It’s been a 48-hour shift due to staff on sick leaves, and Kibum was very, very tired. Tired was actually an understatement, he was ready to pass out anywhere.

But as next in line for head nurse, he couldn’t let people see his flaws. So instead of sinking into a bed, he continued to make patient rounds and monitored the nurses in their stations. He was just about to finish checking up on a patient’s IV line and heart monitor when a nurse came in.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Sir!” the nurse whispered, her face frustrated. “I forgot to fill in the patient record when I checked him a while ago and I…”

Kibum gave her a smile instead and waved her off. “Go on to your other rounds, I’ll fill in the report here before I leave.”

The nurse smiled at him as if he was a hero and bowed before going her way. Sighing, Kibum checked one last time if any of the tubes had kinks and trudged tiredly to pick up the patient record.

God, he was so sleepy. He could feel the slow, syrupy molassess of exhaustion creeping into his bones, and his eyes were beginning to droop. His fingers were so heavy and his knees were starting to shake a bit. Swallowing and huffing to shake himself awake, Kibum tried to read the patient record.

This was a recovering patient who was moved from the ICU, a week after his operation to his brain. Kibum stared at Minho’s signature lining the bottom. Of course, he’d be the one signing off the record, he was the only neurosurgeon in this hospital. Seeing Minho’s clean signature made Kibum think of the arrogant doctor.

Three days ago, Minho cornered him in the elevator again and asked if he was interested about dinner and Kibum said no. But he ended up eating with the doctor anyway when his dinnermates surprisingly failed to show up in a restaurant they reserved. And Minho was there out of pure coincidence (he said). And then, when they were about to part ways in the hospital, Minho pulled him towards an emergency exit, slammed him against a wall and kissed him. It caught Kibum off guard, and before he could push Minho away the doctor was gone, leaving him in a stupor as he ran his tongue over his lips.

Kibum hadn’t seen Minho since then, and he was both angry and frustrated. He couldn’t believe Minho seemed to have run away after violating someone! Well, it’s true that Kibum preferred that they don’t see each other, since it’d be super awkward, but somehow, not seeing the doctor around and not being the of his harrassment made Kibum kind of annoyed.

“Stupid guy,” Kibum muttered as he wrote values for the patient’s vital signs. Because of the kiss, Kibum couldn’t think about anyone but Minho for the past few days. His back still felt the slight pain when he was slammed against the wall. But more importantly, his lips still felt the vigor and control and inexplicable softness Minho’s lips had. The guy was an but he could really kiss.

“Nope, he’s a bastard,” Kibum muttered again, as if trying to shake the thoughts of the kiss off his head. But his mind betrayed him as memories of how his face was held by a gentle hand and how another hand crept to his back to carress away the pain and how Minho was whispering things he couldn’t remember against his mouth.

Kibum flinched and realized he was already half-dreaming. Dreaming about Minho to be exact. Rubbing his face, he started writing on the record again. Okay, so maybe he was attracted to Minho’s relentless advances and possessiveness and wonderful body just a tiny, microscopic bit. Or okay, bigger than microscopic. It wasn’t as if he was head over heels okay!

But he would probably like to kiss Minho again. Just to be sure and all.

“Kibum?” a voice called from the door, and Kibum jumped, almost tearing the record he was writing on. Minho was standing by the door, watching him with a concerned look. Suddenly, Kibum was overly conscious of the dark circles under his eyes or the state of his uniform.

“Oh, I was just finishing…”

“Have you slept?” Minho asked as he moved towards Kibum and tipped his chin up with gentle fingers. “You look really pale…”

Kibum turned his head away from the really nice fingers. “I’m fine. I’m taking a break after this.” He hurriedly scribbled his signature on the record and snapped it shut before handing it to the doctor. “Here you go, I’m off to rest.”

“Wait a bit,” Minho said as Kibum turned to leave. When Kibum sighed and turned around, expectant, Minho shook his head and smiled gently. “Never mind. You’re exhausted. We’ll talk later after you get some sleep.”

Kibum wanted to hear more, to discuss more about this relationship they’re building against his will. But he was just too tired to deal with anything. Shrugging, he slipped out of the room to find the nearest station he could sleep in.

Minho clicked his tongue and followed Kibum’s retreating back before turning to the patient. After checking and making sure everything was stable, he opened the folder to write his own updates. Kibum was sleepy and might’ve made mistakes, and he had to correct those to make sure the nurse wouldn’t be reprimanded.

Everything was okay and proper until he got to the last part, where he first placed his signature before. He read something written beside it for a moment before bursting into laughter, belatedly realizing that he was with an unconscious patient and he shouldn’t be laughing his head off in a patient’s room.

Minho thought for a while, reading the line over and over again. The patient record cannot be replaced in it and all mistakes in it were supposed to be corrected and signed for. Minho wondered how he could correct such a thing, especially if it didn’t seem to be a mistake. Hiding a smile, Minho enclosed the line in parentheses and affixed his signature. Surely, it’d create a big scandal, but Minho couldn’t really be bothered by that at the moment. Right now he was bent on finding Kibum and taking him home.

He closed the folder and silently anticipated what the next nurse on duty would think. After all, it was a very unKibum-like blunder. Minho didn’t understand why, it must be from extreme sleepiness or Kibum was just being very flirty, but right beside Minho’s name at the bottom of the paper, Kibum had written a confession.


I would very much like to kiss this man again.

Kim Kibum