jump start my kaleidoscope heart. (2/6)
“Day one!” Krystal says excitedly. “This is such a milestone. Think of it guys: last year, we came into this hospital as eager little interns. Now we’re going in as a-little-less-than-eager residents! Isn’t that just great?”
“Krystal, shut up,” grumbles Taemin. He’s been kicked out of Jongin and the boys’ apartment, and he wasn’t eager to wake up at five-thirty in the morning because he has to commute for an hour just to get here for another day of slaving after their bosses. “What’s going to change? They’ll still treat us like servants anyway.”
“What’s different is that we’ll be doctors now,” retorts Sehun. “Krystal’s right; this is a milestone. We should be happy.”
When they enter the hospital, they’re filled with the appreciation and wonder they had for the place on their very first day as interns. It’s like being awakened for the daze of everyday life and seeing the beauty of--
“Zitao, you’re on my service!” Luhan yells, leaving Zitao to run after him without even dropping his bag in the residents’ lockers.
“Krystal.” Minseok smiles at her. “Today, you’re going to have a lot of fun watching people sleep.” She sighs and runs after him as well.
Jongdae grins at Taemin and he takes a deep breath before following “Doctor Kim Crazy,” as the interns fondly call him. It’s true that Jongdae sort of looks like a maniac when he sees a person’s bone all laid out and ready for him to drill. It’s quite unsettling.
Joonmyun sees Sehun. Sehun sees Joonmyun.
They haven’t seen each other since the breakup. Neither of them has wanted to see each other since the breakup.
“Jongin, come with me.” He doesn’t avoid Sehun’s gaze. He doesn’t look away. He just stares, and Jongin has to tug on his sleeve before he breaks eye contact and briefs Jongin on his patient.
Yifan arrives a little late, scrub cap still on his head. “Sorry, I was in surgery.” He looks around. “Is everyone taken?” Sehun nods. “I’m stuck with you?”
“Hey! I’m a catch!” Yifan laughs at him, pulling Sehun along while he walks.
“You know what? I like you, so I’ll let you scrub in.”
Sehun’s eyes sparkle. “Really?”
“Really. You’re lucky; not everyone gets to witness me in surgery on their first day as a resident.” Yifan hands him the patient’s chart.
“Double valve replacement and tricuspid repair? Are you seriously doing this at the same time?” Sehun asks, incredulous.
“Seriously.” Yifan puts on his pleasant face and opens the door to the patient’s room. “Good morning, Mister Lee.”
Minseok passes by Kyungsoo in the ER, treating a patient with first-degree burns. “Kyungsoo!” The young doctor looks up. “Do you mind coming with me for a few minutes?”
Kyungsoo nods and asks another doctor to take over. “Is there anything wrong, Chief?”
Minseok pulls him into a small conference room. “How’s your studying for the boards?”
“It’s fine. I have enough time to study on and off-work.” Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “Are you going to talk about my fellowship?”
Minseok sighs. “You caught me. Look, as fine as it may seem now, we’re kind of running low on staff. Not low enough that we should be alarmed, but low enough that we might be alarmed. I just need to know if there’s a chance that you might leave.”
“There is a chance. JYP’s making a good offer,” Kyungsoo sees the slight twitch in Minseok’s face, “but you don’t have to worry. I want to stay in SM. But there is a chance. I’m just telling you.”
“Thank you for being honest. I just…” Minseok places his hand on his forehead. “There are a lot of things going on and I really don’t want to deal with a shortage of doctors after all the fifth-years are done with the boards and they’re given the opportunity to leave.”
“I don’t want to leave.” Kyungsoo smiles softly and Minseok really does try to relax.
“So tell me what happened with you and Joonmyun.”
Sehun looks up from the open chest in front of him to glare at Yifan. “I’m not talking about this. Not with you.”
“Hey, I’m cutting up someone’s damaged heart and sewing this thing into it, and I still have to focus to talk about your messy breakup. All you’re doing is making sure that nothing gets in my way. You should share.”
