ukiss ; kissmebang 2012 (1/2)
If we just hold on, maybe life could be sweet
Soohyun/Hoon | pg13 | 14081 words
Two people get diagnosed with a terminal illness. They meet, sharing a heart aching fate, and fall in love.
a/n: This is nothing like the original idea. It’s also nothing like the second idea. And nothing like the third to tenth idea. In the end this popped into my head after reading the synopsis for the Korean movie Never Ending Story, thus this is based on the movie. I’m not too happy with how I worked it out since it’s a bit rushed, but it’s one of the biggest projects I have ever participated in, so I do feel very proud of myself for finishing it ^^. Title taken from the song Sugar Mouse by Oh, Atoms!
Then on to the thank you’s. rilakkiseop, my lovely “zro” twin. Remember when I said I would never join a challenge again after the infinitesanta? But then you mentioned this challenge and I couldn’t resist, knowing there was no way I couldn’t join. Thank you for sticking with me ‘til the end - encouraging me, telling me how I’d do fine and that we would get through this together. No matter how much I whined and complained, you were always there for me and I love you for it.
And of course I can’t forget lindeyyy, my soulmate. You know you should have stopped me from joining this challenge, right? I know this isn't your regular fandom, so I love you for sticking with me through this progress. Thank you so much for reading whatever I posted for you, for helping me when I got stuck and answering stupid questions. Your excitement made me want to keep writing, even though it sucked so much. When I was ready to give up, you held my hand and told me I could do it. I can’t write without you anymore, so promise you will never leave my side!
You two will always be my inspiration. This fic is for you ♥
--
The last couple of weeks have trickled by almost unnoticed and it isn’t until his boss reminds him of their end of month dinner, that Hoon realizes it’s almost September. He grabs his planner out of his back, neatly crossing out the dates that have already passed and circling important meetings or notes he wants to remember. Once he has done that, he turns the page and looks at what this week is going to bring him.
That afternoon he needs to go to the hospital, for his yearly check up. Looking at his watch, he calculates that he might need to leave work five minutes earlier, in case the bus gets delayed again. Tuesday and Wednesday are just filled with the usual appointments at work, nothing too exciting. Thursday starts with appointments too, but it ends with the usual family dinner at his brother’s house. He highlights the ‘buy Kimbap for Hana’, knowing that the little girl will never forgive him if he forgets to buy it.
Closing his planner, he tucks it into his bag. Fixing his tie, he stands up to get the paperwork for his next client, who should arrive after his break finishes in five minutes. Enough time to stretch his legs and to get a cup of coffee.
--
“Sunwoo don’t write on the wall. Jiho, don’t pull Chaerin’s hair!” Soohyun sighs as he grabs the pen out of Sunwoo’s hand and pulls JiHo away from Chaerin. “Everyone, just sit down and we’ll start the lesson.”
Either the children are deaf, or they’re simply ignoring him, because all they do is run around and yell harder. No matter what he says or does, it doesn’t help. Soohyun throws his hands up in defeat and takes a seat behind his desk, realizing this is another class with no motivated children and that he should be glad they’re not running out of the classroom. He should check if everyone’s still inside just in case.
A little girl, Hwayoung, makes her way over to Soohyun’s desk. She drags her feet across the floor shyly, her little hands clasped together and her cheeks red.
“Teacher Soo,” she says with a little voice.
Soohyun gives her an encouraging smile. “Yes, Hwayoung?”
“Isn’t this the singing class?” Seeing Soohyun nod, she continues. “Teacher Soo, will you teach me how to sing?”
A small smile spreads on Soohyun’s voice and he gets out of his chair. “You want to learn how to sing?”
Hwayoung nods excitedly.
“Alright, come here.” He holds the girls’ hand and takes her to a piano in the back of the room. “Shall we start with ‘Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star’?”
Soohyun plays the first note, then looks at her and motions for her to start singing with him. The little girl’s voice fills the room, and although she definitely needs to learn how to control her voice, Soohyun knows a future singer is standing in front of him.
After they have finished their song, applause shocks them out of their little world. Hwayoung blushes and almost crawls on Soohyun’s lap in embarrassment, while Soohyun just laughs brightly and tells her how good she just sang.
The class bursts out in “Hwayoungie, you sing so well”, “You’re so pretty” (that one probably came from Jiho), “Teacher Soo, sing another song” “Can we sing a song too?”, and Soohyun grins as he has finally realized how to keep his little class quiet.
--
The doors of the bus sweep open and Hoon grumbles as he gets out, complaining about idiotic bus drivers and schedules that should be kept, while trying to locate the hospital at the same time. Eventually he spots it at the other side of the road and he quickly rushes to the crosswalk, impatiently tapping his foot as he waits for the light to turn green.
Crossing the street, he checks the time and realizes he isn’t that late. Slowing down, he walks inside the building calmly, standing in line to take a number out of the machine, frowning when he’s in room number twenty-four, preferring to be in room ten to twenty.
As he walks away, he bumps into someone. Grumbling he bows briefly, before continuing towards the elevators.
--
Soohyun makes a sharp turn and parks his car, throwing his door open immediately and rushing out. He runs to the staircase, noticing the big clock in the parking lot and seeing it’s almost seven o’clock already.
Opening the door, he walks into the hospital’s main hall. After asking around, he finally finds the right sign saying ‘Appointments only - Room picking’ and stands in line. There’s only one man left in front of him and he already moves to take a number. However, the man makes an unexpected move and bumps into him, making Soohyun loose his balance. He trips over his own feet and face plants himself against the machine. He glares at the guy’s retreating back, bowing to the people behind him in apologies, then finally takes a number.
--
“Ouch, no no NO! DON’T IT HURTS!”
“The needle hasn’t even gone in yet,” the nurse says. “Calm down.”
Hoon looks to his right in annoyance, some people just had to make a scene of everything.
“The needle will go in right now,” his nurse tells him and he grimaces for a couple of seconds when he feels his wrist tingling a little, then he smiles at her again.
“Please calm down, sir,” the nurse tells Soohyun again.
Soohyun grits his teeth and almost bites his tongue when the nurse puts the needle in. “You should have told me before you put the needle in!” He exclaims, pouting.
“Sorry. You get a lollipop for being so brave, alright?” The nurse says sarcastically.
“Strawberry flavor?”
--
“Do I really need to go inside that machine? Are you sure that’s safe? I don’t think I should do this, I will just skip this part of the test,” Soohyun says in panic, eyeing the CAT-scan warily.
“There’s no need to panic, mister Shin. It’s safe, don’t worry,” the doctor says, motioning for the nurses to block the door.
“Aren’t I supposed to take the CAT-scan now?” Hoon asks one of the nurses, trying to peek into the room.
“Yes, but we…had some complications. We’re delayed, sorry. Just take a seat and I will call you when it’s your turn.”
--
The soft buzz of the air condition is starting to annoy Hoon. He taps his foot impatiently as he waits for his client to fill in the form, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and threatening to slide off the tip. He only wears glasses because his boss says it makes him look smarter and more trustable, which should lead to clients asking less questions and filling in the forms more easily. Time is money, and if they are finished with one client in ten minutes, they can get six clients done in an hour, which means each employee will get forty-eight clients in a day - which equals a lot of money. Hoon doesn’t think the glasses are the winning factor, rather the person helping the client, but his boss believes otherwise.
“Looks are the most important when it comes to contracts,” his boss had said when Hoon mentioned it during his first week at the company. “Look around, do you think I hired all these people solely based on their abilities? No, I hired them because of their looks, just like you. Now go back to your spot and get people to sign the forms, pretty boy.”
And that was the end of their discussion, which wasn’t really a discussion, since their boss didn’t accept anyone talking back at him, and Hoon had to go back to his cramped spot, wearing glasses and putting on a fake smile that would make their future clients feel welcomed.
Three more minutes before the bank will open its doors. Hoon sorts the papers on his desk, arranging them and putting away any unnecessary forms. A snort coming from the person next to him makes him look up. “What?”
Jaeseop rolls his eyes and points at the papers in Hoon’s hands. “Is it really necessary to sort them all every morning? At the end of the day it will be a mess anyway.”
“You know, it’s not that hard to try and organize a little. It makes your job a lot easier,” Hoon remarks back at him.
“Did you get out of bed on the wrong side?” Jaeseop pouts. “I was just joking, you know.”
Hoon sighs. “Yeah, I know. It’s just…lately I’ve been feeling so tired for no reason. I go to bed early, eat healthy, work out regularly. And yet, every time I have walked up the stairs to get into the building, it feels like I’ve just ran a marathon.”
Jaeseop raises his eyebrow. “Hmm, maybe you have the flu or something? No other symptoms like throwing up, a sore throat?”
“No,” Hoon shakes his head. “Who knows, I might have been doing the wrong exercises at the gym. And I went to the hospital for a checkup yesterday, so if anything is wrong with me, I’ll find it out later today.”
“Our day is starting!” A voice a couple of seats away calls and Jaeseop and Hoon lock eyes, both groaning as they slide their chairs closer to the table. The doors open and after a couple of seconds the first clients shuffle inside, complaining about waiting in the cold that long. The clients take a number and all the employees hit the bell simultaneously.
“Number three,” Hoon calls. An old man stumbles over to his direction and Hoon braces himself, from experience he knows this isn’t going to be easy.
--
Soohyun stretches lazily, just having woken up. He rolls around, wanting to stay in this lovely world between dreams and reality, the warmth luring him back to sleep slowly. A loud clang downstairs forces him to wake up rather quickly and he sits up with a bolt.
“I’m okay,” someone yells from downstairs.
Groaning, Soohyun wiggles his legs in a mini tantrum, before getting out of bed. He pads down the hall, making a brief stop at the bathroom, then stumbling down the stairs as he misses a step. He grabs the hall in a weak attempt to keep himself up, his heart stammering loudly in his chest.
“You alright?” Kiseop asks, head poking around the kitchen door. “You do know you need to walk down those stairs, not slide?”
“No need to be so cheeky in the morning,” Soohyun says, picking himself up while waving a hand towards the kitchen. “What are you doing in there anyway? I didn’t know Kevin lifted your ban.”
Kiseop scowls and threatens him with the spatula. “He can’t ban me from the kitchen, I live here too! What am I supposed to do then, get something to eat at the neighbors’ house? Besides, I’m cooking breakfast for you. But if you’re complaining that much, I’ll have you know you won’t even get one bite of it.”
“Kiseoppie!” Soohyun pouts, pulling his lower lip out as far as he can, his eyes opened wide. “You won’t let me starve, right Kiseoppie?”
“Stop acting cute, it isn’t a good look on you. Come here, if you help me with the eggs, I might allow you to eat them.”
After twenty minutes and an almost burned down kitchen (“This is why you got banned from the kitchen!” “How was I supposed to know you need to remove the plastic first?”), their breakfast is finally ready. Sitting down at the table, Kiseop starts gulping the food down immediately. Soohyun pokes him with his chopsticks, complaining that it was Kiseop who said it was his breakfast and that Kiseop should leave some food for him.
