“Are you in the shower?” he wondered out loud and headed to the common washroom. But he still wasn’t rewarded with an answer.

To try his luck, he opened the washroom’s door by pushing it and shyly peeked in. And his world fell apart.

There; on the washroom floor, he found his mom’s form sprawled, unconscious. The faucet was on and the water was overflowing from the washbasin, wetting the usually dry floor. Running to his mom on impulse, he kneeled on the floor and took her head in his hands. His mom’s hair and face were wet; by sweat or by water, he didn’t know. And he panicked even more.

Gathering his mom in his arms, with quick yet careful steps, he carried her out of the washroom and to the living room and the nearest couch bridal style. Placing her gently, he picked his pace and sprinted to the telephone and called for the ambulance.

The paramedics arriving at his flat, him sobbing continuously, him getting in the ambulance after his mom was put in it and reaching the same hospital he had just left not long ago to get to his home; was all hazy and a blur to him.

He was a mess. A sobbing, broken down mess.

And witnessing the beeping of the machines and the sight of the sharp needles being inserted into his mom’s delicate hand and arms weren’t doing a job of comforting him. He couldn’t bear it. He absolutely couldn’t. And his knees gave up on him as he crashed on the floor outside the E.R.

Hours later, he was informed about his mom’s condition.

“She has been fighting cervical cancer.” The doctor attending to her informed him after he was called to his cabin.

“And I suppose you already know that her cancer has developed to the last stage, stage three. What happened today….was an indication of getting yourself prepared.” he continued as he rested his arms on the table and curled his fingers around each other professionally.

Sungmin felt the room spin and the floor slip off his feet. His mom has…

“M..my umma—” he took a deep breath, “my umm..umma has… c-cancer?” his voice was barely heard.

“So you did not know about her condition?” the doctor asked in shock; though he tried to hide it, he couldn’t. His voice and frown gave it off.

“No. You must be mistaking it. My mom… she’s absolutely healthy. There’s no way she might be suffering from something like this.” Sungmin retorted.

“I’m afraid you’re wrong dear. We even have her lab reports with us. Her PAP test also proves it. She had been diagnosed with cervical cancer three months back.” The doctor apologetically said as he slid the medical reports to the boy across him.

“No! This is not her! This can’t be her!” Sungmin protested. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to face this. He wasn’t ready to believe anything the doctor or the medical reports were saying and showing to him. All he wanted to believe was his own heart that was beating hard in his ribcage, screaming and praying for it all to be a lie or at least a nightmare.

“You have to calm down. I guess she kept this from you to protect you. Maybe she knew you’d breakdown upon coming across this.” the doctor got off his chair and neared the sobbing boy seated on one of the visitor’s chairs.

“She…she…she never showed an-any signs of being il-ill. N-not e-ven one..once.” he managed to say between the stutters and hiccups.

“Your umma must be a very strong woman. She endured it all this while without letting her pain show. You have to be strong as well. She needs you. Her family history says she is a single mother and she has no one else but you.” the doctor smoothened the younger’s hair as he pat his head gently.

“How long?” Sungmin managed to calm himself down a little. His voice was very low but the doctor heard him due to the silence in his cabin.

Pausing a little, the doctor finally gave him the answer the boy was afraid of, “A month or two more. That’s what we predict.” And tears were back in the younger’s eyes as a low whimper escaped his lips.

………………………………………………………………….

That night, Sungmin decided to support his mom by being strong emotionally —in front of her at the very least.

His mom was still unconscious. Hence he stayed with her. He had brought all his necessities to the hospital so that he could spend time with her and take care of her and attend his training as well.

And so, he put up a fake smile on his lips and left for the inpatient pharmacy when the morning arrived.

“I hope you’ll prepare appropriately for the evaluation scheduled tomorrow at the very least, intern Sungmin.” was the first thing he heard as a morning greeting from his preceptor.

“Good morning, Doctor Kyuhyun.” he faked a small smile. The smile was polite, but definitely not the usual one that used to reach the boy’s eyes; the eyes taking perfect shape of beautiful crescents. And Kyuhyun noticed this. And he felt good about it. Again.

He couldn’t really point out why, but somehow, he had started liking the nervousness in the boy when around him. He felt the satisfaction. The satisfaction of having an impact; a strong effect on the younger one.

Getting a hold of his thoughts as he felt Sungmin standing next to him, he once again started ordering his intern around but also kept the said boy as closer to himself as possible.

And another day of torture called Doctor Kyuhyun began for the intern.

………………………………………………………………….

The break had become the most awaited time for Siwon. Today, he was fidgety, way more fidgety than he had ever been. He wa