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Beomgyu has a fear of needles. It’s not exactly bad enough to count as a phobia, but he thinks it is pretty damn close. The image of a needle breaking skin and injecting some vaccine or drawing blood irked him so much, if he thought about it too hard a wave of nausea would engulf him.
Unfortunately, Beomgyu was sick of his not so recent breakout, one that his skin barrier had not managed to recover from. Under Taehyun’s recommendation, he decided to pay his friend’s dermatologist a visit.
Hence he landed himself in such a predicament: He’d been prescribed a pretty intense course of acne medication which essentially worked by reducing sebum production; lesser oil lesser pimples. Given that it was such a strong medication however, it came with the risk of an extensive list of severe side effects including and not exclusive to liver related complications. (a/n: accutane, iykyk) Therefore, every alternate checkup with the dermatologist included a blood test so that his liver functions are monitored and doing well…and blood does not simply teleport from inside Beomgyu to outside Beomgyu in a bunch of test tubes.
He’d accumulated quite a bit of nerves even as he was talking to Dr Kim, who was trying to ascertain if there was a need to adjust his dosage. Now that the consultation portion had concluded, he was sat at the waiting area, twiddling his thumbs and shaking his leg like mad.
“Just a moment Beomgyu-ssi, we’ve called a nurse over for the blood test. He’ll be here soon.” The kind nurse lady smiled at him sweetly.
Beomgyu halted his leg shaking, suddenly getting worried if the nurse had misunderstood it as a sign of impatience. He offered a soft “Thank you.” and a smile that was trying hard not to morph into a grimace.
The clinic Taehyun recommended to him was a specialist’s clinic, owned by Dr Kim herself. It was one of the various aesthetic, health, dental clinics that was located conveniently in one building; a medical hub of sorts that was within a hospital. So while each clinic was their own entity, they shared the same lab, dealing with blood tests and other sorts of complicated medical stuff for patients like Beomgyu. It was a highly efficient system. The nurses within each clinic could focus on assisting their doctors without having to be the one going to and fro between clinic and lab, and there were dedicated on-the-go nurses, who were not posted at a specific clinic, and were on-call for errands such as this. Errands, such as stabbing Beomgyu’s delicate veins and sucking his soul out of him.
The door to the clinic opens with the chimes hung on the handle tinkling. Looking up from the reception counter, the lady nurse smiles and greets what must be the person in charge of Beomgyu’s impending suffering. “Kai-ssi! You’re here.”
The tall and lanky figure that just made his entrance greets back, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiles brightly, expression visible despite the face mask. He swivels on the ball of his heels to look at the only patient at the waiting area, Beomgyu.
“Beomgyu-ssi…?”
“That’s me. Hello.” Beomgyu confirms.
The nurse nods his head in understanding, a hand reaching up to point at the travel bag slung on his shoulder. “I’ll just take a moment to set-up, I’ll come out to get you soon.” He explains, before making his way into one of the rooms.
Beomgyu releases a shaky breath he did not notice he’d been holding. It took a lot out of him to continue resisting the urge to fidget, shake his leg, do anything. Well, at least from what he could tell, the nurse, Kai, looked to be about his age. This means that he’s probably quite new(?), having started out for a couple of years at best, just like Beomgyu himself who only started out at the accounting firm he works at as a fresh graduate merely four years ago. He much preferred younger nurses surprisingly; he had a strange belief that they were more careful and understanding since they were newbies trying to perform well. Though “young” was pretty subjective given that Beomgyu was closer to 30 than not.
Pondering his nurse’s age allowed him the reprieve of spacing out, a much needed distraction that lasted not long enough- maybe younger nurses were a little too enthusiastic and efficient. Nurse Kai could have taken his time, Beomgyu wouldn’t have minded.
From the room, Kai poked his head out to call for Beomgyu. It was time…Wish him luck.
—
“Hello Beomgyu-ssi, please take a seat.”