“I’m not talking about this while someone’s chest is opened up right before me and you’re here trying to fix it. I am also not going to talk about it with my boss,” Sehun insists.
“Would you rather I get the story from Luhan? I’m telling you right now: there’s always a part of the story that’s magically altered when he tells it. I’d rather I hear it from you.” Yifan sews up the last prosthetic valve. “That tricuspid valve is really leaking badly. Give me the patch.”
Yifan looks back up at Sehun. “As I was saying--”
“I don’t care. I’m not talking to you.” Sehun focuses on watching his technique in stitching. Despite everything that’s happening around him, he’s not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of his education. Even if that someone is a doctor who he’s sure he’ll have to deal with eventually.
Taemin sits down at the table, happily eating a sandwich. “Don’t ask me if I was scared of Jongdae today. This was a good day, a great day.”
“I think he’s going crazy too,” Sehun whispers to Zitao. He nods in reply.
“I’m not going crazy, excuse me. Ortho is fun! You get to hit things and break them and that’s how they get fixed.” Taemin taps his fingers on the table. “It’s not like watching kids whine and complain about their tummy aching is any fun.”
Zitao scoffs. “Kids aren’t half-bad.”
“Yes they are,” retorts Sehun. “I’m glad Luhan doesn’t like me or else I’ll have to spend all my time with those little devils.”
“And trust me, having that teddy bear pinned to your shirt is really more embarrassing than it is cute.” Taemin recalls his brief experience of being in peds with Luhan, and he’s safely going to say he doesn’t want to come back. Zitao blushes and covers up the teddy bear on his chest.
“You guys suck.” Zitao makes a move to stand up, but Krystal tugs him back down when she arrives at the table.
“All of you guys have to listen to my wonderful adventure of watching three different people sleep.” Krystal looks like she’s the one who’s starting to lose her mind. “Do you know how fascinating the dripping of an IV sounds like after listening to it for two hours straight?”
“Am I the only one who’s a hundred percent happy with his service today? I actually got to scrub in and help do something. It was fun,” Sehun boasts.
“There was a woman who wanted to get her ass fixed,” Jongin says with a completely blank face. “She wanted to have an ass as big as two watermelons.” They all cringe at the thought of it. “I was about to tell her that she’s going to look like an unbalanced idiot, but Joonmyun stopped me. I wish he didn’t.”
They eat silently at the sound of Joonmyun’s name. Sehun almost wants to shout it out loud so that everyone would stop acting so cautiously around him, but constantly talking about your ex isn’t a good sign that you’ve moved on. Sehun knows. He’s been there before.
Yunho, Director of the Residency Program, assigns Sehun to Joonmyun. As soon as the resident starts to object, Yunho raises a finger. When he starts again, he raises two.
“You really don’t want me to raise my entire hand, Sehun. You’re going with Joonmyun, no objections. You’ve clocked in too much time in cardio and you know that the motto of the Residency Program is--”
“A balanced education for the heroes of tomorrow.” Sehun’s heard that a million times. “I know that. But it’s only my first year! Can’t I be balanced on my second and third year and can I try to explore one field well this year?”
Yunho rolls his eyes and raises three fingers. As soon as Sehun opens his mouth, there are four fingers. “If you don’t go to Joonmyun right now, I’m sticking you in plastics for two weeks. It’s only one day, Sehun. You won’t die.”
He doesn’t die, but he does get a hard glare from Joonmyun before the doctor calls Krystal to come with him instead. “But I’m with Chan--”
He stares at her. She follows.
Sehun stands in the middle of the emergency, completely lost. He’s almost thinking of going home until he feels someone place an arm around his shoulders. He looks to his left and it’s Chanyeol.
“Did you have breakfast today?” Sehun shakes his head. “Good. You might want to have an empty stomach for what we’re going to do today.”
“If that’s some sort of general surgery joke, I’m not sure I want to laugh.”
