I ended up sleeping over his place a lot after that, and as the days went by I just continued on with my duties to him.

It'd taken a bit at the start- you know, with just getting used to the whole new way we had to interact with one another-

I couldn’t just say things like; ‘oh Chanhee can you pass me that?’ or ‘here, can you do this for me-‘

Not for hurting his feelings or anything silly like that-!

But for the sheer fact that he couldn’t.

Chanhee himself also needed to get used to actually asking for said help as well, and being dependant on someone else on a totally personal level- which I know if it were me, I’d have found really difficult…

I mean, it was one thing getting your parents to help out if no one else was around. But undressing you? And feeding you like you were suddenly their baby again??

No thanks…

Chunji very much preferred me doing it- and hell, I wasn’t gonna take that bit of pride away from him.

And me myself- well, I had to get past the shy awkwardness of my emotions that popped up all so often in the beginning.

I had to not focus on the fact that I was pulling my best mates zipper down, then watching him as he was about to get in the shower like some sick voyeur- and instead just focus in on the fact that I was helping because he needed me.

...

But yes, soon enough 2 weeks had gone by, and by then we were well and truly immersed in ourselves and what we had to do for each other.

Chunji didn’t have to look away from me when asking for help now, and I didn’t need to reign in my butterfly nerves every time I did something so that was good.

There were still some things he managed on his own though, and they continued over our time spent together. Like whist he was in the bathroom he seemed to be fine left alone, and in the shower too. He managed to eat toast- after I buttered it all for him, with his free thumb and ring finger- and he could still somehow manoeuvre in and out of his underwear- which was as much a blessing as a sheer mystery on my part-

Because seriously- how on earth was he doing that ??

And it was just the other items I took over for him;

Brushing his teeth, and buttoning his shirts up- holding knifes and forks and passing him straws to drink from.

After the first few days spent as his however, I’d begun to feel guilty for his parents having me around so much. So I’d soon dragged the boy back to mine for a while. Which- I gotta say; he was incredibly grateful for.

Cause man was he starting to get bored-

Jesus… I’ve never heard someone complain so much! I swear…

“L.joe, I’m bored.”

“Arghhhh, I can’t even play my games!”

“What am I supposed to be doing right now??”

“I can’t even press buttons properly without somehow turning everything off!”

“Byunghuuun, what should we do??”

Yep….

Just a tad bored-

So at least at my house it was an environmental change, if not much else. And I had different dvds to watch too, which actually helped a bit.

It was by that second week though, as we were becoming so accustomed to each other and losing that silly nervous phase between us, that his mother expressed how guilty SHE felt;

“You’ve been doing so much for Chanhee!” she’d cried gratefully, as I walked back through the door right alongside said teen after sleeping over at my place.

“Ah, I don’t mind.” I reply, feeling just a little embarrassed with her sudden attention on me.

“But it’s a lot caring for someone like this,” she expresses with worry. “And you don’t need to do all of this, you know. Chunji’s father and I have no worries at all continuing in helping Chanhee, so don’t make yourself too tired.”

Ahh….

And I didn’t really have the heart to tell her that this last idea would definitely not sit too well with said boy...

“No, no-“ I convince with a smile, as Chunji just sort of stands idly beside us; trying not to intervene with the way we were so blatantly discussing him as if he weren’t even there. “It’s no trouble,” I reassure as she suddenly pulls a box of chocolates out from behind her back.

“Well, still. I want you to have these treats, ok?” She fusses, and pressing the chocolates against my chest with a warm motherly smile. “And if you get too tired, please let us know. We have really appreciated your help!”

“T-that’s ok.” I mumble, and trying not to allow myself to be completely rendered mute by her more than humbling attitude right now.

I mean, jeez….

I didn’t need thanking- and certainly not with chocolates!

Though I was totally gonna eat them~

But that’s not the point!

I did this for Chunji, hence I didn’t need a thanks…

Fortunately however, that’d been the moment Chunji got too embarrassed himself and simply hooked his broken hand around my arm and dragged me off to his bedroom.

“Aish….” he sighs loudly upon entering, and flopping down to his bed. “She makes me sound like a complete invalid!”

Chuckling, I cast him a sympathetic look before flopping down beside him. “Yeah, but hey… now we have chocolates to eat~”

Sufficed to say, his attitude cleared up pretty well after that- particularly as the small chocolate spheres were something he was able to pick up and eat for himself.

