skyfever: Caution: Wet Floor

[dbskbigbang_fic]

Title: Caution: Wet Floor
Author: Reeza (skyfever)
Pairing(s): JaeMin, HoSu, HaeChul, JongYu; JaeChun
Rating: PG-16
Summary: The doctor is always in.
Word count: 11,170 words
Disclaimer: Only the plot is mine.
Author's Note: Set in the Philippines, and this is why their names are written as Jaejoong Kim instead of Kim Jaejoong. The idea for this fic was spawned during one fateful night when I was taking a bath and desperately trying to come up with a plot for my fic for dbsk_bigbang. I told myself I'd never write Hospital!AU. The morning after, after having a cup of coffee, I sat down in front of the computer, opened the LJ update page, and typed the middle of this fic. Lo and behold, a story.



Attachments are like cobwebs in your closet,
or mosquitoes that sting quite hard.
Sometimes you don't know why they're there,
sometimes you just want to get rid of them.
Most of the time, you just let them be.

Attachments, attachments.

o1. The prelude to knowing
The wind was a man with a lisp talking about
people who had stabbed him in the back.
I hurried to get home and escape him.
The moon was a child's face squeezed against a screen,
yelling curses down at us.
   - Heather O'Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals

I want to be a doctor.

The thought of being a doctor crossed my mind early, when I was only five. My fifth birthday celebration was the time when all of my relatives were able to come over for the little party, and that was the first time I saw my uncle who was a doctor. He told us about his operations, the little surgeries and the occasional hazards. I didn't understand any of them, but I knew he was a cool guy. So at the age of five, just before my mother tucked me in bed, I told her- "I want to be a doctor." She chuckled, laughed, then bid me good night.

I want to be a doctor.

By the time I was eight, I already knew what a doctor actually was. Funny, though, that when I found out that cutting people's bodies open was part of the job, I wanted to be a doctor all the more. Perhaps I had some morbid fascination with blood and the like. I vaguely remembered my mother being shocked at my newfound penchant for reading medical books when the medical terms there were totally beyond me. I told my mother a second time, "I want to be a doctor." This time, she smiled at me. "Sure, son. Sure."

I want to be a doctor.

I could still recall my relatives laughing at me saying that I wanted to be a doctor on Christmas Eve. I was fifteen then, and they told me to lay my desire to be a doctor to rest since I would probably be better off as an artist. "Honey, you're amazing and all, but it's so much easier to paint than go saving people's lives," the wife of my uncle who was a doctor told me. I remembered shaking my head, telling her, "I don't want something easy. I want a test." And it was probably the statement of the entire night - I told them I wanted a test, something that wasn't easy, when actually being a doctor, everything they did, was still beyond me.

I... still want to be a doctor.

We moved to the Philippines because my dad was doing business with too many Filipinos. It took me a while to adjust. The changes were so abrupt - I was in my last year in senior high school, then we moved to a new country. My plans were totally screwed up, but I had to make do with what I had. So when the time came that I was already looking for a university to study in, I looked for the best medical schools in the country. University of the Philippines seemed the best choice - it was the country's state university, after all. I still submitted my application to other schools, but my mind was set on UP. So when the results from UP were released, I was more than relieved to see my name on the list. "Dreams do come true," I remembered my mother telling me while we were crossing the street to get to the mall - she said she was going to treat me to something special. Dreams do come true, it echoed in my mind. And just before we were about to make it to the street across, a truck rushed past us and I felt myself being pushed to the ledge and - "Mom, mom? Where are y-"

I need to be a doctor.

With the recent death of my mother, I worked hard the moment I entered the university. Never had there been a semester when I got a grade lower than a 2.0. I set a standard for myself - never ever be better; you have to be the best, even at the expense of stepping on other people. Halfway through the second semester, I took notice of this boy in my block who seemed to do just as good as I did. He was as tall as I was (and I was taller than most Filipinos), and he looked like a foreigner, and just like... me. "I'm Junsu. Kim Jun&mdash Ah, I mean Junsu Kim." I spoke to him in Korean, and his eyes widened. "Annyeong," I ended, smiling at my newfound friend (or at least, that was how I wanted our relationship to be). He smiled back. "Annyeong."

I'm going to be a doctor.

Four grueling years of studying after, it felt as if we were practically being thrust into different fields of study. Six months into the med practice of sorts, Junsu and I had mixed up medical terms and materials for internal medicine with surgery, which wasn't entirely far from the internal medicine materials except for a few things (that I swore I could have forgotten somewhere along the way). Then there was graduation, and Junsu and I graduated cum laude. Post Graduate Internship wasn't as easy as it seemed, and it was as if we were mere assistants to the doctors in the hospital we had our internship in more than people who were being trained. To top it all off, we had to study for the licensure exam, which we passed with flying colors. And there it was, right within our reach - the real thing.

I am a doctor.

I am Jaejoong Kim, and this is my dream.
I am Jaejoong Kim, and I am a doctor.

"This," the resident said, opening the door of the room and pointing inside, "is your locker room. You are expected to be here when you are not asked to do anything but still are on duty." The resident adjusted his glasses and Junsu tiptoed behind me, looking over my shoulder. "He's scary," he whispered in my ear, and I tried hard not to laugh. "I am not scary, you kid over there." We stiffened at his statement and some of our fellow interns tried so hard not to laugh. "I'm Yunho Jung, your resident and your master."

"I will be your slave driver, your boss, the one who'll be ordering you around, and your job is to make me happy." He was looking straight at Junsu when one of the interns burst out in laughter. He quickly suppressed it, but he was too late - Dr. Jung was already shooting him a glare. "You, all of you, will do as I say, and all your wrongdoings will reflect in your assessment." I gulped down hard - internship wasn't supposed to be military training, but it seemed more like it; I didn't study medicine to pushed around. "Now I want you to get to know each other for five minutes, then I want every patient on this floor checked. After you've finished, turn in your records. I'll be giving you a new task to work on. Now scoot." And then he left.

"Oh God," an intern gasped and rested his head against the wall as soon as Dr. Jung had left. "That Dr. Jung is creepy. I'm Dong- Aiden, I mean. Yeah, Aiden." I cocked my head just mildly. "You're Korean? I'm Jaejoong, and he's Junsu." He beamed at us. "You, you are, too? Oh!" Then he started jumping up and down, taking Junsu's hand then spinning him around. Two other interns walked up to us - one was so much shorter than the other. "Excuse me," the taller of the two said, and I saw Junsu and Aiden stop in their tracks - I heard a hint of foreign accent in the intern's tone, "You're Korean?" Junsu, Aiden and I nodded. "Oh, hi! I'm Jinki, he's Jonghyun. We're..." I laughed a bit; Junsu chuckled. "Korean, we figured." Aiden was the first to extend his hand to Jinki and Jonghyun. "Nice to meet you!" he said most exuberantly. He then turned around and faced Junsu and I. "You can call me Donghae, if you like, but people normally call me Aiden."

