“I want to continue my treatment at Bright Vision Eye Clinic,” Jongin stated.

Dr. Do raised his eyebrows, astonished by the other male’s answer, before asking, “Is there a particular reason why, Mr. Kim? You do realize this process will take much longer here than it will with a color vision specialist.”

The artist nodded, saying, “I know and I’m prepared to deal with this for however long it takes for you to find a solution for me. We just got comfortable with each other and…and I don’t think I want to make the switch to someone else who won’t understand what I’m going through.” While this was also true, Jongin didn’t think it was appropriate to divulge the main reason he wanted to stay as Kyungsoo’s patient.

“You could explain what’s going on, like you did with me,” the ophthalmologist kindly pointed out. “No competent medical professional will make any sort of judgment regarding what is happening in your personal life, Mr. Kim. If it can help us do our job, then we will fully embrace what you choose to tell us. You have nothing to fear, if that is what concerns you.”

“I—I just don’t feel like explaining this over and over again, especially to people I don’t really know,” Jongin mumbled while casting his gaze downwards.

“Alright, I understand. And I feel honored that you trust my abilities enough to stay with our eye clinic, so you have my thanks, Mr. Kim.” Dr. Do beamed brightly.

The ophthalmologist was just about to stand up when he suddenly heard, “Jongin.”

“Yes, Mr. Kim?”

“Jongin. You can call me Jongin instead of Mr. Kim.” The artist fidgeted in the black exam chair as he ruefully added, “I’m not a big fan of being addressed that way, so it feels kind of weird whenever I hear you say, ‘Mr. Kim,’ even though I know you’re only being polite.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.” Dr. Do also shifted on his wheelie stool, having never dealt with such a request from a patient before. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to call you by your first name, if that’s what you really want?”

Jongin vigorously bobbed his head up and down.

The ophthalmologist let out a soft chuckle and grinned widely at the other male. “Okay then, Jongin. It’s time to leave now. We can’t keep Ms. Jung waiting any longer.” Dr. Do stood up and held the artist’s medical file to his chest with his left hand as he slipped his right wrist through the loops of the plastic bag that was sitting on the counter, filled with his best friend’s clothing. He lifted it up and wrapped his fingers around the bottom of the loops to secure his hold on the bag.

As the artist also stood up from his seat, a wild idea popped into Jongin’s head and he cleared his throat, trying to get Kyungsoo’s attention. Luckily, it worked and the ophthalmologist turned around, looking at him inquisitively. “Um, I was, uh, wondering if you were free to get dinner right now.” He winced at how choppy his voice sounded. And when Kyungsoo only stared at him with those owlish brown eyes, Jongin continued to stammer, “Y’know, since, uh, it’d be cool to get to know you better. I feel like I—I talked a lot the other night and you know a lot about me now, but I don’t really know anything about you, y’know?”

Oh god, he sounded like a blithering idiot. The artist wished that the ground would swallow him up at once, because there had never been a moment until now when he had been less composed. At least whenever he was drunk, he could blame his lack of eloquence and scattered thoughts on the consumed alcohol. But right now, Jongin’s sober self was the only one responsible for the utter gibberish that was leaving his lips.

Several seconds passed before Kyungsoo finally answered, “I do apologize, Jongin. I was a bit surprised by your invitation.”

The artist mumbled indistinctly, his mind working in overdrive to figure out how to get out of the massive hole he had just dug himself into.

Smiling sadly, Kyungsoo then said, “It’s unfortunate, but I will have to decline. I’ve already made dinner plans for tonight.”

“Oh.” Jongin’s voice sounded hollower than he had intended, but the artist couldn’t help feeling disappointed by the rejection, despite knowing that springing such a spontaneous decision on the other male was—quite frankly—a poor idea.

“We could have dinner together another time instead,” the ophthalmologist quickly offered after seeing Jongin’s expression fall. “I’m not sure when, since I don’t know my schedule off the top of my head, but I can let you know through text, if you’d like.” Kyungsoo held up his phone, which he had taken out of his lab coat’s right pocket, and lightly waved it in the air. The plastic bag of clothing slid down his arm until it reached the valley of his elbow, resting there for the moment.

“Sure, that sounds good.” With that, Jongin also took his phone out from the left pocket of his blue-gray coat and the two swapped devices in order to add their own phone number to the other’s contact list. “Uh, should I text you first or will you text me?” the artist asked when they returned their phones to each other.

“You can text me whenever you’re free and I’ll let you know if I have anything scheduled.”

