Shin Hye’s P.O.V.

It was 7 o’clock in the morning and I slowly opened my eyes to a fresh new day. I blinked a few times to refine my vision, but strangely the world in front of me remained blurry. I blinked a few more times --- nothing changed. Oh my gosh! What happened to my eyes?! I buried my face in my hands in devastation, and I was stunned as soon as my hands touched my face – it was nice and soft! Oh mine! What’s going on here?! I instinctively traced all over my face and my hair --- could it be that …? I hurried down my bunk bed and into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror and discovered the most wonderful news ever ---I’m myself again!!!!!!!!!!!! I TURNED BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I squealed and jumped for joy!

As I walked out of the bathroom, I heard So Eun’s faint whine: “Eerr… What… Are… You … Doing... Shin Hye? You’re… So… Loud…”

“Oh my gosh!!!! You’re not gonna believe this!!!!!! But I turned back!!!!!!” I shook her vivaciously, couldn’t contain my excitement.

“Huh… Okay…” said So Eun as she got back to sleep, but just as her eyes were about to close, she suddenly opened her eyes wide: “Hang on a sec! What do you mean you ‘turned back’?”

Oops! I had just given myself away! I quickly covered for my info leakage: “By that I mean I’m the person I used to be again! Not the person who spent the past two weeks with you… If that person had been weird… that is…”

“Oh yeah… You have been really weird… Sometimes I just felt that… I don’t know you anymore… But anyway, welcome back! And don’t turn into that person again…” said So Eun as she went back to sleep.

I will try, I guess… But this is going to be really hard! I changed into my sport uniform after I had washed up --- one of my resolutions during this soul exchange was to jog every morning for 10 minutes. I might be able to see Yong Hwa Oppa this morning!

I greedily breathed in the fresh morning air as I jogged on the oval. While I was jogging on the oval, I heard Yong Hwa Oppa called my name: “Morning, Shin Hye!” I turned around and saw him smiling as he caught up with me, “I didn’t know that you jog as well!”

I beamed at him – it was a real bliss to be able to spend time with Yong Hwa Oppa as my true self! We continued to jog and chat. While I was immersing in the joy this blessed morning bestowed upon me, I felt a sharp pain in my right ankle and luckily, Yong Hwa Oppa managed to catch me before I fell. I must have gotten too carried away and landed on the wrong part of my foot!

“Are you alright?” asked Yong Hwa Oppa slowly helped me sit down. I nodded at him with a forced smile on my face.

“No, you’re not!” he frowned, “tell me, which one of your feet is hurting?”

“The right one…”

“Okay, can you move your right ankle about?”

I tried to do as he said, but even a tiny movement aggravated my pain. I looked up to him and shook my head with an apologetic smile.

“Is your right ankle swollen?”

I took off my right shoe to palpate my ankle, and nodded.

“Hmm…” said Yong Hwa Oppa with his hand gripping his jaw, “it seems like you have sprained your ankle… We probably need to go to the school nurse – Now let’s try to stand up shall we?” he smiled as he moved to my right to take my weight. My cheeks felt warm because now our cheeks were only a few inches away! “Ready?” he asked, “we are standing up now. One, two, three!” we stood up at the same time.

“So… how do you know all the first aid stuff?” I asked on our way to the school nurse’s.

“My dad is a doctor; he works at the musculoskeletal ward, that’s how I picked it up.”

“Cool! My dad is a doctor too!”

“Then how come you couldn’t diagnose yourself?” asked Yong Hwa Oppa playfully.

“Hmm… I guess I’m interested in the neural stuff more and perhaps the anatomy too!”

“Wow! That’s interesting!” he chuckled.

We chatted on and off until we arrived at the school nurse’s office.

“Hello! What can I do for you here?” Doctor Im asked while looking concerned.

“I think Shin Hye has sprained her ankle.”

“Oh, that’s no good! Let’s see what we can do about this.” said Doctor Im as she escorted us to the consulting room. I got on the consulting bed with Doctor Im and Yong Hwa Oppa’s help. Once I sat on the bed, Doctor Im started to check my injury. After a series of questions and physical examination, she arrived at the conclusion that it was a sprained ankle.  Then she explained to me the nature of the injury and the treatment she’s about to give me. After that, she applied an ice pack on my ankle and bandaged it. Then she cushioned my foot with a few large pillows. She told me to repeat this treatment in my own time for 20 minutes every 2 hours for the next two days. Then she turned to Yong Hwa Oppa: “Since this treatment will take about 20 minutes, you can stay and keep your friend company or go ahead with your stuff.” While I was waiting for Yong Hwa Oppa’s reply, the naughty girl inside me was doing a weird dance and chanted: “Sta---y! Sta---y!” Yah! Stop it! You should be ashamed of yourself!

“I’ll stay.” Said Yong Hwa Oppa.

Yes! Ahh!! Stop it! Naughty Shin Hye!

As Yong Hwa Oppa sat on the chair beside me, he asked a question that totally took me by surprise: “Should I let Jong Hyun know about this?”

Huh? What for?

“Oh, no … No! It’s not necessary!” I quickly declined.

“Okay.” He paused for a while then continued: “You would probably think this is really weird, but Jong Hyun actually really cares about you.”

“He does?” I asked doubtfully.

“Yeah,” Yong Hwa Oppa chuckled, “Remember that time when he was really mad at you?”

“Uh Huh?” Well, Jong Hyun is mad almost every time he sees me!

“He was just mad because he thought that spiky hair was too much for you… He meant well…”

Ah, that time! Of course I care about how I look! How can I not be mad when someone messes with my hair?! But at this moment I could do nothing but pretended that I appreciated my evil stepbrother’s concern: “Oh… That’s good to hear…”

“Wow!” Yong Hwa Oppa smiled as he looked down at the floor, “I’m glad that you guys no longer hate each other as much…” he paused for a while, “You know what, ” he looked up to me and smiled, “I have always been curious of how it would be like to have a sibling.”

“Really?” I smiled, “But I don’t think there’s anything to be curious about. Your friends are kinda like your siblings, aren’t they?”

“I guess…” he chuckled, “but still, I wonder how it would be like when you come home, and someone was there to joke with you or pick on a fight…”

“Do you like to fight?” I couldn’t hide my curiosity.

“Of course I don’t, but you know siblings don’t fight for real.”

“Sorry, I have to disagree with you on this one, but Jong Hyun and I fight for real, at least, I think we do!”

Yong Hwa Oppa chuckled: “Okay, perhaps Jong Hyun is not a good sibling, but he is a good friend.”

“Yeah, I can see that… Or you guys wouldn’t have been friends for so long… Sorry for being so curious, but what keeps your friendship going, even though you guys are so… different?”

“I don’t know, we both like music, I guess… What keeps you and your friend together?”

…

As we chatted, I no longer felt that Yong Hwa Oppa is a shiny star in heaven that I could never reach. Rather, he was a caring Oppa and a great friend who would listen. He also had his own struggle and questions, and I was so glad that I could be his listening ear as well!

Author-nim's Note: Dear Readers and Subbies,

Sorry for such a late update! But I hope you enjoy the story! <3