“What a pathetic bunch,” he sighed, staring sympathetically at the long list of patients for the Love Hospital.

“Then why are we even here?”

He sighed once again, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Because Taeminnie – I can’t just stand around and do nothing. These people need my help. I can’t just leave this place after they called me back.”

“Key umma, just because it’s called a call-back doesn’t mean–”

“Don’t question umma, Tae,” he said with a flourish of his hand. “Just listen. Besides, the guy that interviewed me is dating Woohyun. Maybe I have a better chance of getting in.”

Taemin just rolled his eyes as Key turned the Love Hospitals’ handle and let himself inside. Inside the waiting room were three more people. There was a jumpy looking girl with brown hair and a bright smile, a small, cute boy who was sitting by himself and a friendly looking guy with glasses.

Key scoffed to himself. “Is this my competition?” he whispered. Taemin just smiled as he pat his shoulder.

“I’m going to go now, umma,” he whispered with a chuckle.

“Okay, bye, Tae.”

He took a seat next to the jumpy looking girl. He glanced around at all of them, wondering which of them would get the spot in the Love Hospital. It was a few tense minutes when an office door opened and Sunggyu walked out with a clipboard in hand. The entire Love Hospital was behind him. The cute looking boy looked at Sungjong with sparkling eyes and the girl next to Key gasped and looked like she was ready to jump across the universe.

“Sunggyu–oppa!” she squealed under her breath.

The said hamster-eyed leader glanced down at his clipboard then back to his guests. He whispered something to Sungyeol, who shrugged and jabbed a thumb a Myungsoo. Myungsoo also shrugged and just whispered something back. Sungjong held up four fingers, nodding to their leader who nodded back.

“Uh, hello everybody,” he announced.

“Hi!” the girl next to Key responded back immediately.

“Okay. Well, as you can tell there is much more than one potential love doctor present,” Sunggyu continued, scratching his caramel hair. “And the reason being that we recently had a meeting and discussed who would be best suited. Well, to be honest, you all have very unique qualities that make all of you different but no one is exactly better than the other.”

“So, what does that mean?” a boy in thick-rimmed glasses asked.

“I’m getting there,” Sunggyu silenced. “As I was saying, right now the whole Love Hospital is made up of seniors. All of you are a year younger or have been held back or something, I don’t know. The point is; we realized that when we graduate, we’ll need successors, and that is what all of you are called here for.”

“So, we’ve all made it in?!” Key exclaimed.

“Yes. But, you’ll have to train and stuff,” Sungyeol said.

“That’s fine,” the smaller boy agreed with a smile.

“As of now, you four are the Love Hospital two point oh,” Myungsoo smiled.

“Kyaaa, that’s so awesome!” the girl cried, standing up to jump up and down. “I want to train under Sunggyu-oppa!”

Sungyeol chuckled. “Well, we might want to get past introductions first.”

“Oh, right.” She smiled and sat down, barely containing her excitement.

“Shall we just go around the room?” Sungjong asked. “Just state your name, your romance specialty and any cool facts.”

“I’ll go first!” the girl said, her hand shooting up in the air.

Sunggyu blinked. “Um, alright. You first, then.”

She stood up proudly and cleared , flipping her chestnut brown hair. “My name is Lee Soojung!” she cheered excitedly. “I specialize in helping girls with what not to do in a relationship and some cool facts are…” She paused to think. “Oh! I’m part of the Sunggyu division in the Love Club and I have a pet unicorn named Seksi-kins!”

“A real unicorn?” Sungjong asked.

She smiled coyly. “Maybe.”

Sunggyu just raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at Key. “And you?”

The bleached-blonde haired boy stood up. “Ladies and gentleman, I am Kim Kibum, but call me Key – everybody does. I specialize in quite a few things like helping a player to prove his love for an un-trusting person. And cool facts… well, my friend dates Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu’s eyes widened. “Your friends with Woohyun?”

“Sheesh, you don’t even know your boyfriend’s friends? What kind of a boyfriend are you?”

