Community Service
For the SuJu 100 Fics Challenge!
Title: Community Service
Theme: #002 Christmas
Pairing: HeeChul/RyeoWook
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst, Character Death
Word Count: 3,004
Archive: Here
A/N: My second entry for the Challenge. I'm nearly done the next chapter for MatchMakers, but I just had to get this up before it killed me. Speaking of which, both my Challenge fics have character death in it O.o; I promise they won't all be like this...
It was all HeeChul could do to keep smiling, as forced as it looked. It was the last place he wanted to be in the middle of summer, the last situation he wanted to be in. He wanted to go up to those ill-dressed pricks that called themselves court judges and tell them to hell with their rules. But sadly he didn’t have the pleasure of doing that, as satisfying as wringing their necks out sounded.
He and his friends had been out late as usual, partying after the end of another year at university, and they’d forgotten to pick a designated driver before getting wasted. HeeChul had decided he was okay to drive, as he was the least drunk of his friends and only pleasantly buzzed. This turned out to be a bad idea though, as soon after leaving the club he lost control of the car and hit a tree. Could have been much worse. No one was hurt, besides the tree and car that was.
So although he could see what the fuss was about and why he was here, he refused to acknowledge it. It had been decided that instead of sending him to some prison or giving him a fine, he’d do six months of ‘community service’. Him, helping out people! The thought was enough to send all his friends rolling on the floor laughing their asses off.
So here he was at the children’s hospital, to cheer up the poor souls who had to spend their summers here instead of out in the sun. Which was where he should be too, come to think of it. If there was a god, he had a horrible sense of humor. HeeChul wasn’t a ‘cheer-others-up’ kind of person even in the best of moods, and especially when he was ticked at having to waste his entire summer.
Okay. All he had to do was put up with the kids from one to five each day until the last week of November. Apparently his university classes were going to be at nighttime once they started again in August, so he had no excuse to get away from the hospital. It was such a dreary place too. All gray and drab and no color whatsoever.
He followed one of the nurses around all day, watching as she looked over the kids and talked to then tenderly. She told HeeChul to just be quiet and watch the first day, so he could eventually do his own rounds without supervision. He was more than glad to not talk to the brats right away. He’d have to find a way to tame his sharp tongue a little first. He wasn’t too eager to find out just how far he had to push before the judge decided a little time in Juvenile Detention would do him better than cheering up a bunch of depressed brats.
Many of the kids were the same, there with small injuries. It wasn’t a very big hospital, but there was still maybe… Twenty-five children there? There was another hospital in town for the more serious injuries and illnesses, though it cost a pretty penny to go there.
The kids were various ages, from a small toddler at three to a sixteen-year-old girl on the second floor. They didn’t look any happier than HeeChul was; it was a nice day outside, and most of them couldn’t even leave the hospital to get a breath of fresh air. The nurses opened the windows for them though, if their condition allowed it. The few nurses around did their best to cheer the kids up when they didn’t have visitors, playing games with them or reading the younger ones stories. Most of them had a parent, friend or relative with them though, so they weren’t needed much other than checking up on their condition, something HeeChul was told he didn’t have to worry about.
In the last room though, something was different. The first thing HeeChul noticed was the presence of large machinery, one that you would be more likely to find in the hospital at the other end of town than here. There was so much in the room that he nearly missed the boy lying in the bed. Not that he was hard to miss; tiny thing he was.
“Good morning, Wookie,” The nurse greeted the boy the same as she had the others, with a cute nickname, but HeeChul noticed a note of pity in her voice that hadn’t been there for the others. The boy on the bed opened his eyes, and waved with a small smile. He looked just a bit younger than HeeChul himself, but it didn’t take a look under the blankets to know he was a very thin lad, with cheekbones that stood out sharply against his skin, and a small body that barely used a third of the bed. But his smile was so innocent and child-like, not something that you saw often in people their age.
The nurse introduced HeeChul to the boy, who looked at him with bright eyes as he carefully sat up. The nurse had to help him, and as the sheets slipped away HeeChul found his assumptions were correct. He didn’t look like he ate much, nothing more than a toothpick.
