Chapter 11: Sang Mi, Bruised and Battered

The sterile scent of antiseptic and quiet beeping of machines filled the hospital room. Hana stood frozen at the doorway, her breath caught somewhere between her lungs and her throat.

Sang Mi lay there on the hospital bed, still and fragile under the harsh white light.
Her face was swollen, mottled with purple bruises and dried blood. One eye was almost completely shut. Her lips were cracked and split. Her arm was in a cast, suspended slightly by a sling, and bandages wrapped around her midsection and thighs. Thin IV lines ran from her hand, and an oxygen tube nestled beneath her nose.

She hadn’t woken up.

Not once since she was brought in.

Hana stepped forward, tears already clouding her vision. Her voice shook.
“Doctor ... what happened to her?”

The man beside the bed — mid-30s, tall, composed, with tired but kind eyes — removed his glasses and sighed heavily.
“She was found in an alley behind an old warehouse in Jwadong,” he said quietly. “She was assaulted. Beaten severely.”