C H A P T E R 2: That morning…  

When Jonghyun had told his mother that he might, would visit the boy called Kim Kibum if he got some time for it, he hadn’t expected himself that he the very next evening during a gig, would trip over a wire, fall down the stage, hit his knee, and eventually end up as a patient himself.

But now, thanks to the accident, he had actually met the boy. Hell. He had even had the boy to lay on top of him because of yet another mistake that had made Kibum – who clearly wasn’t able to walk nor to stand properly – lose his balance.

And as the boy was about to be lead away with the help from two other nurses and Dr. Choi was standing and teaching Jonghyun a lesson or two about responsibility, – not that he actually was listening – he noticed the boy faintly turned his head towards his direction as he was looking at him. Not that he in fact was, because Jonghyun’s mother already told him that the other boy was blind (and he had actually for once remembered something that his mother had told him).

“Oh my dear lord! What did you do to you arm, boy?!” One of Kibum’s nurses suddenly gasped just as Jonghyun was about to turn his head away. He quickly steadied his gaze towards the boy again, but this time all he was met with was a door that closed in front of him.

For some reason he took himself in sighing due to the boy’s disappearing and he absentminded looked down himself, noticing that his clothes was stained with a red warm substance.       

* * *

Two days had gone since the accident in the hallway.

Jonghyun had actually wanted to go and see Kibum yesterday, but two things had prevented him from it. First of all, yesterday was Saturday, which meant his mother would be there as a volunteer, as she was every Saturday and Jonghyun seriously didn’t felt like giving his mom that joy if she figured out he would go and visit him. The second thing was that his knee had hurt nonstop, since Jonghyun carelessly had rushed after Kibum that day, without thinking about his knee injury.

Today however, Jonghyun was going to see the boy. It was not like he had anything better to do anyways and besides, he was just a little bit worried about Kibum due to the amount of blood he had marked his hospital suit with.

So when Jonghyun had woken up that morning, had washed up, eaten his breakfast, looked at sheets for some of his songs, talked in phone with his manager for half an hour (for your information, he is working for a little music label), watched television for 1½ hours and napped for another half hour – he fell asleep while watching television – he lastly decided to go and see Kibum.

The clock had barely turned 10:15 am when he reached for his crutches and made his way towards Kibum’s room. – And yes, Jonghyun had indeed woken up early that morning thanks to his paining knee, and he had desperately tried to use his time at something wisely until he found it acceptable to go and take a look at the other boy. – But well, as Jonghyun then finally stuck his head into Kibum’s room, it was only too met by an empty space.

Any normal person would have turned around and left once had seen the owner wasn’t there, just like Jonghyun was thinking to do, but his body, however, wasn’t reacting to the thought as he pushed the door open and walked straight in, looking around.

There wasn’t anything personal about the room whatsoever – otherwise his own room which already was filled with a bunch of papers, electronic devices and a guitar just after three days of staying there – and actually, if Jonghyun didn’t knew better, he would even claim that there wasn’t staying anyone in it at the exact moment.

Just as Jonghyun was about to leave again, his eyes spotted something outside the window. It was a petite boy out in the hospital’s garden, sitting in a wheelchair under the branches of a big blooming oak, and the boy certainly wasn’t to mistake with his outstanding features, such as his unique black hair with red stripes – it was Kim Kibum.