Part One: Hyukjae

Chapter One:

Hyukjae scrolled aimlessly through his sns accounts, bored with the content. He was waiting for the nurse to come and bring him for his daily dialysis, trying not to get stressed about the upcoming pain and overall ty feeling. It took hours for the process to finish, and he would usually spend the remainder of his day curled up in bed wanting to vomit. So, the mornings were his peaceful time, as peaceful as he could be with the arrogant that shared his room.

Today would be a better day than most, however, since the prick in the other bed was preparing for discharge and when Hyuk returned to the room later he would finally have some real quiet and not the endless idiotic commentary on the news or the veiled homophobic remarks. His roommate didn’t even know that Hyukjae was gay, he’d simply assumed it and decided that it was the cause of everything that was wrong with the younger man.

Never mind the fact that his condition was genetic and inherited. He was ten the first time he went into kidney failure. That was when he and his parents had been tested and they had found that Hyukjae had inherited the gene for polycystic kidney disease, one copy from each. And while his parents and sister had escaped the condition, Hyukjae had spent the next twenty years in and out of hospitals as his kidneys led him up and down the rollercoaster of good health and illness.

He had been strict with his diet, taken all the medications the doctors forced down his throat, exercised whenever possible, and lived as clean a lifestyle as a young man could while still trying to enjoy a normal youth with friends and school and parties. Dating had been difficult at times. There was no rhyme or reason to when he would suddenly feel sick. Some of his ex-partners had gotten tired of being stood up for dates when he was too ill to leave the house. Others were scared by his numerous hospital visits and uncertain life expectancy. He had still managed to have some fun, but never the grand romance he had dreamed of when he was younger.

Which was one of the few lingering regrets he had in life. That and the fact that his failing organs would be ripping him away from it, and from his loving family, too soon.

Hyukjae’s parents owned a successful travel agency in Seoul and he and his older sister had traveled all over the world accompanying them to different places for work and for pleasure. The last few years, with his test results getting worse and his stamina more uncertain, he had dialed back on the travel side of things, leaving his father, sister, and brother-in-law to accompany the tour groups while he helped his mother at the agency and she kept an eye on him.

And then a few months ago, shortly after he turned thirty, he had passed out in the middle of a walk, and woken up in the hospital, once again hooked to machines. This time the diagnosis was dire. Organ transplant. His kidneys had failed catastrophically, and he was stuck here in the hospital, hooked to a dialysis machine for hours at a time, until the treatment stopped working, or they miraculously found a donor.

Hyukjae had a rare blood type, and none of his family members’ kidneys were a match. They had all signed up for possible chain donation, where one of them volunteered to donate an organ to someone else, in return for someone in that stranger’s family to do the same for him. But so far there hadn’t been any hits in the system, and Hyukjae was doomed to languish in the hospital, waiting. Either that or he went home to die.

And while there were days when the pain was so overwhelming that he wondered if dying could really be that much worse, he also knew he would never put his family through such an ordeal if there was even a slim chance of surviving. They loved him too much, and still had hope. Even with their busy lives, at least one of them came to visit every day, and whoever couldn’t visit would call or text. He loved them more than anything.

That afternoon, as he lay in bed breathing through the pain in his aching body, he was roused from his partial doze by the bustle of nurses bringing a new patient into the room. Listlessly, he closed his eyes, wondering what kind of person it would be. Hoping they could find some common ground and have an intelligent conversation occasionally. Anything to pass the time, really.

When the room was finally quiet again, Hyukjae managed to push himself up on the pillows to take a look. The curtain between their beds was partially pulled, but he was able to scoot down and glance around it, only to be disappointed.

Whoever he was, he didn’t look to be in any shape for a conversation. They poor man’s head was bandaged almost down to the tip of his nose, covering his entire forehead and his eyes. He had an oxygen mask covering the lower half of his face and a variety of tubes and wires connected to his hand and chest. Head injury, Hyukjae assumed, and not even conscious. Well, he had wanted a quiet roommate, and this one certainly fit the bill.

In the morning he was awakened by the sound of voices. With the curtain between the two beds fully drawn, he assumed whoever was with his new roommate had intended for privacy. But the slowly rising voice of the man allowed Hyukjae to hear everything.

“So, will he be blind forever?”

“There’s no way to be certain. Once the swelling in his brain goes down, we can take another look, but it would be hasty to assume the worst.” Hyukjae recognized the soft, patient voice of one of his favorite doctors.

“Is he brain damaged?” the arrogant voice asked.

