More Trouble than Worth

The thing about comfort was when someone grew up without any comfort and luxury, the comfort made them uncomfortable. That was what Kaya was feeling when she sat down in Sylvian's car. The car seat was so luxurious and comfortable that Kaya tried not to squirm. Sylvian, however, looked perfect driving that luxurious car. It was rather clear to Kaya that in this world, he made sense, she was the odd one out.

"There is a tablet behind my seat, can you get it?" Sylvian asked suddenly getting Kaya's attention.

"Huh?" Kaya asked but before Sylvian could repeat his words, she reached behind the seat and pulled out a tab.

"The password is 0510," Sylvian revealed without taking his eyes off the road. "There must be a file Oliver just sent in. Open it."

Kaya was a bit surprised by his openly sharing passwords with her but she guessed it wasn't a very important password to begin with. She, wordlessly, typed the password and the tablet opened, and there was a message from Oliver, attached with a file. Kaya opened the file and read the title.

"It's a file on . . . The Park Family?"

"Yes, I asked Oliver to compile it for you. So that you can prepare yourself before you eventually meet them," Sylvan informed. "My Grandma is . . . different. She trusts me but the rest of the family . . . you need to be fully prepared."

"I see," Kaya sensed the tension in Sylvian's voice immediately and the worries crept into her mind.

"Let's start then," Sylvan began, his eyes still straight on the road ahead. "First will be my Grandfather, Sang Park and my Grandma Aeri Park, they started this business. They had two sons, Edward Park, my father and William Park, my Uncle. Edward Park was first married to my mother, Helene Park, but after . . . she died, she married my stepmother, Amelia. Scroll down, you will see their picture."

Kaya followed Sylvian's instructions and tried to absorb all the information. Exactly as Sylvian said, there were pictures after pictures of his family members in the file. Sang Park was an old but sophisticated-looking Asian man and beside him was Grandma Aeri with a bright smile on her face, then there was a picture of a man in his sixties with grey hair and an expensive suit named "Edward Park", under that was a photo of a beautiful woman in a simple dress, who didn't look a day older than 30 with a big smile and sparkling eyes. It was Helene Park, Sylvian's mother. For a moment, Kaya thought she recognised Sylvian's mother but then she couldn't remember how she would have known her, so she guessed that since Sylvan looked a lot similar to his mother, it must be why she looked familiar. The next picture was of a prim and sharp-looking red-head woman in a long gorgeous green dress, named "Amelia Park" and, after that a similar-looking teenage girl.

Sylvian began talking again,

"Edward and Amelia have a daughter, Ella. Next is Sofia Dwason-Park, my Uncle William's wife. They have three children, Victoria, Dylan, and Mia."

Kaya scrolled down and saw everyone's pictures, under every picture there was a small paragraph explaining a bit about everyone. She also made a mental note about the fact that Sylvian called his father by his name every time. Not dad or father, just Edward.

"Take the tablet, study each and every member because as I said, they won't be kind like my Grandmother," Sylvian said getting back her attention. "That reminds me, I don't have your current address. I would need that."

Instantly, Kaya's stomach dropped. She didn't have an address right now. After their house got taken away she either worked night shifts or slept in the cafe she worked at. Twice she even crashed at Stacy's apartment but she lived with three roommates so it was already crowded. Still, Stacy would have adjusted if she knew that Kaya didn't have any other place to stay, which, of course, Kaya never told her.

"I would probably stay at the hospital until my night shift at the cafe," Kaya said trying to avoid the topic.

"You would go to work tonight?" Sylvian said almost confused, turning his full face to look at her but quickly realised what he was doing and turned back to the road. "You said you only want to teach kids piano."

"Yeah, I do and I will only do that in the future but since you haven't introduced me or announced to everyone that I was going to marry you, I thought I could still go to work. I would also need to put in my resignation notice," Kaya explained and Sylvian nodded.

"Alright, then back to the hospital, I think Grandma would be ready by now," Sylvian said as a crossroad appeared and he took a U-turn. "You can wait on the ground floor or something until I take my Grandma back."

Kaya nodded and sighed in relief as Sylvian didn't ask anything more about her housing situation, even though she knew she eventually had to tell him about this. 

