“So, where’s your body guard? Doesn’t he usually hover like a madman?”

“He started smoking so I banished him.” I point a finger at the sky. “Rooftop.”

DK laughs heartily and puts an arm around me, but all I can see is Wonwoo at the end of the table, head down, and it sends an uncomfortable pang through my chest.

Never had I ever considered Wonwoo as anything more than a friend. A best friend. The best friend. I’m at a loss for not only words, but thoughts as well. It’s as if my brain has just gone silent. I don’t even know what to think. I just want to stop hurting him. He’s Wonwoo. He deserves happiness. And the idea that I’m causing him grief because I don’t have a romantic attachment…

The judging starts: we’re all served one large plate of a main meal and a dessert, and we give our individual ratings. I announce the winner, and my mouth says the words but my brain isn’t processing it. Like it literally has just stopped.

It takes me a full 23 seconds of ringtone to realize my phone is going off.

“Hello, this is the secretary of the Seoul General Hospital speaking. Is this Mr. Joshua Hong?”

For a second, I’m scared my brain won’t do anything, but then it kick-starts with a jump. “Ah, hello. Yes, I’m Joshua.”

“Sir, we know you had an appointment coming up next week, but we just had a last-minute cancellation and Dr. Kim said it would be best to see you as soon as possible, if you are able to take it.”

“Oh?” My brain splutters and then starts whirring again. “Oh, that would be handy, but I can’t be sure of my availability. What opening do you have?”

“Tomorrow morning at eight.”

I check my watch, and look up at the rooftop, and then at my schedule book. “Ah, may I have a moment please?” I put the phone down and check today’s time. “Excuse me, ma’am? It’s a short appointment, right?”

“Yes, it’s a preliminary exam, so it should only take thirty to forty minutes.”

I look up at the rooftop again, but I can’t spot Jeonghan anywhere. “Ah, I see… yes, I’d like to take that spot please, if I may.”

I’ve barely put the phone down again before a voice makes me jump, literally jump off the ground, squeaking all the while.

“Sounds serious if it’s going to take half an hour.”

“Jun!”

He smirks and pulls me aside behind a corner of the building, away from peeping students. “Hello, Joshua.”

I grin, and I’m a bit flushed doing it. “Hey. Your face looks better.”

Jun grins. “Yeah. Still hurts though. Just like my heart.”

I shake my head with a grin. “Why are you like this?”

“You still haven’t made it up to me yet.”

I raise an eyebrow before I remember. “Oh, yes, you want me to up and kiss you like a two-dollar hoe.”

He blanks at that, and then laughs, and I can’t help but marvel at Jun’s laugh. He doesn’t just giggle or chuckle or snicker, he laughs. He goes for it – throws his head back, opens his mouth wide, leans back, claps his hands, the whole caboodle. He laughs loud and baritone and it has a really pleasant echo to it. I’d be too embarrassed to laugh like that – mine is smaller, less pronounced.

“Alright, alright. What are you seeing a doctor for?”

“Just an asthma check-up,” I lie smoothly.

Jun leans his back up against the wall and pulls me in closer so we’re barely a few inches apart. “Eight is cutting it a little close, don’t you think?”

“I hate you demons and your super-man hearing.”

He isn’t easily distracted. “It’s still close. Aren’t you competing in math?”

“I’m competing in everything tomorrow, but don’t worry. I’ll have Jeonghan. He can do a big flashy demon thing and get me there in seconds, right?”

“Right,” Jun confirms, not letting go of the tops of my arms. “Then I guess you’ll be alright. Speaking of your trusty knight in shining armour…”

“Rooftop,” I mutter. “Smoking.”

“He wasn’t up there just a second ago.”

“He wasn’t?”

“No.”

Jeonghan doesn’t show up for the talent show. He doesn’t show up after. Jeonghan doesn’t show his face as DK walks me home, and he’s not there waiting for me. It’s midnight before I manage to doze off, but even in the dark I never see his blood-red demon eyes. When I wake up in the early morning, he’s nowhere to be found.

I can’t spend too much time worrying about where my demon is. He must be within 100 yards or so, and just keeping his distance, so whatever, I have bigger fish to fry.

Dr. Kim’s assistant takes me in for my chest x-rays. Front and back, several at a time. I like his assistant. She’s kind and doesn’t try to chit-chat awkwardly like some hospital staff do. She also wears bright purple lipstick, which I think is a bit weird, but she manages to pull it off and you can recognize her from a distance.

Fifteen minutes have already passed with Dr. Kim calls me in. I saw a lot of him, some years ago. I hoped I wouldn’t have to see him again until I was in my forties, maybe fifties. But I don’t have that kind of luck.

“Joshua,” he tells me eventually, “you know in order to give you a full diagnosis we need to go for a long haul. Take swatches and samples and test your urine and your blood and do some scans.”

“Yeah,” I tell him. Being in Dr. Kim’s room always makes me kind of quiet.

He sighs. “I’ve had a look at your x-rays.”

I already know the news isn’t good. I knew it from the first moment I coughed. But to see it in the premature fine lines of his face is almost worse, somehow. Worse, because I know I’m going to have to hear the words spoke out loud. Worse, because I know I’ll have to go home and see those same creases far deeper in my mother’s face when I tell her. Worse, because I know I’ll be wor