It was the first time I ever called a Korean by his English name.

To say that Aiden was bubbly was an understatement - he was practically a ball of sunshine, even in the presence of Dr. Jung who, we had recently found out, wasn't our resident but was, in fact, an attending. "What, Jung said he was your resident? That bastard- I'm your resident! Oi Jung, Yunho! Come here, you-"

Our resident, Dr. Kim, was quite the amusing one since he was able to order and push Dr. Jung around as if he was Dr. Jung's superior. "What are they saying about you being their resident? What got into your stupid brain that made you take my job?" Dr. Jung sighed and rolled his eyes. "Kim, come down-" "What do you mean calm down? Don't you tell me to-" "Heechul, I had to fill in for you. You weren't around the other day because you were on a vacation - you said so yourself." The disgruntled look on Dr. Kim's face was still there but he seemed a little less miffed than he was before. "Now go talk to your interns. They basically know what to do already, but a second briefing can never hurt. Besides, they haven't introduced themselves to you yet." Dr. Kim frowned and scowled, then turned around just as Dr. Jung did - I was certain I saw Dr. Jung sigh in what seemed to be relief for a moment, though.

"Okay. Order of business. Introduce yourselves. Let's start with... the small guy over there, you," Dr. Kim said, pointing at Jonghyun who was beside Jinki. Jonghyun took a couple of steps forward and cleared his throat. "I'm Jonghyun Kim." Dr. Kim pointed at Jinki, who did as Jonghyun had done earlier. "Jinki Lee, doctor. Glad to be of service." Dr. Kim scoffed and shook his head, then pointed at Aiden who was just beside Junsu. "Aiden Lee," Aiden said, to which Dr. Kim asked if it was his real name because Lee is not an English surname. "Oh no, doctor. I'm Korean. I'm just more... used to being called Aiden." Dr. Kim laughed, then asked Aiden what his Korean name was, and Aiden answered. "Donghae, is it? I'm calling you Donghae. You can't say no. Okay, next?" It was a good thing Junsu was there to introduce himself before I was supposed to because I was giggling. "Junsu Kim, doctor." Dr. Kim raised an eyebrow and frowned. "What, you're also a Kim? Aish, we'll have a problem with that. Okay, you." When it was finally my turn, I took a deep breath and tried suppressing my laughter and I was, for the first time, successful. "Jaejoong Kim. Nice to meet you."

"Okay, okay. Let's get this straight," Dr. Kim said, walking to the left and right, back and forth. "First, you're not calling me Dr. Kim. Call me Dr. Heechul. Or just Heechul, yes. That's just fine. But not Kim, please. We've got enough Kim's to confuse the staff." There was collective laughter and Dr. Kim - Heechul - laughed with us as well. "Now you two, the Kim twins, I'm calling you by your first names. Or maybe... I'll give you nicknames, yes. Let's see..." Just like that, he stopped in his tracks and his eyebrows furrowed - I didn't think he was serious with giving us nicknames but, apparently, he was. "Oh, screw it. I can't think of anything. I'll just call you by your first names." There was an awkward smile on Junsu's lips when I took a glance at him to check his reaction. "First thing's first. You're here to learn, not to be ordered by anyone else, so don't listen to what Jung says." He winked at the end of his statement. "But I will be giving you things to do and you can't say no. I don't want to see you loafing around in your locker room. I want my interns to be always on the go, the cream of the crop, understood? Or else I'll go all Yunho on you." And before we could even react, he laughed, and we couldn't help but follow. Our laughing spree lasted for at least a minute until another doctor came.

"Hey, Heechul. Your interns?" The doctor said, right hand gesturing our bunch. "Yeah. Such cuties, don't you think? Especially this boy, the guy beside the Kim twins. He's Korean but prefers to be called by his English name. He's weird - I love it." I wanted to say that we weren't twins, but well, that was how he wanted to call us. And I also wanted to point out that Heechul had just become one of my favorite people ever. "You're crazy," the doctor said, rolling his eyes while smiling. Heechul nudged him in his side. "Ah, I'm Dr. Shim, by the way. You guys might be working with me sometime soon. I'll see you around, okay?" He waved at us and Heechul and it was weird because I was waving back. And I watched him walk away.

Just after we were briefed on what we were supposed to do for the day, I saw Dr. Shim pass our way. I didn't know how it happened, but he smiled at me when he did. I was brought back to reality when Heechul called my attention. "Jaejoong? Are you listening?" "Ah, yes. I need to go check on the people in the left wing." Heechul nodded and smiled. "Okay, now move your lazy asses and scoot!" I found myself running to where I was supposed to be, but my mind was definitely somewhere else. Perhaps it was because of that that I bumped into someone, and, when I looked up, it was Dr. Shim. "Watch where you're going, kid," he said, ending with a wink. I just gave him a curt nod and an almost inaudible, "Ah, okay."

I didn't know if I was being weird or crazy or something, but there was something stuck in my throat that wasn't exactly a thing. Then I felt my stomach lurch. I figured it was indigestion, so I just shun it away. But it didn't go away. And before knocking on the door of room 311, I stopped, stared at the door knob and sighed.

It sounded silly, but I figured I was attracted to Dr. Shim in a way. Just... in some way that wasn't romantic or something. It was hard to explain.

Oh shit.

After our shift, I told Junsu about it. "Well, he's really cool. Maybe you just... want to be like him? I don't know." Junsu then busied himself with taking his scrub suit off. "Wait, we're talking about Dr. Shim, aren't we? Waaaaait! Jaejoong, don't tell me you're&mdash" "Junsu, tone down your voice, they might-" "B-but Jae, you're-" "I said I'm not sure yet! Just-"

"Hello, kids." Heechul emerged from the door and I clasped my hand on Junsu's mouth. "You're off early. Lucky bunch," he said, uncapping the bottle of water that he had. Heechul didn't look or seem like a doctor - not at all. His hair was dyed red, for starters. And they way he spoke was totally different from how Dr. Jung spoke or any other doctor did. "You're staring, Jaejoong. It's creepy, stop it." I blinked twice and apologized before bowing to him. After that, Junsu and I got our bags, then waved goodbye to him. "I want you here early!" "Yes!"

