[Fanfic] Infectious
Title: Infectious
Pairing: Hyukhae
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, fluff
Length: One-shot, 2,204 words
Summary: Skin cells change in every 28 days, but one's heart doesn't change.
They said skin cells change in every 28 days.
Liar.
“Soccer?”
This voice broke into my atmosphere naturally; I ignored it and continued to look out to the football field outside. I felt a presence beside me, viewing the same thing as I did.
“Is that your class?”
I nodded.
“So you’re Donghae.”
Another nod replied.
“Stop watching,” He pulled me gently. “Come on in.” He slid the infirmary’s door open and led me in.
He guided me seated on a stool and rolled his chair over. We faced each other.
“Lee Donghae,” He crossed his legs in a gracefully manner. “Year one. Reason for being permanently excused from Physical Education: Suffering from Neutropenia.” He deadly repeated word-for-word in what the paper had shown. “Looks like we’ll have another regular guest besides the usual lesson-skippers.” He looked up a second before he pushed up his spectacles.
I didn’t know he was waiting for my response.
“My name is Lee Hyukjae.” He smiled.
I knew it this time but I had nothing to say; he knew my name anyway.
“Donghae?” I looked up. “Repeat after me,”He cleared his throat. “Hello,”
I repeated.
“My name is…”
Again.
“Donghae.”
“…hae.”
“Raise your volume up a little.”
“Donghae.”
“Nice to…” He mouthed the words precisely. “Meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Wow, I’m impressed - you can talk accurately.”
I drew back to silence again.
“At this kind of time, you should thank the person.”
Seriously…
“Thank you.”
Just leave me alone already.
-
A scratch… was what I needed, to die.
“Hey watch out!” I was being pushed before I got to comprehend the situation. “I’m sorry!” He looked back. “Ahhh! Late, definitely late.” And he vanished.
I stood back up and stabilised myself.
“A scratch…” I stared at my elbow.
I stood there thinking for five minutes - should I treat it, or not. Another five minutes passed and I was still on the same spot. A second later, I felt a tap on my shoulders.
“Gotcha!” He beamed after I turned my head back, falling into his cheek-poking trap. “Why are you blocking the corridor?” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his white robe.
I shook my head, intending to disappear.
“Wait,” He pulled the back of my collar roughly. “Before you go anywhere, you’ll have to treat that wound first.” He continued to pull my collar while walking to the opposite side of my intended direction. “Seriously, kids these days don’t treasure their lives.”
I silently followed him.
“How did you know?”
“The wound?” He looked up to me while applying some antiseptic on my elbow. “I was watching all along.” He then voiced out the sound of laughing - although he wasn’t really laughing.
“Are you…” He finished wrapping my injury. “Stalker?”
“How did you know?” He looked at me seriously for a moment, and relaxed a smile for another moment.
-
Nobody had ever approached to me like you in the past.
“Seonsaeng-nim! Yijoon scratched her knees!”
“Seonsaeng-nim, this dude fell down the stairs.”
“Hyukkie! Hurry, my stomach hurts real hard.”
“Okay, okay… Shut up all of you or I’ll pour acid on your wounds.”
I sat in a corner, spending a few seconds viewing outside the window, a few seconds looking at him treating the injured students and a few seconds glimpsing at the people waiting to be treated queuing outside. Do injuries occur in seasons? Like you could only find people queuing for umbrellas when it’s rainy season, you could only find people queuing for naeng myun when it’s summer and you could only find people queuing everywhere when it’s sale season. Today could’ve been the ‘injury season’.
“Donghae-ah,” He looked back at me for a second. “Can you bring me another roll of bandage and two packets of gauze?”
I stood up without replying, briefly walked to the cabinet and selected the stuff that he needed.
“Here.” I dropped all of them on the ground beside him.
“Not cute at all.” He laughed after staring at me for a good five seconds.
“I’ll help.” I murmured, kind of regretting saying that for a moment.
“That’s a great help.” He introduced me to the line outside again with his hands. “Work!” He threw me a pair of rubber gloves. “Just in case, because you’re special.” He winked an eye and turned back.