Joonmyun opens the door to the pantry but turns around when he sees Luhan and Yixing having lunch in it. He’s not ready to deal with those two yet.
“Joonmyun.” It’s Yixing calling him, not Luhan. Usually it would be the older male who’s a hundred percent ready to go into Joonmyun’s business and mess with his life, but he must be doing something so horrible that Yixing, the nicer one between the two, is actually talking to him.
“Yeah?” Joonmyun asks, still not turning around.
“Come eat with us,” he says. Joonmyun takes his meal and sits down with them. “So I heard you’re with Krystal today.”
“Yeah.”
“And you were supposed to be with Sehun.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little petty?” Yifan suddenly pops up out of nowhere, reading an article on his phone. “I get it. The breakup was messy, but don’t you think you’re jeopardizing his education?”
Joonmyun scoffs. “Says the guy who held him back from leaving his service for nearly three weeks.”
“I didn’t hold him back. He wanted to stay,” Yifan points out. “There’s a difference.”
Chanyeol closes the door behind him. “And now he’s with me. That kid is a pain when it’s obvious that he doesn’t want to be where he is. It’s also obvious that your three-week captivity brainwashed him into believing that cardio is the only way to go.”
Yifan groans in frustration. “He wanted to stay!”
“Lies,” Jongdae mutters, walking into the room with two sandwiches. He throws one to Chanyeol. “Nobody likes surgeons who lure residents with the words ‘you’re scrubbing in.’ It’s an unspoken rule that you’re not allowed to bribe kids with candy.”
“Why are we all here anyway?” Joonmyun asks.
“I’m hiding from the annoying mom who keeps on admitting her daughter even if there’s absolutely nothing wrong with her. She’s just giving herself a scare, to be honest,” Luhan whines.
“If I leave this room, I’ll have to deal with two patients who just want me to stay there so they can stare at me.” Yifan drops his head on the table. “Women.”
“Good thing you’re not into them, huh?” Jongdae jokes.
“Good thing,” Yifan laments.
“Good thing,” repeats Luhan. They look up and at each other, laughter threatening to break out.
Yixing groans. “Can you two not?”
Chanyeol’s the one that laughs for them. “We’re all stupid.”
Joonmyun smiles. “I agree.”
“This is the third day I’ve been assigned to Joonmyun, and he ends up taking the nearest resident he can see. I don’t even care about the breakup anymore! Now he’s just jeopardizing my stay in the program.” Sehun finishes his last packet of chips, dumping it in the trash can in a fit of anger. The clang of the lid is loud in the hallway, causing Jongin to cringe beside him.
“Relax. I’m sure he’ll start acting like an adult soon enough.”
“No, he won’t! He’s acting like this because of something that we shouldn’t even think about during work!” Sehun’s hands ball into fists. “I’m so pissed at all of this.”
“You seriously need to relax. Getting mad at him won’t solve anything,” Jongin says quietly.
“Not getting mad at him won’t solve anything either. If I don’t clock in enough hours in plastics, Yunho’s going to cut me off from cardio. I can’t handle that!” Sehun is about to kick the wall when Jongin pulls him back abruptly, placing a finger on his lips.
In front of them, Joonmyun is following Minseok into a conference room. He briefly makes eye contact with Sehun before Minseok calls him in. They can be seen through the clear glass, but Jongin and Sehun would look too weird if they tried to stare at them.
Krystal taps on their shoulders and they shoot up instantly, embarrassed that they unknowingly spied on their bosses. She laughs at them, taking their hands and pulling them to wherever she wants to. They end up in their usual pantry, the one in the second floor nearest their locker room. Taemin and Yuta, one of the other interns that passed their exam, are already staying there, eating and talking.
“Who are we running from today?” Sehun asks.
“Nah, Kyungsoo told us the residents have a skills lab today,” Yuta explains. “He said we should all be here.”
“Where are Seulgi and Zitao?” Taemin texts Zitao and asks him to find Seulgi too.
