Acute Leukemia
Perfect Nurse
"Okay," MinWoo shut the room door, lightly, delicately, but with just enough force to show the nurse that he obviously was not happy. "What's going on here?"
After a moment, MinWoo opened his eyes and met the boyfriend's gaze tiredly; the nurse had been sitting calmly on the floor, trying to get in a bit of lacking sleep.
He took in the childish face of the baseball player. It looked strangely mature when he was angry, giving the nurse a better look at what he was dealing with.
This kid wouldn't be easy to lie to. He already knew too much... may as well gain his trust and confidentiality while he could.
MinWoo rubbed his face and yawned, trying to look as disinterested as possible, "Well, there's bad news, horrible news, and more bad knews. Which do you want first?"
MinWoo looked at him with open disgust, but responded, "Work me up. Best to worst."
"Well, I suppose the best would be that HyeSoo has a place to stay," the nurse smirked, "Thanks to me."
The teenager did not look amused. He shoved his hands into his pockets, holding the nurse under a heavy glare.
"HyeSoo is no longer under the.. eh, care of the hospital."
"Thanks to you?" MinWoo furrowed his brow, not understanding.
"No, thanks to her currently- as you know- very much alive, bastard father that refuses to pay his debts," though MinWoo said this nonchallantly, the resentment in his words seeped through.
MinWoo's jaw tightened. "I don't care who you are, don't disrespect HyeSoo's father like that. I'm sure he just can't get ahold of the hospital."
"Listen, kid," the nurse's voice suddenly grew serious, "and you won't think so well of her 'father.'" He pushed against the wall and brought himself to his feet. "That man left her cold after he had no money left. He told her in one of the worst ways that she was adopted, and indignantly informed the hospital that he was unable and quite unwilling to pay for her medical bill."
MinWoo frowned, hesitant to believe the story, "Don't hospitals host people that can't pay all the time?"
"You're too naive kid," the nurse shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. "You think they do that without expecting to get paid back? When someone tells you you won't get paid, you don't keep the patient. Hospitals aren't as sweet as they'd like you to believe. They're companies. Organizations that wants to make a profit- and maybe help a few people along the way if they can."
MinWoo narrowed his eyes, "I don't think it's healthy for you to be so cynical about the line of work that you yourself intend to go into."
"What can I say?" he shrugged, "I'm a pretty cynical guy."
"So," the boyfriend shook his head, "if the hospital isn't hosting her, who is?"
"I'm renting that storage room with my pay, I'm feeding her my meals, I'm taking care of her when I can. Of course, I won't have to be doing this for long."
"I see..." MinWoo waited for it to sink in. Why was this nurse going through so much trouble to take care of her? And why won't he have to be doing it for long? "Second?"
"This hospital shouldn't be renting me this room. HyeSoo should not be down here. In fact, this is illegal. So you, buddy, have to keep your mouth shut for a little while longer."
MinWoo was still confused. Why had the older man kept all of this a secret from HyeSoo? Didn't she at least have the right to know the position she was in? Especially her parents. Why would he not tell her? He voiced his thoughts.
"That's.. where the horrible news comes in."
HyeSoo's boyfriend waited silently, bracing himself for what he thought was the worst. Of course, he wasn't expecting what came next.
"Of course, you know of HyeSoo's condition. She has a case of chronic leukemia; she's expected to live at least twenty more years with proper treatment."
MinWoo nodded.
"However, you also know that she will not be receiving the treatment that she needs. So, her life expectancy would be more along the lines of four or five years." He paused, then laughed, "That is, if she still had chronic leukemia."
"What?" MinWoo's eyes widened and his heart leapt. Had the nurse been playing with him? He searched the man in white robes for some confirmation. The nurse gave him none. Then, he met MinWoo's gaze with sudden sincerity.
"Song HyeSoo now has a case of acute leukemia," the forced smile on the nurse's face wavered, "she has at most three months to live."
MinWoo felt his organs shrivel up inside him. Three months? He slowly shook his head.
"I was going to try and keep her as happy as long as possible, let her live something as close to a content life as she could. Where some day her mother would come visit her," MinWoo gestured to the younger boy, "where her boyfriend still loved her."
MinWoo could hardly comprehend what the other was saying. HyeSoo was.. dying? He could hear the pounding of his heart in his ears. Was this normal?
"That's why I brought you here today-"
"What about with medicine?" MinWoo found his body moving on his own. He was grabbing the nurse's collar. The nurse just shook his head. "What about with medicine, god damnit!?" The smaller boy managed to slam MinWoo against the wall.
"There's no way you could raise the money for the operation- and even then the probability of it succeeding is too low to take the risk." He wriggled a little bit, trying to get free without retaliating. The baseball player's grip was surprisingly strong.
"And if it succeeds?" MinWoo murmured through gritted teeth.
"IF it succeeds, she will live longer than the forty years you all were expecting. But it won't-"
The boyfriend gave the nurse one last shove and then let go, "Then I will raise the money and the operation will succeed. HyeSoo is not going to die. Not now." He began to walk off, his fist still curled into a ball.
The only thing the nurse could think to say was, "Don't you dare tell anyone. No one must find out- including HyeSoo..." He swallowed painfully, "She shouldn't live the rest of her life with the fear that she won't have tomorrow."
A special thanks to all of you that have been commenting! It makes my day~ <3 Silent readers are great, but talkative ones give me drive to write more. *laughs evilly- I officially have fifteen + subscribers. Thank you so much!
Well, well! I'm finally past this chapter! Yay~ <3 Now that all the depressing, revealing parts are past and we actually have an idea of what's going on, it's about time for the fluff and humor! *dances- In this chapter we get a better view of how the boys kind of look at HyeSoo. In theory, it seems, there are two sides.
You can either support
(b!MinWoo) the guy that's willing to work his off for the chance to save her
or you can support
(n!MinWoo) the guy that's willing to work his off to make what she has left the best it can possibly be.
A poll for kicks. =D
I haven't updated in forever! Sorry! I'm on summer break now, though, so next chapt will be out soon!
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