“You need to learn that you need to be fast when it comes to me and food, if you’re one second to slow you can’t pull us apart anymore.”
Soohyun watches as Kiseop keeps putting food on his plate, leaving a few pieces of kimchi and some meat behind. “At least take some vegetables.”
Kiseop grins and shakes his head, snagging some meat of Soohyun’s plate. “Don’t like it. Now eat before I grab that last piece of meat too. By the way, what time did you need to be at the hospital tomorrow?”
“Finish eating before you talk.” Soohyun stares at the spit out rice on the table in disgust. “And around two. Why, you want a ride to the city?”
Kiseop shakes his head, this time a piece of rice flings itself on Soohyun’s shirt. He scowls at Soohyun’s glare, grabbing the bowl in front of him and slurps up the soup. “Just wanted to know when we could expect you back.”
“What, can’t be you’re preparing some big event for me, huh? Keep in mind I don’t like surprises, so tell Kevin that he can’t do anything drastic.”
“Such a party pooper.”
--
“The amount you owe us is already way too high. There’s nothing we can do,” Hoon explains calmly. Recently he just didn’t have any easy clients early in the morning anymore, it was like someone deliberately told the annoying clients to take number three, so Hoon had to help them. Looking down at the forms, he continues. “As of next month, you will have to follow a new schedule. Every payment needs to be made on the twentieth, based on the day you will get your salary.”
“Because I owe you money already, you charge me even more?” The woman says, flipping her hair back.
“I’m sorry, this is all I can do for you,” Hoon answers, smiling politely.
The woman slaps her hands on the table and stands up, leaning forward and glaring at him. “Your face…does it look like you’re sorry?”
Hoon watches in embarrassment as the woman grabs some papers of his desk and throws them in the air, all the while yelling and pointing at him.
“Please calm down,” Hoon says as he stands up, motioning for her to sit down again. “Yelling won’t get you any further.”
The woman slaps her hands on the table again, sending him a piercing glare, but eventually she sits down at her chair, fuming silently.
Hoon pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. He knew he had to help as many clients as possible today, since he had to leave earlier for his test results from the hospital. But with clients like this, he knows his boss won’t be happy with him today. Thinking here goes nothing, he takes a deep breath and looks the woman in the eye.
--
“Teacher Soo, what song will we sing today?” Hwayoung asks him as he watches over the kids playing outside. He looks down at the little girl and ruffles her hair.
“I won’t be singing with you today, but teacher Woo will. I heard him talking about Three Little Bears, but shush,” he puts a finger to his mouth. “That’s a secret.”
The five year old giggles, but then her smile falters and she pouts. “Teacher Soo, why won’t you be singing with us today?”
“Ah, teacher needs to go to the big city later.”
“Will you bring back presents?” she asks excitedly.
“I’m not going over-” a pull on his shirt and he sees the doe-eyed Hwayoung looking at him, lower lip jutting out and Soohyun sighs, knowing he has lost this battle before it even started.
--
Turning his name plate around, the ‘this desk is closed’ side facing the clients, Hoon pushes the button that makes the light on his desk go out. He neatly arranges the forms, earning an eye-roll from Jaeseop, and pushes his chair back. Two o’clock. He still has thirty minutes to get to the hospital.
“I’ll be leaving then.” Hoon pats Jaeseop on the shoulder as he walks past him. “Have fun,” he says cheekily.
“You too. Ask the doctor if they have some medicine for brattiness!” Jaeseop yells after him.
--
It’s deadly silent as he looks at the X-Ray intently, willing the grey and black bobs to make sense and stop dancing in front of his eyes, meanwhile hoping that all of this is just a bad dream he’s having.
“That’s impossible,” he says after a couple of minutes, his voice cracking at the end.
The doctor breathes loudly and rubs his temples, pity clearly evident on his face as he looks at his patient. Hoon decides he will hate this man forever.
“It’s completely normal to be in denial at this stage,” the doctor nods his head at every word he says. Another reason to hate him: his annoying head movements when he talks. “Yes, very normal. But what you should do now is, however bad it may sound, you have to accept reality and stabilize your emotions. It’s the only way to slow the progression of the disease down, if only by a little. Freaking out, panicking, yelling, crying…prevent all of these at any cost. It’s not good for your body, nor for your mental state. Instead of giving up, you need to be strong. There’s no survival at the end, but…any extra time you can buy should be a reason to keep you going.”
Hoon moves his stare away from the doctor and gazes at the X-Ray again, eyes wide open as he tries to keep breathing at a normal rate. Hyperventilating should be added to the list of ‘things that aren’t good for your body’.
The doctor moves forward and leans on the desk, resting his head in his hands. Hoon thinks it’s highly unfair how the doctor pretends to be exhausted and drained, while the only thing he had to do is deliver the news. It’s isn’t like he’s the one whose life just changed, whose future got destroyed in a couple of minutes.
“It will be difficult and painful, but…” the doctor trails off and heaves a deep sigh. “If you were the only patient… instead I get two in a row…. such a rare occurrence.”
Ignoring him and his unnecessary commentary, Hoon says “If these results are true, how long do I have?”
“How long do you have?” the doctor questions. He leans back in his chair. “I…honestly, I don’t know. It could be over within a week, but seeing as you’re young and… well, you’re not exactly healthy, but you’ve been living a very healthy life… I think three months. Six months at the most.”
Three months. Six at most. The words sound scary to him. What about his three year plan? How can he fit a thousand and ninety-five days into three months? As Hoon lets the words progress further into his mind, the door bursts open and someone stomps into the room.
“Mister Shin, what are you doing here?” the doctor asks bewildered.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” is what Hoon hears the other person say. The voice would probably be soft and deep normally, but now the hint of panic makes it sound hoarse and squeaky. Hoon takes his eyes of the desk which he has been staring at unknowingly, raking his eyes over the young man.
“Mister Shin, I’ve already told you - there’s no way we messed up. We did multiple tests and the results were all the same.” the doctor stands up to calm the panicking Soohyun down.
Soohyun points at the X-Ray. “Look,” he exclaims. “This is different compared to what you just showed me. My head didn’t look like that just now, I’m sure of it. How can you so confidently say you didn’t mess up, when you’re clearly messing up the X-Ray’s?”
A nurse rushes in, bowing and apologizing to Hoon who sits in his chair with a dazed look. She walks over to Soohyun and grabs his arm, trying to drag him out of the room. He doesn’t have any of it though, moving away and taking a step closer to the doctor.
“How can this happen out of the blue? A tumor is a tumor, it doesn’t have to be life threatening from the beginning. You must have messed something up, it can’t be a malignant tumor.”
“You go out first and we will talk about this after you have calmed down,” the doctor says, pushing Soohyun towards the door softly. Hoon is reminded of a mother calming a child down in the supermarket, saying she’ll buy him ice cream if he behaves. But the child doesn’t believe in that, since the mother never buys him ice cream. And of course, Soohyun doesn’t believe the doctor either.
Soohyun grabs the doctor’s arm and holds it tightly. “Please have another look at it,” he pleads.
“We can’t do that…the results are out already.”
“Who says the results aren’t wrong?”
Another nurse arrives at the scene and bundling her powers with the first one, she tries to get Soohyun to leave. However he keeps struggling, pulling his arms out of their grip, ducking away and trying to cling onto any object close to him. He gets a hold of Hoon’s chair, raising his head in surprise when the chair doesn’t seem to move an inch when he clings to it. The shocked look when Soohyun realizes the chair is occupied would have amused Hoon normally, but right now he only tilts his head to the side in question
“Hello, sorry to interrupt,” Soohyun says, giving the other boy a smile.
Hoon raises a hand and waves awkwardly. “Hi.”
In the midst of their polite exchange, the doctor grabs Soohyun’s leg to drag him away, which leads to Soohyun sprawling and ending up on Hoon’s lap.
“Sorry about that too,” he says through clenched teeth, almost grabbing Hoon’s crotch as he tries to get up. Turning around, he moves until he can hold the doctor’s shoulders. “Examine me one more time! Let go of me!” The last part is directed at one of the nurses who has grabbed a hold of him again.
Soohyun, sensing he can’t escape this situation easily, lets himself drop to the floor in a desperate attempt to avoid anyone that reaches for him.
“Mister Shin. Mister Shin Soohyun!” the nurses exclaim, while the doctor yells “Please get up!” at the same time.
Soohyun writhes on the floor, bumping into Hoon’s chair multiple times. The bumps seem to get Hoon back to reality, as far as someone lying on the floor during his appointment can be real.
“Didn’t you say you would re-examine it?” Hoon says as he stands up abruptly. “Earlier, you said you would re-examine it, right?”
Everyone stops moving and yelling, heads turning in his direction in confusion.
“Do it one more time to confirm it.” It isn’t a question this time. He wants one more test and only then he will believe the results. If they’re the same, then so be it, but there might be a small chance that there’s still hope for him. “I want to redo it,” he continues calmly. “Please arrange the appointment for me.”
And with that he walks out of the room, leaving the doctor, the nurses and Soohyun gaping behind him. Soohyun slowly stands up - being on the floor in a weird position for that long wasn’t really comfortable - and lowers his head.
“Sorry for the commotion. Please arrange an appointment for me too.” he bows and pats the doctor’s chest, before dashing out of the room.
--
“No, everything is alright. I’m as healthy as ever. I’ll see you at dinner, okay? Tell Hana I bought her Kimbap. Yes, alright. Bye.” Hoon hangs up and stares at his phone forlornly.
Soohyun gazes at Hoon sympathetically, taking a seat next to him on the brick wall. “Your wife?” He asks.
“No,” Hoon says as he looks up, eyes squinting because of the sun. “My brother. I eat with him and his family every Thursday.”
“Ah,” Soohyun nods.
They’re both silent for a while, afraid to break the silence, knowing that it will only lead to topics they don’t want to talk about.
“You’re taking the bus too?” Hoon finally breaks the silence.
Soohyun looks puzzled. “No, I drove here.”
“Oh. Then what are you doing here?”
“Ah, that,” Soohyun scratches his head. “I was just walking around and - “
“You aren’t following me, by any chance?”
“What? No, that’s not it!” Soohyun blushes a little. “I just saw you sitting here alone and thought I might as well talk to you. Especially after interrupting your appointment earlier…I wanted to give you a proper apology, I really shouldn’t have burst into the room like that.”
Hoon nods and smiles a little. “No, you shouldn’t have, it was sort of rude. But I get it. I’m not accepting that news so easily either. You…have a tumor too?”
“Yes,” Soohyun sighs. “A malignant one, or so the doctor says.”
“I can’t believe -” the bus arriving interrupts Hoon’s sentence. He is torn between wanting to continue his sentence and getting up to take the bus. Knowing he still needs to get to Hoonbi’s house later that evening, he makes his decision. “That’s my bus. I - maybe I’ll see you again someday.”
