Chapter 2: He’s all right.

He took a deep breath at the door and slid it open slightly to see the scene within. It was definitely Kibum, his old friend.

He closed his eyes, and scrunched up his face with emotion. Kibum was lying on the floor, in a pool of his own vomit and blood. He hugged himself in the fetal position and dry sobbed. Kibum had a swollen body covered in several bruises from lack of walking and tubing connected to him. He was not supposed to remain still so the various tubes that fed him medication could do so without interruption.

Minho inched his feet slowly towards the man who looked up at him with red eyes.

“Minho-” cried Kibum, hands outstretched and attempting to hold onto something.

“Kibummie... I’m here.” Minho said falling onto his knees and grabbing Kibum’s hand to relax him. He pressed a button on the side of the hospital bed to alert the paramedics that there was an emergency. Kibum began to slip in and out of consciousness from the loss of bodily fluids. Minho could do nothing, but talk to his friend and keep him awake. Minho shook as he placed the oxygen mask back on Kibum’s face. He was too afraid to go into the trained emergency response of an experienced doctor. He needed to be Kibum’s friend right now. He needed to be the childhood friend from Kibum’s past so that he would remain connected to the world and not let go of life..

The paramedics rushed in moments later to carefully place Key onto a gurney and carry him the few feet back to his bed. They reattached the tubing that had been removed during his fall , checked all his vital signs, had his blood drawn and collected to be tested for any remaining antibiotic. The aliquoted samples of Kibum’s blood were sent to the pharmacokinetics lab and quickly spun in the centrifuge to create plasma for analysis.

Quickly, the lab determined that there was no more drug in his system. The paramedic relayed that he had contracted pneumonia and had had a minor relapse of acute sepsis where his lung had failed to take in the oxygen in the room.

“The patient,” he said “has had history of pneumonia since his immune system does not function properly. He should not be given anymore medication until tested further.”