“We’ve run out of milk,” Jinhwan can hear Hanbin’s reminder echo off in his head, minutes after he heard it. This is why Jinhwan is dressed in warm clothes from head to toe, booted feet ready to step out into the cold.

It’s only 6am, too early for the manmade sun to be pulled up as it’s supposed to be winter. He leaves the building and wonders why the world still needs convenience stores when it’s high time for everything to be digital. He concludes it’s to retain humanity, because the world is still mostly human, and therefore imperfect.

The streets are lit up by bright neon lights, but he opts for the dimly lit alley just next to their building as it’s a straight cut to the other street where the store is, not to mention he doesn’t really do anything aside from making trips to the convenience store and this is the only way Hanbin told him to go, and mind you, Hanbin’s word is law.

He hums a song Hanbin let him listen to the other day mainly from memory as he walks through the dark alleyway. He can count how many steps it will take before he gets to the other street—nine—when he spots a figure lying on the side.

It’s a man—he concludes upon closer look and after a bit more inspection and shaking up, he finds that the man is unconscious, lifeless almost, and freezing, most probably, as he’s almost in contrary to Jinhwan. But who is he to judge and know? Hanbin is the doctor here, not he. Hanbin will know what to do, so to Hanbin they go, but not without difficulty as Jinhwan is but a little guy and the man weighs more than he does.

Jinhwan would love to have a view of the skyline day in and out but if there’s a time he’ll be grateful that they live in the basement, it’s now.

Short of breath, he presses the doorbell while trying to keep the unnamed man on his feet. He can already hear Hanbin wondering aloud why he has to open the door for him when he has only brought milk.

“I asked for milk, not meat,” Eyeing Jinhwan and his company, Hanbin tells him in the only tone he uses—calm and collected, like how doctors should be.

Hanbin immediately checks for pulse.

“He’s a man, not meat!” Jinhwan grunts and Hanbin takes that as a prompt to help him out and he leads them to his room.

“You sure?” He asks and cuts Jinhwan off before the latter can even dissect the question, “And you learned to be charitable where?”

“Here. From you. Isn’t it your job to heal people?”

“I try.”

They lay the man down on Hanbin’s bed and Hanbin turns to Jinhwan, fixing the specs atop the bridge of his nose.

“Now can you get us the milk?”

Jinhwan merely smiles in response.

Jinhwan returns from the convenience store minutes later, and heads straight to the kitchen where he deposits the cartons of milk into the fridge. He then makes a beeline to Hanbin’s room and aims to open the door when the latter opens it up himself and looks almost surprised to see Jinhwan standing there.

“Is he okay?” Jinhwan asks wide-eyed and peers over Hanbin’s shoulder to look at the stranger but Hanbin steps out and closes the door behind him.

“He’ll live,” Hanbin tells him quietly.

“I want to see!” Jinhwan holds Hanbin’s shoulders and attempts to push Hanbin off but the latter has his feet planted to the ground. Jinhwan resorts to Plan B which includes pulling his face into a pout. It always works when he wants to get something but today Hanbin looks at him unamused and puts down his hands with his firm ones.

Jinhwan waits for Hanbin to let down his guards but his gaze is the same old—stern and cold—so he thinks it won’t happen until Hanbin draws a sigh in defeat and opens the door, letting Jinhwan peek through the small gap.

Jinhwan’s face lights up animatedly at the sight of the still nameless man and of the wires attached to him.

“So he’ll live?” He asks himself but it’s loud enough for Hanbin to hear.

“I told you, didn’t I?’ Hanbin murmurs and pulls the door close. “Don’t you trust me?”

“You know you’re the only one I trust,” Jinhwan says and Hanbin leads them to the living room where he takes a seat and Jinhwan follows.

“Exactly,” Hanbin takes a sip of the abandoned coffee and puts the cup down harder than he means to as it is now cold, “It’s untrue otherwise why would you bring a stranger here?”

“You never let me go out. You always cage me in here l