(15) BITTERSWEET REUNION

Suho remembers.

He remembers everything he could possibly remember. He remembers growing up in his house, remembers growing taller as the years passed by- he remembers meeting Kris and Xiumin at age ten, and he remembers the other boys. He never would have expected to lose his memory- that is, after it all came back to him.

The vivid and violent flashbacks flow and cram themselves into his brain at such a rapid speed that it hurts. There’s happy memories and sad ones, but the nearer he comes to the last bit, the more painful it gets. It leaves him dizzy and nauseous, but the pounding in his skull stops soon after he settles down and his breathing calms. His heart still feels heavy, though, to the point where he lets out a sharp gasp and shoots out of his bedroom in the middle of the night.

This all happens not too long after he meets Lay.

“You do know that wearing accessories are against the dress code for the hospital, right?” Suho said, more curious than upset while eyeing out the metal bracelet clamped against Lay’s wrist.

“I, uh, but the man in the green said I could wear it.” Lay mumbled. Suho peered around a couple of heads to find the so said man, letting out a small sigh when his supervisor was too occupied with his own reflection to care.

“Right, well, just don’t get caught by any of the senior staff members.” Suho ended up leaving the boy with more questions than earlier, still confused to as why he had the bracelet in the first place. He had one like that, maybe not exactly like it, but nobody in this time age wore anything like it.

The raven haired male didn’t seem to stand out too much when they were first introduced to each other, the only thing sticking out was his ability at being so empty headed. The boy had almost forgotten his own name during his introduction when the two of them were assigned as partners under the new doctor that had began to work at the hospital. He tended to space out a lot as well, and Suho learned that the hard way, almost dropping a whole case of antibiotics when he tried to pass it to the dazed Chinese male. That would also explain his awkward way of speaking. Suho thought he was a nice boy, but then again, he thought that about everyone.

The hospital was in a cheery mood since it was Christmas eve, the day before everyone went home for the holidays to spend time with their families and such. Suho and Lay were assigned to watch the overnight patients who also had no families to spend Christmas with, leaving some extra bonding time for the two. While in the middle of their hourly round in the children’s ward, Suho as usual, was diligently checking each child’s bed for sleeping children when he discovered two empty beds.

“They probably just went to the bathroom.” Lay tried calming Suho down, but no matter how much he tried to calm him, Suho wouldn’t stop pacing the room.

He made sure to step out of the room before going to talk to Lay again, who wasn’t ready to be hit by such a strong wave of emotions all at once. “No, it couldn’t be. The lights were off and I already checked when we first went in and nobody was there. What if they were kidnapped?” Suho bleated, his eyes wide as his pupils shook nervously.

Lay did nothing but stay calm as he breathed in and out slowly, motioning for Suho to follow so that he wouldn’t give himself a heart attack. “Let’s find them then. They couldn’t have gone far.”

He grabbed Suho by his wrist and dragged him down the halls while peering into all of the rooms for the missing kids. Was he worried? Not so much, but Suho on the other hand; Lay could feel him shaking at the thought of losing the children.

Suho tried his best to keep up with Lay as his legs tripped over one another, unable to walk properly when his mind was in such a state. He didn’t know why, but his chest was abnormally tight. Those two kids that were gone usually listened well and their disappearance made him uneasy, if the sweat trickling down his temple wasn’t obvious enough. The weird dreams didn’t help either.

One moment he’d be going over the procedure for a dislocated shoulder while waiting to go to sleep and the next, he was recalling a blur of trees as he ran with all of his might. Judging by how large his surroundings were, he could tell his physique wasn’t the biggest. Sometimes he would be seeing the world in this small statured point of view, but one night, it was different. He could see himself, literally, as if he was watching everything from above. The facial features and way the boy spoke was a dead giveaway that the small boy was himself, just younger. Some days, he would watch a boy not much older than his younger state frighten him in what seemed to be like a really bad summer camp. On others, he would see himself and that same boy laughing about something that made them look like they’ve known each other for ages.

