The skype ring sounded like a bunch of confused birds, but it was a pleasant sign; someone wanted to talk to me. I gently shut the door to the NEONATAL unit before skipping over to my desk and answering the call. It was probably Brooke...it was always Brooke. No one else would skype me at three in the morning.
Alright, Jules, let's be honest.
No one else skypes you.
My office outside the nursery was small and old, a room they didn't bother to update along with the rest of the hospital. The walls were a pale green, and I debated cleaning the windows during my sister's call or after. All the babies in the next room were lined orderly in little rows of hope, and I'd memorized all of their names. It helped that they were in alphabetical order, but sometimes I just wanted to brag about myself. Baby Allison was on the far left, Baby Xander on the far right, and a sprinkling of all the other babies in between.
I'd just finished my round of checking vitals and wouldn't have to do it again for another two hours, so I kicked off my tennis shoes and curled into the creaky pleather armchair at the desk. I propped my phone up against the stapler so I wouldn't have to hold it while Brooke went on and on about whatever she was calling to rant about, and swiped to answer. I reached over for my coffee, figuring she would just start talking even if I wasn't in the shot, but when I twisted back around, it was not my sister framed in my iPhone.
His hair was a dark brown that slanted down across his forehead, leading to even darker almond shaped eyes. I will admit that it took me a moment to register that this was not my blonde hair, green eyed sister who flitted around the world like she was a butterfly in a meadow. But to my personal humiliation, it took a lot of squinting for me to realize just exactly who it was.
"Uhhh...hello?" He said in a lilted English. He wasn't exactly smiling, but his face wasn't the must unapproachable thing in the world. It seemed like he was regretting this decision more and more with each passing moment. Maybe it was because I was gawking? I clamped my mouth shut with a click before swallowing nothing.
"Hi." I managed. My voice cracked; I'd chide myself later.
"Um...so..." His gaze swam all around the frame, like he couldn't stand to look at my awkward mug anymore, then he nervously scratched his face and let out a huff of a laugh. "This skype handle was in our history from when-"
"Oh yeah yeah yeah." I chanted, attempting to play it off cool. Would he buy it if I pretended I didn't know exactly who he was, what his blood type was, and when his birthday is in comparison to mine? "From when my sister went to your concert. Hong Kong, right?" That was a real question at least. I had no idea where Brooke was when she went and saw their concert, just like I wasn't entirely sure where she had ended up since. She liked to couch surf from one country to another, living life to the fullest as she put it.
"Hong Kong, yes." He nodded to himself and I caught him glancing off camera.
"Are you still in Hong Kong?" I asked next. It seemed like an innocent enough question. Music lover, I was. Tour enthusiast, I was not.
"No we are in...백현, 우리 어디야?" He suddenly switched to his native language and gestured to someone off screen."말레이시아? 오.We are in Malaysia." He answered, switching back to English. Color me impressed.
"That's cool. Are you doing another show?" I asked, relaxing a bit.
"Yes, on the 18th of March." He seemed a bit more at ease as well, but I couldn't be sure.
"The 18th? That's not for like, a week. What are you going to do until then?" I blurted.
"I don't know," He brought his arms up in a shrug and laughed, "Sight see?" His laugh brought that smile to his face that'd I'd seen on tumblr. It was a childish, irresistible sort of grin that I caught myself mirroring.
"Honestly, I don't think I could even name Malaysia's capital. World travel is Brooke's expertise." I admitted without really meaning to.
"Brooke is your sister? The one who came to the concert." He asked while simultaneously adjusting whatever camera he was using so he could sit on a black couch.
"That's her." I nodded and secretly tried to figure out where he was by the tiny corner of a poster above his head.
"She was..." He started and then trailed off, rubbing the back of his head like he didn't know what to say.
"Wild? Ravishing? Bloodthirsty?" I offered, although I wasn't sure I could translate that last one if asked.
"Nice." He said finally and I sighed.
"I guess nice works too." Brooke had always been a lot of things, and 'nice' typically was one, but after 25 years with her, I was more apt to use 'untamed'. I mean, what kind of person house sits for complete strangers half way across the world? Or tries food that she can't pronounce or even identify! And don't even get me started on her choice of friends. No, Brooke wasn't just 'nice', she was much more than that. Brooke was an explosion of chroma, a great cacophony of watercolor, all running together and getting everywhere.
But me...
I was the lines she was supposed to be contained within. If Brooke was an abstract, I was a geometric pencil drawing. Perfectly the same in every way, and drawn in a particularly easy medium to erase. I was nice. Just nice. Nice and easy.
