My heart beat rapidly and my breath was caught in my throat. The hand that rested on my shoulder sent shivers all over my body. I held onto Sun Hi’s hand tight enough to break it.

“Sehun,” The woman repeated again, this time turning to look over at me a bit.

“Oppa…” Sun Hi trailed off.

○●○●○

Mrs. Lee put her clipboard down on the desk. She went to the other side as I stood near the door, too scared to move. She looked up at me with her lips pressed into a firm line. I didn’t dare meet eyes with her and just kept my head down while standing as straight as possible. A random nurse was the one who had stopped me in the hallway. She told me Mrs. Lee wanted to see me in her office.

Many different possibilities as to why I was in that room flooded my mind. I was afraid that she found out about Sun Hi. What would she do? What would I tell my Mother?

“I have news for you,” She finally spoke.

I looked up, “Yes?”

“You’ll be a bit disappointed while hearing this,” She paused.

Don’t be about Sun Hi, please…

“I’m leaving the hospital.”

I blinked my eyes as I tried to register what she just said. It had nothing to do with Sun Hi but instead, she gave me good news. With her not being around, I could sneak Sun Hi in much more easily.

I tried to hide my excitement as I replied, “Oh, really? Why?”

“This hospital is too far from my home. It’s hard to come and go when I need to. So, I got a job at a clinic close to my house.”

“Ah, I see,” I nodded.

“Yes, well, today’s my last day so I just wanted to say goodbye to you. I already said bye to everybody else and was just about to leave. Continue being good help, Sehun. Also, don’t forget to clean the room up every day!”

I laughed a bit, “Okay. Bye, Mrs. Lee.”

I bowed before walking out of her office, giddy. Trying to hide my excitement, I walked down the hallway and into the room.

“Guess what!” I exclaimed as I entered.

“What?” Everybody said.

“Mrs. Lee is leaving!” I threw my hands up in the air.

“We already know that but it’s great news, right?” Myungsoo spoke.

“It’s amazing news!” I said while walking over to an empty bed and plopping down on it. “She won’t bother me to do work anymore. Oh how I hated that so much.”

“Let’s just hope a fun and cool nurse comes in,” Hoya said.

“Yea,” I sighed happily as I closed my eyes for a bit.

And that was how I found myself in a continuous circle. I would wake up every morning and eat breakfast with my parents before walking to school. I would usually spend my lunch out of school and doing a favour for one of the guys in the hospital. It was Haneul who asked for stuff the most.

Sungjong once asked for me to buy him a new skateboard as I had broken the other one. I didn’t believe it was my fault, though. He always asked me to do tricks for him so the skateboard was bound to break one day. I had to go extra far just to get it for him but it was worth how happy he felt afterwards.

I didn’t have to sneak Sun Hi in anymore since nobody else really minded. I still took her in through the back doors, though, just in case somebody chose to get upset one day. Sun Hi would play with the guys and take a nap when they did.

My Father made it his job to pick Sun Hi and I up from school every day. He would listen to Sun Hi’s story about her day at school and would try to get me to say something as well. But I didn’t.

○●○●○

“Here you go, Son,” The man at the counter said to me. I grabbed the pack of brownies from him and paid him five dollars. Sungyeol had been asking me to get him the pack for a while now and I always failed to remember or I would be too busy doing something else.

So today at lunch, I made sure to go out and buy the brownies he requested. He told me the exact address of the bakery that he liked them from. I was aware that Sungyeol couldn’t eat many sweets but because there was no Mrs. Lee monitoring him regularly, I figured it would be okay. I would give him one a day just to make sure he didn’t take too many.

I looked down at my watch to see that there were still fifteen minutes remaining before lunch ended. I decided to buy myself a pizza slice since I didn’t get a chance to eat before. I ate the slice as I walked back to school.

“My ball!” Someone yelled from behind. I turned around with the pizza slice still in my mouth as I saw a little boy run down the street.

He zoomed past me and caught the rolling soccer ball. He picked it up and hugged it tightly to his chest as he walked back up the street. The boy looked oddly familiar and I couldn’t help but stare at him. I realized he knew because he stared back at me.

“Aren’t you going to eat that?” He asked referring to the pizza slice still in my mouth. I bit off a bit and chewed on it quickly. After I swallowed, I squinted my eyes at the boy to try and remember where I saw him before.

“You’re an odd person,” He said.

I stared at his shining eyes and that’s when it hit me. I remembered who he was: the boy from the bus.

“You!” I exclaimed. “You’re the boy from the bus!”