                                                                                                               **********************

When I think about it- Chunji hasn’t really been too bad about his accident since it’d occurred, I guess… I mean, alotta people can be hell moody, or depressed and shut themselves away out with pure boredom and lack of mobility and .

But he was doing pretty good-

Sure, by the time we’d past the third week and Chunji was still plastered up, he’d had his fair share of grumpy moments;

Like one time when he’d been trying to change the channel over to the movie screen for us, and ended up turning the whole device off instead- which made him resort to just chucking the remote on the floor going off in an anti-

“God, -“ he'd cried angrily and ditching the poor tv device across the room with a bang. “I just can’t do anything right now!”

Blinking in shock, I'd tried to keep a straight face as I looked across at him, taking in his foul mood and bad atmosphere as he scrunched up over his knees.

“It had to be both hands, didn’t it?? I just had to in put both of them out like a complete idiot-“

“Dude, calm down.” I interject, and catching the frustrated look to his eyes as his shoulders begin tensing.

“Urgh, I’m just so tired of this L.joe!” He yells back, and curling his legs up before him as he stares down at my navy blue covers. “It’s not fair-!”

Deciding against arguing whether it was fair for anyone to be in such a position let alone just him, I opt to remain helpful instead-

“Hey man, as soon as it reaches that mark though- the docs will rip off all the plasters and you can get back to everything like normal~”

“Yeah, but that’s like 8 weeks!” he moans, and dropping his face against the fat brick like cast of his right hand. “God, I just hate feeling like this! It’s not even the pain that bothers me, I couldn’t give two s anymore- but the fact that I constantly have to-“

And he’d instantly stopped here, and with an irritated huff turned his head away as my eyes gazed carefully over to him.

‘Have things done for me…’ was what he’d been about to say.

Be a totally dependant invalid...

And I could understand why.

I mean sure; he knew I didn’t mind. And hell, he’d offered me an escape route so many times by now that I was in no way obligated to continue. But that wasn’t the point-

The point was that he had to feel like a child again- he had to have everyone do everything for him, and even when they may not do it right in the first place.

Like, when I buttered his toast in the morning- maybe I was actually putting too much of the spreads on and maybe he just wasn’t telling me because he didn’t wanna be rude?

And yes, this was probably a silly, insignificant example of the point i'm trying to make right now- but still. Until his limbs were all healed up he wouldn’t be able to fix this problem because right now he was almost completely and utterly dependent.

He had to allow me to undress him- something that was not only awkward enough as it was, being both friend’s and never having done anything of the sorts with another person before- but also due to the fact that we were also of that age where undressing someone instantly linked to .

Which was just not a good thought to spring to mind whilst you were with your mate…

So yeah, I definitely saw where he was coming from right now.

                                                                                                                   *****************

And then there’d been another time when he’d been really sad for a whole day and I was desperately trying and failing to make him happier-

“Yah Chanhee~” I’d sung and pulling out his old white t-shirt that'd somehow been stained pink in the wash and was hence sitting forgotten about at the bottom of his cupboard drawer. “I know you totally wanna wear this one today~~”

He’d flicked his eyes you to me in recognition, trying to pull me a smile of amusement or even acknowledgment as he'd gazed back- but unable to, he sort of just steered his eyes back away again.

“Ah Chanhee…. Come on man- don’t be down!”

I even tried to take him out somewhere too- wondering if it was the boredom getting him down again, for I knew that could get anyone moody. And suggested we just go out for the day, ride around to random places on the bus- and stop whenever and wherever we wanted to buy some cool things and yummy treats to eat~

And he’d reluctantly agreed too, though solely because there was literally nothing else for us to be doing together.

But once we were on the bus, it became VERY apparent that he was still rather preoccupied until he finally just came out and said;

“It’s cool to be out an all… but there’s not really much point for me. I can’t hold anything anyway- and you still have to do twice the work.”

“I don’t care. Jeez man, you’re not exactly hard to look out for.” I’d brushed casually and nudging the guy affectionately with my shoulder as the bus bumped and jolted along the busy roads.

“You would’ve had more fun alone…”

But yeah… asides from these little moments, and the intense boredom eating at him from the inside out- he was still going really well.

Well, at least I think so. Because I know if it was me, I’d be a wreck by the first week.

No doubt about it-

And to see him near on 4 without much more hassle was pretty impressive.