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Renjun is sitting on his designated spot at the nurses station when the head nurse walks out of her office and makes her way towards the staff preparing themselves for the morning endorsements. There is a bundle of stark white uniforms in her hands and a boy with a handsome face and an equally handsome stature right behind her. At a young age, Renjun was taught that it’s rude to stare, so even if he wants to observe the stranger’s dashing features for a little while longer, he chooses instead to busy himself by fixing his already organized tackle box and thinking about what on earth a boy that good-looking is doing working for a laundry service.
“Yukhei?” Renjun hears Mark ask from where he’s seated behind him. Suddenly, there are clicks of dress shoes on the tiled floor of the ward and a blur of black and white charging at the direction of the head nurse and the stranger.
“My 朋友!” Mark exclaims.
Renjun is a little confused about what’s going on exactly, but he’s sure he has to tell Mark to put a little more practice in his Mandarin.
Mark and the boy -- Yukhei, embrace each other like overexcited puppies. Yukhei even lifts Mark a bit and spins him around in the air. “Mark Lee, my man!”
The head nurse, Seulgi, steps away just enough for her not to get hit by Mark’s swinging legs. She smiles fondly at the pair and waits for them to get over the initial excitement of their reunion. When Mark and Yukhei finally calm down, Nurse Seulgi turns to the rest of her staff.
“Good morning, everybody! This will just be a quick introduction before we have our endorsements this morning. This is Wong Yukhei, if Dr. Lee had not made it obvious,” Nurse Seulgi teases the pediatric chief resident and neurosurgeon. Mark smiles sheepishly from beside his friend. “Yukhei is originally from Hong Kong but he moved to Seoul about six months ago because of his family’s business. He had recently passed the KNLE, so today, we’re welcoming him to the team!”
The staff erupts into a round of soft applause and quiet cheers. Seulgi continues, “Yukhei has had three years of clinical experience in Hong Kong, but it wouldn’t hurt to still help him out, yes?” She turns to Yukhei to hand him the stack of uniforms, and then to Mark. “I’ll leave the rest of the team’s introductions to you, Dr. Lee. Yukhei, have a great first day. I’m just in my office if you need anything.”
Mark waits for the head nurse to re-enter her room before he claps a hand on Yukhei’s shoulder. He uses his other hand to point at the resident’s table at the far back. “Okay, so. Those two are Jeno and Jaemin, our third year pediatric residents. Our second years are Hyunjin and Seungmin who are both on rounds right now, so you’ll meet them later, but Hyunjin’s the taller one.” Mark scans the room before landing on the figure at the medication area. “That one’s Donghyuck and this,” Mark continues as he turns to the side to where Renjun is seated. “Is Renjun. They’re both nurses too, so they’re who you’ll be working with the most.”
The boys give Yukhei a wave or a nod, but Renjun chooses to stare at him, his manners suddenly tossed out the window. Renjun recalls now that Mark had mentioned before that he had wanted to introduce his friends to another friend. Renjun had thought that introductions would be over food and drinks, and he most definitely did not expect to meet Mark’s friend at the pediatrics department of Seoul National University Hospital.
Donghyuck snickers from where he’s standing, and says, “Don’t drench the charts with your drool, Injun!”
Renjun snaps his attention to the medication area and glares at Donghyuck and then at the cabinet of narcotics by his head. He wonders if he can inject Donghyuck with a sedative, just this once.
Yukhei’s gaze rounds the room and he smiles at everybody with way too many teeth. When he finally looks at Renjun, his grin is taking up half of his face. In his head, Renjun reasons that he’s only staring because he can’t fathom how somebody can smile this much, this early on a Monday morning, and not because he’s smitten with Yukhei’s teeth and his smile and his face and basically, his entire existence (this much, this early on a Monday morning).
Renjun feels a finger brush the corner of his lips and later realizes that Donghyuck had come to swipe at the (imaginary) drool at the side of his mouth. “Let me get that for you,” Donghyuck teases. Renjun silently devices a plan to get the key to the narcotics cabinet from Nurse Seulgi’s office without her knowing it had been taken.
Everybody gives Yukhei a few minutes to change into his hospital uniform before they start endorsements. Renjun can’t help but steal a couple of glances at Yukhei’s clipboard because it’s evident that Yukhei misses a few notes, probably due to the language barrier and also probably because Charge Nurse Wendy speaks quickly and with an accent. Yukhei catches Renjun looking once and gives him a bright smile. He feels a warm pink spread across his neck but before it can reach the tip of his nose, Renjun turns away and goes back to taking down orders on his own.