-
Sometimes I was glad that I was permanently sick, because I could finally learn the feeling of being protected.
“You know Donghae from our class?”
“Ah, Lee Donghae?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“He doesn’t attend most of the classes, especially during gym lessons. I wonder why he even came to school.”
“I know, I know. He was all along in the infirmary right?”
“Yes.”
“Is he suffering from some disease? Or illness.”
“Then he should go to the hospital and study instead.”
Different volumes of laughter filled up the corridors, and I heard everything.
“You guys should watch where you’re going.”
This familiar voice.
“Or else you’ll fall.”
I peeked. There was a man in white robe, hands inside his pockets, talking ever so nonchalantly to the students.
“Ah, seonsaeng-nim.”
“Stop gossiping, it’s bad for your health.” He tapped one of their shoulders and walked pass them.
-
Was it your nature, to be gentle on every human being?
“Ah, it’s him… Lee Donghae.”
Whispers were all over the classroom. And you asked why I had skipped most of the lessons.
“Hey you,” I paused. “You, over there.” I turned. “You’re not having any diseases that are contagious, are you?”
I looked down and laughed to myself silently, as though mocking.
“Hey, this is a question that I’m asking.”
I took a glimpse at the exposed pencil box on the desk beside me.
“Hello, are you mute or something?”
Took out 10,000 won from my pocket and placed it on his table.
“What is he trying to do?” He lowered down his volume this time.
I flipped his pencil box over and took the penknife, slit it over my palm, walked towards him and slathered my blood round his face about five times.
Everybody froze.
“You know there’s this disease named aids?” I smiled. “I think they said it’s transmittable by blood.” I showed my wounded palm to his face, the blood was still dripping, drop by drop.
He kneeled down dastardly and screamed while covering his face with his hands. I headed towards the exit and threw the penknife into the rubbish bin before I left the classroom. My next destination was the infirmary.
I inhaled a second before I slid the door open.
“Oh, Donghae?” He turned himself around with his roller chair. “I thought you went back to class?”
I showed him my palm.
“My goodness,” He sped up forward and grabbed my wrist. “What happened?” He then washed my hand with the tap water flowing.
I stared at the water cascading down to my wound. I couldn’t feel anything.
“Donghae?”
I looked at him, withdrawing some tears back.
-
“In-charge,”
“In-charge?”
“You’re the in-charge here so…”
“Ah, okay. Yes?” He laughed. On the other hand, still focusing on bandaging my wound.
“You know skin cells change in every 28 days.”
“Yeah.”
“Why don't my injuries disappear after 28 days?”
He chuckled a little and clipped the end of the bandage tightly.
“Donghae,” He coughed. “You know, dead skin cells change every day.” He tapped on my bandaged palm with his index fingers twice. “Even brain cells, blood cells, all cells - they change.” He tapped it three times more. “There are a lot of things revolving in our bodies. A human’s anatomy is complex, you can’t define it in a word, you can’t express it in a quote and you definitely can’t duplicate it. That’s why we have this thing called DNA.” He thought for a while. “Okay, not drifting away any further… Your problem lies within your blood cells, not your skin cells. You get it? You still have to wash your wound thrice a day, take your medication and make sure you had enough of Zinc Supplements.”
“Yeah. I know what I’m suffering from.”
“That’s right. Neutropenia is a disorder whereby one has a deficiency of white blood cells - therefore causing your vulnerability towards infections. But yours aren’t the worst, although you might face a lot of difficulties along your journey in life with this chronic disease.”
“I am.”
“Donghae, you know…” He dragged. “There are a lot of things in the world change, but people tend to not realise it, or willing to realise it. Humans are born cowards, there are many things in life that they are afraid of. So they change. They change to create their own reality to beautify their lives, they change so that they can move on, and they change… because they are scared. And change is… infectious.”
“Infectious?”
“People typically find the grasses on the other side are greener.”
“I get what you mean.”
“But Donghae, there’s a thing in this world that will never change.”
