Chapter 16 – Treatment

治疗
（一）One hand signs ‘zh’: ring finger and thumb touch, the remaining fingers are held out, pointing to the side
（二）Left hand forms a “┌”, right hands draws the character “了” under it

The day of the operation was set on a warm and clear day in late May which would have been perfect for a trip to Houhai with an evening on one of the bar terraces, but instead of enjoying the good weather, Yifan sat in a hospital room, flipping through a booklet that gave information about the whole institution.
“Ooooh, they renovated their cafeteria!” Yifan exclaimed and held the pictures up so Yixing could see them.
But his boyfriend didn’t even give one single damn about how the hospital’s cafeteria looked like. He was busy touching the sides of his head because a nurse had just shaved off his hair for what was about to come.
“Don’t worry, you actually look kind of cool. Have you ever thought about a sidecut before?”
Yixing grunted – that was all he had to say about this. He had been silent the whole morning and Yifan tried hard to lift his mood or get his mind off the surgical procedure but he hadn’t been very successful. He sighed, threw the booklet on the small table in the corner and sat down at the edge of Yixing’s bed.
“It’s going to be fine.”
“Yeaaaaaaah…”
Yixing didn’t sound very convinced and crossed his arms, nibbling on his lower lip. He didn’t try to show it, but he was very nervous. Yifan grabbed his boyfriend’s right hand and caressed its back with his thumb, because he possibly couldn’t think of anything else to say. Yixing gave him a thankful smile before the door to the room swung open.
“Good morning!” Dr. Wang cried out when he entered the room, the nurse from before on his heels.
“Morning, Doctor,” Yifan greeted and the men shook hands.
“Dr. Lopez is already on her way to the OR, so I’ll pick you up,” the doctor explained.
“Since when are doctors doing that?” Yifan asked half laughing.
Dr. Wang’s face froze for a second, then he leaned over to him and said:
“Sofia needs her ten minutes alone before an operation, so I kind of do this to get out of her way…”
“Oooooh I see.”
“Anyways!” Dr. Wang said and turned back to Yixing, “We’re ready to set you fully up. I see you’ve taken that medicine we gave you when you came in here. Are you still feeling nervous?”
Yixing just nodded and the doctor gave him an encouraging smile.
“No worries, we’ve got everything under control.”
The nurse rushed around Yixing’s bed to release its breaks and told Yifan in a sharp tone to get off it.
“How long will the operation take?” Yifan asked after giving that nurse a sour look but she didn’t even care about it.
“Well, since we’re doing both sides… two to three hours. But this is just a rough time frame, it could always take longer.”
“Yifan, you can go home if you don’t want to wait,” Yixing finally mumbled but Yifan shushed him immediately.
“I’ll be waiting. And when you’re back in your room, I’ll be there.”
“You really don’t have to…”
“Shut up.”
“Woooow, you’ve got a real charming boyfriend over here,” Dr. Wang stated but his joke didn’t make it through to Yixing – he looked like he just wanted to get this over with.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Dr. Wang held onto the end of the bed, while the nurse helped him push it out of the room. And just like that, Yifan was left alone in a room with one extra bed and he suddenly wished he had at least taken a book with him.

Yifan had decided on strolling through the hospital and getting a coffee at the cafeteria that still smelled like fresh paint and newly unpacked furniture. The coffee wasn’t even that bad, and when he had finally wandered off to the entrance area contemplaiting whether or not he should get outside and sit down on one of the benches, he was already on his third cup. He stood a little awkward in the hallway and watched some of the people who got in and out of the building, not knowing what to do. A quick gaze at his wristwatch told him there were still two more hours to kill, and when he looked up he saw a young girl storming into the hospital. She was wearing the uniform of a Middle School that didn’t even seem to be located in Beijing and she pulled a small suitcase behind her. When their gazes met, Yifan blinked confused and had to double check before he asked:
“Zhenzhen?”
“Yifaaaaan!”
Yixing’s little sister beamed at him, her ponytail swinging from side to side while she approached him and gave him a big hug. Yifan was so startled, he couldn’t even return the gesture.