We hadn't seen Jinki and Jonghyun the whole day because they had something to do in the Pediatrics section, but we saw Aiden during the break. Junsu had started living with me the moment we got in Manila Doctor's Hospital since the condominium unit my father gave me was just nearby. We walked from the hospital to Robinsons Towers. Somewhere in our conversation about liking people and doctors, Junsu had convinced me that I had to get a shrink or something. Or that I should finally get a girl friend. "Remember Marie, that girl from our Math 11 class? You liked her, right?" I had to stop in my tracks for a while to recall who the girl was. "Ah, the one who sucked at Math?" Junsu laughed. "Yeah, that one. You had a crush on her until we graduated, right?" I scoffed. "It was a temporary thing. Besides, she wasn't my type." It was Junsu's turn to stop walking - he gaped at me. "You mean you're absolutely serious that you like Dr. Shim? Oh my God, Jaejoong Kim!" I knew he wouldn't let on, so I just went on my way and heard him running after me. "Hey, wait up!"

"Look, Su, crushes are meant to be like this. You know, just... liking someone." Did I just say I had a crush on Dr. Shim? "So chill, relax. It's not anything serious, and it won't be, okay." Junsu sighed. "Besides, we can't like our fellow doctors. It's... against the rules." Junsu chuckled. "Whoever said you followed the rules?"

Junsu had a point. And he wasn't supposed to have a point.

Sometimes, I wanted to ask myself why I had Junsu as my best friend.

o2. You know that 'L' word?
You gain power by pretending to be weak.
By contrast, you make people feel strong.
You save people by letting them save you.
All you have to do is be fragile and grateful.
Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
   - Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

So for the next few days - days after days after days, weeks - I tried as much as possible to avoid Dr. Shim, but fate seemed to find ways to make us meet. Like that one time when Junsu and I were lounging in the locker room. Aiden, who we hadn't been seeing in a while, came and told us that Dr. Shim had asked us to go to the little conference room near the Nurse's Station to have us solve a medical case. So we got up at once and went there but before we got out of the room, Junsu mumbled something along the lines of You don't like him, Jae. You don't. There Junsu Kim was, playing the role of the over-protective best friend, and it was all too amusing.

When we had finally reached the room, we bumped into Dr. Shim who had some papers in his hands. We bowed to him and he opened the door for us. There we saw Aiden, Jinki and Jonghyun, Nikka, one of the interns from the gynecology section, Bernadine who was often assigned in the Emergency Room, and a couple more people who we couldn't recognize. I walked to Aiden and stood just beside him. Aiden leaned in. "There's a weird case, the doctors don't know what to do so they're having us solve it." I chuckled. "Old tactics never grow old, really." We both laughed until we saw Dr. Shim staring at us. He then cleared his throat.

"We've got a very tricky case in our hands. A patient of ours, Guillermo Morales, was admitted here last night because he was having unusually violent tremors from chills. We got a history, and the only thing we got was that he was transporting metal rods from a construction site to a truck yesterday afternoon. He also said he felt a biting pain in his right foot while going home from work. Now, I want you interns to find out what exactly caused the chills and where that biting pain come from." At the end of Dr. Shim's briefing, collective murmuring was heard. Junsu started flipping through his little notebook that contained notes on the cases he's handled so far. I raised my hand. "Yes, Dr. Kim?" I gulped down hard and took a deep breath.

"Doctor, you said he felt a biting pain? And chills? He could have been punctured by something and he took it out by himself. He could have disinfected it with alcohol, but that wouldn't be enough, considering that he works in a construction site. I'm guessing... internal bleeding." The murmuring came to a halt and I saw Dr. Shim blinking twice through his glasses.

"Kim, come with me. You're scrubbing in. Where's... Ah, you, Kim, I mean Junsu. Junsu, am I right? Okay. Bring Dr. Jung to me, stat. Dr. Manalastas, tell Dr. Heechul that we've got this case solved. Good job, everyone."

And just like that, we were out of the room and I was scrubbing in for the first time.

Scrubbing in for the very first time was, to say the very least, amazing. Though I was just there to assist and Dr. Shim only called me once to do the cutting of the flesh, I still felt so accomplished, although at some point I swore I was shaking because all the interns were watching us - me - operate on Mr. Morales.

It was a number 3 screw that punctured him him first. The 40-mm screw punctured him just a bit, but it was deep enough to cause bleeding. Turns out he cleaned it good but didn't notice the other puncture he had that was caused by a 1 1/4 inch nail that, he didn't realize, already dug into his skin. When he got home, he took it out and cleaned it with water and soap, but still- nails that have dug deep into the skin shouldn't be just taken out like that, especially since he was working in a construction site. That caused the internal bleeding, thus the chills. The violent shaking had increased his heart beat and he started palpitating, then he had a heart attack just before we were supposed to start the operation. I was at a loss at first and just stared at the door as they pulled his stretcher inside, but then Dr. Shim called me and I got back to my senses.

So this was what the real thing really was.

The operation ended five hours after. It was pretty fast for an open-heart surgery, actually. And it was a success, which had me feeling accomplished until the end of the week. During the next few days, I scrubbed in on a couple more of Dr. Shim's operations, and Junsu had been constantly asking me about the thing I had for Dr. Shim. I waved him off, told him it was nothing because it was the truth. Or at least that was what I wanted to believe.

See, it was terribly hard to not be attracted to someone as smart and cool as Dr. Shim. For a doctor, he didn't seem too stressed out with his work, and neither did he speak in volumes of medical terms everytime he spoke to us (unlike Dr. Jung who looked too old for his age and seemed to favor Junsu's company when scrubbing in for operations). And he was really accommodating and funny, just like Heechul (who had taken a liking to keeping Aiden around him; he said it was therapeutic, the child-like nature Aiden had. I figured it was just him being too fond of the boy. I wouldn't blame him, though. Aiden was charming and always bubbly - he was a stress reliever.). Besides, I was just attracted and nothing more. Maybe the occasional skipping of a heart beat was freaky, and when it happened more often than the usual it was already frightening.

So I had resolved to distancing myself from Dr. Shim for a while, try scrubbing in for Dr. Jung or Dr. Iñigo, but Dr. Jung was either always too busy or had already assigned Junsu to scrub in in his operations. I got the chance to scrub in for Dr. Iñigo and I swore I'd never do it again. He was definitely worse than Dr. Jung - the man didn't know how talk to someone without having to shout and was always, always ordering people around! After that operation with Dr. Iñigo, I made sure I didn't see him again. Maybe I had fate to blame again, because just as soon as I exited the operating room, I bumped into Dr. Shim.

