38. Don't Call Him

Ashley was very surprised that Jason suddenly pointed to the scratch marks on her temple. Especially when he directly and openly expressed his speculation that the wound Ashley had was not a new wound.

Although the wound was not a new one, the incident that led to the creation of it only happened two days ago. So it shouldn't be too obvious.

Meanwhile, Ashley couldn't give an honest answer because it would bring up new problems that she might not be able to handle. Josh had clearly warned her not to tell anyone about his relationship with that girl. So, that made her guess if Josh’s family also had no idea about what he was doing.

Telling someone that his little brother was currently worried because he was afraid of his relationship with a girl being exposed should sound really fun, because that jerk Josh would definitely get into trouble. Although Ashley had no idea about Jason's opinion on the matter, when looking at the big picture, his family probably wouldn't be happy because such a scandal could damage their own reputation as well as their relationship with Ashley's family.

But Ashley really couldn't simply answer honestly. The repercussions, although she had no idea what they would be, seemed to be something she could not control. So instead of making her own situation more complicated, Ashley chose to keep Josh's secret and forced her brain as hard as she could to come up with another plausible excuse.

Her hand came up to touch the side of the face Jason was pointing at. Pretending to check what wound the man was referring to, then pretending to be surprised and showing an expression as if she had just remembered about the wound.

“This,” she rubbed solemnly over the streaked scratch wound, intending to check so she could guess what it looked like now. From her fingertips, the wound did feel like it had dried up with a thicker line than the surrounding skin. “this... I was accidentally scratched by... my hairpin.”

In such a short period of time, thinking of something that could produce scratches similar to fingernail scratching was obviously not easy. It was good enough that there was an idea about the image of the object that managed to come to her mind. And hairpin, as she pronounced it, sounded like a good and reasonable reason.

“A hairpin... hairpin?” Jason raised his eyebrows. Showing an unsure expression.

“Yes.”

“A hairpin can make a wound like that?” Jason carefully looked at the wound again while trying to think of something that could cause such a long striped wound shape. “How did it get wounded like that?”

Jason just wanted to get a clear reasoning on how she could get hurt that much just because of a hairpin.

"Is a hairpin usually that dangerous? That wound of yours looks pretty bad for a hairpin."

"Umm, yeah. I wasn't careful back then. I was careless... and, yeah,“ Ashley was suddenly attacked by nervousness, but as much as possible she kept herself under control and tried to give the most reasonable explanation, ”you know hairpin is pretty sharp. So... when I'm not careful, of course it can cause injuries like this."

Jason was too much of a layman to know what kind of business girls had with a hairpin. So he finally nodded and accepted Ashley's excuse—though he was well aware that the girl was stammering as she spoke.

“Okay.”

“Excuse me,” a nurse who had been busy taking care of the old woman on the patient's bed beside Ashley approached them, "we still need to check the old lady's blood pressure a few more times. So if you could just let her lie down without talking too much. And, Miss, your IV fluid is almost gone. So I need to start removing it."

“Oh, okay,” Ashley let the nurse do her job. Removing the plaster, pulling out the tube, pressing the puncture marks for a while, cleaning, and sticking the plaster on the back of her hand.

Meanwhile, Jason's driver, Mr. Kwak, walked slowly over to them and stayed behind Jason. They both watched and waited until the nurse finished taking care of Ashley.

“All the examinations and treatments have been completed, so the payment can be taken care of now,” the nurse informed after putting all the used medical materials on the trolley.

“Where can I take care of it?” Ashley asked the nurse.

"It's in the hallway to the left of the ER entrance. If you're confused, there's a sign. You can follow the directions."

"Thank you. I'll be right there," Jason answer.

“You don't need to escort me,” Ashley argued, "I can walk just fine. I'll go by myself."

Meanwhile, Jason, who felt that there was currently a misunderstanding between the two of them, responded with a low crisp laugh and then spoke. "I mean, I'll take care of it. You don't need to go there, just keep resting here."

“Uh—don't.”

"I'll take care of everything,” Jason interrupts Ashley's speech, “Don't worry. I'm the one who should be responsible for this incident after all."

“But it's not your fault,” Ashley shook her head. 

Recalling the chronology of what happened earlier—which she had also explained in detail to Jason—it was clearly not Jason's or the driver's fault. Ashley was the one who rushed into the middle of the road and caused all the commotion. But, the real culprit was the brat who stole the old woman’s bag. If only that boy hadn't done it, the old woman wouldn't have chased him into the middle of the street.

"Then you want me to let you take responsibility? You did a great enough job helping that woman. Imagine if you hadn't yelled and warned, my driver... that woman... I don't even have the heart to say it. That's why I paid for everything. I'm also the one who asked for those kinds of examinations. So I can't just charge it to you. You're my brother's wife after all, what would he say if he found out this all happened to you—ah, right," Jason suddenly remembered something. "I called Josh many times but he didn't pick up. I'll try to contact him again."

His hand was already reaching into the inside pocket of his suit to retrieve the cell phone, but Ashley spontaneously shrieked to stop him.

"Don't! There's no need to tell Josh," Ashley's eyes grew big.

Jason looked confused at Ashley's reaction. He asked, “Why?”

“I'm fine,” Ashley tried to find a reason that could convince Jason that Josh didn't need to know anything about her current condition. It would be very embarrassing for her if Josh found out she had an accident after getting mad and just left him without a word. This would make Josh happy as he would feel like she got instant karmic retribution. Ashley certainly didn't want Josh to feel more powerful than her.

"See, right, I'm fine. So there's no point in telling Josh—because, I'm fine. You know what I mean, right?"

“Right,” Jason understood what the girl was thinking, “But at least he can pick you up.”

“Oh, no need,” Ashley quickly shook her head, "I'm fine. I'm perfectly capable of going home by myself."

Jason, who had seen Ashley's agitation all along, realized that something was strange. His memory of the evidence of where Josh had been yesterday—which he had accidentally forgotten—had come back to the surface. And like a puzzle, it assembled itself followed by a suspicion that tickled his head.

“Sorry if this sounds weird... but you and Josh—everything’s okay between you two, right?”