[fic] daisy, 1/2
Title: Daisy
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-15
Notes: No, I haven’t been catching up on Grey’s Anatomy, what are you talking about?
Word Count: 11,000
Summary: “Wow, that’s pretty noble of you. You did all of that just to save him.” Zhou Mi just shakes his head. “No, I did it to save myself. I just saved him in the process.”
He’s been dumped. Again. He’s been dumped again.
Zhou Mi trudges to the nurses’ station, upset and his already bad day thoroughly ruined. It’s always like this, isn’t it? It’s always like this. He can’t remember the last thing things have gone his way. Which, for the mental health of a person who generally likes being around people and likes taking care of people and being taken care of, isn’t very good. At all.
“Hey,” he hears someone say, and turns around to find Sungmin, hair disheveled and out of breath. “I have an emergency surgery right now, so could you check up on this guy and discharge him? We can’t keep him for another night, and this surgery is going to take a while.”
“What, you’re in big enough of a rush that you can’t just sign the papers, but you can tell me to do it for you?” Zhou Mi takes the chart out of Sungmin’s hands.
“It’s a little complicated, but it’s all in the chart. Thanks, see you later!” And he’s off and around the corner before Zhou Mi can blink. In the situation that he hasn’t just been dumped and two guys didn’t die on his service today, he might be okay with this. But right now, he’s just upset.
He heads over to room 520, flipping through the charts and frowning. This patient is being discharged today?
“Mr. Cho,” he says, walking into the room, still flipping through the chart. “I’m Dr. Zhou, and I’ll be handling your discharge papers today…” He looks up at the young man sitting on the edge of the bed, his duffel bag packed and his hospital gown folded impeccably and sitting on his pillow. “May I ask…why you’re being discharged?”
Mr. Cho blinks. “The doctors said I could leave today, so I’m leaving.”
“You do realize that-”
“I have a massive tumor pressing against my adrenal gland? Yeah, I know.”
Zhou Mi wants to ask if he also knows that he’ll be dead in a few months if he doesn’t get it treated right away, but he figures that’d be too brash. “Well, uh-if you don’t get it removed right away, it could seriously damage your health-”
“I know, Dr.” The man looks at him with even eyes, and Zhou Mi thinks that he looks tired-just as tired as he feels. “Dr. Lee has told me that I won’t have long.”
“Then why…”
“Just sign the papers, please.” Mr. Cho stands up, rolling his shoulders. Zhou Mi looks at him uncertainly, before pressing his pen to the clipboard and signing. “I…don’t have health insurance. I can’t afford the surgery.”
He swallows. “Oh.” He flips the form to the next page, and finds a sticky note on it from Sungmin. Give him a few free samples of our meds? Thanks.
“I proposed to my girlfriend last week,” Mr. Cho says, avoiding eye contact. “We’d only been dating for a few months, but she has health insurance, so I figured…” He shrugs. “I guess she saw right through me.”
Part of Zhou Mi wants to snap at him, because who on earth proposes just for the insurance? But he looks at Mr. Cho, and thinks that maybe, it was a rational choice. Maybe for him, it was the only way out. Zhou Mi can’t sympathize with someone who knows he’s going to die, but he understands a little, because sometimes, people become so pressured that they just break.
“How long have you had the tumor for?”
“A few years.”
They look at each other for a few moments, and Zhou Mi sticks out his hand. “My full name’s Zhou Mi.”
He takes it. “Cho Kyuhyun.”
“Here are the papers for you to sign…just give me a minute, and I’ll pick up some meds for you, alright?” Kyuhyun nods, and Zhou Mi turns and leaves the room.
He hates it when this happens. When people have the chance to live and be saved, but they can’t be because they don’t have the money. It’s something he’s always contemplated-why should money determine whether you live or die? Everyone has the right to live, and honestly-he would still do this job if he got paid as much as a fast food worker. That would be the only thing he hates about this job-not being able to help when he knows he can.
“Imagine this,” he tells Hyukjae, who he passes at the nurses’ station again. “A guy is going to die from cancer, but he can’t get the tumor removed because he doesn’t have the money. And his girlfriend refused to marry him because she knows he’s only doing it for her insurance.”
“Does that make you sad?” Hyukjae asks, lips quirking up into a smile. (He’s long since mastered the art of being impersonal about his job. Zhou Mi is almost jealous.)
“Well, yeah! He’s around the same age as us-he has a whole life ahead of him!”
Hyukjae laughs. “Well, you might as well marry him instead, then.” He closes the chart he’s currently reading, slides it back in place, pats Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and walks off. He stands there for a moment, thinking.
Hey, that’s an idea.
-
Kyuhyun stares at him, duffel bag already slung over his shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“I have the insurance that you don’t. I could save you.”
“I…appreciate the sentiment, Dr. Zhou, but I can’t accept that offer.”
“Why not?” he demands. “What do you have to lose? You’re going to die in a few months, Mr. Cho, and right before you do, you’re going to wonder why you didn’t take this opportunity!”
There’s a pregnant pause. “You’re crazy.”
“Yeah, I’m told that from time to time.”
Kyuhyun takes a deep breath. “I hope you realize that I don’t swing that way.”
“But you’d rather be alive than dead, right? You win some, you lose some.”
Dropping his duffel bag onto the floor and sinking back down onto the bed, Kyuhyun takes a deep breath. “Why are you doing this?”
Zhou Mi looks at Kyuhyun, and decides that he’s actually kind of cute. If he gains a little weight and loses the dark rings under his eyes, he could be breathtaking. Smiling, he says, “Good question. Now, are you going to marry me or not?”
His smile is weak, but it’s there. “Do you have a ring, at least?”
He feels his back pocket. “I have the spare key to my apartment. Is that good enough?”
Kyuhyun laughs a little. “I’ll take it.”
-
“Can you take my shift tomorrow?” Zhou Mi finds Sungmin in the cafeteria, dropping a pile of charts in front of him. “I’m busy.”
“Um, sure, I guess.” Sungmin glances at the charts, clearly not wanting to touch them. “No surgeries?”
“Just an appendectomy. Remember, general surgeons don’t get overly difficult surgeries.” Zhou Mi sighs in relief. “Thanks.”
“Can I ask what you’re doing?”
“Me?” He can’t help but grin. “I’m getting married.”
“Oh, okay.” Sungmin blinks. “Wait, what?”
“I’m getting married! Wish me luck!”
“Wait-wait, Mi, where are you going? You’re getting married?”
-
Well, it’s really not that big of a deal. They’re getting a few papers signed, and that’s pretty much it. Then Kyuhyun’s getting right back to the hospital, and he’s going to get operated on by Zhou Mi himself.
“I, uh,” he signs the papers and pushes them across the table to Kyuhyun, “am going to have to tell my parents about this. I can’t tell them I’m not getting married, y’know-they’d probably have my head for that.” He’s still a little numb-he can’t actually believe that he’s doing this. Well, he can-but it just doesn’t feel like he’s getting married, since there isn’t a huge ceremony, with the church and the cake and…y’know. That kind of stuff.
“No, I understand.”
“They’re going to want to, uh…meet you. Sorry about that.”
“Do we have to act like we’re in love, too?”
“Um…if that isn’t too much of a problem. You just have to act like you don’t hate me.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult.” Kyuhyun puts his pen down and smiles at Zhou Mi. “Acting isn’t my area of expertise, but I’ll do my best.”
Zhou Mi smiles. “Thanks.” Let’s just say, since he’ll be tacking on a couple more decades onto Kyuhyun’s life, he’s really looking forward to getting to know him. Maybe, over time, he’ll be someone that Zhou Mi would be glad to have married. Maybe he’ll fall in love with him one day.
“So, do you think the receptionist over there is cute?” Kyuhyun says nonchalantly, crossing his legs.
“…We’re married, Kyuhyun.”
“And I’m straight. Let’s make some compromises here. So, d’you think that receptionist is cute?”
“Why do you care? The receptionist isn’t even a girl.”
“I want to know what your taste in guys is.”