Once the morning endorsements have finished and the night shift nurses have left, Mark groups Renjun, Donghyuck, and Yukhei altogether in a corner. “How are you guys splitting the load?”
Donghyuck shrugs and everybody looks at Renjun. He acts as Seulgi’s second in command when they’re on the same shift anyway (and as the charge nurse if he’s the most experienced of the group on duty). Yukhei’s smiling at him again, but this time with no teeth and just a lot of charm coming out of the small dimple by his mouth.
Renjun decides that he doesn’t like Yukhei or his smile or the effect they have on him, and he thinks it’s annoyance that bubbles in his chest, so he chooses to do one thing he knows he does best, being hostile.
“You can take beds 1 to 5, then Hyuck and I will decide what other beds to give you later on,” Renjun speaks curtly. He hands Yukhei five charts, with Bed 3’s open to its latest page at the top of the pile. He taps the sheet once. “Bed 3 is due for a bath, and her inotropes need to be reconcoctioned. Just clarify with Dr. Na. He also ordered for an x-ray to be done this morning.”
Renjun quickly rises from his seat and beelines to the medication area to prep his share of this morning’s medicines. In his haste, Renjun misses the apologetic look Mark offers Yukhei and the latter’s shrug accompanied with a “the sooner I start, the quicker I’ll master the ropes!”.
Lunch time comes later than Renjun would have liked. After making sure that all of his patients’ morning medications have been administered and that those who need to be fed via NGTs have been checked for proper placement, Renjun makes his way to the pantry where his friends are already seated. Chenle and Jisung are unsurprisingly there too. Renjun pops his packed lunch in the microwave and leans against the counter as he waits.
“Where’s your new boyfriend, hyung?” Chenle asks teasingly. He has the confidence to joke with Renjun because he’s seated the farthest from the older boy now. Renjun assumes that in his absence, his friends have filled the youngest boys in on the news of the pediatric ward’s newest team member. Donghyuck certainly exaggerated a few details.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Renjun answers simply.
“Yet,” Donghyuck adds through a mouthful of his burger.
Renjun rolls his eyes. He stops the microwave, pulls the door open, grabs his lunch, and takes a seat across Mark -- all with more force than necessary. He takes one bite of his noodles, chews, then swallows, before looking at the eldest straight in the eye.
“This is insulting, Mark hyung,” Renjun exclaims. “Hyuck and I have been handling the morning shift by ourselves these past weeks, what makes you think we need the extra help?”
There are a few beats of silence, and not even Donghyuck makes any snarky remark. Renjun thinks he must have overreacted, but he can always count on Mark to save the day.
Mark reaches across the table to poke at the bags under Renjun’s eyes. “More hands on deck will be better for all of us, Renjun. Less burn out, more patient safety and quality care.”
Renjun huffs before taking another spoonful of noodles. Donghyuck, who had stood up earlier to get water from the dispenser, walks to Renjun and gives him a pat on the back.
“A new addition to the team also means you can finally take a shot at love, Injunnie.”
Donghyuck should thank the benches in the pantry for making it hard for Renjun to spin around and stab him with a chopstick for his unwarranted comment. The boys, except Mark, find it funny, and it only makes Renjun chew on his noodles furiously.
“I don’t get it,” Mark announces once the laughter had died down. “I know Jeno and Jaemin are dating, and I’m sure Chenle and Jisung do the footsies every break time, but who’s Donghyuck in love with?”
From laughing, everybody, Renjun included, sighs.
During the afternoon endorsements, the head nurse commends Yukhei for accomplishing all of his patients’ orders. Donghyuck had given him another five beds, and although he missed a few minor orders that could eventually be covered by the next group of nurses, Yukhei did a great job for somebody on his first day, add the fact that he’s still relatively new to the country.
“Your charts can be improved though,” Seulgi offers with a smile which Yukhei accepts graciously. “You’ll learn how we do it here over the next few weeks. Renjun can help you.”
Renjun had been quietly sitting in the corner, thinking of what he needs to buy from the supermarket before he goes home, but at the mention of his name, he looks up and sees Yukhei looking at him again with his pearly white teeth and slight dimple. There’s another bubble in his chest, but Renjun can’t say no to Seulgi, so he nods with a tight-lipped smile.
