Work Text:
It was in the middle of the night, Songhwa felt there was an uncomfortable pressure in her head, she felt that since in the afternoon when she was at Yulje. She opened her eyes slowly, everything stayed still, but her vision. The ceiling was spinning like crazy to the point where she could not move her body.
Not too long after she felt a sharp and suddenly tasted something sour from the back of her throat. She sat up from the bed and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. She pushed herself up from the bed, her legs were trembling when she tried to support her body.
Songhwa ran and grabbed at the door handle to the bedroom, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach down. Covering her mouth with her both hands rushed across the hallway and into the bathroom.
She quickly opened the toilet lid and let all of the contents rush out of her mouth, she closed her eyes as she heard the splash of the liquid on the water. She gasps for air while her hand fumbling for the flush without her eyes opening. The feeling of compression made her feel like she was going to pass out.
She leaned back against the wall and tried to think about what made her feel so sick. This did not feel like the flu or a stomach bug, because when her stomach was empty, she felt fine. There was no fever or aches.
She squeezed her eyes shut as another wave of nausea hit. She groaned, lifting her head just another mouthful of vomit fell into the toilet. She heaved dryly a couple of minutes after, flushing the toilet. She felt a little better…at least for now.
She slowly stood up preparing for the dizziness that seemed to be as persistent as the vomiting. As expected, her body was shaken, vision blurred and she gripped onto the counter as the room, everything spun like crazy. She took some deep breaths for minutes until her vision cleared and headed back to the bedroom.
Ikjun was not in Seoul for the past couple of days, he was gone for the surgery cases seminar in Incheon and will be back in the next two days.
She was expected to be home by herself this week, but surely she didn’t expect to be sick and throwing up for a whole night.
She brushed those thoughts off and believed that it would get better as she continued her day before she fell asleep again.
She woke up after a couple of hours of sleep. If Ikjun were here, he surely would be making her take a day off and rest. But because she is Professor Chae Songhwa who barely ever gets sick and is very stubborn. She got up and got dressed for work and went to Uju’s room to wake him up for school. Uju looked at his eomma worriedly after seeing her pale and exhausted facial expression.
“Eomma are you okay, you don’t look very well this morning,” Uju asks Songhwa worriedly.
“Eomma wasn’t feeling well last night, but eomma feels a lot better now,” she responds to him and hopes it will make him worry less. It wasn’t.
“Take good care of yourself when Uju is not home, alright eomma?” He told her before he left for the school minibus.
Songhwa came back to the room to grab her stuff and leave for the hospital without having breakfast.
After she was finished with her last outpatient, she went to Angle-in-us to buy some plain bread and bring it to eat in her office. Nothing hasn’t gone down to her stomach since last night. Her stomach was growling on the way, thinking about having food down to her throat made her mouth fill with sour saliva. She was looking at the plain bread and hoping this would be gentle enough for her stomach.
She took a tiny-tiny bite, with sips of water as she sat down on the couch. Her stomach seems to calm down a little after being filled with plain bread. Nausea stayed still and the shakiness finally stopped. She was able to continue with her remaining work.
8:00 PM came and her work was done. She got up from the chair to get changed and ready to go home. The minute she stood up, the room started to spin. She clutched the edge of the nearest table, waiting for everything to stop moving.
While everything went still, her head and stomach did not. It felt like everything was spinning like crazy, she closed her eyes as nausea washed over. Both sides of her temple filled with sweat bullets, the back of her throat filled with something that she knew she had to go to the bathroom. She ran out of the office straight to the nearest women's restroom.
She slammed the door shut and knelt down as she threw up in the toilet, another wave poured out, and another, and another. The bread and all the water she had drank came right back up, about 30 minutes after, Songhwa was sitting on the bathroom floor panting. Her whole body started to cool off. She stood up shakily and walked up to the sink to wipe her tears and all of the excess and then wash her face with cold water after.
“What’s wrong with me?” Songhwa stared at her reflection in the mirror and felt super exhausted.
Two days passed by, but it felt like this had been at least five days for her. And she feels like she needs to talk to Ikjun and figure out what happens.
Today is the day Ikjun came back to Seoul. It's a weekend, Songhwa is still in bed when usually supposed to be doing something in the kitchen or living room on her days off.
