Day 1

Sometimes no matter how hard you wish things are different, they just aren’t, so you have to deal with them head on.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sorry. You could have a second opinion if you want,” the doctor smiles consolingly.

Luhan wants to yell, to throw things because isn’t this too soon? He’s just twenty-five, enjoying his career. Instead, he forces himself to smile.

“Do I have an option?” The doctor takes out a notepad and starts to write some gibberish only pharmacists, in Luhan’s opinion, can understand.

“I’ll prescribe some medicine but these are only for the symptoms. I could schedule you for a chemo - “

“I can’t go to work bald, so no to that one. Besides, if the chances of me surviving are pretty low I’d rather not waste money on it.” Luhan says with a straight face.

“Alright,” the doctor replies curtly. “Take the medicine and be back in a month. We’ll schedule you for another MRI by then. If the tumor shrinks then you can undergo the surgery.”

Funny, he thinks, just when he got a raise and things are finally looking up for him, it starts to go downhill.

“So, how long do I have?”

“With proper diet and less strain to your body, I say, three to seven months.”

Luhan bows and a sigh escapes his lips. That’s short. Too short. He has already planned his life for the next ten years. Plans to get married next year, have two children,, retire with his husband at the age of forty and stay at the house he wanted in Busan. He just finished paying for the house. Five years from now, the money in his bank account will be enough to send their future kids to college without worries. He plans on having two kids. He even has already written the names he wanted them to have on his plans-for-the-next-ten-years journal. Haowen and Ziyu. He wants to have a son and a daughter. He has already planned everything down to every last detail but here he is, just been told he only has few more months to live. Probably shorter, with the energy needed for his job, he’s bound to consume all the energy he could use for those seven months.

“Thank you, Dr. Zhang. See you in a month.”

“I told you to call me Yixing,” the doctor pouts and Luhan chuckles. Leave it to Yixing to be all childish and pouty.

“I’ll see you in a month, Yixing.” The man only gives him a small smile. His eyes are sad but Luhan sees something else in them, a glint of something Luhan can’t put a finger on. Maybe hope?

“See you then, Lu.”

Luhan turns around but his face is met with a hard and definitely toned chest. Luhan knows he often trips then falls and that is exactly why he came to the hospital for a check-up because he’s fainted too often for him to consider this normal. He initially thought it was just fatigue but the MRI scan earlier suggests otherwise. Usually, when he trips, the hardwood floor meets his face but this time the falling part doesn’t happen since there are hands on his waist supporting his weight. However, maybe nuzzling his face against the stranger’s chest, with his arms around said man’s torso isn’t a good impression to leave. If the man’s initial reaction is anything to go by.

The sight reveals a tall male with a glorious jaw line, though the wailing part probably isn’t necessary. Luhan didn’t smack his chest that hard. The taller walks up to the doctor and continues his dying noise, not minding the shorter male’s presen