“Yeah, who knows.” Soohyun stands up with Hoon, brushing the back of his trousers. “We seem to share the same fate, after all. Let’s see what else it has in store for us.”
“Goodbye Soohyun.” Hoon chuckles and waves as he steps into the bus.
Soohyun waves back at him, screaming an ‘I’ll see you soon’ before the door closes. He waves at the bus until it’s just a tiny dot in the distance.
--
The door slams shut behind him as he takes off his shoes, bangs falling in front of his eyes. Soohyun brushes the hair away absentmindedly, wondering if he should get a haircut tomorrow or not. Stumbling, he looks down to see he tripped over a pair of shoes that aren’t his.
Pulling on a pair of slippers, he shuffles towards the living room. The lights are turned off, but he still sees the shadows of balloons on his wall. Three people pop up from behind the furniture, lights suddenly shining brightly and a happy birthday song is sung in multiple languages. Soohyun smiles as only Kevin sings the right notes - Eli and Kiseop seem to be singing a completely different song.
“Happy birthday!” they all but scream, holding out a cake with candles.
“Make a wish!” Kiseop says, pulling Soohyun closer to the cake.
Soohyun pauses and thinks about it. Pushing negative thoughts out of his head, he wishes for a happy life with his friends. As he blows out the candles, the others cheer loudly. Kevin hops over to him and pulls him into a hug and soon the others join, trying to press kisses to Soohyun’s face.
“Get his present,” Eli says as everyone has pulled away, skipping to the kitchen to get more food.
Soohyun takes a seat at the table and opens the box Kevin put down in front of him. Before he can see what it is, Kiseop distracts him by putting a party hat on his head. Soohyun smiles and squeezes the younger boy’s hand briefly, then focuses his attention on his present again.
Inside the box are different shaped notebooks, along with CD’s and different shaped post-it notes.
“What do you think? You like it?” Kevin asks.
Soohyun looks at the box in amazement and a lump forms in his throat. “Yeah. I really like it.”
“We overdid it, didn’t we?” Kiseop pouts at Soohyun’s lack of enthusiasm. “We just thought that you should be able to write songs everywhere, or write sentences down on the post-it’s so you won’t forget them.”
Soohyun smiles. “You didn’t overdo it and I’m really happy with it. Thank you guys so much.”
Eli pats him on the shoulder. “We did overdo it, no need to save our feelings. You could probably last a year with all of these.”
As the others burst out laughing, Soohyun’s smile falters. A year.
--
“What would you do if I died?”
Even though Hoonbi keeps his eyes on his book, Hoon knows he stopped reading by the way his head is raised a little. “If you died? Hmm, I would get your motorbike and go on rides whenever Jiyeon annoys me.”
“Yah!” Jiyeon slaps Hoonbi, scowling at him. “You can’t just leave every time something isn’t going your way.”
Hoon watches them argue in silence, winking at Hana when she notices him. Hana rolls her eyes at her parents and then makes her way over so she can cuddle into Hoon’s side.
“I would miss you, uncle. You can never die, alright?”
--
“The result is the same as last time?” Hoon asks softly.
The doctor turns his chair so he’s facing Hoon again. “We should start the chemo as soon as possible.”
“Will it change anything, except the loss of my hair?”
The piercing silence gives him his answer.
--
A lamp falls down as Soohyun tries to make his way inside the house. Eli stumbles down the stairs, ignoring the remark of ‘you’re wearing boxers with ducks on it’ which is followed by a lot of giggles, instead he proceeds to get a hold of Soohyun’s arm and staggers as he tries to get them both upstairs.
“You shouldn’t drink so much, it’s bad for your health.” Eli groans as Soohyun bumps against him and he hits the wall. “And it’s bad for my back too.”
Soohyun laughs hysterically. “I’m going to die anyway, what does it matter?”
--
“So you mean I won’t get my money back?”
“Our staff has put in a lot of effort for your sake. In the end it’s you who changed his mind, not us,” the woman behind the desk tells him.
Hoon folds his arms and resists the urge to roll his eyes.
“We have taken all your needs in consideration and managed to find the perfect flight, hotel and location for you. There’s no need to worry, we have taken care of everything for you. Why don’t you reconsider, you will regret cancelling this golden opportunity later.”
“I have already told you, there’s no need for me to go anymore. My plans got thwarted, so please cancel it for me.”
The woman sighs and holds up the papers. “Sir, take a look at the agreement. The problem isn’t coming from our company. You signed these forms.”
Hoon puts on a civil smile, picking up his own papers. “Take a look at this. ‘The client has the right to terminate the contract within a period of time.’ Therefore -“
Loud yelling coming from outside the room makes Hoon stop in the middle of his sentence. He glances to his right and sees the secretary holding a man back.
“Call the manager!” The man says, barging further into the room, dragging the secretary with him. The man is turned around briefly, but that seems to anger him even more and Hoon sees the secretary get lifted and moved out of the room. That, however, seems to unleash some hidden powers in the secretary, who bursts into the room and tackles the man to the ground.
Hoon watches the scene in front of him and blinks. Tilting his head, he looks at the man laying on the floor. He doesn’t seem to be much older than him, golden bangs covering his eyes and muscular arms pushing the secretary away. Now that he thinks about it, those arms look awfully familiar to him.
“I want my money back,” the man says as he gets up, tugging his shirt down. Looking around and scratching his neck, he glances at the woman behind the desk and then focuses his sight on Hoon. They lock eyes and Hoon knows where he’s seen a similar scene happening before.
--
“Thank you,” Soohyun says, staring at the cars passing by. They sit next to each other at the bus stop, having walked there after leaving the travel agency together. “How come you know so much about stuff like this?”
“I did some research on how to get a refund,” Hoon answers. “You drove here?”
Soohyun gives him a puzzled look. “Yeah. Why?”
“You aren’t following me again, are you?” Hoon squints his eyes at the man next to him.
Laughing awkwardly, Soohyun quickly shakes his head. “What? No, I told you that before, I’m not following you around.”
Hoon stands up and scrunches his nose, putting his hands into his pockets. “Let’s go get a drink somewhere.”
Confused, Soohyun watches as Hoon walks past him. He raises his arm and makes some sounds out of protest as he waves it around wildly, before standing up too and running after the other.
--
Soohyun slams the glass down on the table. “Three months…”
“Three months is too short,” Hoon says as he eyes his half-empty glass.
“I know right? Three months is way too short,” Soohyun sighs, his brows furrowing. “I can’t just die like this.”
“I….have tried so hard to live. If only I had known earlier…”
“I can’t just die like this,” Soohyun repeats. “My friends, we still need to create so many memories. Beautiful memories that we would remember the rest of our lives. And my little students, I still need to see them grow older and stronger. I want to hear their grown up voices, singing clearly and full of emotion as they stand on stage in front of a sold out concert hall. I want to tell everyone that I taught them how to sing, that my little Hwayoungie had her first performance with me as we sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ together in the back of the classroom.”
“I even had to cancel my trip…”
Soohyun nods at that. “Why couldn’t I have planned the trip earlier? I really wanted to see Europe…”
“Don’t you know? We aren’t allowed to take an airplane. The changing air pressure is bad for us, the brain will swell up thus increasing pressure inside the skull,” Hoon says matter-of-factly.
“Oh. No, I didn’t know that. Well, no flying for me then.”
Hoon picks up his glass and holds it out to Soohyun. “Let’s cheer,” he says softly. “Let’s cheer on how unfair all of this is.”
Their glasses cling and both man gulp down their drinks, wincing as the liquid burns their throat. After that it’s silent for a while, the music playing in the background and the voices of people mingle together, making Hoon dizzy. He shakes his head to sober up a little and he watches Soohyun from the side of his eyes.
Making sure his fringe covers his eyes, he takes a good look at the man. He looks around the same age, maybe a little older, but still in his twenties. His face seemed a little odd at first, but after staring at it for a while, Hoon notices the long eyelashes and full lips, the dimple that appears as Soohyun laughs at his own jokes, the eyes crinkling into perfect half-moons, sometimes covered by golden brown bangs which Soohyun brushes out of his eyes every few seconds. From what he has seen, Soohyun is tall, lean and has muscular arms. Soohyun is a very attractive man, Hoon concludes his thoughts.
Because he’s too busy looking at Soohyun’s face, he doesn’t notice how the other man has been observing him too. Soohyun already found the man very handsome the first time they met in the hospital, even though he could only see the man from a weird angle, but still. The orange-brown haired man was what Soohyun only could describe as perfect. A defined jaw line, dark brown eyes, luscious lips (a tongue swiping over it every time Hoon took a sip from his drink, which made Soohyun wonder how those lips would taste), his body, despite being covered by a black jacket, seemed very toned. Exactly the opposite of every girl he dated in the past.
“You have time this coming Saturday?” Hoon asks suddenly.
Soohyun looks at him with a dazed look, still absorbed in his thoughts. “Huh?”
“I asked you if you have time this coming Saturday,” Hoon repeats himself, grabbing his planner out of his bag.
“Well, I have nothing special to do.” Soohyun rubs the back of his neck.
“If you have time Saturday, would you mind accompanying me to Cheongpyeong?” Hoon scribbles something down and then looks over at Soohyun. “Someone recommended it to me some time ago, saying the lake and the mountains are beautiful. Since it’s one of the most popular destinations during the summer holidays, I wanted to see it before I die.”
Soohyun blinks. Then blinks some more. Seeing the blank look on Soohyun’s face, Hoon looks down at his planner.
“Don’t you want to visit places you have never seen before? There are so many beautiful places out there, and since we only have three months…we might as well live those three months to the fullest and go sightseeing around our country.” When Soohyun keeps looking confused and doesn’t answer, Hoon shoves the planner in his bag. “You don’t have to go there with me, I could go by myself. Just…if you have time on Saturday, why don’t you join me?”
“I…as in we go on a date?” Soohyun asks, finally having sobered up a little. Hoon flushes at that and Soohyun grins as he finally rendered Hoon to silence.
“If you want to call it that…”
“Alright, it’s a date then.”
Hoon gets up abruptly, feeling highly uncomfortable with this new development. Loosening his tie a little, he bows at Soohyun. “It’s late, I should get going. Call me tomorrow so we can discuss a place to meet up.”
Soohyun nods, quickly standing up too and following Hoon out of the café. Hoon manages to flag down a taxi in a couple of seconds and he mutters an ‘I’ll be leaving then’ and Soohyun hasn’t even progressed it yet, before the taxi is speeding away.
“Ah, phone number…” He mutters, slapping his forehead.
--
Soohyun pulls out numerous papers from the machine, guessing he must have number twenty to thirty-five now. He looks around to check if no one has seen him, only to find the guy sitting next to Hoon looking at him with raised eyebrows. He quickly walks away from the machine and sits down at one of the seats in the waiting area.