“Again, we can’t know anything for certain until he wakes up. There may be some memory loss due to the accident, and there’s a chance it could be permanent. But until the swelling goes down, we won’t be able to—”

“What I’m hearing is that his own stupid accident made him blind and may have permanently messed up his brain. Is that right?”

“I think you’re rushing to conclusions,” the doctor tried to calm him down.

“No, this is typical for him. Always stubborn, didn’t want to listen to me. If he would have just done as I told him, none of this would have happened. What the hell am I supposed to do now? He can’t work if he’s blind. And if he thinks I’m going to take care of him now that he’s crippled and even more of an idiot than he was before, then he picked the wrong guy.”

There was a gasp, certainly from Doctor Park, who had to be as appalled by the outburst as Hyukjae was. A moment later a tall, handsome man wearing designer clothing stormed across the room, an ugly sneer on his face. He wrenched open the door and let it fall back closed with a thud.

There was a heavy sigh from behind the curtain.

“Doctor Park?” Hyukjae called out softly. “Is that you?”

A moment later the sandy hair and familiar dimpled smile peeked around the edge of the curtain. “Good morning Hyukjae. I’m sorry if we woke you.”

“I’m fine. Who was that ?”

Giving one last glance at the patient, the doctor came to Hyukjae’s side of the curtain. With his voice pitched low, he replied, “The patient’s boyfriend, apparently. The police found his phone at the scene of the accident, but there were only a few numbers. We left numerous messages yesterday, but he was the first to respond.”

“But didn’t the patient come in yesterday? What took the guy so long?”

“I don’t know,” Doctor Park shrugged. “I almost wish he hadn’t come if he was going to react like that. It wasn’t the patient’s fault at all, but he didn’t want to hear it.”

“What happened? Car accident?”

The doctor gazed at him fondly for a moment. Hyukjae and Doctor Park had known one another for years now. It was one of the reasons he didn’t mind his hospital visits too much. The staff were always friendly and tended to spoil him a bit knowing how hard he had struggled with his condition and that he tried never to let it bring him down.

“There is such a thing as doctor/patient confidentiality, you know?”

“I can always sneak a look at his chart when we’re alone, you know,” Hyukjae teased back.

“Yes,” he sighed again. “Car accident. Early yesterday morning. He was driving and tried to avoid something that fell off the back of a truck, apparently. Lost control of the car in the rain.”

“Damn,” Hyukjae winced sympathetically. “Is he really going to be blind?”

“It’s too soon to tell, but I have high hope that when the swelling on his brain goes down everything should be fine. He’s a healthy man, no underlying conditions. He just needs time to recover.”

“No family?” Hyuk queried, thinking how horrible it would be to find yourself stuck here in the hospital all alone. He knew he would go crazy without the visits from his own.

“I was told the police tracked down his brother, but he’s out of the country and it will be at least a few days before he can get here.”

“Well, I can keep him company,” Hyukjae laughed, “I don’t have anywhere else I need to be right now.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” the doctor replied thoughtfully. “I’m not sure when he’ll wake up, but if he does have memory loss from the accident, he’ll probably be a bit scared, especially because he can’t see. Having someone nearby to reassure him would probably help a lot.”

“Really?” Hyukjae was a bit surprised. He had been joking, mostly. But again, he really didn’t have anything else to do. “I mean, sure, I can talk to him. He can’t be any worse than my last roommate.”

The smile Doctor Park gave him indicated that he knew exactly what Hyukjae was talking about. Still, his morning was peaceful enough. The new patient remained unconscious. Hyukjae snuck a closer look at him during a trip to the bathroom. There wasn’t much he could see with all the bandages and the mask, but the man had a nice body at least. He looked to be around Hyukjae’s age. Something to look forward to whenever he did wake up. At least he would have company for a while, and if the guy wasn’t another it could be nice.

He spent his afternoon receiving another round of dialysis and was recovering in bed when his sister and her husband arrived with a small container of homemade kimchi and a flashdrive of photos from their latest trip.

Sora and Yesung had been married for almost four years now and his brother-in-law loved to travel. He had actually met Sora during a group tour their agency had arranged to Italy, but it wasn’t until they returned home that the shy man had started sending her flowers. At first Hyukjae had been jealous of the man who was trying to steal his sister away from him. He’d been a bit of a brat, hoping to irritate him enough to mess up and do something wrong in front of Sora. But he should have known that the sister who loved to would be even more impressed when her suitor showed remarkable restraint in the face of her baby brother’s annoyances. And once Hyukjae saw how the man treated her, and how much she liked him, he decided to give him a chance.

