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Baekhyun never wanted to be in the hospital, that was where sick people stayed and Baekhyun never thought of himself as sick. When he’s forced to be admitted to the hospital, though, he puts up a stubborn front and doesn’t want anything to do with anyone, until he meets someone that changes his perspective on life.

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“This is Baekhyun,” the nurse said introducing the boy that was standing in front of them. “He’s going to be staying here for a little while, so I hope you all treat him as your friend. Hyeonju, you know what to do,” she said giving a nod to the girl standing in the group.

            “Of course,” Hyeonju said nodding her head with a smile as the nurse walked away. “Welcome Baekhyun,” she said going up to the boy. “My name is Hyeonju.”

            “Yeah,” he sighed. “I’m just going to go back to my hospital room.”

            “You don’t want to join? We’re playing some video games over here.”

            “No thanks, I’ll pass,” Baekhyun said turning around and heading back to his room.

            “What’s wrong with him?” a boy in a wheelchair asked going up next to Hyeonju.

            “I don’t know, Lay,” Hyeonju sighed as she looked at him. “But hey, your Korean is getting better.”

            “It’s because I’m surrounded by it all of the time,” he chuckled.

            “Yeah, I guess that would make you learn it faster. Let’s get back to everyone else, shall we?” Hyeonju asked.

            “Sure,” Lay said as they went back to where everyone else was.

            In the hospital, Hyeonju wasn’t a patient. She just helped out and kept some of the teenagers that were in the hospital company. Sometimes she would even tell them stories about her school life and other things that they would be missing out on because they are in the hospital. Hyeonju started doing that when she was younger, but it would be with the elderly. Hyeonju visited the hospital everyday with her parents since they were both doctors, so while they were off doing their work, a nurse would take Hyeonju around to let her spend some time with some of the patients, thus brightening her day.

            As the years passed, Hyeonju just kept coming to the hospital until she eventually landed with hanging around people that were her own age in the hospital. She had a strong bond with many of the other teenagers in the hospital and she hoped to make their stay in the hospital seem less like a stay in the hospital.

            “Mom,” Hyeonju said that night when she returned home, “do you know anything about the new kid that was just admitted? His name is Baekhyun, I don’t know his last name, though.”

            “I think I know,” her mother said turning to her husband, “isn’t he one of your patients? I thought I heard that name before.”

            “What’s the name?” her father asked.

            “Baekhyun,” her mother repeated.

            “Ah, Byun Baekhyun?” her father questioned.

            “I’m not sure since the nurse only said his first name, but he was just admitted today,” Hyeonju explained.

            “Then that’s probably him,” her father said nodding his head.

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Hyeonju wondered.

            “It’s patient confidentiality, I can’t say, Hyeonju,” her father said.

            “I know, I just wanted to see,” Hyeonju sighed. “He seemed really against being in the hospital. He wouldn’t even spend time with any of the other people.”

            “Normally people are like that at first when they get admitted, it’s denial,” her mother said.

            “I guess,” Hyeonju sighed as she looked at her parents. “He’ll lighten up someday, right?”

            “He might. Just wait a bit for him,” her father said with a smile as he patted the top of his daughter’s head.

            A couple of weeks passed and Hyeonju kept hoping that maybe Baekhyun would lighten up, but he didn’t. Instead of going out and hanging around with some of the other kids, Baekhyun kept himself tied up in his room staring blankly at the television. Hyeonju visited his room a number of times to tell him that he should get acquainted with everyone else, but her requests only went through one ear and out the other.

            “What does he do at night? Does he only sleep?” Hyeonju asked Lay since he and Baekhyun shared the same room, along with one other guy.

            “He doesn’t say anything. He’s quiet all of the time,” Lay said. “Half of the time Luhan and I don’t know whether he’s sleeping or just staring at us.”

            “How does Luhan feel about him?” Hyeonju asked wondering about the third boy in the room.

            “He doesn’t say much about it, but we know that he doesn’t like being here. Does anyone really like being here?”

            “You’ll be out in no time,” Hyeonju said with a smile as she placed her hand on Lay’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll be out of here in no time. Then when you are released we’ll be able to do a whole bunch of things together. Promise?”

            “Promise,” Lay said interlocking his pinky with Hyeonju’s.

            That afternoon Lay was in the room with Baekhyun and Luhan was out for some tests when Lay heard Baekhyun speak for the first time. “You know,” Baekhyun started as he gently turned to face Lay. “You could just tell Hyeonju that you like her.”