Tapping his feet impatiently, he sits there for ten minutes before number twenty is called. It’s the guy sitting next to Hoon and Soohyun sighs. He glances to his side and sees the woman next to him has number thirty-six.
“Here, why don’t you go first?” He says, holding out the little piece of paper to her. She thanks him and quickly makes her way over to the front.
Five minutes later and number twenty-one is called. He scowls, it’s the table furthest away from Hoon. He offers the number to an old lady who has just arrived.
Hoon locks eyes with him briefly, to which Soohyun puffs out his cheeks and motions for the other to hurry up. Hoon just shakes his head and gives a pointed look at the client at his desk, before returning his attention to said client when she asks him a question.
After twenty minutes the person at Hoon’s desk finally leaves. Soohyun quickly gets up as Hoon calls for number thirty-two. Sitting down at the chair, Soohyun smiles brightly. “Hi.”
“Hello,” Hoon says, glancing around to see if his boss around, but he only finds Jaeseop winking at him and mouthing ‘he’s cute’. Shaking his head, he looks at Soohyun again, who seems to be frowning at the little interaction he and Jaeseop had.
“So, how can I help you sir?”
“You never gave me your phone number,” Soohyun says.
“Did you ask for it?”
“Huh?”
Hoon pretends to search for the right files on his desk. “You were the one that said it was a date. Shouldn’t you be asking for my number then?”
Soohyun gapes at him. “Weren’t you the one that invited me to go with you?”
“That would be weird. You called it a date, so obviously you should ask.”
“You should have given me your number first.”
Hoon smiles. “You do know this is a bank and I have to do my job here?”
Snatching a form out of Hoon’s hands, Soohyun starts filling it in. After he’s done he pushes the form back, patting Hoon’s hand. “Thank you for your advice, I will look further into this.” He gets up, walking out of the building and wiggling his fingers at Hoon as he passes the window. He makes a ‘call me’ sign with his hands, then disappears from Hoon’s sight.
Looking down at the form, Hoon sees Soohyun wrote down his phone number at the required box, and he also drew a little heart at the ‘other comments’ section. A smile spreads on his face and he shoves the form into his bag.
--
Soohyun is leaning against the car, enjoying the soft wind that’s blowing around him as he waits near Hoon’s house. He looks up when he hears footsteps approaching, a smile forming on his face as he sees who it is. “You’re late,” he teases.
Raising an eyebrow, Hoon stops in front of Soohyun. “Don’t worry, I have changed our plans a little so we can still see everything.”
Shaking his head, Soohyun pushes Hoon to the other side of the car. “Why plan everything out?” He mutters. “What’s wrong with a little spontaneity?”
“You said something?” Hoon asks as they both get in the car.
Soohyun just smiles and grits his teeth. “No. Which direction leads us to the highway?”
--
“Wow.” Soohyun leans forward so he can look out the front window better, admiring the stunning views. Trees are covering their view a little, but they can still look into to valley, catching a glimpse of the beautiful lake every once in a while.
“Cheonpyeong is most famous for its lake, apparently it’s great for water sport activities. During the summer all the resorts are full of tourists. Since it’s spring now, it isn’t that busy. We must go and take a look at one of the temples if we can find them.”
Soohyun takes a look at his right and smiles as he sees Hoon bend over a tourist guide, highlighting some sentences. “Do you have to make a research project out of everything?”
Noticing the other looking at him, Hoon sits up straight. “I guess not. But isn’t it a given that people who are prepared, are more likely to be victorious? I plan things to do for today and tomorrow. Then I’ll do everything according to schedule. That’s my lifestyle.”
“How can you live life like that?” Soohyun sighs. “Ah, look to your right!” He points at a large sign that tells them the samgyeopsal restaurant is only a couple of meters in front of them. “Let’s go eat there, I’m hungry.”
“But…we are supposed to go to one of the temples first.” Hoon looks down at his planner. “Eating is scheduled at one o’clock, it’s only eleven o’clock right now.”
“We’ll follow your schedule later,” Soohyun assures him. “Right now, we need to eat.”
--
The fat sputters as the meat comes in content with the heated grill, the aroma slowly spreading in the air makes Soohyun’s stomach growl. He licks his lips in anticipation, already tasting the soft meat on his lips. Turning the piece of pork around, he gets his chopsticks ready to grab it off the plate. Before he can pierce the meat though, another pair of chopsticks snatches it away. Soohyun gapes as Hoon gulps the meat down and he mentally wishes Hoon would burn his tongue.
Heaving his shoulders, he grabs another piece of meat and lays it on the grill. He turns the meat around when he sees it’s almost done and his chopsticks are ready to grab the meat. However, another pair of chopsticks pierces the meat once again, making Soohyun scowl.
“If you have any conscience, you should slow down,” he says.
Hoon looks up, chewing the meat slowly on purpose, closing his eyes and sighing. “Ah, delicious. Haven’t you heard that dying from eating is the best way?”
“Are you the only one who’s dying?” Soohyun gets out through gritted teeth. “I am dying too, you know. It’s already unfair that I’m going to die and now you’re making me suffer too?”
Grilling a piece of meat, Hoon waits until it’s ready then wraps it into a piece of lettuce. “Here, eat,” he says, holding the piece up for Soohyun. Soohyun leans forward and eats the piece out of Hoon’s hand, making sure he licks Hoon’s finger too.
“Gross!” Hoon yells, wiping his finger on Soohyun’s shirt, who is just grinning widely.
“By the way, I was wondering…why are you speaking informal to me? Haven’t we just met?” Soohyun says, grilling some more meat.
Hoon moves back in his seat, taking a sip from his glass. “I guess it just felt comfortable. We’re probably around the same age anyway.”
“Huh, let’s check to make sure. I am twenty-five years old, how about you?”
“You’re busy next week, hyung?” Hoon looks away nonchalantly as he says it.
“Hyung? Yah, how could you be so impolite to me all the time. Tsk.” Soohyun grabs the pieces of meat from the grill. “And I guess I’m free.”
“Let’s go to Jeonju.”
“You’ve never been there before?”
“Hmm, we never travelled when I was a kid and once I moved to Seoul I got too busy to go travelling. You have been there before?”
“My friend’s family lives there, so I used to go there a lot during the holidays. We stayed close to the house most of the time, so I haven’t really seen a lot of the city itself.”
Hoon brushes his fringe out of his eyes, his eyes already fixed on his planner again. “You will come with me, right? I will make a schedule for it when I get home.”
“Researching is taking over your life,” Soohyun stuffs a piece of meat in his mouth. Pointing at Hoon with his chopsticks, he says “You know you’re not acting normal, right?”
“I told you before, that’s just how I am. If I don’t research, things won’t go as planned. Who knows where I might end up, I couldn’t bear with the thought of standing up every morning and not knowing what to do.”
“Tut tut tut,” Soohyun clicks his tongue. “What a tiring life you have. Isn’t life supposed to be about helping each other out, doing random acts to please someone else, to be spontaneous and surprise the one you love…”
“You’re such a romanticist. How did you survive up until now?” Hoon frowns. “Life needs to be organized. If you just live by the day, you won’t succeed. You need to plan ahead.”
“But if you plan out your whole life, where will your happiness come from. If you just follow whatever you have scheduled, you will only focus on that. You won’t see the world around you, the people who are waiting for you to see them will be ignored. Happiness is around every corner, you only need to walk around with your eyes open.”
Hoon doesn’t reply, instead he looks at his hands in silence as he takes in what Soohyun just told him.
“Did I offend you?” Soohyun asks softly.
“Maybe you’re right,” Hoon speaks slowly. “But maybe I’m right too. I have lived my life like this, you lived your life your way. A person lives a certain way, because it’s meant to be like that, it suits them and makes them feel comfortable. I can’t live life your way, because it’s scary and uncertain…”
“…and I can’t have your lifestyle, because it’s scary and too full of structure for me,” Soohyun finishes. “I guess we could both learn something from each other.”
“So…you agree that we should go and see the temple now?” Hoon says, smiling cheekily.
Soohyun groans. “That is not what I meant…”
--
Soohyun parks the car across the street of Hoon’s building, the streetlights illuminating them as they get out of the car. They both walk towards the building slowly, wanting to prolong their day together as long as possible. The cold spring air makes them shiver a little, but they both pretend they don’t feel it. Eventually they have almost reached the entrance and Hoon coughs to break the silence.
“I’ll be leaving then. Thanks for today.”
“No need to thank me,” Soohyun says, looking down at his shoes. “You were the one who planned it out perfectly, I just…had a lot of fun.”
Hoon grins, playing with a button on his jacket.
“You should go in.”
Biting his lip, Hoon nods. “Yes. I’m going.”
There is an awkward atmosphere, but Soohyun doesn’t really know how to break it. On a normal date, this is where he would have given the girl a goodnight kiss before leaving. But this was not a normal date and Hoon was most definitely not a girl, meaning the rules of dating would probably be different. In the end, he waves awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck while doing so.
Hoon looks down in disappointment, but he quickly covers it by waving back at Soohyun. Turning around he drags his feet to the entrance slowly, hoping that Soohyun will call him back or turn him around. That moment never comes though and Hoon juts his lower lip out in a pout. Right after he has given up hope, he hears Soohyun call him.
“Yah, Hoon!”
He turns around quickly, smile on his face. Soohyun stares at him for a while and opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
“No, it’s nothing. Goodnight,” is what he eventually says and Hoon can’t help but pull a face.
“If that’s all…goodnight.” He waves one last time, then turns around, plan forming in his head. He takes a couple of steps and then stumbles, holding the wall to keep himself standing.
“Hoon? Hoon! Hoon, are you alright?” Soohyun rushes over. “What’s wrong?” He wraps an arm around Hoon’s waist, forcing the younger boy to lean on him instead of on the wall.
Hoon shakes his head. “I felt a little dizzy there,” he says. “You came running here pretty fast, though. Were you worried?”
Soohyun looks at him in confusion. “What? Of course I was worried!”
“Hmm. Good to know I will be safe with you in the future.”
“What are you-“ He locks eyes with Hoon and only then he notices that Hoon’s body is pressed against his right side, their lips only separated by a couple of inches. He suddenly understands what Hoon has been doing and he already opens his mouth to protests, but then Hoon leans in. As their lips touch, Soohyun feels little bolts of energy rushing through his body, setting him on fire. His face is flushed when they pull apart, even though their lips only touched for a couple of seconds, but he’s glad to see he’s not the only one feeling like this.
“You planned all of this, didn’t you?” He asks, his voice hoarse.
Hoon shakes his head in denial. “This was completely spontaneous.”
“Oh. You should be spontaneous more often then.”
“I…will try.”
Soohyun chuckles at that, pulling Hoon into a hug. “It’s not that hard,” he whispers into Hoon’s ear. “Look.” He moves until they’re face to face again, then leans forward and presses their lips together again.
