Chapter 2

The Transplant

It was a military exercise that gone wrong, Jongin couldn’t understand how it happened but the next thing he know was that he and his twin brother Kai were caught in a cross fire against the rebels. Jongin thought he would only see this on movies; it was like a nightmare… gunshots everywhere and people around him falling to the ground with blood soaking their uniforms.

The twins stayed close to each other, protecting and defending themselves in the best way they can. They follow each instruction given to them by their ground commander, fighting their way to stay alive. It’s an hour and a half into the gunfire when reinforcements came and Jongin thought that they were finally safe since real military soldiers were there to deal with the situation instead of them who were just there for the mandatory enlistment.

Jongin felt his arm harshly grabbed by his brother then both of them rolls on the ground. Jongin panicked when he saw blood in his hands and his eyes widen when he saw his brother clutching his own stomach.

“Kai!” Jongin dragged his brother to safety. Another soldier helped him and led them away from the crossfire.

“Kai!!!” Jongin looked at his brother’s wound closely and saw how much blood was soaking Kai’s uniform. He took off his uniform and used it to somehow stop the bleeding.

“Hold on Kai…we’re taking you now to the infirmary…” Jongin assured his twin brother.

It took them twenty minutes more to reach the military hospital and Kai was immediately sent to the emergency room.

“Hold on Kai, ok?” Jongin shouted and somehow he felt relieved to see Kai gave a weak nod before he was wheeled in.

Jongin was pacing back and forth outside the operating room, anxiously waiting for the doctors to update him on his brother’s condition. A nurse had offered him to change out of his bloodied clothes but he couldn’t bear to leave his brother alone.

A few more minutes and the doctor came out of the double doors, Jongin was quick to run to his side.

“How is my brother Doctor?”

The doctor took off his face mask and sighed. “I’m sorry, we tried our best but the bullet went through his liver and he also lost a lot of blood. We were extracting the bullet when your brother went into a cardiac arrest, we tried bringing him back but his heart gave up…”

The doctor held Jongin when the other’s knees weakly gave up, he led him to nearest chair and gave him a few moment to digest what had happened to his brother.

“I know this is a lot to take in but I looked at his profile and I saw that he wanted his corneas donated to a certain Do Kyungsoo. We just wanted to let you know before we do the extraction procedure. The sooner we do the procedure the better.”

Jongin nodded, the moment his brother found out that there was a possibility that Kyungsoo can see again through a corneal transplant…his brother immediately signed up a donor card. Even he himself signed for one too.

“Kyungsoo is his boyfriend, wait… will you tell him that the corneas were from my brother.”

“Normally, we don’t tell the receiver who his donor is, unless they know each other. It’s your choice to tell him that…”

“Ok, I’ll call his guardian myself. Can I go see my brother now?”

The doctor nodded and led him to where Kai is.

“Hello!” Baekhyun cheerfully answered his phone without looking on who was calling.

“Baek, prepare Soo, we have a donor for his cornea…”

“Kai? Jongin?” Baekhyun looked at the caller id and saw that it was Jongin.  “Jongin, really? Where did you find the donor?”

“It’s from Kai…” Jongin covered his mouth to stop himself from breaking down.

“Kai? You’re kidding right? Kai would have to be….” Baekhyun paused noticed a sob coming from the other line. “Jongin, what happened?”

“K-Kai… h-he’s dead. We were caught in a cross fire and he got shot. He went into a cardiac arrest while they were extracting the bullet. He’s dead Baek, the only thing I could do for him is to make sure that Kyungsoo gets his cornea.”

There was a long silence between them Baekhyun was too shocked to say anything. Tears were falling on his cheeks and he knew that Jongin was crying too.

“B-Baek, don’t tell Kyungsoo yet…we’ll tell him after the surgery. They are letting me end my enlistment early, I’ll meet you and Kyungsoo as soon as I can, I’ll just have to arrange Kai’s funeral first… I want to be there when Kyungsoo open up his eyes.”

“O-Ok… I’ll get Kyungsoo to the hospital now. Thank you Jongin… I know it’s hard losing your brother and I know Kyungsoo will be devastated once he finds out about it but thank you… thank you for still helping Kyungsoo…”

“Don’t worry about it Baek, this is what Kai wanted…this is what we can do for him.”

“Soo, guess what… the eye bank called, they said that there are available corneas for you. They want you to go to the hospital now to prepare you for the transplant…”

Baekhyun took a lot of time to calm himself after Jongin’s call. He made sure that Kyungsoo won’t detect any sadness in his voice. He agrees with Jongin, Kyungsoo can’t know about Kai’s death just yet…the corneas needed to be transplanted as soon as possible and they want Kyungsoo in his best condition.

“Really? But I thought there were still some people ahead of me on the list…”

“Do we really have to think about that now Soo? What’s important is that the corneas are for you and now there’s a chance for you to see again…” Baekhyun reached out for his best friend’s hand and gently caressed it.