His name was Kim RyeoWook. He was much different from the other patients. Where they came and went with small injuries, RyeoWook had been here for nearly five months, his condition slowly deteriorating. He had something wrong with his lungs; the doctors weren’t sure what exactly. And his parents wouldn’t pay for the transfer to the larger and better-equipped hospital. Not that it had made much of a difference; by the time RyeoWook had finally been forced to come here, his condition had been so bad it was all they could do to keep him alive on pills and medication. He was past the point of return; it was just a matter of how much longer he could last.
Despite this, RyeoWook didn’t seem too concerned. “Are you a university student, HeeChul sshi?” He asked, with wide eyes.
HeeChul had been asked to be quiet; not that any o the others had really noticed him. RyeoWook was the first to start a conversation. He couldn’t very well ignore the boy, though he’d have to be careful of his tongue with the nurse right there. “Yeah.”
“What classes do you take?” RyeoWook asked, leaning forward eagerly. HeeChul smirked a little. “Drama.”
“That’s amazing,” RyeoWook said. “So you want to be an actor?”
Surprisingly, it was easy to talk to RyeoWook. He was a polite boy, and HeeChul actually didn’t mind answering his questions. The nurse left after a while, saying she had to check on the other children, and HeeChul stayed with RyeoWook, answering his questions.
Before he knew it, it was five and he had to leave. “I’ll be here again tomorrow,” He told RyeoWook, standing to leave. RyeoWook saddened, but nodded a little and carefully laid back down. “Thank you for coming,” He said, and there was something in that kind and hopeful voice that made HeeChul think that the day had been worth it.
He came every day, talking with the children and forcing himself to behave. They were annoying, bratty things (mostly the little ones), but he didn’t have to spend much time with them thanks to visitors. He spent more his day with RyeoWook, talking to the boy and indulging him with little reenactments of skits done during class. RyeoWook loved them, clapping enthusiastically when he was done. The nurses never bothered him, approving of HeeChul’s decision to keep the dying boy company.
He had been there for two months already. It was the beginning of August, the leaves slowly starting to change colors. Not once has anyone come to visit RyeoWook. He wondered briefly if it was a sensitive subject for the boy, but that didn’t stop him from asking anyways.
“RyeoWook, don’t you have any family to come visit you?” He asked, sitting on the edge of the boy’s bed. RyeoWook was showing him some songs he had written in his free time, and HeeChul had to admit they were very good. But when he had asked the other to sing for him, RyeoWook had shaken his head, saying the nurses had told him not to in case it caused one of the coughing fits he had every now and then.
RyeoWook smiled a little. “My mom and dad are too busy. My little brother’s graduating from high school this year, so they’re busy setting up his future. My cousin JongWoon hyung used to come visit me, but he moved away a few months ago.”
“Too busy?” HeeChul scowled. “Their son is stuck here dying, and they’re too busy to visit for at least a few minutes a week? What the hell! RyeoWook hung his head as HeeChul continued. “And they haven’t even gotten you transferred to the other hospital yet? What’s wrong with them?” He looked at RyeoWook.
The smaller boy smiled shakily. “It’s okay. I don’t mind, really.” But HeeChul’s keen eyes noticed how his hands clenched at the sheets, and the unshed tears in his eyes.
And he suddenly wanted nothing more than to find these parents of his and push them off a cliff. Onto ten-foot long spikes and barbed wire.
RyeoWook’s condition was slowly getting worse. He was always smiling and happy when HeeChul was there, but the coughing fits got worse, and his voice got weaker and weaker as September lagged into November, HeeChul’s last month at the hospital. The elder boy looked forward to the time he spent with RyeoWook. He didn’t even bother visiting the other kids anymore, not since the middle of September when one of the elder nurses drew him aside.
“Stay with RyeoWook from now on. We’re all amazed at how long he’s been able to hold on, the medication shouldn’t have been able to take him this far. We think it’s because you’re there. No ones ever come to visit the poor lad before. So just keep making him happy.”
Halfway through November he was sitting on RyeoWook’s bed with him, doodling on a piece of paper he had dug up and talking. Looking around, HeeChul noticed that the nurses were already getting ready for Christmas, over a month early. “Christmas comes early here,” He noted. RyeoWook smiled and nodded, drawing a Christmas tree.
HeeChul watched them. “You’re missing something, kid.” He drew presents underneath. RyeoWook bit his lower lip slightly, something HeeChul had come to associate with bad memories. “What’s up this time?” He asked.
“It’s nothing, HeeChul hyung.”
