“Www…wa… wait,” blurted Woohyun, as the girl pulled her hand away from his forehead. She looked up at him expectantly. He noticed that he towered over the girl by about 6 inches, which actually wasn’t small for a girl’s height.

“Am I going crazy?” was what came out of Woohyun’s mouth. The girl shook her head at him. “I don’t think so. I wasn’t sent here to deal with insanity,” she said.

Woohyun blinked, then asked, “Then how come Sunggyu hyung didn’t… you know, freak out when he came in? Does he know why you’re here? And wait, how did you know my name before?”

“He can’t see me. I was only given to you,” The girl replied, “and I’ve always known your name.”  

It took a moment for Woohyun to comprehend what the girl had said. How she’d known his name wasn’t actually too puzzling a matter, since his name was known by a great number of people, but the fact that Sunggyu could not see the girl was. Now that he thought about it, Sunggyu had never even glanced toward the direction of the girl; he had just talked to Woohyun as if he were the only person in the room, just as the two roommates always spoke to each other. If Sunggyu hyung really can’t see this girl, and I’m the only one who can… then am I really just hallucinating? But the girl in front of him was so real, and when she had touched him, it had felt like a real person touching him, not any figment of his imagination. Okay Woohyun, it’s not a hallucination. But then… is she a ghost?

He plopped down on the edge of his low bed, head in his hands. “Woohyun?” called the girl. He was now even getting used to her voice.

Woohyun raised his head out of his hands, sighing deeply. “Can you please, explain to me, more clearly? Who you are, why you’re here, and the thing with Sunggyu hyung? Because I just feel like I’m nuts,” said Woohyun. He noticed the disquietude in his own voice.

It took a moment of hesitation, but shortly after, the girl replied, “My name is Inspirit. I was given to you with the purpose to “make things better”. Because I was only given to you, no one else can see me except you. And I’m going to be staying with you, until my purpose is accomplished. That’s about all I can say, I don’t know how to make things any clearer for you.” The calmness of her tone and the way she had explained everything so unemotionally made Woohyun uneasy, almost like he was speaking with an automated machine of some sorts. And yet, the way Woohyun was getting used to her voice and her unexpressive nature, gave the girl human-like qualities as well.

Woohyun knew that for him to completely understand and submit to the situation and all that the girl had just told him was out of the question. However, for now, he felt that the chaotic turmoil that had taken place in his mind as he questioned his insanity had been suppressed, even if by a small amount. “Then, are you real?” he asked.

At that, the girl stepped forward and reached out to bring Woohyun up to a standing position, again. Once she was looking up at him, she lifted her hand and placed it on Woohyun’s right cheek, her other hand guiding Woohyun’s own hand up to her face. They stood there, one hand on the other’s cheeks. Then, she spoke, “Does it feel real?”

Without a doubt, Woohyun could feel the soft flesh on the girl’s cheek, the warmth of her hand, and her whole presence in front of her. “Yes,” he responded.

Nodding at Woohyun’s answer, the girl let go of her hold on Woohyun’s cheek, pulling Woohyun’s hand away from her face as well. Her expression and tone both remained unchangingly blank and calm, soothing Woohyun’s own emotions, and he was getting used to it, more and more. “You need to wash up, change, and eat. You have to take some medicine before you leave today, or your fever may come back,” the girl said.

She motioned bluntly for Woohyun to get going, and heading over to the wall of the room blockaded by several rows of clothing hangers, Woohyun innately pulled out a pair of clothes. Then, he found himself being led toward the door by the girl. “Wait,” he said, “uhhhh… Inspirit, right? Do you… uhmm, don’t you need to do all that stuff, too? Like use the bathroom, and such…”

Her untouched expression stared at him, eyes, nose, lips, sparkling necklace, all together. “No, why would I need to do that?” she said with her equally unfazed, simple voice.

“Well, I thought… I just…” fumbled Woohyun, but he found himself pushed out of his own room, meeting the open living room where a few of the Infinite members sat around sprawled or eating. The girl came out beside him, and Woohyun immediately looked toward s, expecting them to catch sight of the mysterious girl and yell out in bewilderment just like he’d done. But none of the members displayed any signs of notion toward the girl, and for that matter, toward Woohyun himself. Next to him, the girl beckoned Woohyun toward the bathroom. Mouth gaping, Woohyun’s feet shuffled him into the bathroom by themselves, all the while Woohyun watched the Infinite members dazedly, waiting for them to speak up.

