I've Been There Before

Things were simple. It was so simple that all it took was for Grace to continue to cowardly and undignified comply with any of
Ruby's unreasonable and even insulting demands.
But in the deepest part of her heart, she was greedy - she wanted that long-lost "respect" so that she didn't have to be like before
and only needed to be like the most ordinary people to get the respect of "human" that she deserved.
But apparently, things didn't go as planned.
Since then, Grace hid her heart, which was riddled with holes, even deeper. She hid the things that her heart longed for in the
depths of her soul, where no one could touch it. There were dark, cold, and lonely as when the deep sea was at its most still.
Ruby came and went. She always came at mealtime and left after delivering the food.
"I want to get out of the hospital” On the fourth night after the incident, Ruby, as grim as ever, put a take-out box on Grace's
hospital bedside table, turned and prepared to leave. Behind her, the woman in the hospital bed who had been silent said slowly.
This coarse and slow voice caused Ruby, who had been indifferent for four days, to stop. She turned her head somewhat
agitatedly and refused without thinking,
"No. You are not well enough’
Did she care about her? Grace looked fixedly at Ruby, "I'm better. My fever's gone. I want to work?

"You did that on purpose, didn't you? You want everyone to see the gauze on your forehead?" Ruby said angrily, "Grace, you are
indeed something. The saying that you may know a person's face but not his mind is really true. I thought you were honest, but I
didn't expect you to be such a schemer”
Grace lowered her eyelashes to hide the disappointment in her eyes. Sure enough, she thought too much. How could she care
about her!
When she looked at Ruby again, Grace's eyes became a little numb, “I have to go to work. You're going to do the discharge
papers”
With that, she lifted the covers, got out of bed slowly, and changed into the clothes she'd worn when she came.
Ruby's eyes widened in shock. Was Grace just ordering her?
She?
Grace?
Order her?
A sense of humiliation arose!

She watched as that woman who got out of the hospital bed limped slowly to the door. Even though she was walking slowly, she
was indeed ready to leave the room. In other words, Grace was serious about what she said and wasn't joking!
She was really ready to leave the hospital!
How did this work!
Ruby's gaze fell on Grace's forehead in a flash of panic. She was still afraid. How could the cripple go back to the Royal Club
before the gauze on her head was removed?
Without even thinking, she moved her feet to get in Grace's way, "Grace, why are you so cheap! Work? That's a nice way of
putting it. People who don't know will think about how much you love to work and how much you love your job.
Your job? Isn't your job just to please men? You haven't recovered from your illness, and you're in such a hurry to please men?
You just can't wait to be a bitch?
Or do you actually enjoy the process? Why else would you rush to the Royal Club despite your sick body?"
All Ruby could think about now was keeping Grace from going to the Royal Club, and she ignored how harsh her words were.
The more she talked, the more silent Grace became. She just looked down at her toes. Her hands behind her back were
clenched into fists and she couldn't stop shaking. She wanted to retort and explain so badly.

But she knew well enough that it was useless to retort her.
It was true that she got down on her knees for money.
It was true she got down on her knees and learned to wag tail like a dog just for more money.
It was true she didn't talk nonsense, and she was telling the truth in front of her.
That was exactly what she did!
What could she retort to her?
Could she explain it clearly?
“Everyone has a belief. That might be a person or a faith’ she said in a hoarse voice and suppressed the soreness in her heart.
Grace said as calmly as she could,
“And for that faith, for that person, for that belief, the people who try to achieve and strive to get it, at least they shouldn't be
laughed at”

Ruby froze for a moment. She looked up and down at Grace who was standing in front of her. How could such words come from
an ignorant and cheap woman who hadn't even graduated from high school? She wondered where the cripple had seen it.
With that thought in her mind, she looked at Grace with even more contempt.
As she finished, Grace slowly lifted her foot and stepped around Ruby. But she quickly grabbed her arm with one hand, “You
can't go. You must stay here to recover until the wound on your forehead is healed!”
Grace slowly looked up at Ruby and said one word at a time, “I'm going to work, and it's none of your business’
She seemed weak, but she fiercely pulled Ruby's grip on her arm away. Without looking at Ruby, who was shocked, she lifted
her foot and walked out.
Behind her, Ruby reacted and lifted her foot to catch up. Grace had trouble with her feet and walked slowly, so she was easily
caught up by Ruby. Grace didn't turn around and just heard the sound of footsteps coming up behind her. Her throat was burned
by the fire. But as she continued forward on her limp legs, she said slowly but firmly.
"If you dare try to stop me again, I'll call Gloria.
So what was Ruby compared to Leona, who had saved her life with hers in that dark prison?
Ruby or anyone else, even that man, Grace couldn't think of anything more important than Leona.

Grace just let the woman behind her who could only stare at her fiercely set her eyes on herself, and let Ruby be furious but not
really dare come up to stop her again. She took one step at a time and walked out of the hospital.
Ruby didn't realize that the lowly, humble, incompetent, uneducated, illiterate girl she saw as nothing, walked with more ease and
pride than she did as an honors student of S University.
Ruby, of course, hadn't noticed a man leaning lazily against the doorframe with his chest in his hands at the door to the room
next door to Grace's ward. The man took one last look at the elevator where Grace had disappeared, stood up straight, lifted his
slender legs, and walked past Ruby toward the elevator where Grace had gone down.
Grace took the elevator down. She had trouble with her legs and was even slower to walk. Besides, although her fever was
down, her body was even weaker. She slowly made her way out of the hospital gates and stood at the intersection, reaching out
to stop a taxi.
“I'm going to the Royal Club. No meter. Can't you make it a little cheaper?”
The driver stretched out his head and looked at her, “It's hard to do business these days. This is a taxi, not an unlicensed one.
Are you going to take it? I'll drive away if you don't take”
Apparently, this driver didn't want to budge. Helplessly, Grace fumbled with the pocket of the jacket she'd worn to the hospital
and looked up, "I've only got twenty dollars on me?
"That's enough. Get in the car’

If she could, she wouldn't take a taxi because it was too expensive. Just today, she thought maybe she could forget her
embarrassment, and perhaps she could have the luxury of taking a taxi.
It was as if taking a taxi could make her seem as dignified as the many other ordinary people on the street.
Grace was trying her best to make herself look like a human being and an ordinary person. She longed for the dignity that
ordinary people can have.
Yes. She still craved it inside, but she would never again ask others to give it to her.
No matter how hard she begged for, she couldn't get what others refused to give her.
So, she would try to live as if she were a human being.