N!

"N!"

Snapping upright from his bed, N cried out, panting as he looked left and right. He was covered in cold sweat, and his mind buzzed as he tried to focus where he was. There were hot tears attempting to fall down his cheeks, and his body was trembling.

"N, hey," It was Jaehwan's worried voice. He didn't realize he was there not until he felt warm hands, cupping his face. And automatically, desperately seeking for someone's comfort, N wrapped his arms around Jaehwan and buried his face deep into the young doctor's chest, and he broke down into tears. "N, it's only a nightmare. Just a nightmare, I'm here. It's only a bad dream." Jaehwan whispers softly as if N was a fragile child that could easily break if he spoke too loudly. "Ssh, it's just a bad dream." He caresses his back.

"H- He was..." N sobs. "He was..."

"What did you see? What is it? Tell me, N." Jaehwan encourages, even though a second earlier he was telling the other that it was only a bad dream.

"He was pushing me." N answered, shakily. "He pushed me until I reached the edge, and h- he was yelling at me!" The tanned male cried. Jaehwan had never seen N so terrified before. "He was d- different this time, Jae." N chokes on his tears, seemingly unable to continue but then he lifted his head to look at Jaehwan. His eyes were bloodshot and wide open like saucers on the table. "T- There was no warmth in them. The sadness was no longer in his eyes. They were just scary!" More tears poured out from his eyes, his body now convulsing violently. He grips tightly on Jaehwan's shirt and his hands wouldn't stop shaking while looking at him.

"N, you have to calm down." The young doctor says. He looked at the frightened male dead in the eyes. N held him tighter. "You need to calm down, N." Jaehwan continued to speak softly. "It won't do you good if you act like this." N stills for a moment upon hearing the young doctor's words. He slowly nods. Finally, he lets go of his tight grasp on Jaehwan's arms and just let Jaehwan cup his face once again. The young doctor took it a chance to wipe the tanned male's tears away. "That's it. You have to calm for it is only a dream. A dream cannot harm you, N." He whispers gently after pulling the tanned male into another embrace. N was no longer shaking when he hugged him and Jaehwan finally smiled.

N had finally calmed down and eventually, he fell back asleep peacefully.

Jaehwan stared at the other male for a while, a fond smile playing across his lips before he finally decided to leave the room and closed the door behind him with a faint click.

When N was first wheeled in into the hospital, Jaehwan didn't know what exactly he should feel upon seeing his condition. N's life was barely hanging on a thread, and any second that time he could die. He was just around Jaehwan's age, too young to die and the young doctor thought of the many possible things he could still do with his life. All the other victims didn't make it and were either dead on the spot or dead upon their arrival. When N successfully escaped his death on the operating table, and was announced as the only remaining person who managed to survive from the accident, Jaehwan had never felt so relieved and glad compared to all those other patients he managed to help prolonged their lives. He was moved that his patient made it through that he was brought to tears. At that time, he knew he has already taken a liking towards the tanned male.

The news of N coming into a comatose eventually after his operation, broke his heart. N did successfully manage to go through his operation, yet he didn’t wake up right away. But Jaehwan told himself that it was better than having another dead patient after all those dead victims from the accident. He could still wake up.

Every day when N was still confined on the hospital bed, Jaehwan would visit the sleeping male whenever his shifts and rounds end. He would come by to say hi, place a new bouquet of pretty flowers on his vase next to his bed and ask how he was doing, but clearly N couldn’t still answer him back then for he was still in a deep slumber. He would come by to read N a book he found interesting from the small library i