Day One

 

“Bring the next patient in.”

 

The dim lights that kept this wing of the hospital bright was inevitably dull from what he could see as he tried to gather the scene around him. He understood where he was, and the fact that a nurse was pushing him to somewhere he’s never seen before in a wheelchair. What lost him was how he had even gotten there.

 

The last thing that fully came to mind was him being at a club, being d on by one of his male friends as they danced to the pop song that blared through the speakers. Then, for a sudden reason, he felt himself hitting rock bottom all over again.

 

A few pills in an empty restroom was what he remembered consuming after he kicks everyone out. It doesn’t work, its not kicking in so he decides to take matters upon himself, which was something that was blurred in his memory.

 

But what he did manage to remember was shocking to himself enough, he could see himself grabbing one last drink before the unimaginable thing happened- he had fallen asleep in the back of the taxi.

 

What was so riveting about that event was the simple fact that he had fallen asleep, he thinks. He suffers from insomnia. None of the special prescriptions or home remedies ever seemed to work. The only thing that did spark a revelation was drinking, and even that was a problem in itself.

 

So now he was slightly afraid of falling upon the reason of why he was there, at the hospital, at this time of night. The time didn’t really matter, though. It wasn’t like he would have been asleep anyway.

 

As he’s pushed down the aisle into his designated room he sees a bed and a television set up in his room before he even gets rolled inside. He panicked a little. Did they actually think he was going to stay here? He sits up to look around for a doctor of some sort and his mouth opens to form a sentence, but he’s stopped by a nurse greeting him, telling him that his doctor would arrive shortly before he’s requested to climb up on the bed.

 

He comes to the conclusion that he doesn’t care and tries to look for a way out, only to be greeted by his doctor, which of whom seemed to come all too quickly. When the doctor comes into his view, however, his heart instantly skips a beat as he’s searching for something to tell him that this guy wasn’t real.

 

The doctor was absolutely stunning. The way his dark hair complemented his amber eyes, and the way his lips appeared to be something that could only be deemed as appetizing.. the way he smiled down at his patient, who was still sitting in his wheelchair, stunned. The patient looks down at himself, at his attire, making an attempt to make sure he looked presentable. Other than a few spots, some more alarming than others, he thought looked okay.

 

The doctor turns to his patient with a clipboard in hand, scanning over it a little before offering the boy a smile. “Alright, so it appears here that you’re name is Kim Kibum?”

 

The patient only nods once. The doctor writes something down on his clipboard, then glances at his patient again, this time taking notice in how pale the boy appeared. He was still attractive, nonetheless, and for a moment, it was almost something the doctor couldn’t ignore. “Well I’m Dr. Choi. I’ll be helping you out for now.”

 

Kibum eyes him, Dr. Choi, not believing that this was his actual profession of his choice. Someone like him should be off modeling an underwear brand somewhere, not looking after other people.

 

“Okay, so we’re just going to do a quick check up here.. do you feel any slight dizziness?”

 

Kibum shakes his head.

 

“Nausea?”

 

Kibum shakes his head.

 

“Headaches?”

 

Kibum shakes his head.

 

“Any type of minor pains at all?”

 

Kibum hesitates, then shakes his head.

 

The doctor takes a moment to write everything down. He smirks at his patient, almost obvious to the fact that his smirking is actually capable of doing something. “I wouldn’t have taken you for the quiet type.”

 

“Well its because I don’t like hospitals. Especially the ones I’m expected to sleep in.”

 

Dr. Choi chuckles. “Well, you and sleep don’t quite have the best relationship.” He sanitizes his hands before pulling out a drawer of all the usual doctor instruments used in check ups. “Its understandable.”

 

“Understandable?” Kibum scoffed while shaking his head, “Its something different from when you don’t have to deal with this .”

 

The doctor only shrugs before he walks up to Kibum, who then raised an eyebrow at the fact that the doctor knew about his condition, but he pauses when the doctor is leaning down to check his ears. As of right now Kibum didn’t feel like pretending to be a good boy, and with how close the doctor was to him, he didn’t exactly want to let up on his mood. Not that he even minded being this close to him.

