As promised, here's the next part of Breathless. Thanks for the new subscribers, upvotes and comments! These all mean a lot to me. *hugs all around*

As you may have noticed, or not (I don't know if people pay attention to these stuff, but now you are since I'm pointing it out), the chapter titles have changed to lyrics of a certain song that seemed fitting to the last twist that this fic had.

And now, without further ado, part 4 of Breathless. :)

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Kyungsoo freezes and turns to look behind him to determine whether or not Kai was purposefully ignoring him and was talking to Junmyeon, but Suho was still well hidden from the boy’s line of sight from his position by the door. He turns back again and sputters as Zhang Yixing responds on his behalf. “Yes. Jongin, I’d like you to meet one of your other doctors, Dr. Do Kyungsoo.” He looks at Kai as he says this, and purses his lips in thought after he introduces Kyungsoo.

Nothing. Not a flash of recognition. Zip. Nada. Kyungsoo glances at Sehun and is surprised to see the incredulous look on the usually poker-faced boy’s face. He’s just as confused.

Kai’s smile widens slowly, reminding Kyungsoo painfully of days long past. He then bows stiffly through his bandages. “Nice to meet you.” He winces, the movement taking its toll on him.

“P-please, don’t exert yourself.” Kyungsoo can’t help but react as he steps forward to steady Kai, worry running through him by instinct. He stops. “It’s nice to… meet… you too.” He adds belatedly, suppressing a grimace as he lets his outstretched arms fall uselessly to his sides when he realizes that he probably should not be touching Kim Jongin right now. He looks helplessly over to Suho, but his best friend just bites his lip and looks away as he steps out of the room silently.

“Ah. Well, it’s been nice seeing that you’re all up and awake now, Jongin-ssi.” Yixing smiles as he gently puts a hand on Jongin’s shoulder. “We’ll have a few tests over the next days to determine if all is well with you, physically and otherwise. And don’t worry about the… confusion. It’s quite normal considering what you’ve been through.” He trails off at the end of the sentence and shoots Kyungsoo a smile. “Dr. Do and I will leave you to rest now. You’ll probably see us a lot over the next days as we check up on you.”  He ushers a still stunned Kyungsoo out of the room with a firm but gentle grasp on the younger’s arm.

Jongin smiles gratefully at both of them and thanks them as he settles back onto his pillows. Sehun immediately fusses over him, shooting a distrustful look at Kyungsoo before he does so.

--

As the door closes behind them, Kyungsoo slowly turns to Yixing. “Dr. Zhang?” An explanation was niggling at the back of his mind, but his shock at not being recognized was clouding most of his other judgments.

The older doctor looks at him patiently. “Let me get this straight, Dr. Do. You and patient Kim Jongin know each other?” He glances at Junmyeon who stands over by the side, frowning worriedly.

“Did Suho tell you that?” Kyungsoo stammers, knowing full well that his best friend/cardiologist indeed told his boss.  Damn Junmyeon. That’s probably why Yixing took over as Jongin’s consulting doctor in the first place.

Yixing nods. “Is it true?”

“Yes.” Kyungsoo resists the urge to glare at his best friend, because he knows that, yet again, Suho was only looking out for his well-being. “I’m pretty sure we both know that by now though, sir, as we had discussed the unmentionable OR ethical mishap?” His department head was distracting him.

“I know. I’m just making sure. And you were... attached?” Yixing tilts his head almost innocently.

Kyungsoo winces. “That almost sounds like an understatement. But to answer the question, yes.”

“Oh. Then it’s just as I suspected.”

“I messed up in the OR. I know. I’m sorry Dr. Zhang, I-.”

“Kim Jongin is suffering from some form of amnesia because of his head trauma. Post-traumatic amnesia, it has to be. The surgery had to be done because of brain trauma and clotting, and normally patients who went through a similar procedure forgot quite a handful of things here and there.” Yixing snaps his fingers, ignoring Kyungsoo’s nearly panicked apology. Also apparently forgetting that Kyungsoo knew what post-trauma amnesia was, given that he’s a neurosurgeon as well. Of course, it’s probably for Junmyeon’s sake.

“I- what?”

“Head out of the clouds, Dr. Do.” Zhang Yixing admonishes gently.

“You’re one to talk.” He couldn’t help himself but snap at his supervisor, notorious for almost always going through the day in a fog.

Suho tries to hide his amused grin behind his hand before he reprimands Kyungsoo sternly. “Soo.”

Yixing simply laughs. “Come on, Kyungsoo-ssi. Focus. Don’t the symptoms speak loud and clear?”

