at the boy again with a serious gaze.
"Leon?" Mr. Lee's voice was cautious, probing the silence. "Can you hear me?"
Leon tilted his head. His gaze, which was then like that of a disoriented boy, glanced at Mr. Lee like a soldier assessing his general.
The vulnerability and the blankness were all gone, replaced by a sharp, terrifying clarity that seemed to sharpen the very air in the room.
"Yes, Sir, I can hear you," Leon said, voice low and stripped of all hesitation.
"Where were you injured?" Mr. Lee added, his voice carrying more tension than Leon's.
"I think it's mine. I woke up lying in a pool of blood. Maybe I slammed my head on the ground." Leon brushed his hand at the exact spot where the blood had clotted.
"But I found no wound or scar after clearing the blood there," Mr. Lee said, tilting his head back a little. "Wait, do you know me?"
His face tensed as he stared and waited for an answer from Leon.
"Yes," Leon's expression turned, and was replaced with a slight confusion in his eyes.
"What's my name?" Mr. Lee added, while his eyes continuously widened.
Leon waited for a while, then smiled. "Mr. Lee. Yeah, that's the name I know you're called."
Mr. Lee's face reddened softly. His arms trembled as he raised them. He wrapped his arms around the boy and hugged him tightly.
…
'Why, is something wrong?' Frustration dressed Leon's face as he softened himself in Mr. Lee's arms.
Several minutes after Mr. Lee loosened his grip from the boy's shoulders, silence ruled.
The only thing that made noise was the curtains that kept flapping on the walls as air gushed into the room through the window.
Leon's expression changed, breaking the silence, and he pushed himself upright. He swung his legs over the bed with a purpose that made the IV stand rattle.
He looked at the needle that had been inserted in his arm with distaste, as if it were a trivial annoyance, and pulled it out.
Mr. Lee became stunned, watching the boy behave hastily.
"Leon, stop," he said, grabbing Leon's left arm and preventing him from pulling the rubber needle from his veins.
"Sir, I have to go back to the academy," Leon said, placing a hand over Mr. Lee's, staring at him, then squeezing his face.
"You just recovered. You need to rest. I will let them discharge you when everything is in its place." Mr. Lee walked toward the boy, forcefully made him stop, and then sat back in the seat on the left side.
Leon immediately stopped and sat on the bed. He turned his gaze to the darkness outside the window and slowly placed his head on the bed.
'I need to find out about the power I'm wielding, and the secret behind the crash.' His jaw tightened as he stared at the dark sky through the open window and blinked.
His eyes remained in the loop of closing and opening until sleep carried him whole.
…
At 7:00 a.m., footsteps and voices shoved into the room, causing Leon's eyes to crack open as he awoke.
'Who are these people?' he said low in his head and squeezed his face, spotting countless people lying in the beds beside his own.
Unintentionally, his eyes fell on the huge ass of a nurse who had bent down and was attending to the boy wrapped in bandages right after him.
He quickly closed his eyes, shifted his gaze from the nurse, and stared at the ceiling.
"Leon…" A soft voice rang and drew his attention to the door's direction.
Before he could fully gaze at the door, Leon's eyes glittered with a smile as he recognized the voice to be that of his little sister.
From the door, Lily ran toward the bed her brother sat on, her face shimmering with joyous tears.
"Leon, why did you do that?" she paused, sobbing.
"What were you doing in your dream that you slept for three months straight!" Lily added while her tears doubled.
'Three months! How?' Leon's eyes widened as thoughts danced in his head.
'By now, all the best ones must have been selected. How can I even pass and get this one-time gift?' He pretended to be happy as Lily clung to him so tightly that he could feel her heartbeat.
After what felt like an unbreakable pause in time, Lily unwrapped herself from Leon and frowned.
"Don't do that ever again!" She clenched her small fist, slammed it on Leon's chest once, twice, then stopped.
"Don't wipe the tears, let them fall." She acted boldly the moment Leon slowly moved his left arm to her face and began wiping the tears from her eyes.
Leon's face shimmered with smiles as he saw how hard his sister tried to maintain a straight face.
"Come here," he grabbed her, pulled her closer, shoved his fingers into her brown hair, and scattered them.
Watching Leon and his sister celebrate their reunion playfully, Mr. Lee rose from the chair he was in and walked toward the window to catch some fresh air.
Though the blood had been wiped, its smell clung to his lungs as if it were his tongue that the nurses used to clean the floor.
To his surprise, he saw a few of Leon's colleagues standing on the other side of the street, waiting to cross.
'Why are they here at this time?' he whispered in his head and frowned.