“I saw Zitao in the emergency room, and I think Seulgi’s with Minseok today,” Krystal recalls.
Sehun’s mind is brought back to Minseok and Joonmyun in that room. What are they talking about? Is it about him? What’s really going on?
“Look, Joonmyun. I know what happened between you and Sehun. I know it won’t be easy for you to work with him. But you know that you’re the only person who he hasn’t worked with so far. I need you to set aside your past and focus on being a good teacher. This is--”
“A teaching hospital. I’m aware of that.” Joonmyun takes a deep breath. “Minseok, we’re friends. Just tell me what you’re going to do.”
“Sehun’s going to be on your service indefinitely. You’re not allowed to force another resident to stay with you nor can you force Sehun to sit in a corner and wait for the end of the day like what I thought you might do. You’re lucky he’s patient enough not to go to HR directly and report you.”
“Do we really have to do this, Minseok? Will this really help in any way?” Joonmyun is already thinking about the days and days of awkwardness, of the stilted conversations and the need to run away. He’s not eager at all to do this.
“Joonmyun? Joonmyun, are you listening?” He snaps back into reality and faces Minseok.
“I’m sorry,” he apologizes.
Minseok purses his lips in frustration. “Just be civil. You can be civil, right?”
“Yes, mom.”
The stern façade of Chief of Surgery Kim Minseok falls down and reveals Kim Minseok, an overall kind person. He smiles and pats Joonmyun on the back. “Be civil,” he warns.
“Will do,” Joonmyun pauses, “mom.”
Jongdae latches himself onto Kyungsoo, hugging him tightly. The younger male hugs back, equally excited and afraid of being sent to face the board examiners. Chanyeol takes both of the smaller men in his arms and crushes them in a bear hug. Jongdae laughs loudly next to Kyungsoo’s ear and he pushes the two away, irritated.
“You can hug me without crushing my bones or making me deaf before I even take my exam,” Kyungsoo deadpans. He brushes invisible dust off his clothes and picks his bag off the ground. “I should go.”
“Good luck!” Jongdae yells. Kyungsoo’s been one of his closest friends in the hospital. He’s always thought that Kyungsoo’s brilliant enough to have taken the boards last year, even if he only had four years of training. No matter how much better he is than Chanyeol and Jongdae combined, rules are rules.
“I can’t believe that last year, that was us,” Chanyeol refers to the eager to-be doctors riding in the bus. Jongdae reminisces about all the crazy memories of staying up all night, studying for the boards. It’s a horrible experience, but it got him the results he needed.
Minseok runs to the parking lot, breathless and flustered. “They’re all gone?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I wanted to greet them good luck.” Minseok taps his feet impatiently. “Well, there’s always next year.”
He turns around to face Jongdae and Chanyeol. “How’s Kyungsoo?”
“He’s fine,” Jongdae answers. “Why are you asking?”
“I have…” Minseok looks around as if he’s looking for an answer around him. “I have very high expectations from him, and I might have told my father that he’s the most brilliant trauma surgeon I’ve seen in a very long time. I just don’t want to be disappointed or embarrassed in front of my father.”
Chanyeol nods his acknowledgment. Everyone knows about Minseok and his monster of a father. It’s an unspoken thing; nobody should mess up too badly or else Minseok’s going to take the blame for it. And everyone has some sort of appreciation for Minseok’s hard work as Chief.
“Sehun,” Joonmyun calls out. It’s the first time they’ve directly spoken to each other, and Joonmyun feels nervous just thinking of what he should say.
“Yeah?”
“You’re on my service today,” he says. Sehun looks like he’s surprised. Joonmyun’s surprised too.
Be civil, Joonmyun reminds himself as he walks with Sehun to the emergency room.
“There’s been a car accident. A truck crashed with a bus full of people. Twenty injured, two dead. Lots of cuts and glass shards everywhere,” explains Joonmyun. “Be careful, alright?”
