Minseok placed his forehead against his desk, sighing as he did so. It had been a long day, and it wasn't just because it was Monday. Everything at work had been pure chaos, orders being mixed up or his co-workers wouldn't complete their assignments. It had all caused Minseok to be the unfortunate soul who had to run around and make sure that everything didn't collapse in on itself.

      Being a novelist, there were pros and cons. Minseok was able to take creative liberties from time to time, writing what he wanted and adding flair to it. He genuinely loved that part of being a writer, of having the ability to create your own worlds with only words. But, the downsides also existed. Being a novelist wasn't the most "stable job" either, if a book didn't sell well then it wasn't the best financial circumstance to be in. Minseok wasn't poor, but he wasn't rich either. That meant he had to also work at least one other job to make enough money to be able to eat and pay his rent. His mother had known all of this, and since she ran a floral shop and needed another pair of helping hands, Minseok ended up working there as a florist. His co-workers were all incredibly kind and he genuinely enjoyed the job there, joking with them and having formed several close friendships with his co-workers. Minseok also actually had a knack for making flower arrangements and bouquets, and his background of being a writer helped since he had studied flower symbolisms for a novel he had written. But sometimes, Minseok just wanted to rip his hair out or lock himself in a room to write because at times it seemed like his coworkers couldn't do anything without destroying something every five seconds or because dealing with picky or snooty customers made him want to scream.

      But aside from Florist Minseok, Writer Minseok also had his own issues. There were also deadlines and Writer's Block, two things that Minseok hated the most in the world, they were his archenemies. Minseok couldn't even count how many times he's wanted to smash his head on his laptop's keyboard because of Writer's Block. He just knows that he has spent hours just glaring at a piece of paper or a notebook page or a computer screen, waiting for words to flow properly so he can get the ideas that are practically overflowing in his mind out to the world, or at least be on something tangible or in a way that he can physically see the ideas. Minseok also can't count how many times he's been completely panicked because of an approaching deadline, worrying that he'd miss the date and then have to suffer the consequences.

      All of these, they were fairly normal issues. And Minseok could deal with them pretty well...if he could get at least 4 hours of sleep that is. Minseok can't remember the last time he had gotten over an hour of sleep. He's tried everything that has been labeled as "common things to help one fall asleep". Herbal tea? Just made him have to go to the bathroom more often. Relaxing music? That only makes him stay even more awake because his mind is able to focus on something. Warm bath? Well, that makes him relaxed, but it never comes close to making him fall into a deep sleep. Sleeping medication? Nope, never worked, it had never worked for Minseok, and he doubts that the medication ever will.

       No matter what he has tried, Minseok just can't sleep. And it takes a toll on his body. His mind is constantly fuzzy, his eyes itch and burn while having dark circles permanently underneath them, begging to to be closed. His muscles scream, wanting to rest, his whole body just wants to lie down and sleep for a long, long time. But he can't. Minseok can't sleep. No matter what he tries, his mind will always make him stay awake, make it so that his eyes can't close. And it makes Minseok  so incredibly frustrated.

       A person may think that a lot can get done if you don't sleep. And to a degree, Minseok agrees with that statement, a lot can get done with the extra hours given by staying up late. But is doesn't last long. Eventually, staying up late makes it harder and harder to finish anything, your body becoming too tired to function and your mind becomes too fuzzy to truly focus on anything. And unfortunately for Kim Minseok, he's reached that point. No, not even, he's far beyond that point and will probably never be able to turn back.

       Sighing, Minseok lifted his head and glared at his laptop's screen, the cursor blinking as his boss' words ran through his mind, "I want an excerpt for you next novel in two weeks. Just a page from it, that's all I'm asking. I'll either give the idea of the book a green light or I might reject it. You won't know until I get it, and that's in two weeks. I need that excerpt in two weeks Minseok-ssi, no later than that."

       He had agreed, but Minseok found himself in one of what he thought was the worst bouts of Writer's Block he has ever had to date. Nothing would come, there were words and ideas in his mind, but they were all fragmented and made no sense. Nothing would come together properly to form something understandable. And Minseok didn't know why. It might've been stress. It might've been the lack of sleep. Or, maybe it was both. Minseok wasn't sure about the cause, but what he did know was that it was killing him.

