"You're telling the truth... aren't you? You're really dying...?" Junsu said, in intermittent pauses.

"Of course I am. No one lies about dying. Unless they're crazy..." Liv said, wiping unshed tears with the back of her hand. She tried to look Junsu in the eye but just then, she felt a stabbing pain at in her head. Her vision blurred for a moment and she wobbled, hands flinging to find support.

"Are you okay?" Junsu caught her before she fell down. Junsu himself was shocked with his reaction. He was genuinely concerned for this girl even though they've only known each other for less than 10 minutes. What was that? He asked himself.

"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty used to the migraines by now. My head's still splitting." Liv giggled ever so slightly, as if she was trying to convince herself that she was fine.

Junsu lead her to the living room and made her sit down. He hurried to the fridge to fetch her a glass of water. Half of him thinks that he's still asleep really, yet half of him is floating in confusion. The odds of a girl randomly appearing in his flat was slim enough, but him being okay about it is another issue. While pouring the water into a small cup, he glanced over at Liv's direction. She was slumped over the cushions, breathing steadily, but smiled all the same, as if she wanted to give herself the assurance that she was going to be fine. Junsu didn't hesitate anymore as he rushed to her side to give her the glass of water. She gladly took it and took  several sips. Then, she straightened herself up again and barely murmured, "Thanks."

"Let's get the obvious parts out of the way. One, you're really dying." Junsu said. Liv answered with a swift nod, "And two, you're a fan...?"

"Fan..." Liv repeated the word, "Well, no if by 'fan' you mean creepy, middle school girls who steal your underwear and you while you sleep and follow you around all day."

"That's a sasaeng."

"So a sasaeng is not a fan?" Liv raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not saying that... are you a sasaeng?"

Liv laughed, "Lighten up, buckwheat. No, I'm not a stalker fan. I'm more of an admirer. I admire you. I always have." She smiled at him. Junsu still couldn't tell what had drawn him to lighten up in her presence, but there was that something about her that made him open up. He looked at her smile. It was so sincere, so untainted. No one had smiled at him like that for a long while. Every smile he's encountered thus far is either scripted or forced. He's even had to make some of those kinds of smiles himself. Yet this girl, practically a stranger, was willing enough to give him the wonder of a sincere smile.

"Hey buckwheat... you in there? I think I lost you somewhere..." Liv was waving her hand in front of his face. Junsu snapped out of his little trance, "Oh there you are! I was beginning to think I lost you." She smiled again.

"Buckwheat? Why do you keep calling me buckwheat?"

"Your hair. It reminds me of buckwheat. You remind me of buckwheat. Buckwheat's supposed to be a grain or a cereal, like wholewheat or barley... but it's not. It's special. Buckwheat is used to make beer, instead of something gnarly and boring." Liv said, "To me, that's you. You're supposed to look like some celebrity... but you're special. You're meant for something else, something entirely different from what your collegues are being used for."

Being used for

Those were heavy words. It seems like Liv understood his plight. The plight of fame. The long, lonely, and heartwrenching journey of having to pretend all the time, "And what do you think I'm made for?"

"Fortunately, it's something you have to find out for yourself. Something tells me you haven't found it..." she paused, "or you felt it within your fingertips but something happened and it somehow slipped..."

A long pause followed. The atmosphere was getting too heavy so Liv decided to step it up a notch.

"Well, I'm going to go straight to the point. My name is Liv and I came here to spend my last five days on this planet with no other than..." she imitated a drum roll sound, " You!" She clapped. Junsu laughed, though he really thought death was no laughing matter.

"First off, what exactly are you dying of?" Junsu asked.

"Good question." Liv said. She pointed at her head's crown area. "Cerebral aneurysm. It's about a couple of centemeters and a half large." She gestured the size with her fingers, "I was suffering intense migranes all through out college but I decided to ignore it. Just a few days ago, I decided to get it checked after a very bad attack hit me. CT Scans showed that I have a large aneurysm at that part of my brain. And aside from the migraines, I've shown no symptoms, rendering it almost impossible for me to tell the difference between an aneurysm and a normal migrane." Liv sighed, "The mere size of it shocked the doctors. And because it's technically a blood clot in my head, it can burst anytime. And once it does, it's going to lead to brain hemorrhaging, which will lead to..."

"Death." Junsu said, as if he resigned to that fate as well.

"Don't make it sound too sad." Liv said, "Anyhow, after the doctors told me that I have five days max to live out my life, I decided to use up what's left of it on someone worthwhile."

"And that someone is me?" Junsu pointed at himself.

"Yes, Captain Obvious. You." Liv nodded, "Now..." She started to scamper for her duffle bag. She kept muttering random where is it's and I put it here's. She lifted her head and held out her cellphone. She handed it to Junsu.

"I'm leaving my phone to you. I instructed my family NOT to contact me within the next three days. They will call on the fourth and the fifth day. On the fourth day, I will talk to them and if I am gone by the fifth, you will talk to them. Tell them to pick me up." 

It was astonishing. She could say things regarding her death with such casual tones, it was almost as if she was just going away for a trip. Junsu noticed that he drifted away again as Liv started talking.

"If you're worried about what my family would think, I already told them about this. They're willing to go along with it. I spent all my life with them and I'm happy that I did. I'm not the type of person who wasted her life waiting. I lived everyday like it was my last." She smiled, "But now, I want to spend my last days with the person I really wanted to spend some time with."

Junsu really didn't know what to say. He was immensely honored, so to speak, that a dying girl would choose to spend time with him rather than her own family... but a part of him feels guilty for robbing the family of their chance to be with their daughter for the last time.

"I know I'm asking too much of you but... would you mind me tagging along for the next five days? And perhaps, you could make some arrangements for me so we could spend time together... There's really a lot that I would like to do." Liv looked down, "I even have a mental bucket list..."

"Well, as for tagging along, I'll have to ask first, but as to spending time together, I'll do my best. After all, it's my job now to make your last five days memorable."

"So you mean to say you're going to play along with my plan?" Liv asked him, head cocked to one side.

"It's not like I have much of a choice." Junsu replied, half jokingly, "This is, by far, the most bizarre request anyone has asked of me... but something tells me that you're here for more than your own selfish reasons."

"Thank you..." Liv smiled.

"So, what's first on your mental bucket list?" Junsu asked, picking himself up and pacing on the floor.

"Well... it's not really part of it... but can we make breakfast? I'm sort of hungry." Liv  said, moving her hands over her flat belly.

Junsu had to laugh. She didn't seem like a girl who was dying. All the more, he thought, that he was convinced that she was afraid to die.