Multiple sounds of crying fills the night air in the empty hospital, a black-haired boy runs for his life.

“Ong Seongwoo! You come here right now!”

The called black-haired boy only runs faster, swinging his short legs forward with all his power even though he doesn’t even know where he’s going. His twinkly mischievous eyes finds the light coming from a slightly open door in the dark hospital corridor, so he runs inside, hoping Intern Yoon doesn’t see him going in the room.

Seongwoo closes the door behind him, his back pressed on the door.

“That was close.” He muttered under his breath.

“Who are you?”

Seongwoo turns his head to the source of the voice who suddenly calls him out. It was another boy. He looks like Seongwoo’s age- his hair is black, his cheeks chubby, a mole under his right eye, a blue superman glasses rests on his nose, and his left arm in a cast.

Oh.

“Are you here because you broke your arm?” Seongwoo asks, getting closer to the boy’s bed.

The other boy backs off almost instantly. “Don’t come closer! I told you I don’t want the therapy!”

Seongwoo was about to question the boy’s statement when he heard knocks on the door. Ignoring the other boy’s protests, Seongwoo crawls under the bed, stealing one of the boy’s pillow to cover himself, and stays still.

A young intern opened the door and peeked inside. A gentle smile blooms on his face when he met eyes with the boy on the bed.

“Daniel-ah-“

“I am not going to do that therapy!”

“Okay, okay.” Intern Yoon keeps his smile up. “But Daniel, have you perhaps seen another boy? He’s probably as tall as you, black messy hair, three dots on one cheek, and looks like TROUBLE?”

Seongwoo grumbles but Jisung hyung is saying the truth anyway.

It was quiet for a few seconds until Seongwoo screams because a pair of hands grabbed his legs and literally pulls him out from under Daniel’s bed. Jisung hyung made him stand up before grabbing Seongwoo’s ears to drag him out.

Before Jisung hyung closes the door however, Seongwoo makes sure to give that other boy, Daniel, a look that says betrayer.

“How could you!”

Daniel almost jumps out his bed at the sudden scream. Trouble boy came back.

Seongwoo jumps up onto Daniel’s hospital bed and before the other boy can yell for help, Seongwoo already grabbed his cheeks and is now pinching it up and down in a monstrous speed.

“Why did you tell Jisung hyung where I was last night?!”

“He asked me.” was Daniel’s reply

Seongwoo screams again, scaring Daniel for the nth time that morning. “I RAN! I ran under your bed and even took your pillow to cover myself! What do you think I was doing?!”

“Hiding?”

“YES!” Seongwoo grabbed his hair. Daniel thinks this is starting to look like a drama. “So why did you tell Jisung hyung I was under your bed?!”

Daniel’s eyes widen comically. “Oh. You were hiding from him?”

Daniel braces himself for another round of screams when Seongwoo opens his mouth again. But all that comes out of the other’s boy mouth is a big sigh.

“Forget it.” Seongwoo looks down to his lap, looking very miserable.

“What were you doing last night?” Young Daniel asked, unable to contain his curiosity to himself. He’s nine – he wants to know a lot of things at that age.

“Oh.” Seongwoo scratches the back of his head. “I sneaked inside the baby’s room. I was just looking at the cute babies but suddenly one woke up and saw me. He cries, so the other babies woke up too, and cries. I was going to play innocent and tell Jisung hyung that I’m already asleep when it happened but yeah, he caught me. Thanks to you.”

Daniel’s jaws drop. “Did he punish you?”

“Yeah. I’m banned from the Kid Doctor Convention for the next 3 months.” Seongwoo looks down again, looking even more miserable for a few seconds before looking up again with the biggest smile on his face. “Unless!”

“Unless?”

“Jisung hyung says he will let me off if I managed to persuade you to have your therapy-“

“Go away.” Daniel turns cold.

“It won’t hurt that much-“

“GET OUT!” Daniel screams this time.

The boy turns his back on Seongwoo and stops talking at all. Seongwoo pokes Daniel’s side to get the boy’s attention back to him to no avail. Daniel doesn’t even look at Seongwoo for the rest of the day.

That doesn’t stop Seongwoo from talking by himself though.

“Danieeel~” Seongwoo sings his way into the now familiar hospital room.

Daniel throws a pillow at the other boy. “It’s too early in the morning. Go away!”

Seongwoo ignores him (Seongwoo is really good at ignoring people’s words, especially his Jisung hyung’s) and proceeds to make his way on Daniel’s bed like the last few weeks.

Though it hadn’t been easy, Daniel has finally came to an acceptance that this three-mole-d boy is too stubborn to beat and that he should just bear with it. At first Daniel thought that this boy was only trying to persuade him to have his arm therapy. But now, he figures that this boy is just plain bored.

“Daniel, aren’t you curious how blood stops dripping out from your wounds after some time?” Seongwoo asked, staring outside the window for dramatic effect.

“No. I’m just grateful it stops bleeding that I’m not going to question it.” Daniel bluntly replied.

Seongwoo ignores him (again). He points at Daniel’s cast. “How much blood came out from there?”