“Never… change?”
“Here.” He prodded twice on my chest with his finger. “One’s heart never changes.”
“Really?”
“Change is usually caused by human’s thinking - which is the brain.”
“Never change…” I mumbled while pressing my chest lightly.
“Seonsaeng-nim! Jiyoung…” I turned around. It was that dude earlier, that loud one. He was being carried by one of his lackeys.
“What happened? Why does his face covered with blood?” In-charge walked towards them slowly.
“A-aids… Aids!”
“Huh? Please speak human language.”
“That guy.” Lackey pointed at me. “He was intending to spread his disease to the whole class. Jiyoung was the first victim.” This lackey had great amount of ignorance in his head.
“Seonsaeng-nim, what should we do now? Shall we call the ambulance? Jiyoung has lost all his vitality. Was it the disease? Was it spreading inside his body right now?”
Sorry but, I couldn’t take it anymore. I laughed with great hilarity and a little mock for his ignorance. Lackey should pay attention during Biology lessons.
In-charge looked at me and started to beam a little but it led to some serious laughter.
“Um, it’s sad to say but… aids don’t spread like that. Who taught you this?”
“Huh? H-he said…” He stuttered. “Aids are transmittable by blood.”
“First thing - yes, aids are able to transmit by blood transfusions. But that’s when infected blood goes into one’s body. Look at the way this artist drew his face; the surroundings of his lips are the only clean part.”
“A-artist?”
“Second thing - yes, this guy here does have a disease. But it’s not of any contagious disease. Don’t treat him like a monster and don’t be discriminative. You guys are so mean.” He patted lackey’s shoulder cheekily. “Alright, go and wash his face and head back to class already. Don’t you find any excuse to skip classes.” He pushed them out of the room. “Wash thoroughly okay?” He then winked and closed the door.
“How much do you plan to sell that work?” He turned back, crossing his arms.
“10,000 won.”
Laughter.
-
Why was it that, time passed rapidly… when I was with you?
“Donghae.”
“Hmm?”
“Isn’t it time for you to go for classes normally? It has been a year or so…” He said it while jotting some words on some document. “Your excuse is only valid for Physical Education.”
“Won’t in-charge be lonely? Since I’m here for a year or so, you might not be used to staying here alone.”
“Your grades will deteriorate… and when are you going to remove that humourless addressing of mine.” He glanced at me for a short while. “Just call me something interesting if you do not like ‘seonsaeng-nim’.”
“Hyuk…jae?”
He jumped up a little.
“Hyukjae-ah?”
He jumped up once more and turned back to me slowly.
“Hyukjae-hyung!”
“Yah!”
“Hyukkie-hyung?”
“I’m sure you’re tired of living.” He sighed. “Shall I grant your wish for now?” He pounced onto me who was sitting on the bed and tried to lock my limbs.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I pleaded while making some weird laughing noises due to the ticklishness on my body. “Hyukkie, I’m sorry.”
He released me.
“This could be the greatest failure of my career. I’ve lost all the respect from the students.” He hunched his back.
“It’s okay, Hyukkie. People change.” I patted his shoulder and faked some sympathy for him.
“Yeah, people change.”
-
Although everything changed, but there’s a thing that would never change.
“Donghae, do you have notes for this chapter?”
“Ah, nope. I went for a check-up that day.”
“Okay, I’ll xerox them for you.”
“Thanks.”
People change - classmates are human beings, too.
This semester marked the last of my three years of high school. Although there weren’t heap of memories for the past three years, but each and every moment was vivid and meaningful.
Hyukjae, you know almost everything changed in my life, but my heart remained unchanged. The feelings inside are genuine; I couldn’t define them in words, I couldn’t express them in quotes and I couldn’t duplicate them. You’re… not a liar after all. The next time when I slid this door open again, I would transmit this unchanged disease in my heart… to you.
♥ I swear this fic will be the last fic until I'm officially back from hiatus. And I'm preparing to disappear for a couple of months already ;~;
♥ That's why I've prepared excessive love for comments :3 Grab them?
