A sort of prequel for one of my previous fics 'Say Something'. If you have read that one then you'd know that there's no happy ending for RS here. So. You've been warned? Warnings: a couple of swear words, our darling Hyesungie here is not very soft-spoken, please pardon him. Fake fluffy interactions, because I'm evil like that. Er... Enjoy?

Time—if only he could stop them. Slowing down the seconds which were passing by without discriminating anyone, might it be men or women, old or young, rich or poor—because time never waited for anyone. It was always fair regardless to whom it ticked for, at the same speed for everyone. Perhaps, he thought, the time was too fair that it was so unfair—a contradicting injustice within itself. Glancing at the ticking clock hanging on the wall, he prayed that time would be just a little bit kinder to him, prolonging his happiness just a little bit more—because humans lived in a borrowed time, and every single one would return back to dust one day. Even so, he pondered, how could the allocated time in this world be so different for each person? Wasn’t it unfair for time to pass every single person by at the same speed even though some might have shorter period to spend in this world compared to the others? Because for him that day of return seemed to come creeping closer and closer, too much faster than he would like it to be.

He sighed, sitting on a wheelchair next to a small window, admiring the view beyond the glass panels. It was at the end of winter when he was first admitted to the hospital, and now spring was in full bloom. The colorful flowers planted in the hospital’s garden were blossoming—he liked them, and they cheered him up from his foul mood although only for a bit. In his previous springs, he used to pick some of the flowers he grew carefully in his garden and put them into a beautiful flower arrangement. He wouldn’t pick them all, because cut flowers wouldn’t last as long as the ones in growing on the soil, but he liked having a few of them decorating his house. It wasn’t a usual hobby for a man, he admitted, but he always enjoyed it so he didn’t care. His lover would sometimes for being somewhat feminine, but he knew that the guy was just kidding—and that his lover knew that he could kick his anytime with no problem at all in the past.

In the past.

Sadly, that was the keyword.

Nowadays he was too weak to be able to get up from the bed by himself, let alone practicing his taekwondo moves. The catheter inserted into his chest—injecting drugs that made him feel sick and his hair fall down into his veins—was making him uncomfortable. He had this urge to scratch his skin under the dressing—even better, taking it off and throwing it somewhere far away—but he was instructed not to move too much. He had to comply so just that the nurse would let him sit and watch the garden outside, instead of forcing him to lie on his bed staring at the artificially white and gloomy ceiling motionlessly. He was waiting for someone, and he was getting impatient—having something else other than the ceiling to look at helped relieving his boredom.

A familiar sound that he had been waiting for came from the direction of the door, heavy footsteps thudding to come closer. It stopped for a few seconds, only to be changed with a rustling noise. He didn’t know what it was for, but the footsteps then continued before ending just behind his wheelchair. The sound of a man’s steady breath calmed him down, causing him to forget about the uncomfortable itch on his chest. Without saying a word, a pair of long, strong arms wrapped around him carefully, enveloping him in a cautious back hug. He didn’t have to look back to know whose arms they belonged to, because his hugs always made him feel the same—warm and safe and loved.

“Guess who…” the owner of the arms said in an irritating sing-songy voice that he didn’t want to admit he loved to hear. He didn’t answer, but he could feel his lover nuzzling his nose on his thinning hair softly before giving him a gentle peck on his temple.

“Eric, you are late. Work holding you up?” he found himself asking, pretending to be nonchalant outside but actually feeling quite nervous inside. It was not that his lover had promised to come every day at the exact same time, but he was a good 45 minutes off his usual routine—and Hyesung knew exactly how much time it would take for him to travel from his workplace to the hospital. Hyesung disliked it whenever his lover was late, and Eric was not exactly a punctual person. Even so, never before had he fussed so much and felt his heart beating so quickly by looking at the clock. Perhaps now that he felt the end of his time was sneaking closer, every second was getting more precious than it ever was.

“Worried?” his lover snickered. He knew that Eric must have had that irritating smug smirk on his face without even looking at him. He kept his eyes focused on the garden outside, but he could feel his cheeks getting warmer—yes, he was blushing as if he was a silly school girl in front of her crush.

“Idiot,” he huffed, hoping that his cheeks didn’t turn red like a boiled crab. He didn’t really want to give the guy the satisfaction of making him blush because of his little jab—no thank you.

His lover chuckled and kissed the cheek which was turning pink, feeling glad to see some color on his pale skin. Hyesung was way too pallid lately, medication and not enough exposure to sunlight washed the healthy color off his skin—and Eric had tried to contain his worry so as not to stress Hyesung out. He unwrapped his arms from the other’s slim body, moving to kneel beside him and joined their fingers in a firm grasp.

“My cute Hyesungie. Calling me baby or honey or darling once wouldn’t hurt you know… Why do you always call me an idiot?” he asked jokingly. He never minded being called idiot, or stupid, or whatever his beautiful lover would like to call him, because if it was Hyesung who called him with all of those words, then he surely was the luckiest idiot in the whole world—no, universe.

“You truly are an idiot,” Hyesung sighed, but he couldn’t keep a happy smile off his lips. Eric had always been annoying, but he never failed to brighten his day. Ever since they were young, he had always been fond of the bothersome Eric—he didn’t know when or how the weird affection he had for his best friend turned into love, but somehow he was glad that it did.  And the fact that his feeling was returned, even so much more than he expected—he realized that having his best friend as his lover was truly the best kind of relationship. They knew each other’s best and worst, they went through so many fights but they always made up—they were ready to spend the rest of their lives together, even their parents couldn’t object. Now, if only they had more time…

“But you love this idiot, don’t you Hyesung-ah?” Eric said cheekily, grinning ear to ear as Hyesung’s face turned redder and redder at his words.

“Shut up now,” Hyesung said, avoiding Eric’s eyes. His small dark eyes darted back and forth at the view outside, trying to find a something interesting to watch. He heard Eric’s knowing deep chuckle next to his ears, and felt his lips again on his cheek. He used to fight his kisses in the past, too embarrassed to be showered with them. But now that he didn’t know how much longer he could feel them, he no longer had the heart to resist. Closing his eyes, he felt Eric’s hand on his chin, urging him to lift his face at his direction. Then Eric’s soft lips moved from his cheeks to graze his own, moving gently to give him a sweet kiss. He pulled away when he felt Eric’s tongue tapping his lower lip, asking his permission to deepen the kiss.

“Don’t. I vomited just now. ing chemo drugs,” Hyesung grumbled bitterly. Nauseous feeling in his stomach had accompanied him all day. Really, all medicines were essentially poisons in right doses. Eric kept quiet, a stab in his heart after hearing about Hyesung’s discomfort, he hated being reminded of his lover’s illness—although the reminders were literally everywhere around him. Hyesung, noticing his lover’s sudden silence, forced a wide smile.

“It’s alright. I’m better now. So, why were you late again?” he asked while raising his eyebrow, trying to divert the conversation away from this awkward topic—besides, he hated looking weak in front of people, even if it was his own lover.

Eric answered him with a stiff smile and walked away to grab something from the table. He returned with a beautiful bouquet of white roses in his hands, accentuated with green leaves.

“Roses for my beautiful Hyesungie,” he said dramatically, kneeling in front of Hyesung on one knee, holding the bouquet as if he was proposing. He grabbed Hyesung’s hand and kissed it tenderly after he received the roses. Hyesung laughed out loud at Eric’s antics—cheeks blushing again.

“Cheesy,” Hyesung snorted, “But they’re beautiful, t