“Why?”
“To make sure I’m not your type.”
Zhou Mi isn’t sure if Kyuhyun’s serious or not, but he sneaks a peek at the receptionist behind him anyway. “Yeah, he’s pretty cute.”
Kyuhyun nods, thinking for a moment. “He’s pretty cute,” he agrees.
Zhou Mi laughs.
-
“Are you serious-” Sungmin looks around to make sure no one’s listening. “You married a patient so he could use your insurance? Are you crazy?”
“I’m a doctor, Sungmin,” Zhou Mi says. “I save lives.”
“And you can do that without marrying the patient!” Sungmin looks scared to the point where he’s struggling to not turn tail and run. “I can’t believe-oh my God, you could get in so much trouble for this-you know you’re not allowed to date your patients!”
“I’m not dating him,” Zhou Mi clarifies. “I’m married to him.”
“Which is ten times worse! Okay, you know what-give me his charts. He’s mine now. You’re not allowed to operate on him.”
“What-no way! He’s mine now, both inside of this hospital and out!”
“You’re married to him! You don’t have the right to cut him open anymore!”
Zhou Mi stares at Sungmin. He can’t remember how long they’ve been friends for-they met in high school, and have been together since. (He’s also the reason why Sungmin’s bisexual, but that’s not the point.) He knows that Sungmin has a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder, and always makes sure everything is in place before he leaves the house-he’s smart and proper, and he always wants the best for everyone, Zhou Mi included. “Look, Sungmin, it’s just…” He sighs. “Everything has been going wrong lately, and I just-I just wanted to do something right for once, y’know? I want to save a life. I want someone to look at me and for once, not want to run because I’m the last person they want to see.”
Sungmin looks at him with those eyes that mean he wants to put him in his pocket and take care of him for the rest of his life. “Do you want a hug?”
“Yes, please.”
“You can have him, I guess,” Sungmin says into his shoulder. “But only if I get to scrub in.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without you anyway,” Zhou Mi giggles.
-
When Kyuhyun opens his door to see him, he looks surprised. “Hi.”
“I brought dinner.” Zhou Mi holds up some take-out boxes.
“Um, alright, then.” Kyuhyun steps aside. “Come in.”
“So the surgery’s scheduled for next Thursday, done by yours truly.” It’s his first time in Kyuhyun’s apartment, and Zhou Mi can already see that there are a lot of things that need changing. Or, well, tidying up, anyway. The place is a mess. “When was the last time you did the dishes?”
“Last week? I don’t know. So what’s for dinner?”
“Chinese. Dr. Lee will also be scrubbing in, if you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t.” Kyuhyun gets the bowls and chopsticks. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those people who has to clean everything he lays his eyes on.”
“Um…” Zhou Mi fidgets. “I’m not…that bad?”
He slides into his chair. “Just eat.”
Dejected, Zhou Mi sits down and eats. “Y’know, you’re not really the husband I imagined having.”
“I didn’t imagine ever having a husband.”
“We can make this work. We could be best friends. We could have a bromance. And then you could get a girlfriend and I wouldn’t mind, and I could get a boyfriend and you wouldn’t mind, and it’ll just be a beautiful bromance. Yeah.”
Kyuhyun glances at him. “Bromance. Right.”
Zhou Mi suspects that Kyuhyun is a quiet sort of person. He’s kind of witty and a little funny, but not at all the type of guy Zhou Mi’s usually interested in. Which is-kind of disappointing, he thinks, since they’re married and all, and…well, he supposes it’d be kind of nice to love his husband. But he doesn’t, and Kyuhyun’s not interested, so he just sits in his (dirty) kitchen quietly, eating Chinese takeout.
“I’m from a big family,” he says, poking at the chow mien idly in his bowl. “I have three older sisters, so that’s probably why I’m so weird. And I’m from China, actually-I was just fine over there, until I got a huge job offer here that pays way better, so here I am. Oh, and I won a skating competition when I was eight.”
“Did you,” Kyuhyun replies, sounding faintly amused. “Maybe you should’ve continued on to be a figure skater, not a surgeon.”
“Oh, but both are fun, don’t you think? I skate recreationally now, when I have the time.” (Which is never.) “What about you? Where have you been before I met you?”
Kyuhyun looks at him, and swallows his food. His smile is faint-a little sad. “I don’t think you want to know,” he says, and leaves it at that.
“Oh.” Zhou Mi looks away. “Okay, then.”
-
Kyuhyun is already prepped and asleep on the table, and Zhou Mi and Sungmin are scrubbing in. “Do you have rings? Or anything that signifies that you’re married other than the documents?”
“He has the spare key to my apartment, and I have the spare to his.” Zhou Mi grins. “Does that count?”
Sungmin looks at him with an exasperated expression. “You’re impossible.”
“I’m compassionate.”
“And crazy.”
“So are you!”
“You have the spare key to my apartment. Does that mean we’re married, too?”
“That’s only because I never returned it after your vacation from Hawaii. You don’t have the spare to my apartment.”
“That’s because your place is sterilized to the point where you don’t even have plants to water while you’re off on fantastic vacations to Hawaii.” Sungmin shoots him a look, before turning off the tap and wiping his hands dry, walking into the operating room. Zhou Mi quickly follows suit.
Later, when they’re removing the tumor, Zhou Mi will think that if it weren’t for the cancer, Kyuhyun would’ve had a really nice adrenal gland. He likes guys with nice adrenal glands.
-
Technically, it was Hyukjae’s idea. If anyone should be blamed, it should be Hyukjae. He may be an idiot sometimes, but he is on his way to being the head of the ortho department, so he must have a smidgen of intelligence in him-which is why Zhou Mi didn’t really think twice before going with what he said.
“I didn’t-what-you actually married him?” Hyukjae sputters when Zhou Mi stares fondly at the closed door of Kyuhyun’s room.
“Well, it was a good idea, wasn’t it?”
Hyukjae buries his head in his arms, and Sungmin pats him sympathetically on the back. “I wasn’t serious, you moron.”
Zhou Mi frowns. “But I saved his life!”
“Isn’t he straight? He had a girlfriend, the last time I checked.”
“Yeah, well, she left him after he proposed to her. And I was his only shot at survival, so yeah. People do crazy things when their life is on the line.”
“So…do you actually like him?” Sungmin asks, using Hyukjae as an armrest.
He shoots him a look. “No, not really. I mean, he’s cool, but I don’t think I’d want to date him. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get divorced in a couple of months.” Which really shouldn’t be a laughing matter, but for some reason, this whole marriage thing doesn’t seem as serious as it should be. Hyukjae and Sungmin both look at him like he’s crazy-and hey, he might as well be. Most surgeons are.
“You might want to go check up on your husband, then,” Hyukjae says, shuddering at the word. “He should be waking up soon.”
“Right. He needs someone to be there for him, right? He just got out of some major surgery, after all.” Zhou Mi smoothes down his scrubs, beams, and heads to Kyuhyun’s room, chart in hand and at the ready.
And-oh, okay, for a post-op patient, he looks really good.
He puts the chart on the table at the end of Kyuhyun’s bed and rests his elbows on it, watching him. He’s still sleeping. He looks kind of greasy, and his acne pits are more pronounced than usual, but Zhou Mi thinks that he’s never seen anyone who looks better. Maybe it’s the fact that he personally saved his life, or the fact that he’s his husband-he’s not sure. He just looks really good.
It’s a minute or two later that he wakes up, and when his eyelashes flutter, Zhou Mi’s heart skips a beat.
“Hey,” he says softly, smiling. “How do you feel?”
“Five more minutes…”
He laughs. “You’re in a hospital, Kyuhyun. I’m your doctor. I’m not your mom, waking you up for school.”
Kyuhyun squints at him. “You’re not my doctor,” he says groggily. “You’re my husband.”
His cheeks flush. “Yes, well, that too. I’m your doctor and your husband.”
The other man’s grins weakly. “Is the cancer gone?”
“Yup. We just need to keep you here for the week to make sure no complications arise and to make sure you get your bed rest, but other than that, you’re all done! Isn’t that great?”