Pairing: Hyukhae
Rating: PG
Genre: AU, fluff
Length: One-shot, 2,204 words
Summary: Skin cells change in every 28 days, but one's heart doesn't change.
They said skin cells change in every 28 days.
Liar.
“Soccer?”
This voice broke into my atmosphere naturally; I ignored it and continued to look out to the football field outside. I felt a presence beside me, viewing the same thing as I did.
“Is that your class?”
I nodded.
“So you’re Donghae.”
Another nod replied.
“Stop watching,” He pulled me gently. “Come on in.” He slid the infirmary’s door open and led me in.
He guided me seated on a stool and rolled his chair over. We faced each other.
“Lee Donghae,” He crossed his legs in a gracefully manner. “Year one. Reason for being permanently excused from Physical Education: Suffering from Neutropenia.” He deadly repeated word-for-word in what the paper had shown. “Looks like we’ll have another regular guest besides the usual lesson-skippers.” He looked up a second before he pushed up his spectacles.
I didn’t know he was waiting for my response.
“My name is Lee Hyukjae.” He smiled.
I knew it this time but I had nothing to say; he knew my name anyway.
“Donghae?” I looked up. “Repeat after me,”He cleared his throat. “Hello,”
I repeated.
“My name is…”
Again.
“Donghae.”
“…hae.”
“Raise your volume up a little.”
“Donghae.”
“Nice to…” He mouthed the words precisely. “Meet you.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Wow, I’m impressed - you can talk accurately.”
I drew back to silence again.
“At this kind of time, you should thank the person.”
Seriously…
“Thank you.”
Just leave me alone already.
-
A scratch… was what I needed, to die.
“Hey watch out!” I was being pushed before I got to comprehend the situation. “I’m sorry!” He looked back. “Ahhh! Late, definitely late.” And he vanished.
I stood back up and stabilised myself.
“A scratch…” I stared at my elbow.
I stood there thinking for five minutes - should I treat it, or not. Another five minutes passed and I was still on the same spot. A second later, I felt a tap on my shoulders.
“Gotcha!” He beamed after I turned my head back, falling into his cheek-poking trap. “Why are you blocking the corridor?” He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his white robe.
I shook my head, intending to disappear.
“Wait,” He pulled the back of my collar roughly. “Before you go anywhere, you’ll have to treat that wound first.” He continued to pull my collar while walking to the opposite side of my intended direction. “Seriously, kids these days don’t treasure their lives.”
I silently followed him.
“How did you know?”
“The wound?” He looked up to me while applying some antiseptic on my elbow. “I was watching all along.” He then voiced out the sound of laughing - although he wasn’t really laughing.
“Are you…” He finished wrapping my injury. “Stalker?”
“How did you know?” He looked at me seriously for a moment, and relaxed a smile for another moment.
-
Nobody had ever approached to me like you in the past.
“Seonsaeng-nim! Yijoon scratched her knees!”
“Seonsaeng-nim, this dude fell down the stairs.”
“Hyukkie! Hurry, my stomach hurts real hard.”
“Okay, okay… Shut up all of you or I’ll pour acid on your wounds.”
I sat in a corner, spending a few seconds viewing outside the window, a few seconds looking at him treating the injured students and a few seconds glimpsing at the people waiting to be treated queuing outside. Do injuries occur in seasons? Like you could only find people queuing for umbrellas when it’s rainy season, you could only find people queuing for naeng myun when it’s summer and you could only find people queuing everywhere when it’s sale season. Today could’ve been the ‘injury season’.
“Donghae-ah,” He looked back at me for a second. “Can you bring me another roll of bandage and two packets of gauze?”
I stood up without replying, briefly walked to the cabinet and selected the stuff that he needed.
“Here.” I dropped all of them on the ground beside him.
“Not cute at all.” He laughed after staring at me for a good five seconds.
“I’ll help.” I murmured, kind of regretting saying that for a moment.
“That’s a great help.” He introduced me to the line outside again with his hands. “Work!” He threw me a pair of rubber gloves. “Just in case, because you’re special.” He winked an eye and turned back.