--
Part II
Soohyun/Hoon | pg13 | 14081 words
Two people get diagnosed with a terminal illness. They meet, sharing a heart aching fate, and fall in love.
a/n: This is nothing like the original idea. It’s also nothing like the second idea. And nothing like the third to tenth idea. In the end this popped into my head after reading the synopsis for the Korean movie Never Ending Story, thus this is based on the movie. I’m not too happy with how I worked it out since it’s a bit rushed, but it’s one of the biggest projects I have ever participated in, so I do feel very proud of myself for finishing it ^^. Title taken from the song Sugar Mouse by Oh, Atoms!
Then on to the thank you’s. rilakkiseop, my lovely “zro” twin. Remember when I said I would never join a challenge again after the infinitesanta? But then you mentioned this challenge and I couldn’t resist, knowing there was no way I couldn’t join. Thank you for sticking with me ‘til the end - encouraging me, telling me how I’d do fine and that we would get through this together. No matter how much I whined and complained, you were always there for me and I love you for it.
And of course I can’t forget lindeyyy, my soulmate. You know you should have stopped me from joining this challenge, right? I know this isn't your regular fandom, so I love you for sticking with me through this progress. Thank you so much for reading whatever I posted for you, for helping me when I got stuck and answering stupid questions. Your excitement made me want to keep writing, even though it sucked so much. When I was ready to give up, you held my hand and told me I could do it. I can’t write without you anymore, so promise you will never leave my side!
You two will always be my inspiration. This fic is for you ♥
--
The last couple of weeks have trickled by almost unnoticed and it isn’t until his boss reminds him of their end of month dinner, that Hoon realizes it’s almost September. He grabs his planner out of his back, neatly crossing out the dates that have already passed and circling important meetings or notes he wants to remember. Once he has done that, he turns the page and looks at what this week is going to bring him.
That afternoon he needs to go to the hospital, for his yearly check up. Looking at his watch, he calculates that he might need to leave work five minutes earlier, in case the bus gets delayed again. Tuesday and Wednesday are just filled with the usual appointments at work, nothing too exciting. Thursday starts with appointments too, but it ends with the usual family dinner at his brother’s house. He highlights the ‘buy Kimbap for Hana’, knowing that the little girl will never forgive him if he forgets to buy it.
Closing his planner, he tucks it into his bag. Fixing his tie, he stands up to get the paperwork for his next client, who should arrive after his break finishes in five minutes. Enough time to stretch his legs and to get a cup of coffee.
--
“Sunwoo don’t write on the wall. Jiho, don’t pull Chaerin’s hair!” Soohyun sighs as he grabs the pen out of Sunwoo’s hand and pulls JiHo away from Chaerin. “Everyone, just sit down and we’ll start the lesson.”
Either the children are deaf, or they’re simply ignoring him, because all they do is run around and yell harder. No matter what he says or does, it doesn’t help. Soohyun throws his hands up in defeat and takes a seat behind his desk, realizing this is another class with no motivated children and that he should be glad they’re not running out of the classroom. He should check if everyone’s still inside just in case.
A little girl, Hwayoung, makes her way over to Soohyun’s desk. She drags her feet across the floor shyly, her little hands clasped together and her cheeks red.
“Teacher Soo,” she says with a little voice.
Soohyun gives her an encouraging smile. “Yes, Hwayoung?”
“Isn’t this the singing class?” Seeing Soohyun nod, she continues. “Teacher Soo, will you teach me how to sing?”
A small smile spreads on Soohyun’s voice and he gets out of his chair. “You want to learn how to sing?”
Hwayoung nods excitedly.
“Alright, come here.” He holds the girls’ hand and takes her to a piano in the back of the room. “Shall we start with ‘Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star’?”
Soohyun plays the first note, then looks at her and motions for her to start singing with him. The little girl’s voice fills the room, and although she definitely needs to learn how to control her voice, Soohyun knows a future singer is standing in front of him.
After they have finished their song, applause shocks them out of their little world. Hwayoung blushes and almost crawls on Soohyun’s lap in embarrassment, while Soohyun just laughs brightly and tells her how good she just sang.
The class bursts out in “Hwayoungie, you sing so well”, “You’re so pretty” (that one probably came from Jiho), “Teacher Soo, sing another song” “Can we sing a song too?”, and Soohyun grins as he has finally realized how to keep his little class quiet.
--
The doors of the bus sweep open and Hoon grumbles as he gets out, complaining about idiotic bus drivers and schedules that should be kept, while trying to locate the hospital at the same time. Eventually he spots it at the other side of the road and he quickly rushes to the crosswalk, impatiently tapping his foot as he waits for the light to turn green.
Crossing the street, he checks the time and realizes he isn’t that late. Slowing down, he walks inside the building calmly, standing in line to take a number out of the machine, frowning when he’s in room number twenty-four, preferring to be in room ten to twenty.
As he walks away, he bumps into someone. Grumbling he bows briefly, before continuing towards the elevators.
--
Soohyun makes a sharp turn and parks his car, throwing his door open immediately and rushing out. He runs to the staircase, noticing the big clock in the parking lot and seeing it’s almost seven o’clock already.
Opening the door, he walks into the hospital’s main hall. After asking around, he finally finds the right sign saying ‘Appointments only - Room picking’ and stands in line. There’s only one man left in front of him and he already moves to take a number. However, the man makes an unexpected move and bumps into him, making Soohyun loose his balance. He trips over his own feet and face plants himself against the machine. He glares at the guy’s retreating back, bowing to the people behind him in apologies, then finally takes a number.
--
“Ouch, no no NO! DON’T IT HURTS!”
“The needle hasn’t even gone in yet,” the nurse says. “Calm down.”
Hoon looks to his right in annoyance, some people just had to make a scene of everything.
“The needle will go in right now,” his nurse tells him and he grimaces for a couple of seconds when he feels his wrist tingling a little, then he smiles at her again.
“Please calm down, sir,” the nurse tells Soohyun again.
Soohyun grits his teeth and almost bites his tongue when the nurse puts the needle in. “You should have told me before you put the needle in!” He exclaims, pouting.
“Sorry. You get a lollipop for being so brave, alright?” The nurse says sarcastically.
“Strawberry flavor?”
--
“Do I really need to go inside that machine? Are you sure that’s safe? I don’t think I should do this, I will just skip this part of the test,” Soohyun says in panic, eyeing the CAT-scan warily.
“There’s no need to panic, mister Shin. It’s safe, don’t worry,” the doctor says, motioning for the nurses to block the door.
“Aren’t I supposed to take the CAT-scan now?” Hoon asks one of the nurses, trying to peek into the room.
“Yes, but we…had some complications. We’re delayed, sorry. Just take a seat and I will call you when it’s your turn.”
--
The soft buzz of the air condition is starting to annoy Hoon. He taps his foot impatiently as he waits for his client to fill in the form, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and threatening to slide off the tip. He only wears glasses because his boss says it makes him look smarter and more trustable, which should lead to clients asking less questions and filling in the forms more easily. Time is money, and if they are finished with one client in ten minutes, they can get six clients done in an hour, which means each employee will get forty-eight clients in a day - which equals a lot of money. Hoon doesn’t think the glasses are the winning factor, rather the person helping the client, but his boss believes otherwise.
“Looks are the most important when it comes to contracts,” his boss had said when Hoon mentioned it during his first week at the company. “Look around, do you think I hired all these people solely based on their abilities? No, I hired them because of their looks, just like you. Now go back to your spot and get people to sign the forms, pretty boy.”
And that was the end of their discussion, which wasn’t really a discussion, since their boss didn’t accept anyone talking back at him, and Hoon had to go back to his cramped spot, wearing glasses and putting on a fake smile that would make their future clients feel welcomed.
Three more minutes before the bank will open its doors. Hoon sorts the papers on his desk, arranging them and putting away any unnecessary forms. A snort coming from the person next to him makes him look up. “What?”
Jaeseop rolls his eyes and points at the papers in Hoon’s hands. “Is it really necessary to sort them all every morning? At the end of the day it will be a mess anyway.”
“You know, it’s not that hard to try and organize a little. It makes your job a lot easier,” Hoon remarks back at him.
“Did you get out of bed on the wrong side?” Jaeseop pouts. “I was just joking, you know.”
Hoon sighs. “Yeah, I know. It’s just…lately I’ve been feeling so tired for no reason. I go to bed early, eat healthy, work out regularly. And yet, every time I have walked up the stairs to get into the building, it feels like I’ve just ran a marathon.”
Jaeseop raises his eyebrow. “Hmm, maybe you have the flu or something? No other symptoms like throwing up, a sore throat?”
“No,” Hoon shakes his head. “Who knows, I might have been doing the wrong exercises at the gym. And I went to the hospital for a checkup yesterday, so if anything is wrong with me, I’ll find it out later today.”
“Our day is starting!” A voice a couple of seats away calls and Jaeseop and Hoon lock eyes, both groaning as they slide their chairs closer to the table. The doors open and after a couple of seconds the first clients shuffle inside, complaining about waiting in the cold that long. The clients take a number and all the employees hit the bell simultaneously.
“Number three,” Hoon calls. An old man stumbles over to his direction and Hoon braces himself, from experience he knows this isn’t going to be easy.
--
Soohyun stretches lazily, just having woken up. He rolls around, wanting to stay in this lovely world between dreams and reality, the warmth luring him back to sleep slowly. A loud clang downstairs forces him to wake up rather quickly and he sits up with a bolt.
“I’m okay,” someone yells from downstairs.
Groaning, Soohyun wiggles his legs in a mini tantrum, before getting out of bed. He pads down the hall, making a brief stop at the bathroom, then stumbling down the stairs as he misses a step. He grabs the hall in a weak attempt to keep himself up, his heart stammering loudly in his chest.
“You alright?” Kiseop asks, head poking around the kitchen door. “You do know you need to walk down those stairs, not slide?”
“No need to be so cheeky in the morning,” Soohyun says, picking himself up while waving a hand towards the kitchen. “What are you doing in there anyway? I didn’t know Kevin lifted your ban.”
Kiseop scowls and threatens him with the spatula. “He can’t ban me from the kitchen, I live here too! What am I supposed to do then, get something to eat at the neighbors’ house? Besides, I’m cooking breakfast for you. But if you’re complaining that much, I’ll have you know you won’t even get one bite of it.”
“Kiseoppie!” Soohyun pouts, pulling his lower lip out as far as he can, his eyes opened wide. “You won’t let me starve, right Kiseoppie?”
“Stop acting cute, it isn’t a good look on you. Come here, if you help me with the eggs, I might allow you to eat them.”
After twenty minutes and an almost burned down kitchen (“This is why you got banned from the kitchen!” “How was I supposed to know you need to remove the plastic first?”), their breakfast is finally ready. Sitting down at the table, Kiseop starts gulping the food down immediately. Soohyun pokes him with his chopsticks, complaining that it was Kiseop who said it was his breakfast and that Kiseop should leave some food for him.
