"I can't believe I overslept!" I grumbled over and over again, running a brush through my bedhead. It wasn't cooperating with me today, and I winced as I tugged out a handful of tangles, examining the brunette strands that stuck to the bristles. Too late to look pretty, I guess. Crossing my legs, I held a hair tie in my mouth and I strung my hair into a ponytail, glancing at the clock. My alarm was set to 7am. I ended up getting up at 8:27am. Work started in twenty minutes. You'd think my family would remind an eighteen year old girl to get up for her first day of work, but no. They decided to get a head start on breakfast.

With clumsy footsteps, I rushed to the bathroom. The first thing I grabbed was my tooth brush, cleaning my mouth with one hand while struggling to put on a pair of skinny jeans with the other. The fastest face wash in history probably took place as I reached for my forms and ran out of the room.

"Bye!" I yelled to the living room before charging out for the exit. Wonyoung barely even got her "Unnie," in when I shut the door.

I took the free bus to the hospital, which over the summer had become my official new part-time job. IZONE High offered a student program to work with and understand the hospital life, and thanks to the Memory Hospital's great acceptance, it was the very first year to see students working shifts.

I decided to be responsible and earn some cash of my own. I cared for people, and I wasn't that bad around blood or diseases, so what could have been a more perfect opportunity than this? And if it didn't work out, there was always babysitting to go back to.

I hopped out of the bus and stood in front of the building. The large automatic doors stood closed in front of me, yellow warning bands on the glass, as if I was unwelcomed. I drew in a breath. Time to go.

"Name please." The lady at the front desk asked as she shuffled through some papers. Her hair was a long, black, strung into a high pony tail. Round glasses rested on the ridge of her nose with piercing brown eyes underneath. She looked a few years older than me. She was beautiful. I felt uncomfortable.

"Jo Yuri. I'm, er…here to start my part time job..." I shifted awkwardly from foot to foot.

She eyed me for a second with serious, brown eyes. Then she checked over a clipboard. "Awfully young…" She mumbled.

"I-I'm part of IZONE High's program," I added to save myself any further explanation. She nodded and smiled gently.

"Yes, yes. Here you are. We've assigned you a patient to look after already. Since it's your first day, you'll just be observing this person or attending to whatever they need." She looked me over again. "Do you have scrubs?" She asked, though it hardly came as a question. She eyed my outfit, already guessing.

"Um, no. Sorry, I didn't think…I thought you'd…" This is not going well. I could feel my cheeks heat up from embarrassment.

"Ah, don't worry." She gave me a reassuring wink. "Today it'll be okay, just get some for tomorrow. Here, I have a clipboard with questions you'll answer as you progress your experience here at the Memory Hospital." She handed me a clipboard filled with a dozen sheets as I looked at it, disgusted. Great. Homework.

"Lunch break is at 12:15 and you end your shift at four. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask." She smiled politely. Wow! She's so pretty. I feel so plain.

"Thank you…"

"Oh! I'm sorry. My name's Kwon Eunbi. Nice to meet you, Jo Yuri," she stated as the phone rang. She picked it up and began another conversation.

I glanced at the sheet, figuring that's all the chatting I'd get with her. The sheets were questions about my patient; pretty basic. The questions grew more specific the further I got, and out of curiosity I glanced at the very last one. It was the hardest of the list. What disease do you think the patient has? Looks like this could take a while. I looked back at the top of the sheet.

Patient: Choi Yena

: Female

Age: 20

Room: 212

Diagnoses:

That was all the info given on the sheet. The fact she was only a couple of years older than me gave me hope we would have something in common, but the more I thought of it the more I dreaded having a patient so young. If anything she could be like all the others at my school; stuck-up and full of themselves.

I returned to the first piece of paper and filled in my own name, then headed to the second floor. I decided to take the elevator, not favoring the stairs today. It seemed like this job would go on and on from now, and I wished I was better friends with Eunbi... unnie? I don't know. I'm not entirely sure. I'll find out soon enough. The elevator doors opened and a girl bounced out.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, bringing her hands over her head. Tight, skinny jeans clung to her long legs, complementing the white t-shirt and Converse sneakers she's got on. She had shoulder-length brown hair and her smile was full of life. She couldn't have been older than me by the looks of it, but she was really, really, really tall. Maybe she's my age?  "You don't know how long I've been in that elevator! It's not fun and the rocking motion is too hard to sleep to!" she whined.

