It was 5 O’clock in the afternoon on a Friday, Hoon had just finished work at the retirement village and was on his way home, but not before he said goodbye to his favourite elderly.

“Now, don’t get up in the middle of the night and roam through the halls Mrs Lee, we don’t want to have to call the police again” Hoon said with all his sincerity while providing Mrs lee with a glass of water and making sure she was tucked in to her bed. “Now sweet dreams and I’ll see you on Monday okay?”

“Sure spunky stuff,” Mrs Lee had said in her croaky old voice. “But make sure to bring back Chang Hee with you okay love” Mrs Lee had asked, oh so certain of herself.

Hoon sighed, “Mrs Lee, Chang Hee died ten years ago remember?” By now Hoon had taken a seat at the end of the bed and started to Mrs Lee’s leg comforting her.

“What?” She started with disbelief written on her face, “Oh, well, see you Monday then” She replied, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just told her that her husband had died ten years ago.

He job is to take care of the elderly with long or short term memory loss, he reads to them and tries to help them remember the past. He uses all the information he receives from the family members of the patient to help communicate with them. Hoon doesn’t know what it is about Mrs Lee, she’s nice loving and I guess she reminded him of his own mother, and it was good to still have someone like her around to talk to.

He stood up from the bed and gave Mrs Lee a quick peck on the cheek before leaving to go to his car. He haltered before he exited the building to hear the noise that had just intruded his ears; he listened carefully.

Yep, thunder and rain. Just great, he thought. He walked faster to the exit before the rain could get heavier, but by the time he got to the exit it was bucketing down. He searched his bag for something he could use to cover himself but there was nothing. So he just used his bag and ran out the door, and just his luck, his car was across the other side of the village.

He pulled out of the car park and began to drive. It takes roughly forty-five minutes for him to get home so in that time, he blasted the radio and began singing at the top of his lungs, passer-by’s just stared, but he didn’t care, it was all about the memories that came flooding back whenever a familiar song came on, though it brought tears to his eyes knowing that the elderly he helped wouldn’t be able to do the same.

~.~.~.~.~

5:40 was what the clock read. He was almost home; he remembered the streets he was approaching.

“Finally, almost home” He sighed to himself as he kept driving, but something or in this case someone had caught his eye. A person who was drenched walking in the rain, holding his stomach, slightly stumbled, it was in Hoon’s nature to stop and help, so he came close to the person and wound down his passenger window.

“Hey, do you need a lift?” He offered. The person just looked at him. He was a male, clearly a young male; he was wearing a hooded jumper and jeans. All the kid did was look at him and got back to walking, as if Hoon had never asked him anything, as if there weren’t a car trying to keep up with his pace and ask him if he needed help.

His expression was blank; Hoon just kept staring at him, trying to figure him out. He noticed the boy started to stumble a bit more, and slowed down and his eyes started to flutter. It was at this moment when Hoon stopped the car and jumped out to catch the boy just in time as he fainted. He fell to the floor with him in his arm and he tried to wake him up, it was impossible. He then noticed the blood stain on the boy’s jumper and his eyes widened, he slowly lifted up the jumper and his eyes widened impossibly more.

A stab wound in his stomach.

His heart started to race, he didn’t know what to do, the nearest hospital was over an hour away, and the boy would never make it. So he picked him up carefully not to hurt his wound and put him in his car. The least he could do is take him home and give him some antiseptic and a bandage and hope for the best, and he would call an ambulance as soon as he gets there. So he put the boy in the back of his car, and drove carefully and slowly the rest of the way home.

~.~.~.~.~

Hoon walked through the house carrying the boy bridal style. It was a struggle getting him inside without hurting him. He was still breathing which was a good sign. He got to the couch and laid the boy down gently. Never mind the fact that he was soaking wet and the couch was worth thousands, he just had to make sure this boy was okay.

He needed to take his jumper off without hurting him. It was going to be difficult but it had to be done, so he picked the boy up carefully from under his armpits and sat him up gently. He took a step back to analyse the situation again until he noticed the body starting to fall back to a laying position so he quickly reacted and grabbed the boy. The wound was bleeding even more at this stage so he needed to make haste.

He grabbed the rim of the jumper and started to pull up; the white singlet underneath coming up with it. The sight of the amount of blood made him cringe and as he kept lifting up his shirt slowly he saw the wound, it was deep, really deep. Hoon turned away and gagged but he needed to get this over and done with so he could bandage up the boy. He lifted up one of his arms and slipped the material over, and then the other and the boy was completely rid of the top half of his clothing and he lay the body before him back down.