“Songhwa-yah?”
Songhwa opened her eyes, and it was Ikjun. She tried to get up from bed but didn't have enough energy to do so.
Ikjun noticed something was wrong with her.
“Are you alright?” He placed his hand on her forehead, but she knew she didn't have a fever.
Ikjun reached over to her and pulled her up into a sitting position. She leaned on the headboard and stared at him weakly.
“Are you sick, Songhwa?” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
“I think so, I thought it would go away but it didn't seem to happen.”
Ikjun looked at her worriedly, “what’s going on?”
“I haven't been able…to eat.”
Ikjun leaned forward. “You haven't been eating?”
Songhwa shook her head. “No, I’ve been eating. But it just makes me...every time I eat.”
The nauseous hits her hard. There was nothing in it, but she still gagged, she covered her mouth.
“Are you going to throw up?”
She shook her head again. “There’s nothing there to come out.”
“So you have been throwing up every time you eat?”
She nodded.
“What about water?”
She shrugged. “I haven't been able to keep that much down in the past few days.”
“Days? How long has this been going?”
“Since... Thursday night?”
Ikjun looked up to the ceiling “so you are saying that you haven't been able to keep anything down since Thursday?”
She remained silent.
Ikjun grabbed her and gave her a big hug. “Why didn't you tell me Songhwa-ya? I’m very worried about you”
The tears ran through her face. “I don’t want to worry you while you are working.” she started to sob.
“Please call me anytime you need, remember that I’m your husband. If anything happens then what will I do?”
She didn't say anything in response but sobs.
“I’ll go get some water and make some porridge for you, does that sound okay?”
The thought about food makes her sour saliva come out but she nodded anyway.
Nearly 20 minutes later, Ikjun brought porridge and water into the room for her.
Her stomach growled loudly in response to the smell, she wanted to eat it all at once, but she was able to pace herself to eat a very small portion, and she did finish them all.
Ikjun rubs her head gently. “Good job, your body needs its strength to fight off whatever this is.”
She nodded. Not too long after, she realized her mouth was filling all too quickly with acidic soury saliva. She tried to swallow it down, but it ended up gagging right as her stomach violently protested the small meal. Nausea hit hard and fast, and she was on her feet and racing to the bathroom.
Ikjun ran after.
She retched, the food not even digested as forcefully came back. She gagged as a wave shot out her mouth, and Ikjun was behind her grabbing her hair and rubbing his hand up and down her back.
She started to cry out as more nausea hit her.
“This sucks,” she gasped as a small amount of bile hit the water.
“We need to go to the hospital right now,” Ikjun said with no hesitation.
She couldn't do anything much but gave him a weak small nod.
“Can you walk?”
She shook her head, her body was too weak to even stand from not having anything down to her stomach and dehydration.
Ikjun lifted her up into the air and got into the car.
Two hours later, she had an IV into one hand with the nurse drawing blood from her other arm.
Junwan and Jeongwon walked to the bed. “Why on earth didn't you tell us, we have been with you on Friday, you know how much we worried about you, Songhwa.”
“I don't want to make you guys worry...I’m sorry”
A couple of hours later, Seokhyung walked up to the bed to see Ikjun and Somghwa.
“Any nausea right now, Songhwa?”
She shook her head. “No, I feel okay for now.
“That’s good, I prescribed anti-nausea pills for you, and hopefully it’ll help”
“Seokhyung-ah, did you figure out what is wrong with me?” She looked over at Ikjun. He looked just as interested.
“Yeah, we just got your labs back.”
They both looked at each other.
“Seems like Songhwa is eight weeks pregnant”
“Are you sure?” Ikjun asked.
“Over 98% of the lab result usually is accurate, and I’m sure about it.”
Songhwa’s heart could jump out of her chest. There were so many feelings running inside her brain right now, but mostly in joy. While Ikjun could not stop smiling with tears on his face.
On the way home they both stopped by the drugstore to get a pregnancy test.
After they both got home, Songhwa ran to the bathroom to do the test.
It had been
.
1 min
.
2 min
.
3 min
.
Ikjun flipped the pregnancy test up…
.
.
.
It was positive…
Songhwa starts to tear up in happiness, she hugs Ikjun tightly.
“We made it, Ikjun-ah.”