“Sehun! I was wondering if you were going to come today,” Sungyeol exclaimed as I entered the room. I smiled a bit and nodded my head.

After dropping my bag off on the empty bed, I looked around the room awkwardly. A lot of the beds were empty which made me wonder where everybody was. To be specific, Dongwoo, Hoya, Myungsoo and the girl were missing.

Maybe the girl was with Hoya, I thought to myself.

“They’re all gone for therapy.”

“Therapy?” I looked at Sunggyu, a bit shocked.

“Why else would we be here? We need therapy to get better. Use your head, Sehun,” Sunggyu laughed. I broke into a small laugh accompanied by a smile.

“Sehun, I’m glad you’re here on time!” I heard her high-pitched voice as she came inside the room. I groaned in my head but turned around to look at Mrs. Lee anyway. I bowed a bit and walked over to my bag.

“How are you guys feeling?” Mrs. Lee asked the guys. They all said they’re fine and Mrs. Lee noted their responses down.

“Well, I don’t need you for anything right now, Sehun. I’ll call you when it’s time to distribute snacks, alright?”

I nodded my head while she waved her hand cheerfully before exiting.

“She’s sort of weird,” Sungjong pointed out. “Why would you need to write down that we’re feeling well?”

“I know right,” I muttered.

“Oh yea!”  Sungjong stood up and looked under his bed. “I asked my brother to bring this in for us.”

He took out a plain dark blue skateboard. There were shoe marks covering it meaning it had been used a lot.

“Can you show us your skateboarding skills?”

“Uh, sure,” I walked over to Sungjong and took the skateboard out of his hands. After putting my right foot on it, I pushed it back and forth to test it out. It seemed okay enough to ride, so I promised to show them outside.

“Let’s wait for the rest of the guys and then we’ll go outside together,” Sunggyu said. I nodded my head and sat down on the bed with my bag.

“How old are you?” Sungyeol asked. He always seemed to have questions or a remark. I guess I should be grateful that he brought me out of the awkwardness of the room.

“I’m 18.”

“Oho, look at that, you’re younger than all of us,” Sunggyu pointed out. I groaned in frustration as this is what I was trying to avoid. They wouldn’t make me call them hyung, right?

“Yes! I’m not the youngest!” Sungjong exclaimed as he threw his fist in the air. We all laughed at his excitement.

“Well, I’m not too big on the whole respect thing. So, I don’t to call you hyung. You don’t mind, right?” I decided to let them know my intentions first. This way, I could avoid them bringing up the topic before me.

“We do mind, but we can’t stop you from doing what you want. Do as you wish, Sehun,” Sungyeol said as he lay down. “I’m going to sleep for a bit, wake me up when we go outside!”

“Me too,” Sungjong yawned before lying down.

I blinked my eyes at the sleepy pair and then looked at Woohyun who had been asleep the whole time. I found it odd that they were sleepy already. Considering the fact that it was only 3:30 in the afternoon, sleep time was far away.

“I already took a nap today, so I’m well-rested right now. Wana go on a walk around the hospital?” Sunggyu asked me. I nodded my head and stood up.

“Wait, are you sure we can leave them here? I’m supposed to take care of you guys,” I remembered. What would Mrs. Lee say if I left them alone?

Sunggyu chuckled, “Nothing will happen. Let’s go.”

○●○●○

My interaction with the sandwiches seemed to always happen at that hospital. I found myself walking in and out of room giving anybody who wanted a snack, one of the neatly wrapped sandwiches. Mrs. Lee had ordered me to smile as much as possible but I didn’t. Oh Sehun doesn’t smile a lot. Only a bit and you have to make me smile.

“It’s you again!” The elder from last time said as I entered a room full of adults. I bowed slightly and distributed the sandwiches.

“What kind do you have today?” he asked.

But of course he would.

“Turkey and cheese today,” I said as I handed him one. He shook his hand, telling me he didn’t want the sandwich.

“No thank you, I’m not too good with turkey. Vegetables for me!”

I nodded my head and walked out of the room. That Grandpa was strange.

“Sehun!” I heard someone call out. I nearly dropped the extra sandwiches while turning.

“Can I have one?”

“Sure,” I gave on to Myungsoo who smiled enough to show that dimple I noticed last time.

“So where are you going now?” He asked me.

“Back to the kitchen to give them the extra sandwiches.”

“Oh, well I want some chocolate milk, so I’ll come with you,” He said to me as he began walking forward.

“Um, okay.”

I was slightly confused at his sudden friendliness. He seemed to be pretty quiet. Then again, I had only known him for one day. So maybe I was being too quick to judge.

“Thank you, Sehun!”

I nodded my head at the kitchen worker and proceeded to follow Myungsoo to the milk machine.

