IRREVERSIBLE

Chanyeol could slowly begin to feel his senses coming back to him as his eyes begin to flutter open. The giant felt a strong pain in his head and also in his chest, but he couldn’t remember how that pain got there. Checking his surroundings, he noticed a lowly lit floor lamp in the corner  of the room and the noise of running water coming from the kitchen. Someone was washing something what seemed to be a towel because right after the water had been shut off, they squeezed the towel and the water dripped into the sink. A couple of seconds later, Chanyeol saw a shadow outlined by light underneath the arch heading into the kitchen. He couldn't make out who it was, but assumed they were harmless seeing how he was resting on their couch. The figure walked up to him and when it got close enough, he noticed the worried look anywhere, it was Baekhyun’s. The towel was placed on the taller’s head and his eyes soon met with the other’s. 

“You took a pretty big fall… Are you alright?” The giant nodded.

“What happened to me?” 

“You fainted and fell down the stairs. Why didn’t you stop at the bottom if you knew you were already feeling drowsy?” Chanyeol kept quiet because he didn’t know what to tell the smaller boy. Was he supposed to tell him about the pain in his chest? What would that do? It would obviously only make Baekhyun more worried about the taller’s condition. That’s not something Chanyeol wanted. He didn’t need others around him to constantly worry about his health and have that affect the time he has with them. Deep in the back of his head, he knows his time is limited, but that’s not something that should be a concern right now. 

“Are you alright?” The smaller broke the silence that has surrounded them since his last question. 

“Yeah… Just some pain in my head…” 

“That’s all?” Chanyeol wasn’t sure if the other was not believing him, or he was just confirming. All the giant did was nod his head and then felt soft lips on his cheek, which burned warmer than the towel placed on his head. The kisses never fail to spark a smile on the giant’s face. 

“That helped a lot.” The smaller nudged the other’s shoulder and gave him a peck on the forehead before sitting in the single couch and turning on the TV.

“Why not sit with me?” Chanyeol asked softly half hoping Baekhyun wouldn’t hear it and half hoping he would. The latter turned his head, but with eyes still focused on the screen. 

“Huh? Did you say something babe?” 

“No, nothing.” The smaller’s eyes now immediately rolled over to the one laying down and his face turned into a squint. 

“What did you say?” The giant sunk into his place in the sofa and softly repeated his question. The next thing he knew, he felt a sudden chunk of weight landing onto his stomach causing him to groan. 

“I’m injured you know!” Baekhyun didn’t care, he crossed his arms and repositioned himself to lie face down so that the two pair of eyes would meet. 

“Enough comfort for you?” The giant smiled and pinched the smaller’s cheek. 

“Just the right amount I need.” 

***~~~***

Chanyeol felt the suns rays blasting onto his eyelids and screaming at him to wake up. Covering his eyes with his hand, the next thing he wanted to do with yawn and stretch like most people after just initially waking up. Unfortunately, there was something holding down his arm, which caused the giant to look down to his left arm. He had totally forgotten that he had fallen asleep with Baekhyun in the position from last night, so in front of him laid a quietly sleeping Baekhyun. This was a nice change of view from the usual energetic and rowdy boy. He seemed so peaceful and disturbing him from his slumber would fill the giant up with guilt. Without much to do, Chanyeol decided to go back to sleep. 

A few minutes into his sleep, he felt the body next to him start to move as if it were waking up as well. The giant opened his eyes to meet with the half opened eyes of the smaller boy.

“Good morning,” the taller said with a wide grin. Baekhyun smiled and muttered the same thing with his y, sleepy voice. Without knowing it, the latter rolled over off Chanyeol and right onto the floor before the giant could help him. 

“What a way to start my morning…” The smaller said while groaning in pain. Chanyeol leaped to his feet instantly and checked to make sure that the other boy was alright. With the large hands and strong arms Chanyeol possessed, he picked up the smaller boy and placed him gently on the couch. 

“Be careful next time…” Baekhyun nodded before slowly dozing back off to sleep. The giant noticed his body was a little sore from having Baekhyun sleep on time of him, but it was nothing too serious. However, what was serious was the talk Kyungsoo was about to get.

***~~~***

After getting ready and making himself look presentable, Chanyeol left a note on the table for Baekhyun to look at when he wakes up. It was nothing too serious, just a notice of where he will be and from when to when. This avoided the future possible problem of “I was so worried about you! Why didn't you tell me where you were?!” 

When he finally walked across the street and up to Kyungsoo’s door, he knocked on the door and rang the doorbell several times. It didn’t take long before there was sound of the door unlocking and a lady dressed in a robe with hair curlers in her hair standing behind the door. 