“Okay,” Sehun says. He puts on some gloves and heads to the patient that Joonmyun points to. “Name, age, occupation?”
“I told it to the other guy. Seo Joohyun. Twenty-three years old. I’m a law student,” she says slowly. She winces at the sight of a large glass shard on her left arm, cutting into her flesh.
“Keep talking and relax. I’ll take care of you,” Sehun mutters while carefully trying to see if the shard hit a nerve or anything that would be too dangerous to remove it right away. Luckily, it just cut through her flesh and nothing else.
“I was just going to school. I always take that bus. It’s a safe bus and the driver is nice to me. But today, I don’t know. I just felt--ah!” She winces when Sehun suddenly pulls the glass out.
“I’m sorry. Keep talking please.” He grabs some disinfectant and places it on the wound. She starts tearing up, voice wavering in pain. “Just a little more and I’ll have you stitched up.”
“Alright,” she whispers. When she looks up to hide her face from the sight of her wound, she suddenly faints. Joonmyun looks at him from another patient’s side. Sehun stands up from his chair and checks her pulse.
“What’s going on?” Joonmyun asks, finally done with his patient. Sehun places his hand behind her head, grimacing at the feeling of blood sticking to his fingers.
“She must have hit her head on her seat really badly. Her head is bleeding.” Sehun gently lifts her body to check the state of her skull. “It doesn’t seem grave. It wouldn’t be bad to have her head scanned though.”
“Who was the one who first checked her?” Joonmyun asks. Sehun shrugs, busy talking to a nurse. “How could he have missed the bleeding on her head?”
Sehun lifts the glass shard he left on the metal plate. “If I was him, this would seem more immediate too.”
Joonmyun chuckles softly, shaking his head. “Go to that guy. Wound is clean; he’s just waiting for someone to stitch it up.”
Sehun nods, following quickly. Now he knows why he can’t be a trauma surgeon; Sehun isn’t very good at taking care of frantic people who are staring at the cuts in their body and squirming and freaking out when he brings out the needle that’ll tie their skin back together. He’s also not good at holding back how pissy he is.
At the end of the day, Joonmyun pats him on the back. “Y-you did well,” he says, voice soft and calm. It makes Sehun smile a little, just small enough for only Joonmyun to see.
And really, after weeks of silence and avoiding each other, this is a lot better than what they thought it could be.
“Kyungsoo!”
He turns around and sees Minseok walking towards him with a large smile. Kyungsoo smiles back and meets him halfway. “Chief.”
“I heard you passed. Congratulations,” Minseok says cheekily. He tugs on Kyungsoo’s sleeve and pulls him towards his office. “This’ll be quick, I promise.”
Kyungsoo awkwardly stands in the middle of his office, wondering what’s going to happen next. He sees Minseok pull something from his desk. It’s a set of scrubs, the dark blue scrubs of attending surgeons. Minseok gently hands him the folded clothes.
“Chief, I--”
“Call me Minseok. Or hyung, if you really want to stick with honorifics. But I’m just letting you see them. I know that you have a good offer from JYP; I understand that. I don’t want to pressure you, but I want you to know that Seoul Medical will always be home for you.”
He places a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder. “Now I have a surgery to go to. Congratulations again.”
Kyungsoo nods and stands still in Minseok’s hands. The fabric of the scrubs feels the same as the ones he’s wearing now, but something other than the color is different with it. He sees years of wearing this ahead of him, years of hard work and crazy situations and good friends, the same friends that he’s had for the past six years here.
He sees himself in SM and nowhere else.
He’s going to stay.
“Hyung!” Minseok hears someone call him. He turns around and Kyungsoo’s chasing after him. He’s a little tired after a six-hour tumor removal in someone’s brain, but he gives Kyungsoo a weak smile.
“Hi.”
“Minseok hyung,” Kyungsoo stumbles over the word a little, “I’m staying. I’m staying in SM.”