Sungyeol snorted as he saw Sunggyu’s red face. “Diva much?” he chuckled under his breath.

“Shut up, I’m the diva,” Sungjong snapped from behind him.

“Anyways,” Myungsoo interrupted. “And the next person is…?”

The small boy stood up shyly. “I’m Choi Sungmin,” he said softly. “I specialize in how to get your crush to notice you and such.” He sat back down quietly.

“Any cool facts?” Sungjong asked.

“Oh, uh… I don’t really have any cool facts about me,” he admitted embarrassedly.

“Oh,” Sungjong replied gently, blinking.

“And last but not least…” Sunggyu called out.

The last boy stood up and smiled. “I’m Lee Hyunwoo,” he grinned. “I specialize in break-ups and how to get through and overcome them. Something cool about me is… I’m Sungjong’s cousin.”

“What?” Sungyeol exclaimed, looking at the diva accusingly. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well, wouldn’t that make me seem biased?!” he retorted back.

“Anyways,” Sunggyu interjected, cutting their blooming argument short. “As you know, I’m the Love Hospital’s leader, Kim Sunggyu–”

“I know!” Soojung replied excitedly.

Sunggyu stared at her for a second before continuing. “This is doctor Lee Sungyeol, doctor Kim Myungsoo, our receptionist Lee Sungjong, and our newest doctor, Henry Lau.”

The new team members bowed to the original club members, voicing their greetings and their desire to be taken care of. Sunggyu bowed back, as did his teammates.

“Now, let’s get down to business,” Sunggyu exclaimed happily with a brisk clap of his hands.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo exchanged a knowing look, which Sunggyu caught and groaned at.

“To defeat,” Sungyeol sang, “the Huns!”

“Did they send me daughters?!” Myungsoo continued.

“When I asked,” Sungjong sang.

“For sons!” Soojung cried.

“Stop!” Sunggyu yelled, stopping the musical mayhem before it could continue. “You’re the saddest bunch I’ve ever met,” he grumbled under his breath.

“And you haven’t got a clu–”

“Lee Sungjong, I said stop!”

…

Homeroom was as noisy as usual, since after all, it was homeroom. Sungyeol and Myungsoo were arguing about goodness knows what (but it was sure to be stupid) and Hoya and Seungyeon were watching from the side with interest. Sungyeol argued in a flurry of arm motions while Myungsoo argued sitting perfectly still with the occasional gesture. And to be honest, Seungyeon and Hoya found the whole thing amazingly amusing.

“No, no, no,” Myungsoo denied. “You obviously don’t understand.”

“How could I not understand? I’ve been explaining it to you this whole time!”

“Well, you’ve been explaining it wrong! Things aren’t that simple, Yeol.”

“Why not?! If the plural of mouse is mice then the plural of house should be hice, shouldn’t it?”

“And what, the plural of douse is dice?”

“No! Douse is a verb!”

“We have rules for a reason – mouse is just one of those weird words.”

“What’s wrong with saying mouses? It’s completely fine!”

“Ask the people who created it, not me.”

“But they’re dead!”

Yup; stupid argument, as always.
“You guys,” Seungyeon cut in, “have been arguing for the past ten minutes on the plural of mouse. Don’t you think it’s time to finish it?”

“But by all means, continue,” Hoya chuckled. “It’s quite amusing.”

But at that moment, the teacher walked in, signaling her class to be quiet. With a sigh, she dropped a stack of papers on her desk and sat down, looking at her students with excited eyes.

“Guess what?” she asked.

“You finally graded our tests?”

“Your pregnant?”

“You’re finally getting married?”

The teacher just frowned. “Okay, first of all, I am married. Second, I decided to not have kids. Third, no, your tests are still ungraded and in my drawer.”

The class seemed to deflate just a little bit, but the teacher waved it away.

“But what I wanted to say was, the Homecoming dance is a week away!”

