“You call this food?” Kibum sighed, looking at the plate in front of him with various dull items that were apparently tonight’s ‘meal.’

“It looks more like table scraps you’d give to your cat,” I joked, chuckling to myself before hesitating to take a bite. It didn’t taste like much of anything since it was unsalted.

We both ate in silence in our beds, our bedside tables pulled up to our stomachs as we guzzled down the bland food. It was the early afternoon and, frankly, I was already getting bored of the hospital room. Kibum and I had been talking, but the lack of change in scenery starts to get to your head.

“I think I’m beginning to become stir crazy,” I finally said, pushing my table away as the nurse came in to check on us.

“Me too,” Kibum whined, looking at the nurse who was taking our plates away. She ignored us, leaving the room.

“Yah!” I called after her, but she was already out of hearing. “Well now what are we supposed to do?”

“We could always just cry,” Kibum offered, a smile spreading across his face.

“Maybe you could, but I’m a man Kibum. I make people cry, not the other way around.”

“Okay, Choi. Calm down Mr. Invincible,” he teased.

We had talked a lot that morning. Kibum still wasn’t completely convinced I was an Olympian, but he knew I thirsted to always win and wouldn’t settle for anything but first. I, however, had learned a great deal about Kibum: he was a biker, he worked in an ordinary office, stuck in a cubicle all day, and he knew how to speak English quite well even though he said he was bad at it.

A woman popped her head into our room, smiling a large smile before fully entering. She was dressed in fitted nurse’s scrubs, a box propped under her arm.

“Would you boys be interested in some games?” she chirped.

We both stared at her, silent. She had never come in our room before and the fact that she came in just offering us games was...strange.

“Oh, excuse me. Let me introduce myself. I’m Tiffany. I will be your other nurse besides Sehun. He’s a grump, but don’t tell him I told you,” she giggled in a girlish laugh.

“He is pretty morose,” I muttered.

“I heard about your ‘walk’ you were going to take. Your surgery will be later today.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Kibum quickly asked, entering the conversation.

Tiffany faced him, her smile fading a bit, before she recomposed herself.

“Nothing major, Kibum. We just have to reconstruct some of his knee so he won’t be in pain for ages and so he can hopefully walk again-”

“What do you mean ‘hopefully walk again?!’” I exclaimed, interrupting her. “Does that mean I won’t be able to walk again?”

“Well anything is possible, but the surgery is the tell all, Minho. Now, as I was saying before, would you boys like to play some games? I’m sure you aren’t very interested in Candyland...I have cards, Uno, Sorry,” she said, listing as she sifted through the box.

I looked over at Kibum and saw a blank expression on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was unamused by the gesture or just didn’t like any of the games she listed. I looked back at Tiffany who had finished listing various games and thought a moment.

“Cards,” I said.

She handing me the deck of cards, smiling once more before leaving the room. I looked over at Kibum who was sitting there with his eyes wide.

“What?” I asked, taking the cards out of the box and beginning to shuffle them.

“I...I’ve never played cards,” he stammered, looking down.

“How have you never played cards?”

“I was raised in an orphanage and they never had the money to buy us lots of things.”

“Oh,” I mouthed, feeling a bit awkward that I had grabbed the cards. “Don’t worry. It’s really easy to learn to play all sorts of games. Here why don’t we start with a classic, alright?”

“Okay,” Kibum agreed, carefully getting up to sit by my bed, careful not to pull any of the countless cords attached to his body.

I noticed for the first time how slim he was. He looked frail, the bandages making his head appear too large for the rest of his body. Even his cheeks seemed hollow. I felt like he needed someone in his life to take care of him, seemingly a someone he had never had. I shook the thought from my head, dealing out the cards to play Go Fish.

I explained how the game was played, asking him if he had the card I was looking for and showing him what to do when he said ‘go fish.’ At first he was hesitant, unsure if he was playing the game right. Soon, however, he got into the groove of the game and I even saw a smile play of his lips as he began to stack up pairs of matched cards.

“I won!” he finally exclaimed, counting out more pairs than me after our lord-knows-how-many-rounds of Go Fish. It almost felt like we had been in a blissful dream, not needing to keep track of things.

“You did! Isn’t this fun?”

“It is! Ah, Minho, you are the best.”

“No I’m not Kibum. I could’ve shown you way more fun games, but I stuck with a simple one.”

“You know more games?” he questioned, his eyes growing wide. “Show me, show me, show me!”

“Sure thin-” I began to say, when Sehun, Tiffany, and Kyungsoo entered the room. I closed my mouth, placing the cards aside.

“It’s time,” Sehun said coldly.

I looked at Kibum who took my hand and squeezed it, whispering, “It’ll be okay.”

I looked back at the staff and watched as the began to mobilize me. Was this really happening?

A/N: Sorry I've been neglecting this fic;; I got busy with work, but I hope you enjoyed this little snip~ What do you think of poor Kibum never playing cards before? And how do you think Minho's surgery will go? Please comment and subscribe ~~^^