“What… are you doing here?”
“Well I don’t know… my brother’s going to get some weird implants and I thought it would be nice he’d have a family member around… but you tell me what I’m doing here.”
Yifan checked the time again and then he said:
“But… it’s one p.m. on a weekday, shouldn’t you be at school?”
“Aiyooo, Yifan!” Zhenzhen cried out, immediately falling into the Changsha dialect that Yifan thought sounded more like singing than talking, “Relax, I made a deal with my parents – if I get 100 on my maths test, I’m allowed to skip school for a week and come here. And I did! I even went to the first period today before I went to the airport, I’m a good student!”
Yifan didn’t answer and Zhenzhen pouted.
“I thought it was a nice surprise for you two, aren’t you happy I’m here?”
Finally the young man smiled at her and threw an arm around her shoulder.
“I am, I’m just… shocked you’re here! I thought your mother wanted to come?”
“Yeah, she’s afraid of flying, and she also hates travelling by train… so I volunteered.”
“Such a good girl.”
“I know, I know…” Zhenzhen said but then cut down to the chase, “So, is Yixing still in there?”
“Yes, and I’m afraid it will take at least two more hours until he’s coming out.”
“Ugh. My poor brother.”
“It’s for his best I hope.”
Zhenzhen made a sound as if she was sharing Yifan’s opinion and Yixing’s boyfriend led her to the room and was half way hoping Yixing was already back, but the room was just as empty as he had left it. The second bed was still unoccupied and the empty space where Yixing’s bed would’ve been standing made the room appear even bigger and colder than it actually was. Zhenzhen put her suitcase into the corner and sat down at the table where Yifan had been sitting before.
“I hate hospitals,” she then stated, “It always smells like disease and death.”
Yifan chuckled when he heard it and said:
“That’s what I’m thinking too.”
Zhenzhen giggled before she looked around the room.
“How long will he stay here?”
“The doctors said they plan on keeping him for the night for further observation,” Yifan answered and sat down next to her.
The girl clinged onto her backpack with a pensive look on her face.
“Don’t worry he’s in good hands.”
Zhenzhen snapped back into reality and blinked confused.
“Huh? Ooooh, yeah, I trust those two, no problem.”
She opened her bag and pulled out something that looked like a photo album.
“Yixing will hate me for this, but here you go!”
“Huh, what’s that?”
The girl opened the album and the first thing Yifan saw was the photograph of a chubby-cheeked baby with black hair. It took him merely a second to understand.
“Oh god, Yixing’s babypictures!”
Zhenzhen nodded and Yifan let out a high excited shriek when he turned the front page. On the first two pages, his mother had written down some of the important things in Yixing’s life with the date, like Yixing’s first birthday party, his first steps, his first words using CSL, first day of kindergarten, first day of school – and so forth. She even wrote down the day when Yixing went on his first official date with a guy.
“Yixing actually made me promise to not show it to you because he thinks he was a really ugly child, but I thought we could kill time with that,” Zhenzhen explained when Yifan got to the pictures where Yixing was maybe a few hours old and lying in his mother’s arms who looked like she was about to kill the photographer (asumingly her husband).
Unlike Yixing, Yifan thought that he had been a pretty adorable child no matter as a baby only able to lift his head and crawling around on the floor or as a toddler running around in the garden of his grandmother. When Yixing was about three, another kid started to appear in the pictures.
“Zhenzhen, that’s youuuu!” Yifan squealed while taking a look at a picture where Yixing held his sister in his arms, captioned: ‘Yixing’s a big brother now! And he’s good at taking care of his little sister already!’
Zhenzhen only sighed and said:
“Funny story: In my first months there was barely a minute where I did not scream my lungs out. Only when I was with Yixing I’d shut up.”
“Awwww, brotherly love!”
“I think it was mostly because he couldn’t hear me at full volume and therefore had way more patience with me than my mother.”
“Girl… you’re just as good at killing moods as your brother.”