“I don’t know, shouldn’t we perform more tests than just calling me over to see if he recognizes me? Because he damn well has reason to pretend not to.” Kyungsoo was aware that he was beginning to lose control of his temper, simply because he didn’t understand what was going on and because his inner voice, which had a twisted sense of humor, was laughing hysterically in his head and rambling something like, what are the odds?! , the odds are playing with me again.

“I know, I know. I’ll get right on to it. Do you think Dr. Junmyeon will still keep you from getting involved?” Yixing asks absently, seemingly forgetting that mentioned doctor was right beside him.

Kyungsoo raises a brow. Yixing’s mind is prancing around in the clouds with his unicorns again.“He better not.”  He answers, shooting Suho a look loaded with meaning.

Suho looks affronted and mutters an “I don’t think this is a good idea... for either of you.”

Kyungsoo pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. There’s surely going to be a mark there tomorrow, and he’ll end up looking like an actual unicorn. Haha, what are the odds that Yixing will have an actual unicorn? you, odds. “I don’t know what to think of it either... but... this has gotten more convoluted than before. I don’t know. But this is Kai... and...” he sighs again, louder this time. “I don’t know, okay? I’ll think about it. Please, let me think about this.”

Yixing sees the change in Kyungsoo and his mouth opens in a small ‘o’ of understanding. He nods solemnly and tells Kyungsoo to take his time before he bids his leave to both Kyungsoo and Junmyeon.

After Yixing leaves, Kyungsoo stands outside the room, confused. Suho was just about to open his mouth to say something, but just then, the door opens and a flustered Sehun barges out. Seeing the doctor, he rounds on Kyungsoo once more. ‘What the is going on?” he asks, tone eerily flat.

“I- we don’t know for sure yet.” The wide-eyed doctor instinctively moves closer to Junmyeon.

“Yeah? Well, you must have at least something.” Sehun is nearly snarling, and Kyungsoo is not sure if he’s ever heard this much emotion coming from the boy before. Not even on that day at the bus stop. Not even then. So he chooses to answer as honestly as possible.

“Amnesia. Post-traumatic, maybe. I-it often happens to patients who received surgery for brain trauma. It’s quite normal.” This was true, so Kyungsoo did not know why he was mentally breaking down at the thought.

“The ? So how do we know exactly doctor, what he does and doesn’t remember?”

“We still don’t know that. There’s bound to be some confusion, and of course memory loss. There’ll be headaches, so don’t hesitate to call for a nurse when he complains of them. His memories will come back eventually, the sooner they do, the likelier a full recovery will be. When he received surgery for traumatic brain injury, which was the clotting, this was already one of the things that were likely to come up during recovery. He’s going to be disoriented for quite a while. We’ll probably have a psychologist drop in on him once he’s a bit more coherent.” Kyungsoo is reciting from memory now, voice devoid of emotion. He knows that he’ll lose his composure again if he doesn’t. “Sehun,” he begins apprehensively, flinching a bit when Sehun glares at him. “What was he like when he woke up? We need to know these kinds of things to be fully sure.”

Sehun closes his eyes and composes himself. “He asked what he was doing at the hospital, I didn’t answer him because the nurses told me that once he woke up, I’d have to alert them. So I asked a nurse to call for Dr. Zhang first. Kai was... disoriented. He tried removing the wires and the tubes connected to him, and a nurse came in to calm him down. At first, he couldn’t remember who I was, but then I reminded him and he seemed to recognize me, he even asked about the hotdog stand but... it’s like his memories were all over the place. Even his speaking was off. He asked about Taemin, and that was a slap to the ing face. He asked about dance lessons, worried that he’d missed them. You would know that he’s never been back there since Taemin. Dr. Zhang was there by the time that Kai turned to ask me again, politely, who I was. Oh, then he asked who he was.” Sehun chuckles coldly at the memory. “The doctor must’ve seen how freaked out I was because that’s when he asked to speak with me outside for a while. So I told him about how confused Kai was being. I think he pretty much got it from there. He told me to wait outside for a while, and then you had to show up, and...” Sehun trails off. “I am honestly so relieved that he doesn’t remember you after all the you put him through.”

Kyungsoo was now half leaning on Junmyeon because he didn’t expect to feel so strongly about what Sehun just said. “I... I-I’m sorry.” Is all he could say. Junmyeon squeezes his arm for reassurance, but Kyungsoo barely feels it through the haze of emotions he was experiencing.  

Sehun hisses through his teeth. “Forget it.” He mutters. “Forget it.”

“Sehun, just, please don’t tell him anything yet. There’ll be tests over the n