It was supposed to be the last week of the third month as an intern in SNU hospital for Sungmin. And needless to say that it was the last week of Kyuhyun as being Sungmin’s preceptor since his deal with the Chief pharmacist a.k.a. Doctor Lee was just till the third month two months back from now. But the incident that the intern had gotten involved in had caused the latter to miss out two whole weeks of his training in the outpatient pharmacy under Kyuhyun’s guidance and this led to an excuse for the latter to present his chief with another proposition.

Well, Kyuhyun was a clever and intelligent pharmacist for a reason after all.

Clearing his throat deeply, the tall pharmacist knocked on the Chief’s cabin twice before a faint “Come in.” was heard from inside as a response from Doctor Lee Soo Man.

He casually entered the cabin and took a seat on one of the two visitor chairs placed across the office table where the older was currently occupying his own leather office chair.

The older looked up from his stack of papers he was working on and adjusted his spectacles as he looked at his favourite pharmacist with a gentle smile. “Kyuhyun-ah, what can I do for you, my son?” the smile had lingered as he spoke.

“Doctor Lee, this is about the pharmacy intern I’m currently training under me for the past two to three months now.”

“You mean the boy whose mother had passed away due to cervical cancer?” Kyuhyun responded with a small nod. “The one who you dashed in with two weeks back looking all berserk and anxious?” the older clarified. Kyuhyun got slightly embarrassed as he realized the older was kind of teasing him when he spoke that line of his clarification. But he nodded nevertheless.

“His name is Lee Sungmin.”

“Yes. I know that boy. A very cute and kind one he is.” He looked at Kyuhyun’s changing expression and laughed. “But you don’t have to worry about me hitting on him. I’m not a e so don’t get jealous.” He gave out a hearty laugh and his laughter doubled upon seeing Kyuhyun’s blushing, embarrassed face. “You have changed!” he continued but his laughter subsided. “You are emotionally growing up now, finally.

By the way, isn’t it the last week of you training that boy as an intern? I remember awarding you with 2 months extension back then so I assume it is near time he gets a new preceptor now.” he was now gently observing the young man in front of him whose expression had changed to a new level of panic.

“I came to talk to you about that matter as a matter of fact.” came Kyuhyun’s reply to him. He had managed to veil his panic of transferring Sungmin to a new preceptor.

“Actually, I have been thinking of wanting to talk to you regarding that matter as well but I’ll let you finish your talk first. Carry on.” Doctor Lee professionally told.

“He missed two weeks of his training under me due to those injuries and this makes his attendance as well as his evaluation incomplete. These two issues will be problematic and unfair to him for his graduation as his certificates will be affected highly. He has potential but if I just give him fake attendance and fake remarks for his non-existent evaluation; that will be against my principles and ethics. So, I was wondering if you could extend his internship under me for the next month as well.” He finished. Well, he was smooth about the whole matter because he had practiced the whole thing alone earlier in his bathroom in front of his huge mirror.

He had also practiced it back in his own cabin the first thing he arrived.

“You know, you didn’t really need to tell that much. A simple, ‘I have a big crush on my intern and I can’t handle him training under any other pharmacist who might possibly hit on him so I demand you to keep him tied to me for the rest of his whole training span as an intern and I’ll gladly train him with all my heart and love and bring another capable pharmacist out to the ground and health field of South Korea.’ would have done the work.” Doctor Lee chuckled and added, “You should know, Hyukjae tells me almost everything concerning you.” when he noticed the colour leaving Kyuhyun’s face as an impact of his words.

Bastard… Kyuhyun had started cursing his best friend with all the profanities he’d ever known in his mind.

“Ahem.” he cleared his throat for the second time that morning. “Anyways, I would like to hear your opinion about my proposal.” Kyuhyun tried to maintain his professional poise.

“Oh my boy, it’s clear.” Another set of laughter escaped the Chief’s mouth. “I was actually working on that matter. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I have been trying to talk to the head and fortunately, he has agreed to my proposal.” He released a wide smile. “The boy will be training under you for the next six months.”

