~~~The woman cautiously observed the boy lying across her couch at that moment, sweat dripping off his forehead in buckets. His body reacted as if he was boiling, however the boy shivered underneath the thick comforter as if he was trapped outside in the snow storm. Any unexperienced cave troll could have clearly seen this boy was very sick….sick in more ways than one.

“Jaehwan-ah. Lee Jaehwan, are you listening to me?” The woman spoke clearly and loudly, however Jaehwan showed no signs of acknowledging her words. Jaehwan seemed preoccupied with frantically looking across all of the walls, his arms and legs twitching as if lying down was paining the boy. She knew very well that no physical pain was involved, however mental pain was something else entirely.

“Jaehwan-ah!” This time the woman spoke even louder, waving her hands and snapping her fingers to gain the boys attention. The visual appearance of the sight did not cause any reaction, however the sound got Jaehwan to look her direction. He truly did attempt to listen closely to her words, however Jaehwan’s ears didn’t want him to listen and they often tried to rebel.

“I’m going to be right back, okay? I’m going to go call your parents and tell them where you are, but it’s very important that you stay here. Alright?” The woman paused her words in that place, remaining silent until Jaehwan gave her the sign that he had understood. “You’re very sick right now, and you can’t move around. Lie here and wait for me to get back, okay?”

Jaehwan nodded once again, and the woman assumed that it was alright for her to go to the front room to try and find the boy’s parent’s now, however Jaehwan had other plans. Just as she had gone to stand from her place, Jaehwan grabbed her wrist. He effectively had stopped her from moving anywhere, however the woman could feel her heart shatter as the little boy struggled through his speech.

“You can’t leave I-I I-don’t have any parents for you to call, well I guess I do have parents but they don’t want me and if you call my parents they won’t come pick me up they will just tell you to deal with me b-because they don’t want me in that house anymore. You have to stay because your—y-you’re the school nurse and that’s why I came here because I don’t feel good and the nurse is supposed to help someone when they don’t feel good so you have to stay here and help me because my parents won’t an------“

“Jaehwan!” Clearly seeing that Jaehwan was in no state for her to leave, the woman decided to sit back down again. She sat beside his legs and shouted, cutting Jaehwan off and giving him a few seconds to breathe. “Try and take a deep breath. Tell me slowly. Why can’t I call your parents?”

Jaehwan did as he was told, watching the nurse explain how to breathe correctly and he did it. More than anything, Jaehwan still wanted to start ranting again, and his body itched to be moving but he restrained himself. “They kicked me out.”

“Why would they kick you out Jaehwan?”

“They-they said that I’m not right in the head and that they didn’t want me around my noona’s and hyung’s.” Jaehwan looked to the blanket covering him, his fingernails tearing holes into the comforter as he waited for the nurse to ask him something else.

The woman couldn’t even fathom the words that he had just said to her. It was true that Jaehwan was very ill (well, mentally ill), she had known from his school records. Jaehwan was struggling, but how could anyone kick a young boy out of the house for that reason? They should have been taking him to see a doctor! She couldn’t understand how anyone that could be considered a human, would take a sick little boy and throw him outside in a snow storm.
She had only remained silent for a minute or two, however to Jaehwan it felt as if it had been 20 years. He could no longer wait any longer, and Jaehwan was aware that his time speaking with her was most likely limited.

“You’re going to stay, right? You won’t call them or kick me out and you’re going to take care of me, right?”

“Jaehwan….of course you can stay. You can stay here until we get this whole thing sorted out, and I will be sure to get you healthy again.” Jaehwan smiled, completely satisfied with her answer. He had wanted nothing more, therefore Jaehwan allowed himself to lose control again and returned to his previous actions of flinching and watching fireflies he was pretty certain didn’t exist.

The woman sat there, watching the boy and not knowing what she was supposed to do. She couldn’t just keep him, he was legally still his parent’s child. If what he had said was true however, there was no way she was sending him back to a home that he wasn’t going to be cared for in. Then again, Jaehwan wasn’t a reliable source right now. Regularly it would have been okay to trust his words, however Jaehwan appeared to be having a mild manic episode right now and his words weren’t reliable.

There was only thing she knew for certain. No little boy should feel the need to ask if someone is going to care for them. Whether Jaehwan had been telling the truth or not, there’s something wrong with this situation and none of it was Jaehwan’s fault. She supposed that the best thing she could do for him right now, was let him stay and nurse him back to health. She would wait till Jaehwan was healthy and had regained his head, and then she would act.

So that’s what she did. She allowed him to stay and she cared for him……cared for him for the next 13 years. ~~~~~~

“Ah, you really were insane Ms. Kim!” Jaehwan laughed, finding joy from the story he had just been told. He was currently nearing the end of his therapy session, his therapist, Ms. Kim, being the woman that had taken him in all those years ago.

Today they had been recalling past memories, however Jaehwan couldn’t remember that one. After he had gotten better, his memory of what had happened that night was completely wiped blank. Luckily for him, Ms. Kim was there to tell him the story.

“You made me crazy Jaehwan, but that’s not nearly the craziest thing I’ve done because of you.”

“You’re right. Quitting your job as the school nurse and becoming a psychiatrist is by far mental. Are we certain I’m the one that needs these sessions?” The both of them laughed, neither of them feeling as if this was truly a medical session.

