Jisoo liked volunteering at the hospital. It felt like he was doing some good while he tried to stave off the overwhelming feeling of loneliness he always seemed to have. He mostly keeps himself limited to reading books to children or accompanying the elderly to the garden facilities to ease them. He yearns to do more; knows that he could. But he never did finish his doctoral degree. Mother was adamantly against it and by the time he’s only a few credits away from getting his PhD, whatever drove him to go for medicine had faded away into nothing and left the little boy in Jisoo who could never defy his mother.

     He mostly does administrative work for the church now, earning enough to live modestly. He is content with his life. But Jisoo is terribly lonely and empty and sometimes he just thinks of taking those classes and finally finishing something for himself. So he’ll drink a couple pills and go to sleep, willing such thoughts to fade into oblivion.

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     He’s about to miss his bus and it’s raining and he forgot to bring an umbrella and Boo Seungkwan is following him down the hallways, hiding behind people and lockers, unsuccessfully fooling anyone into not minding his presence. Chan knew he’d always wished for someone to talk to him, someone to at least acknowledge he exists but he didn’t quite anticipate it would be fulfilled in this manner. He would regret it but unfortunately, he really is that starved for companionship.

     Just as he’s about to pass the threshold of their school where the rain poured, he turns around abruptly, resulting in Seungkwan almost knocking him back from the impact. “Yah! Watch where you’re going will you?” He shouts, dusting off his pressed cardigan. Chan tries to raise an eyebrow, it shakes with the foreign action that he’s seen Wonwoo do plenty of times, “Sorry, I wasn’t aware I had a s-stalker to watch out for.”

     Chan would have felt better if he hadn’t stuttered but Seungkwan sputters, so he counts it as a win. Seungkwan trying to gather thoughts for a rebuttal is amusing enough that Chan would be content in letting him continue but people have started staring and it felt like it was burning through his skin. He pulls the other boy outside, getting of rain on them before settling underneath the awning of a nearby convenience store, before asking the question that’s been bugging him since earlier, “How do you know about my part time job?”

     “I may have overhead from some people…” Seungkwan pointedly doesn’t look at him. But people meant, persons–plural. Chan could not have that.

     Chan had been careful not to touch the other boy, due to some stigma about skin he’d always had but he’s too worried about the possibility of being kicked out of school to care as he grabs Seungkwan’s wrists, “What people?”

     Seungkwan makes a move to wring his hands but stops after realizing he can’t, while looking anywhere but at Chan. They stay that way for a long moment, the rain refusing to let up as much as the tension refused to simmer down.

     Seungkwan’s surprised when Chan lets go of him. He sports an easy smile while patting off Seungkwan’s shoulders, “Why don’t we start heading off to the shop then?”

     Sometimes, Jisoo has these terrible impulses of wanting to help someone so badly, his fingers would refuse to stop twitching and his eyes loses their ability to focus on any one thing aside from the thing he needed, so badly, to help. Today, it happens when he sees a boy, couldn’t be anything but a boy with his thin arms and slight build, covered in bruises. Black, blue, red, purple, yellow and green– it was so vivid and picturesque, like blotches of carelessly but artfully splashed paint on a pure white canvas, it made Jisoo want to puke. 

     The pull in him is so violent and he means to tell himself that there was nothing he could do. But he looks over the boy, laid out on one of the beds in the ER, without any attendants nor an IV drip connected to his arm. He looks around, noting how everyone was just so busy that no one paid any mind to their surroundings. In a burst of uncharacteristic bravery, he adjusts his scrubs, pocketing the little name tag that held his name and a tacked on ”volunteer”, getting ready to do something unquestionably unethical. He strides, as confidently as he could muster, towards where the boy laid. He closes the blue curtains around the cubicle, putting on gloves, the equipment thankfully laid out and ready to use. He uses sterile wipes, just to be sure. He’s careful when he turns the boy’s– the patient’s arm palms up. His eyes stray to a Mark, a thin slanted base cleft on the inner side of a pale wrist, not sure if it’s their original Mark or the Mark of their loved one. He shakes the thought away to focus on the task at hand. 