Renjun is an efficient worker. He’s calculated and smart about his every move while on duty, but busy days and toxic patients are still inevitable in this field of work. Renjun thinks he doesn’t need any more stressors, so instead of being right by Yukhei’s side to teach him ways to work better at the ward, Renjun aimlessly tacks sticky notes containing tips and tricks on Yukhei’s clipboard or on his spot at the nurses station instead. Seulgi didn’t say he had to help Yukhei in person anyway.
“What are these?” Mark asks as he passes by bed 14 where Renjun is currently attending to a patient. He has two of the yellow sticky notes Renjun made for Yukhei in his hand.
Renjun momentarily takes his eyes away from the IV drip he’s preparing to look at the sticky notes and then at Mark. “Those are for your friend. ‘Renjun’s Guide to Surviving the Pediatric Department’,” Renjun answers. He thinks he is pretty witty to come up with a name to call his collection of sticky notes, and he has a chuckle at the tip of his tongue. It doesn't come out.
Mark sighs. “His name is Yukhei, Renjun, and don’t you think you’re being a little mean to him?”
“I spent a lot of time writing those, hyung, how can you say that?” He counters. He hangs the IV drip on the hook attached to the bed, and makes his way to his next patient. Mark follows him.
“Please,” Mark scoffs as he squints at one of the notes. “Your handwriting on these is indecipherable, which is a surprise, because your charts are one of my favorite ones to read.” Mark reaches for the nearly empty bottle of saline solution hanging on one of the hooks on bed 15 because Renjun’s struggle to do so has clearly kept him from paying Mark any mind. Mark carefully twists the needle from the end of the IV tubing and drops it into the sharps container on Renjun’s nursing cart. He then turns the bottle right side up, pulls the IV tubing out, and tosses them into the garbage bin right beside the sharps container.
Renjun catches sight of two pieces of yellow sticky notes crumpled and damp inside his trash can along with the used IV bottle. His mouth falls open as he looks at Mark who’s only looking at him with a blank stare.
“Put in a little more effort, please?” Whether Mark is talking about putting more effort into helping Yukhei out in the ward or into being his friend, Renjun isn’t sure, and he doesn’t have the time to decide because Yukhei just almost slipped on nothing right in front of them, and Renjun couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
On his way out of the ward later that afternoon, Renjun catches Seulgi complimenting Yukhei for his improved charts. He stops himself from smiling, no matter how small, when he overhears Yukhei tell Seulgi about the neatly arranged yellow sticky notes he had found on the front cover of his clipboard that have helped him out a lot today.
The department gets even busier and the staff get even more tired on some days, but in the medical profession, sacrifices have to be made to be able to save lives.
It’s a Saturday, and Renjun should have been off from work, but their pregnant nurse had been rushed to the emergency room the night before and nobody else was free to cover for her. It’s Renjun’s sixth day on duty and he’s tired. He arrives at the hospital with a little more than an hour before his shift starts, so he drops himself on a corner in the pantry and catches up on the sleep he’s been missing.
Renjun wakes up about half an hour later to the smell of warm hazelnut. When he lifts his head from his arms on the table, the first thing he sees is a mug of steaming hot chocolate by the spot where his head had been. He finishes his hot chocolate and makes sure he doesn’t have a chocolate mustache, before he steps out of the pantry and towards the nurses station.
He hadn’t been expecting it, but he sees Yukhei hovering above last night’s charge nurse in preparation for today’s endorsements.
Then, he sees the little brown spot that’s too light to be a coffee stain by the bodice of Yukhei’s uniform.
The weekends are usually not as hectic as weekdays are, so Renjun finds the time to answer the phonecall he receives from Donghyuck during a lull in his shift.
“How are you holding up, my friend?” Donghyuck asks, sounding much too bright even for somebody who likes to call himself Full Sun .
Renjun squints and strains to hear the noises coming from the other end of the line. There’s a rustle, a bang, and a muffled voice asking Donghyuck to give him a hand that sounds too much like Mark. Renjun’s mouth falls slightly. “Oh my god, Lee Donghyuck, are you --? Is that --? You’re not really busy are you? ”
Renjun can’t see his friend’s facial expressions at the moment, but he’s sure Donghyuck had just rolled his eyes at his accusation. “You wish. I wish, Renjun. I really have something I can’t miss today, okay? I’m sorry. Mark hyung and I will most definitely tell you guys about it when we’re all together again.”
“Okay, okay, I believe you,” Renjun reassures his friend with a light chuckle. The other end of the line is silent, so Renjun continues. “I’m alright, thanks for asking. It’s pretty benign today. We’ve discharged a couple of patients, and thankfully, nobody else is decked.” Renjun looks around the ward and spots Yukhei untangling the tubings and wires of one of his patients. “Yukhei’s on duty today.”