“I’m not going to die,” Kyuhyun says, sighing and looking up at the ceiling.
“You’re not going to die.”
Kyuhyun looks at Zhou Mi-with his greasy face and acne pits-and he smiles. “Have you told your parents yet?”
“Oh. Um. I think I’ll do it soon? It’s kind of sudden, y’know-getting married. They would want to know why I didn’t call the sooner, why I didn’t invite them to the wedding-it’s going to be complicated. My mom and sisters have always wanted to plan my wedding.”
“Ah.” Kyuhyun nods. “A lively family.”
“Do you have one? A lively family, I mean-not if you have a family.”
“Um, no-my family’s pretty quiet.” He shifts in his bed. “Can you get me some water?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Just give me a sec-I’ll be right back.”
Hyukjae waggles his eyebrows suggestively when he leaves the room, and Sungmin makes a comment about how he’s already whipped.
-
“Married?” Zhou Mi holds his phone a few inches away from his ear. “You’re married? What-what on earth, Mi!”
“Calm down, Mom,” he tries to fit in in between her shrieks. “It was…unexpected. But he treats me really well! And he’s nice, and witty, and…” Has a nice adrenal gland? Has acne pits? Really long eyelashes? “I love him, so…please, calm down.”
He hears his mother huff on the other end of the line. “Fine. But I’ll have you know that your father and I am getting on the next plane to Seoul to meet him.”
“Of course!”
“And when we get there, I want to know everything about him, and exactly why you didn’t tell us you were getting married.”
“I-of course.” He swallows. He loves his mother, but sometimes, she can be deadly. “Call me when your flight’s scheduled; I’ll pick you up at the airport. Yeah. Love you too-bye.” He sinks in his seat, appetite lost. Hyukjae and Sungmin are munching on their cafeteria food like they’ve been denied of eating for the past week, watching him with amused expressions. “What?”
“So, what lies are you going to make up?” Sungmin asks eagerly. “That he’s a pediatrician? Dermatologist? Wait, no, he has terrible skin-that he’s great in bed?”
“You’re disgusting.”
“What? He’s hot! Just give him some makeup, and even straight guys will be all over him.”
“I’ll discuss this with him. We’ll have coordinated lies by the time my parents interrogate the life out of him, and they will be so beautifully crafted that even you guys will have difficulty not believing them.” Hyukjae just rolls his eyes. Zhou Mi throws a grape at his face. He catches it with his mouth and eats it. “Well, you guys keep badmouthing my marriage while I go see Kyuhyun about this.”
“Can I have your sandwich?” Hyukjae calls as Zhou Mi makes his way out of the cafeteria.
“Stop being so fat!”
“…Is that a yes?”
Kyuhyun is sitting in his bed when Zhou Mi enters the room, very similar to the first time they met. He’s dressed in his regular clothes, duffel bag packed up, hospital gown folded and sitting on his pillow. “Are you here to discharge me?” he asks, smiling.
“Oh, right! Discharge papers. Um. One sec.” He rushes out to get them.
“You’re really disheveled when you’re working,” Kyuhyun observes as Zhou Mi signs the papers.
“Yeah, well, it gets hectic around here. Lots of stressed doctors and dying people. It gets kind of depressing on the best of days.”
“Lovely.”
He exhales, putting his pen down on the signed papers. “I…told my mom. About us.”
“Oh. And how’d that go?”
“We…need to come up with some great lies.”
“Okay.” Kyuhyun nods. “About what?”
“Um-like, how we met, why we didn’t have a proper wedding, what you do, what we do during our spare time-oh, and I think we’ll need to live together. Just to be on the safe side.”
He raises his eyebrows. (Zhou Mi thinks it’s endearing.) “I think I’m more scared of your mother than I was about that tumor.”
“You should be.” They share a laugh, and Zhou Mi sighs, feeling a little bit of the weight of the day lift from his chest. “Well, the papers are all signed, so you’re ready to go. How about dinner tonight? My treat.”
“Sure. When do you get off?”
“Nine, maybe?”
“So much for dinner-that’s more like a late night snack.”
“Well, I could have actual dinner with you if you want cafeteria food.”
Kyuhyun wrinkles his nose. “I think I’ll wait.”
“Good choice.”
“Oh, Kyuhyun?” The man turns around in the doorway. “Um…would you mind if I recommended you to a dermatologist?”
He blinks. “I…guess not?”
-
The thing is, Zhou Mi has problems. Not many people might think that because he’s always so bright and shiny all the time, and he’s considering in specializing in pediatrics, but he’s pretty messed up. And it’s not entirely due to the fact that his sisters used to dress him up as a kid.
He’s had a pretty long history of being left behind. Most of his friends ditched him when he came out of the closet, and the only ones that are really left are Sungmin and Hyukjae-Sungmin because he’s already bisexual, and Hyukjae because he’d probably die of the guilt if he just turned his back on him. Most of his boyfriends have only dated him because of the sex, since there aren’t many openly gay guys around these days, and apparently, he has really nice legs. The thing is, Zhou Mi is often depressed, and he doesn’t have many people who are willing to listen to him.
“You don’t actually have to be my husband, you know,” Kyuhyun says when Zhou Mi takes advantage of the spare key that he gave him. “We’re just pretending.”
“Yeah, well, my parents are going to be over tomorrow, so we should practice pretending more often. I’m moving in.”
“Uh, what?”
“Just until my parents leave, okay? Just-until my parents leave.” He looks at Kyuhyun, panting, his jacket half off and hanging off of his shoulder. Kyuhyun’s brow furrows with worry for a moment.
“Are you alright?”
“I-” He runs a hand through his hair, and takes a deep breath. “I’m fine. Just-long day.”
Kyuhyun moves to his living room, and moves some papers off of the couch and onto the coffee table. “Do you…want to talk about it?”
He sinks down onto the couch. “A patient woke up in the middle of surgery today. Twice. It turns out that she had an abnormally high resistance to our anesthesia, and her husband went on and on about it afterwards, and she wanted to sue the hospital. We had a bunch of traumas come in today, we lost two of them…and my friend’s heart transplant surgery was a failure.” This is probably the part he hates most about being a doctor. He tries his best to save everyone, but in the end-you can’t do that. No doctor is God, even though most of them think they are, and it’s just-terribly discouraging, when despite your best efforts and your high marks in med school, you still can’t do the one thing you want to do most: save lives.
“Oh,” Kyuhyun says awkwardly. “I, um-this is a pull-out couch. You can sleep in this from now on.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” He only realizes that he’s kind of teary-eyed when Kyuhyun offers him a box of tissues. “And I saw my ex today-he’s a nurse that works in neuro, and I hardly ever go to where he’s stationed, so I never see him-and he’s as great as usual. Looking great, I mean. And still being a smooth talker, pretending nothing happened between us-actually, can you believe I dated a nurse? I’m a resident!”
“Yeah, a nurse-you can definitely do way better than that.” Kyuhyun nods like it’s the truest thing he’s heard all day. He’s so awkward and antisocial, and Zhou Mi just wants to squish his cheeks-but maybe he should do it after he fixes that skin of his.
“You didn’t see the dermatologist yet, have you?”
“…No?”
“I’m taking you. Tomorrow, in fact.”
“It’s fine, I don’t need a dermatologist. I’ll just wash my face more often.”
“Oh, shut up. You don’t even do your dishes-I don’t want to think about how often you must wash your face.” He pauses. “I dated a freaking nurse.”
“Yeah. A nurse. That’s ridiculous.”
“I should be able to date an attending, at least! Actually, I could probably get with Heechul-he’s the head of plastics, and everyone’s always all over him. Apparently, he can do amazing things with his fingers-”
Kyuhyun clears his throat loudly. “Right.”
“Oh, I mean-but I love you best, of course. Because you’re my husband.”
He shudders. “Don’t ever say that again. That’s creepy.” He pauses. “I still can’t believe I’m married to you.”
“Hey, I saved your life. Don’t complain.”