Daniel winces. The accident happened weeks ago, but he still remembers how it feels when it happened. His little kitten Rooney was stuck on a high tree in their backyard, meow-ing frantically for help. Daniel immediately climbs up the tree to help Rooney down. But once Rooney was in his arms, he lost his balance and fell down hard onto the ground. Rooney was unscathed in his arms but his arm, well, not so much. Blood was oozing out from his ripped skin and he can literally hear his bone breaking before he lost his consciousness.

“I’m not sure ..”

“Must’ve been a lot.” Seongwoo winces at the sight of Daniel’s cast. He stares at the cast and notices that it is way too blank to be normal.

“Hey, Daniel? Why aren’t there any signs and drawings on your cast?” Seongwoo asked. He’s pretty sure he saw a bunch of boys coming in Daniel’s hospital room a few days ago to visit him.

Daniel’s face turns dark again. “Because I’m no longer a swimmer. I go to a special school for professional swimmers so now that I’m not a swimmer anymore, I guess they don’t think of me as their friend anymore.”

“Why aren’t you a swimmer anymore?” Seongwoo asked again.

The other boy didn’t answer, only pointing at his cast. “I can’t really swim with this broken arm, can I?”

“Jisung hyung told me you’re scheduled to take off your cast tomorrow though?”

“So? The doctor said my body won’t the same as before even after I take off my cast. My shoulder’s bone was injured too and it will affect my performance in swimming.”

“That’s why there’s a therapy for-“

“We’ve been over this. You deserve that punishment for making babies cry and I am not going to have that therapy.” Daniel insists.

“What’s so bad about having a therapy?–“

“No! I told you I’m not having that therapy!” Daniel huffs, turning his back on Seongwoo again because when will this boy understand.

Unfortunately for Daniel, Seongwoo is just as stubborn as him. “I don’t understand why you don’t want to go through the therapy, Daniel. You want to be a swimmer but you’re not willing to try to heal your most important swimming asset, your body.”

“Shut up.” Daniel grumbles. “I’m quitting swimming if that can help you understand why. If you’re doing this just so you can go to your Kid Doctor festival thingy, I’m telling you that you’re wasting your time. I am not going to have that therapy.”

“Okay.” Seongwoo jumps down from Daniel’s bed this time.

Daniel bites his lower lip as he listens to the sounds of Seongwoo’s steps walking away from his bed. Maybe the boy has finally given up. Daniel thought.

“Since you’re giving up on being a swimmer, maybe I should give up on being a doctor as well, huh? I mean, I can’t come to study in the Kids Doctor Convention.” Seongwoo smiles sadly. “And I can’t even persuade a patient to do a simple therapy for himself, what kind of doctor will I be then. A really incompetent doctor maybe.”

With that, Seongwoo leaves Daniel’s hospital room, making sure to close the door tightly behind him. Daniel sits up on his bed, staring at the door that Seongwoo just closed, a pang of guilt in his conscience.

The doctor, Daniel’s parents, and Seongwoo are present in his hospital room as the doctor removes the cast off from Daniel’s arm. He asks Daniel to move his arm around gently, making sure that the bone healed already. He also asks Daniel if anything feels uncomfortable or still hurts. But Daniel made a quick recovery and shakes his head, stating that he’s fine.

The doctor smiles. “Awesome, Daniel, you’re back in one piece now. Just stay here for another day to make sure, alright?”

Daniel nodded.

“Thank you very much, doctor.” Daniel’s dad smiles back. “So when can my big boy starts his therapy-“

“I don’t want to have that therapy, appa!” cut Daniel.

“Daniel sweetheart, you need that therapy so you can swim like before-“

“Umma, I don’t want that therapy! I’m fine – I can just quit swimming!”

Daniel’s eyes followed Seongwoo’s disappointed figure when the other boy excuses himself to go outside.

Seongwoo is awfully quiet the next day as well. Daniel decided that as annoying Seongwoo’s chattering can be, he still likes it better than this quiet Seongwoo walking next to him. Jisung hyung has assigned Seongwoo to take Daniel out to the hospital park to get some fresh air every two days. Usually Daniel would have to hold Seongwoo down from jumping around in this kind of sunny days. But today, Seongwoo calmly walks beside him, a thick book in his arms, looking gloomy.

It also doesn’t help when they passed by a couple of men trying to put up a banner that says ‘Kid Doctor Convention: Young Doctors to the Rescue!’ above the meeting hall’s door.

Once outside the hospital building, Seongwoo ran to the bench under the biggest tree in the park, seating himself there comfortably. Daniel followed him and sits down quietly, watching Seongwoo open his big ‘Human Bones’ encyclopedia.

Great, Daniel thought. He will be spending his last day in the hospital with Seongwoo being mad at him. Why can’t this boy just let it go already?! This is probably their last time hanging out together and he gives Daniel the silent treatment.

Whatever. It’s not like Daniel will miss him anyway. He won’t meet that troublesome boy anymore after today ..

Daniel stands up from his seat, walking towards the small pond in the middle of the park. There are other kids around him feeding the fish in the pond. But Daniel only looks at the ripples of water that the fish causes. He sticks his finger into the water, liking the way the liquid hits his skin.

