At the end of the session, kids were beginning to get up or wheel away, the sounds of various chairs scooting against the linoleum floors and butts rising from vinyl shapes echoing throughout the room. Some of the kids escaped the moment Creech had dismissed support group, but most of them had stopped to have conversations with their cancer friends, or congregated at the snack table, sipping store-bought “lemon-flavored drink” and snacking on Famous Amos cookies and graham crackers. Jiyong decided he wouldn’t get up until most of them were gone. He didn’t want people to stare at him or offer to help him walk, and he certainly didn’t want to bother with making small talk with any of these people; all of them between thirteen and twenty, in various stages of their cancer journey, and largely uninteresting.

                But when he didn’t get up at the end of the session, Seunghyun didn’t, either, and after a while, he noticed that Seunghyun didn’t seem to be planning to get up until he did. He fought against the urge to glance at him, instead playing absently with the blue marble handle of his cane and listening to the conversations and laughter that were around him. Creech’s voice, strong and direct, stood out among the noise as he conversed with a few of the kids; the kiss-ups, who made it a point to talk with Creech after almost every session. One girl gave a particularly hearty laugh, as if she’d just heard the most hilarious thing she’d ever heard in life. Jiyong wondered what was so funny, and sort of wanted to be in on the joke, but he imagined it probably wasn’t really funny at all. For a moment, he wondered why Seunghyun hadn’t said anything, yet. He wanted to look at him, to give himself some clues, but he didn’t. He wasn’t sure if seeming too interested would make him uninteresting, but then again, maybe seeming too uninterested would discourage Seunghyun.

                He picked at the bejeweled end of his cane’s handle: two green stones surrounded by white stones that were meant to look like emeralds and diamonds. He wondered if carrying the thing was pretentious or gaudy; If Seunghyun thought so. He wondered why he suddenly felt self-conscious about it, when he hadn’t before. He sunk down into the vinyl cushion he was seated on, his sneakered feet planted firmly against the linoleum floor. Jordans, this time. Maybe he’d worn them for Seunghyun’s sake. He glanced back at the snack table, watching as a wheelchair kid wheeled by sadly, longing for snacks he either couldn’t eat or couldn’t stomach. Jiyong sort of wanted a bag of cookies, too. He felt sad for the kid in the chair, who seemed to linger at the table a while, before finally rolling through the doorway. He had been dressed in pajamas; Jiyong figured he was here for a long stay. Those were the worst.

                Kids were starting to clear out, now, having gotten their snacks and spoken to their friends, and the room was getting a little too quiet. Jiyong could hear the whirr of the air conditioner, and Creech speak to a nurse about one of the absent kids. Seunghyun still hadn’t moved or spoken. Ji studied him carefully; his hands clasped together and hanging between his legs, his elbow propped up on the shape next to him, and his legs outstretched as if sitting so low was a little uncomfortable for his tall, long-legged frame. He wasn’t sure if he should speak first, or not. The room was a little chilly, and smelled like hospital with a hint of lemon drink, and Jiyong was sort of ready to leave, now, but there was Seunghyun. Ji honestly had worked himself into an anxious state over whether or not he should’ve made the first move. Seunghyun glanced in his direction, and Jiyong suddenly looked away, blushing as he did. What a childish, elementary crush reaction; how embarrassing, Ji thought.

                “Should I go get you some cookies? … You keep looking over there,” Seunghyun finally asked; shyly, as if he’d been worried about whether or not to speak first, too.

                “Um… no, that’s alright,” Jiyong replied. He did want the cookies. He just didn’t want to seem helpless.

                “Okay,” Seunghyun fell silent again, and Jiyong listened to his even breathing. He was sure he should’ve said something to continue the conversation, but his mind had gone blank, and his cheeks, he was sure, were bright red, and he sort of just wanted to be invisible, suddenly. “Are we waiting for… for something?” Seunghyun asked cautiously, as if he didn’t want to be offensive. Jiyong looked at him.

                “No… I mean, I was just…” he exhaled sharply, wondering why his lungs had suddenly decided that breathing normally wasn’t essential; wondering if it was because he was nervous. “I mean, I wanted to wait… for everyone to leave, first. You were waiting for me?”

                “Maybe… I…,” Seunghyun chuckled a little as if he were nervous, “I only really came because of you, anyway.”

                “Oh,” was all Jiyong could think to say.