"Hey there, Kim. Jaejoong. Jaejoong, right? Ahahaha..." The last bit he said had him smiling sheepishly and me just blinking. When our eyes met, we both looked away, and I could've sworn we looked stupid with what we did. I bowed to him, excused myself and walked as fast as I could to where I was supposed to go - Where was I supposed to go, anyway?

Dr. Shim looked ridiculously cute, and I hated it.

Or at least I wished I did.

Jinki and Jonghyun, we found out, were actually interns on Post Graduate Internship, so they weren't exactly practitioners yet. The bad thing about it was that they had to suffer the perennial fate of med school graduates going through Post Graduate Internship - being slaves to the residents and attending. I vaguely remembered one evening off spent laughing over Dr. Jung being such a slave-driver, Dr. Mandapat being a walking sleeping pill because one would always be lulled to sleep by his voice, and about Heechul being best resident ever. It was the first time that we got to spend some time with the two of them because we were always hanging out with Aiden. "Say, do you two live nearby?" Jinki shook his head. "Jonghyun lives in Las Piñas; I live in Quezon City." Junsu's eyes widened. "You mean you commute to the hospital every single day? Aish!" Junsu shook his head. I could see Aiden frowning beside Junsu. "Maybe you guys should get a dorm here or something." My eyes shot up.

"Say, you two, would you like to live with me and Junsu?" Jinki's eyes shot up at my statement. "B-but I- If it's- You don't really have to- I-" I chuckled. "Honestly, it's okay," I replied, smiling at the two of them but more at Jinki because he was cute stuttering like that. Jonghyun looked at him. "Jinki, what do you say?" Jinki was fumbling with the hem of his scrub suit. "I, well- It's fine with me..." Jonghyun's eyes lit up and he faced me, took my hands and held it close to his chest. "Thank you, thank you, Jaejoong! Ah!" Then he started jumping up and down, soon dragging Jinki along with him. Junsu moved closer to me.

"Had I known better, I'd say those two were an item." I giggled and nudged him in his side. "Who knows?" Aiden might've heard me because he suddenly looked at me and shook his head, laughing. But I knew I was right - we could never really tell. We were doctors, people who saved lives, not love gurus or anything close to that. We were yet to fall in love. Whoever in his right mind would want to be attached to someone for the rest of his human life, anyway? Nu-uh, not me.

Or maybe not.

I figured that I wasn't a man of attachments when my father called from his house one morning. It was my birthday the other day, you didn't even call me. I frowned against the mouthpiece of the phone. "I did, dad. You just forgot. You were having your coffee then, remember?" And it was true - I did call him on his birthday and even lowered my pride and went to his house to give him a present. I gave him a woven scarf with checkered prints as the design. He wore it the moment he saw it. One part of me was hurt and the other was cynical - maybe this was his lame attempt at getting me back; I wouldn't fall for that anymore. But then, there was this other part of me that was scared, scared that my father's memory was disintegrating, scared that I was going to possibly lose him to dementia.

It wasn't exactly the best way to start the morning, even when Dr. Shim was thrusting a cup of coffee in front of me.

Wait. Dr. Shim was doing what?

"Best way to start the day, isn't it? Coffee. Haha." His voice drifted off and he was wearing that sheepish smile again. He was giving me coffee, Starbucks coffee, at that. "I hope you like Toffee Nut?" I laughed a little. His sheepish smile turned into an even more awkward smile. "It's sweet." I shook my head, snatched it from his hand. "I know. Just like you." And I walked away before he could even see me smiling.

Maybe I could give that thing called 'attachments' a try.

We seemed to fit well with the people in the hospital, us interns. In a matter of three months, we were working with people with relative ease. I've been assigned to the Emergency Room a couple of times, but Dr. Shim seemed to have a preference for me scrubbing in in this operations. I had no problem with that, of course, as it allowed me to learn more. And naturally, I'd never admit that I enjoyed every single minute of the scrubbing in with him.

It was more than just scrubbing in at times. During off hours and when Dr. Shim didn't have any operations to attend to, there was kissing in the locker room. The first one wasn't planned - perhaps it was more of a 'we were just caught in the moment' kind of thing, but the second one was planned, and we were giggling like idiots when he locked the door behind him and kissed me on the lips. Most of the time, it was just kissing - only just; other times, there was the occasional touching. There was always an air of tension surrounding us, and the more we did it, the more we got addicted to it - it was as if we loved the thrill of getting caught. Stupid, yes, but it worked for us.

He asked me out a couple of times and I always said no - no because I was afraid that we'd get caught, that people will see us, that my fellow interns will think that it was why I've been getting all the favors well in fact it wasn't the reason. So I stayed away from him for a while, again, but he was always chasing me, and there was nowhere I could hide.

"Dr. Shim, stop it." His eyebrows were furrowed and he was holding me by the wrist. "Stop? Why should I stop? You - You also want this!" I looked him in the eye. "But what if they think I've been getting all the favors because of this? What if - What if we get caught? Don't you care about your career, my career? This is the future we're talking about!" He looked away.

"Let them think that. Let them think badly of you. You can't blame them. You're good, you're a natural. They won't kick you out of the hospital just because of that. They know better than to lose a good doctor." I hung my head low, bit my lip. The possible consequences were too overwhelming - my dream was at stake. But Dr. Shim... was right.

"And besides, I like you. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

For some strange reason, that was the only assurance that I needed to hear to make everything right.

The real first time took place in his car just before go out to catch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was quite unexpected but, then again, we never intended to plan everything. We almost missed the movie and we had to sit through the second showing of the movie because we were too busy with each other during the first screening. It was a good thing there were no kids in the cinema when we watched the movie, else we'd be sued for... things.

And so everything else followed, and breaks in the evening were now more than kissing and just touching. I overheard Jinki asking Junsu why I had been vanishing from the locker room during the breaks in the evening, and why I always looked worn out (but surprisingly attractive) when I returned. I remembered Junsu shooting me a look when I walked in on their conversation. "He's got a lot of things to attend to." Jinki had the saddest look in his eyes when he looked at me after that.

While I enjoyed everything that Dr. Shim and I were doing and what we didn't do, I hadn't exactly figured what it was that we had - attraction, a strange liking for each other, a curse of sorts, whatever. I didn't plan on figuring it out, though, partly because I was scared of what I might come to realize and because I was... just too busy to think about those kinds of things.

But apparently, Dr. Shim had time to think about such.

