Yoongi stares at the huge wall clock that is hanging on the pale blue wall of his office. It was a gift from his father on his graduation day and it always stuck as weird to Yoongi. Why would his father gift him a clock but at least now he has some kind of use for it as it hangs on the wall.

It’s 6:15 pm.

They are gonna be here any minute, Yoongi thinks as he takes a deep breath. It’s not like Yoongi hasn’t done this before. He has done this many times before with a grim face meeting their eyes. He has seen many reactions, some people are just too stunned to react while some have started crying the moment Yoongi says it and he even has some enraged loved ones try to attack Yoongi like it was up to Yoongi to control something like that. He can’t do anything about it even if he wanted to.

He had met the young couple coming today about 6 months ago. He remembers seeing them sit together tightly holding hands staring at Yoongi.

“So the test results, they are back right?” the man asked.

Yoongi nodded.

“What does it say?” the man asked.

Yoongi looked at them and he could already feel the heavy feeling chest as he grabbed the reports from under the desk.

“Your wife,” he said. “She has a tumor in her head”

Yoongi saw their grip getting tighter as the wife looked down and the man looked at Yoongi outraged.

“Tumor, what do you mean? It’s not cancerous, right?”

Yoongi let out an inaudible sigh.

“It is malignant which means it’s cancerous,”

“What do you mean?” the man asked. “How is that possible? You must have gotten the tests wrong”

“Sir, the tests are correct, there are treatments for this” Yoongi said.

The man opened his mouth but no words came out. And suddenly Yoongi heard a sob coming out of his throat and then the crying began and Yoongi remained tight-lipped. He didn’t know what to say. He has never been good with handling crying patients or their families. He doesn’t know what to say to them. He doesn’t want to lie to them and tell them everything is gonna be okay. It’s cancer and most of the time things are not okay and that is the one thing that he is learned from being an oncologist.

The wife hugged her husband. Her eyes were shut and there were no tears as she patted his back. This didn’t surprise Yoongi. Often times the patients were much stronger.

“It’s gonna be fine,” she whispered to him but Yoongi heard it because the room was awfully quiet.

The man’s sobs eventually began to die down until he broke away from the hug and hastily wiped his face and then looked back at Yoongi again.

“What…what was the treatment you were talking about?”

Yoongi sat up a little straighter.

“We first have to do a surgery to remove the tumor and then proceed with radiation to kill off any cancer cells.”

“And she won’t have cancer anymore?” the man asked.

At this Yoongi didn’t know what to say. He can’t lie to the man to provide him a few months of comfort. It would be wrong. But he saw the love between them and Yoongi couldn’t help but feel guilty. He too used to be in love once and he understands the feeling but he has to go with the truth.

“We can’t… say anything as of now,” Yoongi said. “We’ll know as the treatment progresses”

“What do you mean?”

“Sir, we will try our best,” Yoongi said. “But you need to understand how cancer treatments work…they are often very complicated”

“I just want her to be okay,” the man said and he sounded close to crying.

“We’ll try our best,” was all Yoongi said and the man just nodded looking utterly defeated.

“You have to come tomorrow for the tests so we can do the surgery as soon as possible,” Yoongi said.

They nodded and after a few seconds they got up and left still holding hands.

Yoongi sighed and sat back as he sighed a little. He had done this so many times but every time it left him with a heavy feeling in his heart. He only wished he could help them.

Today, they are coming back so Yoongi can tell them the progress of the treatment.

It’s already 6:30 and it shouldn’t take much longer.

Suddenly Yoongi listens to the click of the door and he sits up straighter. They walk in and they look different. They aren’t the same youthful people they were six months ago. The wife looks exhausted wearing a beanie covering her bald head while the husband simply looks tired and lifeless but they are still holding hands,

Yoongi is generally very mistrusting about love. He has his reasons but when he looks at this couple and it feels so genuine, maybe because they haven’t been married for a whole year and they are going through such an ordeal but he can see the love and it only makes his heart feel heavier.

They sit down and look at Yoongi.

Yoongi clears a throat.

“The tumor…it has managed to return,” he says. “I am afraid the treatments didn’t work”

The man looks at Yoongi with widened eyes while the wife is looking at something on Yoongi’s desk.

“Does that…does that mean?”

“Three months maximum,” Yoongi finally says.

The man looks at Yoongi but his eyes are distant when the woman suddenly begins crying and the man hugs her and they stay like that. Yoongi feels like he is invading a private moment but he sits motionless letting them cry. There is not really much he can do anyway.

“I’m…I’m very sorry Mr. & Mrs. Choi,” he says. “I really am”

They don’t respond and their sobs fill the room until they eventually die down and the woman is suddenly smiling.

“We still have three months okay,” she says to her husband. “We can make it the best ever”

The man nods as he lightly kisses her palm and it brings back memories to Yoongi that he’d rather not think about them.

They stand up and then bow at Yoongi and Yoongi does the same until they leave and Yoongi is left in silence.

He glances up at the clock and it’s almost seven. He is done for today as he begins clearing out his desk and then switches off the light and leaves the office. He sees many nurses and doctors and gives them all a polite smile before making to the exit as he gets in his car.

He starts driving and in less than five minutes he gets a call. It is Seokjin of course.

Yoongi picks up and puts the phone on the speaker.

“Yoongi, you were supposed to be here 30 minutes ago,” Seokjin says.

“Sorry sorry I was stuck in work,”

“The same old excuse,” Seokjin complains.

“I’ll be there in about 20 minutes,” Yoongi says.

“You better be,” Seokjin says. “The 4 kids are hungry and they won’t stay quiet”

“Four?” Yoongi questions.

“You know damn well Namjoon is a kid too,” Seokjin says.

Yoongi laughs.

“Okay, I’ll be there in some time,” Yoongi says before hanging up.

Yoongi smiles a little to himself. Saturday evenings usually involve dinner at Seokjin’s house and Yoongi doesn’t have a choice but to go before his best friend gets mad. Yoongi knows Seokjin is doing this for him. So that Yoongi gets out of the house more and Seokjin gets to see him at least once a week. He wants the reassurance ever since that happened…

Yoongi soon reaches the building and parks before going up to the 4th floor where Seokjin live