And then the class inflated again and began chatting with excitement. They were probably the only school to celebrate Homecoming when Prom was supposed to be celebrated, and vice versa, but whatever. It made them special.

“And what I wanted to talk about was that the teachers had a meeting and elected our classroom to perform! Which means we get to choreograph a dance!”

“Do we all have to do it?”

“Can we just pick a few people?”

“Is this necessary?”

“Aw come on, guys,” she said, “why don’t you want to participate?”

“Well,” Hara said from a corner, “the performance is mostly for the entertainment of others, and it’s also kind of embarrassing. It makes pretty good memories, but not when you’re the one doing it.”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“How about a duo duet?” someone suggested.

“Yeah, they could sing and dance – just the two of them.”

“Okay then,” the teacher agreed. “We’ll have to vote, then. And once they’ve been voted, they can’t back down. You’ll have to nominate and decide based on who would fit the theme this year the best. And this year our theme is ‘the Club Scene’,” she quoted. “Nominations, anyone?”

The class began spewing out names, and the teacher wrote down all the ones she heard on her whiteboard. As soon as the noise died down, she capped her marker with a squeak and looked at the list.

“And we have – Jang Wooyoung, Lee Howon, Goo Hara and Lee Sungyeol. Any additions or objections? No? Okay, let’s begin voting. Everyone can cast two, and only two, votes. Heads down on your desk, everyone!”

In the split millisecond it took for everyone to put their head down, the girls seemed to have some sort of telepathic debate and agreement. The teacher called out each name and people would raise their hands. She would tall the votes, and placed the number next to their name.

“Okay, heads up!” she announced and everyone lifted their heads. “And as the two lucky performers, we have Lee Sungyeol and Lee Howon.”

All the girls in the class squealed, while Myungsoo (who was playing Candy Crush the whole time) widened his eyes.

“And remember you two, the theme is the Club, so make something that resounds to that. Dance, sing, both, whatever.”

Hoya and Sungyeol grinned at each other, giving a high five. Behind them, Myungsoo’s glaring went unnoticed, but the classroom definitely felt a different vibe all of a sudden. The rest of the day passed by quite tensely for Myungsoo, but everyone else seemed to be fine.

“Sungyeol!” Hoya called as they were leaving class. “Would you want to get together and plan our act sometime?”

Sungyeol nodded. “Sure. When is a good time for you?”

“Anytime, really. Does Friday after school sound okay?”

“Sure. Meet me by my locker then?”

“Okay, see you then!”

Sungyeol waved goodbye to him and glanced behind him to speak to Myungsoo. But strangely, Myungsoo wasn’t in his seat – perhaps he had left the classroom already. Sungyeol pouted – they would usually wait for each other and leave together.

“Sungyeollie!” Seungyeon squealed as she jumped and latched onto his arm. “Congratulations!”

“For what?”

“Getting to perform with Hoya,” Hara explained with a giggle. “All the girls in our class know how much you like him. We all explicitly planned to vote for you two.”

Sungyeol chuckled. “Thanks, I guess.”

Hara winked. “Maybe this is the breakthrough you need to confess~!”

“Wait, what?!” Sungyeol exclaimed as the two girls ran off giggling. He smiled and shook his head, a bit flattered by their efforts. He sighed happily as he made his way to his locker and dialed the combination. He opened the metal door, and another note fluttered to the floor.

He picked it up off the ground and read it.

…

“Sungyeol?”

“Hi, Myung,” the tall boy smiled sheepishly. “Is this… bad timing or something?”

“Not really but, uh… can you explain why you’re at my doorstep?”

“I could, I guess. I just… didn’t want to stay at home. And I needed to–”

“So, you came to mine?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled shyly, scratching the back of his head. “Should I leave? If you’re busy, or–”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Myungsoo said quickly. “Come on in.”

Sungyeol smiled as he slipped off his shoes and stepped in. “Sorry for barging in like this. I just can’t stand staying at my own house any longer.”

“Why not?”

