From: XXX

To: Kim YoungWoon

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I'm Kyuhyun's father. May I have words with you?

-Mr. Cho

Kangin runs from his lunch break and decides that he wants to return to his duty as a health psychologist a little bit late as he heads to the main hospital after Kangin promises to meet Mr. Cho that he comes to the said location. He can't possibly burden the older man, right?

It is an ethical code that he should keep the matter private and confidential, but the doctorate-level degree in psychology holder pushes the nagging patient title at the back of his mind; and for once, he's going to tell every single details to the right authority, as a friend, just because Mr. Cho deserve to know.

The psychologist disliked the younger the first time he heard Kyuhyun's name around the institution. Hell, he wished he'd never bumped into one another in any circumstances. The spreading rumors regarding the lanky male certainly made the elder detested the younger even more. It was not like the circulating stories were bad, judging how cool and heartthrob the younger was, it was just getting annoying when all the young male did, was brushing them off like he didn't make those speculating news around the institution.

He got to admit though, that the lanky male is a genius but that doesn't mean he loved the younger just because of the freaking brain can solve the case studies accurately with some additional info's every now and then. And how devastating this could be when he realized that his friend, Leeteuk has assigned to take the younger under his care as an intern. Although, he felt secretly relieved that he was not in the torment but he couldn't help to felt bad to his humane friend.

The cold, unapproachable male is not someone that Kangin liked to be messed up with but it was impossible when his friend loved to drag him along to meet with the young intern. They were not in a good term to begin with and it was getting harder when days passed by as they were always going at each other's throat, spitting poisons in every chance they've got. Even after Kyuhyun has finished the internship year with Leeteuk, the lenient male was too caring about the younger despite the lanky male never disclosed anything about his private life, not even his background. On the opposite side, Leeteuk would sometimes spend time during his free time to visit the younger and continue doing so for three years straight.

As emotionless the lanky male could be, the snippet of Kyuhyun began to unravel slowly before the lanky male wearing mask the next second it happened.

How tolerable Kangin could be, the psychologist seemed can't to be understand why such person existed in Earth, judging how apathetic the young doctor was, except when he solved the tough and difficult cases, or when the lanky was playing games. Not that the young doctor would smile but at the very least Kangin would saw frowns sitting on his forehead, or the concentrated look the lanky wore every time he fought against the villains.

But, when there were hearsay that the lanky male is flew back to South Korean and came back to Ireland almost immediately, he believed that the young male was having some problem. He discovered that the casual gamer always busied himself with the patients even when it wasn't his shift to be doing that. The lanky male sometimes visited other department that doesn't related to his specialization and because he saw the lanky at his department one day, the psychologist realized that the young doctor frequently roamed around the hospital.

Whether he was reading the charts, or chatting with any patients he constantly wandered around the hospital. Other times, Kangin simply ran with the lanky male at the library in the medical institution and he became aware that Kyuhyun's eyes seemed...dead. 

Something was wrong!

He then voiced out this to Leeteuk - he didn't even know how he developed this so-called concern, like how Leeteuk liked to address that to him, for the young male. It was bull, he thought. Hence, he ignored the anxiety that building inside him but that didn't last long when he heard whispers regarding the lanky doctor that the younger was always seen to be sleeping in the staff room at night, where it supposed to be the room for the resident physician to rest. Although, the other medical personnel didn't really mind that, but one or two who envied the lanky male were not practically happy with that treatment.

Thus, Kangin reached to a conclusion that Kyuhyun might developed symptoms to an illness that he familiarized himself with. Still, assumption was mere assumption - the psychologist couldn't piece the puzzle when the symptoms didn't match with what he thought earlier it was. There were no sadness displayed on the younger features nor did the lanky doctor seem to be out of fatigue. In fact, it was the opposite - the young male appeared to be gaining enough energy to last 24/7 without resting and how dedicated the young doctor was was beyond the psychologist.

And it went like that for almost a year. No one seemed to know what had happened, and as stubborn as a mule Kyuhyun could get, they never had a chance to confront the young male, deducing how effectively the younger was in avoiding them that they never came up with how the sudden changed of the lanky male were actually perturbing to the both elder males. Then, one day, Kangin decided to shove all his superficial feeling towards Kyuhyun aside and chose to let his worrisome for the younger surfacing, for real. He dragged the lanky male to the latter apartment.