“Is this how doctors relieve their stress? Have disjointed, traumatizing conversations with innocent bystanders?”
“You’re part of the reason why it’s disjointed!”
“Anyways. I ordered take-out for dinner again. And yeah, feel free to sleep on the couch from now on-and if you want, I suppose you could tidy this place up a bit, since you blanch every time you walk through the door.” Kyuhyun rubs the back of his neck, and rolls his shoulders. Zhou Mi admires the way his collarbones peek out from just above his sweater. He has nice collarbones, even if he doesn’t have nice skin. And a nice adrenal gland, too.
He pulls a Febreze bottle out of his bag. “I came prepared.”
-
“We are totally ready,” Zhou Mi says into the phone as he goes about Kyuhyun’s apartment, cleaning it up. (Kyuhyun himself is in the living room, playing StarCraft. Zhou Mi has learned in the last two hours that he really likes that game.)
“Really?” Sungmin sounds like he’s stuffing his face with food right now on the other end of the line. “So you’re saying that he can withstand your parents?”
“Well.” He glances at Kyuhyun, bombing the crap out of his enemy’s base. Or whatever it is that people do on StarCraft. “I’m pretty sure he’ll last longer than you.”
“I thought we agreed to never mention my hormonal teenage years when I made the terrible mistake of dating you again.”
“Anyway,” Zhou Mi says, picking the clothes off of the floor in the living room (why does Kyuhyun have clothes in the living room?) and searches the apartment for the laundry basket (which he might as well not have). “We spent the day together, and he actually didn’t look like he was ready to kill himself every five minutes when we went through every detail of how we met and fell in love. Except once we got back, he pretty much glued himself to his laptop.”
Sungmin laughs. “You don’t like him, do you?”
“I thought we’ve been through this! I don’t, okay?” He sighs, surveying the bathroom. He’ll need to tidy this place up, too. “Let’s change the topic. How’s the scrub nurse? Or that lab tech? Have you gotten into either of their pants yet?”
“Got with the lab tech last night,” Sungmin says proudly. “I’m going to try my luck with the scrub nurse next week.”
“Ah, Lee Sungmin, seducing men and women alike.”
“It’s not my fault I’m irresistibly gorgeous.” He’s about to say something else, but Zhou Mi glances at the clock and cuts him off.
“Shoot, I have to pick my parents up in an hour, and I still haven’t showered yet. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Mm, yeah, sure. See you.”
Zhou Mi hangs up and stuffs his phone back into his pocket, tosses the clothes into the overflowing laundry basket, and returns to the living room to find Kyuhyun.
“Hey, can I use your shower? And when was the last time you did the laundry?”
“Yesterday?” Zhou Mi stares at him. “Well, I don’t know. I don’t really do the laundry unless I’m out of clothes to wear.”
“This is probably part of the reason why you got cancer. Your adrenal gland just couldn’t take it and decided to make a tumor because you’re just so unsanitary. Have you seen that dermatologist yet?”
“The extra towels are in the linen closet by my room-just go help yourself.”
He shoots Kyuhyun a look. “You should clean up too, before my parents come. Trust me, you’ll need every little thing to survive tonight.” He smiles and ruffles Kyuhyun’s hair. He jerks away from his touch. “I’ll iron out a nice outfit for you, if you want.”
He frowns. “You’re fussier than a real wife.”
“It’s endearing and you know it,” he sings, bouncing off to the linen closet. “So do you want that outfit ironed?”
“I don’t care, do whatever you want.”
(Preparing to spend a night being a married couple is actually more enjoyable than expected.)
And so Zhou Mi showers quickly, and irons out a nice dress shirt for Kyuhyun while humming to Elva Hsiao’s Miss Chic-he must learn that dance when he finds some spare time. It’s so classy and alluring. (Maybe he’d be able to seduce Kyuhyun with it? Sungmin somehow gets straight guys in his bed all the time, without getting them piss drunk first.) He lays the clothes out on the bed for Kyuhyun, reminds him to shower, before heading out to pick his parents up from the airport.
“I’ll be back in a bit, honey!”
“Be safe,” Kyuhyun calls out half-heartedly, not even bothering anymore to point out that they’re not married in the strictest sense of the word. Zhou Mi takes this as a step in the right direction.
-
Surprisingly, the atmosphere isn’t as tense as he thought it would be. It’s still tense, but it’s not nearly as bad as when his parents met Sungmin. (But really, Zhou Mi already called that one.)
“So, what do you do, Kyuhyun?” his mother quips. His father has been quiet throughout the entire meal, just eating-but he’s listening. Zhou Mi knows he is. He’s terribly frightening, because he strikes when you’re at your weakest. He just hopes that Kyuhyun doesn’t have any weak points. He’s Korean and plays StarCraft, for God’s sake-he should be invincible.
“I used to be a university professor,” he answers, not looking up. “I quit a few months ago.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“…Personal problems.”
“So you’re currently unemployed?”
“Yes.”
Stupid, Zhou Mi thinks. This isn’t going to score points with his parents-not by a long shot. He can already feel the icy aura radiating off of this father.
“So where did you two meet? When? Mi hasn’t said a word about you to me.” His mother continues with the interrogation, and Zhou Mi swallows, beginning to fear her himself. “He didn’t say anything about the wedding, either.”
Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi glance at each other. “We met last year, Mom,” he tells her. “I was invited to lecture at the university that Kyuhyun worked at, and we bumped into each other there. And we didn’t tell you about the wedding because-well, we didn’t have one. We just signed the papers, and…that was that.”
“But you’ve always wanted a lavish ceremony!”
“But, uh…” He bites his bottom lip. “Kyuhyun doesn’t like that kind of thing, so yeah.”
His mother frowns. “Surely, he could’ve made a few compromises.”
“I-it’s complicated, Mom. Kyuhyun really hates big things like that-he likes to keep things low key. It’s okay, really-I can make do without a ceremony. Imagine the criticism we’d get anyway, since gay marriage has only been legalized just recently.”
His father put his chopsticks down with a clink. Uh oh. Here come the big guns. “Kyuhyun.”
“Yes?”
“This is our son that we’re talking about. You’re unemployed, indifferent, and I peeked into your room earlier-it’s an absolute mess-”
“Dad!” Zhou Mi shrieks. “You looked into his room? That’s an invasion of privacy!” He knew he should’ve cleaned that place up, too. He just knew it.
“You,” his father continues, staring straight at Kyuhyun, “do not get to play with Mi.”
Zhou Mi stares at him, feeling a lump well up in his throat. He remembers when he was in high school, when he first came out of the closet. His mother had a nervous breakdown and his father didn’t speak to him for days-but then he brought Sungmin home (they were dating at the time) and told his parents that he loved him, practically in tears. His father had looked a little repulsed by the fact that they were holding hands, but he grudgingly allowed him to stay for dinner. In the most twisted of ways, Zhou Mi supposes that he realized how much his father really loves him.
Kyuhyun puts his chopsticks down as well, and stares right back at him. “Mr. Zhou,” he says evenly, his poker face immaculate. “I know that I don’t come from the background that you wish I did, and I can’t change that. But Mi…” Zhou Mi’s heart skips a beat at that. Mi. He likes it when Kyuhyun calls him that. “He was there for me when I was going through a rough patch in my life. He saved me.” Zhou Mi stares at him, flabbergasted. He’s better at lying than he thought. “I love him. And I know that I haven’t been able to make it up to him yet, but that’s exactly why I asked him to marry me-because I need a lifetime to repay him for everything he’s done for me.” Kyuhyun looks at Zhou Mi. “I love him.”
Is it wrong that he wants to kiss him right now? He swallows the lump in his throat, blinking to keep the tears at bay. He can’t remember the last time someone had sounded so sincere while saying nice things about him.
There’s a moment of silence, before his father picks his chopsticks up again. “Fine,” he says gruffly. “I’ll be waiting for your results.”
Zhou Mi spends the rest of the evening feeling very in love with his husband.
part one ♫ part two
Pairing: Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG-15
Notes: No, I haven’t been catching up on Grey’s Anatomy, what are you talking about?
