"I'm an Awakener."
Her mom and dad looked at each other at her sudden declaration.
Whether they were shocked or surprised, the reaction she expected them to have did not appear on their faces.
"You knew," Lea remarked, crossing her arms.
"Well… we thought that might be the case," her dad confessed.
"But, we weren't really sure until the people from the association came to see you the other day," her mom gave their reasons.
Her mom and dad wanted to give her time until she was ready to tell them herself. After all, her parents knew better than anyone that Lea had always strived for a quiet, uneventful life, and being an Awakener was the very epitome of the opposite.
Her mom reached out and held her hand and spoke with a gentle voice, "How do you feel, about your awakening?"
Lea tilted her head, looking a bit unsure as she tried to find the right words to express how she truly felt.
Slowly, she spoke, "Now that I said it out loud, it feels more real. Like, 'Ah, I'm an Awakener now.'"
"And you're okay with that?"
Being okay with it and accepting an irreversible fact were two different things. Lea contemplated this for many late nights, not that she had any choice since she had no access to a TV or other form of media to distract her.
Just because she awakened, that didn't mean she'd be an active-duty Awakener like her brother. She also shared this with her parents.
"Being an Awakener or not is your choice. As long as you're healthy and safe."
"And happy."
Her parents supported her decision.
"Thanks Mom, Dad."
Even if her passive skill stressed her out whenever she remembered its existence, Lea decided, for the sake of her mental well-being, to pretend it was never there.
'Being an Awakener won't change how I'm going to live my life.'
Lea inwardly declared, glancing up at the ceiling with determined eyes.
It also served as a promise to herself.
"So, what kind of skill do you have?" her dad asked with curiosity.
It caught Lea off guard.
"Umm… I don't know yet but I'm almost positive it's got something to do with my eyesight."
Lea tried so hard not to look away as she told him.
She couldn't say she had already checked her Awakener status when she was supposed to be recovering.
"The lady from the association said not to check it yet until I'm all better."
Her dad accepted her words without suspicion.
"Speaking of eyes, that reminds me, you're going to need new glasses," said her mom.
Lea touched her bare face. She once again completely forgot about her glasses because so much was happening at once.
"What happened to the one I had before?"
"We kept it at home, but it's already old. Let's have a new one made to celebrate your awakening," her mom decided.
Lea just nodded along.
In the first place, she wore glasses not because she had bad eyesight, but to cover her eye colour.
Her dad leaned in closer to her mom and whispered, "Have you told them yet?"
"No, I wanted to wait a while before calling them. I already told Al not to say anything before Lea fully recovered," her mom whispered back.
"Better do it soon since we need Forger's help anyway. Do you want me to call them instead?"
Lea watched her parents whispering to each other.
When it didn't seem like they were about to stop anytime soon, she chose a manga to read amongst the books her dad brought from the bedside cabinet.
She was halfway through reading the manga when her parents finished their secretive talk.
Her dad saw the manga she was reading and said, "Oh Lea, that manga has five published volumes. If you like it, do you want me to bring the rest of it tomorrow?"
"Un."
Lea simply replied without taking her eyes off the pages of the manga.
.
.
.
After looking through the patient's medical record, Doctor Timur turned away from the computer and faced the patient's guardians.
He could see the nervousness in their eyes and posture.
"After today's check-up, I think we can finally start on the discharge paperwork."
When they heard the doctor's words, the couple almost rose from their seats with tearful joy.
"Your daughter's sleeping condition has stabilised, and according to the physical therapist, she is doing so well that she no longer has to come in for a session every day," Doctor Timur explained.
"So, Lea can finally come home?" Mrs Carter asked, trying her best to sound calm.
Six years.
Not one person in the room expected it would take this long. A year turned into two years of waiting with no sign of their daughter waking.
After that, the years slowly passed by but they kept waiting, hoping, and praying for their little girl who barely turned twenty, sleeping alone in the hospital to one day open her eyes again.
