5 years later

Kyungsoo was tapping a pen on his desk, trying to figure out how many coffees he could drink before getting a heart attack. He supposed one more cup wouldn’t hurt.

It was barely eight o’clock in the morning, and he had had a night shift in the ER, he’d barely been able to catch four hours of sleep before he had to come back to the hospital. He’d promised to take over Chanyeol’s clinic hours while he was on some oncology seminar in Japan. A deed he was now so desperately regretting, because Sooyeon or Sooyoung was trying to hunt him down with a stack of patient files.

He supposed it wouldn’t be long before she eventually found him, and Kyungsoo knew a loss when he saw one. He let go of the pen with a defeated sigh and stood up by himself.

Clinic hours were tedious – a never-ending routine of flus and colds, of sores, rashes and sprained wrists.

The peak was a woman with a STD, a woman who was so desperately trying to avoid any treatments. Judging by her crazy look and the blond highlights in her braided hair, Kyungsoo almost felt like injecting himself with barbiturate so he could fall asleep and never wake up. A hippie. Most probably a vegan too.

“But isn’t there some alternative medicine? Like some homemade creams I can make or some foods that can suppress-“

“I know one,” Kyungsoo interrupted her, scribbling down on the prescription pad. “The only alternative medicine that’s been proven to work on venereal diseases.”

The woman was looking at him expectantly and Kyungsoo just stared at her before handing her the prescription.

“Medicine,” he said in a deadpan, not sticking around to watch or listen to the undoubtedly series of protests.

He breathed out a heavy sigh as soon as he was out of the exam room. He threw a desperate look towards the reception.

Just three more hours.

“-and he’s like, I’m studying community medicine,” Kyungsoo heard Baekhyun’s loud voice before even sitting down at the table. “And I’m like, dude? What the is even community medicine?”

Kyungsoo didn’t regard that with an answer, neither did any of the other doctors sitting on the lunch table. Instead, he looked around the table – not that he would have missed Jongin the first time – just in case. He was jittery and tired. He didn’t completely trust his old eyes.

When he did see, however, that Jongin was not sitting among them, his shoulders slumped a little.

“Hard day?”

Kyungsoo blinked up when a hand collided with his shoulder – a hand that was all too heavy at the moment for someone as tired as he was. Suho was smiling at him with that fake little smile he used on the children in paediatrics.

“Long day,” Kyungsoo corrected, stabbing his salad with a little too much grudge. “I can’t wait to get home and sleep.”

“Oh, yeah, baby,” Baekhyun moaned around a mouthful of a sandwich. “ to me.”

Kyungsoo kept zoning off during lunch, especially when his friends started talking about research articles and tests.

The salad he was eating felt tasteless, and he could feel his eyelids heaving down despite the caffeine in his system making his entire body jittery.

And then he felt two hands on his shoulders – not heavy like Suho’s, not harsh, not scary.

The hands he felt on his shoulders were gentle and loving, and he knew right away that Jongin was finally here.

He turned to see his boyfriend smiling widely, shining brighter than any sun in any galaxy.

Kyungsoo immediately felt his body relaxing at the sight of Jongin, the caffeine and the exhaustion long forgotten at the sight of that loving and gentle smile, meant only for him.

“You’re late,” Kyungsoo said, not meaning to sound accusing. It was a more of a statement, that had Jongin shrugging. The white doctor coat was reaching just above his knees, and Kyungsoo only took notice of the green clothing underneath now. Before he could even question Jongin about it, the younger was sliding onto the bench next to him.

“Had to assist at a bypass surgery,” he explained briefly with a shrug. “It took longer than expected.”

“Did you wash your hands?”

“Seriously?”

Jongin’s smile died out as he turned to throw Baekhyun a quick glare. The other doctor seemed quite pleased with his joke, so Jongin just rolled his eyes and looked back to Kyungsoo instead.

A surgery. A heart surgery. That explained why Sehun was also missing from the table. Kyungsoo shrugged, stabbing more salad leaves on his fork.

Jongin’s fingers were absentmindedly playing with his arm, his smile just as blinding as ever.

“Why are you even assisting in surgeries?” Minseok asked, a little sceptical tick to his eyebrows. “Isn’t that like, illegal?”

“Stop embarrassing yourself,” Junmyeon groaned out, throwing the eldest doctor a look. “Just because you are a show-off who never asks for help…Go read the hospital’s policy.”

“Residents can assist during surgery,” Jongin explained with a little smile. “We can even perform surgeries by ourselves, but that’s a little risky.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Minseok raised his eyebrows briefly, before shaking his head with a sigh, stepping out of the conversation. Everyone knew that the neurosurgeon had the most years of practice. Everyone knew he was meticulous about his job – he had to be.

So it was easy for Kyungsoo to imagine why Minseok would rather not trust residents helping him out while he was poking at people’s brains. It was sort of reasonable.

Baekhyun, however, didn’t seem to be ready just yet to let the topic die because he turned around to pester Minseok. Suho and Yixing jumped on his side, while Jongdae, of course, defended Minseok by saying that if the resident screwed up then it would be the head surgeon’s fault. It was kind of true, Kyungsoo supposed.

