BREAKING NEWS: This just in. Actor Kim Myungsoo has been reported to be in an automobile accident. It was a head-on collision. No word on whether drugs or alcohol were involved or who was responsible for the accident. Some eye-witnesses at the scene claim that they saw Myungsoo-ssi run into the oncoming vehicle with intent. However that claim has not been confirmed. We will update you on this matter whenever new information is attained.

“Nurse Kim! Catch!”

Sunggyu caught the clipboard flying straight at his chest, successfully knocking the wind out of his lungs. “Umph!” he grunted as he pulled the clipboard away from his chest. “You could’ve just handed it to me,” he grumbled. Wincing, he rubbed his chest right where the clipboard had hit him. She has quite the arm for an old lady, he thought as the middle-aged woman walked up to him.

The head nurse smiled cheekily. “But that’s not as fun,” she retorted.

Sunggyu rolled his eyes and decided to change the topic, “What is this?”

“Read it,” she commanded, lifting up the clipboard to the man’s line of sight. “It’s a high profile patient, and there’s a good chance that he’ll be here for a while, which means he probably needs a private and regular staff attending to him.”

The nurse’s eyes widened in surprise. “So he’ll be my only patient for awhile?” he asked, and his superior nodded in response. He glanced down at the clipboard and smiled. “Daebak!” he exclaimed under his breath.

Lately, Sunggyu had been through the ringer. Along with the Holiday cheer typically came throngs of patients under his care. Patients ranged from a case of the sniffles due to the sudden drop in temperature, to car accidents in the Holiday rush, to lacerations from a family reunion gone awry. Sunggyu had seen it all and dealt with a good portion of it. As a nurse practioner, the hospital depended on him and his coworkers to take care of the ‘less severe’ cases. However, ‘less severe’ sometimes meant ‘not immediately life-threatening,’ and he probably headed some cases that were actually outside of his jurisdiction. But it’s not like he couldn’t help them. It was his job. And he’d bitten off more than he could chew for the past month, so having only one patient to watch over was the reprieve that he deserved.

“Did you give this to me because I’m your favorite? Because I’m the best?” Sunggyu bragged as he flipped through the chart.

The head nurse chuckled slightly and shook her head at the young man’s bravado. “Think whatever you want,” she replied.

Oh, and Sunggyu will. He always thought himself to be the best nurse on staff, so he was going to take this case as an official acknowledgement of that. He grinned widely as he flipped back to the front page of the chart and read the name of the patient. “Hm?” He thought that this was supposed to be a high profile patient, but Sunggyu couldn’t recognize the name on the form. “Who’s Kim Myungsoo?”

The woman patted the other on the shoulder as if she were consoling him. “And that’s the real reason why you got this case,” she revealed. The head nurse then pulled away and sighed sadly. “Read a magazine or watch television, Kim,” she instructed before turning away and walking down the hallway.

“I do!” Sunggyu called after her. It was a weak argument and wouldn’t convince anyone.  She had a point. Sunggyu was a bit ‘out-of-touch’ with pop culture and whatnot. Most of the time, he spent at the hospital. And with the free time that he had, he mostly just slept and ate, wasted the day away. But he wasn’t completely ‘out-of-touch.’ He watched Game of Thrones . He listened to modern music, mostly rock but still recent. His interests were narrow, as wide as the eye of a needle. And he really wasn’t open to new things.

But something brand new just came under his care.

UPDATE: Actor Kim Myungsoo, who has been reported to be in an accident earlier this evening, is now in the hospital getting treated. The severity of his injuries is still unknown, as is the cause of the accident. Stay tuned for further updates.

So this is the end? This is what death feels like? Is it supposed to be this painful? I thought that there was no more pain after death. Am I paying for my sins? Is this purgatory?

“…Myungsoo-ssi?”

I guess I deserve it. I’m not the nicest…but I wasn’t the meanest either. Why? Why did it have to end like this? What did I do wrong?

“Myungsoo-ssi?”

The Light. Myungsoo could see it breaking through his fluttering eyelids. And he could practically hear the angels on the other side, beckoning him to cross-over. Should he open his eyes and walk towards the Light? Embrace Death with open arms like an old friend?

