The next morning, they let me sleep late.  Well, sleep is an understatement.  Nurses came in every hour to check my vitals.  Once they even offered me a sleeping aid.  Um, what?  If you people didn’t keep waking me up, I wouldn’t need any sleeping aids, now would I?

            Before I knew it, doctors, nurses, and their Indian leader were at my bedside, ready to wheel me into the Operating Room.

            “I’ll be right here when you’re done,” Tae Il told me, looking nervous as people in white coats surrounded my bed.  He glanced up, eyes darting around to various members of this team.  “Or I’ll be wherever they let me wait for you.  Where can I wait so I can see her right away when it’s over?”

            Dr. Kurdian smiled.  “We’re going to bring her back to this room, so if you wait in here, you’ll be the first one she sees when she wakes up.”

            One of the younger nurses gently touched Tae Il’s shoulder, giggling nervously.  A few of the nurses and student doctors had recognized him as Block b’s vocalist, but everyone was incredibly professional and refrained from asking him questions or requesting photos or anything.  This girl was one of the few that had recognized him and she had yet to say anything, but that didn’t stop her cheeks from burning the few rare times she had to speak to him. 

            She gestured to the door just as two male nurses wheeled in a long cot.  “We have a bed for you.  To rest while her surgery is going on,” she explained softly.  The men moved the table and chairs positioned near the window closer to the far wall and parked the cot next to where my bed would be.  “We are sorry that we could not get one sooner.”

            “It’s fine.  Thank you very much,” he replied graciously.  “That’s very nice of you.”

            She giggled and stepped in line with the other nurses.

            “Please try to get some rest.  It would be a shame if when she recovers, you collapse from exhaustion,” Dr. Kurdian cut in, speaking like a father again.

            Tae Il bowed his head.  “Yes, sir.”

            Everyone filed out of the room except for three student doctors whose job it was to roll my ginormous bed out of the room.

            Frantically, Tae Il hopped out of his seat, still clutching at my hand.  He, shamelessly, kissed me all over my face, whispering words meant to be comforting.  I was scared out of my mind and he knew it.  I know he didn’t mean to, but it wasn’t helping that he was kissing me like this was the last time he’d ever touch me.

            “Everything’s going to be ok,” he said, looking directly into my eyes.  The crack in his voice betrayed his hardened façade.  He was scared too.

            I nodded.  “Sleep for a while.”

            “I will,” he promised.  Lied, actually.  I knew he wasn’t going to sleep.

            “I love you,” he said lowly. 

            “I-”  He put his hand over my mouth, leaving it there only a second before replacing it with his lips. 

            “After, ok?” he said with a nod.  “When you wake up.”

            My eyes filled with tears.  “Please, Tae Il, what if-”

            He cleared his throat and shook his head.  “There are no ‘what ifs.’  You can say it 100 times when you wake up.”

            “Why won’t you let me tell you?” I asked, almost pleadingly.

            “Because if you say it now, I’m afraid you’ll give up.  You’ll think it’s ok to let go,” he whispered, glancing around at the student doctors who were waiting patiently with their hands on the rails of my bed.  “But if you don’t tell me, you’re so damn stubborn, you’ll hang on just so you can tell me after.  And that’s just what I want.”

            I shook my head and laughed once.  “You’re crazy.”

            “About you.”

            “Tae Il…”

            “Kelly, please.  Tell me after.  Hold on, ok?”

            I touched his cheek with the hand that wasn’t connected to the IV and nodded.  “Ok, after,” I agreed.

            He kissed me once more and then looked to the student doctors and nodded, gratefully.

            “Hey, Doc, could I ask you something please?” I asked as soon as we were in the hallway.  Dr. Kurdian was walking leisurely by my side as the others pushed my bed.

            “Of course, Miss Kelly,” he answered, looking down at me.

            “Do you know the donor?  The one you got all the healthy blood from?”

            “No, it’s from the hospital’s blood bank.  We don’t know the names of the donors,” he replied.  Arching an eyebrow, curiously, he asked, “Why are you wondering?”

            I giggled lightly, a little embarrassed.  “I was just curious.”

