Sehun left the Kim mansion feeling very content and comfortably full after a marvelous dinner made by Yixing. Once the model was gone, Jongdae escaped into his own room, mumbling about how he had work to finish. That left just Yixing and Jongin in the dining room to clean up the table, wash the dishes, and pack away the leftovers.

The two worked in silence at the beginning as they wordlessly moved between the dining room and the kitchen, handing each other plates and stepping around each other with their hands full. It wasn’t until Yixing felt Jongin was currently calm enough to reason with that the manager decided to broach the topic of his friend’s earlier eye appointment again. Jongin always seemed to be more relaxed after spending time with Sehun, so Yixing hoped that was the case right now. “How was the appointment with Dr. Kim?”

“I didn’t meet him.”

Yixing did a double-take and gawked at the artist while one of his hands hovered over a set of dirty utensils. “Wait, what?”

“He cancelled on me,” Jongin explained in a light voice as he stacked the china plates on top of each other in the kitchen sink. “Don’t worry. I saw another doctor instead.”

“Okay. Uh, how was it with him? Her?”

“Him. His name is Do Kyungsoo.” Jongin paused for a moment before continuing, “He made me mad.”

The manager sighed when he saw the hint of irritation appear briefly on Jongin’s face as the artist spoke. Knowing Jongin, the artist probably became angry due to his own irrationality. “You know, it doesn’t hurt to give others a chance to help you.”

“But he wasn’t helping me! He just—”

“Jongin.”

The artist immediately shut his mouth and let Yixing carry on speaking his piece.

“I get that you like to be independent and do things your own way. I really admire that about you. But Dr. Do—is that his name?” Jongin nodded. “I’m sure he’s doing what he can to figure out the best way to fix your problem. But I don’t think it’s something that can be fixed overnight. You have to be patient and give him time to work,” the manager wisely finished as he looked pointedly at Jongin, whose head hung low like an upset puppy’s would.

“But what if he doesn’t fix me?” Jongin petulantly asked, not unlike a young child who had just been scolded for something he didn’t believe was his fault.

“You have to at least let him try. You’ve only met him once, you know.”

The artist huffed loudly while he roughly scrubbed the dishes clean, a flood of soap bubbles piling up in the sink as he rubbed harder and faster. “Yixing, why can’t you be more annoying like Jongdae is, so I don’t feel bad about yelling at you?” When his manager gave him another look filled with reproach, Jongin hurriedly backtracked and amended, “I’m joking! I wasn’t going to yell at you.”

“Just promise me you’ll try to get along with the eye doctor when you go in for your next appointment?” Yixing requested, his voice laced with exhaustion.

“…Okay, fine. I’ll try not to be a brat, even though I’m obviously not,” the artist finished in a low mutter with an indignant expression on his face.

--

“Do you keep all of your patients waiting this long, Dr. Do?” a deep, male voice drawled as Kyungsoo stepped into the examination room while buttoning the front of his white lab coat. The ophthalmologist looked to see who was sitting in the black exam chair and then pursed his lips into a thin line as he thought back to Soojung’s earlier actions that had been a mystery then but now made perfect sense.

“Um, Kyungsoo, please don’t get mad at me,” Soojung said meekly, slightly squirming as she stood in the examination room where the ophthalmologist had just finished his latest appointment. She avoided making eye contact with him as he stared at her curiously.

“Why in the world would I be mad at you, Soojung?” Kyungsoo asked with a friendly smile on his face, wanting the skittish receptionist to relax in his presence. He quickly checked the gold-plated watch on his left wrist for the time and added, “Why don’t we talk over lunch? Sojin is waiting for me in the break room right now.”

Soojung winced, knowing she was going to ruin this poor man’s day, but steeled herself as she responded, “We—we can’t. Talk during lunch, I mean.”

Kyungsoo just looked at her in confusion.

“B-because I scheduled you to see someone at noon today,” she revealed with a slight tremor in her voice. The ballpoint pen in her hand was making indentations in her palm due to how tightly she was gripping it. “There’s s-someone who has to see you immediately and this is the o-only time that works.” Soojung then quickly bowed to the ophthalmologist, her long black hair covering her pale face with her body bent at a ninety-degree angle. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Do!”

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” Kyungsoo responded kindly as he pulled the young female into an upright position. “We’re coworkers, Soojung, not strangers. Does Sojin know as well?”

“N-no, I wanted to tell you first.”

“Alright, let me go wash my hands while you tell Sojin to prep the exam room.”

The receptionist bowed deeply again, saying gratefully, “Yes, Kyungsoo. I’m so sorry.” When she lifted her head back up, she added in a small voice, “Please don’t be mad when you meet the patient.” But before the ophthalmologist could ask what she meant by those last words, Soojung quickly made herself scarce and went to find the nurse in the break room.

