I blinked thinking about the last thing Kyuhyun said.

“If she doesn’t return your feelings in three days, you’ll be sent back to our time and you’ll never get your tongue back.”

Did that come with the potion or did Kyuhyun just make that up in order to make me feel intimidated? Knowing Kyuhyun, it could have been either or. Still, I wasn’t about to mess around.

“Okay! There is a way to eat without a tongue!” The women sighed relieved while looking at her laptop. “You just need to use your other mouth muscles much more than usual and massage the food to the back of your throat. But you can’t eat solid foods, so just soup and other beverages should do the trick. Hey, maybe I can heat up some chocolate and you can drink that as well!” She turned to me excited. I returned her smile and managed to give a thumbs up that didn’t hurt nearly as much as a few seconds ago. “Great! So let’s try sipping that soup again.” She returned to my side and lifted the soup bowl and metal spoon carefully. I could feel myself getting nervous again. “Just work out your mouth muscles,” she let the spoon fill up with warm chicken broth and held it up to my lips. I took in a small breath and slowly opened my mouth. She let a small amount of liquid drip into my mouth. I leaned my head back and let the drops rush down my mouth and to top of my throat. “Okay, now swallow.” She sounded nervous.

Closing my eyes tightly, I gulped as hard as I could. The drops disappeared from my throat. After a second, I opened my eyes and met hers.

“Did you swallow?” She asked.

I nodded slowly, taking in a small breath to make sure. I didn’t cough.

“Excellent!” She exclaimed. “Okay, try some more.” She scooped up another spoonful of broth and held it up to my lips. After about five minutes, the entire bowl was empty and I was lying with my head against the wall. That was the only food I’d eaten since I was transported to this time. I think I could hear my stomach thanking me for putting some kind of food inside it.

“You did such a great job!” The women smiled and placed the bowl beside her bed on a small table. “I’m so glad we found out how to get you to eat. That’s one less thing we have to worry about,” she laughed.

I watched her as her eyes crinkled as she laughed. Her eyes almost disappeared, just like an Asian’s eyes. Is she part Asian?

“Wow, you know what?” she said suddenly. “I never got your name! But…you don’t have a tongue, so you couldn’t have said it anyway,” she looked away from me embarrassed.

I glanced around her room. There was a stack of paper lying on her desk where her laptop was. I slowly touched her arm and motioned to the paper.

“Oh! Good idea!” She got up from the bed and grabbed a couple sheets and a pen. “Good thing you know how to write,” she laughed as she brought the paper and pen over to him. “Here. Write down your name!”

I stared at the paper for a second. A million things popped into my head to write. My name. My reason for being here. You’re so beautiful. Watching you is my favorite pastime. I’m from the future. My tongue was ripped out by my friend who knows black magic. After a while, I sighed quietly and decided that my name was good enough for now. I carefully wrote out my full name in Korean on the paper.

She stared at the paper. “Kim Ryeowook.”

My heat shot up. You can read Korean!?

She looked up at me. “You’re Korean?”

My heart sank a little. She couldn’t read my mind, but I nodded vigorously.

She grinned. “만나서 반갑습니다. 려욱 씨.” (Nice to meet you, Ryeowook.)

I thought my mouth dropped to my chest. Holy . This is simply too perfect to be true! Now I was really angry at myself for letting Kyuhyun rip out my tongue.

“Now I’m not native fluent,” she said quickly, “but I’d say I’m pretty good. Where are you from?”

My entire body froze. Should I tell her the truth? No, she’d probably freak out and kick me out. But then again she knows Korean…ugh, what do I do!? I slowly looked down at the paper, pondering what to write.

“Oh wait, I didn’t give you my name,” she laughed suddenly. “제 이름이 질이에요. My name is Jill.”

My eyes met hers. Jill.

Jill.

She chuckled again and moved her gaze to the paper. “Yeah, so where are you from?”

