Every day was different, he couldn’t say that he had a monotonous job although he always took the same path and did almost the same things.

When you work in a mental institution, you can expect everything from everyone. From a patient trying to escape using the front door to others hitting their heads or slamming their bodies against a wall or the metallic bars every window had. Every day was a challenge and he couldn’t let his guard down not mattering what.

“Good morning, Seung Hyun.” The guard in the front door greeted the black haired man that walked with his bag back towards the hospital.

“Morning.” He smiled, bowing slightly and entering the place after walking pass the security check in the entrance.

Waving at some patients that smiled or jumped when they saw him, he walked through the room and entered an area that was exclusive for people that worked in there. Leaving his bag on his locker, he took his jacket off and left it inside, leaving himself just in his blue uniform.

“Seung Hyun, hey!” He looked up at a nurse that entered carrying a clipboard “Always on time, I don’t know how you do it.”

“Years of experience, dear.” He laughed, closing his locker and looking at his schedule.

“A new patient arrived yesterday, doctor Kim said you and Naeun are going to take care of him” She said, looking for the name on her papers “He’s in room 234, boy, he’s so young.”

“Really?” He asked with a sad tone “How old is he? Why he’s here?”

 “Twenty and he’s having his first session today with doctor Kim, I don’t have a lot of information about him, just that his uncle called the doctor after finding dead animals on his room and school locker.”

“Poor kid…” He muttered, feeling that pinch of pity and sadness inside him “But that’s how life is and it’s better they attend him now before he turns into something bad.”

He knew those kinds of diseases, he saw multiple patients inside there losing their minds and trying to stab or strangle the nurses in there. If the boy was just showing his first symptoms, there was a good chance of getting better in the future.

“Yes, it’s sad” She sighed, passing him the clipboard so he could sign “Be careful with him, you know they tend to be perfect liars.”

He nodded slightly, signing and giving it back to her.

There were days were he felt like a doctor instead of a simple guard in there, he knew how to handle patients with aggressive behaviours, with depressive and even suicidal impulses. Working in there for more than three years gave him a vast experience to handle any situation.

That’s why he walked slowly towards the room and waited for a moment after inserting the key, waiting to hear the hurried and desperate steps across the room from the patient in there, before pushing it open, getting ready for the patient to jump on him or try to escape.

But he was surprised when nothing of this happened.

Giving a cautious step inside, he locked the door once more and turned to scan the room that seemed to be empty. It was when he looked near the bed that he spotted a boy with red hair curled at the bed’s foot, wearing a straightjacket.

“Hello, I’m Seung Hyun and I’m going to be in charge of you and your room” He said softly, knowing that those kind of patients could get aggressive, though they were calm, when they were trapped sometimes they could change his behaviour…just that this one was oddly calm.

The boy looked at him with his red and swollen eyes, a proof that he had been crying, for a moment before looking away once more, staring at the floor without giving a sign that he understood or heard.

“What’s your name?” He knew that those patients could be dangerous and that the doctors told him he should just say what he was doing there and get out, but the depressive and sad picture of that boy forced him to stay in there.

The boy looked at him once more and actually stared at him for a while before saying something “J-Ji Yong…” He muttered, pulling his legs tighter against his chest.

“Very well, Ji Yong, you’ll see the doctor later today so I’ll be there” He smiled softly, receiving a faint nod from the boy.

Not letting his guard down, he opened the door again and left. The way he acted was confusing for him, if the boy was the kind of people that dared to kill animals he wasn’t supposed to look so depressed and sad “But I’m not a doctor.” He sighed, realising the boy could have more than one disorder and that could be the reason for his odd behaviour.

“Seung Hyun, how did it go? Did you have any problem with him?” The nurse from before asked, smiling at him.

“No… He looked so depressed, maybe he has another disorder, they’re not like that” He said, shaking his head lightly “It’s hard, he looks so young.”

“Yeah, it’s sad to see people like him in here” She sighed, shaking her head too “But I hope Doctor Kim could help him so he can get out.”

Smiling and nodding, he waved goodbye to her and continued with his work, not being capable of forgetting about that boy. His eyes that were full of sadness and fear weren’t easy to forget and he found himself waiting eagerly for his first session, wanting to know what was going to happen to him.

Hours passed and Seung Hyun was called to take the patient to the room. The man walked towards the door and opened it slowly once more, spotting the boy on the same exact place with the only difference that he looked uncomfortable.

He saw his sad eyes focusing on him, like trying to decipher what he was doing, a small spark of fear on them while he looked behind him.

“It’s time to take you, please refrain from trying to do something that could end up hurting yourself” He said with a firm tone, seeing how the boy was biting his lip in anxiousness while he listened to him.

After waiting a moment to give him the chance of processing everything he said, he walked to him and took him by his shoulders, forcing him to stand up, moving to hold his arms and keeping a strong hold on them and starting to walk, pulling him to walk out of the room.

He almost let him go when the other whimpered and winced at the roughness of his treatment, but he couldn’t do it softer, it was a protocol and since he still didn’t know if the other was faking being nice just to catch him with his guard down or he was really as scared as he looked, he couldn’t give him the chance.

“Ji Yong, welcome” Seung Hyun sat the boy in front of the doctor, being slightly more gentle than before “I’m sure you must be very confused and I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you last night, it must have been a rough night for you.”

“W-What am I doing here?” The voice of the boy was still trembling and Seung Hyun felt that pang of sadness while he walked to stay by the door.

“To treat your problems, Ji Yong, I want you to know that you can trust me with everything, no secrets in here” The doctor continued talking, but his eyes kept looking at Ji Yong.

“I don’t have problems…” He whispered, shifting on his seat.

“I want you to tell me, Ji Yong, what motivated you to kill those animals?”

Ji Yong’s eyes widened and he motioned to stand up, causing Seung Hyun to dart to hold him in place by placing his hands on his arms, hearing him whimper again “K-Kill animals? What the hell are you talking about? I haven’t done such thing!”

“There’s no need to be like this, I know this was made by impulse so you don’t want to talk about it, but you will have to” He continued slowly, motioning for Seung Hyun to move back after Ji Yong stopped moving and taking out a folder “They found what you did in your school’s locker, it worries me you have a compulsion for keeping your things, your uncle sent them.” As he said this, he placed two papers with pictures of two dead birds and what looked to be a kitten.

 Seung Hyun’s attention concentrated completely on his reaction, this was going to say the truth about his behaviour. People like that didn’t recognise what they did was wrong, for them it was normal and often defended themselves saying that animals weren’t that important.

Ji Yong’s reaction was completely the opposite, his eyes widened and he turned away from them, gagging and doubling in disgust at the grotesque pictures “I-I didn’t do that… That is so wrong.” He said between coughs.

He expected the doctor to acknowledge this, but he didn’t, he sighed and took the pictures again “You need to rest, Ji Yong, I’ll see you tomorrow. You can take him back, Seung Hyun.”

He was left a little bit confused by this but complied, taking Ji Yong by his arm again and guiding him out of the room, seeing how the other was not even looking at him or reacting.

He helped him to lay down on his bed, seeing the whimper and gasps of pain that left his lips when he rested on his back again “If you want to sit up, roll into your side and place your legs on the floor, would be easier for you to push your body up.” He said, knowing how painful and difficult was to be on that jacket.

Ji Yong didn’t say anything, he just stared into his eyes for a