The weak smile turns into a huge grin; the tired hands excitedly shake Kyungsoo’s. “Thank you, Kyungsoo.”
“But wait,” Kyungsoo shifts his weight awkwardly, “why was I the only one you talked to personally? Why didn’t you give the other residents that passed their own scrubs?”
It’s Minseok’s turn to shift around and be awkward. “A lot of people are leaving the hospital, as I said before. If you left, it would be a great loss to our staff. The hospital really needs doctors like you.”
Kyungsoo smiles. Minseok smiles. Slowly, Kyungsoo reaches out and pulls Minseok into a hug. It’s awkward, really awkward, but Minseok welcomes Kyungsoo’s warmth.
“You again?” Joonmyun says coyly. Sehun rolls his eyes and steals the papers from Joonmyun’s hands.
“How’s our skin graft patient?” Sehun asks. He ignores the beep coming from his phone. It’s probably just his mom asking if he wants her to send him some kimchi from their business.
Joonmyun’s mind is still reeling from the word “our,” but he points at a certain room. “He’s waiting there. I was just about to tell you to change his dressing. Are you ready for that?”
“As ready as I could be,” Sehun says flatly. Joonmyun shakes his head and hits him lightly, leaving him to deal with the patient on his own.
Sehun’s phone keeps on beeping while he changes Mister Kim’s dressing. The man asks him about it but he shakes his head, focusing on taking care of the newly-grafted skin.
When he’s done, he finally checks his phone. Before he can even understand what his mother means by “Son, we need your help,” an intern calls him to the emergency room immediately. To his surprise, his father’s lying down on a bed, a brace holding his torso in place.
“Hi son!” his father yells, causing Sehun to rush forward to his bed and close the curtains around them. His mother looks pale with worry.
“What happened here?” Sehun asks, stroking his dad’s hair.
“Your dad was cleaning the roof gutters when he fell off the ladder like an idiot in a cartoon. He broke his hip.” His mother smacks him on the head. “You fool! We could have paid one of our neighbors to do that for us!”
“But we would have to pay them. I don’t want that!”
“And now you have to pay for your hospital bills.” Sehun sighs in exasperation. “Really, dad?”
“Really!” his father retorts.
Jongdae parts the curtains and smiles at Sehun’s family. “Good morning, Mister Oh. Let me take a look at your hip, okay?” Jongdae stares sternly at Sehun and he makes way, walking out of the emergency room.
“What happened to you?” Jongin suddenly appears on the seats beside the vending machines. Sehun shakes his head, buying a cup of coffee.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he mutters.
“Is it a Joonmyun thing?” To be honest, Sehun hasn’t thought of Joonmyun that much recently. Maybe this professionalism thing is really getting into his brain, but he hasn’t thought of bending Joonmyun over a counter and having his way with him during the entire month that he’s been shifting from being on Joonmyun’s service and hanging out in the clinic. It’s strange.
“Nah, my dad is in the emergency room because he’s a big idiot.”
“I can see where your stupidity came from then,” jokes Jongin. Sehun hits him and laughs. Krystal magically appears out of nowhere too, sitting beside Jongin and leaning against him.
“I don’t like Kyungsoo,” she mutters. “I used to love trauma but now he’s making me run around the entire hospital, running tests on everybody. I don’t like him at all.”
Jongin pats her head. “It’s okay. He’s not used to being one of the big bosses; he must really be enjoying it.”
“Yes I do,” someone says. It’s Kyungsoo. Krystal stands up immediately. “Relax. I was just about to tell you to pick up an x-ray, but it seems like you’re a little tired. It’s okay; just get some rest. I’ll get it.”
As soon as Kyungsoo is out of earshot, Sehun starts laughing, hand clutching his stomach. “You are so screwed.”
Krystal lies down on the seats, curled up in a fetal position. “I think I’ll stay here and die alone.”
“Can we watch you?” Sehun snickers.
