Yu Soo Min went over the nurse’s station and watched the system they are keying in about the patients while listening to them gossiping about doctors, other nurses and about their patients.  Sometimes her name would come out and normally when that happened, the topic was the same every time.  They would ask each other if anyone came to visit her and as usual the answer was none and they would be saying something about how pitiful she was for not having any visitor. 

‘Tsk, tsk, tsk…so, what can I do if I have no friends?  It’s not like I ask them to bother about who’s visiting me anyway?’ she repelled to herself while showing her tongue out at them, but as usual, nobody saw it.

“If only I could mess up their system for talking behind my back!  Then they’ll have more time to work and figure out what’s wrong rather than being nosy with other people’s case,” she said aloud on her way out of the place when suddenly something caught her hearing.

“Hey, did you know that the idol in room 3-7C has just got his vermiform appendix out?”

“Really?  I hope his other members would come and visit again.  I wonder if they’ll give me their signatures.  I just love the boy that plays Ji Hoo in Boys Over Flower.”

“I’m sure they’ll sign if you ask.  But you better ask them fast because the boy would be discharge tomorrow if there are no infections with the cut.”

“Arasso…if you saw them visiting today, page me okay.”

‘Emm…room 3-7C? An idol?  What’s an idol?  An artist maybe?  A boy band?  Maybe I should go over to visit…after I visit that arrogant boy.”

The thought of having a two-way conversation with the boy made her happy and without knowing, she was skipping away to his room.  She stopped in front of the room and finally noticed that his room number was the same as the room number the nurses were mentioning where the idol were.

‘He’s an idol?  No wonder he thought I’m a stalker and would post up about him in the hospital on the internet.  And no wonder he’s arrogant.  He thought himself a big shot, eh?  Well, let’s see if he still would be arrogant with me now after seeing his friend went thru me yesterday evening.’

“Morning!” greeted her as she walked inside the room.  The boy was asleep and there are tube now inserted in his right hand.  She went nearer and read the label, “Glucose…emmm.”

Soo Min watched him closely and thought, ‘He’s good looking.  No wonder he’s in the entertainment industry.  But does he really have the talent? Those entertainers, not all are talented.  Some just use their face to sell their records.  What ever…I still love my Linkin Park.  Can’t they up there just give me a spirit-friendly MP3 player with all the songs of my likings while I’m still in this form?  It’s so boring…’

“What are yy…you….do..doing here?”

“Huh?” 

She blinked her eyes to focus back to the face in front of her.  The boy has awakened from his slumber but confusingly was now covered by his blanket.

“Why are you covering yourself like this?  You know I can past through things right?  You want me to be inside the blanket with you?”

“No!” he said as he quickly moved his blanket away from his face, with his eyes still tightly closed.

“Hey?  Why are you being a scaredy cat today?”

“Please…please don’t disturb me anymore…I’m sorry for yesterday…sorry, sorry.”

“Oh, come on.  I won’t eat you.  And I don’t think I look gross until you can’t look at me.  I just want to talk to you.  You have no idea how lonely it is not being able to converse with anyone and no one notices you.”

She waited beside him in silent until he finally opened his eyes.  Squinting at first before slowly opening his eyes and looked at her.

“See?  I still look like I was yesterday.  So, I heard from the nurse that you just had an operation.  You had appendicitis?”

He stared at her before answering, “The nurse talked about me?”

“Duh?  You’re an artist right?”

“So, you do know who I am?  Yesterday was all an act after all,” he snapped suddenly.

“Excuse me…I still don’t know who you are.  I just heard the nurses saying that you are some kind of an idol.  So, who are you exactly?” she asked, still standing beside the bed.

“Can’t you sit down or something?  It hurts my neck to look at you,” grumbled the boy.

“I can’t.  I kept going through the chair.  I can either sit on the floor or stand.”

“Why didn’t you went through the floor like the other things?”

“I don’t know either.  When I came to be like this, the floor is already solid for me,” she answered him, shrugging herself.  She was as confused as he was.

“So, how long have you been like this?” he asked her again, looking a tad bit excited.  

She could understand why.  It’s not like it is often to be able to talk to spirits like her.

She crossed her arms before answering him, “I won’t answer if you don’t answer my question first.”

He looked confused.  “What was the question?”

“Who are you?”

“Me?  My name is Park Jung Min.  I am the y, charisma of SS501.”

“SS501?  What is that?”

“You don’t know SS501?  Don’t you listen to any music at all?”

“I do listen to music but I’m not into boy band which I presumed you are, right?”

“So, what do you listen to anyway?” he asked as if daring her to list her type of songs.

“Well, more like rock or punk rock or alternative rock kind of song.”

“Jjinja?” he asked, looking a bit disbelieve by her choice of music.

“Why would I lie to you?  So, are you guys popular?”  

“Well, sort of.  We have gone all around Asia for concert and Hollywood as well.”

“Okay…so, you guys are not bad then.”

Then the two of them were in silence.  She felt a bit awkward.  This was the first she was able to talk so much with another person and not on working topic or her interest topic like computer and programming and hacking skills but totally about something trivial like music.  She walked over to his window again before facing him.  She was shocked to see his eyes are still on her.

“It has been 4 days now.”

“Huh?” he asked, confused by her sudden statement.

“You asked how long I have been like this…so, my answer is 4 days.”

“Are you a ghost?  You died in this hospital?” he continued asking.

She shook her head, “I’m still alive somewhere in this hospital.  On this floor.  I’m in a coma.  I got shot.”

“You got shot?  What are you?  A bad guy?  You don’t look like one.”

“I’m not.  I’m just the computer geek at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.  I was shot on my first field job.  Just my luck.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said apologetically.

“Yeah…thanks.  Well…you need your rest.  Oh, by the way…I heard you’ll be discharge from here tomorrow.  Good for you…emm…bye,” she said with a tint of sadness in her voice as she turned around and headed towards the door.

“Hey…what’s your name?” he asked suddenly in a loud voice.

A nurse came rushing in, inches away from where she stood, barely touched her.  “Sir, is there anything wrong?”

She smiled at his sudden stuttering as he tried to cover himself from the sudden confusing burst.  The nurse looked confused as she walked out of the room.  Soo Min heard the nurse mumbles about how she clearly heard the idol asked someone’s name.

“She thinks you are crazy,” she told him, smirking.

“Well, that is all thanks to you then.  So, what is it?”

“My name?”

“Yes…”

“Yu Soo Min.  Wae?”

“Maybe I could go over and visit you.”

“Can you walk after an operation?”

“This?  It’s just a small cut.  I’ll try going over later tonight.  Don’t go anywhere.”

She laughed. “Where should I go anyway?”

He grinned.

“Then, I’ll be waiting.  Bye…” she said as she walked out of the room.

“See you…” he said softly, hoping that she would hear it.