Before Hayoung could recover, Sehun asked, "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"N-no," she stuttered in response.

"Great," he said with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"D-do you always do that?" she blurted out.

"Do what?" Sehun asked innocently.

Hayoung mustered up her courage and asked, "Do you always say whatever is on your mind, no matter how uncomfortable it might make the other person?" 

"Well... my intention wasn't to make you uncomfortable... when you've been dying for as long as I have, you learn to say all the things you have to say before it's too late," he explained.

Hayoung just looked at him, her expression unreadable.

"Look, if I make you uncomfortable, you don't have to be my nurse," Sehun told her.

After a while, she simply said, "No, it's going to take a lot more than that to scare me away." 

Sehun smiled. 

He liked her.

"I mean, my supervisor is basically giving me no other choice," she said flatly, looking off into the distance. 

Sehun's face fell. 

He felt guilty for putting her in this position.

"It's a joke!" she suddenly exclaimed. 

He looked at her. She was trying not to laugh, her face full of amusement. 

"Who tells jokes like that?!" he snapped. 

"Like what?" 

"Like it isn't a joke!" 

"Sorry," she said in a sing-song voice. 

She was smiling, a different smile from the polite one she had had on when she first walked in. 

This smile took over her entire face, making her look radiant.

Sehun decided that he could spend the rest of his life staring at this smile.

He liked her a lot. 

"You're joking with me... do you like me?" he asked, back to teasing her. 

Hayoung sputtered, "I can joke around with people I don't like." 

"Yeah, but do you usually stay so close to someone you don't like?" 

Hayoung looked like she was suddenly realizing their close proximity and pulled away quickly and awkwardly.

Sehun smiled. He won.

"M-maybe you shouldn't be harassing the person who's gonna be taking care of you," she said sternly.

"I mean, I'm already dying... what's the worse you could—" Sehun cut off because Hayoung's face had contorted.

"Can you stop saying that?" she asked.

"Saying what?" 

"That you're dying." 

"Does it bother you?"

"Yes!" Hayoung replied, exasperated.

"Okay. Sorry." He paused before breaking into a smile and teasing her once again, "You do like me." 

Hayoung could only shake her head in disbelief.

"You're really something," she said.

"A good something, right?" 

She couldn't help but laugh at his ridiculousness.

Sehun wasn't sure if it was the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled, or the way her laughter was the most beautiful sound in the world to him, or the way that she could made him forget that he was dying—even just for a second—that was making him feel like he was floating.

The only thing he was sure about was that he finally felt alive.