Even though he wouldn’t get to eat dinner with the brown-haired ophthalmologist tonight, this cringe-worthy decision of his wasn’t all bad. After all, he now had Do Kyungsoo saved in his phone, which was a huge step towards a potential friendship with the shorter male. Jongin only had a few people’s phone numbers saved, since he didn’t care enough to personally get in touch with others unless he absolutely needed to and Yixing was the usual point of contact for anyone who wanted to work with or commission something from the artist. Regardless, receiving Kyungsoo’s phone number felt like a great accomplishment and the insides of Jongin’s chest bubbled with anticipation. 

But all of a sudden, the sliding wooden door of the examination room was pushed to the side, making a loud noise as it banged against the wall. This revealed a tall figure standing at the entrance and the artist’s mouth dropped open when he recognized who it was.

“Kyungsoo, I’m ready to go!”

The ophthalmologist whirled around and then lightly swatted the newcomer’s right arm with Jongin’s medical file. “You shouldn’t be back here, Chanyeol!” he scolded, ignoring the tall male’s yelp of pain. “How many times have I told you this place is off-limits when you’re not here as a patient?”

“Ow, I have a bruise here, Kyungsoo,” the tall male said with a pout as he tenderly rubbed the spot where the ophthalmologist whacked him. “See?” He shrugged off his gray leather jacket, letting it fall far enough from his shoulders to showcase the bluish-black contusion on his muscular upper arm.

Kyungsoo immediately leaned forward and seized Chanyeol’s arm, anxiously scanning the giant egg-shaped discoloration. “What happened?!”

“Just a small mishap while I was moving stuff at work today,” he explained before pulling his jacket back on so that his arms and shoulders were properly covered again. “It doesn’t hurt that much though, since I already iced it.”

“Okay, just be careful next time,” the ophthalmologist admonished as he stepped back, relief visibly painting his features.

“Anyway, Soojung gave me permission to come back here! She’s waiting out front for you before she clocks out. Are you done?” Chanyeol then looked behind Kyungsoo and found himself staring straight at a shell-shocked Jongin. “Oh, hey, I know you!” he exclaimed as he stepped into the examination room. “You’re the guy who gave me one hundred thousand won after listening to my set a few weeks ago!”

Kyungsoo turned back to gape at Jongin, his round eyes growing even larger—Jongin hadn’t thought that could be possible, but it evidently was. “That was you?”

A strangled noise escaped the artist’s dry throat. His mind also shut down, unable to deal with everything that was happening.

Chanyeol grabbed both of Jongin’s hands and heartily shook them, causing the artist’s body to wobble like a limp rag doll. “Thanks again for that! I managed to pay my rent on time this month and that’s helped me save a lot for next month’s rent!” He then let go of Jongin’s hands, so he could turn to the ophthalmologist and comment, “Wow, who would’ve thought he’d be one of your patients, Kyungsoo? It’s such a small world!”

“Yes, who would’ve thought,” the small male wryly agreed with a half-smile. “Well, Jongin, I suppose an introduction is in order. This,” Kyungsoo gestured to the tallest male, who grinned toothily and waved, “is my best friend, Park Chanyeol.”

“Nice to meet you, Jongin!” the guitarist chirped.

Kyungsoo’s smile deepened, his best friend’s infectious enthusiasm also spreading to him, before the ophthalmologist continued saying, “You two apparently met in the main subway terminal during one of his busking sessions. I don’t know if you remember, but he couldn’t stop talking about how kind you had been to him that day when we met up afterwards and I appreciate you being so generous, even though you weren’t obligated to give him anything.”

“I—I remember,” Jongin finally managed to choke out. Even so, his mind began to short-circuit once again upon the realization that this tall, overly enthusiastic, leather jacket-loving guy was Kyungsoo’s best friend. He couldn’t imagine anyone more different from the ophthalmologist, both physically and personality-wise, and he never would have guessed that the busking guitarist was actually Kyungsoo’s closest friend.

In fact, it still seemed surreal to him that this was currently happening. It wasn’t until the ophthalmologist slid the plastic bag off of his arm to hand it to his best friend and said, “Oh, here are your clothes, Chanyeol. Sorry again for lending them without asking,” that the reality of the situation sunk in.

Park Chanyeol was Do Kyungsoo’s best friend.

Jongin had worn Park Chanyeol’s clothing the other night.

Jongin had also given Park Chanyeol one hundred thousand won the day before.

It sounded ludicrous, but it was the truth. The indisputable, irrefutable truth.

God, Jongin wanted to crawl under something—anything would do—and hide himself from the rest of the universe, which seemed to be laughing at him by the way things were panning out.

Meanwhile, as the artist was wordlessly going through another life crisis, Chanyeol accepted the bag of clothing from his best friend and casually swung it over his shoulder. “Nah, don’t worry about it. I would’ve done the same if I were you! So Jongin was the one you were talking about then?” he asked curiously as he glanced over at the artist, who turned extremely pale at the thought of Kyungsoo’s best friend knowing what had happened that night.