Yes, he was ready to die. His life was over.

Myungsoo quickly opened his eyes as wide as he could and was blinded by the brightness. For a few seconds, everything was white and hazy, just like he imagined that the Afterlife would be. And there was a face. It was out of focus, blurry. But a halo shone around the face. An angel? Myungsoo thought, blinking his eyes and trying to focus them. The halo disappeared, and now it almost looked like two horns were forming on the face’s head. A devil?

Myungsoo closed his eyes hard this time before opening them again. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight that laid before him this time. It was a hospital room, and in front of him was a male nurse with seriously messy hair. His life wasn’t quite over yet.

“Good. You’re awake,” the nurse spoke as he was checking Myungsoo’s vitals. “It was kind of touch-and-go for awhile, but you pulled through. Yup, you were practically dead on the table. We had to shock you back to life once or twice. Looks like the third time was the charm, and you’re still kicking.” Myungsoo tilted his head as he shifted in his bed to get a better look at the nurse. There was something about the tone of the nurse’s voice that was…a little too light, a little too jovial. It was like almost having a patient die was a trivial thing. The nurse finally turned to him, and the slight smile on his face completely disappeared. “Except not actually kicking because we amputated both of your legs.”

Myungsoo gasped and attempted to rip off the bed sheet in a panic, but it got caught on wires and other things, tying it down, including the nurse’s hands that were now gripping the edges of the sheet and holding it down. “Whoa! Whoa! I was just joking. Don’t you Hallyu types joke?” The nurse then gently pushed Myungsoo to lie back down onto the bed. “Calm down.”

“B-but my legs,” Myungsoo’s voice croaked. It was the first thing that he’d said, and he hadn’t realized how dry his throat felt. God, it felt like the burning Sahara in his mouth. His tongue felt like cotton. Just what had happened to him? Why did he feel this way? Where were his legs?

“They’re there, trust me,” the other responded. “You’re just heavily anesthetized and probably don’t feel them so well. You probably also don’t feel your tongue hanging out of your mouth right now. You thirsty?”

Myungsoo nodded as his hand covered his mouth and popped his tongue back inside. This was just great. Kim Myungsoo, the actor known for his chic appearance and slick mannerisms, just had his tongue sticking out like a dog. There were probably thousands of other things wrong with him that he didn’t even realize. But…but, even now, even when he felt both pain and numbness everywhere, when he was too weak to open his eyes all the way, was it still necessary for him to keep up his appearances? To still be a celebrity and a patient? Myungsoo pondered about that as he on the ice chips that the nurse fed him.

He might not have an answer to that question, but at least his mouth and throat were slowly becoming less dry. So he tried for a question that he knew one of them could answer: “What happened?”

The nurse smiled faintly and shook the ice chips around in the cup. “You got banged up.”

It was a car accident cause by a drunk driver. Myungsoo wasn’t responsible for it (“Although you were a bit over the legal limit. Tsk, tsk,” the nurse chided). He was driving on the highway when a woman entered onto the highway on an exit ramp, going the wrong way and driving at a high speed. Myungsoo got the worst of it, but isn’t that how most alcohol-fueled accidents go? The woman had already been discharged and her insurance information had been collected. The actor was left with several broken bones and bruises, but luckily that seemed to be the worst of it.

“You don’t have any internal bleeding, which is nice. And once the surgeon comes in and the OR opens up, he can piece your shattered foot together again,” the nurse once again picking up the light tone. “And that’s pretty much all of your injuries.”

“Thank you, um…nurse,” Myungsoo responded.

The nurse got up and checked the IV. “Sunggyu,” he said in a distracted voice.

“Huh?”

The nurse looked over at the actor and smiled. “You can call me Sunggyu. I’ll be attending to you often, so it’s easier this way,” he explained. He then forced a smile and then continued, “Well, I’m going to leave so you can take a nap. You look tired.”

“I am,” Myungsoo answered, barely moving his lips. His eyes were already fluttering closed. Sunggyu’s face was flickering into the darkness as his eyes grew heavier.