Word Count: 11,000
Summary: “Wow, that’s pretty noble of you. You did all of that just to save him.” Zhou Mi just shakes his head. “No, I did it to save myself. I just saved him in the process.”
He’s been dumped. Again. He’s been dumped again.
Zhou Mi trudges to the nurses’ station, upset and his already bad day thoroughly ruined. It’s always like this, isn’t it? It’s always like this. He can’t remember the last thing things have gone his way. Which, for the mental health of a person who generally likes being around people and likes taking care of people and being taken care of, isn’t very good. At all.
“Hey,” he hears someone say, and turns around to find Sungmin, hair disheveled and out of breath. “I have an emergency surgery right now, so could you check up on this guy and discharge him? We can’t keep him for another night, and this surgery is going to take a while.”
“What, you’re in big enough of a rush that you can’t just sign the papers, but you can tell me to do it for you?” Zhou Mi takes the chart out of Sungmin’s hands.
“It’s a little complicated, but it’s all in the chart. Thanks, see you later!” And he’s off and around the corner before Zhou Mi can blink. In the situation that he hasn’t just been dumped and two guys didn’t die on his service today, he might be okay with this. But right now, he’s just upset.
He heads over to room 520, flipping through the charts and frowning. This patient is being discharged today?
“Mr. Cho,” he says, walking into the room, still flipping through the chart. “I’m Dr. Zhou, and I’ll be handling your discharge papers today…” He looks up at the young man sitting on the edge of the bed, his duffel bag packed and his hospital gown folded impeccably and sitting on his pillow. “May I ask…why you’re being discharged?”
Mr. Cho blinks. “The doctors said I could leave today, so I’m leaving.”
“You do realize that-”
“I have a massive tumor pressing against my adrenal gland? Yeah, I know.”
Zhou Mi wants to ask if he also knows that he’ll be dead in a few months if he doesn’t get it treated right away, but he figures that’d be too brash. “Well, uh-if you don’t get it removed right away, it could seriously damage your health-”
“I know, Dr.” The man looks at him with even eyes, and Zhou Mi thinks that he looks tired-just as tired as he feels. “Dr. Lee has told me that I won’t have long.”
“Then why…”
“Just sign the papers, please.” Mr. Cho stands up, rolling his shoulders. Zhou Mi looks at him uncertainly, before pressing his pen to the clipboard and signing. “I…don’t have health insurance. I can’t afford the surgery.”
He swallows. “Oh.” He flips the form to the next page, and finds a sticky note on it from Sungmin. Give him a few free samples of our meds? Thanks.
“I proposed to my girlfriend last week,” Mr. Cho says, avoiding eye contact. “We’d only been dating for a few months, but she has health insurance, so I figured…” He shrugs. “I guess she saw right through me.”
Part of Zhou Mi wants to snap at him, because who on earth proposes just for the insurance? But he looks at Mr. Cho, and thinks that maybe, it was a rational choice. Maybe for him, it was the only way out. Zhou Mi can’t sympathize with someone who knows he’s going to die, but he understands a little, because sometimes, people become so pressured that they just break.
“How long have you had the tumor for?”
“A few years.”
They look at each other for a few moments, and Zhou Mi sticks out his hand. “My full name’s Zhou Mi.”
He takes it. “Cho Kyuhyun.”
“Here are the papers for you to sign…just give me a minute, and I’ll pick up some meds for you, alright?” Kyuhyun nods, and Zhou Mi turns and leaves the room.
He hates it when this happens. When people have the chance to live and be saved, but they can’t be because they don’t have the money. It’s something he’s always contemplated-why should money determine whether you live or die? Everyone has the right to live, and honestly-he would still do this job if he got paid as much as a fast food worker. That would be the only thing he hates about this job-not being able to help when he knows he can.
“Imagine this,” he tells Hyukjae, who he passes at the nurses’ station again. “A guy is going to die from cancer, but he can’t get the tumor removed because he doesn’t have the money. And his girlfriend refused to marry him because she knows he’s only doing it for her insurance.”
“Does that make you sad?” Hyukjae asks, lips quirking up into a smile. (He’s long since mastered the art of being impersonal about his job. Zhou Mi is almost jealous.)
“Well, yeah! He’s around the same age as us-he has a whole life ahead of him!”
Hyukjae laughs. “Well, you might as well marry him instead, then.” He closes the chart he’s currently reading, slides it back in place, pats Zhou Mi’s shoulder, and walks off. He stands there for a moment, thinking.
Hey, that’s an idea.
-
Kyuhyun stares at him, duffel bag already slung over his shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“I have the insurance that you don’t. I could save you.”
“I…appreciate the sentiment, Dr. Zhou, but I can’t accept that offer.”
“Why not?” he demands. “What do you have to lose? You’re going to die in a few months, Mr. Cho, and right before you do, you’re going to wonder why you didn’t take this opportunity!”
There’s a pregnant pause. “You’re crazy.”
“Yeah, I’m told that from time to time.”
Kyuhyun takes a deep breath. “I hope you realize that I don’t swing that way.”
“But you’d rather be alive than dead, right? You win some, you lose some.”
Dropping his duffel bag onto the floor and sinking back down onto the bed, Kyuhyun takes a deep breath. “Why are you doing this?”
Zhou Mi looks at Kyuhyun, and decides that he’s actually kind of cute. If he gains a little weight and loses the dark rings under his eyes, he could be breathtaking. Smiling, he says, “Good question. Now, are you going to marry me or not?”
His smile is weak, but it’s there. “Do you have a ring, at least?”
He feels his back pocket. “I have the spare key to my apartment. Is that good enough?”
Kyuhyun laughs a little. “I’ll take it.”
-
“Can you take my shift tomorrow?” Zhou Mi finds Sungmin in the cafeteria, dropping a pile of charts in front of him. “I’m busy.”
“Um, sure, I guess.” Sungmin glances at the charts, clearly not wanting to touch them. “No surgeries?”
“Just an appendectomy. Remember, general surgeons don’t get overly difficult surgeries.” Zhou Mi sighs in relief. “Thanks.”
“Can I ask what you’re doing?”
“Me?” He can’t help but grin. “I’m getting married.”
“Oh, okay.” Sungmin blinks. “Wait, what?”
“I’m getting married! Wish me luck!”
“Wait-wait, Mi, where are you going? You’re getting married?”
-
Well, it’s really not that big of a deal. They’re getting a few papers signed, and that’s pretty much it. Then Kyuhyun’s getting right back to the hospital, and he’s going to get operated on by Zhou Mi himself.
“I, uh,” he signs the papers and pushes them across the table to Kyuhyun, “am going to have to tell my parents about this. I can’t tell them I’m not getting married, y’know-they’d probably have my head for that.” He’s still a little numb-he can’t actually believe that he’s doing this. Well, he can-but it just doesn’t feel like he’s getting married, since there isn’t a huge ceremony, with the church and the cake and…y’know. That kind of stuff.
“No, I understand.”
“They’re going to want to, uh…meet you. Sorry about that.”
“Do we have to act like we’re in love, too?”
“Um…if that isn’t too much of a problem. You just have to act like you don’t hate me.”
“Well, that shouldn’t be too difficult.” Kyuhyun puts his pen down and smiles at Zhou Mi. “Acting isn’t my area of expertise, but I’ll do my best.”
Zhou Mi smiles. “Thanks.” Let’s just say, since he’ll be tacking on a couple more decades onto Kyuhyun’s life, he’s really looking forward to getting to know him. Maybe, over time, he’ll be someone that Zhou Mi would be glad to have married. Maybe he’ll fall in love with him one day.
“So, do you think the receptionist over there is cute?” Kyuhyun says nonchalantly, crossing his legs.
“…We’re married, Kyuhyun.”
“And I’m straight. Let’s make some compromises here. So, d’you think that receptionist is cute?”
“Why do you care? The receptionist isn’t even a girl.”
“I want to know what your taste in guys is.”
