Page 65 of Wish Upon a K-Star

I t’s been twelve hours and no one will tell me how Minseok is doing.

I’ve been kept in the hospital overnight for observation. Even though the worst of my injuries was a dislocated shoulder and a few bruises.

I haven’t seen anyone except my nurses and Hongjoo all night.

If no one gives me an update on Minseok soon, I’m just going to go find him myself.

In fact, I start to climb out of my bed and slip on the little disposable slippers the hospital provides. I have no idea where Hongjoo put my shoes or my clothes. But I don’t care.

I’m trying to put my IV on the portable pole when the door opens. I freeze guiltily, assuming it’s probably Hongjoo. But it’s not. It’s Kim Ana.

She’s also attached to an IV, but she’s wearing normal clothes. Not her dress from the awards, but a set of sweats. I guess her manager brought them for her.

“Ana, are you okay?”

She stops a foot away from me, frowning, like she’s not sure what to say.

“What is it? Is it Minseok?” My chest constricts with fear.

“No, I don’t know anything about his status,” she clarifies quickly. “But I wanted to see you.”

“Okay” is all I say, waiting for her to continue.

“I guess I just wanted to say thank you.”

I laugh. “I don’t even remember half the things I said or did. I just wanted to get away from him.”

“So, do you remember what he said about all the things he did to you? The rumors? Leaking your information?”

I nod. “Yeah, I remember.”

“When they were taking him away, he was rambling about a pool. How he didn’t know you couldn’t swim. Does that mean anything to you?”

I didn’t think I could be shocked by anything else, but I nod numbly. So there was someone at the pool with me. I wasn’t just seeing things.

“He did all of that to you because of me,” she says, tears glistening in her eyes. “I don’t know how…I’m not sure what I can do to fix…”

“It’s not your responsibility, Ana,” I tell her, oddly calm. “You can’t control people like Jeongho.”

“I knew you’d had it hard since CiPro because of me,” Ana admits, head hanging low. “I never asked people to say those things about you, but somehow it still felt like my fault. It made it hard for me to be around you. I figured you were probably pretty pissed at me. I wouldn’t have blamed you.”

It’s weird to hear things from Ana’s perspective, but it also somehow helps. “You didn’t start this fake rivalry between us. The producers of CiPro and the media did it.”

She nods, taking a deep breath. “There were moments where I knew I could speak up. But I was so scared that if I did, they’d target me next.” She flinches at her own words. “I’m sorry.”

I remember that moment in the bathroom, where I chose to hide instead of confronting the gossipers. “It’s okay, I understand.” I realize now that anytime I blamed Ana for what I was going through, it was misplaced. It was easy to make her the villain of my story, but she was just another victim of the machine that made us both.

We were just trying to survive in this industry the best we knew how.

“It’s all right if we’re never friends,” I say. “But I hope that maybe we can move past all of this.”

Ana nods and holds out her hand.

I take her offered palm. Instead of a shake, we just let our clasped hands hang between us, like a tentative bridge.