The ophthalmologist noticed Jongin’s reaction and he leaned over to reassure the artist in a low voice, “He doesn’t know anything we talked about. All he knows is that you stayed over for a few hours and borrowed some of his clothes.”

Jongin nodded dumbly, feeling slightly better upon knowing that Kyungsoo hadn’t betrayed his trust. However, it still felt incredibly uncomfortable being around the two best friends and knowing that they had talked about him on more than one occasion, even if they hadn’t meant to.

“No fair, Kyungsoo! I wanna know what you said to him too!”

“It’s none of your business,” the ophthalmologist answered firmly, looking at Chanyeol reproachfully.

The tall guitarist let out a loud whimper and was about to say more when a knock sounded on the door, causing all three males to turn and see Soojung looking questioningly at them. “Um, Kyungsoo, are you done yet? I need to schedule Mr. Kim’s next appointment before I can clock out,” she said timidly, her eyes filled with fright and confusion mixed together when she briefly glanced over at the artist, who looked like his soul had been out of his body.

“Oh, yes, we’re all done, Soojung. I’m terribly sorry that we’ve kept you waiting for so long,” the ophthalmologist quickly apologized as he shooed Chanyeol out of the examination room and then motioned for Jongin to follow them into the hallway. “And I hope Chanyeol wasn’t bothering you earlier.”

“I never bother her, Kyungsoo! Soojung loves me, right?”

A weak smile appeared on the receptionist’s face as she directly answered Kyungsoo instead, choosing to bypass Chanyeol’s question. “It was fine. I just wasn’t sure how you and Mr. Kim were doing, so I sent him to check on you two while I did some last-minute paperwork that’s due next week.”

“Thanks for always being on top of everything, Soojung,” Kyungsoo said, smiling gratefully at the receptionist. “I’ll lock up tonight, so you can get some rest at home.”

By then, the group had arrived at the waiting room and Soojung walked around to her desk to pull up the booking system on her computer. She quickly scanned it before telling Jongin, “Dr. Do has an open slot at one in the afternoon in two weeks. Does that work for you, Mr. Kim?” This time, her voice was void of any quivers and stutters, most likely due to Kyungsoo’s comforting presence.

Not to mention, the artist’s intimidating aura had been replaced by something less…menacing, for some odd reason. Soojung didn’t know what had happened before she arrived, but whatever it was had caused Kim Jongin to deflate like an empty balloon. The receptionist wasn’t sure if she preferred this lifeless-looking man to the menacing one that usually showed up, since it was quite startling to witness him so mentally checked out. She also hated how she still thought Kim Jongin looked attractive, no matter which facet of himself that he chose to showcase.

Jongin nodded dumbly, his brain and mouth unable to aid him in constructing a coherent verbal response.

Before Kyungsoo could comment on the artist’s strange actions, Chanyeol tugged on the small male’s arm and loudly whined, “Let’s go eat dinner, Kyungsoo! I’m starving! And if we don’t hurry, there’ll be a long line at the restaurant and I don’t think my stomach can handle waiting another hour before getting fed.”

“Alright, alright, let’s go to my office,” the ophthalmologist relented, pressing his hand against Chanyeol’s back to lightly push him in the right direction. Before they left completely, he smiled at both Soojung and Jongin before saying, “Have a good evening, you two! And I’ll see you tomorrow, Soojung!”

“See you tomorrow, Kyungsoo!”

“Bye, Soojung! Bye, Jongin!” Chanyeol hollered over his shoulder, waving wildly at the two remaining in the lobby. “It was nice seeing you again! You should listen to my next set whenever you have time!”

“Hush, Chanyeol! You’re making him uncomfortable.”

And Kyungsoo had never been more right.

The rest of the night, Jongin listlessly stared off into space. Yixing didn’t know what to do after picking up his friend from Bright Vision Eye Clinic and his many attempts at carrying a conversation with Jongin failed. When they arrived home, the artist lethargically dragged himself to the living room couch and wrapped himself up like a cocoon in a thin navy blue blanket as he continued his mindless behavior.

When Jongdae came downstairs and saw how bizarrely his younger brother was acting, he glanced over at Yixing to silently ask what was going on. But the manager shook his head, unable to answer, and the two older males jointly decided to leave Jongin alone as he stewed in his thoughts. At the very least, he hadn’t run off like he had before and he wasn’t throwing a tantrum either, so that was a slight victory in their books.

Jongin sat, still as a statue, while the clock steadily ticked in the background.

All he could think about was Kyungsoo and Chanyeol, probably laughing and animatedly talking to each other, as they ate dinner together.

While Jongin was stuck at home, like always, with no one special to share a meal with.

♈♈♈