“And you said you want to quit swimming.” Seongwoo says, suddenly next to him.

A gush of relief hit him when Seongwoo finally speaks to him.

“Both of my parents work, you know.” Daniel started speaking now – not really sure why either. “They’re not like your appa; he’s the hospital’s director, isn’t he? That’s why you can roam the hospital all you want and basically have a room here?”

Seongwoo sighs. “He hates the idea of me being a doctor though. He says he’d prefer me managing the business part of the hospital rather than be the doctor. That’s why I hate you so much when you said you want to quit swimming. Your parents support your dream so much, but you rejected them instead.”

“You should’ve heard the amount my parents have to pay for my therapy.”

For the first time, Seongwoo finally understands Daniel.

“The therapy is so expensive. I heard my parents talking when they thought I was asleep. My appa said we might have to move to a smaller apartment to pay for my therapy. How can I put them through that?”

Seongwoo ruffles Daniel’s hair. “You should’ve seen your parents’ face when you told them you want to give up swimming. I think they’re even sadder because they kind of know the reason you’re rejecting the therapy.”

“.. then what am I supposed to do?”

“I say you go through your arm therapy, train hard swimming, and make them proud.”

Daniel decided he loves that smile on Seongwoo’s face at that moment.

“Bye, I guess.” Daniel waves awkwardly. “Until we meet again?”

Seongwoo laughs. “The only way you’re going to meet me is if you come to this hospital for the therapy, young Daniel.”

Three moles pats under-eye mole’s back. “Think about it, okay?”

Daniel nodded.

Daniel came in running frantically, eyes fixated on the ‘Kid Doctor Convention’ banner. He needs to find Jisung hyung as soon as possible.

It didn’t take him a long time at all as he immediately spotted the young intern guiding a bunch of other kids his age into the meeting hall. Daniel runs to him, poking his sides like the trouble boy does to get attention. When it worked, Jisung hyung literally grabs his cheeks and smiles widely at his presence.

“If this isn’t Kang Daniel!” Jisung hyung smiles. “What are you doing back to the hospital so soon, Niel-ah?”

“I’m going to have my arm therapy.”

Jisung literally squealed. Like, loudly, making the other kids stare at them for a few seconds there before going back to whatever they were doing. Daniel internally curls himself in embarrassment. But that’s not the problem now.

“Hyung! I am going to have my arm therapy, so you have to let-“

Daniel pauses. Oh my .. Daniel doesn’t know his name .. ? DANIEL DOESN’T KNOW TROUBLE BOY’S NAME. HE NEVER HAD TO CALL THE BOY BY HIS NAME BEFORE BECAUSE HE’S ALWAYS THERE WITHOUT HAVING TO BE CALLED! His name ..?

“Yes?” Jisung raises his brows. “Let?”

Daniel found a big poster of the hospital director. Surely the boy has the same name as his appa, right?

“Let O-ong? – Let Ong join the Kid Doctor Convention! He’s the one who convinced me!” Daniel cried.

“Ong?” Jisung laughed.

“It’s Seongwoo, stupid.” Seongwoo came out of nowhere and is suddenly next to Daniel. “Ong Seongwoo.”

Daniel didn’t even get to protest for being called stupid since Seongwoo jumped from where he was and is now hugging Daniel tightly, shaking him in happiness.

“You came back for therapy!” Seongwoo squeals too, smiling widely. He pulls away to look at Daniel’s face. “I knew you’d come back. You love me way too much to not come back.”

Daniel hopes his face didn’t turn red.

“Shut up, Seongwoo.”

Seongwoo smiles, loving the way his name sounds coming out from Daniel’s lips. “It’s hyung, by the way.”

“What?”

“I’m ten years old. You’re nine, baby Daniel.”

Daniel rolled his eyes.

Jisung who was watching the two boys’ interactions laughed and ruffles both boys’ hair. “Huh, Seongwoo, would you look at that. It seems like you’re joining the Kid Doctor Convention after all.”

“What time will your therapy session start?” Seongwoo asked Daniel, blatantly ignoring his Jisung hyung.

“In 30 minutes, I guess.”

“Awesome! Let’s get to the third floor now then!” Seongwoo smiles mischievously, taking Daniel’s hand to drag him up.

“But don’t you want to join the Kid Doctor Convention?” Daniel asked, pulling Seongwoo back hesitantly.

Seongwoo only shrugs, grinning widely, almost displaying all this teeth. “I can’t join. My first patient’s appointment is in 30 minutes. We gotta go.”

As he watches the two boys run inside the elevator hand in hand, Jisung found his heart feeling warm at the scene. Ah, he used to have those moments too back when he was in school ..

“Cute.”

“I’m your first patient? You’re not going to be the one giving me my therapy, right? Cause you’re ten and I don’t trust you.”

“I’m not.” Seongwoo is still smiling excitedly. “But your therapy is all thanks to my recommendation, persuasion, and hard work. I’m taking credit for my work.”

Daniel decided he loves that smile on Seongwoo’s face at that moment too.

He decided he loves every smile on Seongwoo’s face.

-KPOPMonstahh