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There came a point in Hong Jisoo’s life where he began to think back on all of his life decisions. Most of the time, he didn’t think they were that bad; for starters, moving from America to South Korea to study was probably the best one he had. It was a bit of an awkward start, but he breezed through the four years of university and was currently on his first few months being officially unemployed. He already had resumes sent to some music companies, even had a few interviews scheduled later that week, as he waited for life to pick up the pace.
If there was anything he did regret, anything at all that he found himself looking back to and telling past Jisoo about, was becoming friends with Hansol.
Oh, but Hansol isn’t the problem. No, of course not, he was the only boy Jisoo could engage in an English conversation with was occasionally his savior in times of Korean need. The thing is, Hansol had practically grown up in Korea, so he had his own set of friends that Jisoo eventually found himself merged into. A nice group of friends. A bunch of friends who just happen to love adventure and all things fun and dangerous. A group of young and reckless boys who happened to find themselves in the hospital, again.
Jisoo wondered for the umpteenth time that day if he should just drop them.
“You love us too much,” Soonyoung said from his spot on the bed, trying his best to keep still so Seokmin can finish doodling on his leg cast. He had a wide grin on his face as if he didn’t just break his leg trying to skateboard flip down the stairs.
“You guys are already in your last year at university,” Jisoo chided. “Don’t die before you get your diplomas.”
A groan from the other side of the room caught Jisoo’s attention, and he watched as Junhui struggled to sit up on his bed. The Chinese boy released another groan as he did so, accidentally applying pressure on his broken right arm. Minghao was beside him in a heartbeat— hitting his head and complaining about how he wished Junhui had broken more bones with his stupidity. He doesn’t even know how to skateboard in the first place, why did he bother trying?
“Jisoo,” Junhui whined when he caught the older boy staring. “My little Haohao is bullying me.”
From beside his bed, Hansol gently patted Junhui’s good arm, “you deserve it.”
Jisoo shook his head, smiling despite the mess. Junhui went on to act out a dramatic complaint about how life was unfair, and was met with a snickering Hansol and a still worried, but slightly less annoyed, Minghao. At least, things were a bit more peaceful on Soonyoung’s end. Seokmin had finished his little masterpiece— he drew some kind of a rainbow and a horse, Jisoo has no idea why— and now Mingyu had taken to colouring it in.
It was moments like these that Jisoo felt the one or two years age gap he had with the rest of the guys, as he felt equal parts worry for their safety and also judging them completely for what they’ve done. He didn’t think he was that crazy during his vibrant youth; not that he was old or anything, but he was the only one fresh out of college, so that had to mean something. That also meant he was the standing adult figure whenever they had to be in ‘serious situations’ as Seokmin liked to call it. Moments where they needed an adult who weren’t their parents.
Jisoo was reaching a peak point in his regret stage when the door to the hospital room opened, and in came the doctor from earlier.
“They just have to rest here a bit while we check to make sure we’ve got everything sorted out,” the man said, addressing the whole room, but focusing on Jisoo the most. “Their families were informed and they should be released by tomorrow. In the mean time, I’ll be sending an intern in to tend to whatever’s still needed and give more updates.”
“Thank you,” Jisoo said gratefully as the doctor left. He wished he wasn’t too awkward. He was just 21, he was a kid as much as the rest of the boys in the room were. Still, he nudged at Seokmin and Mingyu who were nearest to him, and pointed towards the wall clock. “It’s getting late, you guys should be home for dinner.”
Mingyu jumped up, dragging Seokmin with him, “oh, you’re right!”
“That means you too, guys,” Jisoo directed towards Hansol and Minghao. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten you have that exam coming up on Monday and you need the whole weekend to procrastinate before studying.”
Junhui pouted, “does Minghao have to go? I’m his roommate, he’ll be lonely back in the dorms.”
Minghao made a face, already walking away from Junhui’s bed, “maybe you should have thought of that before you did stupid things.”
Hansol was the only one who bothered to stop and ask Jisoo if he would be fine alone, and the elder just waved a hand and said it wasn’t anything he wasn’t already used to— which was true enough in itself, this wasn’t the first time any of them had managed to land themselves in the hospital. All the boys’ parents knew and trusted him well enough, too. It was a bit of a responsibility, but nothing he couldn’t take. Not like he had anything better to do either.
“I’ll stick around till the nurse or intern comes in and all, just to be sure,” Jisoo assured him, waving them off.
“You don’t have to stay,” Soonyoung piped up once the rest of them left. “We’ll be fine.”
