HOSEOK

I stare at the clock on the wall. It's your standard round, white clock with two black hands and a third thinner red one for the seconds. I've come to hate that clock.
"Mr.Jung?"

I don't respond to the nurse. She's new. I haven't been here in a while, but I've been coming here long enough to know that. I may not like this place, but I like it even less when something changes. I guess it can't be helped. Doesn't mean I can't play with her though.

"Mr.Jung? Doctor Lee will see you now." I flick my gaze over to her, feigning innocence. She's very pretty, I'll give her that. Most pretty people are untrustworthy, though. I smile at her slowly until my eyes become crescents, then look down quickly and shift my gaze shyly about the floor. I mumble and mutter as I continue to look between her and the floor. She places a hand on my shoulder.

She doesn't catch the smirk on my face before I raise my head to blink at her with blank eyes. So far, she has kept her cool. I should have been in the office twenty minutes ago. She's gone and come back, but nobody else has come to coax me out. I guess they're testing her as well.

"What was that?"

"I said you're very pretty." Her eyes widen at the sudden compliment, but she quickly gathers herself to approach me as carefully as she can. So she should.

"Thank you."

"You should thank Hopie, he's the one that pointed it out."

"Oh? Okay... well then give my sincerest thanks to Mister Hopie." She's good, the smile she gives looks quite geniuine. She takes a seat beside me. Too close.

"Yeah, he tells me I should see how pretty you really are and peel the skin back from your face." I plaster a sickly sweet grin on my own when I say this. I wait for her to awkwardly excuse herself, to look at me with uneasiness, walk out on me out of the blue. She does neither. She gives me one of the warmest smiles I've ever seen (her acting skills are no joke, I tell you) and pulls me up to finally usher me in to the office.

"Ask me out on a date and I'll look forward to it." I. Am. Mortified. What kind of wom-

"Mr.Jung, it's been a while." I look the old man up and down, a sneer already creeping onto my face. He takes no notice, his damned stupid smile only growing wider.

"Such a pleasure to greet as always, do take a seat." I want to scream no and kick him in the teeth. I calmly lower myself instead, I need to play nice.

"What brings you here, Hoseok? You've missed so many appointments I was begining to think that we'd have to cancel them altogether."

"I need a prescription."

"Ah yes, but for what? As far as I see it, you are a perfectly healthy young man - physically speaking, that it is. If you continue to do what you're doing you would only add to your problems, not relieve them as you would think."

"Ah yes, but I need a prescription. As far as I see it, I don't care about how you see it - frankly speaking, that is. If you continue to talk it would only add to your problems, not relieve them as you would think." Doctor Lee sighs heavily as I cackle and continue to parrot him. He hands me some card, pocketing it I ask him about the freaky-deaky nurse.

"Nurse Joy? Yes, she started just after your little absence. Fresh out of med school, a real bright one that." Eww, what a creepy guy. How did he get his job?

"Okay then ert, so where's my slip?" He laughs and tells me I'd be getting no prescriptions from him. I take out the card again and look it over.

"A therapist?"

"Yes, a therapist."

"Then what the hell are you?" He only smiles some more. Someone make him eat .

"I think you'd like him. Quite unorthodox, like you. Now, seeing as you aren't going to get what you came for I believe it's time you leave. Unless you have anything you would like to share?"

I trudge along, feeling even more drained knowing I can't get what I need. White dots dance just above Nurse Joy's head as she sees me out. She hands me a cup of water and I down it. Almost immediately I want to hurl it back up. I reach into my jacket and grab an orange packet of tic-tacs. If anyone looked any closer, they'd see that its contents are a little too big and oval shaped to be real tic-tacs.

Nurse Joy presses something into my hand before I leave. Shakily flicking the top open, I dump all of about four pills into my hand before knocking them back.

JIN

It's like looking through multiple security cameras, the way my view jumps from lamp post to lamp post, following Hoseok again. He looks more and more worse every time I visit him.

He makes me feel useless because every time I see him in pain I can't do anything to ease it.
He makes me feel sorrow because he has everything going for him and yet there he his, staggering along the side of the road like a drunkard in broad daylight.
He also makes me feel cowardly because every time I see him like this, I close the curtains.
Just like I'm about to do now before he collapses onto the pavement.

JIMIN

"Hey Jiminnie, you can knock off now. It's getting a bit quiet, I can take it from here." I shake my head, smiling at my last customer as I hand her her coffee and muffin, watching while she tugs her beanie down to cover her ears as she walks out.

"Dasom I can't, my shift doesn't finish for like two hours now." My boss waves me off, muttering something about getting a life or a girlfriend - she doesn't care which - and pushes me into the back room to get my stuff.

"Please, you're young. Go get laid or something, jeez. Don't worry about the shift, I'll still pay you in full." She winks at me before pushing me out into the cold.
Ever since the dreams, I took extra shifts at the cafe bar, extra classes at the studio - extra anything to fill up my day so I wouldn't drive myself crazy over what they could mean. I also wanted to tire myself out, I found that the more beat I was the longer the dreams would last. I was actually trying to avoid them, but it only drove me deeper. I puff out rings of hot air and watch them dissapear. Turning a corner, my phone buzzes.

"Hello? Hi, is this um...Chimchim? Did I say that right?" This is Hoseok's number, what the heck is a woman doing calling me from it? "Mr.Chimchim, you there? "

"Yes, ah - no. I mean, who's asking?"

"My name is Joy, I'm a nurse and I'm ringing you because your contact was open on Mr.Jung's phone before he passed out."

I asked what happened even though I had a hunch. Bloody pills. I was looking forward to knocking out like a light but hearing about this puts it out from my mind.
"On second thought, I can come over. Meet me at his apartment." I miss my usual bus and take another to get to his place. When I get there, she's waiting in the car park lot with him in the passenger seat. He looks like . I thank her and half carry, half drag him into the elavator. Quite friendly for a nurse off duty, but I guess she's just naturally caring.

His apartment's not all that great either. Boxes of takeout litter the floor, along with with random clothes here and there. I check the fridge and there's not much else aside from a packet of grated cheese and some bottles of juice and alcohol. My stomach grumbles when I find a half finished box of pizza, it's chewy but I don't have much choice.

You'd think that having such a nice place as this he would keep it presentable, but then again he has other things on his mind. Don't we all? I clean up, I don't mind and to be honest it's kind of more for my benefit. I can't stand any place that isn't clean, even if I'm only staying the one night.

Last is his room. The bathroom reeks with vomit. I turn back to Hoseok, who despite his sickly face, looks very nice when he's sleeping - peaceful. "What's going on, hyung?" I clean him up and take off his shoes, tucking him in under fresh sheets. He's loosely clutching onto something and I pry it from his hand. In a round circle of wood, a series of complicated threads cross over each other to keep a smooth, amythest stone in it's centre. Three white feathers hang from it with different coloured beads to keep them in place. I hang it on the curtain rack and stare at it. Oh, how I wish these things were for real.