“You need to learn that you need to be fast when it comes to me and food, if you’re one second to slow you can’t pull us apart anymore.”
Soohyun watches as Kiseop keeps putting food on his plate, leaving a few pieces of kimchi and some meat behind. “At least take some vegetables.”
Kiseop grins and shakes his head, snagging some meat of Soohyun’s plate. “Don’t like it. Now eat before I grab that last piece of meat too. By the way, what time did you need to be at the hospital tomorrow?”
“Finish eating before you talk.” Soohyun stares at the spit out rice on the table in disgust. “And around two. Why, you want a ride to the city?”
Kiseop shakes his head, this time a piece of rice flings itself on Soohyun’s shirt. He scowls at Soohyun’s glare, grabbing the bowl in front of him and slurps up the soup. “Just wanted to know when we could expect you back.”
“What, can’t be you’re preparing some big event for me, huh? Keep in mind I don’t like surprises, so tell Kevin that he can’t do anything drastic.”
“Such a party pooper.”
--
“The amount you owe us is already way too high. There’s nothing we can do,” Hoon explains calmly. Recently he just didn’t have any easy clients early in the morning anymore, it was like someone deliberately told the annoying clients to take number three, so Hoon had to help them. Looking down at the forms, he continues. “As of next month, you will have to follow a new schedule. Every payment needs to be made on the twentieth, based on the day you will get your salary.”
“Because I owe you money already, you charge me even more?” The woman says, flipping her hair back.
“I’m sorry, this is all I can do for you,” Hoon answers, smiling politely.
The woman slaps her hands on the table and stands up, leaning forward and glaring at him. “Your face…does it look like you’re sorry?”
Hoon watches in embarrassment as the woman grabs some papers of his desk and throws them in the air, all the while yelling and pointing at him.
“Please calm down,” Hoon says as he stands up, motioning for her to sit down again. “Yelling won’t get you any further.”
The woman slaps her hands on the table again, sending him a piercing glare, but eventually she sits down at her chair, fuming silently.
Hoon pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. He knew he had to help as many clients as possible today, since he had to leave earlier for his test results from the hospital. But with clients like this, he knows his boss won’t be happy with him today. Thinking here goes nothing, he takes a deep breath and looks the woman in the eye.
--
“Teacher Soo, what song will we sing today?” Hwayoung asks him as he watches over the kids playing outside. He looks down at the little girl and ruffles her hair.
“I won’t be singing with you today, but teacher Woo will. I heard him talking about Three Little Bears, but shush,” he puts a finger to his mouth. “That’s a secret.”
The five year old giggles, but then her smile falters and she pouts. “Teacher Soo, why won’t you be singing with us today?”
“Ah, teacher needs to go to the big city later.”
“Will you bring back presents?” she asks excitedly.
“I’m not going over-” a pull on his shirt and he sees the doe-eyed Hwayoung looking at him, lower lip jutting out and Soohyun sighs, knowing he has lost this battle before it even started.
--
Turning his name plate around, the ‘this desk is closed’ side facing the clients, Hoon pushes the button that makes the light on his desk go out. He neatly arranges the forms, earning an eye-roll from Jaeseop, and pushes his chair back. Two o’clock. He still has thirty minutes to get to the hospital.
“I’ll be leaving then.” Hoon pats Jaeseop on the shoulder as he walks past him. “Have fun,” he says cheekily.
“You too. Ask the doctor if they have some medicine for brattiness!” Jaeseop yells after him.
--
It’s deadly silent as he looks at the X-Ray intently, willing the grey and black bobs to make sense and stop dancing in front of his eyes, meanwhile hoping that all of this is just a bad dream he’s having.
“That’s impossible,” he says after a couple of minutes, his voice cracking at the end.
The doctor breathes loudly and rubs his temples, pity clearly evident on his face as he looks at his patient. Hoon decides he will hate this man forever.
“It’s completely normal to be in denial at this stage,” the doctor nods his head at every word he says. Another reason to hate him: his annoying head movements when he talks. “Yes, very normal. But what you should do now is, however bad it may sound, you have to accept reality and stabilize your emotions. It’s the only way to slow the progression of the disease down, if only by a little. Freaking out, panicking, yelling, crying…prevent all of these at any cost. It’s not good for your body, nor for your mental state. Instead of giving up, you need to be strong. There’s no survival at the end, but…any extra time you can buy should be a reason to keep you going.”
Hoon moves his stare away from the doctor and gazes at the X-Ray again, eyes wide open as he tries to keep breathing at a normal rate. Hyperventilating should be added to the list of ‘things that aren’t good for your body’.
The doctor moves forward and leans on the desk, resting his head in his hands. Hoon thinks it’s highly unfair how the doctor pretends to be exhausted and drained, while the only thing he had to do is deliver the news. It’s isn’t like he’s the one whose life just changed, whose future got destroyed in a couple of minutes.
“It will be difficult and painful, but…” the doctor trails off and heaves a deep sigh. “If you were the only patient… instead I get two in a row…. such a rare occurrence.”
Ignoring him and his unnecessary commentary, Hoon says “If these results are true, how long do I have?”
“How long do you have?” the doctor questions. He leans back in his chair. “I…honestly, I don’t know. It could be over within a week, but seeing as you’re young and… well, you’re not exactly healthy, but you’ve been living a very healthy life… I think three months. Six months at the most.”
Three months. Six at most. The words sound scary to him. What about his three year plan? How can he fit a thousand and ninety-five days into three months? As Hoon lets the words progress further into his mind, the door bursts open and someone stomps into the room.
“Mister Shin, what are you doing here?” the doctor asks bewildered.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” is what Hoon hears the other person say. The voice would probably be soft and deep normally, but now the hint of panic makes it sound hoarse and squeaky. Hoon takes his eyes of the desk which he has been staring at unknowingly, raking his eyes over the young man.
“Mister Shin, I’ve already told you - there’s no way we messed up. We did multiple tests and the results were all the same.” the doctor stands up to calm the panicking Soohyun down.
Soohyun points at the X-Ray. “Look,” he exclaims. “This is different compared to what you just showed me. My head didn’t look like that just now, I’m sure of it. How can you so confidently say you didn’t mess up, when you’re clearly messing up the X-Ray’s?”
A nurse rushes in, bowing and apologizing to Hoon who sits in his chair with a dazed look. She walks over to Soohyun and grabs his arm, trying to drag him out of the room. He doesn’t have any of it though, moving away and taking a step closer to the doctor.
“How can this happen out of the blue? A tumor is a tumor, it doesn’t have to be life threatening from the beginning. You must have messed something up, it can’t be a malignant tumor.”
“You go out first and we will talk about this after you have calmed down,” the doctor says, pushing Soohyun towards the door softly. Hoon is reminded of a mother calming a child down in the supermarket, saying she’ll buy him ice cream if he behaves. But the child doesn’t believe in that, since the mother never buys him ice cream. And of course, Soohyun doesn’t believe the doctor either.
Soohyun grabs the doctor’s arm and holds it tightly. “Please have another look at it,” he pleads.
“We can’t do that…the results are out already.”
“Who says the results aren’t wrong?”
Another nurse arrives at the scene and bundling her powers with the first one, she tries to get Soohyun to leave. However he keeps struggling, pulling his arms out of their grip, ducking away and trying to cling onto any object close to him. He gets a hold of Hoon’s chair, raising his head in surprise when the chair doesn’t seem to move an inch when he clings to it. The shocked look when Soohyun realizes the chair is occupied would have amused Hoon normally, but right now he only tilts his head to the side in question
“Hello, sorry to interrupt,” Soohyun says, giving the other boy a smile.
Hoon raises a hand and waves awkwardly. “Hi.”
In the midst of their polite exchange, the doctor grabs Soohyun’s leg to drag him away, which leads to Soohyun sprawling and ending up on Hoon’s lap.
“Sorry about that too,” he says through clenched teeth, almost grabbing Hoon’s crotch as he tries to get up. Turning around, he moves until he can hold the doctor’s shoulders. “Examine me one more time! Let go of me!” The last part is directed at one of the nurses who has grabbed a hold of him again.
Soohyun, sensing he can’t escape this situation easily, lets himself drop to the floor in a desperate attempt to avoid anyone that reaches for him.
“Mister Shin. Mister Shin Soohyun!” the nurses exclaim, while the doctor yells “Please get up!” at the same time.
Soohyun writhes on the floor, bumping into Hoon’s chair multiple times. The bumps seem to get Hoon back to reality, as far as someone lying on the floor during his appointment can be real.
“Didn’t you say you would re-examine it?” Hoon says as he stands up abruptly. “Earlier, you said you would re-examine it, right?”
Everyone stops moving and yelling, heads turning in his direction in confusion.
“Do it one more time to confirm it.” It isn’t a question this time. He wants one more test and only then he will believe the results. If they’re the same, then so be it, but there might be a small chance that there’s still hope for him. “I want to redo it,” he continues calmly. “Please arrange the appointment for me.”
And with that he walks out of the room, leaving the doctor, the nurses and Soohyun gaping behind him. Soohyun slowly stands up - being on the floor in a weird position for that long wasn’t really comfortable - and lowers his head.
“Sorry for the commotion. Please arrange an appointment for me too.” he bows and pats the doctor’s chest, before dashing out of the room.
--
“No, everything is alright. I’m as healthy as ever. I’ll see you at dinner, okay? Tell Hana I bought her Kimbap. Yes, alright. Bye.” Hoon hangs up and stares at his phone forlornly.
Soohyun gazes at Hoon sympathetically, taking a seat next to him on the brick wall. “Your wife?” He asks.
“No,” Hoon says as he looks up, eyes squinting because of the sun. “My brother. I eat with him and his family every Thursday.”
“Ah,” Soohyun nods.
They’re both silent for a while, afraid to break the silence, knowing that it will only lead to topics they don’t want to talk about.
“You’re taking the bus too?” Hoon finally breaks the silence.
Soohyun looks puzzled. “No, I drove here.”
“Oh. Then what are you doing here?”
“Ah, that,” Soohyun scratches his head. “I was just walking around and - “
“You aren’t following me, by any chance?”
“What? No, that’s not it!” Soohyun blushes a little. “I just saw you sitting here alone and thought I might as well talk to you. Especially after interrupting your appointment earlier…I wanted to give you a proper apology, I really shouldn’t have burst into the room like that.”
Hoon nods and smiles a little. “No, you shouldn’t have, it was sort of rude. But I get it. I’m not accepting that news so easily either. You…have a tumor too?”
“Yes,” Soohyun sighs. “A malignant one, or so the doctor says.”
“I can’t believe -” the bus arriving interrupts Hoon’s sentence. He is torn between wanting to continue his sentence and getting up to take the bus. Knowing he still needs to get to Hoonbi’s house later that evening, he makes his decision. “That’s my bus. I - maybe I’ll see you again someday.”