Sungyeol sighed. “Daeyeol has a bunch of his freshman friends over. All they do is play video games, and I was getting irritated.”

“Was the game annoying or something?”

“Hm? No – they were having fun and I wasn’t,” he answered simply.

Myungsoo laughed. “So, you got irritated because they were having more fun than you?”

“I was bored! What do you expect me to do?”

“You just sound hungry, to be honest,” Myungsoo smiled.

“…Maybe.”

“Come on, let’s get you fed.”

“And Myung, I also wanted to talk to you about somethi–”

“Eat first,” he said. “Then we’ll talk.”

He grabbed his arm gently and led him to the kitchen, where another guest was already seated.

“IU!” Sungyeol exclaimed, a bright smile lighting up his face.

“Sungyeol!” she smiled, waving from her seat at the table. “What brings you here?”

He sat down across from her. “I could ask you the same thing,” he grinned.

Myungsoo said, “You can take off your jacket, Yeol, I’ll go get some snacks.”

“Oh, okay,” he smiled. As Myungsoo left, Sungyeol faced IU. “So, what brings you here?” he asked her.

She smiled and giggled. “Remember in Jeju Island, when I told you that guy I met and started liking?”

“The guy on the beach?”

“Yeah! So, this morning I decided to finally tell him and confess! And–”

“Here you are now, right?”

She nodded. “Thankfully, everything has been going well and Myungsoo’s a real gentleman about it!”

Sungyeol felt a strange bitterness creep up his throat as he smiled at the table. “You… really like him, don’t you?”

IU sighed dreamily as she rested her cheek on her hand. “I really do! I just hope everything works out.”

Myungsoo came back at that second, a plate full of cute fruit balancing on his hand and a mug in the other. “Here we go,” he said, setting the plate down. “And, I made coffee for you,” he added, placing the cup in front of Sungyeol. “Americano, of course.”

Sungyeol smiled in return and just watched him. ‘So they finally got together,’ he thought. He seemed rather endearing to IU – extremely caring. As much as Sungyeol loved the sight, he couldn’t help but hate it somehow.

“Aigoo, look at the time,” IU gasped as she glanced at the clock on the wall. “I have to go,” she told the two boys.

Myungsoo’s eyes widened in panic as he watched her get up. “Wait, now? You have to go now?”

She nodded, putting her shoes on behind Sungyeol. Since Sungyeol couldn’t see her face, she gave a knowing glance and a few face signals to Myungsoo. The ravenette simply shook his head and widened his eyes, signaling, ‘No way!’

“I’ll see you two later!” she cooed. “Bye Soo,” she said, ruffling his hair. “Bye, Yeol,” she added, squeezing him tightly. “See you both at school!”

“Uh, yeah,” Myungsoo replied huskily, huffing through his nose.

Sungyeol stared at him and laughed. “You’re angry again.”

“What? What makes you say that?” he huffed.

Sungyeol just laughed again and stood up, tugging the shorter boy’s hand. “You look like you could blow off some steam.” He pulled him up towards his room, and sat him down on the bed as he picked up his guitar in the corner. He handed the guitar to Myungsoo. “Play me something,” he smiled.

“Like what?”

“Anything. Just play.”

Myungsoo began with a few chords, picking up the pace to complete a tune. They just sat there in silence, listening to the strums echo in the empty air. Sungyeol sat directly across from him, their toes touching as he watched his hands move back and forth across the strings.

“Aha!” Sungyeol said suddenly, pointing at his fingers.

Myungsoo froze where he was, his questioning eyes big and surprised.

“That’s the G-chord, right?” Sungyeol asked excitedly, pointing at his fingers.

Myungsoo just laughed and shook his head. “Nope. You’re way off.”

“What?! But I was so sure that was the right chord.”

“But it’s not.”

“What?”

“Here, let me teach for the twentieth time,” he said, handing him the guitar. Carefully, he placed Sungyeol’s fingers over the correct strings. “See, this is G-chord.”

