Sunggyu inhaled deeply, entertaining himself with clumps of his own breath when the respiration residue exited his mouth and nose. Sitting in a cozy café, a cup of coffee caramel, light meal, and some soft swing songs played in the background was quite a nice kick off in one autumn morning. They even made a sweet heart shape on the surface of his coffee. He did not make it a habit to come to the café often though, because he preferred fresh brewed tea made by himself at home actually. Caffeinated drinks and sweetened products could be ‘deadly’ for him after all. The doctor actually said it was okay to have it once in a while or regularly in really small amount if he preffered. But Sunggyu did not mind really, there was no fondness growing into these taste anyway. Some times though coming to this kind of place was just a form of escapism –if it were even appropriate to be counted as one- of his routines. 

Despite his prefference for tea, he had to admit this place made the coffee very well. The smell was just plain bitter brewed coffee with a string of sweetness at times –not the kind of sweetness which would make gorge rise, but it was just a nice sweet smell. And the tuna sandwich was good too.

This morning, there were only few people he shared the space with. They were chattering calmly as if resembling the atmosphere outside. He liked it, he could enjoy his meals peacefully.

He took a glance at his watch, he still have more than two hours or so before his rehearsal started. And he hoped his second baby white grand piano was alright, due to the cold weather at night, the piano sometimes produced funny sounds –which were off note, of course. That’s why his first baby at home always got regular checks in the morning.

He had everything scheduled –just like every other day- and the brilliant plan for the day would be meeting his doctor at the hospital, going to rehearsal and coming back home. Or maybe he should go for grocery shopping too.

And it would be started with answering the call on his phone –the repetitive vibrations of his phone lying on the table almost ruin the heart shape away.

“What’s up, nut?” he said mockingly since the caller id on the screen said it was just one drunken young entrepreneur he shared the two-story condo with. In Seoul, it was hard to find a nice place with low payment, so paying the rent would be much easier if you shared. Besides, he thought this Sungyeol guy is quite fun.

“Good morning, hyung. Are you awake?”

“No, I’m still sleeping. That’s why I talk to you on the line and having a breakfast at the café two blocks away from our place.” Sunggyu answered solemnly, slurping the caramel coffee. 

“Yeah right, very funny. It would be nicer to say good morning you know.”

“Okay sorry,” the amused expression rolled out in a low laughter. “Good morning, mr. Sungyeol. How are you doing?”

“Fine, thank you. Anyway, I need your help, hyung?”

“Straightforward much this morning, huh? What is it?”

“Could you..umm, could you please come to L’s place and see how he’s doing?”

“Sungyeol, are you on drugs? Look. I don’t mind if you ask me to feed that creepy lizard in your room, really, or-..”

“That is not lizard. He is a chameleon, hyung,” Sungyeol on the other line corrected.

“Yeah whatever. You can ask me anything.. but seeing that guy? You better be kidding.”

“Come on, hyung. Just this once. Last night he called and he did not sound like himself. I know something is off, so can you just check on him?”

“Of course.. not. You know that jerkball and me is not that close. Oh wait, as far as I could recall we can never stay in the same room for more than half an hour without any flipped table or crushed glass, can’t we?”

“You’re exaggerating, hyung. But still, I need your help. He is my best friend just like you. This job made me stuck in Okinawa until Friday, and you’re the only person I can ask for help.”

“Sorry, but I can’t. I’m busy, Yeol. I have check up appointment and rehearsal and . My schedules are packed. I’m afraid I have to pass the opportunity, thanks.”

 “..what if I’m in his position, hyung, you would also worry about me, right?”

Sunggyu just kept silent. Yeah, he and this L guy were never in a good term –no physical violation included though. They always argued with each other over the tiny bit of things. They seemed to try hard just so that they would have different opinion in anything. There were times when Sungyeol said that they were just actually exactly the same, both were stubborn and bull headed. And both would always answer with a screechy ‘No way!’, and that was the only time they agreed with each other. And when Sungyeol got tired of their train of ‘hot discussions’, he would usually silently exited the room and got a bottle of alcohol for himself.

Getting tired of experiencing some hard encounters, Sunggyu propossed a condition to Sungyeol that he was not allowed to bring home -their shared home- his friend namely L under any kind of situation. In the end, Sungyeol just had to agree with that because he expected at least the amount of headache he got would be decreasing excessively.

Sunggyu seemed have no intention to answer so the other guy continued. “Well then if you cannot do this simple thing for me –your friend, your brother, I’ll never..” the sentence trailed off in the end, followed by a silent gust of wind for a moment. “Ugh sorry, hyung. I should’ve known you wouldn’t do it.”