                “Well… almost everyone is gone,” Seunghyun commented, and he sat up as if he was about to get up. He looked at Jiyong. “You probably don’t need my help.” He smiled a little as if he was teasing, then he got up, and he walked to the snack table, grabbing what looked like way too many bags of cookies. Jiyong laughed a little, and he gripped the black shaft of his cane, holding it steady against the floor as he tried to pull himself up. It was still a little difficult, and he struggled for a moment, but soon, he’d gotten his up, and he wobbled on his feet, but he was standing.

                “Wow. I guess chivalry really is dead,” Jiyong called after him, and he took a cautious step towards the snack table. He wobbled, feeling like a toddler who had just learned to walk, which was annoying, but he keep moving forward anyway.

                “Chivalry? I’m pretty sure I’m not a knight, anyway. And you, my friend, are no Lady Guinevere,” Seunghyun smirked, pleased with his own quick wit, and he balanced bags of cookies in his arms as he picked up a cup of lemon-flavored drink. Jiyong scoffed, shambling towards Seunghyun like the living dead.

                “Shut up, college boy. You think you’re so smart,” Ji smiled, huffing when he finally made it to the table.

                “I am. Very,” Seunghyun insisted.

                “Conceited, tardy, gluttonous. Such horrible traits,” Jiyong teased.

                “All side-effects of leukemia,” Seunghyun replied matter-of-factly, earning a laugh from Jiyong, which pleased him. “These cookies are for you.”

                “Um… thanks? But I don’t need six bags of cookies,”

                “I know. That’s why I’m giving you three,” Seunghyun replied calmly, taking a sip of his lemonade. “Blech. We have cancer, you’d think they’d bother to give us real lemonade made with organic lemons or something,” he frowned, mumbling something about the drink being carcinogenic. “Anyway, I could tell you wanted some, so I got us both some.”

               “Yeah, you better pig-out while you can. Next week, you’ll be hating the very idea of eating,” Jiyong smirked darkly, scaring Seunghyun a little.

                “It’s not that bad, is it? … Man,” the tall guy sighed deeply, and he examined the cookies in his hands. “I really like eating.”

                “Me too,” Ji shrugged. “It’s just not so fun when it comes back up. … Maybe it won’t be so bad. You should eat them today, though, if you’re starting on Monday. Otherwise, you’ll see them again.”

                “Suddenly I hate cookies,” Seunghyun commented, dropping the bags back onto the table. Jiyong felt a little bad, so he picked a couple up, handing one to Seunghyun. He smiled.

                “I’m just being my usual, eternally sunny self. Don’t pay me any attention,” he reassured the guy, and then he gripped his arm, latching on the way he had the day before. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We can go sit on the curb and eat them until our parents come.”

                “Oh, I drove,” Seunghyun commented, fishing his keys out of his pocket. “I thought you were ready for the New York Marathon, and didn’t need any help to walk out?” Seunghyun smirked, teasing Jiyong.

                “Shut up, ,” Jiyong rolled his eyes, letting go of Seunghyun’s arm, and steadying himself, beginning to struggle towards the door. “I don’t need your help, then.” Seunghyun watched him walk slowly towards the door, smiling to himself as if it was the most amusing thing, and then, after a few moments, he walked past Jiyong, walking through the door, pretending to leave him.

                “See you in two hours when you finally make it outside,” Seunghyun joked, starting down the hallway.

                “Haha, very funny,” Jiyong called after him. He kept going. Jiyong frowned. “Seunghyun!” he yelled, desperation in his voice. He didn’t like this joke anymore. Seunghyun laughed a little, until he turned around and saw Jiyong struggling to follow him with a frown on his pale face. That’s when he stopped, and he came back to get Jiyong.

                “I was just kidding…” his voice was soft and apologetic, and his arm wrapped around Jiyong’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t leave you.”

                “… I wasn’t worried about you leaving me. I don’t give a . What do you think this is? Why would I give a if you left me?” Jiyong fussed, sounding more and more upset the more he insisted he wasn’t. “Trust me, I’m not that worried about like whether you walk away from me…”

                “Okay,”

                “I’m serious. You’re not, like, the sunshine of my life or something. I would’ve been fine, if you left. Pissed, but fine… I mean, sometimes, I wonder if you really are an , or if you’re just doing it to be cute, but it’s not something that-“

                “Ji… I was just kidding,” Seunghyun sighed, frowning a little.