Donghyuck hums. “Sometimes, he takes an added day of work. Seulgi noona and Mark hyung don’t think it’s a good idea, but he insists. He’s immensely enthusiastic about his work.”
Renjun watches as Yukhei moves to the medication area with a bottle of expressed breast milk in his hands. “He can’t overwork himself.”
Donghyuck clicks his tongue. “We remind him, but he’s stubborn. Mark hyung will make sure that’ll be his last sixth working day though.” Renjun nods. “We don’t think he needs the extra experience anymore anyway, some yellow sticky notes have helped him a lot with the workload. Yukhei said so himself.”
Now it’s Renjun’s turn to roll his eyes. He can hear his friend trying his best to keep himself from laughing out loud.
“Are those even tips or are they already love letters?”
“He still has a lot to learn,” Renjun says in place of an actual answer to Donghyuck’s question.
Although Yukhei had been working at SNUH’s pediatrics department for a little more than a month already, he can still improve and Renjun is just doing as Seulgi asked him to before. Renjun’s judgement is right, because at that exact moment, Yukhei yelps in pain. When Renjun snaps his head in the direction of the medication area, he sees Yukhei clutching his hand, and Renjun assumes that he must have burned himself by accident.
“Hey, Hyuck, I’ll call you back later, alright? Something happened,” Renjun tells his friend and he hangs up before Donghyuck can ask for any further explanation.
Renjun takes quick and quiet steps to the medication area so Yukhei only realizes that Renjun is right beside him when the younger boy opens the ward’s refrigerator to pull out one of the cold packs they store inside. Without asking for permission, Renjun pulls Yukhei’s hand closer to himself and puts the cold pack on the burned spot that has now turned into a light shade of red. Softly, lightly. Yukhei is caught off guard, and when he regains his senses, he tries to pull his hand back, but Renjun keeps it in place.
With one hand keeping the cold pack on Yukhei’s burn, Renjun uses his free hand to scavenge for a tube of burn ointment and a sterile bandage in one of the baskets on the counter.
“Do you mind?” Renjun asks as he offers the other side of the bandage’s package to Yukhei. Together, they rip the plastic open, and Yukhei holds the package while Renjun pulls the bandage out of it. Renjun removes the cold pack from Yukhei’s hand then sets it aside. He uncaps the tube of burn ointment and squeezes a good amount on the tip of his forefinger before applying it to the burn. Afterwards, he wraps Yukhei’s hand with the bandage. Softly, lightly.
Yukhei gets excited and loud sometimes, which irks Renjun a bit, but he’s been calm and quiet the entire time that Renjun can’t help but look at him (well, his hand, to be exact) with something that almost resembles fondness.
“Th-thank you,” Yukhei says gently once Renjun is already clasping the bandage in place.
“You know, Mark hyung said that having you here means less burn out, and although that’s true,” Renjun begins. He lets go of Yukhei’s hand as quickly but as carefully as he had pulled it towards himself earlier. When Renjun looks at Yukhei this time, his eyes and lips are soft at the edges, but he isn’t smiling quite yet. “I think Mark hyung forgot to mention that it also means having more literal burns,” Renjun continues, but there’s no poison in his words.
Yukhei coughs, then he chuckles, and then he laughs. His eyes curve into crescents, his little dimple is deep, and his teeth are on full display, but this time, Renjun doesn’t find any of it annoying. Instead, he finds himself laughing along with Yukhei, and that the bubble inside his chest is back, only this time, it’s a different kind.
Renjun checks the temperature of the bottle of expressed breast milk while Yukhei cleans the counter of the stuff they used to treat his burn. Renjun then wraps the bottle with a clean cloth and hands it to Yukhei. When Yukhei takes it, he pretends to have been burned a second time. Renjun’s reaction makes Yukhei guffaw which in turn makes Renjun glower at him.
“Just take this and go already, your patient must be hungry,” Renjun says as he stuffs the bottle into Yukhei’s hand and lightly pushes him back towards the patients’ area.
“Thanks again, Renjun,” Yukhei says in between peals of his laughter.
“Go,” Renjun tells him again. When Yukhei grins at him with his iconic pearly white teeth and slight dimple, Renjun adds, “You’re annoying, you know that?”
Yukhei smiles.
They both know Renjun doesn’t mean it, at least, not that way.
The next time Renjun comes to work is on the Wednesday of the following week. Donghyuck, Yongbok, and Jeongin are on duty too.
