No one knew why but one-day Yongjin woke up. He woke up in a panic from something he couldn't tell anyone about. His voice didn't work. The doctor's only solution was to give poor Yongjin a small whiteboard. To their surprise, his handwriting is beautiful and clear. 'Why can't I talk?' The only thing he wrote for the longest time. No one cared about that. They wanted to know what had hurt him so. Yongjin taps the whiteboard, his eyes pleading. The doctors leave the room. Alone the whiteboard starts to feel heavy.

Nurses came and went. The only thing they got from him was the one question no one wanted to answer. Yongjin just wanted to know why he couldn't speak. 

Days of being awake and his only want ignored made him miserable. Yongjin didn't bother erasing the question he planned on letting the board stay that. Well until the door opened by no doctor stepped through. His cousins and their parents poured in. The only faces he wanted to see not there. His grandparents.

"I heard you went and ed up your voice. That true?"

Yongjin opened his mouth to try, to show them but another cousin cuts in. He leans back into the bed. Yongjin had to get comfortable while he could.

"Bet he's just faking it."

"How much you wanna bet?"

Yongjin looks over to his female cousin with her son. The two are almost to a screaming match. His eyes scan the room to see that none of them are behaving any different. All the same. He closes his eyes running a hand through his hair.

"Mister Ryu? ...uh... I was told you could have a few visitors. Who are all these people?" The nurse erases the question about his voice handing him the now blank whiteboard.

Yongjin stares at the blank board wishing he hadn't woke up.

"Sir you have to use the board."

Yongjin accepts the board amidst his relatives around him mocking him. One cousin even goes as far to take the marker from Yongjin as he was writing.

"Please do not stop him from writing! I need to know what he's writing."

Yongjin holds up his half-finished sentence pointing the yes in his response.

"All of them?"

Yongjin nods.

"The doctors would approve of only a few at a time. Is that alright?"

Yongjin starts to nod when one of his uncles shouts then shakes his head no.

"Everyone out! Parents and grandparents only. I thought I told you this nurse. Everyone out!"

The cousins slowly file out while some aunts and uncles try to stick around only to be forced out. The doctor hands Yongjin his marker. Yongjin quickly asks if they can really do that.

"You want them back?"

Yongjin quickly shakes his head no.

The doctor chuckles, "Alright then. We'll be doing just a few tests before you can even think about going home."

Yongjin sets down the whiteboard. The rest of the day vanishes between naps and being moved around. Test here then go there for another. Back to here for a second then there for a fourth. Before Yongjin knew it the closest clock read well past midnight.