“That may run in the family,” she answered with a wink and turned the page.
It was fun to see Yixing grow up in the pictures and turn from a chubby little boy to the young man he was today. And it was even more fun to hear all the stories from Zhenzhen.
“Oooh, I remember that day!” she exclaimed when they looked at a picture where Yixing and Zhenzhen stood in front of a viewing spot in Zhangjiajie.
Both of them didn’t smile, Yixing wearing a blue, Zhenzhen a pink raincoat and they looked at each other as if they were ready to jump each other’s throats. Yixing must’ve been maybe seven or eight years old.
“I had this little doll I used to carry everywhere around with me and I lost it in Zhangjiajie. I leaned over a barrier to look down and Yixing thought I was going to fall over, so he rushed to pull me back. I was so startled I let go of my doll and it fell down the mountain. It was not possible to get it back, of course and I was crying for two hours. I blamed Yixing and Yixing was mad at me because he only wanted to help and I wasn’t thankful for that. That picture was taken the next day. We still hated each other.”
“How did you two make up?”
“Yixing had already gotten some pocket money around that time and when our mother gave him his money for the week, he left and bought me another doll. It wasn’t the same, but during that time he was saving for a toy he wanted to have so I forgave him. I don’t even remember if he ever bought the toy in the end. I think he spent his savings on that stupid doll for me.”
“Your brother was such a good kid, my god!”
“Yepp. I was kind of the opposite.”
Yixing’s mother had been very eager on keeping up her son’s photo album. There wasn’t one year that hadn’t been covered and Yixing did even cooperate for pictures when he was in his teens, which is, as everyone knows, the most difficult time to get your kids in front of a camera lense. There was even a picture of him and his first official boyfriend, a guy from the neighbourhood going by the name of Wanghao.
“Aaaaaaaah! Now we’re getting to the good part!”
“No, not really. The two didn’t last long because this dude didn’t want anyone to find out they were seeing each other,” Zhenzhen explained matter of factly.
“Oh.”
The sister just shrugged her shoulders.
“They were barely 15 years old. I kind of understand that Wanghao was confused about all of this. I think my brother got over it. Heartbreak is something we all have to endure once in a while.”
Yifan was amazed at how rational Zhenzhen’s outlook on life was but didn’t say anything. Instead, he took some time to examine the picture in which Yixing and that guy were standing next to the pool in Yixing’s garden. It seemed like they were talking to each other and Yixing looked up to Wanghao with a bright smile on his face.
“He liked him very much,” Yifan stated.
“No need to get jealous, dear.”
“Pffffff!”
Yifan rolled his eyes and turned the page. When they got to the picture where Yixing held up his invitation from PKU and gave the camera a radiant smile, he found himself a little jealous indeed – Yixing had missed that awkward puberty phase where guys tried to rock Justin Bieber hair or had their emo phase that was embarrassing when you only thought back on it for a second. When Yifan remembered his 16 year old self with long hair that fell over his eyes, he just… cringed.
“Wow, how long has your mom been keeping this thing up?”
“Oh, you’ll see…!” Zhenzhen sing songed and Yifan got to the latest page captioned with ‘New Year’s 2015/2016’.
There were a few pictures with Yixing and his relatives that Yifan remembered Yixing’s mom taking but he clearly could not recall when she had taken a picture of him and Yixing sitting on the couch in the living room. They were wearing sweatpants and Yifan was even munching on something that could’ve been a Mantou. Yixing’s head rested on his shoulder, snuggled to his side. Before he could say anything, Zhenzhen said:
“Yeah I know, my mom’s kind of a stalker. Sorry about that. But hey, you made it into the album, that’s like being accepted as the son-in-law, that’s a good thing!”