Jisoo offered a smile, taking a seat by the beds.
“Nah, I meant it when I said I have nothing to do. I’m an unemployed bum, remember?”
“You could always work for the music store near your apartment,” Junhui pointed out.
“I already sent—“
“Sorry, I’m late!” A frazzled voice cut through the air; Jisoo didn’t notice the door opening but standing in the room now was a boy who looked around his age, dressed in the hospital’s all white nurse attire. The only difference was the clear ID strap he had around his neck to signify that he was still a student. He did look particularly panicked, a bit tired as he spoke with a small pant, too. After a few seconds, the intern seemed to have composed himself as he flashed a bright smile towards the room’s patients, and finally at Jisoo.
Jisoo’s breath caught in his throat.
For lack of a better word, the boy was gorgeous; dark hair framed his face and the white of the uniform made his lightly tanned skin glow. The contrast of colors managed to heighten the planes and angles of his face too, bringing a manly effect to the general ethereal feel. Jisoo’s never been one to notice these things before, so the sudden rush of emotions left him a bit stumped, and maybe too deaf to hear that the attractive nursing intern was asking him a question until Junhui threw a roll of tissue paper at him.
“Hong Jisoo, you’re the acting adult here, remember?” Junhui said with a knowing look on his face— the Chinese boy had always been keen to these sort of things, and Jisoo regretted showing a sign of weakness.
Jisoo blinked and turned towards the now clearly amused nurse, “sorry, what did you say?”
“Well, I have the results,” the boy— Yoon Jeonghan, according to his nameplate, thank God for those things— flipped through a clipboard and scanned through it. “The x-rays say that it’s a bit of a minor injury, really. A bit misplaced but the casts should get that fixed soon. Just one night here to make sure they don’t get into any trouble and that they get enough rest.”
“This means I’m excused from school, right?” Soonyoung asked innocently.
“Tomorrow’s a Saturday,” Jisoo deadpanned.
“What if I’m still in pain by Monday?”
“Soonyoung.”
“Okay, kidding.”
Jeonghan laughed at the whole exchange, and for a split second Jisoo actually almost forgot the nursing student was there until his laugh echoed in the room. It was a nice laugh, boyish and carefree, and it didn’t feel fake like how other nurses would politely smile and look like they were forced to be nice to patients and stuff. Jisoo was suddenly brought back to how bright Jeonghan just seemed, definitely brighter than other medicine students he knew.
He was so close to asking except Junhui interrupted him again by asking about dinner and how Jisoo should treat them to fried chicken, or something like that, Jisoo wasn’t sure because he was focused on Jeonghan’s silently retreating figure.
“Man,” Junhui said when the door clicked close. “That was so obvious, you’re so whipped.”
Jisoo bought them fried chicken, but only so they’ll shut up.
(They didn’t, and the rest of their group knew by the same night.)
/
When Soonyoung and Junhui were released the next day, Jisoo had been there too, but caught no sight of Jeonghan.
He brushed it off, and from then on life proceeded as normal. Exams were coming up for the rest of the boys as he had said, which meant less time hanging out. Jisoo would answer phone calls from them asking for help instead or get involved in group study Skype call that made him feel way older than he was— sometimes they treated him like he knew the answers to the universe just because he was out of university. The feeling was the exact opposite.
Jisoo had no idea what to do with his life sometimes, most of the time, almost everyday.
It took a while before the companies he signed up for bothered to call him back; some of them were nice about turning him down (stuff about his American heritage and how he should learn more Korean) while some were plainly blunt and a bit rude about how he needed more experience and being a music major and knowing how to play the guitar and sing just weren’t enough to make the cut as a producer. His only positive reply came from the aforementioned music store near his place.
So that morning, Jisoo had woken up earlier than usual to dress himself in fairly more stylish clothes, fix his hair a bit, and headed towards the music store a few blocks down. He was told to be there before it opened at 9AM and to ring the doorbell found behind a few of the potted plants by the ledge. He did as he was told and waited a bit before the front door was opened and a tiny figure came into view.
“First of all, any quips about my height and you’re fired immediately.”
Lee Jihoon, the owner of the music store (or at least, the son of the owner), greeted him by the door. Jisoo didn’t need to be told twice, as the icy glare he got from the boy was enough to scare him at least a tiny bit— the oversized pastel sweater Jihoon was wearing was what lessened the effect by a fair amount. As far as he knew, Jihoon was younger than he was, but managed to finish school earlier than his peers and was immediately sent to tend to the store. He was led inside and was greeted by a surprisingly familiar face.