“Okay, just be careful. Your nose is broken too, and it hasn’t healed yet.”

“WHAT?!” Myungsoo was wide-awake now and bolted upright, but his reaction must’ve been too late. Sunggyu had already turned out the light, and the door to his private room was already closed.

And Myungsoo’s life was officially over.

UPDATE: We’ve just learned that actor Kim Myungsoo’s accident was caused by a drunk driver, who will remain unnamed. So all of the rumors of a possible suicide attempt or drugs being involved have been dismissed. However, now rumors have been circulating concerning his injuries. What are they? How severe are they? That’s what we would like to know. Our informant has told us that Kim Myungsoo is alive and conscious, but that is all that we can say with certainty. Please keep watching for further updates.

“How did they know?” Myungsoo grumbled as he turned off the television in his hospital room. The reporters always seemed to know what was going on in his life, sometimes better than he did.

“Like they said. They have an informant,” his manager, Howon, replied. “Even in this private room with private staff, they still invaded.” Howon put his face in his hands as he thought how to best handle this situation. But he soon gave up his search for a solution and raised his head. “Did your parents come?” he changed the conversation.

“They were there when I woke up this afternoon and left shortly before you came,” Myungsoo answered, gazing at the black television screen.

“How was it?”

“Good,” Myungsoo bluntly responded. It wasn’t that Myungsoo wasn’t close with his parents. He loved them dearly, and they loved him just as much. Myungsoo just never shared much with them. He protected his parents as much as he could from the limelight and all of the troubles that came along with it. Being a celebrity was the path he chose for himself, he didn’t chose it for his parents, and he’d like to keep it that way. And so family matters were mostly private, even to Howon.

And Howon never pried. “Alright,” he replied with a nod. He then stood up from his seat. “I’d like to stay, but I have to go deal with something.”

“What is it?” Myungsoo asked as his dark eyes followed his manager across the room.

“Something,” Howon curtly answered. “I’ll see you later, Soo.”

The actor smirked as he watched his manager leave and gave him a short wave. That was typical Howon. Myungsoo kept his family matters private, and Howon kept some of his work matters private, especially when it came to dealing with the press. Howon was probably on his way to sniff out the informant. Luckily, his manager had a strong sense of smell and always caught whatever he was chasing down. The informant would be silenced soon enough.

But until then, Myungsoo couldn’t let his guard done. What else could he divulge with his drugged and hazy mind? No, it was better to remain quiet for now. His hospital door then creaked open and that male nurse, Sunggyu, walked through with a sheepish smile on his face. After their eyes met, Myungsoo returned his eyes back to the black screen. Not even the nurses were safe. Myungsoo tucked his lips inwards, locking up all of his words inside. It was best to be silent.

“Time to check your vitals,” Sunggyu announced as he went over to the machine at the actors bedside and nodded thoughtfully as he looked it over. “Yup, it’s just as I thought. You’re still alive,” he joked.

Myungsoo scoffed, stifling back a laugh. So much for his plan to not even make a peep. But he should be fine as long as he never said actual words.

“So what are you famous for anyway?”

“Huh?” Still technically not a word, so Myungsoo remained in the clear.

“Ah, sorry. Was that rude?” Sunggyu quickly apologized as he fiddled with the IV. “It’s just that…I’m no good with stuff like this, knowing celebrities, talking with celebrities. You’re the first one that I’ve ever met actually.”

“Uh,” Myungsoo grunted with a nod. Sunggyu seemed genuine, but then again, so did many actors that Myungsoo had come across. If anything, his guard against the other grew thicker.

“So what is it?” Sunggyu asked, sitting down in the chair that Howon had just left (and before Howon, his mother had sat in it). Myungsoo narrowed his dark eyes on the other and cocked his head. “Actor? Singer? Model? MC?” the nurse guessed and the other gave him no response in return. However, that did not stop him.  “All?” Sunggyu suggested as if it were ridiculous. The actor then shrugged and looked back at the blank television screen. “ALL?! Really?” the other gasped in disbelief.