They had worked out their differences. Mostly. Hyukjae still loved to tease Yesung, and his brother by marriage had learned to fight back. Sora found it all quite entertaining and encouraged them both, sitting back to enjoy the show.

“New roomie? The loud-mouthed jerk is finally gone?” she asked with a smile.

“Finally,” Hyuk nodded. “He left yesterday.”

“Oh, what a pity,” Yesung sighed out, “I was looking forward to another conversation about the role of the patriarch in the home.”

“Why?” Hyuk asked, “Were you learning what not to do to keep my sister happy?”

“He knows exactly what makes me happy,” she winked at her husband, who smiled back.

“Gross,” Hyuk pursed his lips. “Please don’t elaborate.”

“Don’t be jealous because I found the perfect husband,” she patted his arm patronizingly. “You never know when you might meet someone fantastic.”

Hyukjae was about to make another snarky remark, but he caught the adoring look Yesung was giving his sister and bit his tongue. They really were happy together, and the man did anything Sora wanted while still managing not to be a total pushover. His sister wasn’t always the easiest person to get along with.

“Oh sure, I meet all kinds of interesting people here at the hospital,” Hyukjae answered instead. “Who knows, maybe the comatose guy in the next bed will be the one?”

“Hyukjae,” she scolded, slapping his arm lightly. Then, dropping her voice to a near-whisper, “Is he really in a coma?”

“Yeah, Doctor Park said he was in a car accident.”

“Poor man,” Yesung shook his head, glancing at the other bed.

“I feel bad for him,” Hyukjae continued. “He’s only had one visitor and the guy was a real .”

“Well, when he wakes up be nice to him,” Sora said. “It’s not everyone who’s lucky to have such a great family like you do.”

“Who’s great?” Hyukjae raised his eyebrows. “I get one tiny little container of kimchi and now you’re so awesome?”

“Brat,” she slapped him again, harder.

“Hey! Quit beating your sick brother! Hyung, make her stop!”

“Why?” Yesung asked, an expression of utter bewilderment on his face.

“Ugh!” Hyukjae pouted. “Where’s mom? She would treat me right.”

“She’s working. We got a request for a large group tour to China so she’s trying to get all the information together.”

“Really? Man, I wish I could go. I’m the only one of us who can actually speak some Chinese.”

Yesung cleared his throat, probably as a reminder that he knew enough to be understood in at least six languages.

“Well, aside from him, anyway,” Hyukjae jerked his head in Yesung’s direction.

“Don’t worry,” Sora soothed, “Once you get better, you’ll be going on lots of tours again. Right?”

“Of course,” he smiled, not wanting to bring down her good spirits.

“Well, I hate to cut it short, kid, but we have a date tonight.”

“Spare me the details.”

“God, Hyuk, it’s just a date. The comes later.”

Hyukjae pretended to gag while Yesung looked away and whistled softly to himself. Sora just laughed at him.

“As if I haven’t had to sit through your own relationship stories,” she scoffed. “I guarantee when you find another boyfriend, you’ll be wanting to talk about him nonstop. Just wait and see if I listen to a single word.”

“Sora…” he whined. “That’s different! You two have already been married for like, years!”

“That doesn’t mean the romance has to end,” Yesung commented thoughtfully. “It means it gets better.”

This time it was Sora giving her husband the adoring smile. And while Hyukjae rolled his eyes and pretended to be bored by their lovey-dovey looks, deep down he was insanely jealous of what they had.

“Anyway, little brother, we’ll be back tomorrow, or I will. Or someone will. Do you need anything?”

“I’m good,” he forced a smile. “I’ll probably just hang around here all day.”

He saw the flicker of compassion in her eyes before she leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I love you, Hyuk. Stay strong, okay? This will all be over soon, you’ll see. And then everything will be better.”

“I know,” he agreed. “I love you guys.”

“See you soon, kid,” Yesung reached out and ruffled Hyukjae’s hair, once again ignoring the fact that he was a thirty-year-old man and not a child.

Watching them leave, Hyuk let out a sigh. He would stay positive. For their sake. Right up until his last breath if he had to.

Final rounds came and went and Hyukjae passed the time watching some shows on his laptop. He got tired easily, but he wasn’t always able to sleep, so he didn’t force it. It was better to be able to nap during his dialysis if possible, so he wasn’t concerned about staying up late at night.

It was probably after midnight when a small sound caught his attention. At first, he thought it was a figment of his imagination. But a few minutes later there was another one, this time clearly a whimper. He realized it was the man in the other bed.