I called in sick halfway through my shift that day and stayed in the smaller locker room to isolate myself from the others so that they wouldn't get sick. Dr. Shim knocked on the door and came inside with a tray in hand - he brought me soup and Tylenol. "Feeling better?" I smiled a little. "At least the headache's kinda gone."

He sat beside me and watched me as I sipped my soup. He looked funny with his mismatched eyes staring intently at me. "Is anything wrong?" He shook his head, tore his gaze away from me. I finished the soup in around seven minutes, and I stopped midway through drinking my medicine when he asked something.

"Just... Just what is this thing we have? What are we?" I blinked twice, somehow ungrateful that he was asking me the very question that I had been avoiding since the day I found out that I liked him. It made me think - just what were we exactly? Why were we so damn attracted to each other to the point that it's already frustratingly all too perfect for our own good? We weren't in love now, were we?

Were we?

I shook my head, chuckled, rather amused at my realization. I turned to him, smiled, and the confusion written all over his face faded into a smile on his lips when I threw a question back at him.

"You're asking for a definition?"

It was Changmin now, not Dr. Shim. He despised being called Dr. Shim. "It sounds too formal, don't you think?" he told me one time while he was handing me a cup of coffee - we settled for instant coffee this time because we had no energy to run to Starbucks just to grab a cup. We were in the locker room then, and Junsu came in with Jonghyun and Aiden. Dr. Shim - Changmin rose from his seat and quickly prepared to leave. "I... think I'll be leaving now. You interns do your best, okay?" Just as he was about to leave, Jinki arrived. "Hey Hyun, Aiden," he greeted the two, smiling. He gave Junsu a pat on the shoulder and when he saw me, he stopped in his tracks. His eyes then darted from me to Changmin, then back to me. "I'll excuse myself." Then Changmin was out of the room and Jinki was still staring at me. I gulped. Jinki left; Jonghyun followed him. Junsu shook his head then turned to me. "Fix this thing, Kim. Fix this."

Whatever it was, I knew that it was something that, I was afraid, I won't ever be able to mend.

But then I was confused. Why was Jinki acting like that all of a sudden? Why was he getting so worked up on the matter? I tried talking to him one time over breakfast, but he was avoiding me. Junsu walked up to me then. "Just let me know if this is real, okay. I can take Jonghyun and Jinki having a thing for each other but you- You and Dr. Shim- I don't know." Junsu was right; our case was different because I was an intern and Changmin was an attending. "I don't know either." Junsu gave me a weak smile. "When you do, let me know. Let me know."

I was really hellbent on not telling anyone about 'us' or even confirming to anyone what our relationship was - no one, not even Junsu - but I just had to make a fool of myself and slip while I was talking to Junsu. Maybe I was thinking about it too much, or maybe I just felt like telling Junsu then - he was my best friend, after all. Or the closest I could have to a best friend, at least.

"You and Dr. Shim are WHAT?" "Ssssh, Junsu, you're too loud-" "Just what the hell are you talking about? You- You're in a relationship with your attending, Jaejoong Kim!" "I know, okay? So just shut it. Chill." "How can I? Oh my God, Jaejoong, what's gotten into you?"

"Look, I didn't plan on anything happening, okay. It just happened." Junsu shook his head; he was disappointed, frustrated. "Is this why you've been getting all the good things, doing all the scrubbing in? I don't want to think badly of you, okay, but- God, Jaejoong, don't tell me-" All of a sudden, we heard the door close, and on the doorstep stood Jinki, eyes wide, shock written all over his face. Just as quickly, he got out of the room. "What's up with him?" I needed to know why, so I followed him outside and left Junsu shouting after me. "Now what's up with you?"

But I lost Jinki just as soon as I got out of the room.

(He couldn't believe what he just heard. Something was going on between Jaejoong and Dr. Shim. Something, not just any other thing. He ran as fast as he could to the nurse's desk. "Where's Dr. Shim?" "He's preparing for a surgery in ten minutes. Wh-" So he set off for the operating room.

He bumped into Dr. Shim on his way there. "Hey there, Lee. Can I be of service?" He stood there, silent and unwilling to speak, but there was one part of him that really wanted to ask Dr. Shim what was going on between him and Jaejoong. But how would he ask Dr. Shim? Are you together with Jaejoong? Too blunt. What are your intentions toward Jaejoong? Too vague. Do you love Jaejoong? Too much.

"Dr. Shim, are you-" Dr. Shim's eyebrows furrowed and, slowly, his eyes widened. Jinki couldn't continue. Dr. Shim looked away, bit his lower lip then fixed his attention back at Jinki. "Look, you're getting it wrong. It's not as if it's the reason why he's getting all the favors&mdash"

"So you are together," it slipped from Jinki's lips unceremoniously. Right now, he didn't have control over his speech or his mind, moreso his heart. Why was he even getting so worked up about everything? Because it was against the law that doctors get together? Because it was Jaejoong who was involved with Dr. Shim? Because it was Dr. Shim and not him? Why? "No! We're- We're not-" "You like him." They both fell silent and Dr. Shim raised his head, looked at Jinki straight in the eye. "I love him."

That was all he needed to know.)

It didn't take long before I saw Jinki again - he emerged from the doors to the room just beside the operating room, running to the elevator and quickly pressing the down button. Before I could even catch the same elevator with him, he closed the door, and I saw Changmin coming from behind me. "Lee, he-" He didn't need to continue his sentence - I already knew.

I took the stairs down and caught sight of Jinki exiting the hospital, still in his scrub suit. "Jinki! Hey, Jinki, wait up!" He stopped just outside the hospital and had his back on me while I tried explaining to him.

"Look, I don't know why you're so worked up about this but&mdash" He suddenly turned around and I swore his eyes were watering. "I like you. I really do. And I- I just can't get it, why Dr. Shim? It's not right. Why risk your career? Why choose an attending instead of an intern? Why not-" And then he walked up to me, pulled me close and he kissed me fully on the lips. There were probably people staring at us, and they were probably thinking, wondering what the hell we were doing. I couldn't pull away for fear that I might hurt Jinki a little too much, and because he was gripping my arms too tightly. When he parted from me, he was crying, and I reached up to wipe the tears in his eyes but he shook his head.

"I- I'm sorry-" "Sssh. It's okay. We're still good, aren't we? I mean uh.... Jinki, just please, I can't- I'm so sorry. I can still be your friend, can't I?" He smiled weakly. From the corner of my eye, I saw Changmin standing some few meters from us. He smiled before he turned his heel to leave.

(There was no other place to return to, so Jinki thought it was wise to just go back to the locker room and stop crying. He found the locker room abandoned with all the lights out when he got back, and he sat down on one of the benches just beside the door. All of a sudden, the lights flickered on.