“Eung,” Myungsoo hummed as he looked for the remote. It wasn’t quite a lie. He had done all of those things in some regard. He had hosted an award show once and sang on a drama (his song didn’t make it onto the drama’s soundtrack though). Myungsoo also had been on the covers of fashion magazines. All of those things he had done, and he had done them thanks to his looks. His finger unconsciously brushed against the bridge of his nose. He winced in pain. It was still broken, like his career and life was now. Myungsoo had made a living off of his face. With it broken, how could he live now?

“Even an MC.” Sunggyu sat back in the chair and whistled lowly, calling away the actor from his thoughts. The nurse tilted his head and chuckled cheekily, “It’s hard to believe when you never even say a word.” He then leaned forward and caught the other’s eye. “How’s your throat? Okay?” the nurse asked. Myungsoo nodded and gave a small smile. Sunggyu sat back in his seat, thinking for a few moments before snapping his fingers together. “AH! Do you need a script?” he teased. “Like if I say, ‘Oh! Hello, Myungsoo-ssi. How are you?’ You respond with…”

Sunggyu let it end there, waiting for the actor to fill in the blank, which he eventually did. “Fine,” Myungsoo answered.

The nurse grinned and patted the other on the shoulder. “Now we are getting somewhere.”

Kim Myungsoo began his career as the handsome, flower boy next door in the daily drama “She’s a Fantasy.” Although his appearance was only for five episodes, he made huge waves in the industry for his dashing looks. However, his biggest break came two years later when he was cast against Rain as the second male lead in “My Lovely Girl.” With that role as idol Siwoo, Kim Myungsoo’s career took off like a shooting star. Has this bright and brilliant star already burn out? There has been no word about Myungsoo-ssi’s condition. He is still in the hospital and having his wounds attend to. Myungsoo-ssi, please get well soon and return to us as soon as you can. Fighting!

“Fighting,” Myungsoo repeated in a somber tone as he turned off the television when the news report ended. He didn’t have an ounce of fight left in him, not a shred of spirit.

“Morning, Myungsoo-ssi!”

Myungsoo groaned and rolled onto his other side, back towards the door and Sunggyu, the friendly male nurse. Somehow, even with the actor giving him a perpetually cold shoulder, the nurse never lost that small smile on his face, or his cheeriness, or his spirit. Although the nurse’s spirit didn’t rub off on the actor, it did have an effect, which made Myungsoo’s stomach sink.

He felt like he could trust Sunggyu, even though he was well aware that there was an informant in the hospital and the walls had ears (and Sunggyu already proved himself to be exceptionally chatty). But every time the nurse came in, sat down in that chair after taking his vitals. Sunggyu would talk to him (more like ‘talked at him’), only asking Myungsoo how he felt, nothing more. Private things were kept private, even from the media. The news about his condition never broke. It would seem that Sunggyu wasn’t the informant. It would seem that Myungsoo could trust him.

But why did that make his stomach churn in uneasiness?

Because he didn’t know if he could trust him for certain . Years in the industry had ruined his ability to trust in people who weren’t his family or his manager. There was a possibility that Sunggyu could turn his back on him at any moment, and that made Myungsoo scared.

Although does it really matter anyway? My life is over , Myungsoo thought as he rolled onto his back so that the nurse could change his IV. Why not? Talk to Male Nurse. He’s gonna talk to you anyway.

“So,” Myungsoo began. Sunggyu immediately faced the other with an eyebrow raised, slightly stunned.  After all, Myungsoo was gearing up to say more than one word to him. The focused attention made the actor nervous, and he blurted out the first thing that had come to mind. “So you’re a male nurse? There aren’t too many males who are nurses.”

The perpetual smile on the other’s face faltered at the comment, but he quickly regained his composure. “I’m not just a male nurse. I’m a nurse practioner ,” he corrected as he put in the IV a bit harsher than usual.

“There’s a difference?” Myungsoo asked, rubbing his hand with a wince.

“Of course there is!” the nurse argued. “I went to school for longer. I could open my own practice if I wanted to…in a small rural town, but I still could!”

The actor tilted his head and looked at the other incredulously. “Really?”

