Kyungsoo sits in the decaying lawn of the Kim household on a plastic chair that creaks with every shift of his body. The municipal judging committee is already present with tape recorders and an old video camera pointed at an empty chair.

The oldest Kim sibling trudges to the empty chair with the help of a cane. Too thin and too pale, he sighs in relief when he sits on the cushioned plastic chair and smiles at everyone present. Kyungsoo can see a glimmer of hope in the myriad of death in that smile.

"Please state your name and age."

The boy takes a deep breath, nervously wringing his hands before he puts them down by his side. "My name is Kim Minseok and I'm twenty four years old."

The questions drag on. Kyungsoo notes that Minseok looks weaker and wearier as he spends more time outside. He tries to send a reassuring look but Minseok doesn't catch his gaze.

Minseok looks straight at the camera. "If I had gotten a bone marrow transplant when the doctor detected leukemia, I would have had a ninety percent chance of survival."

Kyungsoo suddenly wants to vomit. Minseok looks straight at the camera.







"Don't light that thing," Minseok chastises, scrunching his nose in disgust at the cigarette in Kyungsoo's hand. "That's why I'm dying."

And though he knows Minseok doesn't want him to take the remark to heart, that the remark was meant to be more lighthearted, the cigarette suddenly tastes foul in his mouth so he spits it out and stomps it into the ground, making sure it disintegrates completely. The autumn air is cold and the only reason they are outside is because Minseok insisted he was well enough.

Kyungsoo has been working on Kim Minseok's case for half a year now and to say they've made progress is a severe understatement. He's only been running around in circles trying to find Minseok enough money to get a bone marrow transplant so late in his development. If it keeps dragging on like this, Minseok really will die.

The entire ordeal just makes him furious. Minseok doesn't deserve to die, doesn't deserve a single piece of the relentless pain that comes with leukemia. It's all so ing stupidthat Minseok is dying and he can't get a single penny from the insurance company to cover the transplant costs. The place is filthy rich and the executives can line their pockets with gold but they somehow can't spare enough money to settle the operation.

And he's not supposed to get involved like this as a lawyer, he's not supposed to let his personal emotions get in the way of his rational judgement, but what rationality is there when everything is so unfair.

"Don't think too hard, Kyungsoo. You might burn yourself out," Minseok says so calmly as if it were any other autumn day and they were boys in high school, laughing about exams or something more trivial. Minseok leans back on the deck, turning to look at the fall leaves spiraling down from the trees. Time stills, but Kyungsoo can't seem to reach far enough and hold onto the moment.

Minseok places a shy kiss on his cheek. Kyungsoo pulls out the five handkerchiefs he keeps on hand and tips Minseok's head back to stop the nosebleed.

Kyungsoo doesn't know when this will end.








Kyungsoo hates watching Minseok waste away. It's like watching a lotus bloom where Minseok shines brightly in the light; he appears from the dark with a smile and crinkling eyes and a personality Kyungsoo's not allowed to get attached to as a lawyer but he's too far gone. But Minseok withers away at the end of the day as the light disappears, petals falling into the water and bloom shrinking back into the mud.

And in the end, there's nothing Kyungsoo can do because it's already too late. A year later and he's not getting the money before Minseok dies and it's not like it'd help him now anyway. Minseok is too far gone as well.

"Kyung…" Minseok breathes, sweating profusely while lying motionless on the tattered bed in a decrepit house. The IV stand is just a meter away, presiding over the room like Death.

Minseok weakly reaches out to the lawyer and pulls him close, enough to press a kiss to his lips and smile in a way that has his guts wrenching and his heart twisting itself in knots because he doesn't want to live without Minseok. So he presses his lips back with more force than Minseok could handle to make sure that he never forgets the way Minseok's chapped lips feel against his, that he'd always have fresh in his mind the healthy Minseok, of the planes of his smooth body, that every inch of Minseok would be committed to memory that he'd lock away in the smallest part of his heart.

They pull away breathless, but Kyungsoo thinks that maybe it's okay this time. It's a small thrill that adds to his monotonous life as a lawyer. He won't be able to experience it soon.

Before he knows it, the tears are beginning to fall and he can't stop them, but he doesn't wipe them away because it's his own proper retribution for not trying hard enough on his very first case. If he's going to cry, he's not going to hide it.

Death is still looms in the corner.

"Y-You'll stay with me… won't you?"

Kyungsoo knows that Minseok can't find solace within himself, so searches for it in the comfort of their intertwined hands.

"Until the end, Minseok."

A/N: this is one of my favorite things I've written so far >< i love sad things so much it's weird, but i figured that xiusoo somehow worked for this plotline ^^  938 words overall. once again, based on The Rainmaker, the movie. there's a book i believe? not quite sure... anyway, let me know what you think and thanks for reading! ^^ <333