-
Sometimes I was glad that I was permanently sick, because I could finally learn the feeling of being protected.
“You know Donghae from our class?”
“Ah, Lee Donghae?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“He doesn’t attend most of the classes, especially during gym lessons. I wonder why he even came to school.”
“I know, I know. He was all along in the infirmary right?”
“Yes.”
“Is he suffering from some disease? Or illness.”
“Then he should go to the hospital and study instead.”
Different volumes of laughter filled up the corridors, and I heard everything.
“You guys should watch where you’re going.”
This familiar voice.
“Or else you’ll fall.”
I peeked. There was a man in white robe, hands inside his pockets, talking ever so nonchalantly to the students.
“Ah, seonsaeng-nim.”
“Stop gossiping, it’s bad for your health.” He tapped one of their shoulders and walked pass them.
-
Was it your nature, to be gentle on every human being?
“Ah, it’s him… Lee Donghae.”
Whispers were all over the classroom. And you asked why I had skipped most of the lessons.
“Hey you,” I paused. “You, over there.” I turned. “You’re not having any diseases that are contagious, are you?”
I looked down and laughed to myself silently, as though mocking.
“Hey, this is a question that I’m asking.”
I took a glimpse at the exposed pencil box on the desk beside me.
“Hello, are you mute or something?”
Took out 10,000 won from my pocket and placed it on his table.
“What is he trying to do?” He lowered down his volume this time.
I flipped his pencil box over and took the penknife, slit it over my palm, walked towards him and slathered my blood round his face about five times.
Everybody froze.
“You know there’s this disease named aids?” I smiled. “I think they said it’s transmittable by blood.” I showed my wounded palm to his face, the blood was still dripping, drop by drop.
He kneeled down dastardly and screamed while covering his face with his hands. I headed towards the exit and threw the penknife into the rubbish bin before I left the classroom. My next destination was the infirmary.
I inhaled a second before I slid the door open.
“Oh, Donghae?” He turned himself around with his roller chair. “I thought you went back to class?”
I showed him my palm.
“My goodness,” He sped up forward and grabbed my wrist. “What happened?” He then washed my hand with the tap water flowing.
I stared at the water cascading down to my wound. I couldn’t feel anything.
“Donghae?”
I looked at him, withdrawing some tears back.
-
“In-charge,”
“In-charge?”
“You’re the in-charge here so…”
“Ah, okay. Yes?” He laughed. On the other hand, still focusing on bandaging my wound.
“You know skin cells change in every 28 days.”
“Yeah.”
“Why don't my injuries disappear after 28 days?”
He chuckled a little and clipped the end of the bandage tightly.
“Donghae,” He coughed. “You know, dead skin cells change every day.” He tapped on my bandaged palm with his index fingers twice. “Even brain cells, blood cells, all cells - they change.” He tapped it three times more. “There are a lot of things revolving in our bodies. A human’s anatomy is complex, you can’t define it in a word, you can’t express it in a quote and you definitely can’t duplicate it. That’s why we have this thing called DNA.” He thought for a while. “Okay, not drifting away any further… Your problem lies within your blood cells, not your skin cells. You get it? You still have to wash your wound thrice a day, take your medication and make sure you had enough of Zinc Supplements.”
“Yeah. I know what I’m suffering from.”
“That’s right. Neutropenia is a disorder whereby one has a deficiency of white blood cells - therefore causing your vulnerability towards infections. But yours aren’t the worst, although you might face a lot of difficulties along your journey in life with this chronic disease.”
“I am.”
“Donghae, you know…” He dragged. “There are a lot of things in the world change, but people tend to not realise it, or willing to realise it. Humans are born cowards, there are many things in life that they are afraid of. So they change. They change to create their own reality to beautify their lives, they change so that they can move on, and they change… because they are scared. And change is… infectious.”
“Infectious?”
“People typically find the grasses on the other side are greener.”
“I get what you mean.”
“But Donghae, there’s a thing in this world that will never change.”