 

For some reason Kibum always thought that doctors always check their patient’s arms first, for what reason he didn’t know, before they checked their hearts, but this doctor decided to do it differently. When he tells Kibum to breath in and breath out, the patient tried to avoid all things but to get nervous, not wanting to increase his heart rate at anything.

 

Because honestly, it would only take anything for him to get excited in the moment.

 

This was all due to letting his own eyes wander around the doctor, and for a single second, not caring if he had been caught. Maybe Kibum was lucky in the situation, maybe he’d be lucky enough to- he stops thinking that far just as Dr. Choi releases his arm then. Kibum didn’t notice he had moved on to his arm.

 

When Dr. Choi was positioned at his original spot again, he fills out some more information, and proceeds to try in keeping up a conversation. “So, you employed?”

 

Kibum sighs as if he didn’t want to talk. It was a good way to keep up the momentum. “I’m employed in the fashion field.”

 

“I can tell.” The doctor glances at him over his clipboard.

 

“Why are you a doctor?”

 

“Because I wanted to be one.” He sits his clipboard aside, getting into a comfortable enough position in the spot he was standing. “Why do you work in fashion?”

 

“Because I just want to.” 

 

“Touché.” He turns to grab the clipboard and hangs it outside the door, coming back in to shut it and resume his spot. The doctor pulls out another drawer, and there appears a tablet. He grabs it and turns it on with his full attention back on his patient. “So do you remember anything from last night?”

 

“What if I didn’t?”

 

The doctor shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “Its not a problem. It’ll come back”

 

His reaction made Kibum worried, “Wait, but what if I really don’t remember? Is that okay?”

 

“While it wouldn’t help us solve the mystery of what’s you’ve gotten here, it probably wouldn’t help much yet. Which reminds me, I still have to do a physical check up.” He turns around, sitting the tablet on the counter.

 

“The patient had to remind you of what you needed to do as a doctor?” Key snickers. “Nice.”

 

“Hey now, I’m not even supposed to be working this shift. The person whose spot I’m taking is coming in late. Something about family issues.” The doctor stands in front of Key, motioning for him to stand up. Key does just this, perfectly fine, looking the doctor in the eyes.

 

The doctor almost wants to comment on how alert Kibum was right now, but he doesn’t. Instead he stares at his patient, and he slowly begins to notice the curve of his nose..  then the tint of his lips.. all the way to the slight hitch in his breath. For a moment the doctor can feel his breath fall into a form of jaggedness too, and his only way of hiding this, was to clear his throat. He didn’t know why it became this difficult to stand this close to a male, suddenly.

 

Maybe it wasn’t something for him to figure out just yet.

 

After instruction his patient to follow the usual routine, the doctor nods once, “Alright.. good.” He breathes after suddenly noticing the color of Kibum’s eyes, “Now can you sit on the bed?”

 

Key turns around, eyeing the bed closely before his eyes are back with the doctor’s. “Do I have too?”

 

“If you want to leave you do.”

 

Key grunts before taking a seat, and suddenly winces a little, eyeing the doctor shortly after. “With that indication.. something must be here…” The doctor points to his wrist,” A scratch and whatnot here and there but you’re fine.. I think.”

 

“A scratch?” Kibum lifts his hand and begins to search himself. “Why would I have a scratch?”

 

“I don’t know buddy. You tell me..” He pauses. “Are you squeamish at the sight of blood?”

 

Key hesitantly nods.

 

Dr. Choi nods himself, then leaves Kibum’s side to grab his tablet, documenting a few things in there. “Okay.. uh, now all we have to wait on is your medication, then we’ll see how everything else goes from there..”

 

“What does see where we go from there actually mean?” He asks, almost afraid of the answer to his question.

 

“Well, since you don’t have a whole lot of physical damage.. there maybe be some internal damage. That’s what one of the prescribed medications are for.”

 

“One of them? What the hell do I need with a bunch of medication?”

 

“Its all to get you better.” Dr. Choi informed him, “That’s the whole reason why I have this job. To make people like you better.”