He tried to remain unimpressed, but Yifan had to admit that the fact Yixing’s family had approved of him in some sort of way made him feel good. Maybe he wasn’t such an awkward person after all and actually good at socializing. When he closed the album Zhenzhen announced that she was kind of hungry so Yifan took her to the cafeteria where she grabbed a sandwich before she urged Yifan to get back to Yixing’s room, because his operation was about to come to an end and she didn’t want to miss the moment Yixing would be sent back. She acted like she didn’t really bother about the whole thing and tried to keep her cool (“I mean, not that I’m worried, I just think it’d be nice for him to not come back to an empty room, right?”), but Yifan sensed that she was just as nervous as he was, so he held his comments back.

When Yixing finally came back, Yifan had waited for almost five hours and he and Zhenzhen had started to play Majiang on an app on his phone to pass the time.
“We’re back!” the nurse announced and pushed Yixing into the room on his bed.
Sister and boyfriend jumped up and Yixing needed a few seconds before he even recognized Zhenzhen.
“What are you doing here?” he mumbled, still a little dizzy from the anesthesia.
“I’m happy to see you too, brother!”
Zhenzhen patted his head and looked down on him with a smile on her face that didn’t manage to reach her eyes. Yixing looked horrible. The doctors had placed plastic shields over the two surgical areas to prevent them from getting dirty and he himself looked awfully tired and his face was the color of the white wall behind him. Yifan wished to do something about it but he felt helpless and just asked:
“How are you feeling?”
Yixing sighed as if he tried hard to get himself together and then said:
“Weeeeiiiiiird.”
“Oh, he’s high on pain killers!” Zhenzhen stated and chuckled a little.
Yixing grunted, fighting off the anesthesia that threatened to shut his eyes again.
“My mouth is so dry,” he then announced.
“I’ll get you some water,” Yifan immediately said and the nurse interfered:
“I’ll be bringing him some tea in a few minutes. The doctors will come over in about twenty minutes to talk to you. After that, you have to leave. Visiting hours will be over in an hour.”
When she emerged out of the room, Zhenzhen scoffed:
“Wow, pretty rude!”
When the tea arrived, Yifan filled up the plastic cup that came with the pot and Yixing emptied it in one go. Zhenzhen asked him what he exactly remembered but Yixing couldn’t even recall how they pushed him into the operation room. Besides being groggy he really tried to engage in a conversation but sometimes his mind wandered off and he left some answers hanging in the air. Zhenzhen found it amusing, Yifan just hoped that Yixing would get back to normal as soon as possible because he couldn’t bare the sight of it. About thirty minutes before the visiting hours were over, Dr. Lopez and Dr. Wang came in. They themselves looked tired, too. But they were smiling.
“How’s our patient?” the female doctor asked while Dr. Wang signed again.
Yixing just shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, I guess you’re still tired from the anesthesia,” she said and looked at her notes.
When she saw Zhenzhen, a surprised look on her face appeared.
“And who are you?”
“I’m Zhang Zhenzhen, his little sister,” the girl answered in almost accent-free English and the doctors nodded.
“So nice of you to come all the way from your hometown!” Dr. Lopez exclaimed and Zhenzhen just smiled to indicate that taking care of her brother went without even saying anything.
“I guess you’re all eager to know how everything went,” Dr. Wang said.
“Yes, you could say that,” Yifan said while Yixing drank another cup of tea, still complaining about his dry mouth and mumbling something nobody really understood.
Dr. Lopez nodded and started to explain:
“Well, we have nothing to complain about to be honest. The left ear was a little harder to do since the space in the middle ear was a little smaller than we had calculated, but getting the implant in wasn’t that much of a problem.”
“That sounds good,” Zhenzhen said and the doctors agreed.
“Sooo, we got over the worst part now, but it’s still possible for nausea or headaches to appear. That’s completely normal, so don’t worry if you don’t feel that well the next days. We’ll provide you with enough medicine so it shouldn’t be any problem.”
“My mouth is so dry!” Yixing answered in the worst use of tones ever which made the Chinese people in the room giggle.
“That’s normal, don’t worry. It should be gone by tomorrow,” Dr. Wang explained.
Yifan and Zhenzhen got told that if there were no complications during night time, Yixing could be released tomorrow. He’d also get rid of the plastic shields during the next ward round which Zhenzhen commented with:
“Thank god, I think he’d hate these things if he could see himself right now.”