"Hey," came a soft voice from beside him. He jerked a bit in surprise. "Ah, Jonghyun. You're here." Jonghyun smiled at him. "I always have been, Jinki." He blinked twice, and something dawned upon him, like a realization, that made him think Jonghyun was right and had always been. He checked his wrist watch - it was nine in the evening and he was sure no one has had dinner yet, what with their tight schedule. A smile crept to his lips.

"Say, Hyun, would you like to go out for dinner?")

Things turned out to be pretty normal the following day, and it was quite amusing to see Jinki and Jonghyun engaging in conversations lengthier than the usual. Junsu was shooting me weird glances occasionally, but as the day came to an end, he seemed to be able to digest the entire scenario that took place last night. What I was worried about, though, was what Changmin thought about what he saw - Jinki kissing me for all the people to see.

I got the chance to talk to him just before I had to scrub in for one of Dr. Jung's operations. "Hey, Changmin, I'm-" He seemed hesitant to look at me at first, but he turned to me with a smile. "Sorry that you kissed Jinki?" I raised an eyebrow - how did he know what I was going to say? "And I-" "Don't really like him. Not that way, at least. Am I correct?"

"Changmin-" He cut me off and placed his index finger on my lips. "It's fine, Jae. Honestly. No worries. Besides, no strings attached, right?" He smiled a bit, but I knew there was one part of him that wasn't exactly smiling. So I hit him lightly on the arm and smiled at him.

"But I'm possessive and demanding."

He hit me right back.

This thing about attachments that I was saying, that I wasn't a man of attachments, maybe that could change. People change, after all. 'No strings attached', remember? Not even to things. And I was human, forever subject to change. Screw them attachments for making life complicated, for getting everything tangled up and tied. Screw them attachments for making me feel this way.

Get a grip, Jaejoong Kim, I always told myself. And I just realized something. I needed to a get a grip because it was exactly what I needed, someone to grip, to hold on to.

Because someone was what I exactly needed.

o3. Webs are webs and there's no undoing them
You were not a mistake.
I made the right choice of
keeping you,
given the information I had
at that time.

During the next few days, I met a couple of people who became part of my life in the hospital. Take, for example, Dr. Manalastas (who asked us, her fellow interns, to please call her by her first name - Nikka - because Dr. Manalastas is just too formal), who turned out to be a very clingy person despite her cold exterior. And there's Dr. Abejuela, too, who's as bouncy as ever ("And please, call me Bernadine!"). Then Dr. Navas and Dr. Dizon, and a couple more whose names I've already forgotten.

And then a patient. Yes, I had a patient who pretty much became part of my life. Perhaps I was attached to him to a certain extent, but not quite. I can only be attached so much.

So that it won't hurt so bad when detaching came into play.

I was assigned to the Emergency Room when I met the said patient. I had just finished attending to a patient who was a victim of a stray bullet when I caught him staring at me. I figured he just wanted to be attended to at once so I walked up to him and asked him what was wrong. He was wearing an awkward smile when he pointed to the engraving on his left arm. It looked more like... squiggles to me. "Think you can make that hurt less?" I laughed sheepishly. "I'll do the best I could, sir." He was staring at me throughout the entire process; it irked me a bit.

"You're pretty good," he said, stretching his arm to see if it was bandaged just fine. "I'll catch you again sometime," he added, winking at me at end of his statement. I gave him a curt nod and walked away, but when I turned around to see if he had already gone off, he was still staring at me. I shook my head.

Attachments, attachments.

Attachments, attachments. I didn't know how to do away with them. The weird thing about it was that this patient, this guy who was supposed to die three days ago because of the tetanus he incurred due to repeatedly hitting himself with a rusty knife - I was making a work of art, okay. Not a fashionable way to die, kid, but you can say it's a brave one. And artsy, too - was alive and kicking and was thanking me for saving his ass. And what was even weirder was that it made me feel great, and that smug look on the patient's face was making my heart beat a little too fast.

He came back a week after, complaining about some internal pain, and I found out he had fallen off his bicycle while going up a mountain. "You're crazy." He chuckled. "Yeah, crazy for you." I was taken aback, yes, but I was more irked, if I may say so myself. "That's a nasty bump on your head you've got." But I had learned to just shrug it all off, even if he was running his fingers through my hair already.

"Jaejoong, eh. Pretty name." I shook my head just mildly. "Now, Mr. Park, if you could just lie down on the bed, I can examine you better." Mr. Park laughed and I did admit that it took me a while to realize that I could've put it in a better way and I was all the more providing him with ways to hit on me; if that was what he was doing, at least, but I was pretty sure about it - Junsu once told me that my gut feeling was the one to be trusted when it came to those kinds of things. "Just be a good boy and lie flat on your back so we can get it done and over with?" He shook his head. I rolled my eyes. "Fire away, baby."

It was a traumatizing experience, but it was kind of fun. Plus, he was good-looking, so who was I to complain?

24 hours later and after all the tests had been done, he was still complaining about the internal pain, and he couldn't quite identify where it was coming from. "Do you think it's something else?" Junsu was fumbling with the hem of his uniform. "I think I have something, but I'm not quite sure yet."

The moment I saw Dr. Jung (those close to him call him Yunho or Yunja; it depended on the degree of closeness), I walked up to him at once and handed him the results of the tests. "Are you sure you checked everything, and twice?" I nodded. He took a second look at the test results in his hands. "That's weird. Maybe this is just a case of muscular pain, but I won't be too sure about that. Get a history. You have, haven't you?" I took a deep breath. "From what I've gathered, he fell off the mountain while riding on his bike. I was thinking he could've gotten a fracture somewhere, but the tests showed nothing. Now, if it was a brain fracture, I-" "I should take care of myself next time, shouldn't&mdash" I shot a glance at Mr. Park. And all of a sudden, my mind went blank.

"Jaejoong! He passed out all of a sudden!"

"Order an MRI, stat! You, other Kim, get more oxygen and don't do anything until I say so! And I want you on this case. If this calls for a surgery, you'll be scrubbing in." My eyes widened; I knew Changmin was the one taking care of this and he had just gone for a while to do a surgery but- "But sir, isn't Chang-" "Dr. Shim is busy. And yes, I'm talking about you, Kim. Yes, you, Junsu," he said, pointing at Junsu. "The MRI, Jaejoong. You don't want a patient dying on you, do you?" I froze for a while, looked at Dr. Jung in the eye. "No, I don't."

"Now go save a life."

