AN: I especially wants to thank MSYeoliie who has contributed to the idea on this. Hope to hear more of your lovely comments MSYeoliie ^_^

Chapter 9 : Memories...

“I told you I was fine,” Woo Bin complains as they wait in the queue to the pharmacy at the hospital.

“If you call having three fractured ribs and a twisted elbow is fine, then yes, you are fine.” Jong Suk says as he hands the prescription to the lady at the pharmacy. Woo Bin watches with slight irritation as he smiles brightly at the woman while paying for the medicine. The x-rays showed no broken bones; just three fractured ribs and his right arm twisted, which the doctor had put a cast on. Woo Bin hates the idea of having to keep his arm dangling over a cast for one week. He has had a cast on two years ago and that wasn’t very pleasant, especially the itch he couldn’t comfort. He knows he is going to get an earful from his father when he sees this and the thought makes him want to strangle Jong Suk. But the beautiful boy smiling all innocently at the old pharmacist calms his evil thoughts.

He tries to shuffle closer when Jong Suk looks at him. But the pain on his right leg refrains from moving too far, he gives up the futile attempt and leans back against the white wall, waiting for Jong Suk to walk to him. All sorts of sounds and voices mix together like smoke enveloping the room and that is enough to make him nauseous. He eyes at the round big clock hanging on the wall in front of him; it is almost lunch time. 

“It’s going to take a while,” Jong Suk says walking closer to him. He eyes around the waiting area, probably for a seat, but it is too cramped and no one seems to be getting up anytime soon. He turns back to Woo Bin, “Why don’t you go wait in the cafeteria down there,” he points behind and Woo Bin follows the direction he is pointing at. He can see through the glass wall that the cafeteria is starting to get more crowded and the smell of hospital food, that sickly unappetising odour mingled with the stink of medicine assaulting his nose is enough to get rid of any thought he had of going there.

“I can just stand here,” he mutters, leaning back against the wall. His legs ache and it feels like they will give up on him anytime now.

“Then how about the hospital yard? You can get some fresh air. I’ll be there as soon as I get your prescription.” Jong Suk looks at him with concern. It must look obvious Woo Bin thinks, putting his weight on his left leg. He wants to get out of this place packed with hospital gowns and illnesses echoing in all directions.

“Okay,” he mutters, wincing in pain as he stands straight.

“Do you want me to take you there?” Jong Suk asks in a concerned voice.

“No, I’ll be alright,” Woo Bin says before staggering down the white washed corridor. He hurries out of the sterile walls and heads out to the yard. It isn’t as crowded as he thought it would be given that it is a Saturday morning. He notices a few people about. Just a couple of nurses, hair tied back and eyes bloodshot from tiredness and a few troublesome patients. He knows he probably looks worse compared to them appearance wise. Maybe it’s this place that makes it worse. He doesn’t like it, being around a lot of solemn and sad people.

He turns left at the direction pointing toward the Chapel, he almost forgets about all the illness and sickness residing merely footsteps away from that place. The Chapel is always open for patients, visitors and associates; a place of scripture, worship and prayer from which comfort, grace and blessing flow into the halls and rooms of Lourdes. That’s what he believed eight years ago, but no more. He finds no comfort at the foot of the god, he holds no faith in prayers and he certainly does not believe in god anymore. Perhaps he never had, but at least once he has prayed for months and years; prayers that were never answered.

He stops momentarily at the sight of a small girl wearing a navy-blue-striped pair of pajamas and plastic slippers playing on the lawn. The right side of her face covers in scars and a woollen hat covers her small hairless head. Her face has started to lose its signs of life; it has that pale sickly look too familiar to Woo Bin. The girl lifts her tiny pale face and smiles at Woo Bin. He feels a little pang firing in his chest. Not too far from her, two teenagers are slowly treading down the side walk; the one with the walker hobbles next to a boy that seems like her boyfriend, or possibly just a friend who is observing her with sympathy as she struggles to keep up with him. Woo Bin feels the blood draining from his face, goose bumps twitching on his skin. The sight somehow makes Woo Bin’s stomach lurch with an urge to throw up. He hurries past them.

The sun feels good on his back. Spring has long arrived and soon the summer will be here. He bats a bee away as he settles down on a bench near the end of the hospital yard where there is a bunch of trees sheltering the bench. It is a soft, shimmery-blue afternoon, and the yard is sprouting tulips and azalea blossoms.

One little family, he assumes, sits on the bench next to his. The father is in his mid-forties, wearing a pale grey office suit. The little girl from earlier runs toward them and hops onto her father’s lap. Her mother smiles at her weakly, her eyes bloodshot from tiredness and no energy left in her round face. She hands a pack of orange juice to the little girl and she slurps on it cheerily.  

Woo Bin gazes at his watch. It is twelve thirty and Jong Suk still isn’t back. He wonders if Jong Suk is struggling to find him. He shifts in his seat as he eyes at the hospital entrance, not too far from him. He sighs and decides to give his mind a rest and wait in his place.

Just beyond where he is sitting, the lawn spreads out until it reaches the parking lot. A sprinkler ticks as it rotates, misting the grass with a silvery spray. A pair of pigeons cut right above the sprinkler and disappears from sight. Past the lawn there is a line of cherry trees in their full blossom and between their branches he could glimpse a pond. The early summer sun glints here and there off the blue surface and the breeze rustles the new cherry blossoms, ever so slightly bending the spray from the sprinkler. He feels like he’d seen this scenery, many years before. A broad swatch of lawn, a girl slurping up orange juice, pigeons flying off who knows where, line of cherry trees, the pond beyond…it is vivid enough to give him that uncanny chill down his spine.