Beomgyu plopped down onto the chair and immediately turned his head as far as his neck would allow, away from his left arm. Kai busied himself with the stuff he had unpacked from his little bag, laid out neatly on a table. The nervous patient could make out the sound of packets rustling, one of which likely contained the cursed needle, there was also maybe a tray, some test tubes perhaps, and then the sound of Kai putting on gloves which means-
Kai turns to face his patient, having to quickly stifle a giggle once he registered the sight before him. Beomgyu was seriously straining his neck as much as he possibly could, almost as if it would help create some pseudo distance between the needle and himself. The nurse wouldn’t be surprised if the frightened man also had his eyes squeezed shut, though he could not see it from where he stood. It wasn’t very professional of him to find a patient’s antics amusing. He’d been a nurse for quite some time, and has seen all there was to see, gone through pretty much everything a nurse eventually would. However, looking at Beomgyu who seemed so determined to get it over and done with despite how clearly frightened he was about getting his blood drawn, was rather endearing.
Not processing what exactly took over him in the spur of the moment, Kai was hiding the needle behind his back with one hand, and gently tapping the patient’s shoulder with the other. “Beomgyu-ssi?”
The man jolted and turned to meet the nurse’s eyes. “Y..yes?”
“Not so good with needles?” Kai asked, hoping his voice exuded some kind of gentleness. It felt like he was dealing with a very timid animal that could bolt out the door at any moment.
The man flushed red immediately. Cute.
“Yeah…sorry. Just a bit nervous. I’ll be fine as long as I don’t look.”
Kai nodded. “Don’t worry. I will make it as quick and painless as possible. I’ll count you in too, and I’ll let you know when you can look, okay?”
Beomgyu, you are hitting thirty soon and you are a brave and strong man with so much ahead of you. It will only feel like an ant bite and you don’t have to look. Plus the nurse is handsome- wait what? Okay yes you don’t know exactly how he looks but you can pretend a handsome and qualified nurse is drawing blood so it won’t go wrong and it will all be over soon-
Beomgyu’s mind was in a whirl. Trying to self-soothe, he looked at the nurse’s face and mentally tried to fill in the rest of the features that were covered by the face mask.
A hottie is going to jab me with a needle. At least it’s a hottie. Who else gets a jab from a hottie nurse?
From the nurse’s perspective, the poor patient held their eye contact for a brief moment, searching for some comfort through Kai’s gaze. He nodded and swiftly turned his head to face away once more. “O..okay. Thank you.”
Kai did exactly as he said he would, he told Beomgyu to take a deep breath, counted him in, and the jab hurt less than Beomgyu was anticipating. There was a brief moment when Beomgyu swore he heard his own blood pouring out through the valve into a test tube, but Kai talked him through that as well, making idle chatter about how and why the lab required a few tubes of blood rather than just one for a comprehensive blood test.
Soon, Kai places a cotton ball where the needle went in, and a plaster over it, guiding Beomgyu to press firmly on it for 5 minutes to stop any bleeding. He quickly packs away the test tubes, discards the needles and gloves before finally uttering softly. “Beomgyu-ssi? We’re all done. You can look now.”
Finally, Beomgyu turns to look at where he was pressing on, and then to the nurse.
Kai smiles at him through his mask once again. “I wasn’t sure if you were okay with looking at blood so I thought I’d pack up everything before telling you to turn back. You did well! It didn’t hurt, did it?”
Beomgyu shook his head, smiling sheepishly. The nurse sounded like he was talking to a child, yet this nearly 30 year old patient couldn’t bring himself to care that much when Kai was looking at him so sincerely. “No, it didn’t hurt at all. Thank you for dealing with my bullshit.”
“Don’t say that” Kai laughs, “It was no trouble at all. The fear of needles is more common than you think, I would know.”
The nurse surveys the room one last time, checking that he hadn’t missed out anything and slinging his bag on his shoulder once more. “Please press on to the plaster for a while more, but you can leave it on for the rest of the day and remove it before you shower. I’ll have to head over to the labs now.”
Beomgyu bows and utters his goodbyes. It’s really too bad the nurses on-the-go weren’t fixed. There was hardly any possibility Kai would be in charge of drawing his blood when the time comes again.
—
“Beomgyu-ssi? Not so good with needles?” The nurse cocked his head to the side by a mere fraction, like a curious puppy- yet the action was caught by Beomgyu staring owlishly from having been caught cowering away from the needle that had yet to have reached his proximity. It was so stupid, the premise of this scenario occurring solely due to a grown man being scared shitless when it came to needles. But gosh, his nurse was handsome…handsome, cute, and so understanding of this pathetic patient’s mental block.