Sojin nervously shifted her gaze between Kyungsoo and Kim Jongin who was haughtily leaning back into the black exam chair with his legs crossed, his right ankle resting on top of his left knee. The ophthalmologist subtly motioned for her to leave the room as he accepted Jongin’s file from the nurse, whispering in her ear, “I’ll handle it. You go have lunch with the others.”

The nurse nodded while comfortingly patting his arm before she disappeared through the doorway. Jongin’s eyes narrowed as he watched the wooden door slide shut before training his piercing gaze on Kyungsoo. He was slightly annoyed by how the two medical professionals acted as if he were invisible, but decided it would be best to not aggravate the ophthalmologist this early into the appointment. After all, he had promised Yixing that he would try to behave better. Although Kyungsoo did an excellent job of masking his less than favorable impression of the artist, Jongin could still detect the slight nuances in Kyungsoo’s body language that indicated his discomfort in having to treat him. “Surprised to see me?”

“A bit,” Dr. Do answered coolly as he pulled out the ivory-colored wheelie stool and picked up Jongin’s medical file before sitting down to skim through it. “Were you unable to work out another time with Dr. Kim?”

Jongin shook his head with the corners of his mouth lifting up into a small grin. “I didn’t try.” The artist uncrossed his legs as he leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees while keeping his eyes locked on the ophthalmologist. “I prefer to stick with one person instead of bouncing between two or more.”

“I see.” Kyungsoo didn’t think he’d get a straight answer from Kim Jongin, so even though he was still confused as to why the other man insisted on being seen by him, the ophthalmologist decided it wasn’t worth the effort to continue questioning him. “Well, unfortunately, we will not be able to carry out the blood test that you were marked down for today, since Nurse Park and Nurse Jung are both on their lunch break,” Dr. Do said while making a note to himself to conduct the test during Jongin’s next appointment.

“Who’s Nurse Jung?”

“She is Dr. Kim’s assistant, but she occasionally helps me out when Nurse Park is too busy to,” Dr. Do explained calmly as he continued writing notes in his impeccable handwriting.

Jongin was surprised that a doctor’s penmanship could be so neat. He supposed not everyone fit into the stereotype, but Kyungsoo seemed to embody every other parameter that made up a doctor so the artist had assumed the ophthalmologist would write in a messy scrawl as well. “Then what are we doing today?”

“I’ll conduct the comprehensive retinal examination that I mentioned to you last time,” Dr. Do answered while snapping the file shut and setting it on the nearby counter. “Your eyes will need to be dilated, if that’s alright with you.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Jongin was genuinely interested in knowing the reason and Kyungsoo was a bit stunned to hear such a normal tone coming from the artist. It seemed like the rude patient from two weeks ago was nowhere to be seen, but the ophthalmologist made sure not to lower his guard, just in case. Kim Jongin was still a stranger and Kyungsoo had no way of knowing if he’d lash out later on.

“Your vision may be blurry for several hours after dilation and your eyes might feel uncomfortable due to the heightened light sensitivity, which is why I make sure to ask every patient if they’re fine with having their pupils enlarged,” Dr. Do clarified as he stood up to rummage in the middle counter drawer for the bottle of dilating eye drops. “It will also be quite difficult for you to drive, so I suggest you make arrangements right now for someone to pick you up after your appointment if there isn’t anyone already waiting for you outside.”

“I’ll text my manager.”

“Please do.” Dr. Do turned to face Jongin with a red eye drop bottle in hand and waited for the artist to finish texting Yixing before saying, “Now please tilt your head up with your eyes staring up at the ceiling.” Jongin promptly obeyed and leaned back into the headrest, keeping his gaze fixed on the unattractive eggshell-colored ceiling.

When Kyungsoo leaned over, using one of his small hands to gently grasp the side of the other man’s head while the other tipped the bottle over the left eye, Jongin couldn’t help but notice how fluffy the ophthalmologist’s dark brown hair was. He wanted to tack a name onto the color, but the only one that came to his mind was bistre and the artist didn’t want to describe Kyungsoo’s hair as soot brown. It seemed somewhat offensive to do so, especially after hearing Yixing complain for years about soot pollution in his hometown. But Jongin couldn’t think of any other shade of brown that matched the ophthalmologist’s hair color right now.

As he felt the cool drops splash onto his eyeballs, one after the other, Jongin thought to himself how devastating it would be if his eyes ended up never being cured. What if he were doomed to forever see the world as an ugly, soiled landscape? No, he couldn’t—or rather, he wouldn’t—accept such an outcome. Even if it killed him, Jongin would do whatever it took to recover his ability to correctly see color.

