Lilly came bouncing into Heechul's hospital room late one morning, all smiles and excitement. "Good news! They can fix your leg in a couple days. More good news. After many stupid phone calls and struggles to find the right people, I was finally able to get ahold of your manager. All your people were frantic. wondering where you'd disappeared to. I let him know what was happening. Sent him a picture of the police report, and those pictures we had taken the other day so he was less likely to think I was crazy. He has my number now, so he'll probably call to Skype with you later. Went to the police station and talked to about a million people, since although technically you're in the country illegally and some idiot wanted to deport you, it wasn't of your freewill, you're injured, and victim of a crime. Yeah, basically you're staying put til you heal and it gets sorted. Also, I'm not filling in hours any more at work, so I'll be around more."

  Lilly's syntax was still mangled and her pronounciation left much to be desired, but she'd worked hard on her Korean all week so Heechul caught most of what he said. His eyes lit up at everyone at home finally knowing where he was, and over the fact his new friend would be around more. He wasn't quite as drugged up now, so his speech was fairly clear when he said "that's good."

  Heechul was still mostly eating mush since his meds made him queasy, but he'd thought for a while before he mentioned he really missed Korean food. Lilly had never cooked Korean before, but was willing to try anything once, especially if it would make her friend more comfortable. She pulled up Google on his iPad and they were having a great time discussing recipes when a couple of men knocked and entered the room. The older one introduced himself as a social worker and said they'd finally found a translator. The other, who looked like a kid fresh out of high school, bowed and greeted them politely, in Japanese.

  Heechul and Lilly looked at each other, then burst out laughing. They whispered to each other "is he [the social worker] stupid, or crazy?" before Lilly explained her friend was Korean, not Japanese. The older man had a look on his face like there's a difference?, but the younger blushed furiously.

  "I'm sorry. I was just told I was needed."

  Heechul cleared his throat and smiled. "It's okay. Was a mistake. I have Lilly anyway." His pronounciation wasn't great, but Heechul had been studying English hard, whenever he felt up to it. There wasn't much else to do when Lilly wasn't there, and she'd found a great study app to help him.

  The social worker got their attention. "I was asked to discuss with Mister Kim about where he's going to go once he's released from the hospital."

  "What do you mean, where he's going to go?"

  "He won't be able to go home until he heals, so we need to to figure out where to send him."

  "Look you moron who can't tell one Asian from another, I said at the beginning I'd be responsible for him, and that is written all over his paperwork, from the police report to the tests he had yesterday, if you'd bothered to read any of his paperwork. So, what the hell is there to figure out? He's coming home with me, end of story. I'm an experienced caregiver, I've already talked to his people in Korea so they know what's going on, and my neighbor is a retired nurse. Not to mention, I know which country he's from and what language he actually speaks. So, you tell me if there is a better place for him to go. Now, get out before I kick your ." Lilly was absolutely livid by this point. She was gentler when she turned to the kid. "I'm sorry you got dragged into this." He smiled, abet weakly.

  "It's okay ma'am. It wasn't your fault. Good luck both of you." He bowed and left. The social worker was still sputtering when Lilly physically shoved him out the door. She returned to Heechul's side. He looked as though he was thinking hard.

  "Did you mean that?" he finally asked.

  "Mean what?"

  "I'm coming home with you?"

  "Of course silly. What did you think? That I was going to leave you in a cardboard box?"

  "I didn't know. Thank you." Heechul closed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. Lilly squeezed his hand as he fell asleep.

  "Silly boy."