Brooke was radiant.
"Kuala Lumpur."
"What?" He jarred me from my train of thought.
"The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur." He cocked his head at me, like he could see that I'd drifted off.
"Oh...well the more you know." I cleared my throat to try and refocus myself. "What's there to do there?"
"There are many mosques and temples to see, we may follow Junmyeon to one, or go to the towers." He listed, and I hopelessly wished I could use my phone to look up who he was talking about. This was the drawback of stage names. "And then we will probably spend a few days adjusting ourselves to the arena."
"Do you have to do that in every city? I figured all stages would be more or less the same." I took a swig of my coffee finally and blanched when I tasted the cold, bitter grounds. He had started to explain the complexities of how each arena tries to outdo the next, with run way length, seating size, pyrotechnic allowances, etc. but he suddenly cut off at the image of my tongue flopping out of my mouth and my gagging.
"Are you alright?" He let out a hearty laugh at my expense, to which I glared.
"No! This coffee is horrible!" I cried and chucked it in the trash.
"Well where did you get it?" He leaned back into the couch and I could see his loose jeans and baggy pink sweatshirt. It seemed like a casual day. If he was barefoot I would be thoroughly jealous of whatever weather I'm sure he was enjoying on those islands. As opposed to where I was, in freezing butt cold Pennsylvania.
"From the cafeteria downstairs." I continued, getting up to grab a snack from my purse, but slumping in defeat when I couldn't find any.
"Cafeteria? Are you at a school?" He leaned forward a bit, like those few inches were going to enable him to see more.
"No, at a hospital." His eyebrows shot up for a moment, then I noticed him glance down at my scrubs and probably assume they were hospital robes.
"Are you actually alright?" He asked more seriously, but it gave me an excuse to laugh at him this time.
"Yes! I'm a nurse. I work in the NEONATAL unit on the night shift."
"Oh, okay. Okay, good."
"Do you want to meet the babies?"
"Babies?"
"Yeah, come on!" I grabbed the phone from the stapler holder and slipped into my shoes. I dimmed the screen as much as I could and punched into the nursery. It was fine as long as I didn't show him their names, but he didn't seem to mind. I flipped the camera around so I could see his face as I passed the video along the row of babies. They were all swaddled and sleeping contently. Some were hooked up to wires and leads, while others were in big glass boxes with gloved arm holes ready to be filled by doting parents. It wasn't really the most beautiful sight, but I loved them all.
"What's wrong with them?" He asked when we got back to my office.
"Lots of different things." I explained as I propped him back up on the stapler.
"Where are the parents?"
"Someone of them have their own rooms, some are sent home."
"Without their babies?"
"It's a matter of insurance."
"How could their just leave their child?"
"I guess it's a matter of perspective. Most of them are in here as soon as visiting hours begin and won't leave until they end. But until their child recovers, there's nothing they can do."
"That's awful."
"Well I didn't get into this profession for the romance of it."
"Why did you get into it?"
"To save people. To keep families together, or at least give them a fighting chance at having a beginning."
"Their very lucky to have you watch over their children while they can't."
"That's nice of you to say, but most have never seen my face. I'm strictly the night help."
"Wait, night?"
"Yeah, what time did you think it was? What time is it there?"
"It's three in the afternoon."
"It's three in the morning here."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Should I let you sleep?"
"Fortunately for you, I don't sleep."
"Oh," He chuckled, "Don't you get tired?"
"I suppose, but I kinda like the solitude of it. What about you? Aren't you supposed to be promoting? It's mid afternoon, why are you skyping with strangers?"
"Our show was cancelled and they said we couldn't leave the convention center."
"Why?"
"Our managers didn't say, just that something happened that made it unsafe."
"Are you in danger?"
"Not at the moment, I don't-"
"But at least a few of you know Kung Fu, right?"
"Kung Fu...really?"
"Is that wrong?"
"I guess Baek and Minseok know Wushu, but Zitao would have been the best one to have in a fight."
"Who is Zitao? I don't recognize that name."
"Tao used to be in EXO, but he left a few years ago. He lives in Shanghai now."
"Oh, that must be why. I only found you a few months ago."
"You found me?"
"Although at this point, I think you found me."
"I-"
"모두들, 가자. 우리 한테 공항까지 갔다." He quickly looked away from the camera to whoever was speaking. I couldn't understand them, but his brows furrowed as he nodded.
"You have to go?"
"Yes, they've found us a ride to the airport."
"Wow, that bad, huh?"
"Hopefully not."
"Well, be safe."
"Thanks-"
"And call me anytime. I'm always up."
