Chapter Text
Seungmin smiles, and he wishes the patient who just got discharged a good night, and he ignores the vibrations coming from his pocket.
His boyfriends know very well that he’s on shift. He hugged and/or kissed each of them goodbye not an hour ago. (He even saw Bunny, he thinks, just before he woke up, even if it was only for a second. He hopes he gets to ask him about that when he’s off the night shift.) And even if he didn’t, Chan makes them all use a shared scheduling app, so everyone isn’t constantly asking everyone where everyone will be, all the time.
But Seungmin loves his boyfriends, even though he’s not always the best at showing it, and he sighs when the phone goes still. He already knows he’ll listen to the voicemail during his break. (Assuming he’ll get one. They’re insanely busy tonight.)
Only, he’s barely started sanitizing the room for the next patient when vibrations start up again. Angrily shoving away the wipe, he shoulders his way into a cupboard and picks up.
“What?” he hisses.
“Seungmin!” Changbin sounds half asleep, and for a second, Seungmin has the odd thought that he just woke up from a nightmare and needs reassurance. Despite knowing it doesn’t happen, he’s marginally calmer when he answers.
“Hyung, I’m on shift. Someone else can–”
“Okay, good!” he says nonsensically. Seungmin has half a mind to hang up and text Chan to please confiscate their boyfriend’s phone (and maybe tuck him back into bed, while he’s there), but then Changbin says the magic word.
“It’s about Bunny.”
Seungmin allows himself half a second to bounce in frustration about the awful timing before he surrenders to his fate. “What about him?”
“He’s sick and he has a concussion. Said he wasn’t supposed to be asleep.”
“That’s a myth,” Seungmin immediately supplies. “You know you could’ve looked it up. Even if he’s showing symptoms, as long as he’s been cleared by a doctor–”
“He hasn’t.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do about it?” Seungmin almost whines. He knows Changbin doesn’t have bad intentions, but now his whole shift will be plagued with useless worries about their missing other half. Even more so than usual.
“Seungmin. He hasn’t been seen by a doctor yet. He’s waiting.”
Seungmin’s eyes widen in the dark.
“You don’t mean…?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know. But it’s possible, isn’t it? That he’d be at your hospital?”
Seungmin’s hand has found a loose thread hanging off his scrubs’ sleeve and is anxiously tugging on it. “There’s a lot of hospitals in Seoul, Binnie-hyung…”
As if sensing his fretting, his hyung’s voice softens. “It’s your call. I know you’re supposed to be working. But if you think there’s a chance…”
That’s the thing. There is a chance.
“I’ll call you back.” He taps the end call button and stuffs the phone in his pocket.
His coworker startles at seeing him emerge from the closet, but he’s powerwalking away before he can ask, with a “Cover for me!” thrown over his shoulder.
One perk of his job is that no one gets in the way of a nurse in a hurry. Or maybe it’s just something about Seungmin’s stare. Either way, he reaches the reception in record time.
“I need to know if someone came here for a concussion today,” he requests, breath short.
“… Why?” the older woman asks, eyeing him distrustfully.
“Please, it’s important.”
“Hmph.” She clicks on a window and opens the search function. She’s typing faster than he can follow. “A four-year-old girl, no symptoms, was discharged this afternoon. And…”
Even though he’s now very still, Seungmin’s heart hasn’t slowed a bit.
“Twenty-four-year-old male, also with pneumonia. Checked in a few hours ago.”
If this isn’t real, Seungmin thinks, slightly dizzy, if this isn’t happening, I’m gonna have to do something drastic.
“Okay, what room?”
The lady’s annoyance is slowly morphing into worry as she takes him in, yet she answers easily. “No room.”
“What?”
“You know we’re full,” she shrugs.
“He has pneumonia!”
“Seungmin-ah, don’t you have somewhere to be?”
“Please just call him in,” he begs.
She squints at the screen. “He’s not in the waiting room either.” This time, she continues before he can ask. “I don’t know. Park Hyejung took his information.”
“Okay,” he breathes. “Thank you.” And he’s off.
It takes Seungmin a small eternity (five minutes) to figure out that Nurse Park Hyejung has just clocked out, and he takes the news with grace and resilience (he’s about to start eating the drywall. There’s no exposed drywall in the hospital, obviously, but he’ll find some. As soon as he’s found the guy who could either be a reflection of Seungmin’s own soul or some random bloke who banged his head on something). Luckily for Seungmin (and the drywall), the nurse who knew that Hyejung was gone also told him that she left a patient “somewhere on the fourth floor.” When pressed as to why, he shrugs.
“She said he looked too cute to say no to, but like, in a pathetic way. Don’t ask, man, I don’t know.”
Seungmin freezes, buffering for a second. Does that sound like Bunny? He tends to be more reserved around them. Has a respectable glare, coming from a fellow glarer. But he can also act cutesy when he wants to…
“Okay,” Seungmin speaks, several beats too late. He twirls around and walks out of the room before the other can answer him.
At this point, he doesn’t have any idea other than walking around on the fourth floor and hoping for the best. Fuck, this is going to suck so bad if it turns out to be nothing… Bunny has been getting quieter around them these last few weeks, more guarded, more down, and even though they haven’t said anything to him yet, they’re all worried. Really, it’s Seungmin’s fault for getting his hopes up, but…
Maybe it’s because he has already half-given up, but it takes Seungmin a moment to realize he’s come to a stop, and then another one to understand why.
There’s a stretcher tucked against the wall, a few paces from him, and a young man lying on it. He’s on his back, like he passed out as soon as he lay down. Slowly, almost like in a dream – how fitting – Seungmin walks up to him.
He is cute. He has delicate features, a small nose and a raised upper lip covered in a sheen of sweat. His breath comes out slow, shallow and raspy. His skin is flushed.
Even in deep sleep, there’s a worry in his brow. Seungmin doesn’t know yet, but somehow he does.
He can see a hint of incisor teeth peeking between his slightly parted lips.
It’s a good thing the hallway is deserted, because if someone was there to witness the strangled sound that bullies its way past his throat, Seungmin would have to kill them.
He honestly could’ve stayed there for a long time, simply staring, if he didn’t remember Changbin’s words about the concussion. Remembering the situation makes him frown. What is he doing like that, completely on his own, passed out in the hospital hallway? Chan’s going to hate this. Seungmin should really call him. But first…
Taking a deep breath, he puts his hands on the young man’s shoulders. He’s radiating heat.
“Hey,” he whispers. “Wake up.” It’s me.
His face twitches, breath faltering, but he doesn’t move otherwise. The receptionist mentioned pneumonia, and Seungmin only now realizes he doesn’t know how severe. The urge to see him conscious expands, but even then, Seungmin’s voice barely rises above a whisper when he speaks again.
“Wake up… Please?”
And finally, finally, he takes in a raspy breath, eyelids fluttering. His whole face scrunches up when the light reaches his eyes, in a way that would have half of Seungmin’s soulmates cooing from cuteness.
“Oh, wait…” Seungmin lifts a hand, shielding the man’s eyes from the light. “There.”
So slowly, his eyes open, hazy with sleep, dark and pretty and almost too big for his face. There’s something about the vulnerability of being so out of it, but at this moment, it doesn’t matter.
Because Seungmin is the first thing he sees, and they’re touching, and Seungmin is just as gone in the strength of the feeling that washes over him.
It clicks into place, gentle and earth-shattering all at once. Seungmin doesn’t want to look away, and he doesn’t need to. He doesn’t have to see his new and final soulmark appear to know that, at long last, he’s complete.
Bunny’s eyes find the mark on his arm, and Seungmin knows they’re all going to be okay.