Kris took his cup of coffee from the vending machine that was located at the lobby of their floor.  He blew on the hot steam that wafted from the cup and sat on one of the the benches for guardians like him just near the nurses' station.  The smell and taste of coffee entered his system and filled his mind, clouding his senses just a little bit and letting him forget his dilemma even for just a few minutes.

His condition is progressing...for the worse, it seems.

Dr. Kim's worried voice echoed in his mind just as he took a small sip and burnt his tongue.  Kris grimaced; from the pain in his tongue or in his heart, he wasn't sure.  His Lu Han seemed normal on the outside but Kris knew better.

It started a few months ago in Beijing where they lived, Kris thinks.  He was studying to be an oncologist and Lu Han was an art major.  They shared interest and differences in a lot of things.  Lu Han was a splash of all colors and spontainety while Kris was SOP and arranging the closet by type and color of clothes.  Lu Han liked to cuddle every Friday night, at exactly 10PM, on the couch to watch movies on television with either Kris or his cream-colored life-sized teddy bear (also named Kris because he says his boyfriend gave it to him and Lu Han liked to name important possessions 'Kris' to show that he loves that object very much).  Kris loves Lu Han and Lu Han says he loves Kris more than art but Kris would sometimes question it when it was bedtime and Lu Han would prefer to fall asleep beside his drawings rather than in bed with him.

They lived a perfectly normal and happy life for years until Lu Han's grip seemed to have considerably weakened compared to when they were in undergrad together.  He had started dropping things on a regular basis, unable to keep his hold on his paintbrushes while he worked and breaking glass when he tried to drink.  Kris didn't mind it at first, gave Lu Han a reassuring smile that told him that everything's fine and it's just glass.

Just glass.

Kris was wrong though.  Very, very, very wrong.

Everything was far from fine.

From a weakened grip, Lu Han had become someone who became unable to even support himself up.  Muscle cramping became frequent although the smaller attributed it carelessly to keeping one position for long hours while he worked on his projects so there wasn't enough blood flow.  Kris suggested going to see a doctor but Lu Han had refused.

He always did.

Lu Han found it hard one morning, with a lot of crying and screaming and a panicking Kris, to get up from bed.  His arms always gave out on him and his feet had become unsteady and wobbly.  Another day, Lu Han slipped in the bathroom while he washed paint from his small hands, almost hit his head on the cold tile if Kris hadn't heard the distinctive sound of the toothbrush holder hitting the floor first before Lu Han did.  This was the last straw that convinced both of them to pay their good friend and Lu Han's best friend, Dr. Zhang, a visit.

I'm sure you can see it.  You notice the symptoms right?

Dr. Zhang talked to him one gloomy afternoon in a place much like where Kris was staying at the present, a coffee machine in a clean hospital lobby.  Lu Han slept soundly in the kind doctor's office bed, five floors above them, after spending the last hour crying and throwing things around.  It took both of them a while to calm Lu Han down because the small male refused to accept that he had a condition.  It took all of Kris' strength, a whole day of absence from his own clinic and doctor duties, and soothing words whispered to Lu Han alone to make him sit and rest, convinced him to stay in his lap until his high had come down while Kris peppered kisses on his lips and cheeks.

Zhang Yixing, a classmate of Kris in more than one subject, was the reason why he and Lu Han met.  The smaller male would often visit Yixing in the dormitory where Yixing stayed, a few doors from where Kris lived with another medicine major.  They would meet in the hallways and Kris even helped Lu Han carry his oil paintings one day when he was going to spend the night in Yixing's place to keep the latter company while he studied for their second year final exams.  Kris wondered back then if that was a good idea for Yixing to keep a chatterbox like Lu Han near him while he studied for their test on Gastrointestinology.  Study groups never worked for him even as a kid but Kris figured that people are never the same.  A few months into their third year later, Kris found himself drawn to Lu Han's company and, two or three months more after that night, Kris found himself in front of Lu Han's dormitory room, soaked with rain from head to foot, flowers in hand, confessing his feelings to a sobbing mass of happy little Lu Han.

Kris inhaled and closed his eyes, his cup of coffee now resting on the seat beside him.

"Seoul University Hospital," Yixing scribbled in neat characters on a piece of paper that bore his name, contact information, clinic hours and license number.  "I have a friend there who specialized in neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Kim Joonmyun.  I'm sure he'd be able to help you out."  Yixing handed him the piece of paper which now rested neatly folded in the inside of Kris' wallet, and he and Lu Han found themselves in a plane bound for Incheon International Airport and out of Beijing two weeks after that day.

"Good luck Kris.  You'll pull through this," were Yixing's parting words for them before they boarded.