Attachments, attachments. Dr. Jung was discussing something with Junsu and the poor boy rushed to my side the moment Dr. Jung had left. He was ranting about how Dr. Jung had been too hard on him these past few days. "I think he hates me." I wanted to laugh and say au contraire, he likes you. From the corner of my eye, I saw Changmin walking to our direction while putting on a new coat. "I heard Yunho took my case. Any idea what he's up to?" I suppressed the laughter threatening to spill from my lips. "Not a clue, unless he's planning to take your job as head of Neurology?" Changmin laughed. "He can't do that. He's a cardiologist. Man's got to check his school records," Changmin said as he shook his head, gave us a wink and walked to where Dr. Jung was. Junsu let out a very faint sound of protest.

"Wish me luck, other Kim. Your man's quite the hothead when it comes to these kinds of things." Junsu smiled a little. Perhaps this was the problem with Dr. Jung - he was too good in too many things that he failed to specialize in just one area. He was a well-rounded doctor, yes, but he's a cardiologist more than a neurologist. That, and he was too uptight. I saw Junsu biting his lower lip just beside me and I had to laugh a little.

Attachments, attachments. How in the world do you do away with them?

Mr. Park didn't die - no, not at once, but he did experience some serious pain. He died three days after, softly and subtly - he didn't even cause a ruckus when he died. It was hard to be the one pulling the plugs, to be the one removing all the contraptions attached to his body. I had never lost a patient before. He wasn't exactly my patient, and I wasn't exactly his attending, but he had me mend his arm and I mended him right - there was some kind of bond formed during that interaction.

Doctors feel bad whenever they lose a patient, so they do everything they could to save people. When they're successful, they are rightfully gratified, but they also owe it to the patients themselves, for having the will to live. In Mr. Park's case, it wasn't that he didn't want to live anymore. He had evidently enjoyed a lot of things prior to getting in an accident, was probably too caught up in the thrills of life that he forgot about himself. When he went to the hospital to have his arm treated, he realized a lot of things. I have to take care of myself next time, I remembered hearing him faintly say just before he passed out. Only then did he realize the value of his own life.

Realizations occur to us in the very end.

"Dr. Kim?" Changmin called out to me from two doors away. "You're needed here." I had a new patient to handle, a new life to save. Just how many times do you get to save people from death? And who was I exactly to go saving people from their illnesses?

Dr. Kim, yes, that's my name. Dr. Jaejoong Kim. And I am a doctor.

The sad thing about doctors, though, was that they can save anyone but themselves and the ones they love. I didn't reckon it was their fault, neither was it the relative's, but it was more of fate's cruel way of telling doctors that sometimes it's not about giving it your all, wanting to save someone. Life was also about luck. Sometimes, you'd get lucky.

But most of the time, you won't.

It came as a shock when Junsu told me that my father was rushed to the hospital. I had just finished scrubbing in at Changmin's surgery when Junsu paged me. "We just finished. Why?" I asked when I reached the lockers to change clothes. Junsu was panicking. "Your dad. Room 310. He's there."

And just like that, I was out of the room.

"What happened?" I asked just as soon as I saw Dr. Jung - I had guessed it had something to do with the heart. "Myocardial infarction. The one that got him here wasn't exactly lethal. It stopped after a while, and I'm not too sure if there will be another one. But in any case, stand by. I want you on this case, Kim." I nodded, tried to take a look at the papers in his hands, but my eyes failed me. Dr. Jung raised an eyebrow. "Just... I just want to know what might happen."

"Well, we can never tell. You know how the heart works." If it was any other day, I would have laughed my heart out right then and there, but the situation totally didn't call for it. "He will be fine, though, if he doesn't have a second attack. Page me if anything happens, Kim." I took a deep sigh. "It means anything can happen, that he's not safe, right?" And Dr. Jung just looked at me, didn't blink or even take a second to breathe. "Just be ready." I tore my eyes from him and looked away, the words ringing in my ears - Just be ready.

"Doctor, the patient!" I sharply turned around and found my father's eyes wide open, and he was gasping for breath. His body was shaking all over, and the shaking had become more turbulent with every passing second. Dr. Jung was telling me something but I couldn't hear him - anything - and I was just there, standing, watching my very strong father shake so hard, so violently that it almost scared me...

To death.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee-

And there I watched him die, slowly but surely. I was a doctor yet I couldn't save him - I couldn't save my father. I was given the responsibility to save the people, yet I could only stay rooted where I had been for five minutes and counting while everyone had rushed to his side. This wasn't in the book - I hadn't read this part of the text yet. I didn't know what to do to save my father. Dr. Jung was yelling at me, telling me to move, but I couldn't - Kim, get a hold of yourself! Jaejoong! He had grabbed me by my shoulders and was shaking me. Junsu took my hand, told me everything was alright. But it wasn't. Nothing would ever be right.

And at that moment, when I was about to give up, someone emerged from the door, bumped against my arm and knocked me back to my senses.

"What are you people doing just standing there? We've got a life to save!"

When I looked at the monitor, my father's heart beat had shot up.

Changmin saved my father.

The moment he entered the room my father was in, he immediately gave out orders. Get this, get that, get him some more oxygen, get him to the operating room because we can't give him an open-heart surgery beside the table. Dr. Jung led the operation, but Changmin was the one giving out the orders. Halfway through the operation, Changmin asked Dr. Jung if he could take over, and he let him. There were harsh words thrown back and forth in the course of the operation, and it was probably the most breath-taking, heart-wrenching operation us interns have ever seen. It was more than that for me, because the man on the operating table was my father, and I scrubbed in. Changmin told me not to, but I had insisted on doing so - he couldn't say no anymore.

I saved my father's life.

It was funny, to a certain extent, that my father had never wanted me to be a doctor. He wanted me to be a lawyer, or a businessman, maybe. But a doctor? No, not ever. My mother was the one who supported my decision to enter med school. And when she died when I was just about to enter university, I swore to myself that I really would be a doctor, a person who could save the ones he loved, not like the doctors on TV who always miss the chance to be the hero to their loved ones.

My life could get cheesier than that, though. And because I was flat broke, the only way to enter med school was to get a job, which was against my father's will. It would have been easy if I asked money from my father - the man's filthy rich - but that was against my principles and he wouldn't give me anyway. Talk about pride. He did see to it that I got a pretty good job, though. I was a barista at Starbucks for some time, then an art director for an advertising agency, and a couple more jobs that I couldn't remember. Some were crazy, and those were the ones that my father didn't know of. But at least I wasn't in debt, and I was living for the most part. So I entered college a year late.