Wondering if he should call the nurse, his curiosity got the better of him and he eased off his bed, going over to sit in the chair next to the mystery patient. His own bedside lamp was lit, but the curtain was partially pulled so that the glare was diluted. It was still enough to see the man’s face, what wasn’t covered by bandages and the oxygen mask.

He wondered if the stranger was waking up. If so, he really should call the nurse. But he wasn’t sure and thought he would wait a few minutes. There was another sad groan and a slight movement of the man’s head. It appeared that he was dreaming.

Hyukjae saw the man’s hand flex where it lay on the bed near him. Instinctively, he reached out and gently wrapped his own hands around it, surprised when the tanned fingers closed around his own with strength.

“It’s all right,” he heard himself say. “Don’t be scared. You’re not alone.”

There was a slight increase in pressure, followed by another whimper.

“Don’t worry, just rest now. You’re in a hospital.”

He wasn’t sure what he was saying or why, but it did have an effect. There was another small squeeze from the stranger’s hand, and then his breathing began to even out, body relaxing. After a few minutes, the other man had fallen back to sleep, but Hyukjae was reluctant to let go of his hand for some reason.

Now that he was sitting so close and had more time to observe, he wondered what the stranger looked like. His hands were smaller than Hyukjae’s, but the skin was richly colored as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. There were slight callouses on his fingertips, unlike Hyukjae’s smooth digits that rarely did anything more damaging than pushing buttons on a keyboard.

He did have a nice body, with muscular arms and chest, very fit. Not that Hyukjae was checking the guy out. Really, he wasn’t. It’s just that there wasn’t anything else to do and the man hadn’t let go of his hand. He was very curious about what the man looked like. The lower half of his face was attractive enough with a fine, straight nose and a wide mouth. But aside from that and his shaggy dark hair, there was little else to go on. He could be totally hideous. A few nice features didn’t always add up to handsome, after all.

He still sat there for a while, thinking. And when he did let go, he wondered if he imagined that the man didn’t seem to want to let him. Surely, he was imagining it. Very gently he laid the man’s hand back down on the bed, adjusting his blanket carefully.

“Don’t worry, I’ll still be here in the morning,” he whispered, before padding back to his own bed and sliding beneath the sheet.

He had told Doctor Park and Sora that he would be nice to the stranger, and he was still a bit irritated over how the boyfriend had reacted to his injuries. The accident clearly hadn’t been the man’s fault, but his boyfriend had acted like he purposefully went out in the rain just to hurt himself. It didn’t make sense. He hadn’t even acted worried. Of course, maybe that was the man’s way of showing concern, but it felt ty, and Hyukjae had only been a bystander.

Hopefully, the man didn’t come back anytime soon. And if the stranger did wake up tomorrow, Hyukjae would try and find out a bit more about him. It never hurt to make friends.

As soon as visiting hours began, Hyukjae’s mother stopped by for a quick hello. She told him all about the new tour she was planning and promised to send the itinerary to his email so he could check over the details like he usually did when he was able to work from their office. She also brought him some strawberry milk, which he greatly appreciated.

He was finishing up the bottle, sometime after morning rounds, when there was a sound from the bed next to him. Wondering if the stranger was having another bad dream, Hyuk set his laptop aside and leaned over to tug the curtain back. Just as he did so, the other man’s arm lifted shakily, flailing in the air briefly before dropping back to the mattress. He let out a whimpering moan, his head shifting on the pillow.

Concerned that he might hurt himself, Hyukjae got off his own bed and stuffed his feet in his slippers before going over to sit in the chair.

“Are you awake?” he asked. “Don’t be scared.”

“Who?” came a deep murmur from the man on the bed as his trembling fingers lifted once more as if seeking out whoever had spoken to him.

“Hyukjae,” he answered, wrapping his hand around the strangers, “and you’re in a hospital. You had an accident.”

“Hurts…” he whispered back.

“I’ll call for the nurse. Just relax, okay?”

He pressed the button but didn’t let go of the other man’s hand. The stranger didn’t let go of him, either.

“Oh, Hyukjae, what…?” the nurse had entered the room and seen him at the side of the bed, stopping with a confused look on her face.

“He’s awake. Can you get Doctor Park?”

“Right away,” she answered, turning to race from the room.

“Doctor Park is a really good doctor, okay?” Hyukjae felt the need to keep talking, wanting to comfort the man who was probably quite scared. “He’ll tell you everything about what happened, but just stay calm until he gets here, all right?”