He stretches his legs out on the bench, takes a deep breath, and closes his eyes. It was eight years ago when he last stepped into this hospital. At that time the stench of the hospital odour wasn’t this bad, it even used to smell like rain sometimes. Perhaps it was because his memories wasn’t as hurting as it is now, maybe that’s why at that time he managed to stay here without the urge to run away.

It is twelve forty when Jong Suk comes back. He is carrying a small bag of medicine and has a sort of troubled look on his face. It takes some time for him to spot Woo Bin and come on over. He smiles brightly and sits next to Woo Bin.

“Sorry you had to wait long,” he says observing Woo Bin closely. “We have to come back next Friday to remove your cast,” Jong Suk reminds as he sneaks the pack of medicine into his jacket “And we have to come in two days to check your r—”

“I’m never coming back here!” Woo Bin snaps, standing up abruptly and regrets it immediately when a sharp pain shoots through his legs. He winces with each step as all that pain floods back to his assaulted muscles.

“Slow down a bit,” Jong Suk says giggling as he holds onto Woo Bin’s arm to steady him. Woo Bin doesn’t like that grin. For some reason it makes him think that Jong Suk is mocking him. “Why do you hate going to the hospital so much?” Jong Suk asks wrapping his right arm around Woo Bin’s waist to help him walk. Woo Bin clenches his teeth when his sore body leans onto Jong Suk for support, his arm safely thrown over the boy’s shoulders as he shuffles away from the freaking hospital. The last four hours he has spent here feels like a year in hell. The little girl stops slurping her juice and smiles again at Woo Bin as they steps past their bench. This time Woo Bin returns a small stretch of his lips. 

“I just don’t like it,” he says.

“That’s not a reason—Watch your steps!” he says pointing at the three steps down the lawn, “You have to have a good reason, like you were about to be strangled to death by a doctor when you were a kid or something,” he says trying to think of a better example, “Or, perhaps….are you scared of getting another shot?” Woo Bin tense a little at his words and Jong Suk chuckle—a dinosaur scared of the needles…he laughs openly at the image his mind creates.

“Stop laughing!” Woo Bin frowns “I—I’m not s-scared of needles!” he mutters, his eyes avoiding Jong Suk’s observant gaze.

Jong Suk grins. “Of course you aren’t,” his tone full of sarcasm.

“No…okay may be a little,” Woo Bin mumbles, “But it’s not the main reason,”

“Then what is?”

“My mom was hospitalised for a long time. So it kind of…”

“Brings back bad memories?” Jong Suk finishes the sentence for him.

Woo Bin nods slightly.

“Memories you don’t want to recall…I can understand…” Jong Suk says as he hails a cab outside the hospital. His voice holds that tingle as if he was going to say something else. He opens the door for Woo Bin and helps him get in. Woo Bin scoots further in, leaving enough space for Jong Suk. He wonders if Jong Suk was going to tell him something more, something personal.

“Why did you fight?” Jong Suk breaks the uncomfortable silence while they are stuck in the morning traffic in Seoul.

Woo Bin sighs; he stares out of the window saying nothing. Sure he has fought once and managed to keep this fragile boy out of his reach, but for how long? Now that his body is in this state, will he be able to keep him protected? But the fact that today is a Saturday makes him feel bit better. They have at least two days away from school.

“Your father isn’t going to be happy seeing you like this.”

“Yeah, thanks for the reminder,” Woo Bin jeers.

Jong Suk examines the casted arm dangling against Woo Bin’s chest; it does look very comfortable he thinks, looking back and forth between his face and his arm.

“What?” Woo Bin mutters when he feels the eyes that don’t seem to look away from him anytime soon.

“Are you going to be okay?” his voice holds nothing but concern and that make Woo Bin gaze back at the boy. He gives him a questioning look, not sure what he is talking about.

“I mean with your arm like that, will you be able to handle your daily activities? It is your right hand after all,”

“Does it look like I’ll be?” he snaps and mumbles something incoherent. “But don’t worry,” Woo Bin grins as his sharp eyes fix on Jong Suk, “You are going to take the week off and take care of me!”

“What? Why would I?”

Because that’s the best way to keep you safe...he doesn’t say that though, instead he says “Because you are my so called ‘brother’, so it’s your responsibility to take care of me.”

Jong Suk frowns at him. “I can’t possibly take a week off school. I just started this week!” he reasons.

“Doesn’t matter, not like you listen much during the lessons,” he argues. He knows it isn’t fair for Jong Suk and he has this uneasy feeling that Jong Suk wouldn’t really stay home. If he refuses then there is really nothing he can do to force him.

“I can’t stay home all week,” Jong Suk says, “But I’ll stay on Monday and Friday to take you to the hospital.”

“I told you I’m never coming back here,” he hisses. He doesn’t know which part of ‘never coming back’ he doesn’t understand.

“Okay then, I don’t have to stay home at all.”

Woo Bin takes a moment to think. Well, he is going to have to come of Friday to take off his cast, so might as well come once more. “Fine,” he grunts, “I’ll come.”

Jong Suk giggles at his victory.