Beomgyu jolted upright in his seat, turning to look left and right to see his colleagues Taehyun and Yeonjun hard at work, eyes trained on whatever it was on their respective monitors. Refocusing on his screen, he sees his own monitor split between a soul-sucking spreadsheet and his email which carried only an infinite number of unread messages. Despite this, and to his manager Soobin’s disappointment, the employee was reminiscing about his time at the dermatology clinic with that cute nurse instead of doing what he was meant to be doing during office hours.
It didn’t help that Beomgyu was thinking about a man who had been wearing a mask when they met. He might have mentally filled in the blanks and come up with a general idea of how the nurse looked and concluded that he was handsome- that did not mean he was right though. What if he was an old man with young looking eyes or what if he had really nasty teeth?!
Beomgyu raised a hand to smack himself on the cheek, finally drawing the attention of his two desk neighbours, who threw confused glances between Beomgyu and each other. It stung a little, but he deserved it. First of all, it doesn’t matter if the nurse was secretly an old man because they were never going to meet again and nothing was going to happen between them. Secondly, the teeth thing was a rather mean and shallow thought to have, he’d just been overcompensating and overthinking about why his thoughts strayed to that nurse at random times. And that was not weird! Thinking about a hot nurse, or a hot anybody, is completely human and normal, so sue him!
“Do we even want to know?” Yeonjun mutters, unable to stop the smile forming on his face when he takes a second glance at Taehyun’s expression. It was an expression of resignation. Taehyun has experienced many more years of Beomgyu’s shenanigans(?) given that the two had known each other since university days. Still, it was near impossible to predict exactly what Beomgyu got himself into until said person speaks about it himself. Being the good friend and colleague that he was, Taehyun could only wait for Beomgyu to do exactly that.
“Y’all ever just fall in love with a stranger?” Beomgyu starts, before groaning into his hands, the tips of his ears rapidly reddening from sheer embarrassment. It was one thing to think it, but voicing it out to his friends/colleagues made him feel really pathetic.
Yeonjun and Taehyun got a great laugh out of him at least. “So..w-who’s the lucky guy?” Taehyun manages between breaths. Yeonjun was still wheezing and making half-laughing half-crying noises from where he had bashed his head into his desk.
“W-”
Before Beomgyu could tell them to shut up and hear him out, Soobin strolled by. Given his track record, the manager most likely came over to get in on the juicy gossip rather than nag the three to get back to work. The theory was proven right when Soobin spoke up, “Who’s fallen in love with who?”
It was not even the least bit surprising that the manager caught the gist of what Beomgyu had reluctantly told his deskmates. Their office had recently undergone a major revamp after a new CEO had taken over. He believed that an open-concept office space, mimicking those snazzy tech start-ups, would boost communication and efficiency in the long-run. In hindsight, he was probably right- if you count gossip as communication.
“You heard all that from your seat? Were you tuning into us talking this whole time waiting to pick up something juicy?” Beomgyu still asked, in a last ditch attempt to delay having to reveal ‘who’s fallen in love with who’.
“Cut the crap Beomgyu” the manager deadpans, “I’m surprised I was the only other person to overhear you. So let’s get on with it? Who’s in love?”
Head still smushed on his desk, Yeonjun sniffles, raising a shaky finger to point at Beomgyu.
“He has allegedly fallen in love with a stranger.” Taehyun adds, pursing his lips at the end to prevent another bout of laughter.
Soobin snorts. “Oh. Wow.”
Beomgyu whips his head around to where Soobin stood and raised his hand to swat at him. He was grateful to have such a chill higher-up, mostly because Soobin was literally his best friend, but he was truly being such a great pain in the neck right now.
Once everyone settled down, especially Yeonjun who finally recovered from his giggle attack, Beomgyu realised that no one was going back to work until they got a full breakdown on the who, where, what, why of his ‘crush’.
At the end of his recount, Soobin spoke first. “I know a nurse.”
To which Beomgyu shot another fierce glare towards the manager.
“I’m serious! He’s a family friend, I can’t remember where exactly he works though but he’s a nurse.”
Taehyun blinks at Soobin. “Uh. Thank you for sharing, Soobin-hyung.”
