[LUBAEK] Reveal Yourself 8
Chapter 8: Approaching the Boiling Point
Lu Han woke up with a headache.
In his spacious room, scattered beams were coming through tiny gaps in the blinds. Lu Han thinks he had a nightmare but on the other hand, it felt like a lovely dream he was hesitant to wake up from.
He can’t remember what it was and there was really no point in wracking his brain like this early in the morning. As he moved to the edge of his king-sized bed-skin shuddering from the sudden contact with the chilly air and feet touching the cold floor-he was struck with the memory of kissing a certain pair of lips.
Lu Han felt ridiculous. He was supposed to be professional yet here he is getting frozen in his tracks just because of a simple kiss or rather, a stiff artificial respiration. He dragged himself out of bed while willing his nerves to calm down and getting ready for another day at the hospital. Lu Han noted that he has a terrible headache today, which is rare since there is no certain patient within a kilometre-radius from him right now.
After going through his dull but peaceful daily morning routine, Lu Han is ready to face another day of even more headaches. He could feel his feet become heavier than lead and has actually thought of turning back to just stay in the comforts of his nice apartment.
Lu Han yells mentally before opening the door to Room 701. There, Baekhyun sits at the end of his bed while folding a green paper airplane. His cheeks are puffed out, looking impossibly cute despite the crease between his brows. Now that his opinions about Baekhyun had changed, Lu Han questions why he’s suddenly noticing the other’s natural cuteness. The younger looks away from his plane and instantly lights up at the sight of his favourite nurse. “Hyung!” Baekhyun runs to give Lu Han a quick hug.
The old Lu Han would have yelled at the younger boy’s blatant invasion of personal space but he is quite surprised once again that he didn’t. Lu Han could only think that this obvious behaviour change from Baekhyun is because of yesterday’s events.
“Yo! I’ve been making paper planes since morning. There’s this ordinary one, then this tiny stealthy one, then the moth style, all kinds of style!” Baekhyun, who appears to have travelled back in time to his childhood years, babbled nonstop as he drags Lu Han to the table and then urging him to make his own out of the scattered papers everywhere.
He shushes Baekhyun for a while, asking where he got the papers from. “You didn’t steal these from the nurses’ station, did you?”
“Who do you think I am?” the other proudly waves his shiny black card at Lu Han. Baekhyun grinned widely. “I have my ways.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Lu Han has lost count on the number of days of Baekhyun’s incredibly long hospitalization for someone with a not-so-serious case of asthma. Has it been two weeks already? Three? A month maybe? It seemed so long ago. And it seemed that he also forgot who he is and what he is capable of.
“Wait, you used a black card just for a few scraps of paper?” Lu Han asks, obeying the younger’s insistence on folding paper planes.
Baekhyun gives a slightly loud and dramatic laugh. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Of course not! Again, who do you think I am?”
Baekhyun claps his hand three times. “Come in!”
The door reveals Yixing carrying two medium-sized cartons. “Baekhyun-ah! I brought the stuff you ordered.”
“Thank you Yixing!”
Lu Han stared incredulously at Yixing who he hadn’t expected to go along with his patient’s crazy antics. The two cartons that arrived were brought next to Baekhyun and he looked like a child who just received his first Christmas gift ever. Well, Lu Han wouldn’t hold it against the younger this time since he knows exactly what it feels like to receive something after some intense online shopping.
As long as it’s not something that can send us all flying to the moon then Lu Han is okay with this.
Baekhyun easily ripped the adhesive from the box. “You won’t believe what they have on sale this month!”
The two nurses peeked at the box-Lu Han’s mouth dropped. It contained five tubes of what he assumes are fireworks, a mini grill, an iPhone 5C and a stack of assorted papers with different colours, sizes and thickness.
Lu Han can only leave his mouth agape and wonder what the heck his patient is going to do with all this. He sees Yixing with the same expression but thinks that at least he won’t deal with the mess later on. Or maybe he’ll just drag him into this, he doesn’t know. Speaking of knowing, he doesn’t even want to know what’s on the second box.
“Heard Apple had a new iPhone in the market. I wanted to try it out first then I’ll buy one for both of you next time if I like it!” Baekhyun exclaimed as he continued removing stuff after another. “Also, we can light some fireworks later tonight-I have small ones, but I also bought those big ones…”
“I’m not really sure if were allowed to have a fireworks party… We might want to ask the Chairman first, ne, Baekhyun?” Yixing suggested.
He swatted his hand in the air confidently. “Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’re gonna blow the whole hospital to the moon. You guys are so paranoid, learn to live a little!” Baekhyun replied with a laugh that seems to speak from experience.
Both Yixing and Lu Han glanced at each other and somehow communicated their thoughts to the other.
Actually, I feel like he is gonna blow the hospital up.
Let’s think positively here, maybe he’s just gonna blow a part of the hospital?
And that’s supposed to be better how? Anyway, be prepared to clean up the mess, Yixing-ah. I know where this is going.
Should I call the fire department just in case?
“He he he… and then I also bought a mini grill, we can grill order some meat and eat at the rooftop. And then that other box also has lots of stuff, there’s so many things we can do today… and then and then…” Baekhyun just went on and on and one about the stuff he just got.
Oh boy, here it comes; just another day in the life of Lu Han.
In the middle of the seemingly normal hospital lobby, staff members and visitors alike fill the place. There are a variety of people who are present-from kids to the elderly-all of them appear to be normal and should not be of interest to anyone. However, amongst the scenario stands a towering figure clad in a black suit, carefully observing every person and every detail while effortlessly blending in the environment.
