It was a rainy night, and Byunghee was standing by the window observing the beauty of the rainfall as he waited for the doctor's arrival. It's been 3 days since that faithful night, and the stranger is still unconscious. The doctor has been eagerly visiting the stranger for the past 2 nights, surprising Byunghee everytime he arrives. But this night, Bunghee made sure he was prepared when the doctor arrived; however, the doctor was running late that evening.

Byunghee then found himself going back to memory lane as images of his 11-year-old self dressed in tattered clothes, walking down the street covered in thick snow that snowy night flashed in front of him. His eyes became teary as he recalled how 'Pop', a 55-year old man living in a shabby shack in the outskirts of the city, picked him off the streets and took him home, gave him clothes to keep himself warm, and food. He smiled to himself as he recalled Pop's goodness to him, treating him as his own eventhough he just picked him up off the street; how Pop worked hard to earn money so that they could eat 3 times a day, and how protective and loving Pop was to him. The tear in Byunghee's eyes finally fell as he recalled the smiling image of Pop as he craddle Byunghee's body and tapped him gently as he remind Bunghee 'Everything is just temporary...Everything will be fine boy...So hush now, I'm here.' when he was trying console Byunghee whenever there's no food for a day, or when kids – even adults- bully Byunghee and Pop in the streets as they rummage through trash bins for scrap materials to be sold to the junkshop, or when Byunghee gets too sick due to the spoilt food they ate. Byunghee's tears continued to flow as he recalled Pop's dying moments 6 years ago, still smiling at Byunghee despite his high fever and severe cough, recalling his last words to him: to be strong for himself and to always show kindness despite the world's harshness. Byunghee recalled how he dumbly nodded and smiled at Pop as he listened to his final instructions, before Pop gave out his last breath in that chilly winter evening in their small shack. Byunghee bowed down and shook his head, trying to get off the images of those bittersweet moments of his life.

Look at what you did to me Pop, you're making me look weak making me cry out like this! But I miss you Pop...I miss you... Byunghee thought to himself as he continue to stare at the falling raindrops outside.

All of a sudden, Byunghee's ringtone snapped him out of his thoughts. The doctor informed him that he won't make it that night due to an emergency call at the hospital, and that Byunghee would have to nurse the stranger that night. Of course, Byunhee was pissed for what he's being asked for but he had no choice. He just sighed in frustration as he walked towards his room to prepare the materials for the stranger's sponge bath.

He laid down the materials on the coffee table near the sofa as he settled himself next to the sleeping stranger. Slowly, he ed the stranger's long-sleeved hospital shirt and carefully took the shirt off him, careful not to move the IV line inserted on the strangers left hand. Byunghee got surprised when the the stranger's bare upper body was revealed. He felt a stinging pain in his chest as he scanned the starnger's upper body: the bluish-black patches were so big and too many, one would mistaken him to be dark-skinned if not for several untouched spots that revealed his fair, white skin. On top of that, there were many long, deep red whip marks decorating his upper torso and arms as well. That was the first time Byunghee had a good look at the stranger's condition. Byunghee was familiar with the large bruises on the stranger's left eye and right side of his lips, but he wasn't aware of how bad the stranger's injuries were in the rest of his body. Why? Because usually, he'll just peek and see if the stranger was awake. But now he had no choice but to look at the stranger's whole body.

Carefully, he wiped the stranger's face and body with the wet towel. He wanted to avoid hitting the wounds; but there was just too many whipmarks that they were overlapping with each other, so he just wiped them anyway. After cleaning the body, Byunghee applied iodine on the patient's wounds. By the time he finished the stranger's upper body, the bottle of iodine was already half-empty.

He then worked on the stranger's lower body, and got surprised when he saw larger bruises on his thighs and legs as if he was hit by a paddle several times. At that moment, all of the discomfort that Byunghee felt because of the inconvenience of helping that stranger got replaced by pity and awe.

You did the right thing after all, Byunghee. He thought to himself.

He stood up then went to the washroom for a while to return the materials he used. When he came back to check on the stranger, he got surprised to see the stranger's eyes fluttering open. Out of his excitement, he ran to the stranger's side immediately and watched him make his next move.

