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It's before the break of dawn, where the sun hasn't risen and the moon is still shining its brightest. The hallways at Hankuk National University Hospital stretch out endlessly; the lined window exteriors have let the blue night rays seep throughout the halls, painting the absence of presence. The only thing ruining such a liminal view is the absolute verbal and physical exhaustion blatantly visible in the young doctor, Yang Jae-won.
His groans echo through the hallway as he drags his way towards his assigned doctor on-call room. He has used the room so frequently that he refers to it as his shared dorm room instead, claiming it as his own, littered with his belongings. He was not alone; in fact, he was accompanied by his boss, mentor, and roommate, Dr. Baek Kang-hyuk, who followed behind him with his hands in his pockets. He was fully awake, as if the near 24-hour-like shift had not been enough to put him on his deathbed.
Jae-won leaned against the dorm door with his eyes fully closed. His body was already shutting down as if the visual stimuli were enough to succumb to his battle of consciousness. Dr. Baek leaned his side against the wall and waited for his protégé to open the door but there was no movement at all. Which prompted Dr. Baek to let out a sigh before he wedged his hand in between Jae-won and the door handle and pushed it open.
With the door no longer supporting Jae-won’s body weight, it had caused him to fall forwards into the room, beckoning for another harsh wake-up call for the unfortunate doctor. Dr. Baek, however, was alert and grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arm around Jae-won’s chest firmly.
"Yah! Look at what this idiot is doing." Dr. Baek muttered to himself.
Dr. Baek dragged Jae-won into their room and used his feet to shut the door behind him. Dragging unconscious bodies was normal to Dr. Baek; his past experiences required him to do tasks that normal people wouldn't be expected to do. The younger man that he held now, albeit slimmer and tall, had a pretty sturdy figure. Dr. Baek could tell that Jae-won had some muscle to him, which was partially hidden through the blue scrubs that they both wore. Even so, dragging him was of no issue; he temporarily placed Jae-won on his own bed, which was located on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed they shared.
During that process, both of their shoes had slipped off their feet and they were in their socks. Dr. Baek briefly turned to his wardrobe closet, shrugged off his white doctor's coat and hung it on a coat hanger before returning to see the younger man huddled and settled into the new bed.
“Number One.”
“Yah. Wake up.” He kicked the side railing of the bed.
But to no avail, Jae-won was completely knocked out, sleeping peacefully and gripping the duvet sheets in comfort.
Dr. Baek crouched down to Jae-won's eye level and stared at his face, focused on the mole on his lower cheek, which was pressed into the duvet. This brat had just stolen his bed, but the sight of the sleeping young doctor had extrapolated any intent of trying to wake him up. Jae-won had a youthful and charming face, but obviously Dr. Baek was more handsome, he conceded to himself before wrapping his index finger in the middle of Jae-won's glasses to pull them out of his face and rested them on the bedside table.
Dr. Baek sighed; with his resolution already set in stone, he took the pillow that was under Jae-won’s feet and threw it to the opposite side of the bed. Jae-won and Dr. Baek typically slept in their bunks facing opposite directions. So when Jae-won had mistaken Dr. Baek’s bed as his own, he shifted into a position that came naturally, which according to Dr. Baek, he was sleeping upside down. He climbed over Jae-won and took up the empty space left on the single-size bed.
It wasn't comfortable at all.
Jae-won was sleeping on his side, facing away from Dr. Baek. Whilst Dr. Baek was lying on his back with his right shoulder pressed against the wall. But hey, at least he had his pillow to comfort his neck and Dr. Baek closed his eyes thereon.
...
A few minutes go by and Jae-won's snoring is all that he can hear. If Jae-won had slept on the top bunk, Dr. Baek would have usually kicked the mattress above him to stop – and that method worked.
But Jae-won wasn't up there; he was right next to him.
Dr. Baek opened his eyes in irritation and shifted his body so that he was also lying sideways, facing the back of Jae-won’s sleeping body.
“Stop snoring,” he said, his tone edged with warning.
Knowing that his order would fall on deaf ears, he grabbed the shoulder of the younger man and shook it.
The snoring stopped.
And Dr. Baek let go, readjusting himself back into a sleeping position.
The snoring re-emerged.
He cursed to himself and grabbed the younger man again.
Jae-won stopped and Dr. Baek let go.
And the snoring returned.
Dr. Baek let out a hard exhale and wrapped his arm around Jae-won's waist, pulling the other towards him.
“Is this what you want, seriously?”
His hand rested on Jae-won's abdomen, still and warm. The younger doctor seemed to relax against his body, and the snoring stopped. Dr. Baek’s sight was now covered with the ball of light brown hair in front of him, strands bristling against his own nose.
“Alright,” Dr. Baek said softly and closed his eyes.
—
"Hey Anus, Wake up!"
"Wha—Ow!" Jae-won jolted forwards and hit his head on the metal railing, immediately curling back into the bed. He opened his eyes to see the black metal ladder in front of him, which was the source of the new thumping pain against his forehead.