“Chocolate or normal?” He asked me.

“Uh, chocolate?”

“Okay!”

I watched as the milk carton fell down. Myungsoo reached for it but instead of taking it for himself, he gave it to me. Confused, I stared at him without taking the milk.

“It’s for you.”

“Why would you give me milk for no reason? That’s yours since you came here to buy it.”

“Why wouldn’t I give you the milk? There’s nothing wrong with sharing, right? So here, you get one and I’ll take one,” Myungsoo said as he put another coin into the machine. “Oh, but don’t tell Mrs. Lee I’m drinking milk, I’ll get in trouble.”

“Okay,” I said as if the word was two separate words; oh and kay.

I followed Myungsoo down the main hallway and had to cover him every time a nurse walked by. He said that they had a tendency to tell each other what the patients were up to and news of him drinking chocolate milk would reach his nurse fast. The reason as to why he couldn’t drink chocolate milk was unknown to me but my curiosity grew greater every time I covered Myungsoo or took the milk carton from his hand.

○●○●○

“Aren’t you curious?” Myungsoo asked me as he looked down at the people walking around. We were standing on the terrace of the 3^rd floor soaking in the sun. The heat felt nice and I had to admit, the chocolate milk Myungsoo bought me tasted delicious.

“About what?” I continued to stare forward.

“About what type of therapy I went for and why I had to hide the chocolate milk. Doesn’t that make you the least bit curious?”

“Yea, I guess.”

“I thought you would be sort of freaked out by us,” He looked at me. “We sit in beds all day and do nothing but go for therapy. We can’t eat simple foods sometimes and need medicine after every meal. It’s strange, right?”

I nodded my head, completely agreeing with him. It was true; I did find it very strange.

“But it can’t be helped,” I said as I straightened myself out. “So, I’m perfectly fine with it, I guess.” I shrugged my shoulders before walking off.

○●○●○

“I can’t do anything cool, really,” I said to the seven faces staring at me with shining eyes. They were all sitting on the benches provided and I stood before them holding the blue skateboard in my hand. Sungjong didn’t forget my promise and immediately jumped off his bed when I entered the room. He told me that it was the perfect time and grabbed my hand before bringing me outside.

“Who cares? Just do something,” Dongwoo said with an encouraging look on his face. I nodded my head and thought of a trick I could manage to do without much practise. I decided with a quick and simple jumping off the skateboard and then landing on it again.

“This one’s not very cool,” I warned before starting. I began riding the skateboard and before I knew it, I had jumped and landed back on it.

“Wow,” I heard from my crowd of seven.

“I think I can flip it,” I said as I had gained some confidence.

I managed to do it and after a while, I even started to do tricks I had only practised once or twice.

I had a lot of fun showing the guys my tricks. They seemed astonished at the slightest thing; much different from my friends at school who just aimed to beat me. It was nice not living a competition for once.

I took a playful bow after I did my last trick and laughed with the guys afterwards.

“Ohhh, so Oh Sehun rides skateboards.”

I looked up to see Haneul standing on one of the steps that led to the opening. She had a light sweater on over her hospital clothes and was smiling at me. She seemed amused.

“And he laughs! Wow, you’re quite normal,” She laughed to herself as she walked down the stairs.

“I was always normal,” I muttered. The only thing I could think of at the time was that I never recalled inviting her—especially not if she was going to ridicule me.

“I’m sorry of you took offense to that. I was just kidding, but you were really cool! Can you show us tricks again sometime?”

My opinion of her suddenly changed when she looked up at me with those innocent eyes. Without even knowing it, I nodded my head and agreed to showing them tricks again; just for her.

○●○●○

“Bye Sehun! See you tomorrow! You better come, got it!?” I heard Sungyeol shout as he walked back inside the hospital.

Mrs. Lee came and ruined the fun—as per usual—by taking the guys inside. She said it wasn’t safe for them to stay outside for too long without a jacket on and I was even scolded.

Tch, she’s so annoying.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked to the parking lot to call my Mother. I was prepared to wait about twenty minutes so I took out my earphones to listen to music. But what surprised me was that the silver car was already parked in the parking lot. Not completely trusting my sense, I checked the plate number and was shocked once again to find that the plate number was correct.

I never expected my Mother to come so soon and suddenly felt a bit guilty. She came early just to pick me up and I hadn’t even apologized to her. I took in a deep breath and made up my mind to say sorry for being swayed by the tablet—or the whole idea, actually.

I began walking forward and opened the door to the front seat. I assumed it was okay for me to sit in the front. After settling in, I turned expecting to see my Mother and put a smile on my face.

But her face was not what greeted me. My eyes widened a bit and the smile on my face was immediately wiped off.

“Hello, Sehun.”