“Why?”
“To make sure I’m not your type.”
Zhou Mi isn’t sure if Kyuhyun’s serious or not, but he sneaks a peek at the receptionist behind him anyway. “Yeah, he’s pretty cute.”
Kyuhyun nods, thinking for a moment. “He’s pretty cute,” he agrees.
Zhou Mi laughs.
-
“Are you serious-” Sungmin looks around to make sure no one’s listening. “You married a patient so he could use your insurance? Are you crazy?”
“I’m a doctor, Sungmin,” Zhou Mi says. “I save lives.”
“And you can do that without marrying the patient!” Sungmin looks scared to the point where he’s struggling to not turn tail and run. “I can’t believe-oh my God, you could get in so much trouble for this-you know you’re not allowed to date your patients!”
“I’m not dating him,” Zhou Mi clarifies. “I’m married to him.”
“Which is ten times worse! Okay, you know what-give me his charts. He’s mine now. You’re not allowed to operate on him.”
“What-no way! He’s mine now, both inside of this hospital and out!”
“You’re married to him! You don’t have the right to cut him open anymore!”
Zhou Mi stares at Sungmin. He can’t remember how long they’ve been friends for-they met in high school, and have been together since. (He’s also the reason why Sungmin’s bisexual, but that’s not the point.) He knows that Sungmin has a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder, and always makes sure everything is in place before he leaves the house-he’s smart and proper, and he always wants the best for everyone, Zhou Mi included. “Look, Sungmin, it’s just…” He sighs. “Everything has been going wrong lately, and I just-I just wanted to do something right for once, y’know? I want to save a life. I want someone to look at me and for once, not want to run because I’m the last person they want to see.”
Sungmin looks at him with those eyes that mean he wants to put him in his pocket and take care of him for the rest of his life. “Do you want a hug?”
“Yes, please.”
“You can have him, I guess,” Sungmin says into his shoulder. “But only if I get to scrub in.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without you anyway,” Zhou Mi giggles.
-
When Kyuhyun opens his door to see him, he looks surprised. “Hi.”
“I brought dinner.” Zhou Mi holds up some take-out boxes.
“Um, alright, then.” Kyuhyun steps aside. “Come in.”
“So the surgery’s scheduled for next Thursday, done by yours truly.” It’s his first time in Kyuhyun’s apartment, and Zhou Mi can already see that there are a lot of things that need changing. Or, well, tidying up, anyway. The place is a mess. “When was the last time you did the dishes?”
“Last week? I don’t know. So what’s for dinner?”
“Chinese. Dr. Lee will also be scrubbing in, if you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t.” Kyuhyun gets the bowls and chopsticks. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those people who has to clean everything he lays his eyes on.”
“Um…” Zhou Mi fidgets. “I’m not…that bad?”
He slides into his chair. “Just eat.”
Dejected, Zhou Mi sits down and eats. “Y’know, you’re not really the husband I imagined having.”
“I didn’t imagine ever having a husband.”
“We can make this work. We could be best friends. We could have a bromance. And then you could get a girlfriend and I wouldn’t mind, and I could get a boyfriend and you wouldn’t mind, and it’ll just be a beautiful bromance. Yeah.”
Kyuhyun glances at him. “Bromance. Right.”
Zhou Mi suspects that Kyuhyun is a quiet sort of person. He’s kind of witty and a little funny, but not at all the type of guy Zhou Mi’s usually interested in. Which is-kind of disappointing, he thinks, since they’re married and all, and…well, he supposes it’d be kind of nice to love his husband. But he doesn’t, and Kyuhyun’s not interested, so he just sits in his (dirty) kitchen quietly, eating Chinese takeout.
“I’m from a big family,” he says, poking at the chow mien idly in his bowl. “I have three older sisters, so that’s probably why I’m so weird. And I’m from China, actually-I was just fine over there, until I got a huge job offer here that pays way better, so here I am. Oh, and I won a skating competition when I was eight.”
“Did you,” Kyuhyun replies, sounding faintly amused. “Maybe you should’ve continued on to be a figure skater, not a surgeon.”
“Oh, but both are fun, don’t you think? I skate recreationally now, when I have the time.” (Which is never.) “What about you? Where have you been before I met you?”
Kyuhyun looks at him, and swallows his food. His smile is faint-a little sad. “I don’t think you want to know,” he says, and leaves it at that.
“Oh.” Zhou Mi looks away. “Okay, then.”
-
Kyuhyun is already prepped and asleep on the table, and Zhou Mi and Sungmin are scrubbing in. “Do you have rings? Or anything that signifies that you’re married other than the documents?”
“He has the spare key to my apartment, and I have the spare to his.” Zhou Mi grins. “Does that count?”
Sungmin looks at him with an exasperated expression. “You’re impossible.”
“I’m compassionate.”
“And crazy.”
“So are you!”
“You have the spare key to my apartment. Does that mean we’re married, too?”
“That’s only because I never returned it after your vacation from Hawaii. You don’t have the spare to my apartment.”
“That’s because your place is sterilized to the point where you don’t even have plants to water while you’re off on fantastic vacations to Hawaii.” Sungmin shoots him a look, before turning off the tap and wiping his hands dry, walking into the operating room. Zhou Mi quickly follows suit.
Later, when they’re removing the tumor, Zhou Mi will think that if it weren’t for the cancer, Kyuhyun would’ve had a really nice adrenal gland. He likes guys with nice adrenal glands.
-
Technically, it was Hyukjae’s idea. If anyone should be blamed, it should be Hyukjae. He may be an idiot sometimes, but he is on his way to being the head of the ortho department, so he must have a smidgen of intelligence in him-which is why Zhou Mi didn’t really think twice before going with what he said.
“I didn’t-what-you actually married him?” Hyukjae sputters when Zhou Mi stares fondly at the closed door of Kyuhyun’s room.
“Well, it was a good idea, wasn’t it?”
Hyukjae buries his head in his arms, and Sungmin pats him sympathetically on the back. “I wasn’t serious, you moron.”
Zhou Mi frowns. “But I saved his life!”
“Isn’t he straight? He had a girlfriend, the last time I checked.”
“Yeah, well, she left him after he proposed to her. And I was his only shot at survival, so yeah. People do crazy things when their life is on the line.”
“So…do you actually like him?” Sungmin asks, using Hyukjae as an armrest.
He shoots him a look. “No, not really. I mean, he’s cool, but I don’t think I’d want to date him. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get divorced in a couple of months.” Which really shouldn’t be a laughing matter, but for some reason, this whole marriage thing doesn’t seem as serious as it should be. Hyukjae and Sungmin both look at him like he’s crazy-and hey, he might as well be. Most surgeons are.
“You might want to go check up on your husband, then,” Hyukjae says, shuddering at the word. “He should be waking up soon.”
“Right. He needs someone to be there for him, right? He just got out of some major surgery, after all.” Zhou Mi smoothes down his scrubs, beams, and heads to Kyuhyun’s room, chart in hand and at the ready.
And-oh, okay, for a post-op patient, he looks really good.
He puts the chart on the table at the end of Kyuhyun’s bed and rests his elbows on it, watching him. He’s still sleeping. He looks kind of greasy, and his acne pits are more pronounced than usual, but Zhou Mi thinks that he’s never seen anyone who looks better. Maybe it’s the fact that he personally saved his life, or the fact that he’s his husband-he’s not sure. He just looks really good.
It’s a minute or two later that he wakes up, and when his eyelashes flutter, Zhou Mi’s heart skips a beat.
“Hey,” he says softly, smiling. “How do you feel?”
“Five more minutes…”
He laughs. “You’re in a hospital, Kyuhyun. I’m your doctor. I’m not your mom, waking you up for school.”
Kyuhyun squints at him. “You’re not my doctor,” he says groggily. “You’re my husband.”
His cheeks flush. “Yes, well, that too. I’m your doctor and your husband.”
The other man’s grins weakly. “Is the cancer gone?”
“Yup. We just need to keep you here for the week to make sure no complications arise and to make sure you get your bed rest, but other than that, you’re all done! Isn’t that great?”