                “Well, don’t joke like that. It was cute when you left me at the shapes, but you don’t wait for someone just to leave them…” Jiyong whined. He worried that he was annoying Seunghyun, but he couldn’t shut himself up. “It’s too confusing.”

                “… So, what I’m getting from this is I’m cute and confusing. Oh, and an ,”

                “Seunghyun,”

                “No, I’m literally an . I’m literally a sphincter that releases fecal matter from someone’s bowels. Like, legitimately the hole in someone’s ,”

                “Stop,” Jiyong protested, fighting a smile. He hated it when people made him laugh when he was upset. (Or definitely not upset, as he insisted.)

                “No, it’s true. I was going to tell you, but I wasn’t sure how you’d take it. At least I’m a cute , though I’m not quite sure why you’re so confused by the concept of anuses. Anusii? Anuses…”

                “Alright! I overreacted, sorry,” Jiyong smiled, latching onto Seunghyun again.

                “Apology accepted, but I think I should be the one saying ‘sorry’. I forgot how you don’t like feeling like you’re helpless,” Seunghyun hesitated, glancing at Ji before continuing. “I definitely wasn’t trying to do that. I guess I’m still trying to figure out where your lines are.”

                “I don’t have lines… I mean, I… I guess it’s just that…” Jiyong wasn’t really sure. Maybe in part it was the helpless thing, but maybe it had also been that Seunghyun had bothered to come, and bothered to wait with him, and bothered to get cookies for him only to leave him. Maybe that message had confused him. He wasn’t sure how to explain that to Seunghyun.

                “It’s cool. We should go, now, before someone sees us like this and thinks we’re making-out,” Seunghyun commented, referring to how Jiyong had tucked himself neatly under Seunghyun’s arm, wrapping his own arm around Seunghyun’s waist.

                “You wouldn’t want people to think you actually like making-out with gross cancer-y boys,” Jiyong  smirked.

                “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t tried it, yet,” Seunghyun replied calmly. Jiyong blushed, and he wanted to ask if that meant Seunghyun wanted to try it, but he didn’t. The pair walked slowly towards the elevator, and then boarded the elevator, and Seunghyun pressed the first floor button. “Nice pimp cane, by the way.”

                “It’s not a pimp cane. It’s just a regular cane. Pimps are awful people,” Jiyong replied.

                “Uh oh. I guess I’d better stop pimpin’, then. Wouldn’t want you to think I’m an awful person,” Seunghyun replied dryly. Jiyong chuckled.

                “You couldn’t be a pimp if you tried. You’re too nice,”

                “No, I’m not. I’m an , remember?” Seunghyun smiled, and Jiyong chuckled again. “Still, it’s a nice regular cane.”

                “Thanks. My mom picked it out. She likes emeralds, since it’s her birthstone,” Jiyong commented.

                “Wow. That is a completely pointless and uninteresting fact that I was just dying to know,” he replied sarcastically.

                “God, you just keep striving for more points, don’t you?” Jiyong laughed. Seunghyun smiled softly.

                “I’m just trying to be like you,” he replied calmly. Jiyong wondered if Seunghyun was just trying to make him laugh. “I am kidding, by the way. Your mom seems like a lovely person…”

                “I know you’re kidding,”

                “Just making sure. When you get angry at me, I … don’t like it,” the elevator opened just as he’d gotten those words out. He escorted Ji out of the elevator quickly. “Your parents are coming, right?”

                “My mom. But she probably never left, to be honest,”

                “Oh… You think she’ll let you come to my place? To like, hang out and stuff,” Seunghyun’s face looked nervous, suddenly, and he cleared his throat. “I mean, we can play XBOX or something. I don’t have your Batman game, but I have some other stuff…”

                “Not sure. They’re kind of in worry-mode because I, you know… nearly was a corpse, and that,” Jiyong sighed, shaking his head. “I’ll ask.”

                “Yeah, I understand. I was in the dorms until I got diagnosed… then my parents made me come back home,” Seunghyun looked worried, and then he sighed. “But, I kinda thought today was the perfect day to hang out, since you’re just out of the hospital, and soon, I’ll be going through chemo…. So. Probably won’t be able to hang much, then…”

                “Sure we will. I can come keep you company. While you sleep it off,” Jiyong was definitely sugar-coating the experience, somewhat. There was no point in causing Seunghyun any more anxiety.