A familiar red-head slowly approaches the said man. “They’ve started to move.”
The tall man squints his eyes. “I understand. What should we do now?”
“We can’t let them know that we’re aware of their plan.” The red-headed man passes a brochure and pulls out his phone in a continued attempt to look normal and avoid suspicion.
“You do know that we can’t afford to make a mistake or else… ” The man doesn’t dare to finish his sentence.
“Kris,” the other interrupts. “You also know full well that I won’t let anything happen to my brother, right?”
Kris doesn’t reply.
“Find a way to tell Yixing about this discreetly and…”
“He already knows, don’t worry. But how about the other one?” Kris informs.
“You mean Lu Han? It’s ok. I’m pretty sure he won’t let anything happen to Baek. Now, I expect you to make the necessary preparations Kris.”
Kris and the red-head shake hands naturally before going their separate ways and not leaving a single trace of their presence.
A little bit after lunch hours, Baekhyun, Lu Han and Yixing were still inside the cluttered Room 701 and still folding paper airplanes. Yixing, who was good at origami, even started making paper cranes, paper frogs and all sorts of paper animals.
“What’s the point of all this anyway?” Lu Han butts in as he finishes his 32nd airplane.
“Shhh. Just go along with me, I have a plan.” Baekhyun, who was already making his 70th airplane, told his nurse excitedly. “Oh, and Yixing hyung do you have some baskets? Or at least some containers where we can put all these?”
Yixing ponders for a moment. “We have a department who takes care of washing the bed sheets and those kinds of sorts. I’ll go ask them.”
“Thank you hyung!” Baekhyun’s eyes form a crescent shape as he thanked the older nurse.
The remaining people in the room are left in silence. Lu Han finds it strange that he doesn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable staying with Baekhyun even though outsiders would say otherwise. He somehow feels at peace. After contemplating for a while, he decides to take a peek at Baekhyun who turns out to be looking at him too.
“Ah, is there anything wrong Baek?”
In response, Baekhyun gives Lu Han a warm and genuine smile. “Nothing. I just remembered what Yixing hyung told me.”
“About what?”
“About your past and how you ended up being the way you were when we first met.”
Lu Han’s eyes widens in disbelief. “W-What?” He looks away, trying to hide his embarrassment from his patient.
“You’re the last person right now I’d want to tell my past to.”
Lu Han hears the younger’s soft laugh and he can’t explain why he suddenly feels ashamed in front of him. He tells himself that he didn’t care before so why now?
Am I becoming more conscious of him? Ugh, I don’t know…
“I’m glad I actually knew about it, you know? Now I know you’re not just some irritating two-faced person!”
Lu Han snaps from his thoughts and glares at the other. “I don’t where you’re going with this but if you’re insulting me, I-”
His sentence gets cut off. “I found out that hyung is really a person with a kind and caring heart. I’m glad I was able to know more about you… You were misunderstood in the past and I… I did too… I was wrong, I should have tried to understand you first. I’m sorry hyung.”
Lu Han didn’t know what to say since he got confused. At first, it began with something silly and then Baekhyun suddenly turns serious and all. He remains silent.
Despite being a loudmouth all if not most of the time, it surely took a lot from Baekhyun to say what he had said. He doesn’t know what to make out of Lu Han’s silence; Is he angry or what?
“There I said it, ok?!” Baekhyun buries his face in his palms. He acknowledges the fact that he and Lu Han are becoming closer due to recent events but hearing himself saying something like this out of the blue... It kinda feels weird. “Anyway, just forget about what I said… On the count of three, I’m gonna remove my hands from my face and let’s go back to folding papers, ok, hyung?”
1…
2…
“…”
From behind his hands, Baekhyun could feel Lu Han’s embrace. “Hyung? Why are you…”
“Just… just let me be for a while.”
And in this moment, a memory from yesterday flashes in his mind. Baekhyun’s lips…
Lu Han can’t explain why he’s so confused right now.
Knock knock.
“Baekhyun-ah, they lent me a basket! Um…”
For moments like this, the two people who are hugging usually separates in lightning speed but the opposite happens to Lu Han and he just froze in place.
“Ahaha. Hi Yixing hyung… This is um, just a friendly hug. Right, hyung? Ha ha.”
“Yeah, right. If you say so.” It was quite a sight to see the fair and innocent face of Yixing turn into a mischievous smirk; it feels as though a light bulb just flashed and he has some kind devious plan…
“You guys got cosy with each other fast huh?”
Lu Han reaches for the pillow behind Baekhyun and throws it towards Yixing. “Go to hell.” He distances himself from Baekhyun awkwardly and pretended to fix his uniform. The patient, on the other hand, just laughs it off and went to take the basket. He started putting their folded papers and some other materials on it and asked the other two in the room to meet him at the rooftop.
“I’ll be back!” The younger boy chirped.
“Hey, where are you going?!”
“You can’t go out on your own.”
Lu Han and Yixing simultaneously said.
“I just need to go somewhere and then…”
“You’re in Beijing, if ever you forgot. You won’t be able to speak with a lot of people.” And on top of this, Lu Han thinks he’s going to cause trouble wherever he’s headed. It would bring unnecessary attention to a billionaire’s son just like the time when…
Lu Han pauses from his thoughts. He suddenly finds it strange that Baekhyun’s crazy antics have never been reprimanded by the hospital staff. There is always the possibility that they wouldn’t do anything to displease a high-class client but he thinks he should’ve at least been told at least once.
“Well, may I just inform you that I am very fluent in body language, thank you. See you up top!”