            “What are you talking about?” Lay asked attempting to brush off the comment. “Since when do you know anything? You’re always cooped up here in the room.”

            “I can still see things and hear things,” Baekhyun said shrugging his shoulders. “But why don’t you just tell her that you have an interest in her?”

            “Because we’re better off as friends,” Lay said with a gentle smile. “Plus I wouldn’t want to put the burden on her of having to deal with someone who’s sick like me. Of course I want to tell her what I feel, but we’re too good of friends to do that. I’ve known Hyeonju for a couple of years now, ever since I was transferred here from China.”

            “You were transferred here? But you can speak Korean so well…” Baekhyun said in disbelief.

            “It’s all because I’m surrounded by it and Hyeonju helped me a lot in the beginning. But who would I be to tell Hyeonju that I liked her? I don’t mind if she doesn’t like me back, but if she were to like me, then that would be restricting her life. What would happen to her if I weren’t to be here anymore? It’s not fair to her. That’s why I try to just spend as much time as I can with her every day. No one can predict the future, you know? That’s why I like to go out and talk with other people, because who knows what might happen tomorrow.”

            “I don’t see the point in that,” Baekhyun huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest as Hyeonju entered the room.

            “You’re back?” Lay asked looking at her.

            “Yup I’m back, I just had to go quickly do something. Do you want to go take a walk around?”

            “Sure,” Lay said as he got up to sit in his wheelchair. He wasn’t allowed anywhere in the hospital without it.

            “You could just tell her that you like her, though,” Baekhyun muttered under his breath as he watched Hyeonju and Lay leave.

            “What were you and Baekhyun talking about?” Hyeonju asked as they were walking the halls.

            “What are you talking about?” Lay questioned.

            “I heard your voice and I heard another voice and since Luhan wasn’t in the room, it can only be Baekhyun’s, right? So you guys were finally talking to one another, what did he say?”

            “Nothing really,” Lay sighed. “Hey, did you know that I have another screening in the next week? If everyone looks okay this time I hear that I may be able to leave.”

            “Really?” Hyeonju asked stopping in her tracks. “That’s great, Lay! You might even be able to go home.”

            “Maybe,” he chuckled, “nothing’s set in stone yet, that’s only the rumor that’s floating around.”

            “You’ll be able to go home, I know you will,” Hyeonju said with a wide smile as she leaned down to hug Lay. “You’ve waited for this moment for a long time. Even if it is just a rumor, there’s still hope.”

            Meanwhile in his room, Baekhyun couldn’t understand Lay’s logic. Lay wanted Hyeonju to be able to live her life so he kept the fact that he had a crush on her, but wasn’t that restricting his own life? Wasn’t his own life restricted enough by being in the hospital? Baekhyun couldn’t understand it at all. However, Baekhyun figured that Lay’s statement about not knowing the future was correct. No one could predict if they were going to live the next day and it was like Lay was telling him to live life to the fullest, something that Baekhyun had been neglecting. So it was a surprise when later that afternoon Baekhyun made an appearance in the lounge.

            “Wow, you finally decided to come out,” Hyeonju said looking at him, “I knew you would.”

            “Of course you did,” Baekhyun said sitting down. “How do you know anything about me?”

            “I don’t,” Hyeonju said shaking her head, “but they all eventually come out of their rooms. Why don’t we be friends? I mean everyone here is friends, are you up for being friends?”

            “Sure, why not,” Baekhyun sighed with a roll of his eyes. “I wonder how many of these people are really friends when they leave here.”

            “I try to keep up a relationship with all of them. You’ll see when you get released.”

            “Sure I will,” Baekhyun said with another roll of his eyes.

            The next couple of days passed smoothly with Baekhyun making more frequent and constant visits to the lounge to hang out with everyone else. Rather than wanting to hang out with everyone else, though, Baekhyun found himself interested in Hyeonju. He wondered why she would always come if she wasn’t a patient and why she would bother spending her free time at a hospital when she could do something more productive.

            However, it all started to go downhill after Lay’s examination. Instead of becoming better like planned, he started becoming worse up to the point where he was confined to his hospital bed.

            “You know,” Lay chuckled as he looked over at Baekhyun, “you’re a lot like me.”

            “I’m like you?” Baekhyun asked. “How in the world is that possible?”

            “When I came here I didn’t understand why a bunch of teenagers would just hang out with one another. I thought it was stupid and I just kept to myself most days sitting in here. I could barely speak any Korean either.”