“Oh, hello Chanyeol. You’re here for Soo?” 

“Yes, is he home?” Mrs. Do nodded and invited him inside. The giant swiftly ran up the stairs to his friend’s room.

***~~~***

“Haven’t you heard of knocking?” Kyungsoo shouted from behind the door. 

“Sorry… I was just in a rush…” The smaller boy had just finished showering and was getting dressed before Chanyeol barged in the door. The normal part about all this was that Kyungsoo was wearing a towel and was just shirtless. The giant was confused as to why his friend was so embarrassed. More waiting ensued, but luckily, it didn’t feel like an eternity before this door was finally opened. 

“Come on,” the smaller said monotonously. The giant didn’t bother and grabbed his friend by the shoulders. 

“Something happened to me last night… A hospital visit is urgent.” The smaller’s eyes grew bigger than they usually are and he froze. The giant shook him again and he snapped out of his trance. Nodding slowly, he quickly walked downstairs to grab the car keys.

“Soo you can’t-”

“This is a prolonged emergency, I can do whatever it was I want! Now get in the car!” Chanyeol said not another word before he was waiting inside the passenger seat for the driver. 

“Kyungsoo, honey, where are you-” The door closed and Mrs. Do was left at home without an answer. She shrugged her shoulders and figured that her son was a careful driver. After all, he has done a lot of practice with driving before.

***~~~***

With the speed that Kyungsoo was going, the boys were surprised he didn’t get pulled over. After parking, both of the boys slammed the doors and rushed into the hospital in search for Chanyeol’s doctor. The obvious first step was to go to the counter and ask. 

“Excuse me! We’re here to see Dr. Huang, where is he right now?” The lady at the counter quickly typed in his name and after giving out his location, was thanked and left alone. 

The boys rushed to his office which was on the 3rd floor and barely caught the elevator. It wasn’t something you’d normally see in a hospital since sickly people are usually walking slowly. A surprise look grew on Dr. Huang’s face when the boys barged into his office. 

“Can I help y- Ah! Chanyeol!” 

“Doctor! Something happened last night.” The doctor raised an eyebrow.

“And you failed to come to the hospital then?” This wasn’t the time for this kind of questioning, but Chanyeol figured he had to give a reason why, even though he still would get in trouble for it. 

“I was with… a close friend of mine… He doesn’t know about my condition and I don’t want to tell him… yet…” Kyungsoo couldn’t keep his eyes on the giant because the cold hard truth is that this is a condition that might not be recoverable. The doctor nodded and gestured Chanyeol to take a seat. 

The two went over what happened last night, however Chanyeol couldn’t remember much. The doctor would occasionally pause from writing on his clipboard to listen to the giant and nodded before writing some more. It seemed like a therapy session to Kyungsoo and he didn’t want to be here. It was either going to be tragic news, or bad news. It’s not that he wasn’t optimistic, he was being realistic and with the events happening lately, his thinking only made sense. 

“Oh! And when I woke up this morning, I still had pains in my chest…” 

“How’re the pains now?” 

“They’re still there…” 

“I see.” The doctor continued to write more on his clipboard before putting it down and folding his hands together. “You’re going to have to stay here for a couple of nights for us to evaluate you. Do you want to call your mother, or should I call her?” 

“Please do it for me.” 

***~~~***

About 9 hours later after being examined throughly and extensively, Kyungsoo and Mrs. Park saw Dr. Huang walking over to the table in the cafeteria where they were sitting anxiously. Mrs. Park had arrived just a little over half an hour after the phone call about her son being checked into the hospital. Kyungsoo waited for her outside and they walked in together only to be getting news from the doctor himself now. They both got up and Mrs. Park bowed to greet the doctor. 

“How is he?” Before speaking, the doctor let out a sigh and looked at both of the people waiting for their answer. The seconds that the doctor had kept them waiting felt like an eternity and there was nothing more than for them to know the current condition of their loved one. 

“I will give you a brief overview of what has happened in the past hours.” The doctor gestured them to sit, and they complied, “While we were running the tests on Chanyeol, there were multiple occasions where he would have extremely painful chest pains and claimed that he had trouble breathing.” Mrs. Park covered and wiped away the tears that had been building and finally began crawling down her face. 

“What does this all mean for us exactly?” Dr. Huang took another sigh and looked at his hands for a couple of seconds before giving eye contact. 

“Chanyeol can be gone anywhere from today to next week…” 

--------------------

I’m so sorry I haven’t updated in almost two weeks! It was finals and I had to get my stuff together to make sure that I wouldn’t bomb my exams. They’re finally all finished now, which allows me to finally focus on the end of this story! I hope you guys enjoyed the fourth to last chapter of Meant to Be!