“You okay?” Jongin’s voice was quiet and gentle and it snapped him out of his daze. He turned to look towards him and the mildly concerned expression on his face. Kyungsoo blinked when Jongin raised a hand to put on his cheek, skin warm against his face. “You look a little pale.”

“Too much work and not enough sleep,” Kyungsoo smiled a crooked smile, a tired one, as he placed a kiss on Jongin’s wrist before the younger pulled his arm back. His smile was understanding, optimistic.

“Well, that’s only three more days,” Jongin said, leaning closer to him, their foreheads almost touching. Kyungsoo could already feel his hot breath on his skin, he could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke up again, in a hushed whisper. “Then we have an entire week just for you and me. No work, no patients. Just us, in Hawaii, with the sun and the beach and all-“ Jongin pressed their lips briefly. “-the-“ another kiss, “-nights.”

It was hard for Kyungsoo not to grab his boyfriend right here and now and to absolutely devour him, but he was surrounded by his colleagues and patients, by nurses and families. He couldn’t do that. Not yet.

However, something started burning in his chest as he looked back towards Jongin, all those promises mixing with excitement in his beautiful eyes and shining with all the love in the world.

Kyungsoo leaned forward, crashing their lips together again, a lock of their lips that lasted longer as they moved lazily together. A gentle touch of fingertips that made his skin burn in their trail.

He was breathless when they broke apart, but his chest felt lighter than it ever had before.

Just three more days.

And then he would have Jongin all to himself.

Kyungsoo was standing in the middle of his office, hands twisted together as he looked towards the men sitting in front of him.

Baekhyun was squinting, a very deep crease forming between his eyebrows.

Jongdae was frowning, eyes shooting between the screen and his notes.

Sehun seemed beyond tired next to him, raising a hand up to rub at his forehead.

And Jongin was there too, sitting on the chair next to Baekhyun, eyes concentrated on the picture on the screen.

There were a few med students standing in the corner. Kyungsoo’s eyes occasionally shot towards them and he kept wondering why exactly the hospital was sending those kids in even for actual serious cases. He was going to fight management again.

“So what’s wrong with him?”

His eyes flashed around the room when he heard no reply. Some of the younger residents in the corner looked away as soon as he caught their eyes.

“Come on, people,” he urged, eyebrows shooting up. “We have a patient who’s bleeding out. I need ideas.”

“Clotting problem?”

“No, the time test is negative.”

“It could be faulty?” Baekhyun asked, shrugging in Sehun’s direction. Kyungsoo set his jaw. That was always a possibility. A ty possibility that would set them back and make them lose more time.

“Any other ideas?”

“It looks like arrhythmia.”

Kyungsoo shot his eyebrows up as he looked towards the med students in the corner. He didn’t know the name of the boy who had spoken up but at the sight of Kyungsoo, Sehun, Baekhyun, Jongdae and Jongin, along with some of the other students, looking towards him with raised in disbelief eyebrows, he seemed to buffer in his place, raising his pad closer to his chest.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath to stop himself from blurting out something especially rude. He had to remind himself that those kids were still learning.

Kyungsoo could definitely give a piece of his mind to the person who had once said that there were no wrong answers.

“It looks like arrhythmia?” he asked in the same time he saw Jongin and Sehun exchanging a look. The med student seemed like he wanted the world to zap him away.

“You can’t see arrhythmia because the picture is not moving,” Jongin said with a deep voice, an exasperated voice. “It’s not arrhythmia, it’s no-rhythmia. Try again.”

Kyungsoo almost snickered at how annoyed Jongin sounded. He knew his boyfriend had it even worse than the doctors. Management was forcing the med students to follow after the residents – if the leading physicians were in charge of the residents, of Jongin, then Jongin was in charge of those med students. No head of department had the time to deal with stupid questions.

So Kyungsoo felt almost too bad for him, as he turned around in his chair.

“What about a parasite?” Jongdae asked with a defeated sigh. It sounded like he was shooting blindly. “Something could be messing up his blood stream, causing heart problems. Do a biopsy.”

“We can’t do a biopsy,” Sehun frowned. “His blood isn’t clotting.”

“You just said the time test was negative!”

“And I just said it could be faulty!”

“Then do the damn test again,” Kyungsoo frowned, shooting a glare towards his colleagues. “Hurry up, before he runs out of blood to test.”

Kyungsoo breathed out a sigh when he heard chairs moving and people scrambling to get out of the room. He only looked up to see Jongin shooting a look towards the med students and motioning for them to get out.

And then he was the only one left standing in Kyungsoo’s office, the one who reached forward to turn the screen off with a deep sigh.

Kyungsoo’s eyes softened at the black circles under Jongin’s eyes. Just two more days and they would go on their vacation. Just two more days and they could rest.

“Why do you need me on this case?” Jongin sighed out quietly after a little while. He sounded genuinely confused. “I’m a resident, I can’t do much to help you. I can’t contribute in any way that the others can’t.”

Kyungsoo pursed his lips together, as he opened the patient file, noting some more things down, before eventually looking up towards Jongin again. He raised his arm in invitation