As I was lying across the couch, she was sprawled on the floor littered with bits and pieces of paper everywhere. Jihyuk had had the scissors in her hands for the past hour as she busied herself with cutting paper like a kid in preschool. Putting my book aside, I watched as she stood up and dusted her shorts off of the bits. “Ya, you pick these up from the floor to clean this. It won’t disappear by itself and I don’t want to clean up after you,” I reminded.

Not seeming to hear me, Jihyuk stood up and anyway and went inside the kitchen, as if looking for something. “The trash bin is in the bedroom,” I said, then returned to reading my book. But the sound of cupboards and drawers being yanked open then slammed close got my attention. Before I could stand up and follow her, she left the kitchen and went to the front door. “Jihyuk, there’s no one knocking,” I said, but she opened the door anyway and looked left to right.

Finding no one outside, Jihyuk returned to the living room and wore a grin while looking at me. “You’re here,” she exclaimed, sitting by my feet. “Where have you been? I looked for you everywhere.” Then, her gaze shifting to the paper cutouts and pair of scissors by the table, she said, “You cut these out for me?” Jihyuk stared at each piece happily. “Thank you.” Turning to me she said, “Since you did my work for me, I’ll clean this up.” And she finally grabbed handfuls of the mess she left and threw them out into the garbage.

I couldn’t find the right words to say. When I did, however, I asked her, “What did Donghwa tell you?”

She rinsed her hands by the kitchen sink and wiped them using her shirt. Afterwards, she lied down beside me on the couch. “Not much,” Jihyuk said. “He gave me a test and asked me questions and then he told me to come back the next week—no, after two weeks. By then, he said the results would have been released and he would tell me.” She grew silent afterwards, and just when I wondered if she had already fallen asleep, Jihyuk spoke. “Do you think there’s something wrong with me?” She said it in the softest voice possible, as if she was fearful of the results herself.

I was more scared, but I couldn’t let it show. “There’s nothing wrong with you,” I replied, putting my arms around her. “It’s just all in your head. So don’t think negatively, okay? You’re perfectly fine, or else I would have told you already. I’m a doctor, remember? So if there was something wrong with you, I’ll be the first one to know.”

“But you’re the one who told me to go to him in the first place.”

“I know,” I said, rubbing my hand up and down her arm comfortingly. “There’s nothing wrong with having a checkup. Just…” I couldn’t find the right words to say to convince her. “It’s just for precautionary measures, okay? You have nothing to worry about. Did Donghwa tell you that you’re sick?” I asked, slowly getting suspicious.

“No, it’s not that,” she defended. “Or else, I would have told you already. I’m just nervous, that’s all.” Jihyuk held my hand, and I fell asleep to her warmth. I woke up a few hours later, however, to the sound of her frustration in the kitchen. “The signing of the declaration happened in Beijing in August…in August fiftee—no, was it the tenth? Ugh.” I could almost hear her cursing herself, and sure enough, I heard her smack her own forehead with her palm along with, “Focus, focus, focus.” Then she took a deep breath and started again. “For the past decades, the rift between the countries existed until the mid 1900s. The signing of the declaration happened in…” I held my breath for another second as she stammered. “The signing happened in Beiji—no, no, in Chi—ugh in Beijing in August twelve—damn it, Jihyuk. Get something right for once!” she yelled angrily before starting over again in a tone growing more and more irritated by the second. Jihyuk recited the paragraph in whole correctly, but when she was about to repeat it for the second time, the facts and the words get muddled up in her head. I scrambled to the kitchen and found her with her forehead against the water dispenser.

I opened my mouth to speak, but she had beaten me to it. “Just don’t. Just… just go away. I hate everything right now.”

“I’ll just get some water,” I said and hurried to the fridge. I took the glass of water with me and slowly –and quietly – retreated backwards to the living room. I let Jihyuk wallow in her memorizing and concentrating state. When a few hours passed and I felt my stomach grumble, I pondered on my situation before settling more comfortably on the couch. I realized how it was better to remain hungry than to get back in the kitchen and get myself food. What if I happened to stumble upon a got-one-word-wrong Jihyuk and she just coincidentally had a glass in her hands?

In the middle of an intense soccer game, I was sitting on the edge of the couch when Jihyuk stomped her way to the seat beside me. Thinking she was still in a bad mood, I let her be and she let me watch the game in peace. After an hour or so when the game was over, I looked to my side, only to see her with her head slumped over the arm rest. Maybe I put the volume on the TV too high because I just realized she was crying. “What’s wrong, baby?”

She just shook her head and stayed still.

“Do you want me to help you memorize? You know, you don’t really have to memorize what you teach. You just have to understand it and then you’ll be able to explain it in your own words. And that’s no problem for you, right? Because you’re talkative, and you can talk and talk about anything, so you don’t have to memorize anything.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” she sniffled. “You’re smart.”

I laughed and pulled her to sit upright. She had her hair covering her face as she cried, which I found really cute. “That doesn’t really matter, you know,” I said. “Do you want me to help you? I’ll stay up all night with you if I have to, just so you won’t have to hit your own face and then cool it with the dispenser afterwards,” I offered. “Let me see what you did to yourself.” I took the rubber band from her wrist and tied her hair loosely with it. Her red forehead was revealed, which felt almost painful just by looking at it.

I went to the bedroom and grabbed a tube of ointment to keep her forehead from bruising. Spreading some on her forehead, I blew on it afterwards and smoothed out Jihyuk’s knitted eyebrows. “Stop frowning, it’s not cute.” But it was. “Should we study together?” I asked, and held my hand out to assist her to stand up.

***

Short update :( drama coming up T_T