Back at the hospital, Kaya waited at the cafeteria as Sylvian went to get his Grandma, and soon Kaya realised why Sylvian had taken Kaya out of the hospital. Grandma Aeri had gifted all of the hospital staff with gift cards, and very generous ones, and she had personally given out to the nurses who worked on the highest floor, so if Kaya had been there, his Grandma would have probably known why Kaya was there.

Kaya heard two nurses gushing about the gift cards in the cafeteria and learned Grandma Aeri did that every time she got admitted, and Kaya couldn't help but smile at Grandma's generosity. That was when her phone pinged with a message from Sylvian.

"Just left with Grandma."

Kaya replied with an "Ok" and stood up from her table to go to her mother's room, but as soon as she tried to pass the nurses, they noticed her, and immediately their faces changed. From the corner of her eyes, Kaya saw a nurse poking the other one and then she quickly whispered, "That's her! That's her!"

Kaya realised the gossip had already spread. They all knew now.

And her suspicions were confirmed when a nurse came to check on her mother every thirty minutes. After the third visit of the nurse, when Kaya was left alone with her mother, an angry tear escaped her eyes. Growing up the way she did, she always knew that money solves a lot of people's problems and the saying "money doesn't buy you happiness" was invented by the people who never had to worry about money in their entire lives. Because it did matter, it just saved her mother's life. 

Kaya tried to wipe the tears away but the tears just kept coming, until she finally broke down completely. She put her head on the edge of her bed and sobbed. It had been a long time since she had broken down like that because she didn't have time for it. There was always something she needed to do, there was no time ever to mope around. But today, gently holding her mother's hand, she just cried and cried until she couldn't anymore. Until she felt empty.

A few moments later, the nurse came to check on Kaya's mom and she quickly pulled herself together, completely ignoring the fact that her head spun for a quick few seconds as she lifted her head from the bed. 

"Your mother looks stable. It's a good –" The nurse was saying while checking the machines behind her mother, when suddenly she stopped talking and looked at Kaya. "Ma'am, you have a nosebleed."

The nurse quickly hurried over to Kaya as she put her fingers under her nose. Sure enough, when she looked at her fingers, there was blood on them. Kaya tilted her head back to stop the bleeding.

"No, no, don't look up," The nurse said, pulling out a tissue. "You need the blood out . . ."

The rest of the nurse's words got muffled as Kaya's head spun again, more violently this time and she collapsed on the ground. Kaya thought she heard the nurse calling other staff and calling out to her to help her.

*

Kaya woke with a dry throat and a splitting headache . . . on a hospital bed. As soon as Kaya realised she was in a hospital bed, she tried to jump up.

"Goodness, do you always wake up like that?" Sylvian said, sitting on the armchair beside her bed and casually flipping through a magazine.

"What are you –" Kaya began as everything came back to her in a rush. Losing her job, the dirty debt collector, the contract, and most importantly, Sylvian Park. Then she remembered her cafe's night shift, she quickly checked her watch and it was about to be 9 PM, so there was a chance she could be late but she could still go. "I need to go, my work – cough!"

As Kaya tried to get down from the bed, a wave of coughs from her dry throat rose up. Sylvian got up and poured a glass of water and held it in front of her. She gratefully took it and gulped down the entire glass of water.

"Exhaustion and dehydration," Sylvian said.

"What?" Kaya looked at Sylvian, finishing the water. Then it clicked in her head. He was telling her what happened to her. She sighed. "I see."

"The hospital called me when you lost consciousness since I had already asked them to inform me of anything related to your mother," Sylvian said taking the empty glass from her. "Rest. You need it. Desperately. Work is out of the question, right now. Call in sick. If you don't want to stay at the hospital then I will drive you home. You still haven't told me your address."

Sylvian didn't request; he ordered. His crisp-cut, straightforward words made Kaya feel smaller.

"I don't have a place right now," finally Kaya muttered, knowing that there was no way to hide it anyway.

Surprise flashed on Sylvian's face for a split second but he recovered quickly and looked deep in thought. Kaya was embarrassed, to say the least. She just kept falling apart in front of this man and he just kept helping her. Kaya hated feeling helpless and like a damsel in distress but here she was.

"You must be thinking, I'm more trouble than I'm worth, aren't you?" Kaya chuckled dryly without any humour.

Sylvian looked at her with an amused expression and almost smiled.

"I wonder if you'll feel the same when you enter my family circus and the high-class society," Sylvian mused. "But no, I wasn't thinking that right now. I was thinking that we have to speed up the process of you moving in with me."