The older nurse didn’t bother to stop him because of his newly discovered mystery. He stepped outside the room and observed the ceiling. Only three security cameras could be found on this floor and there seems to be some blind spots.
Is it possible that the security people don’t know about it?
Yixing pushed him out of his deep thinking and told him that there is really no point in disobeying Baekhyun because he’ll probably drag the both of them anyway if he learns they’re not there yet. He rests his one hand on Lu Han’s shoulder and mutters, “He’ll be alright.”
Somehow, there is uncertainty in Yixing’s voice despite his confident stature.
He clears his mind and makes their way to the rooftop.
The hospital is very peaceful today; there are no significant events happening whatsoever in this wonderfully-built hospital at the heart of Beijing. There are also fewer visitors today. It truly seems like another normal day at the hospital.
At one of the rooms in the annex building, a familiar figure stands beside an older man; the old man’s eyes fluttering open as he wakes up for the first time in days. He complains about a terrible migraine and reaches desperately for the ‘nurse’ beside him.
The other person, however, remains still and watches the miserable body with cold, merciless eyes.
A phone rings amidst the silence and is answered by the man standing.
“I understand.”
The man in the bed is utterly confused by the situation, on top of his already worse migraine. It feels like the man will pass out at any moment. Help me, he manages to say.
“What would you like, Boss? A Slow or a quick one?”
He grins almost similarly to the mischievous Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and the words-quick, end, and the name Chanyeol among other words could be heard faintly from the phone.
“Understood.”
He glances at the old man in front of him without any sort of sympathy. “Here, let me help you sir.”
Chanyeol, the person’s name who has been revealed by the speaker at the other end, pulls out a syringe from one of his pockets and a small vial containing a mysterious liquid at the other.
“Good bye, sir.”
“Ho ho ho. This is a rare opportunity for us to be closer as best friends so just spill out will ‘ya?”
Lu Han pinches the bridge of his nose, and is torn between wanting to disprove his friend and ignoring the other’s persistence.
“I mean, understand you. Baekhyun-ah is a good kid… and pretty good-looking as well!” Yixing continues even without a reply from Lu Han. “Also, imagine if you two end up together, you’re gonna be so rich, you won’t need to work for the rest of your life. It’s the money isn’t? Am I right? See, I am corre-”
“No, it’s not like that!” All of a sudden, Lu Han unintentionally says out loud. “I don’t like Baekhyun just because of the money.”
It’s too late when Lu Han realizes what he had just said because he sees Yixing showing an all-knowing smile.
“So you do like him! And not only that, money’s one of the reason you like him? Caught you big time on that one, Lu Han.” Lu Han covers his ears to prevent himself from hearing his friend’s irritating laugh any further.
The older nurse takes extra notes to carefully select his words so that no one can bend and twist and give unwanted interpretations in the future. “That’s not what I said Yixing.”
“Yes it is.”
“Give me a break.”
“Here have some Kit Kat.” Yixing conveniently pulls one out of his chest pocket. “Also, I’ll tell you now, I am so writing this day in my calendar as the day Lu Han finally found love.”
“Whatever.” Lu Han rips the Kit Kat packaging and noisily chomps on the chocolate bars. “But where is he anyway? It’s cold out here.”
“It’s half past two, how can it be cold?”
The two of them have been waiting for about thirty minutes and they’re starting to wonder if maybe this is another prank from Baekhyun. For all they know, they might end up staying here until God-knows-when. Lu Han has Baekhyun as his patient so he is technically still doing his job more or less but Yixing has been gone from the nurse station for a few hours now.
He explains it’s no big deal since he does it all the time. Lu Han gasps and stares at him in disbelief.
“What? Everyone does it! Even you, don’t lie.” Yixing counters with his lips protruding like a duck.
“No!” This is his immediate reaction but then looks from left from to right when he remembers that he also slacks sometimes. Just sometimes, he emphasizes in his mind.
Moving on from the topic, Yixing nudges Lu Han shoulder-to-shoulder. “Hey, you haven’t taken a day-off yet.”
“So? I’m not sick anyway and that would be less money for me.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should take a leave tomorrow? Take a break.”
Yixing’s suggestion is rather out of the blue and even his tone sounds a bit different than usual. He doesn’t comment on it but refuses taking a day off.
“If I could, I’d take a day off tomorrow. I just… I just have a bad feeling, you know.” The last part trails off making it seem that Yixing was deeply concerned about something.
“What do you mean ‘if you could’? What are you talking about, Yixing?”
Slam!
The sound of the door startled the two friends on the rooftop.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Instead of a young patient, they were faced with a carton with two legs. “Um, a little help here…”
They ran to him and put the box somewhere on the floor and they both gave a questioning look. “What’s this for?”
“I was kinda feeling stuffy for being inside the hospital for a while so I thought maybe we could just have fun today. Well, not that I don’t have fun everyday thanks to you hyung!” He brightly flashed his brightest smile towards Lu Han. The nurse immediately thinks he’s too adorable. Even Yixing returns him a dimpled smile.
Baekhyun begins rummaging the box and setting it up one by one. It may be because of his short height or just his radiant attitude but he definitely looks like a child excitedly searching for Santa’s gift for him.
“I already brought the stuff we need, we’re gonna grill some meat and you can’t do anything to stop me! Fireworks anyone? And then, we can also listen to music or sing… do you guys like to sing? Hm… take pictures and then…”
The two older men chuckle as Baekhyun continues to cutely mumble on his own.