“Yeah, who knows.” Soohyun stands up with Hoon, brushing the back of his trousers. “We seem to share the same fate, after all. Let’s see what else it has in store for us.”
“Goodbye Soohyun.” Hoon chuckles and waves as he steps into the bus.
Soohyun waves back at him, screaming an ‘I’ll see you soon’ before the door closes. He waves at the bus until it’s just a tiny dot in the distance.
--
The door slams shut behind him as he takes off his shoes, bangs falling in front of his eyes. Soohyun brushes the hair away absentmindedly, wondering if he should get a haircut tomorrow or not. Stumbling, he looks down to see he tripped over a pair of shoes that aren’t his.
Pulling on a pair of slippers, he shuffles towards the living room. The lights are turned off, but he still sees the shadows of balloons on his wall. Three people pop up from behind the furniture, lights suddenly shining brightly and a happy birthday song is sung in multiple languages. Soohyun smiles as only Kevin sings the right notes - Eli and Kiseop seem to be singing a completely different song.
“Happy birthday!” they all but scream, holding out a cake with candles.
“Make a wish!” Kiseop says, pulling Soohyun closer to the cake.
Soohyun pauses and thinks about it. Pushing negative thoughts out of his head, he wishes for a happy life with his friends. As he blows out the candles, the others cheer loudly. Kevin hops over to him and pulls him into a hug and soon the others join, trying to press kisses to Soohyun’s face.
“Get his present,” Eli says as everyone has pulled away, skipping to the kitchen to get more food.
Soohyun takes a seat at the table and opens the box Kevin put down in front of him. Before he can see what it is, Kiseop distracts him by putting a party hat on his head. Soohyun smiles and squeezes the younger boy’s hand briefly, then focuses his attention on his present again.
Inside the box are different shaped notebooks, along with CD’s and different shaped post-it notes.
“What do you think? You like it?” Kevin asks.
Soohyun looks at the box in amazement and a lump forms in his throat. “Yeah. I really like it.”
“We overdid it, didn’t we?” Kiseop pouts at Soohyun’s lack of enthusiasm. “We just thought that you should be able to write songs everywhere, or write sentences down on the post-it’s so you won’t forget them.”
Soohyun smiles. “You didn’t overdo it and I’m really happy with it. Thank you guys so much.”
Eli pats him on the shoulder. “We did overdo it, no need to save our feelings. You could probably last a year with all of these.”
As the others burst out laughing, Soohyun’s smile falters. A year.
--
“What would you do if I died?”
Even though Hoonbi keeps his eyes on his book, Hoon knows he stopped reading by the way his head is raised a little. “If you died? Hmm, I would get your motorbike and go on rides whenever Jiyeon annoys me.”
“Yah!” Jiyeon slaps Hoonbi, scowling at him. “You can’t just leave every time something isn’t going your way.”
Hoon watches them argue in silence, winking at Hana when she notices him. Hana rolls her eyes at her parents and then makes her way over so she can cuddle into Hoon’s side.
“I would miss you, uncle. You can never die, alright?”
--
“The result is the same as last time?” Hoon asks softly.
The doctor turns his chair so he’s facing Hoon again. “We should start the chemo as soon as possible.”
“Will it change anything, except the loss of my hair?”
The piercing silence gives him his answer.
--
A lamp falls down as Soohyun tries to make his way inside the house. Eli stumbles down the stairs, ignoring the remark of ‘you’re wearing boxers with ducks on it’ which is followed by a lot of giggles, instead he proceeds to get a hold of Soohyun’s arm and staggers as he tries to get them both upstairs.
“You shouldn’t drink so much, it’s bad for your health.” Eli groans as Soohyun bumps against him and he hits the wall. “And it’s bad for my back too.”
Soohyun laughs hysterically. “I’m going to die anyway, what does it matter?”
--
“So you mean I won’t get my money back?”
“Our staff has put in a lot of effort for your sake. In the end it’s you who changed his mind, not us,” the woman behind the desk tells him.
Hoon folds his arms and resists the urge to roll his eyes.
“We have taken all your needs in consideration and managed to find the perfect flight, hotel and location for you. There’s no need to worry, we have taken care of everything for you. Why don’t you reconsider, you will regret cancelling this golden opportunity later.”
“I have already told you, there’s no need for me to go anymore. My plans got thwarted, so please cancel it for me.”
The woman sighs and holds up the papers. “Sir, take a look at the agreement. The problem isn’t coming from our company. You signed these forms.”
Hoon puts on a civil smile, picking up his own papers. “Take a look at this. ‘The client has the right to terminate the contract within a period of time.’ Therefore -“
Loud yelling coming from outside the room makes Hoon stop in the middle of his sentence. He glances to his right and sees the secretary holding a man back.
“Call the manager!” The man says, barging further into the room, dragging the secretary with him. The man is turned around briefly, but that seems to anger him even more and Hoon sees the secretary get lifted and moved out of the room. That, however, seems to unleash some hidden powers in the secretary, who bursts into the room and tackles the man to the ground.
Hoon watches the scene in front of him and blinks. Tilting his head, he looks at the man laying on the floor. He doesn’t seem to be much older than him, golden bangs covering his eyes and muscular arms pushing the secretary away. Now that he thinks about it, those arms look awfully familiar to him.
“I want my money back,” the man says as he gets up, tugging his shirt down. Looking around and scratching his neck, he glances at the woman behind the desk and then focuses his sight on Hoon. They lock eyes and Hoon knows where he’s seen a similar scene happening before.
--
“Thank you,” Soohyun says, staring at the cars passing by. They sit next to each other at the bus stop, having walked there after leaving the travel agency together. “How come you know so much about stuff like this?”
“I did some research on how to get a refund,” Hoon answers. “You drove here?”
Soohyun gives him a puzzled look. “Yeah. Why?”
“You aren’t following me again, are you?” Hoon squints his eyes at the man next to him.
Laughing awkwardly, Soohyun quickly shakes his head. “What? No, I told you that before, I’m not following you around.”
Hoon stands up and scrunches his nose, putting his hands into his pockets. “Let’s go get a drink somewhere.”
Confused, Soohyun watches as Hoon walks past him. He raises his arm and makes some sounds out of protest as he waves it around wildly, before standing up too and running after the other.
--
Soohyun slams the glass down on the table. “Three months…”
“Three months is too short,” Hoon says as he eyes his half-empty glass.
“I know right? Three months is way too short,” Soohyun sighs, his brows furrowing. “I can’t just die like this.”
“I….have tried so hard to live. If only I had known earlier…”
“I can’t just die like this,” Soohyun repeats. “My friends, we still need to create so many memories. Beautiful memories that we would remember the rest of our lives. And my little students, I still need to see them grow older and stronger. I want to hear their grown up voices, singing clearly and full of emotion as they stand on stage in front of a sold out concert hall. I want to tell everyone that I taught them how to sing, that my little Hwayoungie had her first performance with me as we sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ together in the back of the classroom.”
“I even had to cancel my trip…”
Soohyun nods at that. “Why couldn’t I have planned the trip earlier? I really wanted to see Europe…”
“Don’t you know? We aren’t allowed to take an airplane. The changing air pressure is bad for us, the brain will swell up thus increasing pressure inside the skull,” Hoon says matter-of-factly.
“Oh. No, I didn’t know that. Well, no flying for me then.”
Hoon picks up his glass and holds it out to Soohyun. “Let’s cheer,” he says softly. “Let’s cheer on how unfair all of this is.”
Their glasses cling and both man gulp down their drinks, wincing as the liquid burns their throat. After that it’s silent for a while, the music playing in the background and the voices of people mingle together, making Hoon dizzy. He shakes his head to sober up a little and he watches Soohyun from the side of his eyes.
Making sure his fringe covers his eyes, he takes a good look at the man. He looks around the same age, maybe a little older, but still in his twenties. His face seemed a little odd at first, but after staring at it for a while, Hoon notices the long eyelashes and full lips, the dimple that appears as Soohyun laughs at his own jokes, the eyes crinkling into perfect half-moons, sometimes covered by golden brown bangs which Soohyun brushes out of his eyes every few seconds. From what he has seen, Soohyun is tall, lean and has muscular arms. Soohyun is a very attractive man, Hoon concludes his thoughts.
Because he’s too busy looking at Soohyun’s face, he doesn’t notice how the other man has been observing him too. Soohyun already found the man very handsome the first time they met in the hospital, even though he could only see the man from a weird angle, but still. The orange-brown haired man was what Soohyun only could describe as perfect. A defined jaw line, dark brown eyes, luscious lips (a tongue swiping over it every time Hoon took a sip from his drink, which made Soohyun wonder how those lips would taste), his body, despite being covered by a black jacket, seemed very toned. Exactly the opposite of every girl he dated in the past.
“You have time this coming Saturday?” Hoon asks suddenly.
Soohyun looks at him with a dazed look, still absorbed in his thoughts. “Huh?”
“I asked you if you have time this coming Saturday,” Hoon repeats himself, grabbing his planner out of his bag.
“Well, I have nothing special to do.” Soohyun rubs the back of his neck.
“If you have time Saturday, would you mind accompanying me to Cheongpyeong?” Hoon scribbles something down and then looks over at Soohyun. “Someone recommended it to me some time ago, saying the lake and the mountains are beautiful. Since it’s one of the most popular destinations during the summer holidays, I wanted to see it before I die.”
Soohyun blinks. Then blinks some more. Seeing the blank look on Soohyun’s face, Hoon looks down at his planner.
“Don’t you want to visit places you have never seen before? There are so many beautiful places out there, and since we only have three months…we might as well live those three months to the fullest and go sightseeing around our country.” When Soohyun keeps looking confused and doesn’t answer, Hoon shoves the planner in his bag. “You don’t have to go there with me, I could go by myself. Just…if you have time on Saturday, why don’t you join me?”
“I…as in we go on a date?” Soohyun asks, finally having sobered up a little. Hoon flushes at that and Soohyun grins as he finally rendered Hoon to silence.
“If you want to call it that…”
“Alright, it’s a date then.”
Hoon gets up abruptly, feeling highly uncomfortable with this new development. Loosening his tie a little, he bows at Soohyun. “It’s late, I should get going. Call me tomorrow so we can discuss a place to meet up.”
Soohyun nods, quickly standing up too and following Hoon out of the café. Hoon manages to flag down a taxi in a couple of seconds and he mutters an ‘I’ll be leaving then’ and Soohyun hasn’t even progressed it yet, before the taxi is speeding away.
“Ah, phone number…” He mutters, slapping his forehead.
--
Soohyun pulls out numerous papers from the machine, guessing he must have number twenty to thirty-five now. He looks around to check if no one has seen him, only to find the guy sitting next to Hoon looking at him with raised eyebrows. He quickly walks away from the machine and sits down at one of the seats in the waiting area.