                “… Okay. Somehow, I get the feeling you just want to see me in misery,” Seunghyun joked. Jiyong smiled softly. It was completely not that; he hated seeing cancer-misery first hand. He hated experiencing it, but he hated seeing it, just as much. But Seunghyun was just trying to find the humor in the situation, the way Jiyong had all these years.

                “Nah. Just sleep, it won’t be so miserable,” Jiyong replied casually, tugging a bit at Seunghyun’s shirt. “Outside, Jeeves.”

                “Oh, I’m your butler. I see,” the new nick-name had caused Seunghyun to smile. He escorted Jiyong through the glass doors. There was a bench just outside of the hospital doors, where the kids usually waited to be picked up. There was only one kid waiting when they got there; one kid too many for Jiyong’s liking.

                “Damn. The bench is taken…”

                “So? We can go to my car,”

                “Ah, yes. I forgot that we were on our way to Make-Out Point,” Jiyong commented. Seunghyun laughed.

                “What? Make-Out Point?”

                “Sorry… I watch too many 80s teen movies,” Jiyong’s mother’s car began to pull up to the front of the hospital, and she stopped just in front of the boys, rolling the window down and waving. “. My mom. I almost forgot.” Seunghyun waved back, and Ji glared at him.

                “What?” Seunghyun laughed. Jiyong didn’t reply, instead, letting go of Seunghyun and walking slowly to the car.

                “Wait, Jiyong-ah! Let Omma help you!” she yelled frantically, putting the car in park, and unbuckling her seatbelt.

                “Mom, wait. I wanna go with Seunghyun, that’s what I was coming to tell you,” he replied.

                “What? Nugu?” she seemed a little confused, her eyes focusing on the tall young man behind her son. “You want to go with him?”

                “Yeah. We’re gonna go play video games. I’ll call you when-“

                “No! You can’t, you are sick,” she cut him off, appalled at the very concept of her son leaving with some teenager that she’d barely met once. “You need to rest, Jiyong-ah.”

                “I’m not sick… I mean, ugh,” he rolled his eyes. “It’s not like we’re going to do MMA or something. We’re just gonna play video games. Sitting on a couch, stationary, with his parents there.” Jiyong didn’t really know if Seunghyun’s parents would be there, but it sounded better.

                “Aigoo… I don’t know. I worry about you,” she sighed, staring at the boy in front of her. “Can you go another day?”

                “Mom…” Jiyong glanced back at Seunghyun, then looked at his mom. “I’m an adult, it’s really my decision. I’m going with Seunghyun. I’ll call you when I’m finished.” He’d not really pulled the “I’m an adult” card on his parents, before; mostly because he didn’t really feel like one. It made his heart pound, but mentally, he told his heart to shut up, because he needed to seem fine, and he couldn’t seem fine if he was hyperventilating.

              “Okay… I’m happy you found a friend,” his mom relented. “Just be careful. And if you don’t feel good, come home.”

                “Okay. Yes, mother,” Jiyong replied softly. “Thanks. I love you…. See you later.” He turned around, hobbling as quickly as he could back to Seunghyun. “Looks like the game is on,” he grinned excitedly, his cane clicking against the concrete sidewalk as he approached Seunghyun. As lame as it might have been, Jiyong hadn’t spent much time with people his own age since he’d been diagnosed, and as his school friends slowly stopped coming around, he’d gotten used to the isolation that his bedroom brought him. Going away with Seunghyun might as well have been going to Disneyland.

                “’The game is on’? Alright, Sherlock,” Seunghyun teased as he moved to help Jiyong again.

                “That… actually wasn’t a Sherlock reference, but it pleases me that you do understand Sherlock references,” Jiyong grinned, unable to hide his happiness and excitement.

                “I knew the moment we met that you were a nerd,” Seunghyun commented. Jiyong laughed, and the two headed towards the parking lot to find Seunghyun’s car.

                “No, I’m not. I’m cool as hell,”

                “Only a nerd would say that.” 

*AN* I am so glad to get an opportunity to post! I hope you guys didn't get tired of waiting! So, the guys are headed to Seunghyun's! This could be fun, right? Between shy Jiyong and shy Seunghyun, I wonder what could be in store for our guys. :D As always, thanks for reading & commenting & subscribing! Please leave lots of feedback! I really like the comments you guys leave! And in case I don't post beforehand, Happy Valentine's Day! Maybe I'll post for Valentine's Day~ maybe something a little Valentine's Day related will happen~