Soobin finally registers how redundant his comment was, nodding sheepishly.
“So…” Yeonjun starts. “You can’t get him out of your mind.”
Beomgyu nods.
“But you also don’t exactly know what he looks like under the mask”
He nods again.
“And as you told us your story you realised you forgot his name.”
A nod.
“So your plan is to forget he exists and get over it because you’re most likely never going to meet him again?”
“Yup.” Beomgyu responds, popping the “p” sound.
“You’re hopeless.” Taehyun comments.
“Hey!”
—
The months fly by in a blur, there’s a chill in the air that has people starting to get ready their winter wear. Beomgyu had gone for his next dermatology appointment, this time with a sweet older lady drawing his blood. It was still terrifying, and Beomgyu still trembled in his seat with his eyes screwed shut- but hey, at least he made it into the clinic instead of completely throwing away his treatment to avoid the blood tests.
Then, when Winter came in full force, work started to slow, especially with international colleagues starting to take time off work. Soobin called the friend group for a drink at their usual spot.
—
“Where's Soobin?” Beomgyu asks, tapping his fingers against the table, casually dropping honorifics without the actual person here to squint at him. Times like these he was glad nothing about his friend group was conventional; like the fact that they were all colleagues and Soobin was literally their in-charge, or that Beomgyu could speak casually towards the older ones and get an eye roll at max, not a punch to the face.
Taehyun shrugs, looking over his shoulder and then around the bar before returning his gaze to the menu. “Are we doing snacks?”
Yeonjun shrugs, “we could just order a bunch for the table, I don’t think Soobin will have any strong objections to fries or whatever. He can get his drinks once he’s here.”
Taehyun briefly pauses surveying the menu as if he’d just recalled something. “wait I just remembered hyung texted me yesterday he was meeting a friend before our plans. Lunch probably dragged on longer than he expected.”
Beomgyu clicked his tongue, “tsk.”
It was only after Beomgyu was finishing up his first drink did Soobin finally enter the bar with a stranger in tow. A stranger with a very deja vu inducing face, but Beomgyu’s mind was distracted with what snarky remarks to shoot at his best friend for being late and also deciding on drink two so he did not process the individual shyly trailing behind Soobin.
“hey guys. Sorry I’m late. I’ll get the bill today.” Soobin greeted.
From their seats Taehyun and Yeonjun perked right up at the mention of free drinks.
“so this is Kai, a family friend. He finally got an off day so we met up for lunch and it ended up being a full-day thing. I thought it would be fun to introduce him, he’s always so busy and when he has freetime he chooses to hole up at home rather than interact with fellow huma-”
“hyung!” The stranger protests in a hushed whisper. Lightly smacking Soobin’s arm.
Feeling the other three gazes on him, Kai awkwardly raised a hand to give a small wave before greeting them. “hello, nice to meet you. I’m Kai. Hope you don’t mind me crashing your gathering. Soobin-hyung was holding me at gunpoint.”
At that, Soobin scoffed and nudged Kai to take a seat.
With Yeonjun and Taehyun sitting on one side of the booth, Kai ended up being sandwiched between Beomgyu and Soobin.
“hi nice to meet you.” Kai greets again as he settled into the seat, offering a hand for Beomgyu to shake.
“nice to meet you Kai, I’m Beomgyu.” Beomgyu smiled warmly, subconsciously checking the guy out. You can’t fault the guy, he’s been single and ready to mingle for a little too long now, and somehow Soobin’s friend circle consists of only beautiful lanky men. While Beomgyu was thinking about how aesthetically blessed Kai was, he failed to catch how said man’s eyes widened in recognition.
Beomgyu slid the drinks menu towards Kai. “help yourself since Soobin’s treating. We got started first so I’m thinking of getting a second drink too.”
“ah thank you.”, Kai starts looking through the drinks while continuing the small talk. “so Beomgyu-ssi you’re the same age as Soobin-hyung?”
The rest of the table overheard Kai’s innocent question, Yeonjun and Taehyun wearing amused expressions on their faces. Soobin rolls his eyes.
“no the brat is just mannerless. He’s ‘97. Yeonjun-hyung is ‘95.”
“I’m ‘98.” Taehyun pipes up.
