The way he said those words.  It was as if that was it.  Nothing more needed to be said.  “That-that’s it?” I stammered.  “I mean, do I have to do anything?”

            “Well,” he began stuffing his hands into the deep pockets of his white lab coat.  “You will need to rest and sleep, a lot.  You will also need to stay here for at least one more week actually so that we can monitor you and run some tests, but as for follow up or continued treatment…”  He shrugged.  “There’s nothing.  Recover and regain your strength and then go on with your life, Miss Kelly.  Write a book, go skydiving, learn to ice skate.”  He flailed his arms out.  “Whatever it is you want to do.  You have plenty time now to do it.”

            My chest tightened and I felt tears fill my eyes.  “Um,” I said to test out my voice.  It cracked.  “I don’t know how to thank you, Doctor.”

            He patted my arm lightly.  “You can thank me by writing a book or going skydiving or learning to ice skate or doing whatever it is you want to do.”

            I giggled and nodded.

            “Tae Il, you take good care of her, ok?  And of yourself.  I’ll be one of the doctors checking on her the week that she’s here for recovery.  Don’t let me catch you not eating or not sleeping, you understand?” the doctor scolded, a smile playing on his face.

            Tae Il nodded and squeezed my hand, but continued to watch the doctor.  He bowed a full ninety degrees.  “Yes, Doctor.  A-and thank you.  I-”

            Dr. Kurdian smiled and held a hand up to him.  Tae Il’s mouth closed and he nodded, one corner of his mouth turned up.  “I’ll see you tomorrow.  Rest now.”  He turned with the nurses.  The nurses left, but he hesitated in the doorway.  “In a bed, it’s more comfortable.  Rest in a bed.  I’m going to have that hard, metal chair taken out of this room if you keep using it,” Dr. Kurdian warned.

            Tae Il just nodded, laughing slightly.  I looked up at him.  His cheeks were tinged a slight pink.

            “You heard the doctor, Tae Il,” I scolded him jokingly as I let go of his hand and forced my weight over, centimeter by excruciatingly slow centimeter, to the far side of my bed after everyone had cleared out of the room.  I patted the now empty spot next to me with my fingers.  “Get into bed.”

            “Kelly, I don’t think he meant…” he began.

            “Bed,” I stated flatly.  Then I pouted out my lower lip.  “Ah, it hurts.  I’m so tired.  Why are you torturing me?  Why don’t you-”

            “Alright, I’m sorry.  Stop whining,” he interrupted, a slight smirk on his face as he slid into bed next to me.  I used the hand that was not connected to an IV to massage the back of his neck.  After a second, he swatted my hand away.  Adjusting me gently onto my back so that my head was resting on his arm.  “I know you are not trying to take care of me while you’re the one lying in a hospital bed.”

            I sighed contentedly, feeling good with him next to me.  “Technically, you’re lying in a hospital bed, too now.”

            He rolled his eyes and dropped a kiss to my temple.  “I should have seen that smartass reply coming,” he mumbled.  He my hair lightly as he pulled his fingers through it.  He made himself comfortable at my side with his head on my pillow next to my neck.  When he spoke, I could feel his lips on my skin.  “You should sleep now.”

            “You know you could go back to Seoul now.  All the bad stuff is over.  I’m going to be ok, they say, so if you wanted to get back to work and Block b, I wouldn’t…”  He snorted loudly, pretending to be asleep and snoring.  “What are you doing?” I laughed, shrugging the shoulder under his head.  He rubbed his cheek against my shoulder, his forehead against the side of my neck and he draped an arm carefully across my chest, gripping my other shoulder lightly.

            “If you’re going to start that crap again, I’m going to go to sleep so I don’t have to talk to you,” he replied.  I hooked my arms around his, holding onto his forearm with both hands.

            “Alright, I’m sorry,” I responded, still laughing a little.  He snuggled himself against me a little more and I worried he might fall asleep.

            “Tae Il,” I whispered, glancing down at him without moving too much.

            “Hmm?” he sounded, his eyes closed.

            “I’m awake.  It’s after the procedure.  According to the King of the Doctors, I have a long life ahead of me,” I mentioned, letting my eyes fall to his arm still on me.

            “This is all true,” he replied.

            “So I want to tell you something and if you interrupt me this time, I’ll wait until I feel stronger and I will beat you repeatedly with a shoe.  My platform sneaker so I know it will hurt.”

            The breath from his laugh rolled moistly over my shoulder.  “No, I don’t want that.  I’m listening.”

            I in a deep breath.  I wasn’t nervous or anything, but I wanted the words to come out right.  The way I meant them.  “Tae Il, I love you.  I’m very much in love with you.  I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before when you first said it, but I…was scared.  You understand what I was thinking, right?  We’ve only known each other a short time in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like you know me better than anyone has ever known me my whole life.  I hope that your feelings will never change because mine never will.”  I bit down on my lower lip, wondering if there was a better way to say it.