“I can’t see.”

“I know,” Hyuk tried to sound as calm as possible. “You hit your head pretty hard, but don’t worry too much.”

“How?”

How? He didn’t remember the accident? Well, the doctor had said there might be some memory loss after all. Hyukjae was trying to figure out the best way to answer the question when Doctor Park entered the room followed by the nurse.

“Thanks, Hyuk,” he nodded at the other man. Hyukjae attempted to retrieve his hand but the other man wasn’t letting go. He gave a shrug to the doctor who nodded that it was all right to remain. “Mister Lee? I’m Doctor Park, I’m the one who’s been taking care of you since your surgery. I’m going to take this mask off you. Can you tell me how you’re feeling right now?”

Hyukjae watched as the doctor removed the oxygen mask, pleased that his initial assessment of the man’s features was correct. Even with the lines remaining on his face from where the mask had been sitting, he was attractive.

“I…” the man’s mouth opened and closed once as if he were unsure what to say. “My head hurts.”

“Unfortunately, that’s something you’ll have to deal with for a while. I can increase your pain medication a bit, but we have to be careful due to your injuries.”

“I can’t see anything.”

The hand holding Hyukjae’s squeezed him painfully tight and he covered it with his free one, rubbing his thumb across the smooth skin in a way he hoped was comforting.

“Do you remember your accident?”

“No,” the deep voice was shaky. Frightened.

“You were in a car accident. You hit your head on the steering wheel. There is swelling in your brain and for the time being it’s affected your vision.”

“Am I blind?” the query was almost a whisper.

“No,” Doctor Park answered firmly. “There’s no reason to think that your vision won’t come back as soon as the swelling goes down. But it may take some time.”

The man – Doctor Park had called him Mister Lee – inhaled a breath and let it out as a sigh. “Okay.”

“Can you tell me if you’re having pain anywhere else?”

“My chest feels sore, and my wrist.”

Hyukjae looked down at the hand he was holding, afraid he might be hurting the man, but then realized his other arm had a soft cast on it.

“Your chest hurts from your seat belt, which luckily you were wearing. And your wrist is broken. But otherwise you escaped any serious injury aside from your head. Can you remember anything about the night you were hurt?”

“I can’t…”

“What was the last thing you can remember?” Doctor Park asked softly as he went about checking the patient’s vitals. There was a pause, then the heart monitor started to speed up as the man on the bed started breathing heavily.

“I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember what?” His heartbeat was getting faster and faster and Doctor Park turned to the nurse and quietly asked for a sedative shot. “Can you remember your name?”

“I don’t know…” the words came out in pure misery and Hyukjae felt sad for the stranger.

Looking up, he met the doctor’s eyes and mouthed the words, “What’s his name?”

Doctor Park gestured toward the clipboard laying on the tray table and Hyuk stood up to take a peek. Lee Donghae. Okay. Well, Lee Donghae needed to calm down. Hyuk doubted a sedative was what he wanted right now since he seemed so desperate for answers.

“Hey,” he squeezed the other man’s hand. “Your name is Donghae. Lee Donghae. Okay?”

“Donghae?”

“Yup, that’s you. So now you know that much at least. Please stop freaking out, all right?”

“Why can’t I remember?” he asked.

“This is common after the type of injury you received,” Doctor Park replied professionally. “Short-term memory loss. Again, like with your vision, it should start coming back naturally when the swelling begins to recede.”

“How long?” Donghae asked, a quiver in his voice.

“A few days, maybe longer. It will all depend on how quickly your body heals from your injury. Right now, you’re on a steady dose of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. But we need to be very careful with dosage since we’re dealing with a brain injury.”

The nurse returned with the injection the doctor had asked for and Hyukjae looked up, darting his glance back and forth between them. “Do you have to give him that?”

“Give me what?”

“It’s a mild sedative. It will calm you down and help you relax. Stress will aggravate your injury, so I need you to try and rest, all right?”

“Will it make me sleep?”

“Probably.”

“I don’t want to sleep.” Donghae’s heart rate started to rise again.

“It’s okay, Donghae. Don’t worry,” Hyukjae told him, giving his hand another squeeze. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Doctor Park injected the sedative into the IV drip and nodded to the nurse, who took the used needle and left the room. “Mister Lee, please just try to relax. I know this is very frightening for you, but you must give it time. You’re a very lucky man.”

Donghae’s lips trembled and he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but whatever words he thought of never emerged. Instead, Doctor Park’s pager went off and he frowned as he checked the device.