       The last novel he had written wasn't the lightest of topics. It was told from the perspective of a young boy named Yubin who was locked away in a mental hospital, struggling with his own demons and the crushing atmosphere of the mental hospital. The boy was so alone, nobody was there for him and nobody would ever be there for him, he'd always be alone...or at least that's what the boy thought. Eventually, another patient who was stuck in the same hospital became determined to make Yubin feel better, determined to give Yubin a friend, someone that Yubin could lean on. And that patient was another boy, and his name was Jun-seo who ended up in the room next to Yubin. Remember how Minseok is well-versed in flower symbolism? Yep, it was all for this story. Jun-seo would leave flowers behind for Yubin, placing little notes or drawings or origami figures with the flowers. But no matter what else went with the flowers, they would always explain the meaning behind them.

       Minseok had written the novel so that at first, Yubin would be reject the flowers, even fall into bouts of anger and crush the flowers beneath his feet and rip apart whatever else came with the flowers. But it didn't stop Jun-seo from trying to get Yubin to warm up to him, from trying to become Yubin's friend. It got really bad one day, you can't forget that the two boys were in a mental institutions. Jun-seo had heard Yubin screaming one day, and Jun-seo left his own room, basically kicking Yubin's door open. He found the other boy curled up in the far corner of the room, blood dripping down his arms and legs while he hugged himself, rocking back and forth while crying and rambling apologies. Jun-seo had approached Yubin, and Yubin had drawn away in fear, looking like a small, lost child who had been abandoned and it made Jun-seo's heart shatter. But, he put up a strong front, and Jun-seo had treated Yubin's injuries, continuously promising the other how no, he wouldn't tell the doctors and that he wasn't going to leave his side. Yubin eventually fell asleep, clutching onto Jun-seo's hand. Jun-seo had stayed by Yubin's side that entire night, calming the other down whenever a nightmare might occur or just being there, a solid presence of support.

       It took a little time, but eventually, Jun-seo found a single yellow rose on his bed, a symbol for friendship. After that, Yubin began to open up a little more, and the two quickly became friends, if you wanted to find Yubin, then you would also find Jun-seo and vice versa. Of course, it couldn't all just go well and dandy, there had to be another problem. Yubin suffered from anger issues, depression, and anxiety, but Jun-seo had to deal with schizophrenia. But the problem was, was that Jun-seo didn't actually know that he had schizophrenia. He had never been properly diagnosed, people had merely labeled him as having behavioral issues and some anxiety, so Jun-seo had ended up being placed into a mental institution.

       Now, before this goes any further, Minseok was fully aware of how this type of situation isn't as common as it once was. Minseok knew that, but he thought that the concept would add a nice twist and aspect to the story, and that it could be used as a metaphor. A metaphor of how people assume what you feel, how people assume what your issues are without hearing you out. Minseok was one of the people to experience such a thing, and he wanted to make it known to the world that it is not the right thing to do. Hence, the idea of Jun-seo's problems only being assumed as being anxiety and behavioral, "Easy fixes" is what Minseok had made society call them in his novel.

       But they weren't "easy fixes", in no way were they easy fixes. Doctors would give Jun-seo the wrong treatments, not in such a way that he would die, but they were wrong in that there was no way those treatments would help Jun-seo. And the things that might actually help weren't given enough, it was like trying to place a small band-aid on a wound that went from one's hip to their shoulder. It just wasn't enough. So, Jun-seo never improved. He just kept basically being in his own world, unable to fully separate reality from fantasy, muttering to himself or to seemingly nothing from time to time and constantly flitting from one thing to the other, never to once again pick up the previous topic. He wasn't okay, Jun-seo wasn't getting the help he needed. But for some reason, he did everything with a smile on his face, maybe it was his subconscious trying to tell him to keep smiling because there was a chance of everything getting better, a chance of having his own mind to himself. A chance to be able to say confidently that one thing was real and another wasn't. It was a small, slim hope, but the small child in Jun-seo clung onto that hope, the child who had never gotten help and who was ostracized for his "weirdness". And so, Jun-seo kept smiling.

       The issue, as Minseok had written because a story can't just be completely rosy or else it would be terribly boring, was that Jun-seo didn't know whether or not Yubin was real. He didn't know if the other boy was an actual person or something his mind had generated. So, he ended up treating Yubin as he did with everything that he saw, be it real or imaginary. Jun-seo decided to be friendly. He was friendly towards what he saw, real or fake, because he wanted it to be that if it was real, then the thing would be friendly back and maybe actually even become Jun-seo's friend. But there was also something else that made him be so friendly towards Yubin. Jun-seo saw himself in Yubin, someone who society had unfairly cast out for not "acting the same" as everyone else, and it made Jun-seo determined to make Yubin not turn out like himself. Even if Yubin wasn't real, Jun-seo wanted to make him happy because that was just the type of person Jun-seo was. And hey, if Yubin did end up being real, well then Jun-seo saw it all as a win-win situation.