“Huh?” He was confused.

“Remember that time when I saved your blue bouncy ball which fell under a seat? And then the bus went off without me,” I tried to get him to remember.

“Oh yea!” He jumped up.

I chuckled and patted his head. We talked a bit about that day and he told me that he tried to call for me to come back in the bus but he didn’t know my name. He also said that I could keep the bouncy ball although I had it in my pocket. He told me that it was a very good thing to read when you feel down.

○●○●○

I left the school right after the last bell rang and went to the place where my Father always waited for me. I greeted everybody as I got in the back seat and put Sun Hi’s seatbelt on for her as per usual.

“How was your day?” I asked Sun Hi. She smiled before taking a big breath and telling me what happened from start to end. I listened intently although I did zone out a couple of times.

“What about you, Oppa? How was your day?” Sun Hi asked for the first time.

“Oh so you do care about me, eh?” I tickled her a bit. “It was good.”

“Do you guys want anything to eat?” My Father asked us.

Sun Hi sprang out of her seat and asked for a burger with fries. I didn’t say anything but my Father urged me to give input as well. I said I would take whatever Sun Hi wanted and that was how our trip to the hospital became a bit longer than normal. My Father suggested we sit in the actual fast food restaurant so we got to the hospital thirty minutes later than usual.

The first thing Sungyeol asked me that day was why I was late. He always knew the exact timings that I would come and go and always made sure to ask why I was late or why I didn’t come at all. I didn’t say anything to him but took out the bag of brownies from my bag.

“Surprise.”

“Brownies!” Sungyeol exclaimed as he jumped off his bed and darted towards mine. He grabbed the bag out of my hand and caused me to stumble backwards a bit. Some of my books fell out of my bag but Sungyeol was too mesmerized to notice.

I regained my composure and took the bag out of his hand, “Only one a day, Sungyeol.”

“Just one!?” He exclaimed as if it were the most preposterous thing ever. “I wanted to eat all of them today!”

I sighed, knowing that this would happen, “Well, that’s not good for you. Sorry, Sungyeol.”

I took one brownie out and gave it to Sungyeol before putting the pack back in my bag. I was about to put the books that fell on the floor back in my bag but I noticed that Haneul was already doing so.

“I can do it myself,” I said as I bent down.

“I already got them all,” She said as she stood up. She organized the books into a neat pile and handed them back to me. I ended up dropping a single paper so she bent down to pick it up.

“You got a C on your math test!?” She exclaimed as she held the paper in front of her.

My cheeks turned red and I grabbed the paper from her before stuffing it into my bag. She looked up at me with a shocked expression and asked me how I managed to get such a mark.

“That was one of my better tests,” I muttered. She gasped once she heard that and took out a bunch of books from under her bed.

“Sehun, we need to study,” She said while placing a firm hold on her books. I gave her an odd look and shook my head before walking to the other side of the room.

“Come back,” She cried as she chased after me. “I can tutor you so you’re marks will go up!”

“No, thanks” I shook my hand in the air as I checked to see what Sun Hi was doing. As per usual, she was sitting with Sunggyu and talking to him about her day. Dongwoo would join into their conversation every now and then.

“I want to help you, Sehun,” Haneul said as she put a hand on my shoulder. “You always help me, so let me return the favour.”

I thought about it for a moment. Haneul tutoring me didn’t seem like such a bad idea considering the fact that I wasn’t the smartest student.

“How will I do work, though?”

“You can work and learn at the same time. We’ll make time for you,” Haneul said with a determined look on her face. I raised an eyebrow before sighing and nodding my head.

“Yay! Let’s start now,” She dragged me to her bed. She sat me on the bed that I claimed as mine and sat herself on her own bed which happened to be next to mine.

“Okay, let’s start with math as it seems to be the subject you’re the worst at,” She took out her math book and began teaching me.

She taught as if she was a real teacher and it amazed me how clearly she described everything. She added a couple of not-so-funny jokes in here and there but it only made the whole lesson a bit more enjoyable. We had moved on to the next chapter in the textbook when somebody knocked on the door. We all looked towards the door, surprised that somebody was actually knocking.

“Come in,” Sungjong invited.

The door opened and in came a woman dressed in a white coat and a clipboard in her hand. We all stared at her with curious eyes and she smiled at the room.

“Hello! I’m Choi Miyoung, you’re new nurse.”

I couldn’t help but stare at her. She was much younger than Mrs. Lee and much more interesting. But there was one thing which kept me awe-struck at her and I couldn’t help but admit it: she was pretty.