#eunvey

I watched as Eun-Mi's back disappeared around the corner, slowly following her toward the bathroom. This day had been a long time coming, and not to say I wasn't the least bit excited for it, but it was hard to be excited about anything nowadays. I had just gotten out of the hospital, in my defense, and the only reason we hadn't done this the day before was because I had passed out as soon as I laid on our bed. So we were doing it today.

When I entered the small white room, Eun-Mi was already waiting there. She gestured for me to sit down on a stool next to her, and I did. My hair was matted and messy, and I knew that there had been nothing done about it, so it was her time to shine. Mostly because I never was the one to take care of my hair. She would always be the one to dye my roots, she would always get my routine done, I was only the one who styled it every day.

Every day before, at least.

Now, it was a complete mess. What was left of it was still stuck together in knots. I hadn't bothered to try and fix it when we first got home yesterday, and from what I had heard, the nurses only brushed it out briefly to get it out of their way. So this had to be done.

"Are you ready? This may take a while. No offense, dear, but your hair looks horrible." Eun-Mi chuckled a bit, but I could tell it was a dry laugh. She always tried to resort to humor when she was stressed, something she picked up from me. I didn't have the energy to respond, so I nodded.

I tried not to pay attention to how rough the brush felt running through my hair. I knew that this was going to hurt at least a little bit, so with how sore I was already I knew I'd need some kind of distraction if I was going to make it through this. Eun-Mi began to hum, like she does when she's focusing, and I gratefully focused on that instead. She wasn't humming anything in particular from what I could tell, but it was still comprehensive. This whole thing almost felt normal for a moment. I think, if it weren't for me being how I was, scarred and burnt, it would be normal. And yet, Eun-Mi was treating it like it was just another time where she was doing my daily routine, even though she had to carefully brush around some spots where any cuts or burns lay, and was being much more careful than usual so as to not hurt me any more.

".. how are you... treating this like it's a normal thing?" I half whispered it to myself, but she heard it anyway. She briefly paused, and leaned forward to look me in the eye.

"It is normal. I brush your hair all the time." And with that, she pushed herself back up and continued.

".. I guess. But-" A hand came and gently clasped over my mouth.

"Nothing has changed, Harvey. Just because you suffered all that doesn't make this any different from how it used to be. You're still my husband, and I'm still doing your hair like I used to."

.. I sat in silence, pondering that for a while. Hearing her say all that aloud, it.. it confused me, to say the least. It made my heart feel full, too. She didn't see me as what had happened, I was still just me. But how could she say it was normal? How could she think nothing had changed, when I was missing my left hand and right eye? How was it possible for her to compare now to before all this? It made my head hurt to think about it. She can't seriously think my broken body is any kind of normal. There's just no way. I'm too different from how my normal was for that to be true. So, was she just saying it to comfort me? No, she isn't that kind of person. Then what was happening here?

"Done. That didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would." I blinked a few times. Jeez, I really was thinking too hard. Whatever.