“Yea. I’m a registered nurse with an expert knowledge base, complex decision-making skills, and clinical competencies for expanded practice. I have a Master’s Degree!” Sunggyu rattled off like a bullet, running straight from Myungsoo’s one ear and out the other. The actor had hardly registered a single word of that rant. His brain was still tired and sluggish. Sunggyu was looking at him, expecting a response, and all that Myungsoo could give him was a lost expression.

“I don’t think…that I understand,” the actor admitted sheepishly.

Sunggyu sighed and patted the other lightly on the shoulder. “Be nice to me. I’m a male nurse who proscribes your pain medication,” he put it simply.

Myungsoo nodded and gave the other the ‘okay’ sign with his hand. “Got it,” he replied. And he had genuinely decided to try to be nicer to the nurse, not just because of the medication either.

And that fact hadn’t gone undetected by the other. “You’re more talkative than usual today,” Sunggyu stated as he walked over to the chair by the actor. “Why?” Myungsoo only shrugged as his answer. The nurse smiled cheekily as he sat down. “Lonely?” he suggested. He then snapped his fingers. “Ah! Do you like me?”

“No,” Myungsoo was quick to deny and fervently shook his head. The smile on the other’s face only grew wider. The actor huffed, “I just…wanted to talk.”

“Okay then,” Sunggyu took up an unusually serious tone. “Let’s talk about something important.” The smile was replaced by a stern line stretched across his face. Myungsoo’s heart quickened in his chest and his eyes fixed on the wall. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t normal. He was starting to regret letting down his walls even an inch to the other.

“What?” Myungsoo mumbled through nearly closed lips.

“I talked about this with your manager earlier today. He said that he’d leave the decision to you,” the nurse skirted around the issue. He was probably used to dealing with reticent patients and had developed a touch.

Myungsoo cautiously looked at the other out of the corner of his eye. “What is it?”

“We finished with all of your major surgeries. Put your foot back together again,” the nurse remarked, gently patting on the patient’s leg now wrapped in a cast. He then pulled back his hands and folded them in his lap. “But now it’s time to move onto the minor injuries,” he stated. Myungsoo’s hand went up to his nose, still wrapped up in gauze. He felt the cotton against his fingertips. Myungsoo inhaled sharply. It was still tender to the touch. He then felt his hand being pulled away from his nose. Sunggyu was staring at him intently. “Yea, that one,” he continued. “Do you want it fixed? I mean, you have to walk, but you don’t need a perfect nose. It’s optional.”

“I do,” Myungsoo admitted under his breath.  “Mine is perfect…was…” he corrected. Panic began to set in again. Tears were welling in the corners of his eyes. He quickly hung his head and let go a deep breath in hopes of regaining control.

“So you want it?” Sunggyu prodded the other to come to a conclusion.

But Myungsoo didn’t have one to give, “Yes…no…aish, I don’t know.” His head hung lower and lower, his chin was digging into his chest.

“What’s the big deal?” Sunggyu snapped, which oddly enough caused Myungsoo to smirk. The nurse finally lost his patience with his patient. He doesn’t get it . “Do you want it or not?” Sunggyu pressured the other.

Myungsoo finally lifted his head and looked at the nurse with defiant eyes. “I said, I don’t know,” he growled.

“It’s just a nose!”

“And you’re just a male nurse,” Myungsoo snapped back.

“That’s it,” Sunggyu exclaimed, wagging a finger at the other. “You’re not getting the good pain medication anymore. I’m cutting you off!” he declared as he got up and reached over to remove the other from the drip (it was an empty threat, really).

“Why?!” Myungsoo complained, rolling onto his side and protecting his arm. “But I’m still hurt!” he whined. “Owie!”

“Owie?” the other repeated in a mocking tone. “Are you trying to be cute?” He stopped struggling with the other and just stared down at his patient with an amused grin.

Myungsoo faced the other. “Is it working?” he asked with a sly smile on his face.

The nurse only shook his head and laughed as he pulled away. Myungsoo sat up in his bed as he watched the other walk across the room. Was his aegyo that good? Was he going to get extra-medicine? A massage? Sunggyu finally turned back to the patient as he put on his jacket. “Lunch time, Myungsoo-ssi,” he announced. Well, that sounded good to the actor too. “What do you want?”

