Word Count: 763

Six months had passed since he had seen Dr. Joonmyun and the clock was really ticking now. Two more months, he thought bitterly to himself one morning. He rested his chin on his hands, elbows on the table, as he watched Kyungsoo flit about the kitchen, making breakfast. Baekhyun eyed the orange bottle full of round tablets with a cross between resentment and thankfulness he couldn’t quite explain.

“Baek?” Baekhyun was snapped out of his reverie by a worried voice.

“Huh?” He blinked several times.

“You were daydreaming and staring intently at your medication bottle. Is there anything wrong with it?”

“Nope. Nothing at all,” Baekhyun replied, smiling as best he could.

“I have a question then.”

“Hn?”

“Why are you still taking that medication? You said it was just fatigue, right? And why won’t you show me the prescription? You always rip it off the bottle before you come home and you always go to get it alone.” Baekhyun felt his stomach drop through the floor.

“It’s nothing to worry about...” Baekhyun replied slowly.

“Taking medication for this duration of time indicates a severe or chronic illness.” Kyungsoo pulled a worried face before trying to continue. “Are you sure—“

“I’m fine, so just drop it,” Baekhyun snapped.

“O-okay. Sorry Baek...” He looked away and his voice got quiet.

Baekhyun rubbed the back of his neck, feeling guilty. “Listen,” Baekhyun began in a softer voice. “I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I’m sorry.” He sighed as he gathered his thoughts and tried to continue. “It’s just a thing... I can’t tell you yet. I can’t explain it to you yet, so you’re just going to have to trust that things are okay, okay?” Kyungsoo furrowed his brow and pulled a corner of his mouth back, but nodded all the same.

“I'll not press again, then...” Kyungsoo replied as Baekhyun set his hands in his lap. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready, though. Right?”

Baekhyun nodded and gritted his teeth as pain shot through his body. He couldn’t say anything for fear of his voice cracking. If that happened, then Kyungsoo would definitely know something was wrong. He slowly began eating the breakfast Kyungsoo had prepared for him. As he ate, he willed every muscle in his body to not tremble.

“Thanks Soo. Thanks for working with me, taking care of me, and being here for me,” Baekhyun said with a trembling voice that he attributed to his emotions and not his disease. Tears burned at the backs of his eyes and he blinked them away. He hated lying to his friend after all Kyungsoo had done for him.

Kyungsoo nodded and smiled before coming around and enveloping the small boy in a hug. Baekhyun leaned into the familiar chest. “I’ll always be here for you,” he replied.

--

It had been seven and a half months since Baekhyun had been diagnosed and his time was almost up. With that, he supposed that it was time to explain everything to Kyungsoo.

“Kyungsoo? My time is running out,” he began one night after dinner as he leaned against the mecha on the couch, legs tucked up underneath him.

“What are you talking about Baek?”

“I’m dying. I have been for a while now. Not aging dying, something much more cruel and fast than that.”

“Does it have anything to do with the tremors?”

“Yeah. It has everything to do with the tremors...” he replied bitterly.

“Is that why you are writing this program?”

“Yeah. I suspect it’s going to be my final project...”

“How long do you have left...?”

“About half of a month, mayhaps more,” mayhaps less, he thought silently.

“And that’s what the medication is really for?” Baekhyun could only nod in reply. “Why did you hide it from me?” Kyungsoo sat back to look at Baekhyun.

“I didn’t want to worry you needlessly. There’s nothing anyone can do,” he replied, smiling weakly. Kyungsoo slapped Baekhyun across the face and he was shocked into silence. He delicately touched the place when Kyungsoo’s hand had collided with his face, to his quickly reddening cheek.

“What was that for?” he asked more surprised than angry.

“It’s okay to ask for help sometimes. If I couldn’t help you, I could at least be there for you.”

“I really deserved that, didn’t I,” he asked softly, smiling tiredly.

“I want to help you, but I can’t do that until you let me in...” Kyungsoo leaned in and gave Baekhyun a big hug. Baekhyun nodded in reply.

“I guess I should start at the beginning then?”

A/N: Sorry for such a short chapter. It couldn't really be lumped together with another chapter. The story is winding down. Thank you for reading.

So I kind of felt like I owed you guys a chapter. Here it awkwardly is. I don't have anything more written at the moment so there might be a break before the next chapter. Thank you for subscribing, dropping comments, up-voting, misc other!