“Seulgi noona’s not here?”
“Nope, so you’re in charge today,” Donghyuck answers. He gives Renjun the Kardex. “Yukhei’s not here too, so stop straining your neck. It doesn’t require that much effort to look for him if he were here anyway.”
A bright red spreads across Renjun’s cheeks, up to the tips of his ears, and down to his neck. He’d been caught looking, in general, not necessarily for Yukhei, and Donghyuck grins without any remorse. Because he has no witty comeback in mind and to prevent himself from any further embarrassment, Renjun asks for everybody’s attention and begins with this morning’s endorsements.
Despite being a charge nurse with three staff nurses, the workload is still pretty heavy. Renjun writes on chart after chart, on form after form, on request after request. He answers every phone call and each guardian’s or doctor’s inquiries. As a charge nurse, Renjun is mostly left seated by himself at the nurses station.
While his three companions are at the patients’ area administering medications and performing other interventions, Renjun takes a pen and a thin pad of yellow sticky notes from his tackle box. He doesn’t really know what to write -- Yukhei’s been working pretty well in the past month or so hence there really isn’t much to teach him anymore. Renjun realizes he doesn’t really have anything to write, until he remembers the minor accident Yukhei had gotten into last weekend.
Burn First Aid, Renjun jots, but before he can scribble anything else, somebody whispers a Boo! in his ear.
Renjun jumps in his seat and his non-dominant hand flies to his chest. “What the heck, Lee Jeno?!” Renjun shrieks at his crescent-eyed and wide-smiled friend.
“What’re you doing?” Jeno sing-songs. He peeks over Renjun’s shoulders and catches sight of the yellow sticky note and what’s written on it before Renjun can do anything. “Ahhh.”
“This is for Yangyang,” Renjun lies. It’s ineffective because Jeno gives him a look that’s obviously mocking him.
“Save it, I know exactly who that’s for.” Jeno takes a seat beside Renjun. He grins at Renjun as if he had won something (a bet probably, Renjun thinks). “First of all, Yukhei was on duty yesterday and he told us all about the band-aid at the back of his hand, and second, we also had lunch with Yangyang who was clearly not nursing any burns.” Jeno looks extremely pleased with himself and the situation. Renjun is tempted to draw on his face.
“Couldn’t Yangyang have accidentally burned himself today?”
Jeno chuckles. “Go on, continue writing,” he tells Renjun as he nods towards the yellow sticky note. He’s smirking, and Renjun is reminded of Yukhei. Yukhei and Jeno are both handsome and they both can get incredibly annoying. “I promise to keep the note safe until Yukhei comes back to work.”
Renjun pokes Jeno’s nose with the blunt side of his pen.
Renjun doesn’t say this out loud, but he actually honestly prefers older children over younger ones. The older kids are easier to handle, Renjun thinks. There’re less crying and less tantrums with older children, and some days, Renjun just really can’t find it in himself to deal with any of the two from his younger patients.
Like today, Renjun has been assigned an infant who had not stopped crying ever since his mother left to buy a breast pump among other things from the pharmacy. The mother is a single mother whose closest relative has yet to arrive, hence her baby is left alone while she runs errands for herself and for her child. Renjun made sure to complete his due interventions on his other patients before dropping by the infant’s bed to watch over him. Renjun performs hand hygiene then rubs circles on the baby’s stomach with his index finger. He tries to shush the child, but he just won’t stop crying. Renjun sighs.
From the corner of his eye, Renjun sees a figure approach him. From the size, Renjun already knows it’s Yukhei. He watches as Yukhei pumps a hefty amount of alcohol into his hand before walking over to Renjun and the infant.
“He’s been crying nonstop, I’m sure he’s hungry but his mother hasn’t come back yet,” Renjun explains. He tries his best not to sound like he’s whining, but Yukhei understands how difficult being a pediatric nurse can get.
Yukhei crouches down so he’s at eye-level with the infant’s bed. “Hey you,” he whispers. He puts his forefinger and middle finger together and rubs small circles on top of the baby’s head. “Shhh, Mommy’s coming soon, shhh."
The infant doesn’t stop crying, but Yukhei doesn’t stop rubbing his head too. He brings the circles down to the baby’s nose, and that’s what it takes for the baby to hiccup. Yukhei stops and the infant is just looking up at him, before he hiccups again and then it turns into a full-blown giggle.
Renjun watches as the baby giggles and as Yukhei’s face breaks into a wide grin. He finds himself smiling and sighing, but reasons that it’s because of relief rather than anything else.
