Daehyun had carefully mapped himself his journey to the hospital and repeated it a thousand and one times in his head so he couldn’t possibly forget. He was sitting on a bus with his arms wrapped around a cardboard box overflowing of food. Since Youngjae didn’t specify on what he wanted to eat, he figured he would bring a little bit of everything.

He was getting used to the constant company of people. Before everything he would be the one who wanted to avoid all human contact. If he were to ever have to take a bus he would be the one sitting in the back corner of the bus, wishing no one would look at him. But it was as if Seoul was a gust of fresh air, no, that wasn’t true, Daehyun knew that a lot of his confidence was being drawn out by Youngjae.

The bus continued its route around the city and Daehyun watched people dart in and out of the vehicle, smiling politely at any one who would make eye contact with him. It was nice knowing that everyone was busy with their lives but still were polite enough to give compete strangers little smiles. He wasn’t sure if it was like that back at home since he never looked at people’s faces; his eyes were always glued upon the ground.

As the bus finally reached his stop, Daehyun wrapped his arms tightly around his cardboard box of food and left his seat. Just as he was about to step off onto the street, a man had nearly walked into him.

Daehyun stared at the face that looked strangely familiar face but couldn’t quite put a name to the face. Perhaps it was one of the new trainees that came along with him but he somehow doubted it since he was dressed in a rather professional manner.

“Ah, sorry,” the man apologized with his sharp brows frowning at something swimming in his mind.

Daehyun quickly jumped off the bus and watched the man step onto the bus. He didn’t turn back to look at him but Daehyun couldn’t help but stare at the man who looked so familiar yet unrecognisable at the same time.

He shrugged it off and made his way to the hospital.

Daehyun had spent several moments walking around in circles before he managed to eventually find Youngjae’s room. He walked through the doors and saw his friend sitting on the white sanitized bed, staring out of the window.

The loneliness across Youngjae’s delicate face was evident. He was neither smiling nor frowning, it was something in between but it was so unlike the bubbly Youngjae Daehyun was so accustomed to. There was no way to know what Youngae was thinking about but whatever it was it was completely eradicated when he saw Daehyun. It was as if catching an eyeful of Daehyun was enough to enlighten him and return everything back to its usual perfection.

Youngjae’s face had completely lit up and Daehyun too found himself reflecting the same expression. Despite being dressed in nothing but a hospital gown, Youngjae hopped off his bed and rushed over to Daehyun with that smile still plastered across his face. His eyes widened as he peered into the box he had brought as he began laughing.

“I don’t really eat that much you know,” he pointed out as he took the box of food away from Daehyun’s arms.

He followed Youngjae to his bed and couldn’t help but notice Youngjae’s bare feet slapping loudly against the hard linoleum floor. “Who said any of that food was for you?” Daehyun asked as he pulled out a chocolate bar from his back pocket, “All I brought was this for you.”

Youngjae turned to see the sweet in his hand and rolled his eyes at him. “You’re jokes . Your jokes are like dad jokes. You’ll be a crappy father one day,” he teased as he suddenly struck a pose in his thin hospital gown, “By the way, remember last night? I told you I’m all the time.”

Daehyun pulled a face and threw his chocolate bar over at Youngjae who awkwardly caught it and sat on his bed with the box of food sitting in front of him. He motioned for Daehyun to join him and searched through all the foods he had brought over from the store.

“Do they pay you like truckloads of money as a trainee or something?” Youngjae asked as he investigated the contents of those inside plastic containers.

Daehyun took off his shoes and sat in front of Youngjae, watching him rummage through everything. “Ah, not really. I get enough allowance from my parents,” he answered.

Youngjae took out a container of kimbap, the one thing in the whole entire box which Daehyun had actually made. He was certain that Youngjae had no idea he had made it but he found it funny that out of everything he had brought, he selected the one thing he had cooked.

“So what do you do in here all by yourself?” Daehyun asked curiously as he took a container of spring rolls, “It looks pretty boring sitting here all day.”

Youngjae chewed on a kimbap and moaned in satisfaction, “Umm well most of the time I just play video games if I’m not online. It’s not that bad actually. I’ve nearly reached full sync in Assassin’s Creed.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Full sync?” Daehyun repeated.

“You’re not cool like me, that’s why you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Youngjae teased, “But yeah, I read, watch movies, play video games. I walk around the hospital sometimes too. Most of my time is online though, as you can tell.”

For a moment, Youngjae reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his phone that sat on top. He handed it to Daehyun and held up the container of kimbap to his face and said, “Take a photo of this. I wanna tweet this to make everyone jealous of the food we get to eat.”

Daehyun rolled his eyes and did what was requested. “You know I made that right?” he asked, knowing the answer was going to be no.

“Really?” Youngjae exclaimed, “No wonder it tastes so horrible.”

“You were about it just before,” Daehyun defended lightly as he handed Youngjae back his phone.

“I wasn’t I was making dying sounds,” Youngjae explained, “Two totally different sounds.”

Daehyun couldn’t help but laugh.