"I'll kill you after I get out of that hellhole." Youngwoon gripes under his breath as he is pulled by the arm.

"But you love me," Jungsoo replies all too cheerfully, in Youngwoon's opinion. Which is, surprisingly, right. After all, it's only eight in the morning.

"God knows why."

"This place isn't a hellhole, anyway. Come on, look on the bright side."

"What bright side?"

Jungsoo, being the ever so lovely and fabulous best friend that he is, is currently dragging Youngwoon along with him to a hospital. Youngwoon has to think for a second before recalling why he is getting dragged here in the first place. It's not like he'd remember Jungsoo forcing him to do volunteering, and that volunteer job turning out to be caring for people at a hospital. Nor should he be expected to remember the training that he went through in preparation. Even though he is sure that it wasn't very long ago. Even though he absolutely hates having to be near children and old people. It's not that he despises people that are weaker than him by default though. He has a very specific reason for this.

"You get to help out little kids and not-so-little kids! Isn't that a bright side?"

"No. I hate being around sick people and you know it."

"Well, whatever. You're stuck here. Have fun!" Jungsoo beams.

Youngwoon grumbles under his breath again.

His first day on the job is fairly uneventful, since it's mostly just an orientation-type thing with a tour of the hospital. Youngwoon learns the names and locations of each ward in the hospital, where the toilets are, the cafeteria where most of the able-bodied patients eat with the staff.

He doesn't have a chance to get together with Jungsoo again until it's lunchtime. At that time, he's so ravenous that he barely notices a sound of a food tray clattering on his table. Somehow this hospital business takes a lot out of him.

"So, how is it so far? Not as terrible as you thought, I'll bet." Even Jungsoo's smirk is like an obnoxiously bright and happy ray of sunshine.

"Shut up." Youngwoon is too busy eating to bother with a proper comeback. Surprisingly, the food served in this cafeteria isn't too terrible, aside from the fact that there is none of his favourite food, which is soondubu jjigae. Or actually not very much meaty stuff at all, which isn't unreasonable since this is a hospital.

"Tomorrow you get to care for your first patient, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Any idea on who it's going to be?"

"Nope."

"Please stop giving me monosyllabic answers."

"I don't even know what 'monosyllabic' means."

"Can't you infer? Geez, you're stupid Youngwoon. It's okay though. I still - are you even listening to me?!"

"No. Finish your foods so I don't have to put up with your babbling."

"Okay, fine. Whatever."

Jungsoo eats a lot quicker than Youngwoon does, even though he has less on his plate. When Jungsoo is gone, probably back to his desk job, Youngwoon commences to scrutinizing each of the patients eating around him until his lunch break is over. All of them look completely ordinary; maybe some have disfigured bodies visibly wracked by sickness and ills, but who is he to judge? He can't help thinking: which one of these poor people will he be forced to care for? Whose blood might end up on his hands, staining them an even darker shade of red? Which person's spirit might end up haunting him?

And then Youngwoon's eyes come to rest on a small and thin boy, maybe about fourteen years old, sitting alone on the other side of the cafeteria next to the window, bathed in sunlight. He's wearing all white, and his skin is almost the same shade as his clothes, but somehow it doesn't look wrong. And even the boy's hair is the strangest colour of almost-white, making his entire form seem to glow in the sunlight like some sort of unearthly creature. Maybe he's an angel or a faerie of some sort, Youngwoon thinks for a second, even though he's sure that they don't exist (despite what Jungsoo would like to believe).

A strong impulse inside him gives a pull at his heart, and he stands up to talk to the boy with the white hair. Not even hearing the lively chatter of the people, Youngwoon walks closer, never taking his eyes off him. He thinks that he can almost see the boy's face -

"Ow!" A female voice cries out as Youngwoon rams straight into an unfortunate passer-by, knocking them both to the ground and dumping gamjatang all over them in a most unglamorous fashion.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there," he apologizes profusely to the girl as he helps her up and cleans the mess. While he does so, though, the boy never leaves his mind. He only caught a glimpse at the side of his face, but was that expression... a smile?

Youngwoon turns back to where he was sitting, as if to check - but the boy with the white hair is gone.

---~***~---

Eheheheheh >:)

Actually I'm just procrastinating right now and uploading a chapter to feel better since I have an avalanche of assignments due tomorrow. This has been written for a little while, but then I realized.... again... that I'll have to split it up into parts xD

I realized that it's probably a good idea to finish only one fic at once. But I can't help it >.> I updated Mask, and then I decided to work on this, and suddenly I had a spurt of inspiration for Destiny... who knows when I'll be able to update this next? T.T