It may seem tiring to keep up with this patient’s energy but Lu Han truly feels otherwise now. He is enjoying himself everyday and is more comfortable now that he is no longer burdened by his past, all thanks to Baekhyun. Ok fine, and also Yixing, his brain hesitantly adds.
For the remainder of the afternoon, they happily grilled Korea’s famous pork belly to their stomachs’ content. It felt like their little party could go on and on as they chatted just about anything: beginning from their various favourite items, reverse harem mangas, horror movies and even up until to world cuisine.
The time is now a quarter to six; the sun is steadily descending into the horizon and leaving a night sky with a number of visible stars. After filling up their stomachs and cleaning up the mess, their next agenda is of course, the fireworks-the kind that looks like a barbeque stick. The two nurses even taught Baekhyun simple Chinese sentences and songs while they were at it. Lu Han is also relieved that they convinced Baekhyun not to use the big dragon fireworks and didn’t accidentally burn half of Beijing.
As an unspoken requirement in every party, especially in mini parties like this is picture-taking. Baekhyun unboxed the Polaroid camera he got this morning and placed the film inside. They took all kinds of pictures-solo shots, by two’s, group shots and selcas. In those photos are precious memories that will be remembered by all three of them as tangible proof of their new friendship.
The bucket of water they brought halfway through all the fireworks is now full of burnt sticks and as they were disposing of it, the younger man suggested they go visit the children’s corner at the main building.
“Children’s corner? Why?” Yixing asked while placing the sticks inside a garbage bag.
“I recently made a friend there and it’s her birthday today so I just wanted to…”
“So obviously you went out of your again, huh, Baek? I wasn’t aware of that.” The ever-so-strict nurse playfully raised his eyebrows at him.
Baekhyun’s slightly apologetic smile told the truth. “It doesn’t matter hyung and besides that person has a crush on you so she asked me bring you. Come on, Lu Hannie hyung, make her dream come true!”
When they arrived, they immediately see their paper creations dangling from the ceiling and the two nurses realized that what they were doing this morning is for this. The reason why Baekhyun came late to the rooftop is also probably because of this.
The place will soon be filled with children so they have to prepare another mini party for the little girl. Yixing ruffled the cute boy’s hair because he finds his action very thoughtful.
The two, Yixing and Baekhyun, still have unexplained energy for this situation. Lu Han takes his time to observe the place more closely. He could see the different paper airplanes they folded as well as Yixing’s paper animals attached (or glued, Lu Han thinks) to many strings and taped to the ceiling.
Lu Han knew that, despite Baekhyun’s prankster nature, he is a very caring and thoughtful person. This birthday party he prepared for his new friend in this hospital asserts that fact. He really likes that about Baekhyun.
The party went on smoothly and without them realizing, visiting hours are almost over. Lu Han never hated kids and thinks that he’s pretty good at handling them but Baekhyun’s friend is tougher than he thought. She was really clingy.
Back at Room 701, Baekhyun plopped on his bed and stretched. Today had been really tiring but it’s worth it because he really had fun. Yixing went ahead and went home while of course, Lu Han had to stay a bit and force his patient to take his medicines.
Baekhyun ignored him of course and mocked him further by lying comfortably on the bed. He reached inside his pocket and browsed through the Polaroid pictures they took today while whispering, “This one is good, and this also… but Lu Han hyung, you’re photos really turned out ugly. Either that or you’re really ugly.”
The patient-in-bed laughed at his own joke, clearly enjoying mocking his favourite nurse. Lu Han just rolled his eyes in response. “Just keep quiet and take this. It’s just one spoon, for goodness’ sake.”
It seems the other has no plans on obeying the older any time soon. Lu Han sighs; he wanted to go home and rest. After all the compliments he mentally gave Baekhyun today, it still goes back to this. Lu Han sighs again.
He glances at the pictures his patient is holding and there was one in particular that caught his attention. It was a picture that Yixing took of them-Baekhyun with his cute little V signs while Lu Han has his arms over the younger’s shoulders. They look cute together, Lu Han admits to himself.
Anyone with a stare as obvious as Lu Han’s will be noticed by anyone and Baekhyun is not an exception. He peaks at Lu Han and then to the Polaroid his holding. Baekhyun chuckles in his mind; it’s so obvious that he wants this picture.
But Baekhyun doesn’t plan on giving it to him. Why would he? He can tease Lu Han about this.
The nurse is caught off-guard when Baekhyun suddenly places his mouth on the spoon that Lu Han is idly holding. He was too busy staring that he was startled at Baekhyun’s action. Well, at least he can go home now.
“Now, go to bed.”
“You sound like a mom. Or an aunt, or a grandma.”
“I’m a boy, aren’t I? So it should be ‘dad’.” Lu Han automatically commented while he was fixing the bottle and other things he needed to bring.
“Uh-uh. You’re not a boy. You’re a man, stupid.” Lu Han rolled his eyes and is ready with his counter but Baekhyun continued. “But you know what? I don’t remember hearing that from my dad.”
His eyes widened. Lu Han had forgotten that Baekhyun’s dad is somehow a sensitive issue for him.
He tries to amend the situation. “Um, just forget about it, ok, Baekhyun-ah? I should go.” Lu Han heads for the door. If he stays any second longer, it might turn into a very awkward situation that will be difficult to get out of.
With half his body out the room, he hears Baekhyun call to him.
“Lu Han hyung!”
The older male turned around.
“Um, goodnight...”
Lu Han relaxes and softly answers. “Goodnight. See you tomorrow.”
And under the moonlight shade, their smiles could only be seen as genuine smiles meant for each other.