The stranger just stared at the ceiling for a while before he started scanning his left and right. When the stranger saw Byunghee, he got startled and tried to move away; but instead he winced and groaned when pain from almost all parts of his body hit him.

“Take it easy, I'm not gonna hurt you....Are you feeling better?” Byunghee tried to sound as calm as possible as he carefully assisted the stranger to lie down again.

The stranger nodded weakly.

“Good...That's good. You have to rest until your wounds get healed, OK?” Byunghee couldn't believe the tone that was coming out of him. He didn't know he could speak like a mother to someone, and to a guy for that matter.

The stranger nodded again slowly and carefully as he eyed Byunghee. Byunghee easily picked up the awkwardness, so he tried to build rapport to the stranger.

“I'm Byunghee. What's your name?”

“...S-s-s-Seung...ho.” the stranger replied, struggling to speak due to his dizziness and dry mouth.

“Seungho?” Byunghee repeated raising his brow, as if he looked pissed at the man's stuttering.

Seungho just nodded weakly to confirm. Byunghee realized how snobbish he looked earlier, so he tried to fix his facial expression to make himself look calm. But in reality, he felt really awkward talking to this stranger who brought him so much inconvenience; but at he same time pitiful towards this man who suffered so much beatings.

“Seungho. Good. I'm glad your finally awake.” Byunghee smiled a bit to ease out the tension between them.

The tension in Seungho's eyes was relieved a bit when he saw Byunghee smile. Byunghee noticed that relief in Seungho that made him less awkward with him as well.

Byunghee noticed Seungho's eyes roaming around his surroundings, probably familiarizing himself. “Oh, you're in my apartment. I found you almost half-dead near a trash bin of a club. You had no identification cards with you, and I...erm....can't send you to a hospital so I took you home and had my friend fix you.”

Seungho eyed Byunghee as he listened carefully to his explanation. A sudden rush of guilt engulfed him, knowing how much of an inconvenience he was to a man he didn't even know. “I'm sorry for being an inconvenience to you. Thank you very much for going out of your way to help me.”

In all his years of existence, it was the first time he experienced someone's heartfelt gratitude towards him; and he liked how it felt. In the hostile and cruel world Byunghee was living in, every man is for his own and showing kindness means showing ones' weakness; and so Byunghee learned to live for himself and for himslef alone. This was the first time he has shown so much kindness to a stranger. If it wasn't for the fact that Byunghee saw himself in Seungho during the time he was struggling out in the cold as a teenager before Pop took him in, he wouldn't have helped him out in the first place. He didn't know saving someone's life will make him feel this good. He was not sure if it was joy or a sense of fulfillment that he felt, but he sure liked it.

Byunghee's trail of thoughts got disrupted when he saw Seungho suddenly sitting up as he winced in pain, removing his IV line from his hands at the same time. Good thing Byunghee was agile enough to hold Seungho's hands down before he was able pull out the IV line completely. “What the heck are you doing?”

“I'll be going now. Thank you for your kindness.” that was all that Seungho said.

“Where are you going then? Do you have a place to stay?”

Seungho didn't speak, but instead he kept his eyes on the ground.

“I thought so. Your injuries are pretty bad, and they're not healed yet. Might as well stay here for the meantime until you get better. I really don't mind.”

“I'll manage. I don't want to be of inconvenie-” Seungho tried to retaliate.

“No, you're not being an inconvenience to me. Stay here for the meantime.” Byunghee lied as he insisted for Seungho to stay. Byunghee barely had enough food for his own, and now he has to feed another one; but he kept it to himself and smiled a bit to make Seungho feel comfortable.Byunghee convinced himself to be kind, despite his training to be selfish and harsh for the past years.

This is how you were brought up by Pop Byunghee...Byunghee thought.

Seungho smiled weakly to Byunghee as Byunghee helped him to lay down. Byunghe was about to go to the kitchen when he heard a faint 'Thank you'. Byunghee looked back at Seungho and found him sleeping already, smiling.