The clock showed two in the afternoon when Nara headed to the copy room to duplicate the presentation documents. Her steps felt heavy, and her vision blurred every now and then, but she kept forcing herself onward, repeating the mantra that had become a habit: Just a little longer, just a little longer.
She passed several coworkers who greeted her in the hallway, responding with a perfectly practiced smile even as her body grew harder and harder to control.
She took a stack of papers from the copy machine and turned to return to her desk. But after only a few steps, the world around her suddenly began to spin violently.
The office sounds started to fade, darkness crept in around the edges of her vision, and before she could think of anything, her body crumpled to the floor, papers scattering around her.
“NARA!”
Rifana’s scream shattered the silence on the fifth floor. She ran from her desk as fast as she could, her heart pounding at the sight of Nara lying unconscious on the floor, her face deathly pale, her breathing weak but still there.
“Can someone call an ambulance right now?!” Rifana shouted, panicked but trying to stay calm, her hands trembling as she checked Nara’s pulse.
Several coworkers rushed over. Some immediately contacted the receptionist to call an ambulance, while others helped clear space so Nara could breathe more easily.
Rifana grabbed Nara’s phone, lying not far from her body, and with trembling hands searched for the most important contact to call right now—Arka.
“Hello, who is this?” Arka’s voice came through the phone, slightly confused to hear Nara’s number calling him but someone else answering.
“It’s Rifana, Nara’s coworker,” Rifana said, her voice shaking as she fought back her panic. “Nara collapsed, Arka. They’re taking her to the hospital now. Can you come here right away?”
There was a fraction-of-a-second pause, a silence that felt impossibly long, before Arka’s voice came through again—this time filled with panic he couldn’t hide.
“Which hospital? I’m on my way!”
Ten minutes later, the ambulance arrived at the office, taking Nara, who was still unconscious, to the nearest hospital.
Rifana climbed into the ambulance with her, gripping Nara’s cold hand tightly, her heart filled with guilt for not having been able to do more earlier to prevent this from happening.
The ambulance siren wailed along the road, but to Rifana, it felt as though the sound went on for hours, every second unbearably tense.
Why didn’t I force you to tell me, Na? Rifana thought, staring at the pale face of her usually cheerful, energetic coworker. Why did I let you carry everything by yourself?
At the hospital, the medical team immediately took Nara to the emergency room. Rifana stood outside, waiting anxiously and checking her phone every so often to make sure Arka and Nara’s family were on their way.
Fifteen minutes later, Arka arrived, panting, his face filled with a fear Rifana had never seen before.
“Where’s Nara? How is she?” Arka asked in a panic, his eyes searching the waiting area for any sign of Nara.
“She’s still inside. The doctor hasn’t told us anything yet,” Rifana answered, trying to reassure him even though her own voice was still trembling.
Arka sat in a waiting-room chair, covering his face with both hands as he tried to hold back the tears that nearly fell.
Memories of his childhood—waiting in this same hospital, with the same fear and the same uncertainty—came back to haunt him, this time with far more painful intensity because they involved the person he loved most.
Before long, Nara’s parents and Arka’s family arrived as well, all of their faces filled with the same anxiety.
They sat together in the waiting room, waiting in a tense silence and hoping the emergency-room doors would soon open with good news.
Nara’s mother gripped her husband’s hand tightly, her eyes already wet from the moment she stepped out of the taxi.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me her condition was this serious?” she whispered, more to herself than to anyone else in the room.
Arka sat at the farthest end of the row, away from everyone else, his eyes fixed blankly on the cold hospital floor.
Every time the emergency-room doors opened slightly to let medical staff pass through, his heart pounded, hoping for news, only for that hope to be crushed again when it turned out not to be the news he was waiting for.
Rifana sat beside him, occasionally glancing at Arka as he seemed to grow more fragile with every passing minute, but she chose not to say anything, letting the silence be her way of keeping him company without adding to his burden with words that might not help at all.
To be continued in Chapter 10