Lu Han woke up with a headache.
In his spacious room, scattered beams were coming through tiny gaps in the blinds. Lu Han thinks he had a nightmare but on the other hand, it felt like a lovely dream he was hesitant to wake up from.
He can’t remember what it was and there was really no point in wracking his brain like this early in the morning. As he moved to the edge of his king-sized bed-skin shuddering from the sudden contact with the chilly air and feet touching the cold floor-he was struck with the memory of kissing a certain pair of lips.
Lu Han felt ridiculous. He was supposed to be professional yet here he is getting frozen in his tracks just because of a simple kiss or rather, a stiff artificial respiration. He dragged himself out of bed while willing his nerves to calm down and getting ready for another day at the hospital. Lu Han noted that he has a terrible headache today, which is rare since there is no certain patient within a kilometre-radius from him right now.
After going through his dull but peaceful daily morning routine, Lu Han is ready to face another day of even more headaches. He could feel his feet become heavier than lead and has actually thought of turning back to just stay in the comforts of his nice apartment.
Lu Han yells mentally before opening the door to Room 701. There, Baekhyun sits at the end of his bed while folding a green paper airplane. His cheeks are puffed out, looking impossibly cute despite the crease between his brows. Now that his opinions about Baekhyun had changed, Lu Han questions why he’s suddenly noticing the other’s natural cuteness. The younger looks away from his plane and instantly lights up at the sight of his favourite nurse. “Hyung!” Baekhyun runs to give Lu Han a quick hug.
The old Lu Han would have yelled at the younger boy’s blatant invasion of personal space but he is quite surprised once again that he didn’t. Lu Han could only think that this obvious behaviour change from Baekhyun is because of yesterday’s events.
“Yo! I’ve been making paper planes since morning. There’s this ordinary one, then this tiny stealthy one, then the moth style, all kinds of style!” Baekhyun, who appears to have travelled back in time to his childhood years, babbled nonstop as he drags Lu Han to the table and then urging him to make his own out of the scattered papers everywhere.
He shushes Baekhyun for a while, asking where he got the papers from. “You didn’t steal these from the nurses’ station, did you?”
“Who do you think I am?” the other proudly waves his shiny black card at Lu Han. Baekhyun grinned widely. “I have my ways.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Lu Han has lost count on the number of days of Baekhyun’s incredibly long hospitalization for someone with a not-so-serious case of asthma. Has it been two weeks already? Three? A month maybe? It seemed so long ago. And it seemed that he also forgot who he is and what he is capable of.
“Wait, you used a black card just for a few scraps of paper?” Lu Han asks, obeying the younger’s insistence on folding paper planes.
Baekhyun gives a slightly loud and dramatic laugh. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Of course not! Again, who do you think I am?”
Baekhyun claps his hand three times. “Come in!”
The door reveals Yixing carrying two medium-sized cartons. “Baekhyun-ah! I brought the stuff you ordered.”
“Thank you Yixing!”
Lu Han stared incredulously at Yixing who he hadn’t expected to go along with his patient’s crazy antics. The two cartons that arrived were brought next to Baekhyun and he looked like a child who just received his first Christmas gift ever. Well, Lu Han wouldn’t hold it against the younger this time since he knows exactly what it feels like to receive something after some intense online shopping.
As long as it’s not something that can send us all flying to the moon then Lu Han is okay with this.
Baekhyun easily ripped the adhesive from the box. “You won’t believe what they have on sale this month!”
The two nurses peeked at the box-Lu Han’s mouth dropped. It contained five tubes of what he assumes are fireworks, a mini grill, an iPhone 5C and a stack of assorted papers with different colours, sizes and thickness.
Lu Han can only leave his mouth agape and wonder what the heck his patient is going to do with all this. He sees Yixing with the same expression but thinks that at least he won’t deal with the mess later on. Or maybe he’ll just drag him into this, he doesn’t know. Speaking of knowing, he doesn’t even want to know what’s on the second box.
“Heard Apple had a new iPhone in the market. I wanted to try it out first then I’ll buy one for both of you next time if I like it!” Baekhyun exclaimed as he continued removing stuff after another. “Also, we can light some fireworks later tonight-I have small ones, but I also bought those big ones…”
“I’m not really sure if were allowed to have a fireworks party… We might want to ask the Chairman first, ne, Baekhyun?” Yixing suggested.
He swatted his hand in the air confidently. “Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’re gonna blow the whole hospital to the moon. You guys are so paranoid, learn to live a little!” Baekhyun replied with a laugh that seems to speak from experience.
Both Yixing and Lu Han glanced at each other and somehow communicated their thoughts to the other.
Actually, I feel like he is gonna blow the hospital up.
Let’s think positively here, maybe he’s just gonna blow a part of the hospital?
And that’s supposed to be better how? Anyway, be prepared to clean up the mess, Yixing-ah. I know where this is going.
Should I call the fire department just in case?
“He he he… and then I also bought a mini grill, we can grill order some meat and eat at the rooftop. And then that other box also has lots of stuff, there’s so many things we can do today… and then and then…” Baekhyun just went on and on and one about the stuff he just got.
Oh boy, here it comes; just another day in the life of Lu Han.
In the middle of the seemingly normal hospital lobby, staff members and visitors alike fill the place. There are a variety of people who are present-from kids to the elderly-all of them appear to be normal and should not be of interest to anyone. However, amongst the scenario stands a towering figure clad in a black suit, carefully observing every person and every detail while effortlessly blending in the environment.