Attachments, attachments. How in the world do you ever get rid of them?

"Give him eight hours, he'll be fine." It was Junsu who had a cup of water on his right hand and my jacket on his left. "Relax, okay? You did great. Now, it's time to rest." I shook my head. "Rest, Jae. When you wake up, he'll be just fine. I'll fill in for you, don't worry." Junsu had a smile on his lips, and now I knew why the doctors had been telling him to be a pedia instead of a surgeon - his charm was the kind that took away all your sadness and worries.

Now I knew why I kept him as a friend, why he was my best friend.

"Catch you when I can," I called out to him before he left the room. He chuckled. "You owe me breakfast, Kim." I smiled and shook my head. "It's on me, then."

Attachments, attachments. They make the world go 'round.

Dr. Jung's face in front of me was the first thing that greeted me when I woke up, and it wasn't exactly the best of things to wake up to. "You're sleeping on your job. Get up." I blinked twice before actually doing what he told me to do. I got up slowly and rubbed my eyes. "Jaejoong," I heard a faint voice come from behind. My eyes widened. I turned around. There my dad was, on the bed, waving weakly at me, smiling. "Hey, sport."

I swore I run past Dr. Jung and hugged my father for the first time in a while.

"Are there any complications?" I was sitting on the chair just beside my father's bed and looked up at Dr. Jung who was scanning some papers in his hands. "None that should be too alarming. Just make sure he eats good food. Healthy food, I mean," Dr. Jung soon quipped before my father could even comment on eating good food. "This isn't something hereditary, and I wouldn't be too alarmed if a third attack comes. That one could be serious." I nodded thoughtfully, letting my mind absorb everything that he was saying. He then turned to my father and smiled a little. "Your kid's more worried than you are, sir. Are you doing fine?" My father nodded, smiled back at him. "He loves to worry. It seems to be his favorite hobby."

While it wasn't exactly flattering to be described as someone who loved to worry, it relieved me a bit that my father was now tolerant of my being a doctor. But I wouldn't bank on that wishful thought too much - right now, I was his son more than a doctor, so maybe if I switched roles, he'd be a little surprised, but I figured I could be a doctor and a son to him at the same time. I stood from where I was, turned to Dr. Jung. "I'll take it from here, doctor." He squinted at me through his glasses, then thrust the papers against my chest. "Don't get too emotional, Dr. Kim. This is your job." I laughed a little and smirked. "You can count on that, Dr. Jung." And then he left.

So there I was, alone in a room with my father for the first time in a long, long while. Consciously alone, at least, since we were the only ones in the room last night but we were both asleep. "Jaejoong," he called out softly while I tried to make myself look busy with reading the test results in my hands. "You'll... make a good doctor." I stopped midway through flipping a page and looked at him in the corner of my eye. "I can feel it. No, I'm sure of it. You'll do just great." I smiled a little, took a deep breath before turning to him. Don't get too emotional, Dr. Kim. And Dr. Jung was right. So I turned around, wore a smile on my lips and set my mind on what I was supposed to do.

"So, Mr. Kim, can I be of service?"

"So, how did it go with your dad?" Junsu asked when we were inside the locker room during our break. "It... was all good." It was the closest I could get to being evasive about the subject. But, then again, Junsu would never let on. "We talked. A little." Junsu inched closer to me and by this time, his face was merely centimeters from mine. "He said I'd make a good doctor and uh-" And all of a sudden, Junsu pulled away, to which I was grateful for. "Oh God, he's finally accepted it!" Then he grabbed me by the wrist, twirled me around the room and I was certain I was already getting lost in our little partying (Junsu seemed more excited and happy than I was) until someone opened the door. "Jaejoong?"

Changmin was probably the first person I wanted to see but couldn't, but only Junsu and I were inside the room so what the hell. I ran to Changmin, launched myself onto him and buried my face in his shoulder. "Thank you. For saving my father." He chuckled softly.

"I can be your hero anytime."

o4. He rose for heroes
Oh this could get messy
But you don't seem to mind
Oh don't go telling everybody
And overlook this supposed crime
   - Hands Clean; Alanis Morissette

Attachments, attachments. It took me a long time before I got over the death of my father. It was hard because I had done everything I could to save him. It was the second time I lost a patient. Ever since, I had sworn to myself that I would never ever let a patient die. I lost a couple along the way, got depressed somewhere along the way. Some of them who survived thanked me, but most of them didn't even bother to take a second look at me. It was my job, after all; I wasn't supposed to ask for anything in return.

In the course of my two years as an intern at Manila Doctor's Hospital, I learned a lot of things. First, you can't expect everyone to appreciate what you do. Second, co-workers were there for a reason - to relieve you of stress and sadness in your darkest hours. In line with that, the third would be that no man would ever be an island. There were some others, but those are the more important ones. And oh, there's this last thing.

At the end of it all, it'll always and forever be about love. Love? Yes, love. Love as in that of a mother for her child, or an employee for his job, an artist for his paintings, a doctor for his patient.

It always boiled down to love. (Attachments, attachments.)

"Jaejoong, faster! We'll miss the movie!" Junsu was waving at me from the Nurse's station. With him were Dr. Jung, Jinki, Jonghyun and Aiden, then Nikka and Bernadine who were running to where they were. ("Sorry, Dr. Iñigo was being a tyrant as usual. Did we miss anything?") I shook my head, closed the door to the locker room behind me and slung my backpack over my shoulder. Just when I was walking to them already, I bumped into Changmin, who was already in his casual clothes. He turned to me, a childish smile on his lips. "Let's go?" I looked at him intently before shaking my head and heaving a sigh, then getting back on my tracks.

Junsu was ranting on and on about how Dr. Jung had just made his life miserable. Dr. Jung was just laughing at him, and the girls were teasing Junsu about it. Jinki and Jonghyun were talking about Dissidia and Just how awesome is the new battle mode? God, it's amazing! Changmin was walking beside me, and he looked at me when he noticed that I was smiling for no apparent reason - for a reason not apparent to him, at least.

Attachments, attachments.

Entirely on a whim, I took Changmin's hand and pulled him closer, to me and to the rest of the gang. I laughed at Junsu for exaggerating every single story he told us, and Changmin laughed along with me. Soon enough, we were all laughing, laughing until we finally decided to not catch the movie ("We haven't bought the tickets yet, anyway." "Your weird decisions come in handy sometimes, Junsu."), until we decided to just go to Starbucks and grab some coffee, drown the night away in a night's worth of talks, laughter and living.

Attachments, attachments.

Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Art Post