Chapter 36
After standing in the shower and letting it steam up the entire room, Grace felt less like a walking corpse. As she started downstairs she heard the sound of clatter in the kitchen.
What in the world could Hae be doing in there? She figured he’d just grab one of the boxes of cereal and call it a day.
But she was shocked to see the kitchen a complete wreck.
Cabinets flung open, eggs and bacon strewn across the counter.
Half a dozen bowls with various mixes of eggs and flour and gods knew what else.
And Hae trying to dislodge a very burnt piece of what Grace guessed was French toast from the frying pan.
“What are you doing?” Grace asked, throwing open the back door to let out some of the smoke.
Hae looked completely perplexed as he held up the burnt pan. Grace almost laughed at the bewildered pout. Or perhaps it was the fact that half his hair was sticking up, and flour covered one of his cheeks.
“I’m trying to make you breakfast. The internet made it look far easier than this.” He scowled over at the tablet, half covered in floured fingerprints. Usually Grace would be horrified to see food close to her tablet, but Hae looked so adorably perplexed.
Grace folded her lips to hide a smile as she picked up a kitchen towel. “This is sweet, but unnecessary.”
“I read that humans need sustenance to heal from injuries and illness.” He let the frying pan fall into the sink, abandoning the French toast as a lost cause.
“Wow, did you learn how to cook for little old me?” Grace spoke in an over-thick Southern accent as she wiped at his flour-covered cheek, trying to lighten his mood.
Hae took her hand, his serious expression proof that he wasn’t down to joke around. “You almost died because of something I pulled you into. I don’t like that.”
Grace cleared her throat and pulled free, turning away to wipe at the counter. “This is quite the change of tune. Didn’t you always say that I had to take responsibility, since it was my stories that brought you back?”
“Things are different now,” Hae said. “There is real danger. Grace, you have to know I’ll do whatever I can to protect you.”
His voice was soft, almost pleading.
She kept her back to him. More and more his mere presence made her entire body light up. Like he was a live wire and she was a metal coil.
“Hae, I—”
The sound of the garage door opening had them both freezing. For a moment, Grace couldn’t process what the noise meant. And then she jumped up in panic.
“My dad. He’s home!”
Matching her manic energy, Hae leapt toward her, inadvertently tipping a stool over. “Your dad?”
“Go! No, leave it.” She grabbed his arm to redirect him to the back door when he bent to pick up the stool. “Go to the pool house. Take Haechi with you.”
They both wrestled with the dog, who was happily jumping between the two, excited by their sudden flurry of energy.
Hae pulled the dog out the French doors, dragging him across the deck.
Grace scurried after them, shutting the door just as her dad came in from the garage.
“Dad!” She hurried to him, taking his coat and bag before he had a chance to drop them somewhere. “You’re home. How are you feeling? Do you want to eat? Take a shower?”
She couldn’t seem to stop throwing out questions as she shepherded him to the staircase, trying to block his view of the backyard as she hoped Hae had made it into the pool house.
“I’m just here for a quick shower and a change of clothes. Or perhaps a few. I don’t know when I’ll be able to make it home again.”
That cut through Grace’s frantic energy as her heart dropped at the implication. “Are things that bad at the hospital?”
“We’re under emergency protocol for the outbreak—” He cut himself off. Seemed torn about revealing too much information. Like she was still seven and too young to know about such heavy things.
“I actually heard,” she said slowly, wondering if she could get any more information out of him about the situation. “Smallpox?”
With a sigh, he rubbed the back of his neck. “You don’t have to worry. The patients are all stable.”
“Really?” Grace felt a bit of relief ease some of the tension in her shoulders. “So, they’ll all be okay?”
“They’re not all out of the woods. And there’s the unusual wounds…” He trailed off again, clearly getting lost in his own thoughts as he shuffled to the stairs. “I’ll probably be at the hospital for a few days until we figure out the breadth of the outbreak.”
“Yeah, of course,” Grace said, following him upstairs. “Is there anything I can do?”
He just hummed under his throat as he walked into the master bathroom.
“Dad,” she blurted out before he could close the door.
He glanced back at her. “Yeah?”
She wished she could confide in him. Tell him all the things that had happened to her this past week. How scared she was. How guilty she felt. That she felt lost more often than not these days.
But she wasn’t sure how he’d take it. And he looked exhausted. Best to let it be, for both of them. They never really did well with heavy subjects.
So, she just shook her head. “Nothing. Go take your shower. I’ll pack you some clothes for the hospital.”
“Thanks, Gracie. If you need money, you can take cash out of my wallet,” he said, and closed the door between them.
As she heard the shower turning on, Grace walked into the closet to get a small duffel bag and pack for her dad.