When the doctors left, the nurse came back in with Yixing’s dinner and urged Yifan and Zhenzhen to be gone in five minutes. Zhenzhen took a look over the food and she said:
“I think my brother will starve here.”
Yixing sat up and whined when he saw a bowl of Zhou, one apple and a pack of yoghurt. He immediately sunk back into his pillow and crossed his arms.
“Don’t give me that attitude, Zhang Yixing,” Yifan said and rammed a hole into the pack of yoghurt with the straw that came with it, “At least drink the yoghurt. You haven’t eaten all day.”
Yixing was too weak and too high on meds to argue with his boyfriend, so he sighed and grabbed the pack. When he took a few sips, the nurse entered the room again:
“Time to say goodbye. I have given you guys some extra minutes, you really have to go now.”
Yixing whined and grabbed Yifan’s hand.
“Don’t go.”
“Rules are rules,” Zhenzhen said and leaned over to give her brother a kiss on the cheek.
“We’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up, okay?”
Yixing didn’t look happy and it broke Yifan’s heart in two to see him like that, but the nurse cleared and shot them an angry look, so Yifan gave him a last kiss (ignoring the look the woman in pink scrubs was shooting them) and promised to be back as soon as visiting hours would start. Zhenzhen grabbed her suitcase and when they stood outside the building she sighed heavily.
“Poor brother.”
“We’ll get him out of there tomorrow, don’t worry,” Yifan said and took her suitcase, “Do you have a hotel where you’re staying at?”
“I kind of don’t,” she admitted and Yifan stopped a Taxi.
“Good. Then I’ll bring you to Yixing’s place.”
On the way to Wudaokou the two decided to get dinner and they ended up in a small restaurant with three tables and a big plate of spicy chicken, two bowls of rice and some smaller side dishes. Yifan wasn’t very hungry, but Zhenzhen had an appetite for two – it was almost unbelievable how much she could eat and still be thin as a stick.
“So, will you get back to your dorm or are you basically living with my brother right now?” Zhenzhen asked nonchalantly and nibbled on one piece of chicken with bones.
“To be honest, I don’t even know why I’m paying the rent for my dorm.”
The comment made Zhenzhen laugh. She then proceeded to dig in the bowl with chicken and chillies but couldn’t find any meat anymore.
“Wow, we’ve finished it already?”
“You finished it,” Yifan said, “I was kind of sitting here and watched you.”
He expected her to be embarrassed but after a short moment the 16 year old just shrugged her shoulders and put the chopsticks down.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Yifan paid for the dinner and they made their way to Yixing’s apartment where they spent another two hours watching Zhenzhen’s favorite variety show before they went to bed – Yifan stayed on the couch and left the bed to her.
“You know we can still share the bed you don’t have to sleep on that thing!” she said after she had changed into a panda pyjama and came back to say goodnight and Yifan tried to get comfortable with a pillow and a quilt that Yixing had bought during last December.
“Naaah, I’m good.”
Even though he liked her, sharing a bed was out of the question. Zhenzhen pouted but realized it was no use.
“Okay then. Goodnight!”
“Goodnight!”
Yifan was actually very tired and drained even though he didn’t do anything the whole day. And still – a good night’s sleep was somehow out of the question, not only because the sofa wasn’t comfortable and way too short for Yifan’s impossible long legs but also because his mind wandered off to Yixing and he couldn’t stop worrying about him, even though he was sure his boyfriend had been asleep for quite a few hours already.

A/N: I - AM - SO - SORRY. After coming back I had to prepare for that HSK exam (which I think I failed but well, I can retake it lol) and then I was stuck and it took me AGES to get back into a proper writing flow. I was frustrated with myself, I can tell you. ANYWAYS. Here it is and it's still October. I'm back. You're getting updates again HURRAY. :D
I MISSED YOU BY THE WAY. And yesterday I read all of your lovely comments and they gave me the motivation to finally finish this chapter so I really want to thank you guys. ♥