Zion's Garden - Chapter 10.2
“What are you doing here?” I managed to ask.
“I came to get you. Took a helicopter, but it was worth it.”
I stared at him, stunned. Zion in this hospital, in this ward—it was absurd. Yet here he was, tearing down the walls I had built with every step he took toward me.
“You… are crazy.”
“You didn’t know?”
Zion smiled refreshingly. His calm reaction was so natural that it took my breath away.
”This isn’t your playground. This is a hospital.”
”What’s wrong with that?”
He strode closer to me again, shrugging his shoulders.
”……Don’t you see the reporters flocking in? Tomorrow
”It would be better to just put the front page in the morning paper.”
”I’m on my way back from donating to a fund to support AIDS treatment, so it’s okay if there’s an article about it.”
I turned to Zion with a crumpled face. He was now right in front of me.
”Zion is a person who seeks peace for mankind. Now, praise me, Doctor.”
Before I could say anything, the scent of Zion’s perfume hit my nose. Zion held me in his arms and whispered in my ear.
“Zion was a bit harsh yesterday, wasn’t he? I’m sorry, Doctor.”
Why was it that tears welled up again in Zion’s warm embrace at that moment?
”I missed you. I thought about you the whole way here. I was so scared that you were really gone, that you had run away from Bok Zion, that I couldn’t do anything. It’s true.”
Why was his voice so welcome? Ah, my patient is so cunning. He appears at exactly the moment when someone’s touch is desperately needed, and he grabs my heart and shakes it. He must know that my heart will burst at every word he says.
”……Zion apologizes to the doctor.”
He patted my back and muttered in a sing-song voice. I could tell what kind of expression he had without even looking. He must have a picture-perfect smile on his angelic face. At least Zion was honest about his feelings. He didn’t embellish or deceive himself.
”I was wrong yesterday. I won’t do it again.”
Zion reached out his hand affectionately to the lost child. The child, who had lost his mother and was left alone, cried and cried, and raised his head to see the beautiful sight before his eyes.
I looked at Ram.
”So let’s go home, Jeongwon. Come with me. We’ll go back to my castle together.”
The little boy nodded in relief at the thought that he had a place to go. He was glad that he would no longer have to cry alone, but he was also anxious that he might be abandoned again. He was afraid that he would withdraw his outstretched hand, so he hugged him even tighter.
”Zion.”
A child whose growth has stopped, but whose body has grown. A fearful child, he is planning to say something he has never said to anyone before.
The child calls Zion, cautiously, daring to call his name.
I hold Zion close to me and whisper softly, because I feel like if I don’t say it now, I’ll never be able to. I close my eyes and kneel at the feet of my angel.
”I…… like you. What do you think of me?
No matter what, no matter how hard it will be for me in the future, I’m just saying that I like you a lot.”
My voice confessing my love was no longer careful. Like a weed that grows back with tenacious vitality no matter how much you step on it, my heart rose up through my hard body. Since it was obvious that it couldn’t be hidden no matter how hard I tried to hide it, I ended up raising both hands and surrendering to him.
”I like you, Kim Si-on.”
The truth that was hidden in my heart bursts out and flows down my cheeks. A voice mixed with tears.
The sound sticks out, scratching the vocal cords.
”……I, the son of a prostitute, am a bakery doctor
“I love Zion of the world.”
Zion, who had been quietly looking at my face, slowly smiled. His lips came closer and covered mine. The bodyguards who were watching us from the end of the hallway turned their gazes. I quietly closed my eyes and hugged his neck. After meeting Aunt Annie, something inside me became certain. I deserve to be special to someone. It is not a sin to hope that person is Zion.
After all, every human has the right to dream. The time I can spend with Zion is now one month. I tangled my tongue with Zion and earnestly hoped that this sweet dream would not be broken.
His words that he had flown in by helicopter were true. I held Zion’s hand tightly and went up to the hospital’s rooftop helipad, which was used to transport emergency patients. Below the building, there were reporters bustling about and a crowd of people who had come after hearing rumors of Zion’s appearance.
Not only were the hospital security guards not enough, but even doctors in gowns were mobilized to block those who tried to force their way in. It was impossible for Zion to escape safely. Finally, Director Jang appeared after opening the rooftop door and joined them, and as he climbed into the passenger seat, Zion’s private helicopter took off into the air with a loud propeller noise.
Thousands of eyes looking into the sky gradually moved away. I consciously tried not to look down the window. Zion, sitting across from me, smiled at me. The spacious seven-person helicopter had completely separate seats for the driver and the back. If you forgot that this was ten thousand feet above the ground, it wouldn’t be strange to think that this was someone’s room.