            “And?”

            “And one day I decided to go out there and I got to know Hyeonju. She showed me that being in a hospital isn’t all that bad, that sometimes there’s good things to being in a hospital.”

            “What good things,” Baekhyun scoffed.

            “Well the people you’re around don’t treat you like you’re a patient and that there’s something wrong with you. They treat you like we deserve to be treated, like people. But you remind me of myself when I first arrived, although of course you’ve gotten better, but there’s something I want to ask of you.”

            “What is that?”

            “Don’t live with regrets. What I said before about not confessing because I wanted Hyeonju to be able to live her life…I didn’t want to confess because I was afraid of being rejected because I am sick and I’m getting sicker by the day. Who knows what might happen to me now.”

            “You’re not going anywhere, what are you talking about?” Baekhyun questioned.

            “I’m just saying don’t  regret something. Live while you can still live.”

            “But you can still confess, can’t you? I mean, what’s stopping you?”

            “Have you seen my state?” Lay asked looking down at his own body. “You know that I’m just getting worse by the day. Who knows how much longer I have.”

            “You’re not going anywhere,” Baekhyun seriously said looking over at Lay. A couple of months ago he couldn’t imagine saying those words to the guy he was sharing a room with, but the words were coming out of his mouth. “I’m telling you you’re going to be alright, Lay, right?”

            “I hope so,” Lay said with a smile.

            That evening, Baekhyun found solace outside in the hospital garden. He didn’t know why, but for some reason he felt upset. For the very first time in a hospital, he felt like the world was unfair. He didn’t know why Lay had to fall sick again when he was doing so well. Baekhyun figured that maybe it was because of the news that he was getting better and wouldn’t need any more treatment in two weeks. But what would happen to Lay? Baekhyun was concerned. How in the world could he be happy about his impending release when his friend’s health was declining?

            Right when Baekhyun was going to head back inside, he saw Hyeonju sitting on the other side of the garden. Somehow, though, seemingly against his will, Baekhyun slowly approached Hyeonju, but as he got closer, he heard faint crying sounds.

            “Hyeon…Hyeonju?” Baekhyun gently asked.

            Slowly Hyeonju raised her hand and quickly tried to wipe her tears away after seeing that it was Baekhyun standing before her. “Ah, Baekhyun,” she said as she attempted a smile. “What are you doing out here?”

            “I’m just…why are you crying?” he wondered. “Is it because of Lay?”

            “Ah…”

            “You know, Lay’s a fighter,” Baekhyun said taking a seat next to Hyeonju. “You know that, you’ve known him longer than I’ve known him. You know that he’ll be able to pull through this.”

            “His chances aren’t good,” Hyeonju whispered. “I’ve tried to keep a positive face around him and the others, but his chances aren’t good, Baekhyun.”

            “Still, we can hope for the best, right?” Baekhyun asked hoping to keep Hyeonju positive about the whole situation.

            “Things can go from better to worse at a moment’s notice,” she said with the same unmoving voice.

            “Hyeonju…” Baekhyun sighed before he silently wrapped his arms around Hyeonju to hold her close. He didn’t know what else he could do, what would he be able to say? He knew that Hyeonju and Lay were close to one another and it must hurt for her to see her friend go through something like that and it was paining Baekhyun to see both Lay and Hyeonju experience it. “You know,” Baekhyun slowly said, “these days you can stay by his side and make these days the best for him. He’d really appreciate it.”

            “I try…but it gets harder with each day.”

            “And it will get hard and it will continue getting hard, but the one thing you have to remember is that we’re still people. Whether we’re in the hospital or not, we’re all people and we want to be treated like people. If these really are Lay’s last days, don’t make him regret anything,” Baekhyun said remembering about Lay’s crush on her. “Don’t make him regret leaving this earth. Make him be happy that he at least got to live on it for a little while.”

           “How did the one who gave advice become the one who received it?” Hyeonju asked with a chuckle.

            “Everyone needs someone to lean on sometimes. You’ve been a strong pillar for everyone here, so I should only return the favor, right?” he asked with a faint smile.

            “You know, I would’ve never expected this coming from you, Baekhyun.”

            “Well let’s just say that maybe I have a new outlook on life from a certain roommate,” Baekhyun sighed as he looked back at the building.

“You’re leaving today?” Lay asked looking over at Baekhyun who was packing his things. “You only managed to stay here for like two months.”