“Oh, hey! You’re Hong Jisoo,” Choi Seungcheol said, seated by the store’s counter. “So you’re the new guy Jihoonie was talking about.”
Seungcheol was in the same year as Jisoo back in university, and if his memory served him right, they were in the same music course too. They’d been classmates once or twice, so they were more or less acquaintances, still not too close to be called friends. He offered the blonde boy a smile and nodded.
“Yeah, it’s nice to know I’ll be having a familiar face around here,” Jisoo said sincerely.
“I know what you mean,” Seungcheol nodded in agreement. “Jihoon here had been raving at me to make sure I help him around the store as soon as graduation ended. He’s been lonely.”
Jihoon scoffed, “I wasn’t lonely. You were broke and you needed a job and I helped your pitiful self because I am a good friend, a great friend, I am—”
“Whatever you say.”
Jisoo easily decided that he liked working at the music store, rightfully named Hit Song, because the place oozed music. His first few weeks included cleaning around the area, which wasn’t too hard because Jihoon already kept everything extremely arranged. He helped around with the customers looking for albums, sometimes even starting up small talk with them and sharing music ideas. It was great. If anything, it paid a little less than usual, but that was understandable and Jisoo found that he didn’t mind at all.
It wasn’t too far from his original goal of being a music producer either, because Jisoo soon found out that Jihoon had a small studio tucked in the back of the store, where he worked on music. Specifically, where Jihoon and Seungcheol worked on music. Creating beats, writing lyrics, stuff like that tended to take up their free time. It was a different atmosphere compared to when he was with Mingyu and the rest of the guys.
On weekends they would actually visit and surprisingly, even hit it off quite well with the Hit Song store members.
They weren’t too rowdy, thankfully, and nobody dared to mention Jihoon’s height after Jisoo’s warning. Seokmin almost did, barely opening his mouth when Minghao quickly smacked his arm. If Jihoon noticed, he let it slide. So, yeah, overall things were beginning to fall into a good dynamic for Jisoo. Work was fine, his friends were doing fine, his family back in America was fine too, everything was fine.
And then one day, things got better.
/
Okay, Jisoo didn’t want to be that friend, but he had to admit there was a different feeling that mixed along with his usual worry when he heard that Hansol managed to land himself in the hospital. He was excused from work with Jihoon shooing him off and claiming that there was always tomorrow, anyway. Jisoo quickly made his way to the hospital, the only the city had, silently praying that Hansol wasn’t hurt too much.
It was also the first time in weeks that he thought about Jeonghan, not that it mattered at the moment, of course.
When he finally reached the hospital, Jisoo didn’t know which surprised him first; the fact that Hansol wasn’t in any type of serious injury but just happened to beg for Jisoo to come as his emergency contact; or that it was Jeonghan who greeted him when he reached Hansol’s area of the waiting area, all bright and smiley and once again, gorgeous. He had a small feeling that the latter reason was the what brought about the first reason in the first place.
Should he thank Hansol? Jisoo didn’t know yet.
“Glad you’re here!” Jeonghan’s chipper voice greeted him. He always seemed so bright and happy despite working at the hospital and being a med student, shattering the usual stereotypes about how they’re zombies swamped with work and studies.
“Is there anything serious?” Jisoo asked after offering a quick hello, already knowing that the answer was no based on Hansol’s relaxed state.
Jeonghan confirmed this by shaking his head, “not really. We did a few check ups and all. He just scraped his knee pretty badly, but it’s nothing too deep. It’s all bandaged now.”
“Is that so,” Jisoo commented drily, facing Hansol, who only gave him a cheeky grin in return.
“It really felt like something was broken or something, man. You needed to be here.”
Jeonghan, bless his soul, was seemingly oblivious to the whole thing as he handed Jisoo the clipboard so Jisoo could sign a few papers deeming Hansol free from the hospital’s clutches. He chatted about how Hansol’s knee actually did look like it was in pretty bad shape, and most bicycle related incidents are (Jisoo wondered briefly about this because Hansol doesn’t know how to ride a bike to begin with, what) but thankfully everything was fine.
Jisoo smiled at Jeonghan once he finished, “I see, I see. But thanks, uhm—“
“Call me Jeonghan.”
“Thanks, Jeonghan,” Jisoo said, mentally praising himself for not screwing that up. “Sorry for the bother.”
The intern laughed that infectious laugh again, waving off Jisoo’s apology.
