~ Together by a String ~ (Jiyoo)

~21~

"She seems okay, but went through a lot. She survived an assault with a shotgun and that left her severely depressed with PTSD and hearing loss on one ear. Patients have seen her try to end her life many times, but thankfully, someone managed to save her."

"Poor her.. I feel bad for thinking bad of her now."

"It's not just you who saw her like that at first. You should introduce yourself to her, maybe you might make a new friend."

The grandpa pat my shoulder and got up to go back to his room and I was contemplating whether I should talk to her or not. I took a deep breath and walked up to her, startling her a little. I wanted to seem nice so I showed her my hand and smiled. She slowly placed her hand on mine and I shook it.

"Hey, I'm Minji. What's your name?"

"My name? K-Kazuha. Sorry, I can't hear well.."

"It's okay, it's nice to meet you. Do you maybe want to tell me something? You've been staring at me for a while now."

"Uh.. I like your face. Very pretty."

"Really? Thank you! Do you maybe.. want to talk for a bit?"

"Talk? Yes!.. but my Korean.. not very good."

"It's perfect enough, don't worry. C'mon, let's go sit somewhere."

I could tell she felt less nervous now that I approached her and we spoke for some time and I found out a lot of stuff about her. She was on a visit with her family, but they were killed in the assault and it was just her left with her only relative in Seoul.

I was listening to her try to explain the story, but she looked very distressed and it seemed to be a hard topic to talk about, so I stopped her and tried to help her remain calm and not think about it for a while.

"Okay, enough sad stuff.. so tell me Kazuha, what do you like to do?"

"I like... dancing. Ballet. I'm good with that. What about you?"

"I like playing guitar. I'm not good at it yet, but I'm slowly learning."

"Guitar? Very cool! What got you into it?"

"I was always into guitars, but I got inspired by someone very dear to me and now I'm learning it to play better for her."

"That's very nice. You are.. a very nice person."

"You think so? Thanks.. you aren't so bad yourself."

She giggled at me and that was the first time she smiled throughout the whole conversation we had. But I noticed she was curious about something but didn't ask me.

"Kazuha, is there something you want to ask me?"

"Ask you? Yes.. are you sick? Why are you here a lot if you're not sick?"

"Oh, remember that very dear person I mentioned? I'm here to visit her everyday so I'm not a patient."

"Can I see.. her?"

"Sure! Just don't get surprised if she doesn't answer you."

We got up the table and walked towards Yoohyeon's room. I knocked a few times to check if there were any nurses inside and entered.

I brightly smiled after seeing Yoohyeon again and Kazuha noticed it. I told Kazuha to wait a moment and I walked up to Yoohyeon.

"Yoohyeon? I brought a new friend, want to see her?"