Priceless

3

I ended up dozing off in the lobby before Jung was brought back to me and when he got to me, he grabbed my wrist and I sat up, startled.

"Aish! Yah!" I exclaimed and I saw him smile but avoid my eyes.

"What did the doctor say?" I asked before spotting the Doctor at the front desk behind Jung.

"Ah. Ahjussi!" I said and got up, walking around Jung and hurrying toward the American Uisa.

"Oh. I was just coming to talk to you. You're name's Yessi?"

"Neh," I said and bowed.

Jung must have been able to conjure up that cuz I didn't tell him.

"What's your last name? I need to write down his guardian's name for my report and since he can't remember his parents' names-"

"Whoa. Wait. First tell me what's wrong with Jung? Why is he blank?"

"He has injured his head and I want to do a brain scan on him, but he refused and since you are his guardian- do you think you could talk him into letting me scan him?"

I got annoyed- really quickly.

I turned on my heel, pointed at Jung, and motioned him over.

He walked up and stood there like a show dog and I kinda just stared at him.

"Jung, we really need to check the extent of the damage you've experienced. If Yessi asks you to do a brain scan, would you do it?"

I looked at Jung and he looked at me and then at the floor, "Yeah..."

And with that, the doctor had him in a wheelchair and wheeled him through to the MRI room I waited outside the door as they had him change into a paper apron and then lay down on the table and go through a magnetic tunnel-thing.

"Who are you Jung-ah? Don't you remember anything?" I asked in a whisper to nobody in particular.

I looked at my phone. 1:38 am. I took a deep breath and sat very still.

My sense of humanity is really over-doing itself. There's gotta be a reason why I am making these decisions. You don't just pick up strangers on the road and keep them like a pet. So am I doing exactly? A roommate... yeah. That makes sense. I just picked up a roommate. Everybody needs a little help sometimes and this boy just happened to pick me for it. No big deal...right?

I stayed concurred in thought for a while until the Doctor came back with x-ray pictures of Jung's skull and all I heard when his shiney shoes squeaked across the tile floor was the sound of coins falling and thinking how all this was going to cost me So. Much. Money.

  The Doctor's tax-money-bought straight teeth flashed as he began speaking to me again and pointing at the extra-creepy details on Jung's x-ray picture and so I zoned out until he caught my attention with the "regular" version of whatever he'd said before.

"...So basically speaking, he's suffered a concussion, as you thought, but the impact site is swollen and so his speech and logic parts are a little distorted. However. Given a few days of bed-rest, I'm fairly certain he would recover. The injury is fairly new. So in about a week, he should be back to normal. You did say he's homeless, right?"

I nodded politely, but I was beginning to get a little annoyed at how this American doctor seemed to be so hung up on this stranger's misfortune.

"He was," I corrected him, "but I've decided to let him be my roommate. I have a fair-sized apartment and it's just me here so I can accommodate him for the time being. When he recovers, we'll go from there. Maybe he'll remember where he came from."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan. I just wanted to make sure he'll be taken care of   in the mean time. It's a shame people become homeless..."

I looked down and rolled my eyes, 'Dude. Get over it okay?' I thought to myself.

Not much later, we were walking the some 20-something blocks to my apartment again, Jung silently walking on the end of his tie string leash and me on auto-pilot retracing my steps well worn into the concrete of the city I'd grown to cherish. I was glad I had moved here and this, by far, was the strangest experience in my few years living abroad.

I paused in front of the entrance to the park where I found Jung and sighed, sad that people have to resort to bare minimum even in this progressive country.

Jung said very softly, "Thank you, Yessi..."

I looked at him under the shadow of my Big Bang hoodie which, again, covered his pretty face.

"Ah. See?" I said half-heartedly, "There's hope for you still."

I started to move again and he stopped grabbed my hand that held his tie string and looked at me with the faintest glint of happiness in his otherwise sad composure, "J-Hope. Jung with some hope still."

I smiled at my stranger and that's how he became J-Hope.