True to Yixing's prediction, there was a steady downpour waiting for Jongin when he stepped out of the eye clinic. The clouds in the sky were so dark; they looked almost black as thick drops of rain bombarded the asphalt of the parking lot. Jongin almost forgot that he had an umbrella sitting in one of the pockets of his raincoat until it thumped against his right thigh as he walked past the columns supporting the overhang that jutted out from the building. He was tempted to not use the umbrella, since he was wearing a raincoat and it had a hood, but then he realized he would get water all over the expensive leather seats of his manager’s car. Yixing treated his car like a rare treasure, since it was the first major purchase he had ever made, so Jongin knew he would be lectured the entire ride home if he ruined his friend’s car seats.

It took him a moment to undo the Velcro strap that kept the umbrella neatly bundled in a cylinder shape and then push it open. Once the umbrella was covering him, the rhythmic tapping of raindrops on the wide canopy lulled Jongin into an absentminded state and he stared off into the gray horizon with a glazed over look. He was so mentally checked out that he didn’t notice Yixing’s black Lexus LS 460 pull up in front of him until the window of the passenger’s side rolled down and the manager called out, “Jongin, get in!”

Once he sat down, the artist propped his right elbow against his seat’s armrest and then rested his chin against his palm as he stared out of the window. Jongin ignored his friend’s attempts to make conversation, feeling utterly drained from exerting so much mental energy on trying to decipher the cap hues. His dark eyes watched the fat raindrops hit the glass window, slowly trailing down until they eventually dropped onto the asphalt road.

Whenever the car stopped, due to a red traffic light, Jongin looked down at the road and noted how much darker the wet asphalt looked in comparison to its typical dry state. Just like the shade of marengo, but without the color’s characteristic flecks of white. There were no specks of light cutting through the stormy sky.

Not today.

--

Remembering how Kyungsoo had mentioned that there was an online version of the Farnsworth-Munsell one hundred hue test, Jongin sat at his desk and his computer. He quickly typed in the test name and was greeted with about a dozen results generated on the first page of the search engine. The artist clicked on the top handful of links before confirming that the various websites' tests were the same as the physical test he had taken at Bright Vision Eye Clinic in the morning.

He returned to the first page he had clicked, and read the instructions and addendums listed on the website's front page. They were more or less the same as what Kyungsoo had told him during their appointment. The only difference was that he now had to use his computer mouse to click and drag the color tiles between each other in their designated gradient rows instead of physically moving around the colored caps in their black plastic trays.

It seemed easy enough, but Jongin knew he had to be vigilant. He scowled when he read a notice stating that one should visit their local eye specialist for a proper diagnosis. He was past that; what he needed was a concrete answer now.

There was another note that stated how extremely determined individuals could drastically improve their score, so Jongin desperately clung onto that sliver of hope. Even though it was an irrational generalization to make, his entire art career was riding on receiving satisfactory results from this test and Jongin was going to do everything that he could to make sure he scored as low as he could to place him in the safe zone; several of the websites had listed a scoring guide and the smaller the number he received, the better his color vision was.

The artist pressed Begin and was presented with those four dreadful rows of twenty-five colored tiles. Jongin squinted, seeing if it would change anything, but he soon gave up on that when he felt his nose and neck begin to cramp up after several minutes.

All he had to do was believe. He was Kim Jongin, artist extraordinaire. Some silly test wouldn’t be able to defeat him.

His soul burned with resolve.

His brain worked in overdrive.

His eyes were beginning to turn red from staring at the bright computer screen so intensely.

God, this was starting to seem like a mistake the more Jongin clicked and shuffled the virtual tiles around. But the artist had already committed himself to finishing the task, so he ignored how his eyes were itching to tear up due to the severe amount of strain he was placing on them.

Just like it had in Kyungsoo’s office, time ticked by in an instant and more than an hour had passed by the time he clicked the Submit button. He fidgeted in his seat as he waited for his score to be electronically tabulated, his knees knocking into the bottom of his desk from the sheer amount of stress he was under. Several seconds later, the results page loaded, but Jongin felt like his body was being stabbed in fifty places at once when he saw the graph that detailed his score.

There were giant spikes decorating the entire color wheel, showcasing where his errors were on the spectrum. The artist’s numerical score itself was far over the threshold for someone with a color vision deficiency. The minimum score a person needed to be considered color deficient was seventy.

Jongin had scored over three hundred.

And to really drive home that fact and make sure the artist made no mistake in understanding the generated results, in bold letters, the screen told him that he had a case of severe color blindness.

After he failed this first test, Jongin angrily clicked out of the window and pulled up another website. He started the test again, staring at the one hundred hues as if his life depended on it, which was technically the case.

But no matter which website he took the test on, no matter how many times he tried to distinguish each shade and categorize them correctly, Jongin couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t tell the difference between the tiles.