His eyes darted at Dr. Baek, dressed in his white coat and standing a few metres away from him. This was the usual sight of Dr. Baek waking him up, but yet the angle was different to what he was used to and Jae-won's mind started to whirr, the placement on the bed feels different, the metal ladder shouldn't be in his view but it is—
"Why… why am I on your bed?" Jae-won asked, his voice slightly lower and scratchy.
He then gasped at a sudden revelation.
"Don't tell me I took over your bed?!" Jae-won's eyes blinked faster; with every blink he regained a clearer consciousness.
"Nah," Dr. Baek replied.
"So then where did you sleep?"
"In my bed." Dr. Baek gave him a raised eyebrow and settled on a poised face.
Jae-won brought a palm to cover his mouth, and his eyes widened.
"That..." Jae-won paused. "Was that even comfortable? I'm so sorry! I'll be careful next time."
"You moron. You don't even remember how you were about to fall head-first to the floor when I opened the door."
Jae-won groaned, putting his palm to his forehead as if he were internally ashamed of his own actions and Dr. Baek couldn't care less to correct that notion.
"I couldn't be asked to hurl you over to the top bunk." Dr. Baek added.
"I'm sorry."
Jae-won sulked, and it looked kind of cute, like a cute little puppy, and Dr. Baek couldn't help but feel this sense of cuteness aggression brewing within him. Before Jae-won could see the look on his mentor's face, Dr. Baek turned his heels towards the door.
"Hurry up and get out. The longer we wait here, the less time we have for our patients."
"Yes!" Jae-won raised his voice as he scrambled out of the duvet and reached out for his glasses.
Jae-won watched as Dr. Baek left the room, and it dawned on him, why didn’t Dr. Baek sleep on the top bunk if he was uncomfortable? Dr. Baek never mentioned feeling that way, but it must've been uncomfortable having two people sleep on a single-sized bed. Jae-won scratched his head; maybe Dr. Baek had some nitpicks regarding certain things to his comfort, and sleeping on another one's bed might be one of those. But that theory didn't quite hold up after Jae-won had slept together with Dr. Baek in Dr. Baek’s own bed.
Nevertheless, somehow, Jae-won had slept well, even if it was only for a couple of hours. He felt better already, minus the head injury from the ladder.
—
The smell of chemical disinfectant in the air, pattered footsteps left by rushing nurses and groans by injured patients – that was the daily norm for the Trauma Centre. It was moderately busy, but the staff found their way to make time for conversations during passing moments of free time. This was one of them. Jae-won had finished his lunch break, and he walked to the reception desk where Nurse Jangmi was stationed.
There were a lot of things that were on his mind lately, ever since Dr. Baek had taken over leadership and rebranded the non-existent department into the Trauma Centre. The centre had gotten reprimanded through other means, budget cuts and the supposed ‘loss’ the Trauma Centre was making had made this department statistically unsatisfactory to the rest of the hospital. None of this was being addressed, especially when Dr. Baek hadn't visited any of the board meetings regarding this issue. Jae-won sighs; he adds on how tired the shifts have made him lately, which was, of course, another norm to the Trauma Centre.
Dr. Baek slithered in without a sound and it took Jae-won a second to notice his presence beside him. His mentor made an off comment of making his protégé speak for him at the meetings if he was so riled up about it, and that riled Jae-won even more.
That shouldn't be his job!
But for the trauma centre… He’ll do anything!
Right…?
Jae-won wasn't that confident going against the hospital committee. After all, he was employed through a scholarship to study colorectal surgery and to add that he recently switched mentors and made a permanent transfer to the Trauma Centre, the odds were not in his favour.
Jae-won retorted about how that should be his mentor’s job and turned to Nurse Jangmi to get her to agree with him – which she usually did – but before she could say anything, Dr. Baek’s hand firmly held Jae-won’s shoulder and used the momentum to twist Jae-won to face him. His peripheral vision was racing to adjust to the older doctor whose face was increasingly getting closer to his own.
Their noses brushed, Jae-won could feel the slight exhale ghosting on his own lips before they touched.
It wasn't a small peck, but it wasn't a deep kiss either. It was an interlocking kiss, still with no movement.
Any words that came out of his mouth, the discussions, the disagreement, all ceased. Dr. Baek’s lips had muffled with Jae-won's internal shocked sound and then he fell silent.
The young doctor could hear the gasps of the hospital staff around them but his focus was drawn to Dr. Baek’s deep piercing black eyes staring back at his own widened eyes. Jae-won’s arms were frozen in the air hovering over Dr. Baek’s sides, trembling as if he was forced to do a mental reset.
Dr. Baek initiated and also pulled away first. He gave Jae-won a dutiful smirk and Jae-won couldn’t discern what that look meant to them—this situation. Dr. Baek was proud of what he had done, and in return, Jae-won unconsciously supported that notion too.
“Go.” Dr. Baek ordered.
“Oh–Okay!” Jae-won stumbled on his words as he turned towards the direction of the ICU ward. His face stuck with the same expression he wore when time had stopped all around him. Jae-won walked with a slight sway, completely out of it. He doesn’t know why he’s headed to the ICU ward, he doesn't remember what they were arguing about, he just needed to leave.
Right.
This is normal.
Nothing is out of the ordinary.
Jae-won felt the blood rush to his face with an unbearable wave of heat flushing across him.
Hell no it isn't!