A familiar red-head slowly approaches the said man. “They’ve started to move.”
The tall man squints his eyes. “I understand. What should we do now?”
“We can’t let them know that we’re aware of their plan.” The red-headed man passes a brochure and pulls out his phone in a continued attempt to look normal and avoid suspicion.
“You do know that we can’t afford to make a mistake or else… ” The man doesn’t dare to finish his sentence.
“Kris,” the other interrupts. “You also know full well that I won’t let anything happen to my brother, right?”
Kris doesn’t reply.
“Find a way to tell Yixing about this discreetly and…”
“He already knows, don’t worry. But how about the other one?” Kris informs.
“You mean Lu Han? It’s ok. I’m pretty sure he won’t let anything happen to Baek. Now, I expect you to make the necessary preparations Kris.”
Kris and the red-head shake hands naturally before going their separate ways and not leaving a single trace of their presence.
A little bit after lunch hours, Baekhyun, Lu Han and Yixing were still inside the cluttered Room 701 and still folding paper airplanes. Yixing, who was good at origami, even started making paper cranes, paper frogs and all sorts of paper animals.
“What’s the point of all this anyway?” Lu Han butts in as he finishes his 32nd airplane.
“Shhh. Just go along with me, I have a plan.” Baekhyun, who was already making his 70th airplane, told his nurse excitedly. “Oh, and Yixing hyung do you have some baskets? Or at least some containers where we can put all these?”
Yixing ponders for a moment. “We have a department who takes care of washing the bed sheets and those kinds of sorts. I’ll go ask them.”
“Thank you hyung!” Baekhyun’s eyes form a crescent shape as he thanked the older nurse.
The remaining people in the room are left in silence. Lu Han finds it strange that he doesn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable staying with Baekhyun even though outsiders would say otherwise. He somehow feels at peace. After contemplating for a while, he decides to take a peek at Baekhyun who turns out to be looking at him too.
“Ah, is there anything wrong Baek?”
In response, Baekhyun gives Lu Han a warm and genuine smile. “Nothing. I just remembered what Yixing hyung told me.”
“About what?”
“About your past and how you ended up being the way you were when we first met.”
Lu Han’s eyes widens in disbelief. “W-What?” He looks away, trying to hide his embarrassment from his patient.
“You’re the last person right now I’d want to tell my past to.”
Lu Han hears the younger’s soft laugh and he can’t explain why he suddenly feels ashamed in front of him. He tells himself that he didn’t care before so why now?
Am I becoming more conscious of him? Ugh, I don’t know…
“I’m glad I actually knew about it, you know? Now I know you’re not just some irritating two-faced person!”
Lu Han snaps from his thoughts and glares at the other. “I don’t where you’re going with this but if you’re insulting me, I-”
His sentence gets cut off. “I found out that hyung is really a person with a kind and caring heart. I’m glad I was able to know more about you… You were misunderstood in the past and I… I did too… I was wrong, I should have tried to understand you first. I’m sorry hyung.”
Lu Han didn’t know what to say since he got confused. At first, it began with something silly and then Baekhyun suddenly turns serious and all. He remains silent.
Despite being a loudmouth all if not most of the time, it surely took a lot from Baekhyun to say what he had said. He doesn’t know what to make out of Lu Han’s silence; Is he angry or what?
“There I said it, ok?!” Baekhyun buries his face in his palms. He acknowledges the fact that he and Lu Han are becoming closer due to recent events but hearing himself saying something like this out of the blue... It kinda feels weird. “Anyway, just forget about what I said… On the count of three, I’m gonna remove my hands from my face and let’s go back to folding papers, ok, hyung?”
1…
2…
“…”
From behind his hands, Baekhyun could feel Lu Han’s embrace. “Hyung? Why are you…”
“Just… just let me be for a while.”
And in this moment, a memory from yesterday flashes in his mind. Baekhyun’s lips…
Lu Han can’t explain why he’s so confused right now.
Knock knock.
“Baekhyun-ah, they lent me a basket! Um…”
For moments like this, the two people who are hugging usually separates in lightning speed but the opposite happens to Lu Han and he just froze in place.
“Ahaha. Hi Yixing hyung… This is um, just a friendly hug. Right, hyung? Ha ha.”
“Yeah, right. If you say so.” It was quite a sight to see the fair and innocent face of Yixing turn into a mischievous smirk; it feels as though a light bulb just flashed and he has some kind devious plan…
“You guys got cosy with each other fast huh?”
Lu Han reaches for the pillow behind Baekhyun and throws it towards Yixing. “Go to hell.” He distances himself from Baekhyun awkwardly and pretended to fix his uniform. The patient, on the other hand, just laughs it off and went to take the basket. He started putting their folded papers and some other materials on it and asked the other two in the room to meet him at the rooftop.
“I’ll be back!” The younger boy chirped.
“Hey, where are you going?!”
“You can’t go out on your own.”
Lu Han and Yixing simultaneously said.
“I just need to go somewhere and then…”
“You’re in Beijing, if ever you forgot. You won’t be able to speak with a lot of people.” And on top of this, Lu Han thinks he’s going to cause trouble wherever he’s headed. It would bring unnecessary attention to a billionaire’s son just like the time when…
Lu Han pauses from his thoughts. He suddenly finds it strange that Baekhyun’s crazy antics have never been reprimanded by the hospital staff. There is always the possibility that they wouldn’t do anything to displease a high-class client but he thinks he should’ve at least been told at least once.
“Well, may I just inform you that I am very fluent in body language, thank you. See you up top!”
