^{Mental institute AU.}

“How are you doing today?”

Jongin calmly asked. The room was slightly fragrant, as he had previously tried to mask the mixed smell of chemicals remaining in the air.

“Fine!”

Minseok rashly responded. His eyebrows were furrowed, and as he answered the question, he crossed his arms and leaned back on his chair.

Jongin knew how to read other’s body language well, but he didn’t even need to be a trained psychologist to know Minseok was uncomfortable. The man was showing a defensive posture, and with his everyday attitude, Jongin could tell he didn’t want to be there. Hence why most of their sessions were spent in silence.

“Right now, you said ‘fine’, but your tone seemed angry. Is something wrong?”

He tried his best to get the man to talk though. The sessions were mandatory, so he would get Minseok to work with him eventually.

Most of his patients were very open to talking, but he also had more than a handful of difficult people to deal with too. But that was expected of a mental institute.

Jongin could have just opened a private practice, like most of his college colleagues did. But he liked the challenge. To work with more difficult people, who were not always willing to be there. To try to understand the most confused minds, observe things he hadn’t seen before. He liked the hard cases, because they gave him experience, and made him a better practitioner.

“I’m angry because you’re annoying!”

Minseok talked back between gritted teeth.

“And why is that? What did I do that was annoying to you?”

Each patient liked him to be and act in a different way, and some were more specific with these traits. He tried his best to be versatile, since mostly often once he adjust his behavior to what was wanted, it made it easier for people to open up to him, and get comfortable.

But sometimes patients weren’t very collaborative at first, like Minseok, who currently had his lips shut tight.

But Jongin could see, in the glimpse of the man’s eyes, that he wanted to speak, so he pushed a bit more.

“I don’t want to annoy you. If you tell me what it is, I’ll stop doing it.”

Jongin said, and Minseok bit his lip, looking around the room. He was nervous. Jongin could tell that he wanted to speak but didn’t know how to start. He decided to risk giving the man one last incentive, to see if it would help.

“You can do it, tell me.”

He calmly spoke, and Minseok hesitated. But it seemed to have worked, as the man finally opened up.

“It’s that phrase, that stupid phrase! Every single day, ‘how are you doing today?’ MAN! That’s annoying!”

Minseok complained, getting a bit agitated.

Jongin smiled, reacting right away.

“Oh wow, you’re right. That must be so annoying, I’m sorry.”

Without himself realizing, Minseok mimicked Jongin’s smile, uncrossing his arms and placing them on the chairs arm rests, becoming more relaxed.

“Yeah. Seriously annoying dude.”

He said while chuckling.

“Instead of that, what would you want me to say?”

Jongin asked, taking notice of the opening, and starting to finally get a peek at Minseok’s character.

“I don’t know man… ‘What’s up?’ maybe? That’d be okay.”

Minseok laughed, the thought of a doctor saying ‘What’s up’ being very amusing to him. But Jongin would oblige. If saying ‘What’s up’ was what would het Minseok to open up, that’s what he’d say, starting now.

“Great, then it’s settled. So tell me Minseok, what is up with you?”

_{The End. 598 Words.}