“I’m sorry, I’m needed for an emergency. But if there’s anything you need, just push the call button and the nurses will attend to you.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” the injured man whispered.

As the doctor headed out of the room, Hyukjae heard a sniffle coming from Donghae and glanced back over. With his eyes covered, any tears would be absorbed by the bandages, but his breath was hitched, and his lips pressed together tightly.

“Hey, it’s going to be all right. You heard the doctor. Everything will be fine in a couple days.”

“I’m scared,” Donghae whispered again, “What if I can’t see? What if I can’t remember?”

“I’m sure you will.”

“But what if I can’t? I don’t even know my own name.”

“Of course, you do. It’s Donghae, remember?” Hyukjae teased lightly, hoping to cheer him up a little.

“Hyukjae?”

“That’s me,” he smiled before remembering the other man couldn’t see it. “See, you remember two things now.”

There was a ghost of a smile on the other man’s face, but it disappeared quickly as he squeezed Hyukjae’s hand again.

“Do you know?”

“Know what?”

“How I got hurt?”

“You were in an accident.”

“Was it my fault?”

“No… no, it wasn’t your fault. You were driving in the rain and tried to avoid something that fell off a truck,” Hyukjae told him, repeating the story Doctor Park had related the day before. “You lost control of the car in the rain. That’s all, just an accident.”

“Was anyone else hurt?”

“No, no one else,” he replied, hoping it was true. “Except your car, probably.”

Donghae let out a weak laugh.

“I’m sleepy.”

“You can rest, it’s good for you.”

“Will you be here?” Donghae asked hopefully. “I don’t… I don’t want to be alone.”

“Yeah,” Hyukjae replied, deeply touched that this stranger would ask such a thing. He remembered the jerk of a boyfriend who had stormed out the day before, wondering if he would ever come back or if he’d given up on Donghae just because he was injured and might not emerge from this accident as the person he was before.

Part of him hoped the guy never came back if he was going to treat Donghae that way. No one deserved that, especially not someone who was hurt and scared and looking for some reassurance.

“I’ll be here, don’t worry. If I have to go somewhere, I’ll make sure to let you know first, okay?” It was easy enough to promise. Aside from his dialysis he was always going to be there. “You just call my name if you need me.”

“Hyukjae?” Donghae asked, his voice beginning to slur from the sedative.

“Do you need me right now?” Hyukjae asked with a smile.

He was pleased when Donghae smiled back. “It’s nice having you here.”

“Thanks,” he replied, somewhat taken aback. Donghae had a nice smile. He suddenly wondered about the features being hidden by the bandages. How attractive was this man?

“But Hyukjae? Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, you can ask me anything.”

“Are you… are you my friend?”

“Your… friend?” Hyukjae asked in surprise. How was he supposed to answer that? It would be weird to tell him he was just some guy that happened to be sharing his hospital room. Right? That would be weird. Maybe not the most reassuring thing in the world to wake up all alone and find out that no one came to be with you except a total stranger who was bored and happened to share your space.

“I’m sorry,” Donghae apologized, squeezing his hand again. “I can’t remember you. But you sound really nice. I was just hoping you were someone who liked me.”

His words were becoming slower and fuzzier, but the sentiment tugged at Hyukjae’s heart. Maybe that was why he said what he did. “Of course, I like you. I like you a lot.”

“You do?” The hope was still there. Donghae almost sounded surprised. “So, you are my friend?”

Hyukjae felt bad for him. That’s all. He wanted Donghae to be comforted. That was all it was. Right. “I’m not just your friend, Donghae. I’m your boyfriend.”

As soon as the words slipped from his mouth, he knew he was in trouble. This was so very wrong. So wrong! He opened his mouth to take it back. To apologize and say it was all a joke.

“I have a boyfriend?” Donghae asked, the most beautiful smile spreading across his face.

And Hyukjae was captivated by that smile. Because Donghae didn’t seem shocked by the fact that Hyukjae had told him he was gay. He didn’t seem to mind the idea at all.

“Why wouldn’t you?” he asked in return, unable to come up with anything better.

“I don’t know. But I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad I have… a nice… boyfriend.” The last few words trickled out, and with a sigh, Donghae’s head tilted to the side as the sedative finally kicked in and he fell asleep.

Biting his lip, Hyukjae wanted to scream. What the had he just done? He was crazy, that was it. He’d lost his marbles from being in here too long. And what was he supposed to do now? Donghae would wake up later and want to know more about him. About them! What was he supposed to say?