Treasure From The Stars

Chapter 71

My head hurt. It was the pain that woke me up.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Minjun was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.

I tried to sit up. He insisted that I didn't. I still sat up.

I didn't answer his question, still thinking through everything in my head. How did this happen? How did Minju become Chani? Glorious Entertainment must know, right?

"Mind sharing what's going on in that head of yours?" He lightly poked the side of my head.

I looked up at him. He was smiling; he was glad that I woke up.

I stared at him for another ten seconds before finally opening up my mouth. "Minju's back."

He took a moment, trying to process what I said. "What was that now?"

"Minju is back in the industry. Or, well, it seems like she never left it."

"So that suddenly popped up into your head and so you decided to faint? While we were still on live broadcast?" He was asking for me to elaborate.

"Chani."

"Yumi-ah, we were just talking about Minju. Why suddenly Chani-" He stopped in the middle of his sentence. The dots were connecting. "No way," he looked at me in disbelief.

I could only nod.

"No wonder she was familiar."

It was quiet for a second.

"Well, now what?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Do we tell Nam PD-nim?"

"What is there to say? It's not like she did anything to me."

"Yet."

"You think she will?"

He hesitated, having an answer, but not wanting to admit it. He nodded, "Why else would she come back? Especially after being humiliated in front of the whole world."

I shrugged. "She can't be that evil..."

He gave me a knowing look. "After all you've witnessed?"

"What do you mean?"

He titled his head to the side, confused. "What do you mean 'What do you mean?' Have you... forgotten?"

I thought about it, looking around, trying and hoping that something would pop into my head.

"After everything that happened..." He sat down on the bed and reached for my hands. His were warm. "You saw the bruises she left on other trainees, and you saw her deny it despite the video evidence shown before her. She's always been a brat, to both her juniors and seniors... And you know what she did to your brother." Minjun hesitated before adding the last bit, he was reluctant to mention my brother.

"Let's just let it be."

"What?" Minjun shook his head. "Yumi, I don't think this is something we can just glance over-"

"You're the one who asked me about what we should do."

"And I don't want you getting hurt. Whether that's because of her again or not."

"She never directly hurt me."

"She could've and she was close to it."

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn't manage to continue arguing with him any further. I knew I hurt Minjun as much as I hurt myself. "I- I..." I looked away, frustrated.

Minjun inched closer towards me. He raised his hand and touched my cheek, softly turning my face to face him. "I didn't mean to sound so mean, sorry about that. But I mean it when I say I don't want you getting hurt. I think you've seen enough of the world's darkness."

A small laugh escaped my mouth.

"This... is funny?"

"Am I kid?" I reached up to my face and touched Minjun's hand and pulled it down, "The world's pretty dark all right, but I'm sure there are people who have seen worse than me. As well as people who haven't had such privileges like I did. I might've gone through some horrible things, but I've also been given wonderful opportunities and gifts that led me all the way here. It's not a matter of isolating myself to prevent myself from undergoing any other incidents, it's the matter of- the matter of..."

"Is that what always bothers you? People pitying you? People say you've done enough, you've gone through enough. All the praises you've received, too?" He wasn't mad or angry, he wasn't exactly interrogating me either. Just asking, like everything- all his questions and misunderstandings- were about to unravel.

For some reason, I tried defending myself, "Well, I'm always grateful for their sympathy and their insight, their compliments and gratitude, but..." I was suddenly at a loss of words. Maybe because there was nothing to defend, whether that be because it was true or not. "Maybe. Maybe it is."

He engulfed me in a hug.

It was quiet in the hospital room. Even the shuffling outside of nurses, doctors, patients, and guardians seems to come to a silence.

Not another single word regarding Minju was spoken since that day.