“It’s obviously not nothing. Do I look that stupid to you?”
“…”
“Yah!”
RyeoWook giggled helplessly as HeeChul glared at him. “It-it’s nothing. Just, my parents never really gave me a Christmas present before.”
Of all the things of his list for ‘Reasons-I-Want-To-Kill-RyeoWooks-Parents’, this must top them off. “What???” HeeChul exclaimed. “Never gotten a Christmas present?” He growled when RyeoWook shook his head. “That’s… That’s… What the hell did they ever do for you then?”
“They gave me food, a place to sleep…”
“And I bet you it was their smoking that caused you to become sick in the first place!” RyeoWook flinched away from HeeChul’s loud voice. “Well, guess what kid. This year, you’re gonna get a present, okay? I’ll get you one myself if your god-forsaken parents aren’t going to do it.”
“No, no!” RyeoWook’s eyes widened. “Hyung’s done so much for me already, that would be selfish of me!”
“Are you dense? Everyone deserves a Christmas present, especially you. So no arguing. The more you argue, the more you’ll make me spend on you!” RyeoWook shut up.
All too soon though, it was HeeChul’s last day at the hospital. The nurses were actually sad to see him go. But not as sad as RyeoWook was. He would never ask HeeChul to stay, since he seemed to think that was selfish of him, but HeeChul could see he’d be missed by the unshed tears in the boys’ eyes as he struggled to sit up on his own.
“I’ll come visit you, so don’t you dare cry,” HeeChul said, tart as always. RyeoWook looked up at him, sniffed a little and rubbed his eyes, giving HeeChul a bright smile. But it was dimmer than when HeeChul had first seen it in June. His skin was paler, and he was thinner, if that was even possible. HeeChul left the hospital at 5 as usual, his thoughts on the small, dying boy left inside.
Time passed. The leaves fell from the trees, a cold and bitter wind setting in. HeeChul couldn’t visit RyeoWook. His classes had gone back to their normal times, and since he had missed so much while tending for RyeoWook he hardly had time for anything else. He went to bed exhausted each day. Back in his normal life, the image of RyeoWook’s smile and sickly body escaped his mind.
It was Christmas day. His friends were all over at LeeTeuk’s house, preparing for their annual Christmas party. HeeChul dragged HanKyung and SiWon out. “It’s Christmas,” He told them with a HeeChul smile. “I need new clothes for the occasion.”
So they followed him from store to store, laughing to themselves while HeeChul was looking for cute outfits. Of course, he made them carry the bags. Walking down the street littered with Christmas shoppers and freshly-fallen snow, HeeChul looked in the various windows for something to finish off his shopping with a bang.
It was only when he looked into a toy store and saw by the counter a cup filled with coins for donations to the Children’s Hospital that he realized just what he had forgotten.
“HeeChul, where are we going?” HanKyung complained, trying to see over the large bag HeeChul had bought in the toy store, which of course he wasn’t carrying himself. “The Hospital!” HeeChul said. “Hurry up!”
Crap crap crap. RyeoWook. He had forgotten to visit. He hadn’t even called to see if he was alright. How was he any better than those parents he wanted so desperately to kill? He knew they wouldn’t come to visit their son, even on Christmas. He had promised RyeoWook he would visit. And that he would buy him a present. But he had forgotten to visit him even once.
At least one promise he could keep.
He ran into the Hospital, not even bothering to say hi to the nurse at the front. “HeeChul sshi, wait!” She called. He slowed, looking back at her.
“Where were you all this time?” She scolded him when she caught up. He looked right back at her, refusing to be intimidated even though the guilt gnawing at him. “I couldn’t come. But I’m here now, aren’t I? I got RyeoWook a present.”
“RyeoWook’s lungs collapsed a few hours ago. He’s hooked up to life support, and he’s not going to last the night.”
HeeChul paled. “What???” He barged past her, running up to the third floor where RyeoWook’s room was. SiWon and HanKyung rushed after him, figuring it was not a good idea to question HeeChul right now.
“RyeoWook!” HeeChul opened the door, the handle banging against the wall and probably leaving a dent. The beeping of a monitor met his ears. RyeoWook was lying in the bed as always. He was as pale as a ghost, shivering. There was an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, tubes going in and out of his arms. The heart monitor beside him kept track of his heartbeats, as faint as they were.