“You are right, Baek…” Kyungsoo smiled genuinely. “But do you think we can give Kai a call and tell him the good news?”

Baekhyun sighed, fighting off the tears that were welling up in his eyes. “I-I’ll try and give him a call but I’m pretty sure that Kai would want you to focus on your surgery. You go and take a shower, I’ll prepare your things and all the medical documents that you need…”

Baekhyun helped him up and led him to his room. He made sure that everything that Kyungsoo needs was all in his bag; they left the house as soon as Kyungsoo was ready. When they reached the hospital, Kyungsoo undergone some laboratory tests to make sure that he was fit for the surgery and within 24 hours Kyungsoo was wheeled in for the transplant.

Jongin was checking on Kyungsoo’s condition from time to time. As soon as he can, he went to the hospital where was having the transplant. The surgery went well and Kyungsoo was already in his private room when Jongin arrived.

Baekhyun couldn’t help but cry when he saw Jongin walked in the room. They shared a few minutes of crying and when they both calmed down, Jongin walked towards Kyungsoo’s bed and sat by his brother’s boyfriend.

Jongin reached out for Kyungsoo’s hand and prayed that Kyungsoo can see again. He can’t wait to see a part of his twin brother live in Kyungsoo.

Another 24 hours were needed before the doctors took off the bandages on Kyungsoo’s eyes. Jongin and Baekhyun were standing beside Kyungsoo and anxiously waited as Kyungsoo carefully opened his eyes.

Baekhyun and Jongin seemed to held their breath as Kyungsoo slowly flickered his eyelids and squint it a couple of times, waiting for his own vision to clear up. As his vision cleared up, he saw a familiar face…Baekhyun, his bestfriend who stood by him after everything that he had gone through. Standing by his bestfriend’s side was a new face, he stared at him and when he realized who the man might be, he smiled, showing everyone in the room his perfect heart-shaped smile.

“Kai…” Kyungsoo called out, extending his arms to reach out to the man standing by Baekhyun.

Although surprised by the name he was called, Jongin slowly approached him and took his awaiting hand.

“Can you see me now?”

Kyungsoo happily nodded and his eyes started to well up.

“Hey, hey… don’t cry, you can’t stress your eyes too much…” Jongin reached up for Kyungsoo’s face and caressed it.

Baekhyun ran to Kyungsoo’s side and hugged his bestfriend with all his might. “Thank God the transplant went well…I’m so happy that you can see again…”

“Me too, Baekhyun… I can’t believe it would be nice to see your ugly face again.”

“Hey!” Baekhyun playfully tap Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

The two best friends laughed at their hearts content while Jongin watched them in amusement. He was glad that Kyungsoo could see once again and that Kai was the reason for it.

“He’s thinking that you are Kai…” Baekhyun said while he and Jongin were out buying food. Kyungsoo was still in his room resting.

“I know, I don’t know how to say it to him…can we give it some more time before we tell him the truth…”

“So you’re just gonna pretend that you are your twin brother?”

“The transplant is still fresh, we can’t risk it. We’ll coordinate with his doctors and find the right time to tell him.”

“Ok, I understand your point but are you okay with pretending to be Kai, you are not just gonna pretend to be someone else, you will be pretending to be his boyfriend…”

Jongin sighed; he remembered his brother’s last hours. “I had to… for Kai.”

So pretending was what Jongin did, he pretended to be his twin brother. They had to make up an excuse when Kyungsoo asked how he finished his enlistment earlier than expected and thankfully Kyungsoo believed it.

It helped a lot that Kai used to tell him everything, he knew a lot about Kyungsoo’s likes and dislikes. It wasn’t actually hard to pretend as Kyungsoo’s boyfriend…Kyungsoo had always been easy to get along with.  What Jongin had to get use to was being called ‘Kai’ and even Baekhyun had accidental slips of calling him ‘Jongin’.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, Jongin was still pretending to be Kai and somehow it made it realize something. He realized how Kai easily feel in love with Kyungsoo…he finally understood it…

…because he was falling for Kyungsoo too.

“You told me that you’ll tell him sooner, Jongin!”

“What good would it do Baek? He’ll just suffer if he finds out that Kai died…that Kai was the one who gave him his new corneas.”

“You can’t keep lying to him! It will just hurt him more once he finds out the truth!”

“But…” Jongin sighed in defeat and looked at Kyungsoo’s bestfriend helplessly.

“Don’t tell you no longer have plans on telling Soo the truth?”

“Baek…” Jongin raked his hair in frustration. “I don’t want to lose him…”

“Oh my God!” Baekhyun shrieked once he realized what Jongin’s words meant. “You’ve fallen for him too…”

Jongin lifted his head and met Baekhyun’s face and here was nothing but guilt in his eyes.

“Do you think Kyungsoo could forgive me for lying to him?”

…saem.riel’s note…

…I’m sorry for the late posting…one last more chap to go…

…unbeta’ed…