The older nurse didn’t bother to stop him because of his newly discovered mystery. He stepped outside the room and observed the ceiling. Only three security cameras could be found on this floor and there seems to be some blind spots.
Is it possible that the security people don’t know about it?
Yixing pushed him out of his deep thinking and told him that there is really no point in disobeying Baekhyun because he’ll probably drag the both of them anyway if he learns they’re not there yet. He rests his one hand on Lu Han’s shoulder and mutters, “He’ll be alright.”
Somehow, there is uncertainty in Yixing’s voice despite his confident stature.
He clears his mind and makes their way to the rooftop.
The hospital is very peaceful today; there are no significant events happening whatsoever in this wonderfully-built hospital at the heart of Beijing. There are also fewer visitors today. It truly seems like another normal day at the hospital.
At one of the rooms in the annex building, a familiar figure stands beside an older man; the old man’s eyes fluttering open as he wakes up for the first time in days. He complains about a terrible migraine and reaches desperately for the ‘nurse’ beside him.
The other person, however, remains still and watches the miserable body with cold, merciless eyes.
A phone rings amidst the silence and is answered by the man standing.
“I understand.”
The man in the bed is utterly confused by the situation, on top of his already worse migraine. It feels like the man will pass out at any moment. Help me, he manages to say.
“What would you like, Boss? A Slow or a quick one?”
He grins almost similarly to the mischievous Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and the words-quick, end, and the name Chanyeol among other words could be heard faintly from the phone.
“Understood.”
He glances at the old man in front of him without any sort of sympathy. “Here, let me help you sir.”
Chanyeol, the person’s name who has been revealed by the speaker at the other end, pulls out a syringe from one of his pockets and a small vial containing a mysterious liquid at the other.
“Good bye, sir.”
“Ho ho ho. This is a rare opportunity for us to be closer as best friends so just spill out will ‘ya?”
Lu Han pinches the bridge of his nose, and is torn between wanting to disprove his friend and ignoring the other’s persistence.
“I mean, understand you. Baekhyun-ah is a good kid… and pretty good-looking as well!” Yixing continues even without a reply from Lu Han. “Also, imagine if you two end up together, you’re gonna be so rich, you won’t need to work for the rest of your life. It’s the money isn’t? Am I right? See, I am corre-”
“No, it’s not like that!” All of a sudden, Lu Han unintentionally says out loud. “I don’t like Baekhyun just because of the money.”
It’s too late when Lu Han realizes what he had just said because he sees Yixing showing an all-knowing smile.
“So you do like him! And not only that, money’s one of the reason you like him? Caught you big time on that one, Lu Han.” Lu Han covers his ears to prevent himself from hearing his friend’s irritating laugh any further.
The older nurse takes extra notes to carefully select his words so that no one can bend and twist and give unwanted interpretations in the future. “That’s not what I said Yixing.”
“Yes it is.”
“Give me a break.”
“Here have some Kit Kat.” Yixing conveniently pulls one out of his chest pocket. “Also, I’ll tell you now, I am so writing this day in my calendar as the day Lu Han finally found love.”
“Whatever.” Lu Han rips the Kit Kat packaging and noisily chomps on the chocolate bars. “But where is he anyway? It’s cold out here.”
“It’s half past two, how can it be cold?”
The two of them have been waiting for about thirty minutes and they’re starting to wonder if maybe this is another prank from Baekhyun. For all they know, they might end up staying here until God-knows-when. Lu Han has Baekhyun as his patient so he is technically still doing his job more or less but Yixing has been gone from the nurse station for a few hours now.
He explains it’s no big deal since he does it all the time. Lu Han gasps and stares at him in disbelief.
“What? Everyone does it! Even you, don’t lie.” Yixing counters with his lips protruding like a duck.
“No!” This is his immediate reaction but then looks from left from to right when he remembers that he also slacks sometimes. Just sometimes, he emphasizes in his mind.
Moving on from the topic, Yixing nudges Lu Han shoulder-to-shoulder. “Hey, you haven’t taken a day-off yet.”
“So? I’m not sick anyway and that would be less money for me.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should take a leave tomorrow? Take a break.”
Yixing’s suggestion is rather out of the blue and even his tone sounds a bit different than usual. He doesn’t comment on it but refuses taking a day off.
“If I could, I’d take a day off tomorrow. I just… I just have a bad feeling, you know.” The last part trails off making it seem that Yixing was deeply concerned about something.
“What do you mean ‘if you could’? What are you talking about, Yixing?”
Slam!
The sound of the door startled the two friends on the rooftop.
“Sorry to keep you waiting!” Instead of a young patient, they were faced with a carton with two legs. “Um, a little help here…”
They ran to him and put the box somewhere on the floor and they both gave a questioning look. “What’s this for?”
“I was kinda feeling stuffy for being inside the hospital for a while so I thought maybe we could just have fun today. Well, not that I don’t have fun everyday thanks to you hyung!” He brightly flashed his brightest smile towards Lu Han. The nurse immediately thinks he’s too adorable. Even Yixing returns him a dimpled smile.
Baekhyun begins rummaging the box and setting it up one by one. It may be because of his short height or just his radiant attitude but he definitely looks like a child excitedly searching for Santa’s gift for him.
“I already brought the stuff we need, we’re gonna grill some meat and you can’t do anything to stop me! Fireworks anyone? And then, we can also listen to music or sing… do you guys like to sing? Hm… take pictures and then…”
The two older men chuckle as Baekhyun continues to cutely mumble on his own.
