“Calling Dr. Do Kyungsoo from General Surgery to the front desk at the reception please.”

Kyungsoo was in one of the rooms, going through one of his patient’s charts and results which he recently received from the laboratory technicians when he heard the announcement over the speaker system.

The announcement was repeated thrice before it fell silent again and only the sounds of the whirring of the machines and the lab technician clicking her pen were heard in the room he was in.

Kyungsoo looked up from the results of a biopsy test in his hand, scrunching his nose, “Did I hear that right? Are they looking for me?”

“There is another doctor named Kyungsoo in this hospital but he doesn’t have your surname. I’m pretty sure it’s you,” The lab technician deadpanned, going back to her desk full of charts, clicking her pen away.

“Well then, I’ll be back,” Kyungsoo excused himself, leaving the room and walking out with his hands in the front pockets of his laboratory coat.

Kyungsoo’s hands fiddled around with a small notepad and a pen which he stuffed into his lab coat pockets, as he walked down the pristine and well-lit hallways of the general hospital he was assigned to.

Kyungsoo nodded and smiled to the hospital staff who passed by him. Even if he didn’t know them personally, Kyungsoo always made sure to be as approachable as possible.

Kyungsoo didn’t really want to be that scary doctor everyone was afraid of visiting; the one that parents used to talk about to scare kids if they misbehaved and fell ill.

Kyungsoo wanted to be known as the warm and bright doctor whom everyone could talk to easily.

Kyungsoo opted to use the staircase instead of using the elevator to get to the ground floor, where the front registration desk was located at. It was just at the floor below where he was currently at anyway.

Kyungsoo did not run into anyone in the staircase hall and he sort of found comfort in the familiar sounds of his footsteps echoing off the walls as he stepped down the steps. Kyungsoo liked the familiarity and routine.

Kyungsoo wondered why he had been called down there in the first place. Was a patient personally looking for him? Did the specialist doctor he was under decided to come in out of his working hours and instruct him to assist?

Kyungsoo came up with several theories as he was walking down to the front desk, right in front of the waiting area which was lined with people waiting in the row of chairs for their turn to be attended to. This was the non-emergency section of the hospital so nothing was too dire or needed to be attended to immediately.

“I was called for. What may it be?” Kyungsoo inquired, resting an elbow on the front desk.

“Oh Sehun is looking for you. He’s in the emergency section but he said it wasn’t an emergency. He just needs you there,” Kyungsoo was informed by the middle-aged lady with curly hair at the front desk.

“Then why didn’t he just call me?” Kyungsoo asked.

“Ask him, not me. I have work to do,” The curly-haired lady chased away Kyungsoo so she could tend to the next person who came up to the front desk.

“Weird,” Kyungsoo told himself, tapping his fingers on the surface of the desk before heading down to the emergency area.

There didn’t seem to be any emergency cases at the moment and the hospital staff were more relaxed and at ease as they went about their normal duties when Kyungsoo arrived.

Kyungsoo was no senior doctor or specialist either so he wasn’t the type to make everyone stand at attention and start taking their work a bit more seriously when he arrived in the area.

The older doctors were notoriously known for being a little strict and nitpicky when it came to work. Kyungsoo found them a bit rigid and personally believed that a little leniency and flexibility would be better.

Maybe it was because of them, Kyungsoo aimed to be that approachable doctor whom people were comfortable to talk to about their health.

But it would take Kyungsoo probably a decade or more before he could even become a specialist. Until then, Kyungsoo was laying out the framework for his career path and he believed he almost got it. He was on his way there.

Compared to being in front of a Go board, Kyungsoo had more confidence being here even with a scalpel in his hand in front of an operating table.

Kyungsoo spotted Sehun’s figure from afar and sped up his steps to walk up to his friend, the registered nurse. Sehun was wearing his usual green scrubs and had his back turned and was leaning over a counter, writing something down onto a clipboard when Kyungsoo approached him.

“Yo,” Kyungsoo hollered, “You called me?”

Sehun turned around to face Kyungsoo and stuck the pencil he was writing with, behind his earlobe which he liked to do as a habit, “Yeah, I did. It’s not an emergency though in the medical sense. It’s a Go emergency.”

“A Go emergency? What is that?”

“Come here,” Sehun grabbed Kyungsoo by the hand and led him down past some doors and down the hallway away from the emergency area.

Sehun stopped in front of the door to the nurse’s break room and pushed the door open with his knuckle, “Go in.”

Kyungsoo did as he was told and stepped into the room to find Chanyeol sitting on a chair near a table with his briefcase on his lap.

Chanyeol lifted his head, alert and at attention when he saw Kyungsoo walk into the room. If Kyungsoo could put it to words, Chanyeol sort of looked like an excited dog that was happy to see their owner return home.

Chanyeol’s rather pointy ears which stuck out further from his head than most people didn’t help either.

Kyungsoo was rather embarrassed at making that resemblance but Chanyeol wasn’t helping either.

“Uh…Chanyeol? Didn’t I leave you in the cafeteria? I told you to wait there for me, didn’t I?”, Kyungsoo questioned, trying to remember if he really left Chanyeol in the cafeteria.

Chanyeol’s mouth hung slightly open like he was going to say something but he didn’t speak. Chanyeol looked rather puzzled to as he went back and forth, looking at Kyungsoo and then at Sehun.

Sehun leaned against a cabinet with his arms folded over his chest, “I found him wandering down the halls here. He was lost and I thought I was dreaming when I saw East Asia’s top Go player roaming around here. I know you said you were friends with him but I didn’t know you were this close!”