Then the bad dreams started happening. It always took place at that one house at midnight, when most were asleep, but not him. He and a bunch of other boys would always do the same thing in the dream; Walk into the house to find something or someone missing, chase after another kid who cried as he ran towards what seemed to be a dry dock and then he would wake up after hearing a loud crash in the distance, the cry of the boy the last thing he remembers before waking up scared and afraid.

The feeling he had now wasn’t as bad, but it still terrified him that he was actually conscious and experiencing what he thought was just a bad dream. They rounded some corners until reaching the only room that had a light on, this being the kitchen on the far end of the hall. Lay snuck in through the double doors and Suho followed behind quietly, the two of them coming across the two boys, hands deep in the container of pudding that was supposed to be for all of the kids as a Christmas treat.

“Uh oh, we’re caught…” One boy squeaked, taking one last handful of pudding from the container and popping it into his mouth before retreating along with the other missing child.

Before the two kids could even brace themselves for the scolding they were going to get, Suho went down and scooped them into his arms, letting out a relieved sigh that he didn’t even realize he was holding in.

The two boys squirmed in his hold, but took the hug gratefully, their dirty hands wiping the brown chocolate all over his white coat. “Does this mean we’re not in trouble?”

“If your brother finds out you will, but are you really going to keep it a secret from him?” Lay hummed, already placing the rest of the pudding back into the fridge as one of the kids froze.

“Aw man, now we’re really going to get it. Your brother is scarier than all of the adults combined!”

Suho finally released the kids to see one of the boys about to touch his face when Lay swooped in with a napkin before he could get pudding all over himself. They got the two cleaned up and were heading back towards the bedroom side when one of the boys crouched down and began to hold his stomach with a grimace on his face.

“What’s wrong? Is it your stomach again?” Suho asked frantically, his eyebrows knitting together anxiously.

“I… I thought eating something would help him because his brother always makes me eat something when my stomach is sore...”

The boy who was in pain tried his best to keep himself steady, but the burning sensation in his abdomen wasn’t exactly making it easy and his body swayed around until Lay had gone over to help support him. Suho was glad that both boys looked after one another so well, but the reality was never a pretty picture when it came to children from their ward.

The one who was in pain had a stomach ulcer and his family had abandoned him in front of the hospital after refusing to pay their medical fees. His friend on the other hand was diagnosed with lung cancer, the two of them sharing such tragic problems at such a young age.

Before Suho could even go to grab the nearest medical kit, Lay had begun to press both hands against the boy’s stomach, rubbing them in small circles.

“Pain, pain, fly away!” He chanted over and over, not failing to bring a small smile on the boy’s face as he giggled at how funny the situation looked to him. Eventually Lay had gone to sit down behind the boy so he could sit in his lap and Suho found the entire scene endearing.

Lay kept rubbing circles on his stomach until he had finally fallen asleep, making sure to wipe away the tears on his face before glancing down at the other boy that was with him. Suho was too busy watching the two to notice the other boy letting out soft snores on the tile ground, not minding that he wasn’t even in a proper bed.

“Let’s take them back.” Lay whispered, already beginning to head back with the boy cradled in his arms.

He and Suho got them tucked in under their blankets and were out of there before any of the other children could wake up, passing by some of the other workers who were ready to trade shifts with them. The night was coming to an end and Suho was ready to head back to his room to rest up for tomorrow. Lay on the other hand was zoning out again and stumbled past one of the chairs in the waiting room, wincing as it banged into his thigh.

“Are you okay?” Suho asked while helping him to his room.

“Yeah,” Lay sighed, “I’m glad we found them in time.” He mumbled before heading into his room, leaving Suho a bit bewildered as he went back to his own room.

That night, Suho didn’t have any nightmares. Rather, everything that didn’t make sense to him was finally made clear.

His spiri