Myungsoo had simple tastes. All that he was really craving was just rice and lettuce. That was it. Sunggyu was shocked when Myungsoo gave him that answer. And he carefully watched the other as he delivered the meal to the patient.

Myungsoo took it gratefully, with both hands and began eating. It was a simple meal, more of a snack than anything (he could always ask Sunggyu to get him more food later). But it also simply made him happy. He felt his mood immediately lifting the more food that he crammed into his mouth. With his mouth full, his heart was becoming full as well, and calm. For the first time in a long while, Myungsoo felt at ease. He closed his eyes as he chewed. He felt as if he were at home.

But then a scoff whistling past his ears called him back to the hospital room and the situation that he was currently in.

“What?” Myungsoo mumbled at the nurse through a mouth full of food.

“Some ‘cool city guy,’" Sunggyu remarked with a laugh. Myungsoo swallowed hard at the familiar nickname and narrowed his eyes on the other. Sunggyu had said that he didn’t know who he was, but then why did he know Myungsoo’s nickname. The nurse smirked. “That’s right. I know who you are now, Siwoo . I looked you up,” he revealed. “Be honest. You're from the countryside aren't you?” he teased.

Myungsoo shook his head. “No. I'm a Seoul native,” he replied, cramming another leaf of lettuce into his mouth.

“You're lying,” the other fought back. Myungsoo shook his head again, with his cheeks bulging with food. The nurse laughed. “I've never seen some eat lettuce like you. If you're not from the country, you must be part rabbit,” Sunggyu proposed.

Myungsoo slowly chewed through and swallowed the food, thinking as he did so. “I just like it,” he finally answered. It was low in calories, but it still filled him up. You could also add various things to it. What wasn’t there to like about it?

“So you’re a rabbit then?” Sunggyu concluded.

The actor frowned. “Better than being a hamster,” he fought back with the other’s nickname that he heard floating around the ward (and occasionally yelled down the hallway). Myungsoo grinned at the other’s deepening frown. At least a rabbit was the cuter of the rodents.

“Yah, only my superiors can call me that,” Sunggyu raised his voice. “And only because I can’t tell them not to,” he reasoned. He then slumped. “It hurts my feelings.” Now who is trying to act cute?

“Don’t worry, Male Nurse. You’re a handsome…” Myungsoo paused for a bit before adding “…hamster.” He gleefully watched the nurse’s face go from flattered to irritated in a matter of milliseconds. But then the expression suddenly became deadly. “I mean, Male Nurse Practioner,” Myungsoo corrected and his hand automatically flew to his IV. He didn’t want to lose his pain meds over some silly teasings.

Sunggyu’s face softened as he sighed. “You know, I think I preferred it when you didn’t talk at all.”

UPDATE: It was reported earlier that actor Kim Myungsoo was in the hospital with some minor and some major injuries. It’s been said that not only his right ankle was shattered in the accident, but his face has also been injured, including a broken nose. Kim Myungsoo, who was famous for having a flawless yet natural face, may be facing the possibility of plastic surgery and losing his title of being a “natural beauty.” How will this impact his career? That’s what we’ll discuss right now. What do you—

Sunggyu shut off the television in the break room. He couldn’t stand listening to the program anymore. He turned to his fellow nurses who had been adamantly watching the program, day-in and day-out (in fact, that’s how he mostly learned about his patient). Before they could start complaining, Sunggyu spoke in a stern voice, “You shouldn’t watch shows like this. It’ll rot your brain.”

To hear them talk about Myungsoo like that, his Myungsoo, his patient, it upset him. To those newscasters (even some of the nurses and doctors), the actor was nothing more than gossip.

It’s stupid , he thought. Utterly ridiculous. His whole body is banged up. People should be more worried if he’d ever be able to walk without a limp again. But all they care about is the face . Sunggyu then sighed as he walked into Myungsoo’s private room and saw the actor playing with the gauze along the bridge of his nose again. It’s all he cares about too.