Man, Kangin was bewildered! How come the apartment became this filthy messy he couldn't possibly uttered any words. He then forced the lanky male to his bedroom and demanded that he better be sleeping when he came checking the younger every once in a while, before proceeding to call Leeteuk and together, they both worked to clean the grubby apartment of Kyuhyun.

Kangin then came across with the laptop that has broken into two where the screen had an awful, visible crack that blurred the monitor. Couldn't think of anything, he sent the broken device for repairs, hoping there might some hints he could work on from there.

There was good news came knocking at Kangin's door after few weeks passed by. Well, it was not that good actually, as the tons of messages in inbox of some kind of game Kangin didn't know it existed in the first place, hadn't been a much of help. But, on the bright side, this unknown messages sender-gamer might be able to dig out something from Kyuhyun albeit they never knew each other, except from gaming.

Therefore, Kangin gave his e-mail address and Kyuhyun's phone number, asking for a favor - the psychologist thought perhaps the lanky male would told anything, even the trivial one to a stranger but of course the gamer known as Changmin had to gain the fellow's trust first. And because this case involved the hardheaded lanky male, there were no ways in stopping Kyuhyun from his odd staying-in-the-hospital-room habit, and Kangin hoped that the other gamer would race against time in helping Kyuhyun.

It was supposed to be an apartment's visit on Kangin and Leeteuk's part but to the lanky male it was a recurrent inspection - Kyuhyun loved to impulsively blurt that out to them. What surprised the both of them was, the sight of broken Kyuhyun, crying miserably, clutching the phone in his right hand.

Running to the lanky male's side, Leeteuk hugged Kyuhyun, saying comforting words while Kangin working on the death grip of the phone. Once, the psychologist managed to let loose the phone, he realized that the silent sobbing at the receiving end came from Changmin, he thanked the latter and hung up before informing that he would tell about the details if he figured anything out.

A week after, when he and Leeteuk finally had a confirmation regarding the younger grandfather, they felt that it was unbearable for them to deal with the death - they managed to get this kind of knowledge after a year has passed - knowing how the heavy weight on the young doctor's shoulder was very insufferable for Kyuhyun to endure alone. The fact that this was the most severe depression Kangin had encountered in his twenty-nine years of life, the psychologist had no idea how the lanky male succeed in fooling everyone around with all the make-believe pretense.

The whole missing his Ryeowook also appended into the account, adding the lanky male's burden that never seemed to be detracted one bit.

And after that, both elder males knew all about Kyuhyun, just because the lanky male let them knew - like everything - from how the lanky male had a contract marriage with Ryeowook to how the death of his warmhearted grandfather affected him; except the lanky male leaved out the part about his filthy rich family background and let the precious tie he had with his cousin resided at the back of his mind.




"How'd you manage to get my number, Sir?"

"Drop the formality, please." Smiles warmly, Mr. Cho responds. "I hired a private investigator."

Nods in understanding, Kangin feels a little bit disturbing on his part. "Then why did you need me if you had have already knew about the whole thing?"

"That's the problem. I didn't know a thing." Staring at the coffee table, Mr. Cho who turns serious suddenly answers. "When the PI told me that Kyuhyun didn't return to his apartment, I got this feeling that he was indeed avoiding something. And I figured that I didn't want some strangers to find out about what had happened to my son. I mean, I'm his father, I should know about it first, right?" Mr. Cho's smiles weakly.

"I finished the puzzle along ago before Kyuhyun came back, but I don't have the heart to ask him how he felt. All I can do - ...just going to watch him from afar and stay by his side, that's all I can do."

Laughing lightly, Mr. Cho realizes that he's been babbling nonsense.

"I didn't answer your question, right? I want to acknowledge how hard it was for Kyuhyun back then, when there was nobody who knew what he was dealing with."

Facing the psychologist on his right side, he continues. "Thanks for all the things you've done. Thanks for helping my son. Thank you to the both of you and Leeteuk, for being there with him, this whole time."

p/s: This is a continuation from the previous chapter, actually :)