“Do you want to go out?”

Baekhyun made no sign to indicate that he had heard me. His head was buried beneath his pillows.

I had been visiting him for over two weeks and he showed absolutely no sign of recovery. He sulked in bed, he lost weight, he became ghastly pale. He barely spoke and when he did, he usually told me to off.

“Do you want to watch a movie?”

He was silent.

“Do you...want to talk about it?”

Silence.

Two weeks, and nothing. I was on the brink of a breakdown.

“What the am I doing wrong?”

“Everything,” he muttered.

What he said hurt me more than it should have. I felt angry tears prick at my eyes, and I stood up. I couldn’t do this anymore.

“I’ve attempted everything, Baekhyun, to make you feel better, and you don’t even ing try to appreciate it?” I shrieked.

This seemed to provoke a reaction from him.

“Yeah? You never had to do any of this !” He countered.

He sat up. He had eyebags and his hair was in utter disarray.

“You’re welcome to leave.”

I bit my bottom lip to keep it from quivering, but to no avail. Tears had already began to leak down my cheeks.

“Fine,” I screamed, my voice breaking, “I will!”

I wiped at my eyes as I raced out of Baekhyun’s house.

“Myunghee?” Mrs Byun called, “Where are you going?”

I didn’t answer; I just ran as fast as I could. It seemed that I always left the Byun residence like this: running away, emotionally unstable.  

//

I reached into my jean pocket and withdrew Dr Kim Junghoon’s business card. I knew the address of his clinic and I knew how to get there. I stared at it for a minute as I contemplated whether or not it was wise to go to him. If he was Baekhyun’s psychiatrist, perhaps he could help me.

Next stop, Seogyoro

I stood up, and slung the strap of my purse over my shoulder. I took a breath and stepped off the bus. Dr Kim’s clinic was not far from the stop. Within five minutes, I had reached it.

“Hello,” the receptionist greeted, “would you like to schedule a walk-in appointment?”

“Ah...yes, please.”

“You’ll have to wait about ten minutes, until Dr Kim’s current session ends. Is that okay?”

I nodded and took a seat in the near empty waiting area. There were only two other people, a man with thick spectacles and a middle-aged woman reading a novel. I grabbed a magazine from the table in the centre. I skimmed through it, until Dr Kim and his client emerged from his office.

The receptionist stood up and said something to him, gesturing at me. He nodded, and beckoned for me to follow him to his office. As I sat down in one of his plush armchairs, he shut his door and seated himself in front of me.

“So. Why are you here today?’

“I’m aware that one of your clients is Byun Baekhyun, and I’m his friend. I was wondering if you could tell me something about his past. I know it’s confidential, but I just want to help him.”

Dr Kim smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry, I can’t do that. The last time Baekhyun came to me was when he was very young. I don’t see him anymore.”

“Oh. Okay, Thank you for--”

The door of his office burst open, revealing the distressed looking receptionist.

“Um, Dr Kim, there’s a woman here to see you and she claims to be your lover? She’s going ballistic, you have to come see her.”

Dr Kim’s face grew pale as he exited his office, completely forgetting about me. I pussyfooted to the doorway and peeked out. Standing on the table, was a woman. She was in her late twenties and was conventionally pretty. She was singing ‘Alone’ by Sistar, while the receptionist tried to coax her down.

“You loved me!” She declared, directing an accusing finger at Dr Kim, “how dare you ing leave me?”

“You’re violating your restraining order!” He yelled.

She leaped down from the table and grabbed Dr Kim.

“We were gonna get married!” She wailed, “We were gonna honeymoon in Paris!”

“That’s all in your mind! I never loved you and I never said that!”

I receded back into the room, and my eyes fell on his storage closet. Hastily, I threw it open and began to go through his files, looking for Byun Baekhyun. To my dismay, his file folder was empty. Dr Kim must have stored it away elsewhere. There was only a small recording device tucked into the folder.

Swiftly, I hid it in my purse. Baekhyun hadn’t seen him in years. No way would Dr Kim notice a missing voice recording.

I snuck out of the clinic, undetected. I could hear snippets of the argument.

“It was one date until I found out about your diagnosis!”

"You were in love!”

“You have erotomania! You’re gonna go to jail for violating your restraining order!”

“You love me! All men love me! I went to your house the other day, and a woman with a kid opened the door. Who was that? Who was that ?"

“Stay the away from me, my wife, and my kid!"

My heart hammered loudly in my chest, even as I slipped out the door of the clinic and boarded the bus home. I had just acquired confidential information about Baekhyun, illegally.

I had committed my first theft.

I hope it was worth it.

A/N: Erotomania is a form of delusion in which somebody falsely believes that another individual is in love with them (in this case, the woman is convinced that Dr Kim is madly in love with her, even though the farthest they've went is a first date)