“It’s my job,” he said, grinning widely as if that fact alone made him the happiest person in the planet.
Hansol chose to ruin the moment by coughing and drawing attention to himself. He stood up from his seat and wobbled a little before sliding next to Jisoo, who was still debating whether he should thank him or not. The younger boy rested his arm on Jisoo’s shoulder and flashed him an apologetic (yet also clearly fake) smile.
“Thanks for coming anyway, Jisoo,” he said, nodding solemnly. “We could always count on you, all of us, your precious younger friends who are eternally in your—”
“Next time either of you land yourself here call Minghao instead,” Jisoo added in, trying hard not to stare at Jeonghan’s amused face, because Jeonghan was grinning somewhat and he was sure if he glanced just a little he wouldn’t be able to look away.
“But you’re the adult.”
“I have work, it’s only been a few weeks in, what if Jihoon ends up—“
“Jihoon?” Jeonghan asked curiously, tilting his head to the side in question. “I don’t mean to pry, but would this happen to be Lee Jihoon? Short, grumpy guy? Laughs like there’s no tomorrow, though? Hit Song records shop?”
Okay, so maybe Hansol deserved his thanks after all.
After confirming that yes, that was in fact that same Jihoon (“I used to head to that store a lot, back when I wasn’t working here yet. We’re good friends. I’m close to his boyfriend Seungcheol too!” “They’re together?!”) Jeonghan had mentioned something about visiting again. He said it was to visit his friends, but partially Jisoo wanted to dream and hope a little that maybe it was also to see him, after all, he was the one who brought the idea up.
Jisoo was doing his best to ignore a smirky Hansol who had an all too knowing grin on his face as Jeonghan ushered them out, when the pink haired boy felt a small tug on his sleeve.
Jeonghan was staring at him with an expression on his face like a deer caught in the headlights, quickly dropping his hand.
“Uhm, I was just wondering,” the usually confident boy began to say. “What can I call you? I mean, it’s just, you seem to be around a lot. I heard some of the nurses say your friends end up here a lot— not that I asked or anything, it’s just— I know your name, but I didn’t want to assume— but— “
“Just Jisoo is fine,” Jisoo said with an equally shy smile and he could feel Hansol rolling his eyes beside him. “You can call me Ji—”
“You can call him anytime,” Hansol butted in, grinning that playful grin. “His number’s on my emergency contact card!”
“Hansol, can you stop,” Jisoo groaned, about to continue his sermon further if it weren’t for the equally playful grin that managed to blossom onto Jeonghan’s face.
“Alright, noted,” the intern said happily. “See you guys!”
/
Jeonghan doesn’t call.
Rather, Jeonghan texts. And when Jisoo thought Seokmin texted a lot, Jeonghan’s texting was a whole new level, but he didn’t mind.
After a week, Jeonghan does in fact visit Hit Song, still in his hospital uniform. He was greeted by an overjoyed Seungcheol, a scowling Jihoon who complained about the germs on his uniform, and a slightly shy but ultimately happy Jisoo. Jeonghan announces that he wasn’t there to visit the couple (again, they were together?) but rather, he was there for the ‘blushing pink haired boy behind the counter’ and Jihoon reluctantly let Jisoo off the hook one more time.
Over the course of the next few weeks, Jisoo learns a lot of things.
Jisoo learns that Jeonghan found him cute the moment he laid eyes on him, almost forgetting that Soonyoung and Junhui were the patients.
(Jisoo didn’t want to admit the same thing just yet.)
Jeonghan in turn learns that Hansol did in fact overplay his injury. Also, he definitely did not get it from a bike. Jisoo learned all of this from Hansol himself that same afternoon. It had something to do with trying to impress someone— Hansol wouldn’t say who—and lots of planned stupid and crazy antics that thankfully didn't push through. Jeonghan was more amused than anything, commenting that he might get along with Jisoo’s friends and Jisoo swore his heart leapt out of his chest.
“He specifically asked for me to nurse him,” Jeonghan confessed during one of their pizza dates. “When you came into the room, I saw a glimmer of hope.”
Jisoo doesn’t deny anything, which makes Jeonghan smile that beautiful smile all over again.
There came a point in Hong Jisoo’s life where he began to think back on all of his life decisions. He was definitely beginning to think that moving to South Korea was his best idea yet, followed closely by his decision to befriend Hansol and the rest of his crazy, antic-filled group of friends. Working at Hit Song opened more doors for him than he could imagine throughout his stay there. Finally, everything just seemed to lead him to Jeonghan, and that was the best part yet.