Honestly, I should have
私はアホです* tattooed across my forehead. I know Jotha would approve. I groaned, sitting upright in the hospital bed, head throbbing like a thousand drums.
"Oh! You're finally up!" A feminine voice screeched, and I was instantaneously reminded of my mortality. "Do you even know what you did? Jumping that close to us? Oh, Professor nearly killed you, and there's no guarantee that he won't anyway!" Keeda shot into the room like a bullet, her thick, floofy black hair bouncing around as if it were made of coiled springs. Keeda was probably the best friend you could ever ask for- kind, sweet, sarcastic, and Cambodian (which was, apparently, why she was all of these things). She was quite proud of her Cambodian status, her parents having fled to France during the Kmer Rouge, allowing her to be raised years later in a far more stable economy. Keeda had come to Korea on an internship but had loved the country so much she had moved here after finishing college. Her perfect, almond-shaped eyes glowed with the thought of being dismembered by Professor.
"Well, at least she's not dead," a man said dryly, and Devin came into view, classic charismatic smile playing at the corner of his mouth. He was tall, with bright electric blue eyes and dark brown hair falling across his face. Devin was originally German; however, after his parents divorced when he was four, he had lived in Korea. I attempted to smile back, but winced instead, pain jabbing like burning knives through my jaw.
"Ah. I was about to warn you, but you've broken three ribs, your jaw, cracked your skull slightly on the right side, and fell into a week-long coma." Johta raised an eyebrow at me, nose wrinkling slightly, probably at the sight of my rather mashed smile. "Really, Lex, you shouldn't have jumped like that. Within three years? I'm shocked History didn't kill you." Johta was French (need I say more?). Tall, fair, with a threateningly sort of personality ready to explode at any instant, hiding behind her sweet smiles and honeyed words. Alright, so maybe I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. Fortunately for me, I was her friend. Maybe.
I struggled to sit up, but the motion set my head swimming through brightly colored waves of neon lights. "What...what happened to me?" I murmured, head still spinning, jaw aching more than before.
Johta rolled her eyes. "Like I already said, you broke three-"
"No, no. What I mean is," I clenched my fists as the agony swelled up once more, "how?"
"You fell ten feet from the ceiling after running through three tremors of one of the biggest earthquakes ever," Keeda paused for glowing emphasis, "And jumping only four years back from present day, within your lifetime!"
I swear, Keeda is the most unique mix of suicidal manic and sweet angel I have ever met, I grinned ruefully.
"Is it just me, or does Keeda have a sincere death wish?" Devin voiced what we were all thinking.
"I thought it was obvious from day one," Johta said dryly, but even she couldn't keep the hint of a smile from teasing at the corner of her mouth. In the instant she was distracted, I caught Devin glance her, the look in his eyes so clearly expressing his soul it was incredible. I shook my head slightly, knowing that it would never happen. Forget Romeo and Juliet. Devin and Johta'll be far more tragic.
"I don't feel that well," I muttered, the temperature in the room dropping with my head as I passed out.
I handed my paper to the Professor nervously. It was the final exam: the final test, and possibly my final piece of paperwork to turn in here at Thrusk, the Asian branch of a group devoted to the study of history. He stared at it, sitting slowly.
Then I was with Devin, Keeda, Johta, months earlier, laughing, turning in our info papers, joking about time travel, having no idea the pain it would become. And there was Ms. Hayes, inspecting our papers, criticizing us:
"Mr. Devin, the box marked 'sex' was not an invitation."
"Mr. Seo, there are two 'p's in 'oppressed' and only on 'n' minority. You are neither."
"Ms. Johta, you do have a heart, otherwise you would not be standing here.
"Ms. Lexliey, you are not 5'5 and you will never be."
And the kids at school were sneering at this strange Scottish/Korean red-head, shorter than the rest, quiet, with her nose always in some history book or anime.
The girl was crying now, perhaps eighteen, tears falling across her deep red hair, smearing the eyeliner she had spent an hour applying, and something pounding through her earbuds about being 'bulletproof'.
But then Keeda bounced up, and somehow everything was alright... the dreams faded, all but the faces of the shocked boys, each telling the other that it would be worth it.
*I am stupid