*****

When Woohyun came out of the bathroom completely freshened up and dressed, he found Sungjong, the maknae of his group, pouring cereal into a bowl for him on the counter. The girl, Inspirit, as she’d said her name was, was peering into several of the drawers in the dorm’s kitchen, almost right next to Sungjong. At one point, Sungjong reached over to open one drawer the girl was standing in front of, and his hand would have collided with the girl, if she hadn’t watched the hand shooting toward her and backed away abruptly. “Whew, that was close,” the girl had breathed, distancing herself from Sungjong a bit. The younger boy went on preparing Woohyun’s cereal, not making any motions to indicate his awareness of the girl in the kitchen.

On top of the continuous treatment of non-existence toward the girl that Woohyun had been observing in the Infinite members, another thing that shocked him was the extreme shift in the girl’s, Inspirit’s, overall mood. “Woohyun!! You’re all clean!” Inspirit exclaimed when she noticed Woohyun standing at the entrance to the kitchen. Her face beamed from some intense sense of excitement, her tone of voice raised to at least three different keys in her small dialogue, and she bounded over to him giddily, taking his arm and leading him toward Sungjong. This Woohyun observed with his ever-gaping mouth, all the while his body seemed to have submitted to a dutiful servant of the girl, abandoning his own commands.

“Good morning hyung,” Sungjong said to Woohyun, handing Woohyun the bowl of cereal and the spoon.

“Uuhh…” mumbled Woohyun. He found himself being led toward the couch in the living room, where he was seated a little too close next to Myungsoo on his right. Inspirit plopped down to his left nonchalantly.

Woohyun took two bites of cereal, but some odd, unnerving instinct told him to peer over at the girl to his left. Sure enough, the girl was staring at him, her face an inch away from his shoulder, her eyes beaming with the intensity with which she focused on Woohyun. “Wha… What are you doing?”

“Eat! It’s fun to watch you eat,” said Inspirit, eyes never leaving Woohyun’s face, never blinking, just glaring.

Woohyun tried to chew his cereal as indiscreetly as possible, but the girl’s stare seemed to physically crawl over his body. He stopped eating to look at her.

“Uhh… do you want some?” he asked.

Inspirit’s focused stare shifted toward the bowl in Woohyun’s hand. She eyed the contents of the bowl with what Woohyun could simply make out as curiosity. “What does it taste like?”

“You’ve never had cereal before?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t remember if I have or not,” replied Inspirit, tilting her head in puzzlement.

“Ohh…” Woohyun blinked, taken back by the girl’s sudden foreignness. At that moment, Inspirit really did resemble a small, curious bunny of sorts, and Woohyun could even imagine the image of the stuffed bunny juxtaposed over Inspirit’s confounded expression. “Well, you should try some,” he said.

Woohyun handed the girl his bowl of cereal. Inspirit copied what Woohyun had done, scooping up a mixture of the cereal and the milk, and slowly placed the spoon inside . For a minute, Inspirit simply chewed the cereal blankly. Then, she finally swallowed. Woohyun watched her face carefully, looking for a hint of expression, until suddenly, every single muscle of her face transformed into a great big grin that reminded Woohyun of an overexcited rabbit, and she shouted out, “It’s yummy!!”

Woohyun let out a rather nervous chuckle. “Can I have some more?” Inspirit asked, her wide eyes bearing into Woohyun, her pupils seeming as if about to burst from excitement. “Sure, go ahead,” he responded.

Inspirit finished the bowl of cereal in a matter of minutes. Afterward, though, she apologized to Woohyun, for having taken his breakfast away. “I’m sorry,… you’re the one who’s sick and recovering… you need the nutrition…” she sulked, the very empty bowl in her lap.

“It’s okay! I can just get another bowl. Not a problem,” said Woohyun, finding it a little odd that he was now comforting this stranger, whom apparently, he could only see, and who was indeed very concerned about his health.

In the end, Woohyun got a second bowl of cereal, which he finished himself. “Hungry much, Woohyun-ah? That’s good! that means you’re getting better!” remarked Sunggyu, “In fact, you’re looking much better than you did just about twenty minutes ago!” The older boy flashed Woohyun a goofy grin.