Sunggyu understood the situation now. It really wasn’t just a nose. It was Myungsoo’s reputation on the line, his career. It was a source of gossip and debate for everyone outside of these four walls. Myungsoo’s life was under a microscope, and his every move was heavily scrutinized. It was no wonder why the other was hesitating over this decision.

“Your nose made the news. Just how famous are you?” the nurse decided to deliver the news as lightly as he could. “Or is your nose more famous than the rest of you?”

“Maybe,” the actor answered honestly. “My entire face is more famous than I am.”

Sunggyu nodded, contemplating his next move as he sat down next to the patient. “I think I understand now,” he spoke.

“Hm?”

“Why you’re so apprehensive about the surgery,” Sunggyu continued.  He looked up from his folded hands to see Myungsoo staring back at him intently. The actor was hanging onto his every word. The intensity of the eyes made the nurse’s throat tighten. Myungsoo was looking at him differently now than before. Before Sunggyu had always felt as if the other was looking past him, or just barely cast him a glance. But now he was feeling the heat of Myungsoo’s undivided attention. The nurse rubbed his hands together nervously. “You’re right,” he admitted. “It’s more than just a nose. It’s one of those situations that you’re damned if you do or damned if you don’t.”

Myungsoo sighed and his eyes fell to his lap. “Exactly,” he muttered. He in a breath through clenched teeth and tilted his head. “No matter what I do now…someone is going to complain about it,” he was slowly becoming more worked up. “I can’t eat or sleep without someone commenting about it.” He then let out a strangled gasp. It was obvious. He was holding back tears. Sunggyu could see them b in the corners of the patient’s eyes, threating to spill, and then finally streaming down his cheeks. “No matter what I do…someone is going to hate it.”

Sunggyu slowly moved to the edge of his seat and reached over to gently pat the other on the back. It was shaking under his touch. Myungsoo was shaking. He was barely holding himself together. The actor was broken in more ways than one. His faith in people had shattered. And Sunggyu didn’t know if it was because he was a nurse or not, but he wanted to heal and restore that broken faith too. “Myungsoo, you’ve been having a hard time, haven’t you?” he whispered lowly.

Myungsoo scarcely nodded his head. With his head still low, he looked over at the other. “It’s nice…being here…getting away from all of that,” he stumbled through his words.

Uh oh. Myungsoo wasn’t just hesitating. He was stagnant. The actor was comfortable here, outside of the limelight, with Sunggyu. And he didn’t want to leave. Sunggyu had seen this before. To most, the hospital was a scary place, somewhere you tried to avoid going. But it’s also an asylum, a place safer to some than the world outside.

The nurse sighed and lectured, “You know, this is a hospital. It’s not a hotel.”

“Hm?” Myungsoo hummed with a loud sniff. He raised his head. “What do you mean?”

“You can’t just stay here for however long you want. We need your bed for the next celebrity who gets in a wreck,” once again, he tried to cut the harsh truth with a joke. But it still looked like it had stung the other.

Myungsoo shook his head. “I don’t think I’m ready,” he argued, sounding vaguely like a stubborn child.

Sunggyu smiled at that. And this kid is supposed to be a heartthrob . Well, the actor did make his heart squeeze, but for all the wrong reasons. “No one ever is,” Sunggyu said, placing his hand on the other’s shoulder. “I know that you don’t want to get back out there, under such scrutiny. But you can’t hide forever.”

“I can try,” the other argued. “I can be like a ninja and disappear. Whoosh!” Now it was Myungsoo who was trying to make a joke of things, trying to change the subject, trying to distract the other by making cute noises.

And Sunggyu was slightly distracted. He pushed his knuckles softly against the other’s temple, chiding, “You know, it’s a miracle how you convinced people that you’re cool.” Not even the smile slowly growing on Myungsoo’s face could derail Sunggyu. He returned the conversation back on track. “But seriously…sometimes I have bad day and I feel like hiding too, whenever a patient dies, when I screw up and get yelled at by the doctors or get accused of malpractice by the family members.” Myungsoo was nodding, soaking in every word that he was saying. Sunggyu then returned his hand to the other’s shoulder, making the actor look up at him. “But running away doesn’t make problems go away,” he said. “Even if I hide, the patient is still dead and I’m still in deep sh*t.”