“HeeChul hyung?” That voice was weaker than he remembered it. Much weaker. HeeChul went up to the boy’s bed, sitting down beside him. RyeoWook turned his head to look at him; he couldn’t sit up even if someone helped him.
“How’re you holding up? Never mind, don’t answer.” He looked behind him at HanKyung and SiWon, who were watching the boy with pity. He took the largest bag from HanKyung, turning around to look at RyeoWook.
“It isn’t wrapped or anything, but… Merry Christmas?”
RyeoWook looked up at him with wide eyes. “A… Present? For me?” He shakily reached out for the bag, but withdrew his hands. “I’ll probably drop it.”
“It’s okay.” HeeChul pulled the present out of the bag for him. “Here. Like it?”
It was a large stuffed bear, more than half RyeoWook’s height, in bright pink. It had a red heart for the nose, and big button eyes, and was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. It had stood out immediately inside the store.
RyeoWook’s jaw fell open. “HeeChul hyung… It’s beautiful,” He whispered. “So beautiful. My first Christmas present.” Tears slipped from his eyes, not strong enough to hold them back. “Thank you, so much… And you visited too, just like you promised.”
HeeChul sat on the bed beside him, passing the bear to RyeoWook. The boy hugged it as tightly as he could, seeming in heaven. A peaceful smile was on his lips. “Thank you hyung…”
“Hey, you deserve it kid.” He deserved so much more.
HanKyung and SiWon left the room to give them some privacy. HeeChul laid down next to RyeoWook, careful not to knock the tubes sticking in him by accident. RyeoWook hugged his new bear, looking at HeeChul with gentle eyes.
“This was the best Christmas ever,” He whispered, closing his eyes.
HeeChul laid there, watching him. Watching him breath in and out slowly, listening to the beeping from the monitor. Seeing his grip on the bear slowly loosen, hands slipping away. His chest rise and fall with each new breath, rise, fall, rise, fall… Fall… Fall… The monitor beeping turned into one shrill loud noise, but HeeChul didn’t even glance at it, his eyes on RyeoWook’s face, a small smile on his lips. Frozen there forever. HeeChul felt himself smile a little in return, knowing the boy was finally free.
“Merry Christmas, RyeoWook…”
Title: Community Service
Theme: #002 Christmas
Pairing: HeeChul/RyeoWook
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst, Character Death
Word Count: 3,004
Archive: Here
A/N: My second entry for the Challenge. I'm nearly done the next chapter for MatchMakers, but I just had to get this up before it killed me. Speaking of which, both my Challenge fics have character death in it O.o; I promise they won't all be like this...
It was all HeeChul could do to keep smiling, as forced as it looked. It was the last place he wanted to be in the middle of summer, the last situation he wanted to be in. He wanted to go up to those ill-dressed pricks that called themselves court judges and tell them to hell with their rules. But sadly he didn’t have the pleasure of doing that, as satisfying as wringing their necks out sounded.
He and his friends had been out late as usual, partying after the end of another year at university, and they’d forgotten to pick a designated driver before getting wasted. HeeChul had decided he was okay to drive, as he was the least drunk of his friends and only pleasantly buzzed. This turned out to be a bad idea though, as soon after leaving the club he lost control of the car and hit a tree. Could have been much worse. No one was hurt, besides the tree and car that was.
So although he could see what the fuss was about and why he was here, he refused to acknowledge it. It had been decided that instead of sending him to some prison or giving him a fine, he’d do six months of ‘community service’. Him, helping out people! The thought was enough to send all his friends rolling on the floor laughing their asses off.
So here he was at the children’s hospital, to cheer up the poor souls who had to spend their summers here instead of out in the sun. Which was where he should be too, come to think of it. If there was a god, he had a horrible sense of humor. HeeChul wasn’t a ‘cheer-others-up’ kind of person even in the best of moods, and especially when he was ticked at having to waste his entire summer.
Okay. All he had to do was put up with the kids from one to five each day until the last week of November. Apparently his university classes were going to be at nighttime once they started again in August, so he had no excuse to get away from the hospital. It was such a dreary place too. All gray and drab and no color whatsoever.
He followed one of the nurses around all day, watching as she looked over the kids and talked to then tenderly. She told HeeChul to just be quiet and watch the first day, so he could eventually do his own rounds without supervision. He was more than glad to not talk to the brats right away. He’d have to find a way to tame his sharp tongue a little first. He wasn’t too eager to find out just how far he had to push before the judge decided a little time in Juvenile Detention would do him better than cheering up a bunch of depressed brats.
