Chapter Text
There are things that people don’t tell you about growing up.
It’s watching the seasons change, doing the same old routine every day and wondering how the days crawl by so slowly while the years race by.
It’s seeing your face in the mirror every morning and one day just suddenly realising that your childlike features have gone, and that an older, weathered face is now staring back at you.
It’s coming back home from work not to rest or play, but to deal with credit card payments, making a checklist of errands to run during the free slots left in your calendar, doing some chores if you have the energy to, deciding what to eat based on whatever is left in the fridge, then realising you forgot to go grocery shopping and choosing to order take-out instead.
It’s lying on the bed, exhausted but unable to sleep, staring up at the ceiling and wondering why, even though you’ve reached the goals you’d set for yourself as a child, you feel like there’s something missing. Like something doesn’t quite fit.
Zayne usually spends no more than a few minutes each night dwelling on that empty pit in his stomach, before he finally enters into a restless sleep. It’s sleep that never lasts more than three hours each time, but that night he decides to take two sleeping pills, because he has a long and important day ahead of him. He can’t afford to show up sleepy or absent-minded.
In the morning, Zayne gets up to shower and wash off the cold sweat that had soaked through his pajamas overnight. With speed and precision, he breezes through his morning routine of brushing his teeth, washing his face, making a quick and easy breakfast with coffee, getting dressed, finishing the last of his packing and then heading straight to the train station.
It’s been a while since he last took the Coelum Express. The train station is as crowded as it can be despite it being a Thursday morning, and Zayne finds himself having to watch for the oncoming human traffic barrelling their way towards him from all directions. It’s not as annoying as he remembers it to be, partly because the morning coffee is keeping him sufficiently awake, and the chocolate cake he had picked up from the convenience store earlier has extended his patience quota for the day.
When the train pulls up at the platform, he briefly notes his reflection in the clear glass windows. For a moment he sees a younger version of himself looking back at him with uncertain eyes, unsure of what lies ahead.
Then the doors open, and the mirage disappears. He steps in, luggage in tow, and settles into his assigned seat.
The journey takes only three hours now. If Zayne recalls correctly, it used to be longer, but in the span of over a decade, EVER was able to make rapid improvements to the transport system. A fact that continues to echo every day in the news, functioning as endless marketing for the impressive conglomerate.
Zayne uses the time in the train to gloss over the files that Dr. Noah had sent to him previously. He’s already gone through them once, but decides there’ll be no harm in skimming through them again, in case he’s forgotten something.
Two files in particular stand out to him. An elderly lady, and a young woman, whose profiles had jumped out at him the first time he’d gone through them as well. Despite already being familiar with their charts and records and the clinical notes that Dr. Noah’s team had jotted down, Zayne allows his eyes to linger on the portraits included with their file for a minute longer.
“Zayne-oppa!”
“Hyung!”
Vaguely familiar voices surface in his mind, but he can’t really remember them with pinpoint precision anymore; not even with his excellent memory.
After all, it has been fourteen long years since he left.
Eventually, a bell chimes through the train carriage, and Zayne hears the mechanical announcement echo in the air.
“We are now arriving at Linkon City.”
He shuts his laptop, packing it neatly into his bag and watching as the view outside the window grows clearer as the train begins to slow down. Like a sponge, he absorbs the view of the city through the limited frame of the window, noting the new skyscrapers and bustling streets with shop signs that are now utterly unfamiliar to him.
The city has changed, and so have its inhabitants. Zayne is no exception to this, and he wonders with faint excitement and apprehension what else would have changed, now that they’ve all grown up.
He can only hope it’ll be better than how he had turned out.
Zayne barely has any time to dally in his new apartment. His belongings that were delivered here are still in boxes, the empty place barely furnished. He can only throw his luggage down, pick out the items he needs for work and pack them into the black messenger bag he’d brought along, before exiting the apartment to take a cab straight to Akso Hospital.
He arrives at the lobby with fifteen minutes to spare, having overestimated the extent of the traffic jams on the highway — hopefully enough time to figure out where Dr. Noah’s office is.
Fortunately, he bumps into one of his new colleagues along the way: a young man named Greyson, with thick round glasses taking up half of his boyish face. His bright, sun-like countenance is a refreshingly stark contrast to the other zombie-like residents swarming the floors. Zayne of course remembers to smile as he shakes Greyson’s hand and introduces himself.