“What do you do?” Myungsoo asked, his eyes as lost as ever.

“I move on,” Sunggyu put it bluntly. “And you should too.” He gave the shoulder a hard pat, causing Myungsoo to sputter and to glare at the nurse darkly. Sunggyu chuckled. “Actually, it would be good for your body too to start moving again.”

But as usual, the joke didn’t distract either of them. Myungsoo’s mind was just as focused on the issue at hand. His gaze softened. “Sunggyu-ssi…what do you think I should do?”

“Me?” Sunggyu sputtered. He looked around, searching for any other Sunggyu (because Myungsoo couldn’t mean him), and then pointed to himself. “You’re asking career advice from me?”

“Eung,” Myungsoo hummed. He looked certain. He then reached over and held the nurse’s hand in his. “I trust you.”

Sunggyu looked down at their conjoined hands. When did this happen? When did the trust form between them? He knew that Myungsoo was going to be those slow-to-warm-up types, but he never expected the actor to suddenly and wholly trust him. It was as if Myungsoo had spent sometime dipping his toes into the waters before deciding to cannonball in.

“Well…” Sunggyu began. “…if I were in your position…and people focused on my face and not my talent…I’d take my face away.”

It was odd. For someone who was normally ‘out-of-touch,’ Sunggyu became very involved in this issue, in Myungsoo. He actually had an opinion on the matter. And even more surprisingly, he had actually watched some of Myungsoo’s dramas. If Sunggyu was honest, Myungsoo wasn’t a great actor. He was decent though. He had potential, and that potential was stifled because Myungsoo was never given new roles. He never was challenged or pushed. All he got to play was the ‘cool’ boy-next-door, the ‘cool’ rebellious student, and the ‘cool’ idol. And the Myungsoo that Sunggyu saw everyday was anything but ‘cool.’ And the nurse preferred him that way. He wished more people could see the actor like this, for who he really was.

“You don’t think I should get the surgery,” Myungsoo summarized.

Sunggyu nodded. “All of your roles have been rehashing the same character, the cool flower boy. Maybe if you become less like a flower and more like a weed,” he said with a slight laugh. “You’ll get other, more challenging roles.” Myungsoo chewed on his lower lip and nodded. “It’s worth a shot. And if it doesn’t work out, then get it fixed,” Sunggyu pointed out. The surgery could always be done later. “What else do you have to lose at that point?”

“Nothing,” Myungsoo responded, his dorky grin slowly cracking across his face. It looked silly and was half-covered by the gauze.

Sunggyu smiled back. “Exactly.”

“Okay,” Myungsoo agreed, gripping onto the other’s hand.

And Myungsoo was discharged the next day.

It was a slow start when Myungsoo returned back to acting and auditions. He used to feel like everyone was staring at the bump on the bridge of his nose. And they probably were. He used to wonder if this was the wrong choice. Having an imperfect face was supposed to have the directors focus more on his talent, but all they were focusing on now were his imperfections. He was seconds away from calling up Howon and telling him to schedule an appointment with the plastic surgeon. But then his own phone rang, and he was offered a role. It was a minor one. It wasn’t going to be a lot of screen-time. But he was also playing an evil alien who was a side-kick to the drama’s major villain. It was a comic relief role. It was different, finally a different role. And he took it with a happy heart.

After that, he landed his first lead role. It was for a serious film, drastically different from his last role or any role that he had before. He was playing an alcoholic with a scarring past and a dim future, who went to a seminary in the hopes of finding some direction in his life. And later in the year, he won an award for both roles.

He wasn’t a shooting star that was burning out. He was a comet, who was going to keep coming back with bright and brilliant performances.

BREAKING NEWS: Rising star, Kim Myungsoo was sighted leaving a restaurant with a curiously dressed friend accompanying him. Judging by his scrubs, it appears that his friend is a male nurse. Now I ask you, is that really sanitary?

“Aish! Don’t they have anything better to talk about?”

“I told you to change, hyung.”

“Whatever. Just turn off the t.v.. It’ll rot your brain.”