It occurred to me that she was either talking to herself or me. I wasn't quite sure. "Uh…" I started.

"Ah, I feel queasy. Maybe I shouldn't have jumped inside the elevator eight times in a row." She sighed as she sunk to the floor. Eight times jumping inside that? She's out of her mind!

"Well, you shouldn't do that," I cut in. Glancing up, she finally acknowledged my presence. "Especially if the rocking motion makes you feel faint. Are you a patient here or something?" I asked, concerned. She didn't wear a hospital gown.

She looked up at me, surprised, almost gaping. I flushed with embarrassment again. Er, maybe she was talking to herself… Quickly it melted into a smile and she chuckled softly. I raised an eyebrow at her odd behavior.

"Nope! I work here." She said with a wink.

"Work here? How old are you?" 

"I'm sixteen!" She cheered, standing. Her legs shook a bit. I steadied her.

Yup. Close enough.

"Oh, um…okay. Well, do you know where Room 212 is?" I questioned once she was standing properly. She was about a lot of inches taller than me. Her eyes were a deep dark brown, almost almost black. One thing's for sure; this girl was really pretty, she could be a model.

"Yep! I'm on break right now, so I could show you the room if you want," she offered as her smile grew. She seemed more her age when she smiled like that, a cheeky grin on her lips.

"Thank you, that'd be a big help." We approached the elevator and got inside. I hit the button for floor two. She smiled more and made no gesture to hit her own floor number, if she was even heading somewhere in the first place.

She leaned over my shoulder to read my packet. "So, why are you at the hospital? Are you Yena's relative or something?" She asked curiously with the tilt of her head. It was as if her earlier experience of feeling sick had vanished altogether.

"Yena?" I questioned confused, before realizing she was my assigned patient. "Ah, no. We're not related."

"So you're her friend? Her girlfriend?" She seemed rather determined in finding out my whereabouts.

I shook my head furiously, flustered. "N-No. I don't even know who she is. I haven't met her yet!"

"Ah, so you're an admirer." The doors opened up and the tall girl jumped out, before staring back at me.

"Well, are you coming or not?" She giggled, waving her hand down the long, white hallway. I stared at her, wondering what had driven her to create assumptions, and followed behind her. As she merrily walked down the hallway, I tried again.

"I really don't know or admire this Yena. I wanted to earn some extra cash and, well, I thought this would be a good place to start considering I love to help people," I hesitated, my voice quieter. It was always awkward to talk to a new person, and I wasn't sure explanation would get through a character like hers or only make her believe I was too defensive about myself.

She twirled around, causing me to abruptly stop before I could run into her. She studied me for a moment with endearing eyes, before tilting her head to the side again.

"Aren't you a little young to be working here?" She questioned aloud, looking up to the ceiling as she did. She must have had a thing for thinking out loud.

"Well, I'm part of IZONE High's student program," I explained, pulling out the flyer I grabbed from the school. "We are given the summer to participate in the Memory Hospital's patient system." She nodded, but didn't seem all that interested in introductions. "And besides, I'm 18. Not that young." I shrugged and quickly dragged the spotlight back on her. "So, why did you join?"

She slouched as if she couldn't stand the new turn of conversation. "Mom and Dad want me to take more responsibility. They think a job like this will help me be more grown up, but I mostly just run around this place." She turned back around and skipped down the hallway with an awfully enthusiastic burst of energy for a teenage girl. When she reached a pole, her hand reached out to it and without stopping, grasped the metal cylinder and spun a one eighty. Then she ran back, leaping into her spot right in front of me. I stepped back, amazed.

"W-Wow," I gasped, not knowing how else to react to such a sudden action. She flashed her childish grin again and breathed heavily. She kept her happiness the whole time.

"Hehe. It's a really fun place when you think about it." She spun around in a circle, still just as hyper. "I mean, anywhere is fun as long as you think its fun, and it's no fun playing with downers."

I nodded. There seemed to be a childish dream I didn't understand from the look in her eyes, but I respected her optimism.