Part of him wonders if he used to be like that too, when he had first started out in this career. He still loves his job, but lurking behind his eyes now is a certain jadedness and air of resignation when he remembers that not everyone can be saved, no matter how hard he tries.
When they arrive at Dr. Noah’s office, Greyson doesn’t have time to dally; he’s immediately scurrying off at the sound of his pager, and Zayne can only silently wish the young man good luck while he watches the frantic figure disappear around the corner of the hallway.
He then straightens his back, raises his fist to lightly knock thrice against the door, before pushing down on the handle to enter.
“Ah, Zayne! You made it. And,” the older man checks his watch, appearing impressed, “right on time too.”
“It’s good to see you too, Dr. Noah.” Then his eyes settle on the back of an elderly woman who’s seated across Dr. Noah. Surprise flickers in his eyes; he didn’t think Dr. Noah would schedule a meeting with him in the middle of a consultation.
The woman in question shifts around in her chair to face him. Despite having a full head of grey hair now, Zayne recognises her with ease, even before she manages to fully turn around.
He takes a moment to note the new wrinkles on her face, the tiny dark spots on her skin and her pale lips. She seems to have shrunk in size — no doubt because of the chronic illness that he had read about in the handover files.
Fourteen years have changed a lot, but he notes, with relief, that the kindness in her smile and gaze has stayed the same.
“I wonder, do you still remember me, Zayne?” Her voice sounds a little more gravelly now with her age.
He steps forward, his smile naturally growing wider as he takes her hand to help her to her feet, allowing her to get a better look at the boy who used to be half her height, and who is now a fully grown man at least two heads taller than her.
“I could never forget you, Josephine. I’m glad to see you again.”
“You’ve grown into a fine young man,” she tells him, beaming with pride. “I always knew you would achieve great things. I hear you’re now the deputy chief of surgery?”
He ducks his head, still not used to compliments from his elders. “Yes, I’ve been very fortunate. And I have very big shoes to fill.”
A friendly hand lands on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. You, my boy, have very big feet,” Dr. Noah chimes in, looking very proud of his joke.
Zayne isn’t sure whether the laughter that follows from Josephine is merely polite or if she actually finds it humorous.
“Well, I won’t hold you up,” she eventually says. “I know you both have work to do; I only asked Noah if I could stay a little longer since he told me you would be coming to the hospital today. You should come over for dinner sometime. Have you met MC or Caleb yet?”
“No, I only arrived in Linkon today. I met up with Caleb every once in a while back in Skyhaven when I was still in university, but we haven’t kept in contact much. I hear he’s now a fighter pilot at the Deepspace Aviation Administration. And MC is training to become a Deepspace Hunter.”
“Yes… They were always so active and getting into fights… I thought that would change when they grew up, but no. They just decided to run headlong into danger for a living instead.”
“I’m sure they will be fine,” Zayne says, although his mind immediately wanders to his file notes on MC — and her heart condition.
Josephine seems to share the same concern, and she takes his hands in hers. Her hands are cold, calloused and wrinkled. No doubt, from years of raising two rambunctious children all on her own.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she tells him sincerely. “She’ll be in good hands with you around to keep her in check now. She doesn’t quite listen to this old granny anymore.”
Zayne nods. “She’s grown up, Josephine. I’m sure she will be fine. And I will do my best to take care of her as her primary care physician.”
“Good, good. That’s enough for me to rest easy. Anyway, now that you’re back in Linkon, a meal should be easy enough to arrange. The kids have moved out now, but they come back sometimes for a visit. I’ll let you know when they’re coming back next, so you can join us.”
In his mind, an assortment of memories surface: of Caleb scooping out cilantro, MC dumping greens on both the older boys’ plates, and of himself, trying his very best to swallow the pieces of carrots that Josephine would offer to him. There was never a moment of peace back then, their mealtimes filled with bickering and arguments, and concluding with a competitive game over the last piece of dessert.
A smile lifts the corner of Zayne’s lips.
“That would be nice.”
It doesn’t take too long for Zayne to get settled into his new role at Akso Hospital. Dr. Noah had everything ready well in advance, as expected. The next few months pass by in a blur of onboarding processes, introductions to the patients now assigned to his care, meeting colleagues and notable figures from other departments and management, and, of course, dealing with the torrent of emergency cases that stream in once every few weeks, in the aftermath of a wanderer attack.
