I knew I was awake before I opened my eyes.  When my eyes finally peeled open, the white light was blindingly bright.  I squinted and tried to cover my face.  Blinking, my eyes eventually adjusted.  Everything was clean and white.

                “She’s awake!  She’s awake!” I heard someone say.

                I looked around.  At myself.  At the room.

                I was in a hospital room.  I tried to lift my head, but it was too heavy and I was too weak.  I let my head fall to the side.  Two guys were staring at me.  One came closer to me and touched my forehead.

                “Nikki!  You’re finally awake!” he exclaimed.  I saw the other one go to the door way and yell in Korean.

                Korean.  Korea.  I must still be in Korea.  I’m not dead.  Memories flooded my mind like a tidal wave.  I felt sick.  I closed my eyes and let my brain settle.

                “Ji Yong,” I whispered in a raspy voice.  He darted around my bed and grabbed a cup of water.  He helped me sit up and I chugged the water.

                “Seung Hyun.”  My voice sounded closer to normal when I said his name as he approached my bed, followed by a doctor.  The doctor smiled and inspected me.  He took my vitals.  He shined a light into my eyes.  He checked my heart.  He talked with Ji Yong and Seung Hyun for a moment before smiling at me again and then leaving.

                “You’re going to live!” Ji Yong laughed as he hopped back next to my bed.

                Seung Hyun peered over at me from the other side of my bed.  “Do you know where you are?” he asked.  I blinked around.  They both were still in uniform, but they looked clean and well rested.  They pulled chairs up to my bedside and sat, waiting for me to get my bearings.  My head hurt a little still.

                “It’s a hospital,” I told him.  He nodded and smiled at me.  I turned to Ji Yong and touched his shoulder.  “Did you get shot?  Or was that a dream?”

                He tugged at his uniform shirt to show me the tiny scar.  “Thanks for the bracelet.”  He smiled.  “Are you dreaming about me though?”

                Seung Hyun scoffed.

                “Why are you guys here with me?” I wondered.  “What’s going on?”

                “Seung Ri wanted us to stay with you…” Seung Hyun mentioned.

                “You’ve been out for a while.  In a coma like state, the doctors said.  You’re going to be ok.  You have to stay for a few more days for observation, but you’ll be fine.  Do you remember the explosion?” Ji Yong asked me.

                I closed my eyes and thought for a moment, allowing the memories to take over.  Explosions.  Gunfire.  All that blood.  I put my hands at my sides on the bed to push myself up when I touched something soft.  Bamboo.

                “How did he get here?  Where’s Seung Ri?” I asked, tucking the little panda under my arm.  I caught the look that passed between Ji Yong and Seung Hyun.

                “Nikki, you’ve been out for almost three weeks,” Seung Hyun told me gently.  Three weeks?!  No wonder I’m so sore and stiff.  “The US finally sent back up.  Australia showed up, too.  North Korea has been pushed back up north.  It’s over.  All of it.  It’s all over.”

                I smiled weakly.  “So why are you guys still in uniform?”

                Ji Yong looked down at himself.  “War or no war.  We still have 8 months left to do in our service.”

                I nodded.  “Where’s Seung Ri?”  My eyes lowered sleepily, but I listened intently.

                “After the explosion,” Seung Hyun continued.  “You got hurt pretty bad.  You lost a lot of blood.  You almost died.”

                “Seung Ri stayed with you until we could get a vehicle to take the seriously wounded to a hospital.  You guys are the same blood type.  You needed a transfusion,” Ji Yong added.  I opened my eyes and looked to him.  “And then you had a really high fever for about a week.  At one point, they had to put you in an ice bath to help break the fever.”

                A fever?  No wonder I was on fire.  “He saved my life, didn’t he?” I whispered.

                Ji Yong nodded.  “He brought your backpack and your panda, too.”

                “So where is he?  I want to see him,” I said.  I could taste the bile working its way up my throat.  There was something they weren’t telling me.

                “There were complications with the transfusion,” Seung Hyun said.  He touched my hand.  “Seung Ri is in a coma.”

                I pushed myself up into a sitting position.  Both guys stood up, ready to jump if I needed them.  They adjusted my pillows so that I could sit up more.  I could feel the tears sting my eyes.

                “He’s going to die because of me, isn’t he?” I said as a tear slipped from my eye.

                “No, no, the way the doctor explained it is that he’s in a sort of comatose state.  He supposedly can hear and he knows what’s going on around him,” Ji Yong explained.

                “It’s like he’s in a really deep sleep.  Like trapped inside his own body.  We just have to wait until he wakes up.  The doctor says it’s a freak thing.  He’ll wake up when he’s ready.”

                “He’s like that because of me.  Why did he give me blood?” I cried softly.  I covered my face in my hands.  “He should have let me die.  I don’t have anyone.  He has a family and Yeon Soo and you guys.”

                I heard Ji Yong laugh sarcastically.  I looked over at him.  “There was no stopping him, Nikki.  He was an unstoppable force.  He was crazed when he thought you were going to die.  They told him it might be risky because you needed so much, but there was no discussing anything with him.”

                I sniffled.  “Will he be alright when he wakes up then?  He won’t die, will he?”

                Seung Hyun shook his head.  “It’s just a matter of time.  He just has to wake up.  The doctors don’t think there will be any permanent damage when he finally does wake up.  He just has to come back.”

                “You guys should be with him,” I said.  “Is he in this hospital?”

                Ji Yong nodded.  “Young Bae and Dae Sung are with him.  His family can’t get up here yet.  Yeon Soo managed to get up here though.”

                “Do you want to see him?” Seung Hyun asked, sitting upright.

                Isn’t Yeon Soo with him?  “No…” I sighed.  “I shouldn’t.”

                “Seriously?” Ji Yong replied skeptically.

                “I wouldn’t want to intrude.  I mean, Yeon Soo is there with him.”

                “That doesn’t mean you can’t go see him.  The doctor said we need to keep talking to him,” Seung Hyun insisted.

                “He’ll want to hear your voice especially,” Ji Yong added under his breath.

                Seung Hyun shot him a look.  He stood up and pecked me on the cheek.  “Rest for now.  You can see him later.  I’ll go tell the nurse to bring you something to eat.  You need to build up your strength again.”

                “Thanks, guys,” I said somewhat bashfully.  “Thank you for staying with me.”

                Ji Yong stood and patted my hand.  Dropping a kiss to my forehead, he replied, “We’ll be back to check on you later.  Rest now, ok?”  I nodded, my eyes already lowering.  Too much for my brain, I fell asleep against my will.

                When I woke up again, my headache was gone.  I wasn’t sure when it was, but when I looked out the window, it was dark out.  Seung Hyun and Ji Yong were fast asleep.  Seung Hyun sprawled out on the sofa in the room, his long limbs hanging off the end.  Ji Yong was curled into a ball on the chair near the window.

                I stood up and stretched my aching joints.  I was glad to see that Korean hospitals didn’t have those terrible backless gowns.  I was in pajamas.  A top and bottoms. 

                I went to the bathroom and then drank another four cups of water from the pitcher at my bedside.  I glanced over at the two sleeping men and rummaged through the closet I’d noticed against the wall near the bathroom in my room.  I found two blankets and covered the guys.

                Tip toeing out of the room, I wandered down the hall.  Just out of pure luck, I found the room with Seung Ri’s name on it three down from mine.  I crept inside.  He had a private room like mine.  I could feel the tears building up behind my eyes again once I laid my eyes on him.  He was lying on his back.  He wasn’t hooked up to anything.  He looked peaceful.  Like he was just sleeping and he’d wake up as if he’d just taken a nap.

                I was only a step away from his bed, my fingers reaching out for the hand lying flat at his side when I noticed the girl on the other side of his bed.

                The girl from the picture.  It was Yeon Soo.  I just knew it was.

                Startled, I cringed my arm against my chest.  Afraid to touch him while she was there.  I stared at his sleeping face and wiped the tears off my own.  I wanted to talk to him.  To tell him how sorry I was, but the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth.  I noticed Dae Sung and Young Bae were both cramped together on the sofa on the other side of the room.

                “You must be Nikki,” a low voice said.