The Dancing Girl

Oh. My eyes hurt.

I sit up from my bed - to be exact - my coma. It should be a while since I’m in here, but I think appendicitis shouldn’t keep me here this long? Anyways, I’m good; I feel pretty much alive and I can feel things, so I don’t worry.

The other guy in this double-occupancy room? He’s chill, he doesn’t talk much but I feel bad for him - he told me he’s been here for years, when he got sent here by his family.

I asked him, “why are you here?” And he told me that the doctor said “he talked to the air and argued with nothing too much”, ah... so he unfortunately has schizophrenia. My deepest condolence to him, I’m glad that my problem is at least at the physical level. It’s nowhere near as severe.

I mean, I think they’ve already did the surgery? I only need to wait for maybe a few days and I can get out of here soon to see her, yes. That’s the silver lining, that’s the reason why I can endure the pain and the aggressive smell of those medicines.

“Hey brother! Tell me a story!” My roommate says, he just woke up. And today seems to be his kind self that’s in charge. Otherwise he’d be scolding his other self while covering his face with the duvet already.

“Ah! What do you wanna listen to today?” I nod, trying my best to make his day better - it’s hard to be someone who has mental disorder!

“I... I have never dated anyone! Did you date someone before?” He looks at me, like a Pacific Islander asking an Alaskan what is snow like.

I mean, I’m from Southern California. So I can only try my best.

“Yea! Only once though. And it was a long story, if you want to hear it?” I sigh, this is definitely not the first time telling my story. But hey, I’m always grateful for something sweet and fluffy like this in my life.

“Tell me more about it! So I have something to look forward to when I get out of the hospital!” I can see sparkles in his eyes. He’s always been this optimistic, believing tomorrow will always be better despite being practically in jail for years. I adore his way of thinking though.

I just prefer yesterday more.

“Ok, take a deep breath. Because it’s going to be wild.” I chug the remaining water from my mug and start. He looks very excited.

“It was towards the end of my middle school, and there was this girl in my class named Anna. She was really pretty, a lot of guys liked her. And so did I.

You see? I’m now lying on a hospital bed, but back then I had my guts. I tried to ask her out.”

“Oh! Did you make it?” My roommate asks.

“Of course! Otherwise it wouldn’t count as someone I dated right? And this was what happened.”

Anna Tanaka was practically my first love. We attended the same middle school. I was just an ordinary guy, rather a bit nerdy, if you will. But she was different. She was in the dance club. Whenever their club performed in the school festivals? People who normally skip classes would come and watch them dance, they were really good at it.

And oh, what did you ask? Ah, genres? They danced Kpop. Yeah.

Maybe six or seven times after I watched her dance? I folded like a lawn chair, I just couldn’t get out of her charisma. She was so pretty, her face was flawless. I wanted to hold her hands so badly, and see how her cute face blushes like a cherry.

So. Two weeks before her birthday, which was on November 17th. My heart was trying to escape my chest because I knew I should shoot my shot, and I was given a perfect time to do so.

I didn’t talk to her quite often besides the casual chatters amongst the friend groups. So, I at least had to make her know about me.

I dialed the number of a mutual friend of us, which her name is Chloe.

“Hey Chloe, what’s up?” She picks up the call.

“Chillin’, what happened?” Chloe answers with a lazy tone.