Seeing Double (Park Jinyoung FF)

CHAPTER 9 - DARE TO ASK?

SEONYOUNG

It's been another week passed. I barely saw Jinyoung again after the incident. However, I started to talk more with the patient. Well, not literally talking as he couldn't speak that much. Mainly just asking him how he was, and did he feel any pain, any complaints? He was awake mostly when I checked up on him, so we've been talking for quite some time now. He got a bit stronger after a bit, so I took off his catheter so he could train himself to walk to the toilet if he needed to pee or took a dump. He started to eat more solid food but his muscles were still weak. He could stand up and walked for a few distance, but he would get tired easily.

"How are you today?" I asked him.

"Okay, just a bit lonely. Aside from you, the nurse, the physiotherapist and the manager, there was no one else to talk. And aside from you, everyone has been trying to avoid conversation with me," he said sadly. Well, not his fault though. Jinyoung's manager has told me not to tell him anything. Not even about the other person that's been living under the same roof as him.

"Hey, cheer up. At least you're getting stronger now. What did you do before you got sick?" I tried to cheer him up.

"I was an idol. I sang and danced. I also started to act a bit," he answered. Oh, so he was an idol as well? I bet it ran in the family then. I tried not to give any reaction upon hearing his answer.

"What happened back then? Do you remember about it?"

"One day I got sick, flu, I thought. The flu gone, but two weeks after that I started to feel my legs got numbness, tingling, and sometimes it would give up. Then, I passed out and stopped breathing. They rushed me to the hospital, and that was the last thing I remembered," he told me. Well, he remembered everything alright.

"Well you've been diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome, that's why you have weakness in your lower leg and it goes up to your diaphragm. That's why you stopped breathing. You've been hooked to a ventilator to keep you breathing until you got getter. Then your job now is to train your muscles so you can be active again," I explained to him.

"But, what happened to my group? We were about to discuss our contract back then. We were making our last album before I got sick," he continued.

"Well, at this point, I'm not allowed to say anything and I know nothing aside from your medical condition. You should ask the manager yourself. I'm here just to take care of your health. Now, back to rest, you have another physiotherapy session later," I pulled his blanket and dimmed the room before stepping out. But today's conversation bugged me the most.

I tried not to talk much with the patient after that. I went back to just asking how he was and similar stuff. Even though I was curious. Why did the manager ban him not to have any phone inside? No TV, nothing. As if the manager didn't want him to get any update about outside world. I was curious enough to ask Jinyoung about it, but he was barely home. As if he was avoiding me. After our last encounter, we were back to being awkward again. But then again, he was really busy with shooting and all, so I couldn't say that he was avoiding me. Maybe he was just really busy. Couple days after that, the patient tried to talk to me again.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"Uhm, you are my patient. And you said you're an idol/actor. I'm so sorry though, I don't follow the entertainment world, so your name don't ring a bell," I admitted. If only I didn't have that jerk in my ER that night, I would probably didn't know him at all.

"Really? I was quite famous. My group is quite famous," he said with excited face. I decided to keep talking as it was rare seeing him lit up like this.

"What's your group name?" I asked.

"GOT7, and I'm Jinyoung," he said. I stopped whatever I was doing and stunned. Wait, what did he say? His name was Jinyoung? I had to gather myself so he wouldn't notice my shocked face.

"So sorry, but no, I don't know your group name," I was lying of course. I found out about it when I was looking for his company information back then when I was worried that he might leak my secret out to the hospital.

"Yeah, but I don't know what's going on with my group now. We're supposed to talk about our contract. It was about to be expired before I got sick. And now, it's almost been a year since I got sick," he said sadly.

"Hey, don't be sad now. You have to be strong and you can find everything you want to know later," I cheered him up. I got out of the room only to be surprised when I spotted the other Jinyoung, sitting in the dining table alone as usual.

JINYOUNG

"Oh my goodness, you should stop this habit of yours," she was surprised when she saw me sitting alone in the darkness.

"What?" I raised my eyebrow. "I'm doing nothing wrong. I'm sitting, in my own house, trying to be quiet as it's already late," I pointed to the clock, which showed it was 10 PM already.

"At least when someone else was in the room, try to say something. Like 'Hi' or 'Good night'," she grunted.

"Hi," I said, looking back at her. "What?" I asked when I saw this curious/ hesitation look on her face. She sat down across me and started to think whether or not to ask me something.

"Look, I'd probably not supposed to ask this question, but I'm curious. Why did he say his name is Jinyoung? Which one of you is the real Jinyoung?" She stared at me, waiting for my answer.

Well, that didn't take long, I thought. I sighed. I wasn't supposed to share this with her, but I needed someone else too. I wanted her to know. I wanted someone to share the burden with. And somehow, I felt like I could trust her.

"Are you sure you don't need to rest? It's going to be a long story," I told her, sipping the drink in my hand. She looked at her watch and contemplated, but at the end she chose to go home for now. She felt she wasn't ready to hear my story.