“I’m not going to die,” Kyuhyun says, sighing and looking up at the ceiling.
“You’re not going to die.”
Kyuhyun looks at Zhou Mi-with his greasy face and acne pits-and he smiles. “Have you told your parents yet?”
“Oh. Um. I think I’ll do it soon? It’s kind of sudden, y’know-getting married. They would want to know why I didn’t call the sooner, why I didn’t invite them to the wedding-it’s going to be complicated. My mom and sisters have always wanted to plan my wedding.”
“Ah.” Kyuhyun nods. “A lively family.”
“Do you have one? A lively family, I mean-not if you have a family.”
“Um, no-my family’s pretty quiet.” He shifts in his bed. “Can you get me some water?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Just give me a sec-I’ll be right back.”
Hyukjae waggles his eyebrows suggestively when he leaves the room, and Sungmin makes a comment about how he’s already whipped.
-
“Married?” Zhou Mi holds his phone a few inches away from his ear. “You’re married? What-what on earth, Mi!”
“Calm down, Mom,” he tries to fit in in between her shrieks. “It was…unexpected. But he treats me really well! And he’s nice, and witty, and…” Has a nice adrenal gland? Has acne pits? Really long eyelashes? “I love him, so…please, calm down.”
He hears his mother huff on the other end of the line. “Fine. But I’ll have you know that your father and I am getting on the next plane to Seoul to meet him.”
“Of course!”
“And when we get there, I want to know everything about him, and exactly why you didn’t tell us you were getting married.”
“I-of course.” He swallows. He loves his mother, but sometimes, she can be deadly. “Call me when your flight’s scheduled; I’ll pick you up at the airport. Yeah. Love you too-bye.” He sinks in his seat, appetite lost. Hyukjae and Sungmin are munching on their cafeteria food like they’ve been denied of eating for the past week, watching him with amused expressions. “What?”
“So, what lies are you going to make up?” Sungmin asks eagerly. “That he’s a pediatrician? Dermatologist? Wait, no, he has terrible skin-that he’s great in bed?”
“You’re disgusting.”
“What? He’s hot! Just give him some makeup, and even straight guys will be all over him.”
“I’ll discuss this with him. We’ll have coordinated lies by the time my parents interrogate the life out of him, and they will be so beautifully crafted that even you guys will have difficulty not believing them.” Hyukjae just rolls his eyes. Zhou Mi throws a grape at his face. He catches it with his mouth and eats it. “Well, you guys keep badmouthing my marriage while I go see Kyuhyun about this.”
“Can I have your sandwich?” Hyukjae calls as Zhou Mi makes his way out of the cafeteria.
“Stop being so fat!”
“…Is that a yes?”
Kyuhyun is sitting in his bed when Zhou Mi enters the room, very similar to the first time they met. He’s dressed in his regular clothes, duffel bag packed up, hospital gown folded and sitting on his pillow. “Are you here to discharge me?” he asks, smiling.
“Oh, right! Discharge papers. Um. One sec.” He rushes out to get them.
“You’re really disheveled when you’re working,” Kyuhyun observes as Zhou Mi signs the papers.
“Yeah, well, it gets hectic around here. Lots of stressed doctors and dying people. It gets kind of depressing on the best of days.”
“Lovely.”
He exhales, putting his pen down on the signed papers. “I…told my mom. About us.”
“Oh. And how’d that go?”
“We…need to come up with some great lies.”
“Okay.” Kyuhyun nods. “About what?”
“Um-like, how we met, why we didn’t have a proper wedding, what you do, what we do during our spare time-oh, and I think we’ll need to live together. Just to be on the safe side.”
He raises his eyebrows. (Zhou Mi thinks it’s endearing.) “I think I’m more scared of your mother than I was about that tumor.”
“You should be.” They share a laugh, and Zhou Mi sighs, feeling a little bit of the weight of the day lift from his chest. “Well, the papers are all signed, so you’re ready to go. How about dinner tonight? My treat.”
“Sure. When do you get off?”
“Nine, maybe?”
“So much for dinner-that’s more like a late night snack.”
“Well, I could have actual dinner with you if you want cafeteria food.”
Kyuhyun wrinkles his nose. “I think I’ll wait.”
“Good choice.”
“Oh, Kyuhyun?” The man turns around in the doorway. “Um…would you mind if I recommended you to a dermatologist?”
He blinks. “I…guess not?”
-
The thing is, Zhou Mi has problems. Not many people might think that because he’s always so bright and shiny all the time, and he’s considering in specializing in pediatrics, but he’s pretty messed up. And it’s not entirely due to the fact that his sisters used to dress him up as a kid.
He’s had a pretty long history of being left behind. Most of his friends ditched him when he came out of the closet, and the only ones that are really left are Sungmin and Hyukjae-Sungmin because he’s already bisexual, and Hyukjae because he’d probably die of the guilt if he just turned his back on him. Most of his boyfriends have only dated him because of the sex, since there aren’t many openly gay guys around these days, and apparently, he has really nice legs. The thing is, Zhou Mi is often depressed, and he doesn’t have many people who are willing to listen to him.
“You don’t actually have to be my husband, you know,” Kyuhyun says when Zhou Mi takes advantage of the spare key that he gave him. “We’re just pretending.”
“Yeah, well, my parents are going to be over tomorrow, so we should practice pretending more often. I’m moving in.”
“Uh, what?”
“Just until my parents leave, okay? Just-until my parents leave.” He looks at Kyuhyun, panting, his jacket half off and hanging off of his shoulder. Kyuhyun’s brow furrows with worry for a moment.
“Are you alright?”
“I-” He runs a hand through his hair, and takes a deep breath. “I’m fine. Just-long day.”
Kyuhyun moves to his living room, and moves some papers off of the couch and onto the coffee table. “Do you…want to talk about it?”
He sinks down onto the couch. “A patient woke up in the middle of surgery today. Twice. It turns out that she had an abnormally high resistance to our anesthesia, and her husband went on and on about it afterwards, and she wanted to sue the hospital. We had a bunch of traumas come in today, we lost two of them…and my friend’s heart transplant surgery was a failure.” This is probably the part he hates most about being a doctor. He tries his best to save everyone, but in the end-you can’t do that. No doctor is God, even though most of them think they are, and it’s just-terribly discouraging, when despite your best efforts and your high marks in med school, you still can’t do the one thing you want to do most: save lives.
“Oh,” Kyuhyun says awkwardly. “I, um-this is a pull-out couch. You can sleep in this from now on.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” He only realizes that he’s kind of teary-eyed when Kyuhyun offers him a box of tissues. “And I saw my ex today-he’s a nurse that works in neuro, and I hardly ever go to where he’s stationed, so I never see him-and he’s as great as usual. Looking great, I mean. And still being a smooth talker, pretending nothing happened between us-actually, can you believe I dated a nurse? I’m a resident!”
“Yeah, a nurse-you can definitely do way better than that.” Kyuhyun nods like it’s the truest thing he’s heard all day. He’s so awkward and antisocial, and Zhou Mi just wants to squish his cheeks-but maybe he should do it after he fixes that skin of his.
“You didn’t see the dermatologist yet, have you?”
“…No?”
“I’m taking you. Tomorrow, in fact.”
“It’s fine, I don’t need a dermatologist. I’ll just wash my face more often.”
“Oh, shut up. You don’t even do your dishes-I don’t want to think about how often you must wash your face.” He pauses. “I dated a freaking nurse.”
“Yeah. A nurse. That’s ridiculous.”
“I should be able to date an attending, at least! Actually, I could probably get with Heechul-he’s the head of plastics, and everyone’s always all over him. Apparently, he can do amazing things with his fingers-”
Kyuhyun clears his throat loudly. “Right.”
“Oh, I mean-but I love you best, of course. Because you’re my husband.”
He shudders. “Don’t ever say that again. That’s creepy.” He pauses. “I still can’t believe I’m married to you.”
“Hey, I saved your life. Don’t complain.”
