Title: 4th Shot
Series: To Good Health
Description: She's in the business of healing people, but she really was never very good with them. People were strange, and her day at the office only confirmed this belief as she attends to seven young men. People were strange indeed. Strange, but interesting…
Rating: PG
Warning(s): AU
Pairing(s): Junsu (2PM)/Taeyeon (SNSD)

+ 4th Shot +

            “W-What are you doing here?” A gaping silence. “Sir? Sir?”

            “I…I just need somewhere to stay,” the odd man replies, after some hesitation, eyes still downcast. She ogles him. Somewhere to stay? Is he a hobo? But why? In broad daylight? At a hospital? Oh no, what if he means to stay at my place? Aish, eoddeokhae? Her lips are moving slightly, opening and closing like a fish out of water, at a complete loss for words.

            “S-Sir, I-I’m sure you could stay at the jjimjilbang* or something…I’m really s-sorry but we don’t allow people to stay overnight unless they’re injured and n-need some sort of treatment or rest,” she finally sputters out, feeling like she should do something rather than stand there in front of this mysterious hobo-man who didn’t look like a hobo-man, but—

            Her stream of random thoughts is broken when he heaves, “That’s not what I meant…”

            “O-Oh,” is the answer that comes out of . Aish, what am I supposed to do then? What does he even want from me? “S-Sir, well if there’s nothing else, I have to go on my lunch break soon, so—”

            He finally lifts up his head to meet her in the eyes for the first time, and she notices that it’s another young man, about one or two years older than her, it seems. There are slight bags under his eyes, dark with fatigue, overcast with melancholy, and he’s quite good looking. “You’re a hospital right?”

            “I..w-what?” she stutters, thrown off by his depressed tone and random question.

            “Hospital. This is a hospital.”

            “Ah…yes…”

            “You heal people right? You’re supposed to make them better? Fix them?”

            “U-uh yes, I think…” Wow, Taeyeon, “I think?” how stupid can you be? Babobabobaboba—

            “Then can you heal me? Can you make me feel better? Can you make me better?” His tone is desperate and he draws in shaky breaths and he leans forward, elbows on his knees, hands flat against his temples, and he’s rocking back and forth in his seat, as if he’s teetering on the edge, threatening to spill out. “Can you fix me? Fix…Fix a broken heart? A broken h--…so broken…? Like me?”

            She’s not sure what to do—it seems to be the trend lately—and she decides to just go with it. “W-well, you’ll have to tell me what’s wrong first.”

            He lifts up his head, eyes rimmed with red, and there’s slight shock and a glint of hope sparkling like daybreak on an ocean horizon against his watery orbs. Her feet seem to move of her own accord, and she situates herself on the chair next to him and pats him lightly on the back with uncertainty. A split second later and warmth engulfs her as he catches her in a desperate embrace, pressing her tightly against him.

            Her initial response is to back away and push this stranger off of her, but something inside her makes her stay. She’s a doctor, she reasons, and sometimes hugs were better than any other medicine. So she stays still.

            “I’m Junsu.” This man seems to do everything out of order, she thinks with blank amusement.

            “I-I’m Taeyeon.”

            “Taeyeon-ssi, how do you heal a broken heart? I need a prescription for it.” She senses that this man’s true personality is one of happiness; he’s a joker, a person who puts on masks for others to hide their own pain. She knows that feeling well.

            “Time…” she feels him stiffen a little, and then relax, resting his head on her shoulder and loosening his hold on her, shoulders slumping as he leans into her. “Time.”

            “How long should I take it for?”

            “Depends on your willingness to get better.” She doesn’t know where these eloquent words are coming from. Probably from inside herself, she suspects.

            “Thank you, doctor,” he whispers, his breath tickling her neck, and she wills herself not to squirm under the feeling. He inhales, breath steady this time, eyes briefly closing. “Thank you.”

* Jjimjilbang - a public bath house in Korea furnished with hot tubs, showers, saunas, and offers overnight stay at an affordable price.