Wish (Jung Hoseok)

One

Everything was ringing.

It seemed like Riley's head was stuck in a church bell and left to die in the noise.

She squinted, opening her eyes against the pale white shine of the walls.
A hospital? What could that be for?

Riley sat up, her head spinning instantly as her eyes adjusted to the light.

Come to think of it, she couldn't remember... anything?

She dug through her backpack that was laid by her bed, opening up some notebooks in hopes to get some insight on what happened the night before.

The words jumbled together, forming a mess of letters that she couldn't comprehend.

Riley stared down at them, concerned.

"What the hell-" It was then that Riley's face paled.

That wasn't her voice. That wasn't her at all.

She jumped up, despite her dizziness and ran to the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror.

No. It was still her. Her long bronze hair laid flat and frizzy against her shoulders, and her green eyes stared wildly back at her.

She spoke again. "My name is Ri... Ro..." she had a hard time speaking her name, as the voice she was speaking with was no longer her own. It had the same tone, but the words came out without her even thinking.

Riley was speaking Korean.

Her eyes were teary, and she ran a shaky hand over her face.
"I'm dreaming! I can't be actually speaking Korean right now..."

A doctor opened the door, staring at her in shock.

"Ms. Clarence! You should not be standing right now. Why are you crying?" The doctor asked. His words didn't process in her brain.
The man seemed nice, but she didn't think he was prepared for what she was about to say. Or at least... she wasn't.

"I can't understand."

-

"But I don't get it! She has a full American background, no way can she just... not know English!" The doctor shouted, staring at the CAT scan they had took of her brain. Nothing was wrong with it.

How does a girl wake up and just speak another language?
Sure, she had a stroke, but this was insane to another level for the man.

Riley was ranting in Korean to a nurse, who just resembled Asian enough to be thrown in as a translator.
"My parents adopted me!" She had whined.
"Just go!"

"Miss, I can't understand you, I'm sorry!" She said, dodging a teddy bear Riley had aimed at her head.

Wait. Teddy bear?

Riley ran back to the bear and looked at it, pointing to the tag.

"THIS!" She screamed, pointing to the name.

"Hyunwoo?"

"Y-y... yes! Hyunwoo hyun... woo"She struggled to speak English, still. Her brain wracking in pain as she did. Fuck. What the hell was that?

She ran to the halls, the woman shrieking as she chased after her. "Ma'am! Please-"

Riley grabbed a 'janitorial manager' and pointed to the name tag, covering all of it but 'manager'

The nurse nodded, fumbling with her phone to google translate.

"Does he speak Korean?" The robotic voice said.

Riley nodded.

"Thank god."

-

Within the hour, Lee Hyunwoo came in the room, bowing to the nurse.

"I apologize for the confusion... but what is going on with my employee? Why does she need a translator?"
He asked.

"Are you not her manager? How do you not know she speaks Korean?" 

"Well, I am, but you see... when Riley left work yesterday, she spoke fluent English.

The nurse's eyes narrowed. "But she is speaking fluent Korean. You are Korean! Surely you know her from Korea!"

Hyunwoo rolled his eyes. "No. She is as white as they come. However I was raised in America by Korean parents... Riley~"

He stopped, walking over as he began speaking to her.

"Why are you speaking Korean? Where is this from?"

Tears welled in her eyes.
"I don't know! The doctors said I had a stroke after my fever got too high and I forget all english, and it hurts if I even try to speak it! Please, oppa I can't do this!" Riley cried, covering her face with her hands.

Hyunwoo's heart broke at the sight, as well as her choice in honorific.

"I see. I'll stay here to translate what you say to her and vise versa... care to tell me how she got here?"

"Well, three guys actually brought her in. With a woman... she said her name was Dani but wouldn't tell me the boys' names. They were quite attractive actually. Kind of tall~"

The nurse trailed off. Hyunwoo paled.

"Riley, did you see anyone when you were picked up last night?" He asked quickly.

Riley shook her head.
He chuckled, knowing Dani most likely brought the girls' favorite members to the building.

"Never mind. You'd just get more stressed if I told you."

-

Riley laid in her bed with nothing to do. It wasn't like she could write her articles, or make business calls.

She was useless.

"Riley." Hyunwoo said suddenly.
The girl turned her head, yawning in response. It was getting quite late. And she was tired of all the scans and poking she had been receiving.

"Yes, oppa?" She asked once the gesture of exhaustion was over.

He sighed, not wanting to let her go.

"I'm going to transfer you to the Korea location... a week after your release."

Her heart felt like it stopped.

A flash of light passed her memories, remembering the comet in the skyline.
The comet.
In the skyline.
The skyline that blocked all stars, sometimes even the moon.

How could she have been so stupid as to think it was normal!

So that's what this was. The comet wasn't a comet at all. It was a wish, and Riley had stupidly messed it up without even knowing.

I wish I just knew Korean.