Many of the kids were the same, there with small injuries. It wasn’t a very big hospital, but there was still maybe… Twenty-five children there? There was another hospital in town for the more serious injuries and illnesses, though it cost a pretty penny to go there.
The kids were various ages, from a small toddler at three to a sixteen-year-old girl on the second floor. They didn’t look any happier than HeeChul was; it was a nice day outside, and most of them couldn’t even leave the hospital to get a breath of fresh air. The nurses opened the windows for them though, if their condition allowed it. The few nurses around did their best to cheer the kids up when they didn’t have visitors, playing games with them or reading the younger ones stories. Most of them had a parent, friend or relative with them though, so they weren’t needed much other than checking up on their condition, something HeeChul was told he didn’t have to worry about.
In the last room though, something was different. The first thing HeeChul noticed was the presence of large machinery, one that you would be more likely to find in the hospital at the other end of town than here. There was so much in the room that he nearly missed the boy lying in the bed. Not that he was hard to miss; tiny thing he was.
“Good morning, Wookie,” The nurse greeted the boy the same as she had the others, with a cute nickname, but HeeChul noticed a note of pity in her voice that hadn’t been there for the others. The boy on the bed opened his eyes, and waved with a small smile. He looked just a bit younger than HeeChul himself, but it didn’t take a look under the blankets to know he was a very thin lad, with cheekbones that stood out sharply against his skin, and a small body that barely used a third of the bed. But his smile was so innocent and child-like, not something that you saw often in people their age.
The nurse introduced HeeChul to the boy, who looked at him with bright eyes as he carefully sat up. The nurse had to help him, and as the sheets slipped away HeeChul found his assumptions were correct. He didn’t look like he ate much, nothing more than a toothpick.
His name was Kim RyeoWook. He was much different from the other patients. Where they came and went with small injuries, RyeoWook had been here for nearly five months, his condition slowly deteriorating. He had something wrong with his lungs; the doctors weren’t sure what exactly. And his parents wouldn’t pay for the transfer to the larger and better-equipped hospital. Not that it had made much of a difference; by the time RyeoWook had finally been forced to come here, his condition had been so bad it was all they could do to keep him alive on pills and medication. He was past the point of return; it was just a matter of how much longer he could last.
Despite this, RyeoWook didn’t seem too concerned. “Are you a university student, HeeChul sshi?” He asked, with wide eyes.
HeeChul had been asked to be quiet; not that any o the others had really noticed him. RyeoWook was the first to start a conversation. He couldn’t very well ignore the boy, though he’d have to be careful of his tongue with the nurse right there. “Yeah.”
“What classes do you take?” RyeoWook asked, leaning forward eagerly. HeeChul smirked a little. “Drama.”
“That’s amazing,” RyeoWook said. “So you want to be an actor?”
Surprisingly, it was easy to talk to RyeoWook. He was a polite boy, and HeeChul actually didn’t mind answering his questions. The nurse left after a while, saying she had to check on the other children, and HeeChul stayed with RyeoWook, answering his questions.
Before he knew it, it was five and he had to leave. “I’ll be here again tomorrow,” He told RyeoWook, standing to leave. RyeoWook saddened, but nodded a little and carefully laid back down. “Thank you for coming,” He said, and there was something in that kind and hopeful voice that made HeeChul think that the day had been worth it.
He came every day, talking with the children and forcing himself to behave. They were annoying, bratty things (mostly the little ones), but he didn’t have to spend much time with them thanks to visitors. He spent more his day with RyeoWook, talking to the boy and indulging him with little reenactments of skits done during class. RyeoWook loved them, clapping enthusiastically when he was done. The nurses never bothered him, approving of HeeChul’s decision to keep the dying boy company.
He had been there for two months already. It was the beginning of August, the leaves slowly starting to change colors. Not once has anyone come to visit RyeoWook. He wondered briefly if it was a sensitive subject for the boy, but that didn’t stop him from asking anyways.
“RyeoWook, don’t you have any family to come visit you?” He asked, sitting on the edge of the boy’s bed. RyeoWook was showing him some songs he had written in his free time, and HeeChul had to admit they were very good. But when he had asked the other to sing for him, RyeoWook had shaken his head, saying the nurses had told him not to in case it caused one of the coughing fits he had every now and then.
