“Uhh... why do I feel dizzy?” I asked myself as I opened my eyes slowly when I woke up. My head felt like it’s going to kill my brain... The room looked so bright that I couldn’t see anything. “Where am I?? Looks heavenly white in here,” I said. Then, slowly I began to see the room clearly. “Heavenly?  You’re not dead yet,” said a guy beside my bed as he chuckled to himself. “Y-yah! Who are you? W-what are you doing here?! Where am I?” I asked in a panic way. “You sure have a lot of question. You’re in a hospital, girl. Or should I call you ______ if you don’t mind?” he said with a smile.

“H-how did you-“before I asked him something, he made a quick reply to my question,” I know your name from this book. By the way, I’m Bang Yongguk,” he said and gave a notebook to me. Wait...how did he have my notebook? Is he a stalker? Or he is one of the students in my school? Many question appeared in my mind but I just kept quiet as I’m still confused and felt uncomfortable being alone with that guy. “You look really confused. Don’t you remember me?” he asked. I just shook my head and tried to avoid eye contact with him. “You don’t? Mmm... The other day we met at the bus stop. I came to help you...remember?” with his eyes looking at me closely. “Ummm....W-wait, aren’t you the same guy at the alley? Minyoung...she did mention your name..Yoo...nggg...guk?” I tried to recall his name and the incident slowly. “Do you remember anything other than that?” he asked another question like a policeman asking a victim when he tried to investigate a crime case. I just kept silent and I could feel that my heartbeats faster and my face had turned pale when I tried to recall the incident.

Yongguk tried to calm me down and gave me a glass of water. “Calm down. Here, take a glass of water,” as he held the crystal clear mineral water to me. “T-there’s no poison in there right?” I asked him hesitantly. He just shook his head and was giggled to hear about it. “Why are you so worried about? I’m not a bad guy you know. Or maybe I do looked like it,” he teased me with his jokes. “Aah...I-I don’t mean anything. I mean...You’re kinda a nice person,” I told him. I took the glass of water and have a drink. Then I felt relived a bit and tried to explain everything to him slowly and calmly,” Well, after the school ended that day, I went to the bus stop as usual... I didn’t realize the girls were waiting for me and after that, they took me to the alley. At that moment, they slapped and kicked me. They even tried to kill me!”

“Good thing I was there to save you,” he said. Suddenly, Yongguk just kept silent and looked like he was thinking about something. “Mian haeyo but can I ask you something?” I tried to open up a conversation. “Ye,ye. I don’t mind,” he smiled. “Umm...how did you have my book?” I asked. “Ahh...do you remember the day when you got beat up by those girls at the bus stop?” he talked slowly as he wanted me to recall the incident. I nodded my head when the images of the incident kept appearing in my mind. “During my fan-meeting day, one of my members saw ‘that girl’ been hit by them. So, I quickly ran to the bus stop to help her. Unfortunately, ‘that girl’ didn’t even say thank you to me or give me her name. She just bowed and leave me like that,” he teased me. I felt embarrassed and lowered my head when Yongguk said like that to me. Then, he continued on with his stories,” ‘That girl’ also accidentally left her notebook with me. I kept calling her but she just took off as she went into the bus... The end...” he said as he turned his head and looked at me.

No wonder he kept calling me that day. I just want to get away from those embarrassments and quickly went home. “Yah, don’t feel bad. I was only kidding... At least I found ‘that girl’ and her name now,” he tried to cheer me up. I just smiled at him when he joked with me. Then, I tried to ask him another question again,” Yongguk-shii, did you just said that you had a fan-meeting? Who are you?”

His face was shocked a bit when I asked that kind of question but he did reply it. “Looked like you’re still new about Korea I supposed? Well, I’m an artist actually,” he told me as he peeled the apple skin. “Ouh, I see... Sorry for asking that kind of question and thanks for helping me,” I said as I don’t know what to do or react that time. I was just looking at Yongguk who had a rough time peeling the apple skin. He looked like in a trouble for peeling that apple skin so I decided to help him. I took the apple and the knife from him and started to peel the skin. “Yah, how much longer should you peel this apple skin?” I . “Mmm, more like a year? I don’t used to it though,” he said and laughed loudly. At that time I saw his gummy-smile on his face. Suddenly, he stopped laughing and tried to cover his mouth. “Why are you covering your mouth?” I asked curiously. He just shook his head and avoids eye contact with me. “Are you covering your gummy?” I smiled at him when seeing his action. “N-no, I’m not! I j-just... you know... Try to smell my own breath,” he told me. “No need to cover it. I already saw your gummy-smile,” I smiled and looked at him.

Yongguk just kept silent. He must be shy about his gummy-smile. When I finished peeling the apple skin, I cut the apple into two and shared half of it to Yongguk. “Half for you... By the way, you don’t have to be shy bout your gummy. Its kinda aegyo you know?” I told him as I took a bite of my apple. “Aegyo?? You think I’m cute?” he asked with his eyes wide opened. “Aa... I meant by your smile,” I told him hesitantly. He just chuckled to himself and I knew that he was making fun of me.

“Yah, it’s time for me to go now. Better get ready to work,” he said and stood up. “W-wait! What about me?” I asked. “You still have to stay here for couple of days. Get some rest,” he said. The doctor told him that I have internal bleeding and I should stay in here for some days. Now I kept thinking about the bills cause I don’t have enough money to pay it. What should I do? I don’t want to ask for the money from my parents after ‘the family issues’. “_____? What are you thinking about?” Yongguk asked when he looked at me like I’m in trouble.

“Ahh, nothing. I’m just thinking about how’s my schooling after this. I must be left far behind,” I told him. I just don’t want to trouble him again. I felt like a burden to him if I kept relying on him. Plus, we just know about each other. “Don’t worry about it. Hmmm, I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow,” he told me. I couldn’t believe my ears when he told me that he would come again to check on me. “Mwo? You’ll come back here tomorrow?”

“Yeah... I’ll come at time like this,” as he held the door knob, I told him not to trouble himself for visiting me. He must be busy with his works so I didn’t want to bother him. Yongguk just kept on smiling and said it’s not troubling him at all. Now I felt really guilty about this kind of matter. “Hey, you’re my friend.  As your friend, I should visit you if you’re unwell,” and he left the room after he said goodbye to me. “Aishh... Is he serious?” I said to myself. For me, that’s not the biggest problem I had for now. My problem was how much should I pay for the medical treatment? If I pay the bills, I don’t have money to buy my own food to eat for the whole 3 months. *sigh* So, I have to work over-time after I went out from the hospital, ae? That’s all I could think of for the mean time...