            I heard him laugh softly and he pushed himself up a little onto one elbow, hovering over me a bit.  I twisted my fingers around the sheet over my stomach and avoided his eyes for as long as I could.  Until I couldn’t take it anymore.  When I glanced up at him, he was smirking.

            Giggling, I rolled my eyes.  “Won’t shy, passive Tae Il ever come back?” I teased.

            He leaned his face down closer to mine.  His lips were a centimeter from me, when I turned to kiss him, he arched an eyebrow and pulled back just out of my reach.

            “Would you like him to come back?”

            Mustering up all my strength, I pushed my head off the pillow and caught his lips with mine.  Nipping at his bottom one before letting my head fall back.  His elbow slid farther up my pillow, in turn, lowering his body closer to mine.

            “I love you however you come, Tae Il,” I admitted quietly.  Without taking his eyes off mine, he linked his fingers with mine.

            “That’s two,” he said with a nod, blinking lazily at me.

            “What?”

            “You said it two times.  I told you when you woke up you could tell me 100 times.  You have 98 times left.”  I laughed and tugged on his hand a little, but his face remained expressionless. 

            “What?” I laughed incredulous.  “You’re really going to make me say it 98 more times?” 

            “I could say it 100 times to you,” he pouted, pushing his lower lip out.  I finished laughing and cleared my throat.

            “Alright then, I love you,” I stated.

            His arms curled back around me and he put his head on my shoulder.  “That’s three, keep going.” 

            “I love you.”

            “Four.”

            “I love you.”

            “Five.”

            We both nodded off somewhere in the thirties, but I think he got the picture.

            A week later, I was stamped with a clean bill of health and discharged from the hospital.  Back in Seoul, that Monday, I went back to work.  After I pulled Sarah aside to thank her profusely and give her my present from Tokyo for her, a bracelet – I didn’t know what to get my boss but she seemed to like it, and to tell her that all was well with me.  When I told her I hoped I could work at the school for more years, she told me I was only allowed to leave the school when she retired.  Good deal, I’d take it.

            I hurried into the teachers’ room.  The first person to cross me was Jenna.  She was at the copy machine, pounding on it angrily.  That stupid thing never worked first time.  I squeaked and grabbed her in a tight hug.  At first, she stiffened in surprise.  When she realized it was me, she laughed uncomfortably and pulled her arms out from being pinned at her side.  She patted me on the back. 

            “Kelly?  Hey, you’re back!  Where did you go?  Sarah said you had an emergency to take care of.  Are you alright?” she asked.  I pulled away and nodded, grinning.

            “Oh, yeah,” I scoffed with a wave of my hand.  “Quick issue in Tokyo.  I’m great now.  Everything has been taken care of.  I missed you.  Here.”  I reached into my messenger bag and pulled out a pair of giant pink sunglasses.  Jenna was quite the fashionista.  I saw these at the airport, the only place I was able to go shopping, and I immediately thought of her.

            Her eyes lit up as she took them from me.  “Wow, these are great.  Thanks, Kelly.”  She put them on her face and posed.  “I look great, right?”

            “Absolutely,” I replied with a nod.

            “Thanks,” she repeated pushing them up onto her head.  Then she looked at me funny.  “What’s different?” she wondered with a smile.

            I giggled and playfully gave her a light shove.  “New outlook.”

            Then I hurried to my desk and sure enough, Leah was there.  She was at her desk, Ear buds in, focused intently on the webpage on her computer.  On my way to her, I let my bag fall on my desk with a thump.  Then I crashed into her.  Falling into her chair, half on her lap, hugging her tightly around the neck.

            She shrieked and then clamped her hand over .  She elbowed me lightly and laughed.  “Kelly!  You’re back!  Are you alright?  I was worried.  Why are you hugging me?” she blurted out all in one breath.

            “I’m fine.  I’m great!  I have a present for you.”  I let go of her long enough to reach into my bag and pull out her present.  A stack of jpop CDs.  I remembered her telling me once she wondered if she’d get into jpop the way she was into kpop.  She squealed in delight and grabbed the CDs.

            “Kelly!  Thank you!  These are great!” she cheered, hugging the CDs to her chest with one arm and me around the neck with the other.

            “Listen, Leah,” I began, draping one arm around her shoulders.  “I know, in all the time we’ve worked together, I haven’t been very friendly.  Or inviting, but just know, I really appreciate your friendship.  Even if I wasn’t very accepting of it,” I admitted shyly.

            She frowned.  “Are you alright?”  I chuckled and she grinned widely, bumping my shoulder lightly.  “I knew you’d warm up eventually.”

            “We should go shopping sometime.  Or have a sleepover with Jenna and some of the others and spend all night slobbering over kpop bands.”

            Her eyes bugged out and she bounced in her seat, nearly knocking me off the chair.  “That would be so much fun!”

            I smiled.  “Yeah, I think so too.”