As if on cue, there was a loud rapid knock and Hoya ran to open it. Within moments, Sungjong was carefully laid onto a stretcher and driven to the hospital with Hoya and Myungsoo sitting close by.

“If we had come later, he would have been gone. His heartbeat was irregular and faint. And he’s lost a lot of blood.” The male paramedic had said.

Hoya let out and shaky breathy and patted Myungsoo’s back, “Good job, Myungsoo.”

“Sir your hand!” Another female paramedic burst. Hoya became alert once again. He followed the horrified gaze of the lady and saw blood dripping from Myungsoo’s hands.

“Open your hands.” Hoya ordered. Myungsoo pursed his lips together and shook his head.

“Kim Myungsoo. Open them now.”

Myungsoo blinked away the tears and slowly opened his clenched hands. It was then, where he felt the throbbing pain that he was inflicting on himself.

Hoya’s eyes widened in disbelief when he saw millions cut glass falling from the latter’s hands, as he slowly opened them.

“What were you doing?” He asked in horror.

Myungsoo let out a chocked sob, “I hurt him! It was my fault. I deserve to be punished.”

The paramedic snapped into reality, remembering her job and quickly reaching for antiseptic. “This is going to hurt… a lot.” She muttered, seeing the small deep cuts. She dabbed away the excess blood first, before dousing cotton balls with antiseptic and cleaning each wound.

Hoya hugged Myungsoo tightly, as he saw the other cry in excruciating pain. “Make it stop! I’m sorry! Hyung, it hurts so much.” He cried.

“You shouldn’t have done this to yourself.” Hoya muttered. He could not bear to see Myungsoo’s hands, so he kept his eyes shut tight and continued to hug the pained male.

~

Hoya’s eyes never left the bandaged hands of the male. Only the rapid and shaky breathing from Myungsoo could be heard in the silent room. No one dared to say a thing. Nurses and doctors who walked into the room avoided any eye contact.

“Sungjong has lost a lot of blood, and as you said, his heartbeat is very faint. This patient is in critical condition. How long has he been unconscious?” The doctor had asked Myungsoo, as though they were regular patients in the hospital.

“I-I didn’t see.” Myungsoo replied, his eyes fixated to the ground.

“Myungsoo, was this the result from one of your-” the doctor stopped, glancing at Hoya who suddenly looked up in confusion. “Myungsoo?”

“I think so. It’s my fault, sir!”

The doctor sighed, “Sit down, Myungsoo. I’ll keep you guys up to date.”

Hoya shut his eyes. Something was wrong with Myungsoo, but he didn’t know what it was. His eyes flew open instantly when he remembered why he was here. Dongwoo. He quickly reached down uniform pocket to retrieve his phone, sending a quick message about the events that had unfolded, before turning it off, not waiting for a reply.

He let out a quiet sigh that rang echoed through the dimly lit room occupied by only him and Myungsoo. Tired from everything that happened that day, Hoya slowly closed his eyes to rest, however, due to mere inconvenience, his rest was cut short by the door that slammed close. He jumped up and was met by the doctor who wore a rather stoic expression.

“Mr… Lee Howon?”

“Yes.” Hoya said, standing up, noticing the injured man stare at him with confusion when he was referred to with a different name.

“May I speak with you for a second?”

“Uhh…” He said, as his gaze fell to the nervous, tense male.

“It’ll only take a minute, Myungsoo.” The doctor said. He nodded solemnly.

“Alright.” Hoya said. “I’ll be right back.” He murmured to Myungsoo, before following the doctor out of the room.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Sungjong’s in a critical condition. We’re not certain when he’d wake up, but we are 70% sure that he would survive.”

“So, why couldn’t you say this to Myungsoo?” He shot back, regretting the bitterness that was evident in his words.

“Has Sungjong told you about Myungsoo?”

“What?”

“Have you noticed any strange, different behaviours from Myungsoo?”

“We’ve only been friends recently. I haven’t spoken to him much.”

The doctor sighed. “Does he have any other friends?”

“Not that I know of. He usually stays with Sungjong, and if not, he would hang out with me and my boyfriend.” Hoya replied, purposely choosing to leave out Sungyeol.