“What do you mean by ‘how close’?” Kyungsoo questioned.

“He won’t answer me when I tried asking him if he was lost or if he needed anything. He just kept saying your name over and over again. He wouldn’t talk to anyone else either so I made him wait here until I could find you,” Sehun informed.

“Hey, he’s right here, you know,” Kyungsoo pointed out, patting Chanyeol on the shoulder reassuringly. “He’s just a little quiet.”

“Yeah, I did hear Park Chanyeol was a rather quiet man. He usually talks to people through his assistant so I was surprised to see him here alone and looking for you to boot,” Sehun stated.

“The truth is, I was the one who brought him here. I couldn’t leave him so I made him wait at the cafeteria for a bit but I think he wandered around and got lost,” Kyungsoo clarified, plopping down on the chair across from Chanyeol before turning his attention to his tall friend and asking, “You’re okay, there?”

Chanyeol nodded and his lips formed a thin smile.

“That’s good,” Kyungsoo noted.

“That’s what I want to know,” Sehun expressed, “What is he doing here with you? Where is his assistant, as a matter of fact? Don’t tell me that you kidnapped the top Go player?”

“It’s a long story but I’m his assistant until this evening,” Kyungsoo revealed.

“Wha- How?” Sehun gaped, mouth hanging open at the perplexity of the situation he was in.

Kyungsoo turned to Chanyeol again, “Chanyeol, I'm going to talk with Sehun outside of the room for just a little bit. Can you wait in here for me? It’s going to be just a few minutes.”

Chanyeol nodded again.

Kyungsoo took the cue and pulled Sehun by the hand, leading him out of the break room and into the empty hospital hallways outside the room.

“Look, I can’t talk about this in front of him but Chanyeol is a bit ‘special’,” Kyungsoo tried to put in the best words he could.

“Of course he is. Have you seen how many tournaments he won?” Sehun exclaimed.

“Yeah, special in Go but a bit special up in here too,” Kyungsoo pointed to his head.

Sehun paused, before realizing what Kyungsoo actually meant by that and then going, “Oh, I get it.”

“Not many people know it but he’s been that way since a car accident about five years ago. He has selective mutism too so he’s rather anxious around people he’s uncomfortable with. He can’t talk to everyone,” Kyungsoo enlightened.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re his assistant though. What’s up with that? Where are the people he usually travels with?” Sehun further asked. “I thought that he was being accompanied by the people from the association?”

“Something came up and he had to travel to the tournament alone. Someone from Japan is coming to get him this evening though so I’m watching over him for now,” Kyungsoo replied.

“Why you though? You’re not even a staff member of the Go association. Heck, you’re not even a member of the Japan Go association. I mean, I know you said you were Chanyeol’s’ friend from high school but I thought you two were like just in the same class. I didn’t know you were this close,” Sehun’s face suddenly lit up, “You’re lucky though. I can only imagine being in your place. You should have asked him to teach you to play Go.”

“We are- I mean were close back in the days. It seems like Chanyeol is still comfortable being around me and the Japan association didn’t want him to be alone so they decided to trust him with me,” Kyungsoo answered, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms over his chest.

Sehun glanced one more time at the door to the break room with Chanyeol inside before returning to Kyungsoo, “But he wasn’t always like this, isn’t he? No?”

“No,” Kyungsoo shook his head, “It’s only recently.”

“I should have noticed that there wasn’t anyone accompanying him during his tournament yesterday. I was there and everything too,” Sehun tried to recall. “So does that mean you went to this morning’s tournament?”

“I did.”

“Did he win? I can’t get more off time from work until the final match. I already applied for too much leave already. I’m seriously considering quitting this nursing thing and becoming a full-time Go player if I can hit professional,” Sehun revealed, leaning on the wall beside Kyungsoo too.

“Yes, he won. He’ll be at the finals the day after tomorrow. I’m not sure if I can go then though,” Kyungsoo returned to the room to check up on Chanyeol.

Sehun followed Kyungsoo almost instantly.

“Are you feeling alright?” Kyungsoo asked gently, resting a hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder.

Chanyeol, seated on the chair, looked up into Kyungsoo’s eyes behind the pair of prescription glasses the doctor wore and nodded, muttering a low, “Yes.”

Kyungsoo softly smiled, “Alright then. I get off work in about two hours so it won’t be long until then. I’ll send you back to the hotel after that. Takeda is coming to get you so don’t worry.”

Chanyeol’s eyes darted from Kyungsoo’s gaze to Sehun standing a few feet behind Kyungsoo.

Chanyeol’s pupils grew larger and the neutral expression on his face changed as if he was alarmed at something. Immediately, Chanyeol grabbed Kyungsoo’s hand from his shoulder and held onto it like a personal clutch to keep him safe.

Chanyeol looked away from Sehun and pressed his face into Kyungsoo’s hand.

Kyungsoo looked over his shoulder and saw Sehun shrugging. Kyungsoo knew what was up with Chanyeol’s behavior.

“Chanyeol, it’s alright,” Kyungsoo rubbed a hand on Chanyeol’s upper back. “This is my friend, Oh Sehun. He’s a nurse here. He plays Go too like you. Don’t worry. He’s a bit silly but he’s a nice guy.” Kyungsoo gently assured Chanyeol.

Chanyeol lifted his face from Kyungsoo’s hand and looked up to Sehun behind Kyungsoo again.

“Uh…hi,” Sehun lifted a hand and slightly bowed his head to Chanyeol.