“Go away. Deal with your dad or Joonmyun or something,” Jongin pokes Sehun’s chest, “that might actually help you sort your messed up mind.”
He glares at the tanned male and stands up, looking for Joonmyun.
“Are you coming?” Jongdae asks the residents, putting on his coat. “Celebration party for Kyungsoo in the usual bar.”
Zitao nods excitedly, latching himself onto Taemin. “Let’s go! All of us should go!”
Krystal brings out her heels from inside her bag. Sehun stares at her. “What’s wrong with bringing a pair of heels in your bag at all times? It helps with emergency situations.”
“Like when you’re going to a small party in a pub? Really, Krystal?” Jongin laughs at her, ducking just in time before the heel made contact with his shoulder. “Now I can see those coming in handy during emergency situations, those that involve committing homicide.”
“God, shut up,” she mumbles, holding onto his shoulders while she slips them on. She’s still not close to his height, but it makes her feel better.
When they arrive at the pub, Chanyeol’s already tipsy, making a mess of himself as per usual. Kyungsoo’s seated at the corner of a booth, surrounded by food and beer. He looks happy.
Almost every attending surgeon is there, drinking and attempting to restrain Chanyeol before he hurts himself. Luhan and Yixing are dancing to a girl group’s song while actually singing properly. Jongdae joins in the party by grabbing one of the bottles in Kyungsoo’s stash of beer. Yifan is stealing buffalo wings from Kyungsoo’s plate. Minseok’s there too, a glass of whisky in his hands while he claps for Yixing and Luhan, both of them choosing their second song to perform to.
Sehun’s tipsy on tequila when he spots Joonmyun drinking alone by the bar. He’s always like this, Sehun muses. He’s a nice guy, but he tends to be… alone.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” He smirks at Joonmyun, licking his lips when he sees the glaze of alcohol on his eyes. He’s tipsy. He’s tipsy and so is Sehun, and now he feels a familiar rush of heat when he sees that Joonmyun’s wearing a v-neck shirt that ends dangerously low on his chest.
Joonmyun leans forward, a wicked smile on his face. “If you’re here to play games with me, I’m ready for you.”
This is the first time Joonmyun didn’t push him away first. Intrigued, Sehun sits down beside him. “I’m glad to see you here.”
“Of course you are.” Joonmyun rolls his eyes. “You’re just happy to see a chance to fuck me again.”
Sehun looks up innocuously, hand sliding up Joonmyun’s arm. “What if I am?”
“Would it make you happier to know that I am too?”
That’s all Sehun needs before he pulls Joonmyun forward to crash their lips together. It’s not an exaggeration; their heads actually knock against each other. Joonmyun laughs and holds onto the front of Sehun’s shirt, adjusting the angle of his head so that their lips will actually meet. Sehun pulls him out of his seat to hold his waist tightly.
“My place or yours?” Sehun asks.
“My place,” Joonmyun murmurs against the corner of his lips.
“Huh?” Sehun opens his eyes slowly, wincing at the bright light coming from the window. Joonmyun is sitting beside him, stroking his hair. “Why’d you wake me up?” He leans toward the touch and throws an arm around Joonmyun’s waist.
“I have to go to work,” Joonmyun says. “You’re really not pushing me away?”
“I’m, like, eighty percent dead. The only thing I have energy for is cuddling.” He pulls Joonmyun down so that their faces are close together.
“When do you think you’ll be eighty percent alive, at the very least?”
“Maybe an hour or two more of cuddling.” Sehun lazily smiles at him. “Less talking. More sleeping.”
“I have to go to work.” Joonmyun sighs. “But maybe I’ll see you.”
Hesitantly, Joonmyun places a kiss on the corner of his lips. Sehun opens his eyes. “Kiss me.”
Joonmyun complies, smiling when he feels Sehun starting to grow more and more lax. He’s asleep.