“oh, me too. ‘98.”
Yeonjun-hyung was already looking at Kai like a newly adopted baby brother, but that was to be expected of the oldest, being an only child meant that he would start collecting brothers like Pokemon in adulthood. “As you’ve seen we don’t really bother too much about honorifics. Especially Beomgyu here. So call us whatever, hyung or no hyung. We don’t mind.”
Kai nods giggling a little when Yeonjun had squinted at Beomgyu as he was explaining their dynamics and Beomgyu responded by sticking out his tongue. Not very pushing-thirty of him.
“So you guys are family friends.” Taehyun asks.
“yep. We grew up in the same neighbourhood and our moms were close friends. Naturally we became close too no matter how much of a recluse we each were. I mean, we were still holed up in our rooms playing games but we were holed up together. Plus I’d like to think that I’ve improved at social interactions. I think it was work. Especially once I had to lead a team. Kai on the other hand…”
Kai who had been attentively nodding to Soobin’s explanation sighed and laughed in defeat as his hyung once again implied that he was a friendless introvert. “hyung is exaggerating but yeah. I am currently a bit swamped with work so there’s not much time for me to expand my circle.”
As an afterthought, Kai added, “I’m a nurse.”
Taehyun and Yeonjun nodded in understanding immediately. Nursing was hard work.
As the conversation flowed from one topic to another, the group did not catch on to how silent Beomgyu had become. He did pipe up occasionally with a robotic reaction so maybe that’s why- but he was currently feeling as if someone had dumped a cold bucket of ice on him.
“I know a nurse.”
“He’s a family friend, I can’t remember where exactly he works though but he’s a nurse.”
Taehyun blinks at Soobin. “Uh. Thank you for sharing, Soobin-hyung.”
Beomgyu knew a nurse too. A handsome nurse that took his blood. A nurse that may or may not be sitting right next to him right now, chatting away with his friends.
What a small world. He’d brushed it off when Soobin brought up having a nurse friend. Who would’ve thought that friend was the nurse he’d started crushing on when he went to get his blood drawn.
I mean, he couldn’t be exactly sure since quite some time had passed since that one interaction they shared. Plus the cute nurse had half his face covered- but he was pretty damn sure.
It also didn’t help that Kai was even more a culmination of cuteness and hotness in a less formal setting.
Beomgyu felt like he had to do something about this. He wasn’t spiritual per se but he couldn't help but feel that this was a sign from the universe.
ah…so cute boys really do drop from the sky.
“Beomgyu-hyung? you alright?” Kai whispered, checking in on the spacing out man next to him while trying not to interrupt the rest of the guys who were still caught up in their conversation.
Beomgyu directed a sheepish smile towards him. Suddenly hyper aware of his own heartbeat and Kai’s attention on him. It was as if everything around them came to a halt and it was just the two of them in their own little bubble. Drawing a shaky breath, Beomgyu fought through the blush growing at the tip of his ears and the back of his neck to respond, “yeah, sorry. I’m good. I think maybe I downed my first drink too fast.”
Kai huffs a small laugh and reaches for his own drink. “I’m not too great with alcohol too so I’m trying to pace myself else Soobin-hyung will have to hull my lifeless body out of here.”
Beomgyu’s lips quirked into an amused grin as Kai rambles on, “I think my issue is that I don’t really appreciate the taste of alcohol, so I always end up ordering something terribly sweet, and that usually means that I don’t realise the alcohol is hitting me until it hits. ”
Beomgyu laughs, feeling his body get less wound up as Kai continues their conversation. Soobin was wrong for calling this man a social recluse because it seemed like he was the one gently breaking Beomgyu out of his shell.
“I’m usually pretty good at alcohol but I guess today is just one of those days.”
“Earth to Kai and Beomgyu. Stop flirting in front of us- you’re spoiling my drink.” Soobin suddenly cuts in, a wolfish grin on his annoying face.
Kai sputters incoherently, visibly caught off guard and palms up in mock surrender while Beomgyu leans over him to whack Soobin.
“We.” smack “were literally” smack “just having a normal conversation.” smack
Soobin cackles. “Okay! Okay! Stop hitting your hyung- you dipshit.”