His now extremely dry eyes stung from staring unblinkingly at his computer screen for so many hours, but Jongin couldn’t accept the reality he was facing.

This was different from all of the times before, even though he had known his color vision wasn’t working correctly. Now, there was hard, definitive medical evidence that he was ruined.

Absolutely ruined.

Unable to deal with this stark realization, Jongin stood up and kicked his chair away while sweeping his phone and house keys into his right coat pocket. He his heel and stormed out of his bedroom, down the stairs.

Yixing was in the back of the mansion, doing the three males’ laundry for the week, so he didn’t hear the artist’s thunderous footsteps stamping throughout the building. Jongdae also wasn’t home, presumably still at work.

Jongin was thankful that there was no one to stop him from leaving the house. He neglected to bring an umbrella or a raincoat with him, despite the rainfall being just as intense as it had been earlier in the day.

All he could focus on was trying to get as far away as he could from himself.

So he ran.

He ran and ran and ran.

And Jongin kept running without glancing back even once.

--

It was six o’clock in the early evening when Kyungsoo finally stood up from his desk after powering off his computer. He had finished his last appointment at four-thirty, doing an annual vision check for that particular patient and sending the teenage girl on her way with a new glasses prescription.

Sojin had gone home a little bit after four o’clock, after she had finished prepping Room Three for Kyungsoo’s last appointment of the day. The junior doctor and nurse pair assigned to work on Saturday, Yoo Kihyun and Kim Sejeong, had finished their scheduled morning shift by noon. Junmyeon and Eunji had left around five o’clock, after their last surgery of the day.

Before he left, Junmyeon had stopped by Kyungsoo’s office to ask when he’d be done for the day.

“I’ve got a lot of paperwork to finish up, so probably not for a while,” Kyungsoo answered ruefully, gesturing to the stack of paper sitting on his desk.

“Oh, I was hoping you’d be free for dinner, but I guess we can do that another time,” Junmyeon said, smiling shyly at the other ophthalmologist. “I was also thinking of doing a group dinner with everyone, once Sunyoung and Sungyeol officially join the team.”

“That sounds great!” Kyungsoo beamed back while sending the copper-haired male a thumbs-up. “I’ll be sure to free up an evening for that. Do you know when it’ll be?”

Junmyeon shook his head. “I haven’t discussed this with anyone else yet, so I’m not sure what our schedules look like these next few weeks. On my way out, I’ll ask Soojung to send everyone an email and we can coordinate from there. What days work best for you?”

Kyungsoo thought for a moment, quickly running what he knew about his schedule through his head, before replying, “I think Wednesdays or Fridays would probably work. I need to check my calendar to make sure, so I’ll let you all know in the email chain later.”

“Alright then, I won’t distract you any longer. See you tomorrow, Kyungsoo!” Junmyeon waved to the other ophthalmologist before grabbing the golden doorknob and shutting the door to leave his colleague in peace.

Soojung had clocked out at five-fifteen, also dropping by Kyungsoo’s office to ask if he needed anything before she went home for the day. He had assured her that he would be fine and would lock up the eye clinic when he was done working.

So, just as promised, he was currently tidying up his desk and slipping any files he needed to work on at home into his black messenger bag. Once everything was neatly put away, the ophthalmologist left his office and locked the door behind him. Soojung, as she usually did when either Kyungsoo or Junmyeon was the last one to leave the clinic, had been considerate enough to leave on a dim set of lights in the hallways and the waiting room.

Kyungsoo first went to the waiting room and checked to see if anyone had accidentally left anything behind. Luckily, Soojung had done a thorough sweep before she went home, so there was nothing for the ophthalmologist to clean up and he strode to the front door to lock it as well. Seeing that the receptionist’s desk was also nicely organized, Kyungsoo turned off the lights in the waiting room and began navigating his way to the back door.

His folded navy blue umbrella was sitting in the bronze umbrella stand that Seungwan had bought for the eye clinic, soon after joining the team. She had arrived during the previous year's rainy season, so it had been an apt gift to bring, especially since the team had been using plastic sheets at the time. Kyungsoo reached into the bin for his umbrella, pushing back his messenger bag so that it wouldn’t knock down the umbrella stand with its weight, and then undid its strap in preparation to shield his body from the heavy rain when he stepped outside.

Deep puddles were flooding the ground and he gingerly walked around them after locking the back door. The rain was pouring down at a sharp angle and Kyungsoo shivered as he pulled his maroon raincoat more tightly around his small frame. He shrank back under his hood to avoid being bombarded by the cold droplets while also tilting his umbrella forward, so most of the rain pelted against the canopy instead of his face.