Hoon stopped a second to take a look at the figure before him. His bangs covered his eyes and his hair went half way down his neck and was a nice dark brown colour. His complexion was flawless and his body was defined, apart from the gaping wound of course but he never thought a boy could be so pretty until he saw this one.

He laughed at himself, thinking of a stranger like that. He went and got the disinfectant and bandages and returned to the boy’s side. There was a slight movement from the figure and he was coming conscious again but he still remained asleep.

He disinfected the wound, bandaged him up and retrieved big fluffy blankets from his closet and tucked the boy in before he called an ambulance. But he was shocked, the line was dead, it must have been from the lack of reception due to the heavy storms he thought. Looks like the boy had to stay on his couch till the storm faded.

Hoon grabbed the dirty clothes from the floor careful not to touch the blood stain and he bleached the clothing so it was not to stain and he threw it in the wash.

When he returned to the boy he noticed the slight smile on his face; the smile of comfort. The boy seemed to be conscious enough for Hoon to feed him, the poor kid looked like he hadn’t eaten for a long period of time. So he whipped up some chicken soup unsure of whether the boy could handle something solid. So soup it was.

He was unsure of how to wake the boy, maybe he would be too startled and scream, or maybe he just wouldn’t wake at all and he just wanted sleep. But he would never know unless he found out.

So he slightly nudged the boy on his shoulder, and then shook him slightly harder and then the curled up bundle of blankets started to awaken and grunt from annoyance.

“Mum, go away, it’s Saturday… there’s no school” The blankets said. His morning voice was like music to Hoon’s ears but he snapped out of his thoughts and put his attention back to the boy.

“Yah, wake up, I’m not your mum” Hoon said in a nice tone still slightly shaking the boy.

The bundle quickly moved and sat up. “OW!” he clutched his stomach in pain and a tear streamed down his face. “Wh-where am I?” He said slowly looking up at Hoon.

Hoon reached his hands out with the bowl of food with a small grin on his face as he took a seat on the floor.

The boy grabbed the bowl with shaking hands but he complied. He looked at Hoon suspiciously before thanking him and taking the first mouthful.

“My name is Yeo Hoon Min, but just call me Hoon and you are at my house, only five minutes down the road from where I picked you up” He smiled waiting for a reply from the boy but he was too busy eating and looking at Hoon for him to finish explaining. He looked like a chipmunk the way he ate, his cheeks all puffed up; Hoon thought, but continued his story anyway.

“You were walking in the rain and then collapsed into my arms, lucky I was there to help you or you would have a serious head injury right now” He smiled genuinely at the boy and gave a small chuckle when the boy still looked at him confused.

He finished his mouthful and then decided to speak.” Why did you help me?” He asked then took another mouthful.

“It’s in my nature, you were soaking wet and looked lost and luckily I did pull over because that wound of yours would have bled out fully by now and you may have been dead lying on the side of the road. Hey how did you get that wound anyway?” Hoon asked with his brows furrowed.

“I -..” he paused. “The last thing I remember was hugging my ex-girlfriend good-bye and as she and I parted ways, as soon as I turned around, a knife was plunged into my stomach, I think it was her current boyfriend, I’m not sure, but, now that I think about it, that’s all I really remember, apart from my family, but …. Wow, I really can’t recall anything before that, I’m surprised I still even know how to speak and all that, I’m even more surprised that you found me walking” His face was focused on trying to remember everything as he looked out the window.

Hoon was surprised with the sudden outburst of words from this wounded young. He was not expecting all this at once.

“Well lucky for you I specialize in dealing with people with memory loss. Must be fate huh?” Hoon said with a small smile on his face, looking the boy straight in the eyes. For some reason he felt a connection with the boy.

“Yeah, fate” The boy said with a sad smile. For some reason it kind of hurt Hoon, even though it shouldn’t have. But then he remembered, he didn’t know the boy’s name.

“Hey, I didn’t get your name.” Hoon asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Dongho” the boy replied, no expression on his face what so ever.

“No first name?” Hoon asked suspiciously.

“You don’t need to know my first name, I don’t trust you enough yet” The boy replied swallowing his last mouthful of food before trying to get up to discard the dishes. But as he went to get up, he winced and Hoon quickly grabbed the bowl and made Dongho sit back down.

Dongho then lay back down and tried to go to sleep again. Hoon cleaned up his dishes and eyed the boy from where he was standing. There was something about this boy, something that he’d never want to forget.

~END~