I continued looking at her eyes even though they were facing downward. Jill. That’s an usual name to me, but it sounds beautiful. Suddenly I didn’t care what I wrote down. “미래부터 왔어요.” (I'm from the future.)

She looked at me funny. “You came from the future?”

I shrugged one shoulder, smiling a little. Why not?

She was silent for a couple seconds, then chuckled. “Come on, be serious. Where are you from? I won’t judge you.”

I just stared at her.

She stared back. “…Okay,” she slowly looked down at the paper. “I’ll just forget you wrote that. Can you tell me truthfully why your body is in so much pain?”

“아니요.” (No.)

She looked at me again. “Why not?”

“믿을 않을 것이에요.” (You won't believe me.)

“What do you mean I won’t believe you?”

“시크릿이에요.” (It's a secret.)

She sighed loudly. “Then what can you tell me??”

I could hear the frustration in her voice. I quickly scribbled more words on the paper. “질 씨는 나한테 아주 중요해요.” (You're very important to me.)

She looked at me a little uneasily. “Have we met before?”

“네.” (Yeah.)

“Where?”

“많은 장소들.” (Many places.)

Her uneasy look didn’t go away. “What’s that supposed to mean? Are you a stalker?”

My eyes widened and I quickly shook my head. No, please don’t get the wrong idea!

“Then why haven’t you ever introduced yourself to me?”

“부끄럽다.” (I'm shy.)

After a moment of silence, her uneasy look started to fade. “Okay…”

“두려우하지마요. 아프고 안 싶어요.” (Don't be scared. I don't want to hurt you.)

She nodded slowly. “Okay…”

I could tell a part of her was still on guard. I could understand why, but it still hurt me to see her like that. I don’t want her to be scared of me. “질 씨하고 시간을 보내요. 재미있을 것 같아요.” (I want to spend time with you. I think it would be fun.)

“What do you mean by spending time? What would we do? Are…you asking me out?” She blinked.

I flushed a deep shade of pink. “혹—“ I quickly scribbled out the letters. “아니요. 그저 시간을 보내고 싶어요.” (No. I just want to spend time.)

She looked at me in silence for a moment. “…Okay. I guess that would be alright with me.”

I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest.  I felt so happy.

“But if we’re going to do that, we should probably wait until tomorrow,” she glanced at the ticking clock on her desk. “It’s almost midnight. We should probably get some sleep.”

My eyes widened. Midnight?! Already the first day is over!? I craned my head to see the clock. The hour was indeed almost midnight. My first day is already up. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. How could I get her to return the feelings I have for her in only two days!?

“Hey, are you alright?”

I glanced at her. She looked worried. My anxiety must have been showing on my face. I quickly nodded. Don’t worry about me, Jill.

“You looked kind of freaked out there,” she slowly and almost hesitantly reached over to feel my forehead with the back of her fingers. “You don’t have a fever, do you?”

My breath stopped in my throat and my heart sped up tremendously. Her fingers were cold against my clammy forehead.

“You’re a little warm,” she mumbled. “Maybe I should get you a glass of water?”

I managed to shake my head. Just don’t ever stop touching me like that and I’ll never not be fine.

“Okay,” she removed her hand from my forehead. I was so disappointed. I stared at her hand longingly.

“I should get some rest. You can sleep in my bed.  I’ll just make up a bed in my living room.” She moved her legs off of her bed. In another impulse, I grabbed her wrist. Stay. I stared at her trying to force my thoughts into her head. Please stay.

“What’s wrong?”

Don’t you ever leave me.

She glanced at my hand on her wrist. “I really should get some sleep.”

I stared into her eyes a moment longer, then slowly relaxed my grip. She took a couple steps back from the bed. “Goodnight.” She waved at me and quickly exited the room.

I sighed deeply and sunk lower into the bed. God damnit. My heart was beating so fast and my mind was racing. My first day is up. I have 42 more hours. I slowly closed my eyes. It’s too short…