The smile on Kyuhyun’s face was begging to be released. And he had complied to the request nevertheless.

Who am I kidding? He couldn’t control that wide grin on his face himself.

He excitedly shot off the chair he was occupying, rounded the table, went and stood in front of the older man who had swirled his chair to face the man next to him, leapt forward and crushed the older male in his tight hug of gratitude and excitement.

“Thank you! Thank you so much, uncle!” Oh boy, his excitement was beyond those gestures and that excited tone of his.

“Anytime my boy, anytime.” And the older male returned him back with the similar tightness of the hug as a soft smile adorned his lips.

You are finally showing your emotions, my child. The older kept his thought to himself though.

………………………………………………………………….

Sungmin managed to carry his tray in his hands while dragging his left leg all the way to an empty table somewhere in the middle of a filled staff cafeteria. Donghae happily followed him from behind as Hyukjae ran to one of the chairs and pulled a chair out for the happy brunette to plop on.

Actually, both Donghae and Hyukjae had offered to help Sungmin out but the latter had replied with a straight out, “No” to it. He was really fed up of being treated as some fragile princess, especially after the constant similar treatment from both his suitors.

He settled on the blue coloured plastic chair after placing his tray of food on the table. He eyed the huge heap of rice on his plate and the curry bowl accompanying it and he nearly drooled at the sight of the food. There was cabbage and radish kimchi as the side dishes and Donghae had effectively helped him pick out a dessert which was a blueberry cheesecake with chocolate syrup on top.

Did you forget he was a foodoholic?

Without wasting any more time, he started digging in and by the time both Siwon and Kyuhyun came running into the cafeteria —they both had clashed yet again when they met each other in the elevator and were now on a race to reach Sungmin first, professionally, if I may add— and hurried to the second shortest male on that table. Kyuhyun was beat to grab a seat next to Sungmin as Siwon’s longer legs had helped the latter to move faster and grab the last empty chair around that table which was next to Sungmin on his right.

Siwon threw a smirk at Kyuhyun upon his mini victory and the flaring of fire in the pharmacist’s eyes had not gone unnoticed by him.

Moving two steps back, Kyuhyun grabbed a chair from another table without even giving a look to it and dragged it to the other side of Sungmin which was the left side actually. Oh, a poor staff fell on his when that happened because Kyuhyun had actually grabbed the chair the former was supposed to place his half sitting bottom on.

Kyuhyun threw his own trademark smirk at Siwon as he completely settled on the stolen chair.

No, Sungmin didn’t pay any heed to either of them. He was too occupied with his delicious food to even notice their presence.

When the two noticed their love interest devouring his food like a hungry, starving beggar; they both had an immediate softening of gaze and the action was found as cute by them both.

A few rice grains were stuck to the shorter boy’s either sides of the lips but he was ignorant of it. He kept devouring the rice hungrily and Kyuhyun couldn’t help but have his gaze fixated on the rice on the left side of Sungmin’s lips. Without thinking twice, he leant forward and down a bit and captured the grain between his lips. That’s when Sungmin realized what had happened and he looked at the pharmacist with a deep shade of pink decorated on his cheeks while the bewilderment was clearly apparent on his face.

He felt his face being tilted to his right and no sooner, Siwon did the same to the grain on Sungmin’s left side of his lips.

Sungmin was beyond flabbergasted.

Hell, this was an indirect kiss by the two to him! And it was in public!

But honestly, almost everyone in the cafeteria was busy feeding their hungry stomachs or gossiping with their peers and colleagues. Nobody really paid any heed to whatever was going on around them.

Nevertheless, Sungmin pretended to ignore the two and resumed to eat his food, careful of not getting any grain on his face again. But, to his bad luck or most probably, his clumsy eating habits, the grains settled on the sides of his lips once again. This time, both the males attacked the grains at the same time and the moment t