       But after some time, it got harder and harder for Jun-seo to function correctly. The doctors weren't helping, his parents refused to even send letters much less see him, and his younger sister was banned from ever interacting with him as he had found out in the last letter she had ever mailed to him. All of this caused the voices to get louder, for his mind to make up more and more things that weren't real, and Jun-seo just kept spiraling down into darkness. He had an even harder time seeing what was real and what wasn't, and it caused a change, and bad change. He started to sleep less, dark circles forming under his eyes. He began to become more fidgety and twitchy, flinching at the slightly movements or sounds, he was constantly on edge. He'd talk to himself more often, muttering nonsense or rambling and occasionally pulling at his hair or constantly running a hand through the dark locks. But the most obvious thing that he did was leave marks of ink on the wall.

     Jun-seo had been able to get markers, something pretty harmless. And by themselves they are, markers are pretty harmless. But it's what can be done with markers that can be an issue, sometimes even terrifying. Jun-seo began to write, he began to write out what might be going through his mind on any available surface in his room. There'd be short stories and poems, random words that might be in different languages, or song lyrics. But by far, the most common things were those that seemed personal, things that seemed to be things that Jun-seo himself experienced or thought of, and they left the most impact. Questions of why people acted the way they did, of why nobody could see what Jun-seo could see. Ramblings and even conversations were written all the way up to the ceiling, there were words everywhere. And, there were also drawings. Drawings that took something from real life, but had a twist to them, maybe a flower that was growing in a destroyed environment, or something innocent that had darkness hidden within it. In all, the whole room was both fascinating but also dark and surreal.

      Everything had just really turned bad when Yubin had been walking back to his room and had heard Jun-seo shouting and sobbing, it was faint as Yubin was at the end of the hall, but he could still hear everything, including voices shouting. Immediately concerned for his friend, Yubin rushed down the hall, and when he got to Jun-seo's room, without even thinking Yubin burst into the room, taking in the scene before him. He saw Jun-seo being shouted at for all the ink covering the walls, the doctors and nurses shouting at him for being incompetent and doing nothing to get better and how they'd paint over the ink.

       Yubin saw red, and he immediately jumped in to defend Jun-seo. He had shouted right back and the doctors and nurses, criticizing them and how they dared to call themselves people who heal others. Eventually, they had left, but not without glaring at a furious Yubin and a still sobbing Jun-seo. Yubin carefully went over to talk to Jun-seo, and when Jun-seo had felt a hand on his shoulder, he just broke. Jun-seo began sobbing even harder, and he allowed Yubin to wrap him into a tight hug. And he just told Yubin everything, everything that he was feeling and experiences, all of what Jun-seo really dealt with. He told Yubin about how his parents hated him and how he wasn't allowed to even talk to his baby sister who he couldn't watch grow up into a kind and beautiful young woman, of how he had always been isolated as a child, of how he was thrown into this place with people having an attitude slightly akin to "he's just a troubled child, he'll be easy to 'fix'", of how the voices had been getting louder, of how he didn't know what was part of reality and what was part of the world that his brain had created over time, and of how he kept laughing and smiling and being happy but it was never genuine and he more often than not felt like breaking down and sobbing. But then, Jun-seo revealed the worst of it all, he revealed how he didn't know if Yubin was real or just something his imagination had made to make him feel better. Yubin had taken in all of the information silently, but when he had heard the last part, he had tensed. It made Jun-seo extremely worried, but that worry immediately evaporated when Jun-seo just pulled Yubin into an even tighter hug.

       Yubin had whispered into Jun-seo's ear how he was real, and that he would prove it. Yubin whispered about how he'd help Jun-seo be able to distinguish the border between reality and fantasy. Yubin whispered and promised how he would help Jun-seo get out of his own darkness. And when he was done, Yubin looked at Jun-seo's face, giving the other a kiss on the lips, something he had been wanting to do in a long time. It caused Jun-seo to cry again, but they were tears of happiness, and for the first time, Jun-seo smiled and it was of true, pure happiness. And with the kiss, Yubin was able to begin what the doctors had been unable to: he began to heal Jun-seo because with the kiss, Jun-seo actually thought that Yubin was an actual, real life person who would help him.

        The rest of the story is about the two of them recovering, because Jun-seo had been t