Jaehwan really enjoyed these sessions, as although she was a therapist, it never seemed like he was talking to a shrink. It just felt like he was conversing with family, of course he supposed she was the closest thing to family he has. If the situation ever came up where Jaehwan was in need of a guardian, she was the first person he would dial.

If he was honest, Jaehwan didn’t remember much of anything about his real parents. That was the purpose of sessions like today’s, to remember new things. Unfortunalty they almost never worked. He remembered bits and pieces, however most of his memory’s come from after that night, after he started living with Ms. Kim. That was when she took him to a doctor and he started to get treatment, meaning less episodes and more memories. Back then Jaehwan was in a bad state, and he had a lot of manic moments. He never remembers anything while he is in that state of mind.

“Well, Jaehwan I think it’s time for us to finish for the day. We can start on this again next week, but you did really well.”

“See, I’ve been doing better! I still rant and move a lot but the other symptoms have been a lot less and the mild stuff only happens when I’m extremely happy which I guess is right now cause I’m starting it again so I’m going to take a deep breath now and stop.” Jaehwan let go of a shaky breath, a small smile spread across his face. He had been holding that in for the past hour and a half.

“Yes, you have been doing better. The new medication seems to have helped, but we still have a long ways to go. Our next step should be finding the borderline disorder: the one that’s caused the mania. There are a few that would be typical causes, but we need to make sure. I think, that’s going to be difficult for you Jaehwan.”

“I can handle it!” Jaehwan spoke as if he was on some cheesy TV series, pumping his fist up like they would on a bad sitcom.

“Haha….yes, well. Don’t worry about that for today and just have some fun. I hear there’s a festival in town, you should go.”

“A festival, really?”

“Yeah, it could be a good thing for you. You need to meet some new people anyway Jaehwan, I would know. I’ve been to your apartment more than you have and it’s empty almost year round.”

“Are you saying I should go as my doctor or are you saying I should go as the woman that basically raised me?”

“Both.”

“Hmmm…alright. I’ll go check it out.” Jaehwan smiled, standing up and ironically bowing as he said goodbye. The action wasn’t really necessary, but Jaehwan always did more movement than he needed and it’s how he would have treated a therapist that he didn’t know personally.

When Jaehwan exited he immediately went onto the bus, making his seat in the far back. There was only one place large enough to hold an event like that, so Jaehwan had no need to ask for directions. Instead he just was feeling somewhat confined, eager to walk around the festival. He had been sitting for so long, and the longer the bus ride took the antsier he got.

Once he had arrived Jaehwan practically jumped off the bus. He ran in front, seeing that there were many people there even though it was early morning. He could tell that later in the day, it was going to be packed.

Jaehwan went up to the front gates quickly, his speed landing him the first spot in line to get a ticket. As soon as the person came up, he purchased his ticket without any trouble.

Jaehwan almost felt bad, as his person was nice but the girl in the booth next to his only laughed at her customer. He couldn’t see why, as he saw nothing wrong with the way the man spoke or looked but the little girl was rude to him. He almost wanted to apologize on her behalf, however he thought that may be weird so he just continued on.

Jaehwan must have walked around for at least a few hours. He didn’t do anything more than just looking at the park, excitedly looking at all the sites and watched what people were doing. He could see the place was large, and there was enough to keep even him busy for the entire day. Jaehwan smiled often, thinking he had an advantage. Many of the people he passed were complaining that it was too big here and they didn’t want to walk so often, however Jaehwan was able to walk 3-4 hours and still could have ran a mile if he really wanted.

After Jaehwan had seen everything he would like to look at, he became quite unsure of he wanted to do next. There were many options, but Jaehwan wasn’t sure if any of them sounded exciting.

While pacing back and forth to decide what he should try first, Jaehwan noticed something. There was a man asleep on the ground, somehow smashed into a corner as well. Jaehwan wasn’t sure how he managed to do such a thing, or how anyone could sleep like that, but the placement was too inconvenient. No one had bothered to wake him up, but he was in a place where he was going to be trampled sooner rather than later.

Jaehwan moved closer, thinking that it would be nicer to wake him up rather than let someone step on him. As he got closer, it only increased his curiosity. He had a hat on, but underneath it looked like his hair would be decently short. He looked quite healthy, and he was dressed in a comfortable sweater and jeans. It was an outfit that Jaehwan would expect someone to wear around the house, but not out going places.

Jaehwan leaned down, gently shaking his shoulder and speaking to him to try and wake the man.

“Hello sir. Sir you need to wake up. Sir? Sir this really isn’t the right place to be sleeping, I think you need to at the very least move to a bench but if you’re really this tired you should go home. Sir?” Jaehwan spoke and spoke, still shaking the man’s shoulder but he never even tried to wake up.

“Oooaaahhhh you really sleep well!” Jaehwan could see that this wasn’t working out, but it felt wrong to just leave the man there. Jaehwan decided that doing something odd wouldn’t be too out of character for him, and it would be better to move him before he got hurt.

Jaehwan moved his hands underneath the man, gradually lifting him up to move him to a safer area. He was incredibly heavy, and it was actually very draining to carry him. Never the less, Jaehwan made it to the bench before he laid the man down again. When he did, he was still sleeping like a rock.

“Oooaahhh, I’ve never seen anyone sleep as well as you can. Will you lend me your talent for a day or two?”

Notes