He laughs, sliding out of Sehun’s embrace. “You little kid.” It’s a sudden reminder of the things that went wrong with them, and the laughter instantly dies. Now he remembers why he didn’t want to kiss Sehun, why he didn’t stay in bed for just a little longer, enjoying the peace and quiet of Sehun’s slumber. Now he remembers why the others were looking at them oddly the night before, like they’re back to the days of being judged for something that other people shouldn’t even care about.
Joonmyun leaves Sehun there. He’ll have time to deal with him later.
“Oh my god!” Sehun yells as he scrambles to put his clothes back on. He’s in Joonmyun’s apartment, naked with blurry memories of really great sex. He really told himself that this wouldn’t happen again, but here he is, stealing a banana from Joonmyun’s fruit bowl and locking the door behind him so that he won’t be tempted to stay and wait for Joonmyun to come home. This really isn’t the best way to start his day.
Sehun stays at home and rolls around on his bed, ignoring his hangover and the sudden need to stab someone. Preferably himself.
Jongin and Zitao come home, rushing straight to his room where’s he’s playing some sort of game that should be fun but is just really annoying now. They crash on top of him, pinning him down on the bed.
“What happened to you?” Zitao shouts, hands firmly on his shoulders. “Where did you go last night?”
“He was with Joonmyun obviously. Again.” Jongin pulls Zitao off him. “Are you two okay now?”
Sehun wipes his face, head throbbing from the hangover and the thinking he’s been doing all day. “I don’t even know. We didn’t talk. We didn’t need to.”
“Of course you need to talk! Do you even know the messes that you two were after you broke up?”
“Fine. We didn’t want to. And maybe we shouldn’t. Talking ruins things. Talking makes us think of the reasons why we never work out.” Sehun kicks them off his bed. “Go away. I’m going to the hospital tomorrow, so we can deal with that when we have to.”
Sehun thinks and thinks and thinks about Joonmyun, not that he hasn’t been doing the same thing all day. It’s time they talk. It’s been almost a year since they broke it off, and now they need to decide. Are they staying like this or will they finally do something about it?
As soon as Joonmyun finds Sehun in the stockroom, he pulls him down for a bruising kiss, forcing Sehun to drop the boxes of bandages that he was holding. They kiss and kiss and kiss until Kyungsoo opens the door and they jump apart, Sehun accidentally bumping his head on a shelf. Joonmyun reaches over to see if he’s okay and Kyungsoo groans.
“Can you just hand me the bandages? And Joonmyun, aren’t you supposed to be in surgery right now?” Kyungsoo takes some boxes off the floor.
“It was rescheduled because of the storm.” He helps Kyungsoo and Sehun pick up the supplies. “Can you just leave us here, just for a little while?” Sehun pouts in front of Kyungsoo.
He groans again. “Fine! But I’m paging both of you in ten minutes.” He leaves the room and Sehun’s back to grabbing Joonmyun by the waist and kissing his neck.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Joonmyun stops him for a second, “we have time. You don’t need to rush.”
Jongin and Sehun are in the on-call room, trying to get a few minutes of sleep before someone pages them again. The storm got worse and worse throughout the day, and landslides and flash floods started happening all over the city. It’s a big devastation, and SM’s emergency room has been full all day. Interns, residents and surgeons alike were all forced to stay in the hospital all day.
“Are you going to tell me to stay away from him, Jongin? Will you tell me that it’s not going to work between us and I should stop before we end up hurting each other again?” Sehun whispers sleepily. His voice is weak but his tone pierces Jongin. It’s bitter and smug and a little angry, and Jongin understands. He understands why Sehun would be angry; they’re best friends, and even if they’re supposed to look out for each other, a little support would have been nice. It would have been nice to know that your closest friends wants you to be with someone who makes you happy, someone who gives you this exciting thrill when you’re having sex or even when he accidentally brushes by your hand. It would be nice to know that Jongin had his back instead of talking behind it.
“No, I won’t.” Jongin rolls over and he sees Sehun on the other bunk bed. “I won’t stop you.”
“Thank you.”
PART 3