Then as the group moved on to the next topic, Beomgyu, still huffing from the effort exerted to beat Soobin up, stole a glance at Kai only to find his gaze already on him. He seemed to be facing a blood circulation crisis as he felt his cheeks flush for what seemed like the nth time. Kai shook his head and made a twirling motion with his finger, Soobin’s crazy, before ducking to giggle.
Beomgyu couldn’t help but mirror his smile.
—
“Here’s your popcorn chicken and loaded fries.”
Before the waitress could take her leave, Soobin picked up the drinks menu from the middle of the table and ordered a beer. “Anyone else?”
Taehyun raised his hands while Yeonjun made a noise of agreement despite looking a little tipsy from the previous rounds.
“You two?” Soobin regards the remaining two, handing over the menu to Kai.
Said man promptly flipped over the menu and started scanning the “Drinks for pussies” section.
“Can I get an apple juice?”
Simultaneously, Soobin snorts while Yeonjun starts cooing at the nurse, which made an altogether very peculiar noise.
“Tapping out already? The tabs on me- you don’t have to order from the pussy drink section Kai-ya” Soobin pipes up after gathering himself.
“Yeah I thought about it and just in case I get called in for work tomorrow, I do not want to hate myself for not stopping now.”
“I’ll have apple juice too,” Beomgyu suddenly spoke. He quickly thanked the waitress and let her be on her way.
Immediately, he felt several pairs of questioning gazes pointed at him, which he promptly dismissed with a shrug. “Damn, what do y’all have against pussy drinks? If I pass out on the sidewalk I know none of you useless asses would carry me back to my apartment safe and sound.”
From anyone else’s lips, this comment would have been totally believable. Not Beomgyu’s though. Not when his tolerance was second only to Taehyun.
It was by luck (and the alcohol in their systems) that the conversation flew elsewhere without much more effort needed on his part.
And Beomgyu did love a refreshing glass of apple juice.
Plus it was worth it when Kai cutely offered to cheers their pussy drinks.
—
“So Kai, do you have any stories about funny or crazy patients?”
“He might not be allowed to disclose these things hyung” Taehyun speaks, his tone not unlike a kindergarten teacher as he pours more water into Yeonjun’s cup. The latter had downed his beer and was put under an alcohol ban. No more alcohol for this guy.
Beomgyu starts busying himself inspecting a piece of popcorn chicken, though a part of him was too curious to hear Kai’s answer for him to get up from his seat and hide in the toilet.
“Ah…Well I’m not really stationed at a particular clinic in the hospital, and usually I am assigned to go all around helping out with pretty basic tasks like drawing blood and transporting them to the labs or being on stand-by for minor medical procedures. So unfortunately I don’t have any particularly interesting story to tell.”
“I don’t know why you’re calling it a basic task but I think anything a nurse is required to do at work is crazy tough.” Taehyun says.
“Respect bro. Seriously.” Yeonjun says with a cheesy grin.
—
It’s towards the end of the night the alcohol sets in for Beomgyu, who ended up ordering a beer, and splitting a bottle of soju with Taehyun after the apple juice. He’s not overly tipsy, but definitely less aware of his surroundings and ready for a good night’s sleep (Sleepy drunk). It seemed like today truly wasn’t his day. His tolerance was at a record low. Hence it was probably the alcohol in his system that caused him to forget about the sleeve of his flannel as he reached over his glass of water to grab a fry. As his hand was on its way back to feed the fry into his mouth, his sleeve caught on the glass briefly and tilted the cup. The movement caused a small spill that didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the group.
“Drunk already, Beoms?” Soobin asks. Reaching for some tissues to pass to Beomgyu, who was only able to pout a little. Give him 12 hours of sleep and then maybe he’d have the energy to think of a snarky remark to bite back at his friend.
It was Kai who took the tissues from Soobin and started helping Beomgyu clean up. He placed a few sheets of tissue on Beomgyu’s jeans to allow the older to wipe them himself as he started on the table. Thankfully the glass didn’t topple over completely. By the time he was done, he saw that Beomgyu was still slowly dabbing at his flannel sleeve after doing what he could with his jeans.
“Come hyung, let me” Kai utters softly. It brought Beomgyu right back to the clinic, where the gentle nurse had attempted to soothe him.