“I’ve been trying for almost half an hour. I don’t know how you did it, but thanks.”
With the baby calmed down now, Yukhei shifts his gaze to Renjun. His eyes are softer at the edges, but his smile is even bigger, brighter. For a split second, Renjun finds it adorable, but that thought disappears as soon as it came when Yukhei says,
“Maybe I’m just charming.”
Renjun snorts and rolls his eyes. A look of disbelief paints Yukhei’s face, but before he can ask Renjun for an explanation, the infant’s mother arrives, profusely apologizing for having been gone a long time.
The two nurses assure her that everything was and is alright, but advise her to feed her child as soon as possible. When they leave the mother and the baby, Renjun makes sure to walk the opposite direction as Yukhei. He catches the older boy watch him go, but he doesn’t stop walking or turn around.
Chenle and Jisung wait with Renjun by the door to the pantry for Yukhei to come over and join them for lunch. Their other friends are already inside, and there’s no doubt that they’ve also begun digging into Renjun’s packed leftover hot pot.
They watch Yukhei go over home care instructions with the parents of a patient he’s about to send home. Some children are ecstatic to finally leave the hospital, but this kid clearly doesn’t fall into that category since she has her arms tightly wound around Yukhei’s hips.
“Yukhei hyung is nice. He’s good with kids,” Jisung comments. “I like him.”
The girl finally lets Yukhei go, and as if she hadn’t just been clinging to Yukhei, she bounds towards the exit at an energy level not expected of anybody who had just gotten discharged from the hospital.
Chenle hums. “I like him too. Do you, Renjun hyung?”
Yukhei follows his patient leave with his eyes, and he catches sight of Chenle, Jisung, and Renjun waiting for him. He breaks into another big smile.
Renjun is too busy staring to answer Chenle.
Another month has passed which means that there’s a new staff schedule. Renjun finds himself on the afternoon shift. With Yukhei.
It’s one of those evenings where the afternoon had been hectic but the nighttime is lazy. Renjun, being the charge nurse, goes into the pantry to prepare drinks for himself and the rest of the staff on duty with him.
While the coffee is still brewing, Renjun whips up two cups of hazelnut hot cocoa. Jaemin -- whether he arrived because of the smell of the coffee or because of his constant need for caffeine, Renjun is not sure -- comes in a little later and waits beside Renjun for the coffee to be ready.
“What do you need two mugs of hot chocolate for?”
Before Renjun can come up with an excuse, Yukhei enters the pantry as well.
“Mm, coffee,” he inhales deeply. Jaemin tells him that he’s going to have to wait a few more minutes. “Oh, actually, do we have anything else?”
At that exact moment, Renjun stops stirring the hot chocolate, drops the teaspoon he was using into the sink, and hands Yukhei one of the mugs of hot cocoa. He leaves soon after but he doesn’t have to be looking to know that Jaemin’s sporting a huge and cocky smile.
“Hey, Renjun, I have a patient coming in from the emergency room in about an hour. Chief complaint is --” Jeno stops mid sentence to look over Renjun’s shoulder. Renjun didn’t seem to be paying attention so Jeno isn’t worried about getting caught sticking his nose in his friend’s business.
He spots a familiar pad of yellow sticky notes.
“I’ll come back later,” Jeno sings, his grin evident in his voice but Renjun is too busy writing to notice.
Mark catches Renjun just as he exits the restroom. There’s a familiar clipboard with a familiar yellow sticky note on its cover in his hands. Mark chuckles. “This may be a little too much effort, but I’m not complaining.”
“Good, because I’m not taking any criticism, hyung.”
The doctors have bid their goodbyes and the night shift nurses have already begun preparing medications and feeding, but Renjun is still in front of his locker, getting ready to go home. Renjun used to think that having Yukhei’s locker right beside his was karma, but he’s now starting to think that it’s actually fate.
Yukhei enters the locker room with his clipboard in his hands and his eyebrows furrowed. When he lifts his head and sees Renjun looking at him, he smiles. Renjun does the same.
Yukhei opens his locker and starts to fix his things. “You still don’t think I’m charming?”
Renjun closes his locker, leans against it, and watches Yukhei. “Oh I do,” he shrugs. He’s trying his best to keep his smile at a minimum but he’s obviously not succeeding. He knows, Yukhei knows. “But I also still think you’re annoying.”
Your teeth are nice. You should keep smiling at me more.
Except the “at me” had been strikethroughed four times and Yukhei had to read it closely and repeatedly to decipher it.