Under Inspirit’s watch, Woohyun took two capsules of cold and fever medicine, after which she insistently placed her hand on his forehead again. “Are you always this hot? You temperature is not going down!” she complained, as she compared Woohyun’s temperature to her own by putting her hand on her own forehead.

Woohyun felt much better than he had the night before, but he was conscious of his body heat. Inspirit was right, his temperature still seemed to be very high. He was glad makeup could cover up any kind of blushing or reddening of the skin, for that day’s photo shoot. The Infinite members were completing their jacket photo shots for their repackaged album, Paradise. Just as the thought crossed his mind, the front door of Infinite’s dorm opened, and one of the managers, Hyoan hyung, stepped in.

“Let’s go guys! We’ve a long day ahead of us!”

Hoya and Myungsoo, who had been ready the quickest, stormed out of the dorm. The other members took a while longer, packing their bags and finishing morning business. Woohyun just needed to grab his jacket and ipod from his room, and he would be ready. Except, standing in front of the doorway to the room he and Sunggyu shared, was Inspirit, Woohyun’s black hoodie and ipod already in hand. “This is all you need, right?” she chirped excitedly, “I’m going too!”

Woohyun blinked at the girl, baffled. “What? How? You can’t!” he blurted.

“Why not?”

“uhhh…” Woohyun looked the girl up and down, from her bare feet and legs, to her casual clothing, to her hair braided in two strands. “Because you don’t have any shoes!” he managed to say.

“Why would I need shoes?” Inspirit replied, tilting her head to one side.

“Yah Nam Woohyun, hurry up!” called Hyoan hyung.

Woohyun grabbed his hair in frustration. This girl was now becoming more and more of a problem. He had no idea who she was, other than that she claimed her name to be Inspirit, and from what she’d told him, she had turned into a full girl from a stuffed bunny a fan had sent him. What kind of fan would send him a real-life girl? And why in the world was it that no one else could see her or acknowledge her existence, except him? He decided to let out a deep breath. He needed to go with s to work, and that was what was most important.

“Okay, come on. You can borrow a pair of my shoes,” Woohyun said, as he grabbed a pair of slippers he normally wore on his off days and set them on the floor for Inspirit. For once, he was seeing the benefit of having the smallest feet size in Infinite.

Woohyun put on his own sneakers, and gestured for Inspirit to put on the shoes, quickly. The girl stepped forward, but then looked down at the black slippers, quizzically. “I don’t know what to do with them,” she muttered.

“Oh great!” Woohyun exclaimed, and bent down, grabbing a slipper. He took Inspirit’s right ankle, indicating for her to raise her right foot from the floor. When she did as she was told, Woohyun slipped the shoe on her foot securely, setting her foot down on the floor again. He did the same for her left foot.

“Oh my gosh, I got taller!” Inspirit cried, bouncing on her newly acquired footwear.

Without acknowledging the girl, Woohyun bounded out of the door of their dorm, bowing slightly to Hyoan hyung for being the latest. Inspirit quickly stopped admiring her slippers and followed.

Woohyun surveyed the seating inside the van. Hyoan hyung was driving, Sunggyu hyung sat in the front, and Hoya, Myungsoo, Sungyeol were in the back. Sungjong and Dongwoo sat in the middle row, leaving room only for Woohyun. He looked behind him at Inspirit, whose wide eyes shined with pure excitement.

Shaking his head crazily, Woohyun jumped into the remaining seat in the van. Unconsciously, he scooted as close to Dongwoo as he could, even though surely, there wasn’t enough room for a fourth person in their middle row, even if the fourth person was a girl. Nonetheless, Inspirit followed exactly as Woohyun had done, and boarded the van. She took a seat right next to Woohyun, and to Woohyun’s surprise, she fit right into a small space of seating. Woohyun didn’t know whether the seat had expanded overnight, or if Inspirit was much smaller and thinner than he’d thought, but Inspirit seemed as comfortable as ever, giggling slightly as Hyoan hyung started up the car and pulled out of Infinite’s dorm.

Woohyun couldn’t help but ask himself, as the members around him continued to ignore Inspirit’s presence in the literally, cramped van, What is going on?

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading!