It’s hard for me to keep up this façade. I’ve been interning at Gurupop for a while now, but it seems they finished season two faster than I thought they would. I still help out at Pops in Seoul and I seem to be getting pictures of work every time I’m in the building.

Today Daniel comes in even though he’s been busy with Dalmatian’s new CD Safety Zone.

I smile as he walks into the building.

I pull at my pink hoodie and look down while tucking some hair behind my ear all while looking straight at him.

“Hello Daniel its nice to see you today,” I greet him.

“Oh Rachel I thought you were doing a press release on your first book of poetry today?”

“The party is tonight so I thought of inviting a few people from the office and it seems that you’re on my list.” I smile as I hand him the invitation, “You can bring the band mates if you want just don’t forget the invitation.”

He nods his head, “Of course when should I be at…” he looks at the invite, “this is a street address.”

I laugh, “Of course it is I’m living at a friend’s house and it’s big enough to hold a celebration for my first book.”

He nods again, “Alright so when should I be here?”

“Well the invite says around eight but anytime is fine with me.”

He nods, “Yeah did San E get one?”

“Yeah he said he might not make it, but I told him it was okay with me since it’s a bit sudden. Truth be told I didn’t want to throw a party, but my friend told me not to waste my time and have fun well I can.”

I chuckle at the memory of Rae’s face when she was yelling this at me, but it turns into a frown as I remember her having to be hooked up to oxygen for a few hours after being sedated.

I feel a hand touch my shoulder, “Are you alright?”

I nod my head and think, ‘Yeah, but I’m not sure how I’m going to be when Rae dies. Her timer is running on borrowed time and soon will run out.’

I feel a hand on my head, “Are you sure you’re alright? I hear you’ve been running around non stop I’m sure today isn’t the end of it.”

“I’m not sure, but after the party tonight I get to sleep in until noon if I want so ask me tomorrow.”

Even though it never sleep in that late since I was five years old.

He nods, “I would but the two of us won’t be in work and I don’t have your number.”

“Oh Jjinga?”

He nods his head for an answer.

“You seem to do that a lot along with smiling.” I pull out my phone and hand it to him, “here.”

He chuckles as he pulls his phone and hands it out to me. I enter my number and create a new contact for it. I hand him back his phone as he does the same but with my phone.

“Thank you,” I smile at him, “I guess I’ll see later tonight.”

He nods his head as I leave the room and go straight to the hospital.

When I reach the hospital, I smile as I look at my phone to see that Daniel is one of the few people in my contact list. I realize I haven’t set a picture for when he calls so I look through my photo gallery to find a picture of him and me.

I look around in my music gallery as I walk through the familiar halls I find a song file with Dalmatian’s songs. I’m staring at the titles  when I walk into Rae’s room. I look up to see her sitting there on her bed staring out the window.

“Hey, Rae,” I say as I walk over to the bed and sit down.

“Rachel, can I ask you something?”

“Of course Rae we’ve been friends for a long while now.”

“When the time comes would you kill me?”

I shake my head, “You know that I won’t. Rae I know that this can be painful, but don’t talk like that.”

“I heard the doctors talking today about how the tumor grew. The treatment isn’t working sure I’m walking a little bit more but it makes me dizzy. At times, my memory is mush.”

I sigh as I look up at her and smile, “Tonight is my party for my book release I invited some people from work. I thought we could bring you and a nurse for you can meet them.”

“I’m not sure. I don’t want them to feel sorry for me.”

“I’ll get you a wig and we can say you can’t walk. Rae I wouldn’t have been able to do this if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have pursued my dream. I would still be working at my part time job by the airport. I might even have gone back to the states to live with my grandparents when my parents died in that accident.”

She smiles, “Alright. I’ll go but you better have a nice speech dedicated to you.”

I smile at her, “You know that I do.”

She nods her head.

I was able to get everything I need for Rae and tonight. The nurse agreed to come to my house with me pushing Rae in a wheelchair since we don’t want to put stress on Rae’s body. Rae’s nurse is dressed for the occasion so she won’t stick out too much with the stupid bag that she has to carry around with her.

We dressed her in a cute and beautiful, simple, and cute black dress. We straightened her wig so it’s look like what her hair would if she still had it. Though we add a cute flowral headband into her hair. Then I gently do her makeup to hide how tired and sick she is also to enhance the beauty that I know is still there. I slip on some jewelry on her and smile as I pull away from her.

(Rae’s Outfit)

I’m flipping through my closet tossing clothing around until Rae shouts, “this would be cute then wear those black shoes.”

I turn around to see that she pulled out a cute lacey white shirt then a black skirt.

(Your outfit)

“It’s cute, but you know how I feel about short skirts, shorts, and dresses.”

She nods her head and tosses me a pair of hoes.