It may seem tiring to keep up with this patient’s energy but Lu Han truly feels otherwise now. He is enjoying himself everyday and is more comfortable now that he is no longer burdened by his past, all thanks to Baekhyun. Ok fine, and also Yixing, his brain hesitantly adds.
For the remainder of the afternoon, they happily grilled Korea’s famous pork belly to their stomachs’ content. It felt like their little party could go on and on as they chatted just about anything: beginning from their various favourite items, reverse harem mangas, horror movies and even up until to world cuisine.
The time is now a quarter to six; the sun is steadily descending into the horizon and leaving a night sky with a number of visible stars. After filling up their stomachs and cleaning up the mess, their next agenda is of course, the fireworks-the kind that looks like a barbeque stick. The two nurses even taught Baekhyun simple Chinese sentences and songs while they were at it. Lu Han is also relieved that they convinced Baekhyun not to use the big dragon fireworks and didn’t accidentally burn half of Beijing.
As an unspoken requirement in every party, especially in mini parties like this is picture-taking. Baekhyun unboxed the Polaroid camera he got this morning and placed the film inside. They took all kinds of pictures-solo shots, by two’s, group shots and selcas. In those photos are precious memories that will be remembered by all three of them as tangible proof of their new friendship.
The bucket of water they brought halfway through all the fireworks is now full of burnt sticks and as they were disposing of it, the younger man suggested they go visit the children’s corner at the main building.
“Children’s corner? Why?” Yixing asked while placing the sticks inside a garbage bag.
“I recently made a friend there and it’s her birthday today so I just wanted to…”
“So obviously you went out of your again, huh, Baek? I wasn’t aware of that.” The ever-so-strict nurse playfully raised his eyebrows at him.
Baekhyun’s slightly apologetic smile told the truth. “It doesn’t matter hyung and besides that person has a crush on you so she asked me bring you. Come on, Lu Hannie hyung, make her dream come true!”
When they arrived, they immediately see their paper creations dangling from the ceiling and the two nurses realized that what they were doing this morning is for this. The reason why Baekhyun came late to the rooftop is also probably because of this.
The place will soon be filled with children so they have to prepare another mini party for the little girl. Yixing ruffled the cute boy’s hair because he finds his action very thoughtful.
The two, Yixing and Baekhyun, still have unexplained energy for this situation. Lu Han takes his time to observe the place more closely. He could see the different paper airplanes they folded as well as Yixing’s paper animals attached (or glued, Lu Han thinks) to many strings and taped to the ceiling.
Lu Han knew that, despite Baekhyun’s prankster nature, he is a very caring and thoughtful person. This birthday party he prepared for his new friend in this hospital asserts that fact. He really likes that about Baekhyun.
The party went on smoothly and without them realizing, visiting hours are almost over. Lu Han never hated kids and thinks that he’s pretty good at handling them but Baekhyun’s friend is tougher than he thought. She was really clingy.
Back at Room 701, Baekhyun plopped on his bed and stretched. Today had been really tiring but it’s worth it because he really had fun. Yixing went ahead and went home while of course, Lu Han had to stay a bit and force his patient to take his medicines.
Baekhyun ignored him of course and mocked him further by lying comfortably on the bed. He reached inside his pocket and browsed through the Polaroid pictures they took today while whispering, “This one is good, and this also… but Lu Han hyung, you’re photos really turned out ugly. Either that or you’re really ugly.”
The patient-in-bed laughed at his own joke, clearly enjoying mocking his favourite nurse. Lu Han just rolled his eyes in response. “Just keep quiet and take this. It’s just one spoon, for goodness’ sake.”
It seems the other has no plans on obeying the older any time soon. Lu Han sighs; he wanted to go home and rest. After all the compliments he mentally gave Baekhyun today, it still goes back to this. Lu Han sighs again.
He glances at the pictures his patient is holding and there was one in particular that caught his attention. It was a picture that Yixing took of them-Baekhyun with his cute little V signs while Lu Han has his arms over the younger’s shoulders. They look cute together, Lu Han admits to himself.
Anyone with a stare as obvious as Lu Han’s will be noticed by anyone and Baekhyun is not an exception. He peaks at Lu Han and then to the Polaroid his holding. Baekhyun chuckles in his mind; it’s so obvious that he wants this picture.
But Baekhyun doesn’t plan on giving it to him. Why would he? He can tease Lu Han about this.
The nurse is caught off-guard when Baekhyun suddenly places his mouth on the spoon that Lu Han is idly holding. He was too busy staring that he was startled at Baekhyun’s action. Well, at least he can go home now.
“Now, go to bed.”
“You sound like a mom. Or an aunt, or a grandma.”
“I’m a boy, aren’t I? So it should be ‘dad’.” Lu Han automatically commented while he was fixing the bottle and other things he needed to bring.
“Uh-uh. You’re not a boy. You’re a man, stupid.” Lu Han rolled his eyes and is ready with his counter but Baekhyun continued. “But you know what? I don’t remember hearing that from my dad.”
His eyes widened. Lu Han had forgotten that Baekhyun’s dad is somehow a sensitive issue for him.
He tries to amend the situation. “Um, just forget about it, ok, Baekhyun-ah? I should go.” Lu Han heads for the door. If he stays any second longer, it might turn into a very awkward situation that will be difficult to get out of.
With half his body out the room, he hears Baekhyun call to him.
“Lu Han hyung!”
The older male turned around.
“Um, goodnight...”
Lu Han relaxes and softly answers. “Goodnight. See you tomorrow.”
And under the moonlight shade, their smiles could only be seen as genuine smiles meant for each other.