            “Oh…um…yeah,” Baekhyun awkwardly said as he looked at the boy lying in his hospital bed. His condition had even worsened and now there were a bunch of chords and IVs running from Lay’s body to the machines that were around him. Baekhyun still didn’t know what was exactly wrong with Lay but felt it was inappropriate to ask. “We’ll meet on the outside world soon, alright? You and I, we can do a whole bunch of stuff together.”

            “I…I want you to do something for me,” Lay said looking Baekhyun straight into the eyes. Baekhyun didn’t say anything and simply stared at Lay waiting for him to continue. “I want you to be good to Hyeonju. I want you to protect her when I’m not here. I want you to make sure she’s happy. I want you to make her happy and watch over her, I want you to be the person that she relies on the most.”

            “What are you talking about?” Baekhyun asked in disbelief. “You’re not going anywhere. Why are you talking like you’re leaving?”

            Lay simply smiled at Baekhyun before a machine started beeping and then another and another. It wasn’t until Baekhyun was moved out of the way that he realized what was happening.

            “Baekhyun, Baekhyun,” his mother said rushing into the room behind the doctors.

            “Yah! You idiot!” Baekhyun yelled following the hospital bed out to the hallway. “I haven’t even agreed yet! How can you do this to me when I haven’t even agreed to anything!”

            “Baekhyun,” his mother said quickly going over and hugging him in order to restrain him from running after the bed.

            “Mom, Mom,” Baekhyun said turning to his mother, “how could he do this? How could he just say that and do this to me? This wasn’t supposed to happen, he was supposed to get better. We were supposed to hang out with one another once he was released.”

            “Baekhyun,” his mother softly said, “we just have to trust the doctors, alright? Just trust that everything will be alright, okay?”

“Baekhyun,” Hyeonju whispered as she walked up to him at the funeral room.

            “Ah…Hyeonju,” Baekhyun lifelessly said as he got up to greet her. “You came?”

            “Of course I came. Why wouldn’t I have come?” she asked as she immediately hugged him. “The other guys wanted to come, too, but they couldn’t, so I’m here with everyone’s wishes.”

            “That’s good,” Baekhyun said as he forced a smile onto his face. He still couldn’t believe that Lay was gone. When he first went to the hospital, Baekhyun never thought that he would have a good relationship with his roommates and especially with Lay. Somehow Baekhyun thought that they wouldn’t get along with one another, but slowly they started bonding. Lay started telling him about things and even though Baekhyun didn’t say anything in the beginning, he listened to Lay’s words carefully. When Lay was on confined to his bed was when Baekhyun started contributing more to the conversation.

            Hyeonju and Baekhyun both entered the room and gave a bow towards Lay’s parents. They agreed to have a small ceremony for Lay in Seoul seeing as there were many friends from the hospital that wanted to pay their respects. They both bowed and placed a flower before silence engulfed the room and Baekhyun was the first one to speak.

            “I promise,” Baekhyun whispered replaying the words that Lay said that terrible day. “I promise I’ll do it all for you.”

            “What were you saying in there?” Hyeonju asked as they walked outside of the funeral building. “What do you promise?”

            “Nothing,” Baekhyun said shaking his head. “It was just something between us two.”

            “Hmm,” Hyeonju hummed as she looked at her watch. “I should get back now. The guys are probably wondering what’s going on.”

            “Alright,” Baekhyun hesitantly agreed before he reached out to stop Hyeonju. “Hey…um…Hyeonju,” he slowly began.

            “Is there something wrong?” she wondered.

            “I was wondering,” he slowly began, “if you’re not doing anything later, once you’re done at the hospital, do you maybe want to watch a movie and maybe go get coffee afterwards? We could just talk with one another and keep up a relationship now that I’m released. Remember what you said about keeping up a relationship with people once they’re released? If there’s one thing I learned from Lay, though, is that I shouldn’t live with regrets and I’d be regretting it for the rest of my life if I let you slip through my fingers.”

            “You’d regret losing me?” Hyeonju questioned.

            “I’d regret losing you as in your company. I liked talking with you,” Baekhyun said attempting to defend himself, but Hyeonju just gave him a look. “Anyway, would you be up to doing something one day when you’re not busy? I know it may not be the best time to ask this sort of thing, but I don’t know when I might see you again.”

            “Alright,” Hyeonju said nodding her head, “I’d like that.”

            “Okay, that sounds good,” Baekhyun said with a faint smile.