Kai took the tissues from Beomgyu’s hand, gently wrapping a hand around Beomgyu’s wrist to lift up his arm, and wiping the wet patch on the flannel sleeve.
“Thank you.” Beomgyu practically whispered.
There was no way to tell if Kai had been such a good nurse due to his caring nature, or it was because he was such a good nurse that he was caring even outside work. Beomgyu couldn’t care less to settle on one answer. He was at this point very much smitten by nurse Kai and regular Kai all the same…
—
“Hey! Hyung- one sec-” Kai called out to Beomgyu, pacing forward to catch up to him.
The others were heading off in various directions, out of earshot of the conversation Kai was initiating. The group had finally decided to part ways. Yeonjun was less tipsy, and Beomgyu too had won the battle against his alcohol induced lethargy. After hastily promising to meet up again for Christmas and New Years, everyone put on their puffer jackets and coats and trudged out of the bar into the cold. Taehyun and Yeonjun were sharing a cab towards the same direction, Beomgyu had driven over himself, and Soobin had dragged Kai along by car.
Truthfully Beomgyu could not predict what Kai was calling out to him for.
The younger had a flush around his neck and cheeks which Beomgyu mentally checked out as the alcohol’s fault (which was really dumb since Kai had deliberately stayed sober throughout the night). However, as a lopsided smile weaselled its way onto Kai’s face, he couldn’t help but smile back at him.
“Hm?” Beomgyu responded, prompting Kai to continue.
“Um- ohmygodokay-” Kai let out an awkward laugh before actually saying something coherent. “Hyung, what's your biggest fear?”
Beomgyu was rather taken aback by this sudden question. He hadn’t known what to expect when Kai came chasing after him with the group having dispersed for the night but it certainly wasn’t this.
“My biggest fear?”
Kai nodded, large eyes earnestly looking at Beomgyu and waiting for him to answer.
“Wow uh- I have quite a number of fears to be honest,” Beomgyu starts, his growing amusement at the question showing obviously in his gaze. “But I’ve never really thought about what ranks first. Hm…”
“Would you say needles?” Kai shoots out but by this point the taller looked like he was almost about to make a dash from Beomgyu.
The latter did not notice how nervous Kai was starting to act as he was already in a frenzy himself. Throughout the night Beomgyu was plagued by his own brain supplementing him with thoughts of: cute nurse, cute nurse, hey look, that’s the cute nurse from that time. He definitely cancelled any plans to do anything about it because Kai made no indication of recognising him. Now that Kai was indeed making an indication that he had all the while knew who Beomgyu was, the cowardly patient at the dermatology clinic, he could only meekly choke out a-
“W-what?”
“My biggest fear is getting a really cute patient at work and not being allowed to ask him out, and then somehow managing to meet him months later and not taking the chance even though he may not remember me at all.”
Beomgyu blinked at Kai.
“So yeah.” Kai concluded, before burying his face in his hands in embarrassment.
The demons/angels/parasites in Beomgyu’s brain roughly processed what the younger was getting at and had started doing celebratory cartwheels in his head. Because clearly no one has ever done such a splendid job bagging a cutie like he just did. I mean, Beomgyu has yet to say anything out loud in response, and Kai is starting to look nauseous but look- months ago Beomgyu was ruining his image due to his absolute fear of needles, AND he had no way to ask the nurse out back then, AND he proceeded to forget any useful information about said nurse to find him.
Now? The cute nurse has found Beomgyu. The cute nurse is asking him out.
“I think,” Beomgyu starts, “I’m not too bad with needles anymore.”
It was Kai’s turn to blink at him, not sure whether Beomgyu was trying to reject him.
“I think my biggest fear was crushing on a nurse while simultaneously almost dying from getting my blood drawn, and then not being able to do anything to find that nurse, ask him out, and I don’t know- kiss him senseless or something.”
Kai was looking at him with utter astonishment. Shyly, he reached his hand up to ruffle his own bangs before muttering softly, “no one’s stopping you now.”
Beomgyu did exactly that.
—
(Perhaps it was the merciless cold winter air or maybe it was the spark felt between a pair that was bound to meet again at a better time; a time such as this. Beomgyu shivered. He sure as hell felt a buzz throughout his body as their lips met… something electric, or something like pins, and needles…)