“Is this how doctors relieve their stress? Have disjointed, traumatizing conversations with innocent bystanders?”
“You’re part of the reason why it’s disjointed!”
“Anyways. I ordered take-out for dinner again. And yeah, feel free to sleep on the couch from now on-and if you want, I suppose you could tidy this place up a bit, since you blanch every time you walk through the door.” Kyuhyun rubs the back of his neck, and rolls his shoulders. Zhou Mi admires the way his collarbones peek out from just above his sweater. He has nice collarbones, even if he doesn’t have nice skin. And a nice adrenal gland, too.
He pulls a Febreze bottle out of his bag. “I came prepared.”
-
“We are totally ready,” Zhou Mi says into the phone as he goes about Kyuhyun’s apartment, cleaning it up. (Kyuhyun himself is in the living room, playing StarCraft. Zhou Mi has learned in the last two hours that he really likes that game.)
“Really?” Sungmin sounds like he’s stuffing his face with food right now on the other end of the line. “So you’re saying that he can withstand your parents?”
“Well.” He glances at Kyuhyun, bombing the crap out of his enemy’s base. Or whatever it is that people do on StarCraft. “I’m pretty sure he’ll last longer than you.”
“I thought we agreed to never mention my hormonal teenage years when I made the terrible mistake of dating you again.”
“Anyway,” Zhou Mi says, picking the clothes off of the floor in the living room (why does Kyuhyun have clothes in the living room?) and searches the apartment for the laundry basket (which he might as well not have). “We spent the day together, and he actually didn’t look like he was ready to kill himself every five minutes when we went through every detail of how we met and fell in love. Except once we got back, he pretty much glued himself to his laptop.”
Sungmin laughs. “You don’t like him, do you?”
“I thought we’ve been through this! I don’t, okay?” He sighs, surveying the bathroom. He’ll need to tidy this place up, too. “Let’s change the topic. How’s the scrub nurse? Or that lab tech? Have you gotten into either of their pants yet?”
“Got with the lab tech last night,” Sungmin says proudly. “I’m going to try my luck with the scrub nurse next week.”
“Ah, Lee Sungmin, seducing men and women alike.”
“It’s not my fault I’m irresistibly gorgeous.” He’s about to say something else, but Zhou Mi glances at the clock and cuts him off.
“Shoot, I have to pick my parents up in an hour, and I still haven’t showered yet. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Mm, yeah, sure. See you.”
Zhou Mi hangs up and stuffs his phone back into his pocket, tosses the clothes into the overflowing laundry basket, and returns to the living room to find Kyuhyun.
“Hey, can I use your shower? And when was the last time you did the laundry?”
“Yesterday?” Zhou Mi stares at him. “Well, I don’t know. I don’t really do the laundry unless I’m out of clothes to wear.”
“This is probably part of the reason why you got cancer. Your adrenal gland just couldn’t take it and decided to make a tumor because you’re just so unsanitary. Have you seen that dermatologist yet?”
“The extra towels are in the linen closet by my room-just go help yourself.”
He shoots Kyuhyun a look. “You should clean up too, before my parents come. Trust me, you’ll need every little thing to survive tonight.” He smiles and ruffles Kyuhyun’s hair. He jerks away from his touch. “I’ll iron out a nice outfit for you, if you want.”
He frowns. “You’re fussier than a real wife.”
“It’s endearing and you know it,” he sings, bouncing off to the linen closet. “So do you want that outfit ironed?”
“I don’t care, do whatever you want.”
(Preparing to spend a night being a married couple is actually more enjoyable than expected.)
And so Zhou Mi showers quickly, and irons out a nice dress shirt for Kyuhyun while humming to Elva Hsiao’s Miss Chic-he must learn that dance when he finds some spare time. It’s so classy and alluring. (Maybe he’d be able to seduce Kyuhyun with it? Sungmin somehow gets straight guys in his bed all the time, without getting them piss drunk first.) He lays the clothes out on the bed for Kyuhyun, reminds him to shower, before heading out to pick his parents up from the airport.
“I’ll be back in a bit, honey!”
“Be safe,” Kyuhyun calls out half-heartedly, not even bothering anymore to point out that they’re not married in the strictest sense of the word. Zhou Mi takes this as a step in the right direction.
-
Surprisingly, the atmosphere isn’t as tense as he thought it would be. It’s still tense, but it’s not nearly as bad as when his parents met Sungmin. (But really, Zhou Mi already called that one.)
“So, what do you do, Kyuhyun?” his mother quips. His father has been quiet throughout the entire meal, just eating-but he’s listening. Zhou Mi knows he is. He’s terribly frightening, because he strikes when you’re at your weakest. He just hopes that Kyuhyun doesn’t have any weak points. He’s Korean and plays StarCraft, for God’s sake-he should be invincible.
“I used to be a university professor,” he answers, not looking up. “I quit a few months ago.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“…Personal problems.”
“So you’re currently unemployed?”
“Yes.”
Stupid, Zhou Mi thinks. This isn’t going to score points with his parents-not by a long shot. He can already feel the icy aura radiating off of this father.
“So where did you two meet? When? Mi hasn’t said a word about you to me.” His mother continues with the interrogation, and Zhou Mi swallows, beginning to fear her himself. “He didn’t say anything about the wedding, either.”
Kyuhyun and Zhou Mi glance at each other. “We met last year, Mom,” he tells her. “I was invited to lecture at the university that Kyuhyun worked at, and we bumped into each other there. And we didn’t tell you about the wedding because-well, we didn’t have one. We just signed the papers, and…that was that.”
“But you’ve always wanted a lavish ceremony!”
“But, uh…” He bites his bottom lip. “Kyuhyun doesn’t like that kind of thing, so yeah.”
His mother frowns. “Surely, he could’ve made a few compromises.”
“I-it’s complicated, Mom. Kyuhyun really hates big things like that-he likes to keep things low key. It’s okay, really-I can make do without a ceremony. Imagine the criticism we’d get anyway, since gay marriage has only been legalized just recently.”
His father put his chopsticks down with a clink. Uh oh. Here come the big guns. “Kyuhyun.”
“Yes?”
“This is our son that we’re talking about. You’re unemployed, indifferent, and I peeked into your room earlier-it’s an absolute mess-”
“Dad!” Zhou Mi shrieks. “You looked into his room? That’s an invasion of privacy!” He knew he should’ve cleaned that place up, too. He just knew it.
“You,” his father continues, staring straight at Kyuhyun, “do not get to play with Mi.”
Zhou Mi stares at him, feeling a lump well up in his throat. He remembers when he was in high school, when he first came out of the closet. His mother had a nervous breakdown and his father didn’t speak to him for days-but then he brought Sungmin home (they were dating at the time) and told his parents that he loved him, practically in tears. His father had looked a little repulsed by the fact that they were holding hands, but he grudgingly allowed him to stay for dinner. In the most twisted of ways, Zhou Mi supposes that he realized how much his father really loves him.
Kyuhyun puts his chopsticks down as well, and stares right back at him. “Mr. Zhou,” he says evenly, his poker face immaculate. “I know that I don’t come from the background that you wish I did, and I can’t change that. But Mi…” Zhou Mi’s heart skips a beat at that. Mi. He likes it when Kyuhyun calls him that. “He was there for me when I was going through a rough patch in my life. He saved me.” Zhou Mi stares at him, flabbergasted. He’s better at lying than he thought. “I love him. And I know that I haven’t been able to make it up to him yet, but that’s exactly why I asked him to marry me-because I need a lifetime to repay him for everything he’s done for me.” Kyuhyun looks at Zhou Mi. “I love him.”
Is it wrong that he wants to kiss him right now? He swallows the lump in his throat, blinking to keep the tears at bay. He can’t remember the last time someone had sounded so sincere while saying nice things about him.
There’s a moment of silence, before his father picks his chopsticks up again. “Fine,” he says gruffly. “I’ll be waiting for your results.”
Zhou Mi spends the rest of the evening feeling very in love with his husband.
part one ♫ part two