 

Kibum glances at the doctor’s name tag- Choi Minho, then he nods to himself. Choi Minho is probably the name of someone who had an easy childhood, he thinks. Someone that had their whole life lined up for them with the ambitions of becoming something big, making a name for himself as he does something bigger than himself.

 

“Choi Minho.” Key accidently says out loud. “What a nice name.”

 

The doctor looks taken by surprise as he turns around to glare at his patient. “Um.. thank you?”

 

“You make it sound like you don’t get a lot of compliments about your name.”

 

“That’s because I don’t.” He smiles a little.

 

“Well I bet you get a lot of compliments about other things.. like your looks?”

 

Now the doctor raises an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah. I’m sorry but-”

 

“Sorry if I’m blunt.” Key smirks,  “It sort of makes it easier for me to be that way since I am gay.”

 

As soon as a nurse walks in the doctor’s eyes grow wide, looking at his smirking patient in shock.

 

“Hey Dr. Choi, I’m here to deliver the medication.” Kibum’s attention then shifted to the nurse. She had long brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and a beautiful smile. Kibum takes notice in how she smiles at the doctor, and doesn’t stop glaring at her until she glares at Kibum herself.

 

The doctor thanks her, taking the medicine with his eyes still on Kibum. As the doctor tries to calm down his hazy mind and stay focused on the job, they both turn away from him to console each other on which he should take first, some coming with some very impactful side effects, and two of them were needles while the others were your standard type of medication, the oral contraceptives.  

 

When they both turn back around one of the needles were already prepared. The nurse has the cleaning items prepared, instructing for Kibum to roll up his sleeve for his arm to meet contact with the cold alcohol on the cotton ball.  He looks up at the nurse, smiling. “You’re pretty.”

 

He watches as the nurse, Nurse Park, turn a hint of red as she let out a keen thank you before turning to the doctor, whispering, “Has this one been medicated before he entered the building? I didn’t see anything or-”

 

“It was a compliment.” Kibum interrupts beginning to swing his feet. “And no. I didn’t take any medication before I entered the building.”

 

Dr. Choi eyes Kibum again before he grabs ahold of his patient’s arm, stripping his mind of Kibum’s distracting confession, “You ready Mr. Kim?”

 

“I’m fine with Key, really.” He pauses before pointing to his ears. “And do you see my piercings? I think I’m good with a little needle.”

 

“Alright.” The doctor counts down anyway, hoping against tensing up his patient. He sticks the first needle into Kibum’s arm, and hears him wince a little, making him smile. “You okay?”

 

“I’m fine.. why the hell is that thing so big anyway?” Kibum scrunches up his nose.

 

“What? You mean to tell me that this needle isn’t as intense as the one used on your ears?” The doctor teases him.

 

“... No one asked you.”

 

Both the doctor and the nurse let out a small chuckle before preparing the second needle. Kibum can actually see the needle, the sharpness of it and how thin it looked. What he could see after, though, was a distortion of different colors. The needle looked to be moved around about a million times, with the pattern of its movement still left behind. It was almost like watching art being made before him with its progression of movement. This art felt different, it felt dizzy and uneven.

 

Woozy. Key was slowly going under.

 

“You alright there Kibum?”

 

He hears the voice of  Dr. Choi, and in his head snaps that he prefered to be called Key, but before Kibum could register how to respond properly  his own hands grip the doctor’s face as he started giggling helplessly, “Oh Minhooo... you know what? … You are tooo cute!”

 

Kibum can see the nurse raise an eyebrow, this time with a look of curiosity. The doctor looks at her and whispers something in her ear that Kibum couldn’t make out this time due to the illusion that was going on around him.

 

He feels Dr. Choi’s hand on his shoulder before they’ve meet eyes again, “Kibum, I’m going to have to lay you down right now, okay? Is that okay?”

 

“I really want Taeminnie’s socks.. I told him that.. that they would go with my outfit better.. but he said no.. why did he say no?”

 

The doctor frowns, “Well, I don’t know. Why don’t we go ask him?”

 

That was the last thing Kibum could recall hearing before slipping into darkness.