            He smiled knowingly.  “You were curious if it was Tae Il’s blood, weren’t you?”

            I felt the expression melt off my face.  “How did you know?” I asked, shocked as they wheeled my bed into the elevator that had been held open by a nurse who had hurried ahead of us down the hall.

            The doctor chuckled lightly.  “I may have just met you a couple of days ago, Miss Kelly, but that young man has barely left your side the entire time you’ve been here.  I see the way he looks at you.”  I stared up at the doctor, incredulously as he remained focused on the elevator doors in front of him.  “You have good reason to be curious though.  He did offer, but he’s the wrong blood type.  It wouldn’t matter anyway though.  If we were to take blood from live donors, we’d need at least four in order to not take a dangerous amount.”

            “I knew that little punk would try something insane like that,” I muttered with a shake of my head.

            Dr. Kurdian laughed.  “Miss Kelly, men only do crazy things like offer half of their own blood for women they love dearly.  He may be a punk, but you hold on tight to him, alright?  For the rest of your long, long life, do you understand?”

            I felt my mouth turn up into a smile.  “Yes, Doctor.”

            “You two have some good friends, too,” he added as the elevator dinged signaling we’d reached the floor with the OR on it.  I tipped my head up to see the doctor after he’d positioned himself behind my bed as the others pushed me out of the elevator cab.  “Tae Il called Korea and asked some people what their blood types were.  Unfortunately, only two of them had the right blood type.  According to Tae Il, though, before I mentioned needed at least four, the two he’d asked were ready to fly out here.”

            Six?  Friends?  I had six friends?  He’d asked Block b?  They were actually going to come?  My mind was spinning.

            “Yeah…um, they’re pretty…great,” I murmured.  The doctor nodded, still smiling warmly.

            A new set of people in green scrubs crowded around my bed once I was in the OR.  “Hey, Doc,” I called softly to Dr. Kurdian as I lifted my head and shoulders off the bed.  He appeared at my side.  “Um, when you guys put me out…well, I have really bad night terrors.  I don’t want to wake up screaming in the middle of this and give someone a heart attack or screw things up or anything, you know?”  I tried to laugh it off, but I was genuinely worried about this.

            He smiled reassuringly at me and patted my shoulder.  “Night terrors occur during the fourth stage of sleep, but anesthesia puts you under a deeper, artificial sleep.  You have nothing to worry about.  You may dream while you are under, but I can assure you, you will not have a night terror.”  I smiled lightly at him and lay back flat.

            An older Japanese man putting on white gloves came to the head of my bed.  “Hello, Miss Kelly, I’m the one who’s going to put you under,” he smiled.  “You’re in good hands, if I do say so myself.”

            “Great.  You look like you know what you’re doing, Doc.  I feel better already,” I replied.

            “Oh, I’m not an actual doctor.  I’m the anesthesiologist.  Too much schooling to be a real doctor.” 

            “Oh, my God.  I don’t want to do this anymore.  What…oh, you’re kidding.”  He chuckled as he began fiddling with the tools on the cart next to him, eyes flicking over to the machine tracking my vitals.

            “I like my patients relaxed,” he explained as he began doing something to my IV.

            “Might want to rethink your jokes then, sir.”

            Dr. Kurdian’s laugh made me look to my other side.  “I should have warned you earlier.  My anesthesiologist thinks he has jokes.”

            “Well, I guess it’s better than him being a cranky, old grouch,” I replied.

            “That’s what I say,” the anesthesiologist said.  “Alright,” he began again, all business as he looked down at me.  “The anesthesia will take a few seconds to take effect.  Relax and count backwards from ten for me.”

            I nodded.  “Ten, nine, eight, seven…”  My mind grew hazy and I couldn’t remember which number came next.  I could feel myself drifting away.  Floating.  My eyelids became too heavy to hold up and they slowly lowered shut.

            Everything was white.  I was alone, but I wasn’t scared.  A weird feeling of knowing I was dreaming came over me, but it was an almost peaceful one and my mind barely acknowledged it. 

            The place was so bright.  I squinted at the figure I saw in the distance until it came closer.  I laughed in surprise.

            “Hey,” I greeted.  “Funny meeting you here.”