Not the most smooth-sailing start, but Zayne had expected as much. He simply deals with each case as they come, and on days when he starts to doubt himself, Dr. Noah always just so happens to swing by his office to assure him that he’s doing just fine.
It’s maybe six months later that Zayne finally gets to enjoy a day off, although it’s mostly to settle the huge backlog of errands that he had been too busy to attend to before. By the time he remembers that he hasn’t gotten lunch yet, it’s already 3pm, and he heads into the nearest decently-reviewed cafe for a quick bite. According to reviews online, the taro ice cream is worth a try.
When he arrives, he manages to sink into the last seat readily available; oddly enough the place is crowded despite it being well past lunch hour. The menu is short and sweet, so it doesn’t take long for him to decide on the lunch special.
After the waitress takes his order, he sinks back against his seat, heaving a long, tired sigh. It’s nice to be able to take a breather like this, very much needed after the 16-hour operation he had led just the day before.
As his eyes trail to the window, he notices a little black cat laying just outside the glass. His lips lift into a smile, intrigued by the adorable animal. He had considered getting a cat after moving here, but he simply doesn’t have the time to take care of one.
Cautiously, he reaches a hand out, tapping lightly on the glass to get the kitten’s attention.
Its round yellow eyes meet his, and without missing a beat it immediately scampers off, leaving Zayne stunned and wondering if he had been too forward. He still doesn't quite know his way around animals — it’s one of the reasons he never considered veterinary school, much to his parents’ apparent relief.
Wryly, his gaze falls to his palm, and with a flourish of icy sparkles he forms a tiny little snow cat in his hand. It’s been a while since he’s done this, but it’s good to know that he can still do a decent job; it’ll be handy for getting his younger patients to warm up to him, just like the first time he ever had a younger child in his care.
“Granny said you have an Evol too! Can you show us?”
“It’s nothing impressive… H-Here.”
“You’re so cool, Zayne oppa!”
“...Huh? Zayne-oppa?”
The voice is foreign, yet at the same time, oddly familiar.
Zayne turns around, and in that moment he’s transported back to that fateful day fourteen years ago, when he was just a kid, meeting a girl who was a few years younger than him, for the very first time.
They’ve both changed, having lost their childlike features and grown twice their old height. Instead of the studious boy and mischievous girl they used to be, with no cares in the world other than homework and having a curfew to abide by, he’s now a doctor, and she’s now preparing for the Hunter’s exam. Perhaps exactly where he had expected them to be, more than a decade later.
Zayne wonders how much has changed. He never really kept in touch with MC in recent years, and he thought the next time he saw her would be at Josephine’s place, catching up over the homecooked meal that the elderly woman had mentioned several times by now. Ideally Caleb would be there too, so that the conversation wouldn’t turn awkward or, if it did, he could watch them bicker like they used to and quietly eat his food.
Of all places and times, he certainly didn’t expect to run into MC here in a random cafe past the lunch hour rush.
That being said, Zayne has grown a lot in the past decade; he’s no longer the stiff, awkward boy from his youth. He has learned how to smile, how to make small talk that’s actually interesting and not just about the weather, and how to crack better jokes to break the ice. Caleb and MC were the reason he was able to actually make friends in school despite being alone.
So of course, even though the situation at hand is unexpected, Zayne remains perfectly composed. Calm. Poised.
He proceeds to do what any normal person would do in his shoes.
The snow cat in his palm vanishes in an instant, leaving a trail of snowflakes in its wake, as Zayne’s head spins back around to face the empty booth seat across from him, wondering what he should say first.
“You know each other?” the waitress asks, looking slightly relieved. “Maybe you can share a table?”
His eyes meet MC’s.
“...Please.”
“Um, that might not be…”
A pause. Oh. Oh. That had been a spectacular misread of social cues, but no matter. He can fix this.
“Oh! All right…”
“Forget it.”
They exchange glances again, and this time, MC looks sheepish. She glances meekly back at the waitress, who now looks confused and slightly annoyed but is trying to maintain her polite smile.
“...Um, I’ll give you some time to decide, then?”
Zayne quietly looks away, while MC nods and the waitress shuffles off to attend to another table.
A beat of silence passes, before he coughs lightly and gestures to the seat opposite him.
“We can share a table… if you don’t mind.”
“Oh! Sure, okay, yeah. That— That sounds good. Thanks.”
Well, that’s… definitely one way to kick-start a touching reunion with a childhood friend.