But first, he’d have to adjust to this strange feeling that overtook his eyes. Unlike with ordinary eye drops, these dilating eye drops made his eyeballs feel incredibly dense and heavy in his skull. No matter how much he blinked, Jongin was unable to get rid of this bizarre sensation.

Kyungsoo was completely oblivious of the artist’s reaction to the dilating eye drops—or if he knew how Jongin was feeling, he chose to ignore it—and busied himself with searching for his ophthalmoscope in the top counter drawer. Once he found the black cylinder-shaped instrument, Kyungsoo turned off the bright overhead lights in the examination room so that the room was plunged into darkness. “Please face forward, Mr. Kim,” the ophthalmologist directed before a solitary light appeared in the middle of the dark. Jongin quickly held a hand in front of his face, not ready for the unexpected intense light to hit his eyes. “You’re going to have to move your hand away if I am to conduct the retinal examination, Mr. Kim.”

“Would it hurt you to give me a warning first?” the artist retorted as he grudgingly brought his hand back down.

There was no response with Dr. Do professionally keeping his composure as he balanced Jongin’s medical file on his knees and held his black pen in his left hand. He then positioned the ophthalmoscope that he held in his right hand in front of Jongin’s left eye and began looking through the circular view window to observe the retina, using his pointer finger to adjust the focus wheel every few seconds as he shifted the angle of the shining light to get a better view of certain sections of the eye.

Jongin wanted desperately to shut his eyes, the heaviness greatly weighing down on him, but he repeatedly pinched himself to keep his eyes open. When the ophthalmoscope briefly moved away, since Kyungsoo needed it as a light source while he quickly jotted down some notes onto Jongin’s file, the artist let out a shallow breath of relief and closed his dry and aching eyes. But the break lasted for only a few seconds until Kyungsoo brought the instrument back up to Jongin’s right eye and began inspecting its insides. After another several minutes of agonizing bright light shining in his eye, Jongin threw his head back with his eyes screwed shut the moment Kyungsoo moved the ophthalmoscope away again to write down his second set of observations.

Once he finished marking everything he saw, Dr. Do stood up from the wheelie stool and placed the artist’s medical file in the crook of his left arm while tucking his pen into his lab coat pocket. “I’ll analyze these results more carefully in my office later and inform you if there’s anything drastic that comes up during your next visit,” he said as he flicked on the examination room’s light switch.

Jongin nodded dumbly, trying to combat the pounding pain that was plaguing his head as his sensitive eyes tried to adjust to the sudden bright light that filled the previously dark room.

The ophthalmologist noticed the artist’s discomfort and added, “The dilation should last for only a few hours. Ms. Jung will have a pair of disposable sunglasses for you to use while your eyes revert back to normal.”

“Oh, there’s no need,” Jongin answered dismissively while reaching his black aviator sunglasses tucked inside his coat. “I’ve got it covered.” Once his eyes were properly shielded, the artist looked down at Kyungsoo and gave him a short nod. “Although it would be nice if you could actually give me some answers for once,” he couldn’t help but add with a note of displeasure in his tone. It was too difficult for him to not make a snide jab at the ophthalmologist’s seeming incompetence. Jongin didn’t want to have to spend any longer here than he had to, but Kyungsoo was making it quite difficult for him to stay away.

Although his voice was eerily calm, Kyungsoo’s glare was strong and stormy as he drew himself up as tall as he could while looking straight into the artist’s eyes. “I sincerely apologize, Mr. Kim, but if we are to work together for the time being, you are going to have to learn to treat me with respect,” Dr. Do said in his smooth voice. “I want to help you. I really do. But you are making this a hundred times more complicated than it needs to be with your attitude.” A sharp exhale escaped Kyungsoo’s mouth, unable to contain his frustration any longer, while he ran his fingers through his dark brown—or as Jongin liked to imagine it, bistre-colored—fringe.

No, he needed to find another shade of brown to name Kyungsoo’s hair color. The more he thought about it, the more disinclined he was to use the soot brown color as a descriptor for one of the ophthalmologist’s features. It made Kyungsoo sound…dirty, which he was the complete opposite of. God, Jongin needed his color perception back. He didn’t want to continue viewing the world through these darkened, dirty lenses.

“Can we peacefully work together, Mr. Kim?”

Seeing Kyungsoo gaze at him so resolutely, the artist knew he’d have to wipe the slate clean with the ophthalmologist first in order to wipe away the soot that covered his eyes. He needed to stop being so prideful all of the time. And Jongin decided that his first step to shedding that pride would be to make amends with Kyungsoo. So the artist took a deep breath before sticking out his hand and replying with a lopsided grin on his face, “Okay. Let’s start over. I’m Kim Jongin, an artist with a color disability.”

The shorter male smiled back while firmly grasping the offered hand and shaking it. “I’m Do Kyungsoo, the ophthalmologist who is going to cure your color disability.”

♈♈♈