RyeoWook smiled a little. “My mom and dad are too busy. My little brother’s graduating from high school this year, so they’re busy setting up his future. My cousin JongWoon hyung used to come visit me, but he moved away a few months ago.”
“Too busy?” HeeChul scowled. “Their son is stuck here dying, and they’re too busy to visit for at least a few minutes a week? What the hell! RyeoWook hung his head as HeeChul continued. “And they haven’t even gotten you transferred to the other hospital yet? What’s wrong with them?” He looked at RyeoWook.
The smaller boy smiled shakily. “It’s okay. I don’t mind, really.” But HeeChul’s keen eyes noticed how his hands clenched at the sheets, and the unshed tears in his eyes.
And he suddenly wanted nothing more than to find these parents of his and push them off a cliff. Onto ten-foot long spikes and barbed wire.
RyeoWook’s condition was slowly getting worse. He was always smiling and happy when HeeChul was there, but the coughing fits got worse, and his voice got weaker and weaker as September lagged into November, HeeChul’s last month at the hospital. The elder boy looked forward to the time he spent with RyeoWook. He didn’t even bother visiting the other kids anymore, not since the middle of September when one of the elder nurses drew him aside.
“Stay with RyeoWook from now on. We’re all amazed at how long he’s been able to hold on, the medication shouldn’t have been able to take him this far. We think it’s because you’re there. No ones ever come to visit the poor lad before. So just keep making him happy.”
Halfway through November he was sitting on RyeoWook’s bed with him, doodling on a piece of paper he had dug up and talking. Looking around, HeeChul noticed that the nurses were already getting ready for Christmas, over a month early. “Christmas comes early here,” He noted. RyeoWook smiled and nodded, drawing a Christmas tree.
HeeChul watched them. “You’re missing something, kid.” He drew presents underneath. RyeoWook bit his lower lip slightly, something HeeChul had come to associate with bad memories. “What’s up this time?” He asked.
“It’s nothing, HeeChul hyung.”
“It’s obviously not nothing. Do I look that stupid to you?”
“…”
“Yah!”
RyeoWook giggled helplessly as HeeChul glared at him. “It-it’s nothing. Just, my parents never really gave me a Christmas present before.”
Of all the things of his list for ‘Reasons-I-Want-To-Kill-RyeoWooks-Parents’, this must top them off. “What???” HeeChul exclaimed. “Never gotten a Christmas present?” He growled when RyeoWook shook his head. “That’s… That’s… What the hell did they ever do for you then?”
“They gave me food, a place to sleep…”
“And I bet you it was their smoking that caused you to become sick in the first place!” RyeoWook flinched away from HeeChul’s loud voice. “Well, guess what kid. This year, you’re gonna get a present, okay? I’ll get you one myself if your god-forsaken parents aren’t going to do it.”
“No, no!” RyeoWook’s eyes widened. “Hyung’s done so much for me already, that would be selfish of me!”
“Are you dense? Everyone deserves a Christmas present, especially you. So no arguing. The more you argue, the more you’ll make me spend on you!” RyeoWook shut up.
All too soon though, it was HeeChul’s last day at the hospital. The nurses were actually sad to see him go. But not as sad as RyeoWook was. He would never ask HeeChul to stay, since he seemed to think that was selfish of him, but HeeChul could see he’d be missed by the unshed tears in the boys’ eyes as he struggled to sit up on his own.
“I’ll come visit you, so don’t you dare cry,” HeeChul said, tart as always. RyeoWook looked up at him, sniffed a little and rubbed his eyes, giving HeeChul a bright smile. But it was dimmer than when HeeChul had first seen it in June. His skin was paler, and he was thinner, if that was even possible. HeeChul left the hospital at 5 as usual, his thoughts on the small, dying boy left inside.
Time passed. The leaves fell from the trees, a cold and bitter wind setting in. HeeChul couldn’t visit RyeoWook. His classes had gone back to their normal times, and since he had missed so much while tending for RyeoWook he hardly had time for anything else. He went to bed exhausted each day. Back in his normal life, the image of RyeoWook’s smile and sickly body escaped his mind.