“Yeah you better ask somebody else who actually care. Sorry.”

“My bad, hyung. I just thought it’s okay for brothers to ask each other for help, but I guess they’re true, blood is thicker than water.”

“Wait.. what?!” Sunggyu exhaled audibly. He smelled something fishy with his roommate’s utterance.

“Sorry for bothering you, hyung. I should’ve known my boundary as just someone you share the house with, and forcing you –my brother- to do things you despise is bad..”

“Wait-..“

“.. I’ll just go see him myself when I come back and spend my days here in frustration and worried. I just hope that I can still concentrate in finishing my job. You know hyung when I stressed, I can neither sleep nor eat..”

“Hey, nuthead-..”

“..God, I’ll need an appointment for health check up later. Oh, last month the doctor warned me about having high blood pressure. But never mind, I’m just your roommate, it’s not like we’re having relation by blood. I’ll manage, I did anything all alone before, anyway.”

Sunggyu had agreed to refrain his statement about Sungyeol being fun to befriend. And revised it with something like ‘this Sungyeol guy is annoying, manipulative, a form of pain in the and after all not really innocent for the fact he was –once again- manipulative . “Would you just shut up, Sungyeol?” he said almost choked his own words. “I got it, okay. I’ll go check on him when I finish with everything.”

“Really? Tha-..”

“However.. if he closes the door on me or implies any kind of jackassiness. I swear I will call the mental hospital to knock down his door, saying he was an acute psychotic. Let them bind him up with a huge rope, and roll his onto the isolated room. And me, I won’t even give it a glance.”

“Okay, okay.” Sunggyu could heard clearly that Sungyeol was actually laughing his off. “You’re the best, hyung.”

“I know.”

“Good luck for the check-up.. and the rehearsal.”

“Hm..”

“Gotta go. Don’t miss me.”

“Get lost.”

He let out a small puff of air then gulping one last sip of his drink. He tried to calm down and chose not to pollute the atmosphere with his sudden somber mood. He took another glance on his watch, taking out his wallet, he paid for the meals.

He had to take a short walk to the main street because the café was located not exactly on the road side. He pulled his coat a bit tighter and managed to set his earplugs choosing a song from the playlists labeled ‘favourites’.

Right after the first song ended, he already stood at the bus stop nearby and hailed a cab to go to the hospital.

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“Beautiful day it is, nurse Lee.” Sunggyu greeted the nurse who was being an onlooker of Seoul through the wide glass windows.

“Yes, dear, seems like no chance of rain today. They say Korea is most beautiful in autumn, guess they are right.” She his heels and continued walking to, most probably, the filing section because she brought a pile of folders in her hands. Sunggyu followed right after.

“The wind gets vicious at evening though. Make sure you keep yourself warm,” she said to him.

“Sure. How considerate of you, nurse Lee. I wonder, do you perhaps have any special feeling for me?”

“I guess it’s just normal thing to give special care for the handsomest patient of this unit. Most of the people coming here are old men and you know, having this bay window thing.” Both of them laughed, loud enough to gather some attention from the people on the hallway. They, then, almost identically covering their mouth to suppress the laughter. “Is everything alright? You just came here yesterday, so next check up should be on the day after tomorrow I suppose.”

“Oh no worry. It’s just that dr. Kim wants to talk about few things but not directly regarded to my condition he said. I wonder.”

“Probably it’s about dr. Kim junior.”

“dr. Kim junior?”

“Yes, I heard dr. Kim will be off to Japan for a month or two, so his son would take over some patients under his supervision.” Sunggyu nodded slightly to the nurse’s explanation, while the nurse continued. “First meeting, I thought he was a girl, so beautiful and fresh. That would make my days in this hospital better.”

Sunggyu giggled at the last statement and decided to play along. “Are you just dumping me? I’m jealous now, nurse Lee.” The said nurse elbowed him on the rib –softly. Sunggyu just laughed.

“But I’ve never heard of or met him before.”

“Oh, you soon will, sweetheart.”

The doorway to dr. Kim room was on their right side.

After bowing to the nurse, Sunggyu knocked on the door and immediately welcomed with an echoing ‘come on in’ in a low timbre, that kind of typical voice of a wise father often portrayed in the movies.

“Good morning, dr. Kim.” Sunggyu greeted, closing the door behind him.

“Good morning, Sunggyu. Have a seat please,” dr Kim said from his seat behind the desk.

Sunggyu nodded and took a seat at one of the empty couches.

The said doctor dialed some numbers on his phone and soon a sentence rolled of his mouth. “Can you come to my office, dr. Myungsoo? Sunggyu is here.”