I smile as I take the clothing and walk into my small closet to change into the clothing and I end up crashing out of the doors well I was leaning up against it to put on the stupid hoes after I put the skirt on.

“What?”

I look up to see that Daniel was standing there shocked well the nurse and Rae were laughing.

“What the hell guys?”

“What he was asking where you were and we said one of the closets. I think he doesn’t trust us.”

I look down glad that my skirt didn’t rise up, “Well at the moment I don’t trust you guys.”

“Oh hush now,” the nurse I think her name is Mary; “You know that it’s twenty after eight.”

I jump up and look at the time, “Did we take that long to get here? Aish I should have changed before I picked you up, Rae.”

She giggles as Mary carts her out of the room.

Daniel starts to apologize but I laugh at him, “It’s alright you’re not in trouble.”

He nods his head but I hear Jeesu whisper to Youngwon, “Sure should we tell her she should probably wear shorts to hide her black underwear?”

I reach over and grab his ear, “You should probably get that image out of your head now before I rip it off your shoulders.”

Daniel chuckles, “All Right. Rachel, calm down.”

I turn to him and smile, “That’s good now I think I should exit my room with you guys in front of me. No offense.”

The nod their heads and leave my room right behind them.

The rest of the time before I give some stupid speech about my poetry collection book is a bit of a boring blur. Still when the time comes up to do it I feel light on my feet mostly cause I spent most of the time talking with Rae and surprising enough Daniel even though Dalmatian guys hung close by.

I walk up to the small stage that Rae’s parents made a while back for some party they held at the house.

I step up and take a microphone, “I know a lot of you know that I’m the poet, Innocence, that everyone is talking about for the last two and a half years.  I’m not sure many people know that my story not that I’m going to go into detail and tell you my whole life, because my poetry does that for me. I wrote this book not just with poetry but short stories much like a famous English poet that I had always looked up to when I was living in America, Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote based on what he was feeling even though all his stories were horror based ones. I write about true happenings in the normal human day life. I write about what I do from problems I hear about, what’s happening in my life,  what I see happening around me either from tv or what I see happening with others in the real world, or I’ll suddenly get an idea for a story or poem out of thin air. Those are harder. I know that most of my poetry that are new are a bit depressing because of some sadness that has entered my life and I finally had taken time and confronted it, but the sadness is still there. Still I’m happy because of those who helped push me towards my dreams. I want to thank my parents even though they are no longer with me because of a plane accident a few years ago. The last person that I want to thank is my friend, Rae, who is the biggest influence on me since I moved here. When my parents died, she gave me a place to live and a job to keep me on track. I probably would have moved back to California to live with my grandmother and given up my dream to be a writer. Now I’m working not just as a writer, but also as a intern in a cool studio where I got to meet all kinds of people. This has changed my life and I want to thank everyone, because they are an inspiration for my writing even if they don’t know it. Also thank you for coming today and supporting me. I was kind of nervous since this is the first book that I’ve ever published. I just hope that people in Korea and the world will like my works as much as I do.”

I bow slightly to them not wanting to hit my head on anything like I have a habit of doing.

Not that much later everyone starts leaving first is Rae since she needs to go through her last part of her treatment for the day and through the night. The last people that leave is Daniel and the guys of Dalmatian.

“Thanks so much for coming Daniel,” I give him a hug just for the heck of it.

I smile at his band mates, “Thanks for coming with him guys, but if you ever bring up what happened at the beginning I will surely kill you.”

They give me a look that causes me to laugh, “It was a joke. I don’t believe in violence unless it’s to protect yourself.”

They nod their heads as they turn to leave.

Inati is the last to leave and he takes my hand and kisses it, “It was nice meeting you today.”

I nod as he turns and leaves.

I turn to Daniel and tell him, “Oh I forgot to give you something can you wait here.”

I race into the kitchen where I had placed a copy of my book that will be out in stores tomorrow.

I walk into the foyer and hand him the copy, “They gave me a few copies, I was planning to give them to people I like, and you seem to be on my list.”

He chuckles as he takes the copy and I swear I see a lightbulb over his head, “Here, sign it.”

I nod my head, pull a marker from the table next to the door, and sign the book.

He reads it aloud, “To a great friend I made during interning. I hope we can keep this friendship for a long time, Rachel.”

I look up to see a slight blush on his cheeks. I look down and smile slightly.

“Rachel, rember to tell me how you feel right when you wake up.”

I nod my head and smile, “Of course, you’ll be the first person I’ll text in the morning.”

He nods his head and looks at me, “Well I’ll hear from you tomorrow.”

“Of course goodnight for now,” I tell him.

“Yes, make sure you sleep as soon as possible. I’ll be going now. Bye.”

I watch as he leaves and quickly race into my room and watch him leave before I strip out of my clothes and get ready for bed.