Doctor Timur smiled broadly and delivered the words that took six years for him to say, "As soon as the discharge process is settled, your daughter can go home."
.
.
.
At the same time, Lea was in a different room undergoing another routine check-up.
This time, the check-up was done at a smoother pace because she was more awake and no longer needed to use the wheelchair.
"You're almost at the normal weight range now, Miss Carter."
Nurse Kim nodded satisfactorily as Lea stepped down from the weight scale.
Ever since Lea was allowed to eat solid food, she steadily gained back the weight she lost from eating her dad's homemade lunch boxes.
"I'm just so glad that I don't look like a walking corpse anymore," Lea joked.
When she looked at herself in the mirror now, her face no longer looked gaunt but her skin was in desperate need of facial resuscitation.
"Mr Carter is a really good cook. The four-type kimbap he made for the night-shift nurses the other day was very delicious."
"On top of that, he's a caring father. We always see him consulting with the dietitian. I wish my future husband were like that too."
Lea listened to the young nurses complimenting her dad like some kind of ideal father and husband, and inwardly disagreed.
'He may be a good cook and a caring dad. If only they knew what price comes with that kind of diligence.'
Whenever her dad gets interested in something, that's all he's focused on. Because of that, there have been more than a couple of times Lea and her brother have suffered.
Like the time her dad was suddenly into spices that he cooked all sorts of curry for three whole months. From mild curry and gradually making the dishes spicier over time to the point where our neighbours complained to the police about the smell.
What eventually got him to stop was hospitalisation from tasting one of the spiciest peppers in the world.
Fortunately, his interest in cooking this time was about nutritious food. So Lea's taste buds were safe.
Once she was done with the check-up, Lea did not immediately return to her hospital room. Instead, she sat at an empty seat in the waiting area and waited for her parents.
"Dan, you can go if you have something to do. I'm just going to wait here," Lea told the taciturn male nurse who had been with her during the check-up.
Dan looked around.
There were other patients in the waiting area and nurses too.
Then, he pointed to the pendant hanging around Lea's neck, silently indicating to use it should anything happen before he went away to do his other duties.
Left alone, Lea looked around.
She hasn't been around this many people in months. The atmosphere felt lively and invigorating even though this was technically a hospital.
More than half of the people occupying the seats in the waiting area were dressed in combat wear. Lea instinctively could tell those people were Awakeners.
A group of four people caught her eye. They looked slightly more tattered and deduced that they probably just came out of a rift.
Her eyes did not linger on them for too long because she knew how sensitive Awakeners were to unwanted gazes and continued to observe random strangers passing by.
Until her emotions were overloaded with a wave of nostalgia.
'This feeling again, it's like deja vu.'
She made a small pout with her hand to her chest.
"Lea! Were you here long?"
The awfully cheery voice of her dad broke her out of her reverie.
Before she could say anything, she was suddenly squished from both sides by her parents, causing people to stare at them.
Normally, she wouldn't let herself be treated as a child in public but she sensed her parents were in an especially good mood so she let them be until she was finally let go.
"We have good news."
Lea waited for her dad to say more.
"Your discharge date has been set!"
A smile slowly formed on Lea's face when it finally registered what she had just heard.
She looked at her mom and dad's brimming faces.
"Wait, wait. You're not teasing me, are you?" Lea asked, dubious.
Instead of getting a simple yes or no answer, her mom said, "We were late because we were discussing your discharge process with Doctor Timur."
'Mom doesn't lie about serious things.'
And so, Lea hugged her mom with excitement coursing through her body.
The mother and daughter wore the biggest smiles on their faces that Lea's dad could not help and joined in on another family group hug.
.
.
.
Lea and her parents moved to a quieter area to have lunch together.
"Let's surprise Al when he gets back."
Her dad suggested out of the blue.
"But we don't even know when exactly he's coming back," Lea reminded him.
As though the universe had perfectly timed it, her mom's phone rang.
All three showed the same look of surprise when they saw the name of the caller.
"It's Al."