Chapter Text
“Did you drink your sleeping pills? When was the last time you slept?”
“Yong?”
Taeyong blinks a few times. His doctor’s words just consumed him. Whole. It was like he was just made out of fiction or it was the other way around. It took him quite some time before he realized that his doctor was real and that she was talking to him. He shook his head twice, then elaborated, “I haven’t slept well. In fact, I haven’t slept for three nights already. The sleeping pills aren’t working, doc. They’re just giving me a headache the next day.”
The doctor lets out a sigh. It was already the fifth medicine that Taeyong tried but none of it seems to be working for him. The said lad sighed too. “Maybe we should change your prescription.”
“Maybe,” Taeyong nods, mimicking his doctor. As she checks the vitamins from Taeyong’s bedside table, and as she tells him something about drug trials and experimentation, the young lad’s thoughts were drowned by a voice that he could hear coming from the other side of his door. It was soft yet at the same time, it was full of exasperation. Taeyong couldn’t help but stand to take a look at who the voice was coming from.
There, in the middle of the lobby is an anguished man, holding a knife. He’s threatening the doctors, nurses, and bystanders to not get close to him. A call for help.
Taeyong, a man who’s practically living at the hospital because of his illness had already witnessed lots of things from a clinical institution. From a person screaming because a demon was trying to summon him, to catatonic people who looked like their souls have been sucked out of their bodies, to this—individuals who want to end their life.
He sometimes thinks they’re selfish. The genes that had been passed down to him have already set his fate to face death even though he once aspired to live, while these people—they want to end their life in a snap.
Taeyong noisily opens the door of his room, taking the attention of the man. And because of the sudden intrusion, the lad lost his focus and the nurses were then able to take the knife from his hold. Taeyong proudly smiles to himself.
“You!” The black-haired guy exclaimed as the nurse firmly holds his arms and fold them to his back. Taeyong waves, pointed to himself, then he retorts, “Me.”
“I’m Taeyong, nice to meet you. Do you want to be friends?”
✎
Sometimes, Taeyong likes to believe that he has a hero complex. Other times, he just really knows that his empathic. As he approaches the man who caused a scene last week, Taeyong thinks that he’s doing it because of the latter. Empathy. He feels like he could connect to him in some unknown ways. And if he could, he sorts of wanted to help.
“Can I sit here?” Taeyong confidently asked. The other man looked up at him and stared—glared—at his pink, dry hair. Then he looks him straight in the eye, “No.”
He still sat beside him though. Just an inch away which earned an eye roll from the other lad. Taeyong first composed himself by sniffing and scratching the back of his head. He then extended his right hand to the man, saying, “Let’s be friends. I’m Taeyong.”
“Why would I be friends with you?” The other man hisses. ‘Thank goodness, he didn’t think of walking out’, Taeyong thinks. He then shrugs, also clueless himself, “I don’t know. But I think you also need it. A friend.”
“I’ll think about it.” For the second time, Taeyong thinks that the man’s voice is good. It rings in his ears like a sweet melody and he somehow wants to hear it again and again. And Taeyong—he’s the type of person who sometimes speaks without thinking much about it, especially when it’s a compliment. “Your voice sounds good.”
The black-haired lad looked at him again. However, this time, his orbs turned softer and kinder. He parted his pursed lips and was about to speak again when the bell rang. It’s time for lunch. Taeyong was quick to rise on his feet. He then pulls the other lad by his wrist and excitedly tells him, “We’ll be having dumplings for lunch today!”
It was on his third spoonful of rice when the other man finally tells him his name, “I’m Doyoung.”
‘What a beautiful name…’ Taeyong thinks. Then he smiles.