(still in flashback here)

Myungsoo burst into the room, panting heavily, having run the whole way. The woman at the desk whirled around in surprise.

“M-my friend… he..,” he gasped before the woman rushed forward and grabbed Sunggyu. She laid him on one of the clean white cots and looked over the wound. Myungsoo stared worriedly, hoping Sunggyu would be okay.

Why do you care so much about someone you just met?! one voice in his head screamed. Don’t do this! He’s only going to remind you of Yeonhee more and more!

The woman turned to Myungsoo, interrupting his thoughts.

“He doesn’t have a concussion, but because it is a head injury, it will bleed a lot so tell him to be careful when he wakes up,” she said removing a cigarette Myungsoo hadn’t noticed out of , “The name’s Amber, I’m the doctor.”

“People always seem to think I’m some sort of counselor,” she muttered under her breath but Myungsoo heard anyway. Amber sighed and ran her fingers through her short hair.

“I’ll just need to put a bandage for now and also,” she said pointing at Myungsoo’s arm. He looked down and saw his sleeve had been pushed up and the bloodied bandages were showing.

Aish, the cuts opened up again, he thought angrily as he pushed his sleeve back down,

“N-no, thank you,” Myungsoo mumbled, hating himself for stuttering, but Amber reached out and grabbed his wrist anyway. Myungsoo winced in pain but didn’t pull away as Amber carefully unwrapped the sticky bandages.

Amber’s eyes widened when she saw the fresh, bleeding cuts over the numerous older scars layered on top of each other. She furrowed her eyebrows but still carefully disinfected and rewrapped the cuts with new bandages. Amber sighed again and sat at the edge of her desk.

A few moments later, Sunggyu woke up and they walked together to class.

(flashback end)

Wow, hamstergyu is lucky he dyed his hair red so no one saw the blood, Myungsoo thought. He sighed again as he felt his back get sorer by the second only to forget about it when he felt blood soak him even more. Finally arriving in front of the infirmary once again, Myungsoo barely had enough strength to nudge the door open.

Amber was sitting at the desk with a tall blonde who seemed to be annoyed with something judging by his facial expression and agitated hand gestures.

“Why does he keep doing this to me?! Snuggling up to me doing aegyo one second and then acting cold and distant and flirting with other people the next!!” the blonde yelled in frustration, burying his head in his hands. Amber took a puff of her cigarette and blew the smoke out in his face.

“That’s why you should have confessed already, you stupid babo cousin Kris,” she teased. Amber hesitated for a second before adding, “Maybe I should just tell him for you.”

The other’s eyes widened in alarm, “No! Don’t tell Tao!”

Amber smirked wickedly, “I will.”

Panicking, Kris said hurriedly, “Then I’ll tell the administration that their school doctor is smoking on school grounds.”

Amber let out a nervous chuckle, “Oh no, my wonderfully gifted and talented at confessing cousin, I was juuuust joking.”

Hmm… I’ll keep that in mind if I want a free counseling session, Myungsoo thought before interrupting their conversation.

“Excuse me? Bleeding over here?” he said tiredly. Both whipped their heads towards him.

Kris stood up and sighed, “I’ll see you later.” Amber nodded, waving her hand at him before she turned to Myungsoo.

“Why are you here again?”

Myungsoo motioned towards Sunggyu, “He got knocked over and hit his head again. The wound opened up.” Amber scrunched her eyebrows in confusion, “I don’t see any blood though?”

Myungsoo sighed, “What kind of doctor are you? I get it’s hard to tell because his hair is neon red but still… are you really a doctor?”

Amber cleared guiltily and helped Myungsoo maneuver Sunggyu onto one of the cots. She began unwrapping the bloody bandage from Sunggyu’s head and wiped off the blood. Meanwhile, Myungsoo collapsed on one of the nearby cots, his limbs still sore from carrying Sunggyu.

After putting the final bandage in place, Amber glanced over at Myungsoo and her eyes widened in alarm.

“Just wondering, but how did his blood manage to soak your sleeves,” she asked cautiously. Myungsoo, still laying down, lifted his head slightly to glance at himself.

, he thought, looks like it opened up again. He hadn’t noticed his wounds in his haste to get Sunggyu to the infirmary.

“It’s nothing,” he lied, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. Amber seemed to snap and walked over, grabbing his arm tightly. Myungsoo whimpered in pain and tried to yank his arm out of the doctor’s grasp. Remember Myungsoo, weakness is failure, don’t you dare cry, he thought, but he could feel himself breaking down as tears started to well up in his eyes.

Sunggyu POV

Sunggyu stirred and woke up in the midst of all the arguing. He saw Myungsoo close to crying (that kid had grown on him more than he would like to admit), being manhandled by a stranger who looked like a gangster with all her piercings and a cigarette hanging out of , and felt a protective urge come over him. He quickly got up and pushed Amber away, hugging Myungsoo’s head to the chest.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Sunggyu snapped, glaring at Amber.

She looked back with wide eyes, shocked, but SUnggyu only got more annoyed.

“I said, what do you think you’re doing?!” he repeated, louder this time. When Amber still didn’t reply, he got up and was about to stride forward but Myungsoo grabbed his wrist.

“It’s okay, she’s the doctor,” he whispered quietly, looking up at Sunggyu, all his previous cold demeanor gone. There were streaks of wetness down his cheeks and unshed tears were already threatening to fall from his already red and slightly swollen eyes. Sunggyu sighed and sat back down as Myungsoo released his hold on him. It was only then when Sunggyu realized that Myungsoo had left blood stains on his arms.

“Are you okay?!” he asked, his eyes crinkled in worry.

Myungsoo paled and looked away nervously.

“It’s nothing!” he muttered nervously, tucking his arms behind him. Amber came over with fresh bandages and sighed, taking the cigarette out of . “I told you to be careful. Your wounds already opened once and now again. You should’ve just kicked the hamster along instead of carrying him.”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes  I’ll forget about that comment for now

He turned to Myungsoo, all worried again, “You should’ve called someone to help instead of carrying me yourself.”

“It’s okay…” Myungsoo mumbled, looking down.

“It’s definitely not okay,” Amber snapped as she leaned forward to grab Myungsoo’s arm and rolled up his sleeve, “At this rate, you are seriously going to bleed to death. I have to report this you know.” Amber sighed again, “I wonder if they’ll even believe me. The crown prince is injured and bam! They’ll run around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find out what happened. The news is going to spread really fast.”

Myungsoo yanked his half bandaged arm out of her grasp. His eyes had hardened and once again turned dull and emotionless. Sunggyu was surprised at how quickly the weak and vulnerable Myungsoo that had been there just a second ago had retreated back behind his blank mask

“Don’t tell. The news will vanish before it spreads anyway,” Myungsoo said coldly, his gaze intensifying. Amber furrowed her eyebrows. “I will tell. That way you can get help,” she said, determined.

Myungsoo laughed humorlessly, “You don’t get it do you?”

He stood up abruptly and walked out the door briskly. Sunggyu jumped up and grabbed the remaining bandages, bowing slightly to Amber as he left.

Amber just sat there, a puzzled look on her face, still trying to figure out why Myungsoo had reacted that way.