It was Christmas day. His friends were all over at LeeTeuk’s house, preparing for their annual Christmas party. HeeChul dragged HanKyung and SiWon out. “It’s Christmas,” He told them with a HeeChul smile. “I need new clothes for the occasion.”
So they followed him from store to store, laughing to themselves while HeeChul was looking for cute outfits. Of course, he made them carry the bags. Walking down the street littered with Christmas shoppers and freshly-fallen snow, HeeChul looked in the various windows for something to finish off his shopping with a bang.
It was only when he looked into a toy store and saw by the counter a cup filled with coins for donations to the Children’s Hospital that he realized just what he had forgotten.
“HeeChul, where are we going?” HanKyung complained, trying to see over the large bag HeeChul had bought in the toy store, which of course he wasn’t carrying himself. “The Hospital!” HeeChul said. “Hurry up!”
Crap crap crap. RyeoWook. He had forgotten to visit. He hadn’t even called to see if he was alright. How was he any better than those parents he wanted so desperately to kill? He knew they wouldn’t come to visit their son, even on Christmas. He had promised RyeoWook he would visit. And that he would buy him a present. But he had forgotten to visit him even once.
At least one promise he could keep.
He ran into the Hospital, not even bothering to say hi to the nurse at the front. “HeeChul sshi, wait!” She called. He slowed, looking back at her.
“Where were you all this time?” She scolded him when she caught up. He looked right back at her, refusing to be intimidated even though the guilt gnawing at him. “I couldn’t come. But I’m here now, aren’t I? I got RyeoWook a present.”
“RyeoWook’s lungs collapsed a few hours ago. He’s hooked up to life support, and he’s not going to last the night.”
HeeChul paled. “What???” He barged past her, running up to the third floor where RyeoWook’s room was. SiWon and HanKyung rushed after him, figuring it was not a good idea to question HeeChul right now.
“RyeoWook!” HeeChul opened the door, the handle banging against the wall and probably leaving a dent. The beeping of a monitor met his ears. RyeoWook was lying in the bed as always. He was as pale as a ghost, shivering. There was an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, tubes going in and out of his arms. The heart monitor beside him kept track of his heartbeats, as faint as they were.
“HeeChul hyung?” That voice was weaker than he remembered it. Much weaker. HeeChul went up to the boy’s bed, sitting down beside him. RyeoWook turned his head to look at him; he couldn’t sit up even if someone helped him.
“How’re you holding up? Never mind, don’t answer.” He looked behind him at HanKyung and SiWon, who were watching the boy with pity. He took the largest bag from HanKyung, turning around to look at RyeoWook.
“It isn’t wrapped or anything, but… Merry Christmas?”
RyeoWook looked up at him with wide eyes. “A… Present? For me?” He shakily reached out for the bag, but withdrew his hands. “I’ll probably drop it.”
“It’s okay.” HeeChul pulled the present out of the bag for him. “Here. Like it?”
It was a large stuffed bear, more than half RyeoWook’s height, in bright pink. It had a red heart for the nose, and big button eyes, and was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. It had stood out immediately inside the store.
RyeoWook’s jaw fell open. “HeeChul hyung… It’s beautiful,” He whispered. “So beautiful. My first Christmas present.” Tears slipped from his eyes, not strong enough to hold them back. “Thank you, so much… And you visited too, just like you promised.”
HeeChul sat on the bed beside him, passing the bear to RyeoWook. The boy hugged it as tightly as he could, seeming in heaven. A peaceful smile was on his lips. “Thank you hyung…”
“Hey, you deserve it kid.” He deserved so much more.
HanKyung and SiWon left the room to give them some privacy. HeeChul laid down next to RyeoWook, careful not to knock the tubes sticking in him by accident. RyeoWook hugged his new bear, looking at HeeChul with gentle eyes.
“This was the best Christmas ever,” He whispered, closing his eyes.
HeeChul laid there, watching him. Watching him breath in and out slowly, listening to the beeping from the monitor. Seeing his grip on the bear slowly loosen, hands slipping away. His chest rise and fall with each new breath, rise, fall, rise, fall… Fall… Fall… The monitor beeping turned into one shrill loud noise, but HeeChul didn’t even glance at it, his eyes on RyeoWook’s face, a small smile on his lips. Frozen there forever. HeeChul felt himself smile a little in return, knowing the boy was finally free.
“Merry Christmas, RyeoWook…”