Tapping his feet impatiently, he sits there for ten minutes before number twenty is called. It’s the guy sitting next to Hoon and Soohyun sighs. He glances to his side and sees the woman next to him has number thirty-six.
“Here, why don’t you go first?” He says, holding out the little piece of paper to her. She thanks him and quickly makes her way over to the front.
Five minutes later and number twenty-one is called. He scowls, it’s the table furthest away from Hoon. He offers the number to an old lady who has just arrived.
Hoon locks eyes with him briefly, to which Soohyun puffs out his cheeks and motions for the other to hurry up. Hoon just shakes his head and gives a pointed look at the client at his desk, before returning his attention to said client when she asks him a question.
After twenty minutes the person at Hoon’s desk finally leaves. Soohyun quickly gets up as Hoon calls for number thirty-two. Sitting down at the chair, Soohyun smiles brightly. “Hi.”
“Hello,” Hoon says, glancing around to see if his boss around, but he only finds Jaeseop winking at him and mouthing ‘he’s cute’. Shaking his head, he looks at Soohyun again, who seems to be frowning at the little interaction he and Jaeseop had.
“So, how can I help you sir?”
“You never gave me your phone number,” Soohyun says.
“Did you ask for it?”
“Huh?”
Hoon pretends to search for the right files on his desk. “You were the one that said it was a date. Shouldn’t you be asking for my number then?”
Soohyun gapes at him. “Weren’t you the one that invited me to go with you?”
“That would be weird. You called it a date, so obviously you should ask.”
“You should have given me your number first.”
Hoon smiles. “You do know this is a bank and I have to do my job here?”
Snatching a form out of Hoon’s hands, Soohyun starts filling it in. After he’s done he pushes the form back, patting Hoon’s hand. “Thank you for your advice, I will look further into this.” He gets up, walking out of the building and wiggling his fingers at Hoon as he passes the window. He makes a ‘call me’ sign with his hands, then disappears from Hoon’s sight.
Looking down at the form, Hoon sees Soohyun wrote down his phone number at the required box, and he also drew a little heart at the ‘other comments’ section. A smile spreads on his face and he shoves the form into his bag.
--
Soohyun is leaning against the car, enjoying the soft wind that’s blowing around him as he waits near Hoon’s house. He looks up when he hears footsteps approaching, a smile forming on his face as he sees who it is. “You’re late,” he teases.
Raising an eyebrow, Hoon stops in front of Soohyun. “Don’t worry, I have changed our plans a little so we can still see everything.”
Shaking his head, Soohyun pushes Hoon to the other side of the car. “Why plan everything out?” He mutters. “What’s wrong with a little spontaneity?”
“You said something?” Hoon asks as they both get in the car.
Soohyun just smiles and grits his teeth. “No. Which direction leads us to the highway?”
--
“Wow.” Soohyun leans forward so he can look out the front window better, admiring the stunning views. Trees are covering their view a little, but they can still look into to valley, catching a glimpse of the beautiful lake every once in a while.
“Cheonpyeong is most famous for its lake, apparently it’s great for water sport activities. During the summer all the resorts are full of tourists. Since it’s spring now, it isn’t that busy. We must go and take a look at one of the temples if we can find them.”
Soohyun takes a look at his right and smiles as he sees Hoon bend over a tourist guide, highlighting some sentences. “Do you have to make a research project out of everything?”
Noticing the other looking at him, Hoon sits up straight. “I guess not. But isn’t it a given that people who are prepared, are more likely to be victorious? I plan things to do for today and tomorrow. Then I’ll do everything according to schedule. That’s my lifestyle.”
“How can you live life like that?” Soohyun sighs. “Ah, look to your right!” He points at a large sign that tells them the samgyeopsal restaurant is only a couple of meters in front of them. “Let’s go eat there, I’m hungry.”
“But…we are supposed to go to one of the temples first.” Hoon looks down at his planner. “Eating is scheduled at one o’clock, it’s only eleven o’clock right now.”
“We’ll follow your schedule later,” Soohyun assures him. “Right now, we need to eat.”
--
The fat sputters as the meat comes in content with the heated grill, the aroma slowly spreading in the air makes Soohyun’s stomach growl. He licks his lips in anticipation, already tasting the soft meat on his lips. Turning the piece of pork around, he gets his chopsticks ready to grab it off the plate. Before he can pierce the meat though, another pair of chopsticks snatches it away. Soohyun gapes as Hoon gulps the meat down and he mentally wishes Hoon would burn his tongue.
Heaving his shoulders, he grabs another piece of meat and lays it on the grill. He turns the meat around when he sees it’s almost done and his chopsticks are ready to grab the meat. However, another pair of chopsticks pierces the meat once again, making Soohyun scowl.
“If you have any conscience, you should slow down,” he says.
Hoon looks up, chewing the meat slowly on purpose, closing his eyes and sighing. “Ah, delicious. Haven’t you heard that dying from eating is the best way?”
“Are you the only one who’s dying?” Soohyun gets out through gritted teeth. “I am dying too, you know. It’s already unfair that I’m going to die and now you’re making me suffer too?”
Grilling a piece of meat, Hoon waits until it’s ready then wraps it into a piece of lettuce. “Here, eat,” he says, holding the piece up for Soohyun. Soohyun leans forward and eats the piece out of Hoon’s hand, making sure he licks Hoon’s finger too.
“Gross!” Hoon yells, wiping his finger on Soohyun’s shirt, who is just grinning widely.
“By the way, I was wondering…why are you speaking informal to me? Haven’t we just met?” Soohyun says, grilling some more meat.
Hoon moves back in his seat, taking a sip from his glass. “I guess it just felt comfortable. We’re probably around the same age anyway.”
“Huh, let’s check to make sure. I am twenty-five years old, how about you?”
“You’re busy next week, hyung?” Hoon looks away nonchalantly as he says it.
“Hyung? Yah, how could you be so impolite to me all the time. Tsk.” Soohyun grabs the pieces of meat from the grill. “And I guess I’m free.”
“Let’s go to Jeonju.”
“You’ve never been there before?”
“Hmm, we never travelled when I was a kid and once I moved to Seoul I got too busy to go travelling. You have been there before?”
“My friend’s family lives there, so I used to go there a lot during the holidays. We stayed close to the house most of the time, so I haven’t really seen a lot of the city itself.”
Hoon brushes his fringe out of his eyes, his eyes already fixed on his planner again. “You will come with me, right? I will make a schedule for it when I get home.”
“Researching is taking over your life,” Soohyun stuffs a piece of meat in his mouth. Pointing at Hoon with his chopsticks, he says “You know you’re not acting normal, right?”
“I told you before, that’s just how I am. If I don’t research, things won’t go as planned. Who knows where I might end up, I couldn’t bear with the thought of standing up every morning and not knowing what to do.”
“Tut tut tut,” Soohyun clicks his tongue. “What a tiring life you have. Isn’t life supposed to be about helping each other out, doing random acts to please someone else, to be spontaneous and surprise the one you love…”
“You’re such a romanticist. How did you survive up until now?” Hoon frowns. “Life needs to be organized. If you just live by the day, you won’t succeed. You need to plan ahead.”
“But if you plan out your whole life, where will your happiness come from. If you just follow whatever you have scheduled, you will only focus on that. You won’t see the world around you, the people who are waiting for you to see them will be ignored. Happiness is around every corner, you only need to walk around with your eyes open.”
Hoon doesn’t reply, instead he looks at his hands in silence as he takes in what Soohyun just told him.
“Did I offend you?” Soohyun asks softly.
“Maybe you’re right,” Hoon speaks slowly. “But maybe I’m right too. I have lived my life like this, you lived your life your way. A person lives a certain way, because it’s meant to be like that, it suits them and makes them feel comfortable. I can’t live life your way, because it’s scary and uncertain…”
“…and I can’t have your lifestyle, because it’s scary and too full of structure for me,” Soohyun finishes. “I guess we could both learn something from each other.”
“So…you agree that we should go and see the temple now?” Hoon says, smiling cheekily.
Soohyun groans. “That is not what I meant…”
--
Soohyun parks the car across the street of Hoon’s building, the streetlights illuminating them as they get out of the car. They both walk towards the building slowly, wanting to prolong their day together as long as possible. The cold spring air makes them shiver a little, but they both pretend they don’t feel it. Eventually they have almost reached the entrance and Hoon coughs to break the silence.
“I’ll be leaving then. Thanks for today.”
“No need to thank me,” Soohyun says, looking down at his shoes. “You were the one who planned it out perfectly, I just…had a lot of fun.”
Hoon grins, playing with a button on his jacket.
“You should go in.”
Biting his lip, Hoon nods. “Yes. I’m going.”
There is an awkward atmosphere, but Soohyun doesn’t really know how to break it. On a normal date, this is where he would have given the girl a goodnight kiss before leaving. But this was not a normal date and Hoon was most definitely not a girl, meaning the rules of dating would probably be different. In the end, he waves awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck while doing so.
Hoon looks down in disappointment, but he quickly covers it by waving back at Soohyun. Turning around he drags his feet to the entrance slowly, hoping that Soohyun will call him back or turn him around. That moment never comes though and Hoon juts his lower lip out in a pout. Right after he has given up hope, he hears Soohyun call him.
“Yah, Hoon!”
He turns around quickly, smile on his face. Soohyun stares at him for a while and opens his mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
“No, it’s nothing. Goodnight,” is what he eventually says and Hoon can’t help but pull a face.
“If that’s all…goodnight.” He waves one last time, then turns around, plan forming in his head. He takes a couple of steps and then stumbles, holding the wall to keep himself standing.
“Hoon? Hoon! Hoon, are you alright?” Soohyun rushes over. “What’s wrong?” He wraps an arm around Hoon’s waist, forcing the younger boy to lean on him instead of on the wall.
Hoon shakes his head. “I felt a little dizzy there,” he says. “You came running here pretty fast, though. Were you worried?”
Soohyun looks at him in confusion. “What? Of course I was worried!”
“Hmm. Good to know I will be safe with you in the future.”
“What are you-“ He locks eyes with Hoon and only then he notices that Hoon’s body is pressed against his right side, their lips only separated by a couple of inches. He suddenly understands what Hoon has been doing and he already opens his mouth to protests, but then Hoon leans in. As their lips touch, Soohyun feels little bolts of energy rushing through his body, setting him on fire. His face is flushed when they pull apart, even though their lips only touched for a couple of seconds, but he’s glad to see he’s not the only one feeling like this.
“You planned all of this, didn’t you?” He asks, his voice hoarse.
Hoon shakes his head in denial. “This was completely spontaneous.”
“Oh. You should be spontaneous more often then.”
“I…will try.”
Soohyun chuckles at that, pulling Hoon into a hug. “It’s not that hard,” he whispers into Hoon’s ear. “Look.” He moves until they’re face to face again, then leans forward and presses their lips together again.
--
Part II