“Never… change?”
“Here.” He prodded twice on my chest with his finger. “One’s heart never changes.”
“Really?”
“Change is usually caused by human’s thinking - which is the brain.”
“Never change…” I mumbled while pressing my chest lightly.
“Seonsaeng-nim! Jiyoung…” I turned around. It was that dude earlier, that loud one. He was being carried by one of his lackeys.
“What happened? Why does his face covered with blood?” In-charge walked towards them slowly.
“A-aids… Aids!”
“Huh? Please speak human language.”
“That guy.” Lackey pointed at me. “He was intending to spread his disease to the whole class. Jiyoung was the first victim.” This lackey had great amount of ignorance in his head.
“Seonsaeng-nim, what should we do now? Shall we call the ambulance? Jiyoung has lost all his vitality. Was it the disease? Was it spreading inside his body right now?”
Sorry but, I couldn’t take it anymore. I laughed with great hilarity and a little mock for his ignorance. Lackey should pay attention during Biology lessons.
In-charge looked at me and started to beam a little but it led to some serious laughter.
“Um, it’s sad to say but… aids don’t spread like that. Who taught you this?”
“Huh? H-he said…” He stuttered. “Aids are transmittable by blood.”
“First thing - yes, aids are able to transmit by blood transfusions. But that’s when infected blood goes into one’s body. Look at the way this artist drew his face; the surroundings of his lips are the only clean part.”
“A-artist?”
“Second thing - yes, this guy here does have a disease. But it’s not of any contagious disease. Don’t treat him like a monster and don’t be discriminative. You guys are so mean.” He patted lackey’s shoulder cheekily. “Alright, go and wash his face and head back to class already. Don’t you find any excuse to skip classes.” He pushed them out of the room. “Wash thoroughly okay?” He then winked and closed the door.
“How much do you plan to sell that work?” He turned back, crossing his arms.
“10,000 won.”
Laughter.
-
Why was it that, time passed rapidly… when I was with you?
“Donghae.”
“Hmm?”
“Isn’t it time for you to go for classes normally? It has been a year or so…” He said it while jotting some words on some document. “Your excuse is only valid for Physical Education.”
“Won’t in-charge be lonely? Since I’m here for a year or so, you might not be used to staying here alone.”
“Your grades will deteriorate… and when are you going to remove that humourless addressing of mine.” He glanced at me for a short while. “Just call me something interesting if you do not like ‘seonsaeng-nim’.”
“Hyuk…jae?”
He jumped up a little.
“Hyukjae-ah?”
He jumped up once more and turned back to me slowly.
“Hyukjae-hyung!”
“Yah!”
“Hyukkie-hyung?”
“I’m sure you’re tired of living.” He sighed. “Shall I grant your wish for now?” He pounced onto me who was sitting on the bed and tried to lock my limbs.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” I pleaded while making some weird laughing noises due to the ticklishness on my body. “Hyukkie, I’m sorry.”
He released me.
“This could be the greatest failure of my career. I’ve lost all the respect from the students.” He hunched his back.
“It’s okay, Hyukkie. People change.” I patted his shoulder and faked some sympathy for him.
“Yeah, people change.”
-
Although everything changed, but there’s a thing that would never change.
“Donghae, do you have notes for this chapter?”
“Ah, nope. I went for a check-up that day.”
“Okay, I’ll xerox them for you.”
“Thanks.”
People change - classmates are human beings, too.
This semester marked the last of my three years of high school. Although there weren’t heap of memories for the past three years, but each and every moment was vivid and meaningful.
Hyukjae, you know almost everything changed in my life, but my heart remained unchanged. The feelings inside are genuine; I couldn’t define them in words, I couldn’t express them in quotes and I couldn’t duplicate them. You’re… not a liar after all. The next time when I slid this door open again, I would transmit this unchanged disease in my heart… to you.
♥ I swear this fic will be the last fic until I'm officially back from hiatus. And I'm preparing to disappear for a couple of months already ;~;
♥ That's why I've prepared excessive love for comments :3 Grab them?