She nodded back, before straightening. "Okay, so let's go find your patient!" She declared, leading her way through the long and silent halls. I quietly trailed behind. As we turned more hallways I was beginning to see more people. The sounds of phone calls ringing and shoe shuffling was finally present in the distance and something like a first day of school feeling washed over me. I was suddenly nervous again, wondering how I would fit in a place with a young proper woman like Eunbi, or a hyper fun loving kid like this giant model-like child.

A few people in scrubs past us and stared much too long. I could feel my heart pound faster, but ignored it and kept my face casual. This feels like school all over again. Moving to a new school meant fresh and curiosity. Lots and lots of it. I was the new toy and people were curious, probably not just because of my entrance, but the fact that no one here seemed to recall the High School Program.

Even though I was always shy and confused, I was good at pretending to be someone else; someone calm and confident. No one really understood the real me, except for one of my friends back home who I wouldn't be able to see for a while. It wasn't fun being an outcast.

The hyper girl stopped at a beige door and grinned.

"Here we are! Room 212. It's Yena, right?" she asked. I nodded, before feeling the need to add, "my patient" to the end of her sentence. She didn't seem to notice my correction.

"Do you know anything about her?" I questioned. I wonder if they count this as cheating?

"I know a little. Yena came here about three years ago or so. She's been ill since then and doesn't eat much, if anything at all. We have to give her her fluids by sticking a needle into her veins. The only reason Yena really gets up is to go to the bathroom, I've heard. Guess that's all she has left of her dignity. She refuses to pee on a bed pan!" She cheered, having no shame in declaring such a phrase.

"That's, uh, nice." I could have lived without that last bit of information.

"Yeah, so don't expect her to talk. I don't think anyone's ever heard her speak." She suddenly looked down the hallway, this way and that, before staring at me quizzically.

I raised an eyebrow. "Am I missing something?".

"Well, don't you have, like…a mentor to watch you or something?" She asked me as I shook my head.

"The entry explained for the experience to be real, we will have to work alone."

"Ah! Lucky. They never leave me alone with the newborns. They always stick me with some older people who won't let me do anything fun." She pouted. "They treat me like a baby. It isn't fair."

"You work with newborns?" I gasped, amazed. As much as I wanted to comfort her, I was already too intent on the babies she'd watch over. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms, the first low leveled action I'd seen her do.

"Yeah, my brother is only one and my parents want me familiar with babies." She shook her head, as if regretting such a thing. "I don't know why though. He'll grow up eventually." She stopped there, reluctant on having the conversation end. It was like she didn't want to talk about herself at all. She just wanted to have fun.

After her fuss, she smiled again. "Well, I think I have to go back now, but I'll see ya later." She waved and started skipping down the hall, not a trace of regret left.

What a strange girl.

I slowly entered the room, quiet in keeping myself unnoticed. Glancing around, the bed was empty and a TV hung on the ceiling across from the bed showing today's weather report. The volume was muted for some reason; moving pictures shifting in silence. The entire room was dark, even with the white walls and ceilings, due to the shut off lights and completely closed blinds. The room was the same old white. Plain as everything was, the hospital seemed to radiate unwelcome.

"Uh, hello?" I asked the lonely room. No answer came from the area. I sighed and shut the door behind me. I plopped onto the chair only open chair in the room, beside the bed and the closed blinds. Light threatened to leak through the cracks of the blinds, blazing from the window, but all was shielded out in such a space. I studied the rest of the room, feeling out of place again.

Maybe this is the wrong room? Maybe she's in the bathroom? I took a strand of my brown hair and started swirling it around my finger, suddenly interested on the form it took. This was going to be a long day.

The door opened and I suddenly straightened up, peeking over at the person who stood there. There were two people. A man dressed in blue baggy scrubs and a girl who looked to be an around her late teenage-early 20s years, with light brown, almost blonde, hair and brown eyes. Her face was dazed, far away somewhere. She didn't even appear to really be here at all.

"Here's your patient. Sorry it took so long." The man smiled at me and left, closing the door. I looked at the girl.

She didn't wear a hospital gown. She wore blue jeans and an oversized gray hoodie. She glanced over at me curiously for half a second, then became bored within seconds. Her eyes glazed over as she stood by the door frame. I sighed.

Hello, Yena. Meet your new nurse.