“Alright, well as I said, Sungjong is in an induced coma right now. We are not sure when he would be able to wake up.” He hesitated, “Myungsoo, on the other hand, he needs a carer to look after him.”

Hoya was confused, Myungsoo wasn’t sick, was he? “Why is that?”

“Myungsoo has a strange case of autism.”

“A-Autism?” Hoya whispered, looking through the window that showed the vulnerable looking male fidgetting with his hands.

“Yes. It’s none that we have ever seen. It’s believed that it gradually becomes worse through emotional trauma.”

“Emotional trauma?”

The doctor sighed, “You really don’t know much about him, do you? Look, this is confidential. You cannot tell anyone this. Not even your friends, as this is Myungsoo’s condition and only he has the right to choose whether or not he wants others to know.”

“I understand.” Hoya nodded, “You’re just telling me because he has no one else to look after him.”

“That’s correct. As I was saying, He most likely has more than one mental illness. He was diagnosed with autism at a young age, however due to family… disfunctions, it became worse. After the emotional stress, he developed symptoms of schizophrenia as well as other illnesses.”

“S-Schizophrenia? So he’d imagine things and stuff?”

“Something like that. It’ll effect his way of thinking ad social behaviours. Doesn’t he seem to be tense regularly? Or sometimes he would stutter, or become fidgety?”

Hoya paused to think of the times he had spent with Myungsoo, realising how the other would tense to someone’s touch, or react differently when he heard or joke. Hoya nodded, “He does, now that I think about it.”

“Yes, well they are all symptoms of this mental illness…” He trailed off, “However, up until a few months ago, he had been improving. He never had episodes this bad.”

“What kind of episodes?”

“He would think that people were there to kill him and Sungjong. He would try to fight the people in his head physically, as he believes that they are real, but he would usually end up inflicting pain on himself and people around him.”

Hoya joined all the pieces together, “So… Sungjong was…”

“Yes. I’d presume Myungsoo had one of his episodes that night, and accidentally hurt him.” The doctor finished.

He let out a shaky breath. It was a very unexpected and huge thing to take in. Myungsoo had a mental illness. It became worse a few months ago. Hoya furrowed his brows in confusion. “Do you know why it suddenly became worse?”

“No, however I do believe that it must have been linked to his emotions. Similar episodes happened when his parents had left him, so I would presume that someone he loved dearly had left him.”

He though about this for a moment before hitting realisation. Sungyeol’s rejection. “, you f****n bastard.” He hissed quietly.

“Excuse me?”

“A-Ah, nothing. So basically you’re telling me all this in hopes that I can look after him until Sungjong gets well again?”

“Yes. I would warn you that you may witness him experience his episodes, and this can bring harm to you and the people you live with.”

"But he won't have any other place if I don't allow."

"Well, we can send him to a psychiatric firm, but that would be quite costly."

“No way in hell am I sending my friend to that place. I can take him in.”

The doctor let out a gentle smile, “Thank you so much Mr Lee. Please don't tell anyone that we we had this conversation.” He concluded, bowing before leaving the student staring pitifully at the ill male who had curled into a ball to keep warm.

Why, out of everyone, was Myungsoo chosen to suffer this?

He was one of the kindest person he had ever met.

But maybe, because he seemed so perfect from the exterior, God had chosen to single him out as the victim of this cruel illness.

I'm so proud that I uploaded this is less than a week. AHAHAHAHA new record for me xD Many people have been showing curiosity as to what Myungsoo was suffering from, and have requested me to reveal it soon sooo TA-DAHHH :D It's a mental illness that has been triggered by emotoinal trauma, basically, hahahahaha I just practically summed up the whoe chapter in that half sentence xD I hope this chapter wasn't a drag, but I promise it will get more interesting! I just wanted everyone to know what Myungsoo had, before getting to the juicy part mwahahahah

Thank you for all the subscribers and commenters for last chapter ^-^ Please do leave more comments :) I read them like 10 times before spending 10 minutes to think of a perfect response for you guys hahahahah okay, I'm being a creep now, I shall leave now xD

Till next time!! Hope you all stay warm from the cold! Or stay cool from the heat, like where I am now hahahah ^-^