     He gets to disinfecting and cleaning the open wounds that are visible to him. He carefully covers the large bruises with cooling ointment to help alleviate the swelling and some of the pain. Reading over his chart, the patient’s set for an IV drip which has already been delivered by one of the nurses. He knows where he’s supposed to pierce skin for the IV but he stalls to buoy the unknown courage pushing his actions. His hands don’t shake as he taps the needle’s end to ensure no air bubbles will cause complications because God he could kill this boy if he doesn’t do it right. He slides it through skin and into the vein, and then used the medical tape to secure it on the patient’s arm. It’s all said and done in minutes but his hands shake as he tries to arrange everything back to its rightful place. A muffled sound stops him as he was about to slip away, a whimper of pain is what pulls him back towards the boy. There is not much he could do anymore, except pray for his speedy recovery, but still Jisoo tries to do more. He leaves candy for the boy. Chocolate is good for blood circulation, if he recalls correctly. 

     It’s no secret that Seungkwan’s filthy rich. It had been an issue that blew up even before Chan went to Hanseong High School. Why was someone from the better neighborhood--Gangnam of all places--going to their small private school? Nobody knew and it was still talked about now, as Chan was ending his first year in the institutionalized hell called school.

     So, naturally, he leads Seungkwan on a merry goose chase to the shadiest parts of town. The sun’s setting and there was only a couple measly lamp posts, flickering lazily, to light their way. At this point, Seungkwan had long lost his courageous front and was clutching onto the leather strap of his school bag while keeping himself close behind Chan. It feels odd to experience another person’s hot breath fan itself on the nape of his neck and it makes him vaguely uncomfortable, so he stops at a random store front. It’s metal rails are pulled down, the edges chipping with rust and the store sign so faded that none of the words can be read except for a shaky “–op”. 

     “Huh. It’s closed.” He turns back to Seungkwan with the same smile he’d sported, hours ago under a store awning much like the one they’re under now, “I guess we’ll just have to go back some other time.”

     He’s well aware that the other was not up for another trip to the garbage infested narrow streets of the less glamorous neighborhoods in Seoul but Chan was feeling vindictive today and there weren’t a lot of opportunities for him to vent his frustrations on someone.

     Seungkwan has a worried look on his face, biting down on his bottom lip, shaking from the cold seeping in through his clothes from being wet and out in the streets but still he says, “Sure! When do you think is a good time?” 

     It just really irritated Chan, so so much. How can anyone be so naive? Can’t he see that Chan had been leading him around with no intention of ever bringing him into the shop? There was no way he’d let anybody get proof and have him kicked out for having a part time job at a Tattoo shop. 

     “Never,” He looks Seungkwan straight in the eyes, “I’m never going to take you to the shop. So leave me alone and don’t tell anyone about my part-time job. If you do,” He pauses, as if to think about it, taking the time to lean forward in Seungkwan’s space, “I’ll tell everyone that you wanted to get a tattoo.” He turns and walks away, not bothering to stay for the other boy’s response. There was no way Seungkwan was going to risk his status over humiliating him. He just hopes the other doesn’t realize that no one would believe whatever Chan says anyway. 

------

     The living room lights are on and the buzzing of the television is the only noise that greeted him once Jun got home from an eight hour shift at the grocery store. He’s told Minghao countless of times that he shouldn’t bother waiting for Jun to come home, but seeing the younger’s peaceful sleeping expression makes him pause. The soft noise of him breathing in and out with the rising and falling of his chest in his curled up form on the too small couch never fails to melt away Jun’s exhaustion, if only for a bit. He drapes a blanket on Minghao, tucking the pillow under his head more securely before turning off the lights and bidding him a soft good night.

     Tomorrow will be an 18 hour day for Jun but it definitely helped. Feeling needed, that is.

A/N: This one’s for the Anon who made my day when I was really sick-- you’re the best. I hope you enjoy this chapter. :)