With a smile, he looked up. But that smile almost vanished when he saw how close Sungyeol’s face was to his. It was just so close. The tips of their noses were nearly touching as they looked into each other’s eyes.

Sungyeol coughed and backed up, looking away. “Um, congratulations, by the way.”

Myungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. “Congratulations? For what?”

“You and IU. You guys are… dating now, right?”

“What makes you think that.”

Sungyeol’s eyes widened. “So, you rejected her?”

“Rejected what? She never confessed to me.”

“Wait, but she told me that was the reason she was here.”

“Well, yeah. She was here for a confession, but not for me.”

“…Can this be explained in simpler words?”

Myungsoo sighed. “IU does not like me like that,” he stated. “She was here because she wanted me to help her confess to the guy she likes.”

“But you like her.”

“…Yeah.”

“Then who does she like? She had an appointment with me at Jeju Island and the way she described the guy she liked made me think of you. It was a pretty spot on description.”

Myungsoo scoffed. “Please, Park Sanghyun is not as nearly as good looking as me… in my opinion,” he added quickly.

“Park Sanghyun? Who’s Park Sanghyun?”

Myungsoo blinked. “Oh, you probably don’t know him by his real name. He’s on the soccer team. He’s… ah, what’s his nickname… Thunder! Thunder. IU likes Thunder.”

“Oh, Thunder! The soccer team MVP? Wow, he’s quite the guy. I didn’t know IU liked guys like that.”

Myungsoo rolled his eyes. “Well, she does, okay?”

“And… what about you?”

“What about me?”

“Do you still like her. Have you gotten over her yet?”

“Well, that depends. What do you think I should do?”

Sungyeol opened his mouth to answer and then closed it. “You’re a love doctor now – you tell me.”

“…You’re useless.”

“Well, you are a love doctor!”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“Either help yourself, or drop by my office sometime,” he winked.

Myungsoo laughed. “You’re impossible sometimes.”

“But you love it! Oh, by the way I was suddenly reminded of why I came here in the first place.” He fished a crumpled piece of paper in his pocket. “I got another note, and I wanted your advice on how to respond with this one.”

“Another one?” Myungsoo murmured under his breath.

Taking the paper from his hands, Myungsoo unfolded it and read it.

Sungyeol, I’ve been watching for a while and I’ve come to make a decision.

I’ll confess face to face.

So meet me tomorrow by the water fountain closest to the boys’ locker room, and I’ll show you who I am.

Until then…

“What should I do, Myung?” he asked warily.

Myungsoo looked up and forced a smile. “You’re a love doctor – you tell me.”

A/N; yes, as you see, the drama shall pick up from here XDDD Sry for lack of updates, I just --

Sunggyu; /taps shoulder/

me; uh... yes?

Gyu; may i speak to the readers?

me; ...sure.

Gyu; thank you.

-- uh, hello everyone. I'm Kim Sunggyu *coughSnuggle-yucough* aka the Love Hospital's leader and I come with ver--, uh, ... semi-important news. We have accepted the following applicants as the Love Hospital 2.0 --

LeeSoojung.LeeHyunwoo.KimKibum.ChoiSungmin

uh, yes, they were the only four applicants and we needed successors to the Love Hospital anyways --and  authornim couldn't decide-- they will play roles throughout the story, but they'll be in the list of side characters for now. if you'd like to see their apps, just... look for them. ... :)

Back to you, authornim.

me; wow, for once A/Ns were civilized. ANYWAYS as I was saying, drama shall be starting to pick up and things shall either go up or down hill for our lovely myungyeol couple! Just... be prepared, alright? If you can't tell, I'm' SLOWLY transitioning you all from extreme fluff and crack to lighter fluff to prepare you all.

BE PREPARED!

ok, bai! :3 Say g'bye Gyu!!

Gyu; ... /wave/

me; now throw a heart! :D

Gyu; ... /le sigh/ <3

me; YAY!

QUINNIE & SNUGGLE-YU

OUT.