It didn’t help that the sun had already gone down, so all he had to light his way were the amber lights from the streetlamps that were spaced about ten feet from each other. Kyungsoo did his best to quickly make his way to his car, which was waiting for him in the parking lot. However, when he reached it, he noticed a drenched figure kneeling on the wet asphalt. “Excuse me?” the ophthalmologist called, hoping his voice was loud enough to hear over the whistling wind. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

As he stepped closer to the figure, Kyungsoo hoped that whoever it was hadn’t been out here for long. The temperature was low and the wind that whipped around them was frigid. However, the figure didn’t move, which caused Kyungsoo to fear the worst and he quickened his pace, not caring that his socks were becoming soaked as he carelessly walked through puddles.

Once he reached the figure, the ophthalmologist also crouched down and laid his right hand on the other person’s left shoulder. And then his jaw dropped when the figure lifted his head and stared straight at him. “Kim Jongin?!”

The artist continued looking at Kyungsoo with hollow eyes, his bangs messily plastered against his damp forehead.

“Oh my goodness, what are you doing out here?! I thought you went home! And why are you kneeling in the rain?! You’ll catch a cold!” Kyungsoo was completely caught off-guard by the artist’s unexpected appearance and strange behavior, so he was unable to control the word vomit that was spilling out of his mouth.

“Please…Kyungsoo…help me…” Streams of water ran down Jongin’s sharp cheeks and the ophthalmologist honestly couldn’t tell if they were teardrops or raindrops.

“Yes, of course I will, Mr. Kim! You’re sopping wet right now. Do you have your phone? I’ll call your manager to pick you up,” Kyungsoo rambled as he tried tugging Jongin up from the asphalt. 

However, the artist instantly recoiled at the other male’s words, causing Kyungsoo to stumble as he avoided falling to the ground next to Jongin. “Please don’t,” the sodden male said in a barely audible whisper. If the ophthalmologist hadn’t been crouching next to him, he wouldn’t have been able to hear the artist’s soft pleas. “Please don’t call Yixing. I don’t want to go home.”

“But Mr. Kim—”

“Please, Kyungsoo…” By now, rivulets of tears were pouring from Jongin’s bloodshot eyes, making it clear that he had been crying the entire time.

The ophthalmologist wondered why the other male was so distraught, but didn’t dwell on the thought for long, since he knew he had to get Jongin out of the rain as soon as possible. He lightly bit his bottom lip, hastily thinking of where he could take the artist, before finally saying, “Okay, let’s go somewhere else to get you dried off. Then we’ll talk. Something is clearly upsetting you enough to come here at such a late hour, even though the weather is awful.”

“Thank you, Kyungsoo” Jongin murmured, finally allowing himself to be lifted up by the shorter male.

While shielding the two of them from the icy rain with the large umbrella, Kyungsoo carefully led his waterlogged patient to the lone silver BMW M5 that was waiting in the ophthalmologist’s designated parking space. Once Jongin was safely buckled in the passenger’s seat, Kyungsoo made his way to the driver’s side and jumped into the car. He folded his umbrella back into its cylindrical shape and shook off as much of the rain as he could before grabbing a plastic bag from the back seat to place it in. He then dropped the umbrella on the left back seat and shut the car door, effectively sheltering them from the rainstorm.

With a sideways glance at Jongin as the ophthalmologist inserted his key into the ignition, Kyungsoo said, “It’ll take us about twenty minutes to reach our destination. Will you be okay with sitting in your wet clothes for that long?”

The artist nodded limply.

“I’ll turn on the heater. That should help dry your clothes and warm you up a bit. And if you need anything else, please let me know, Mr. Kim.”

The artist nodded again, still mute.

Kyungsoo decided to leave him be for now and switched his focus to the road. The last thing he wanted was a traffic accident to happen in this stormy weather.

♈♈♈

A/N: In case you haven't noticed, I have a crowdfund set up! It's a new feature that Jason (Nichiren) is implementing and I was luckily chosen as a beta tester. It helps out writers like me and allows our readers to support us monetarily, if they'd like, since we do spend hours upon hours writing these stories. If you'd like to support me, please join my crowdfund! Every bit of support helps keep me fueled as a writer and you'll also get special perks, such as early access to chapters, the ability to seamlessly read TMOP in one webpage, and downloadable PDFs! I've also created an invite-only thread for my crowdfund supporters where I write and post requested scenarios as a thank you!

Don't worry about this story going behind a paywall. It won't! You don't need to join my crowdfund to read my stories. They will still be unlocked and open to the public, like they've always been. You'll just get bonus perks if you do. I still appreciate all of my readers, whether you choose to join my crowdfund or not. This is just another way of showing your support if you have the financial means to do so. If you have any questions about the crowdfund, please feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my abilities or convey the question to Jason so that he can help answer it instead! Subscribe, comment, and/or upvote if you're enjoying the story so far! Have a lovely day and see you next time with a brand new chapter!