The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 1

150 🩺 Cramming

The doorbell rang about six times before the door swung open, and Hongjoong immediately laughed.

'Seonghwa. You look like a caveman.'

The boy half glared, but stepped aside none the less. 'I've been working.'

Stepping inside, Hongjoong glanced around and his eyes widened. 'Yes I can see that...' Scattered around the place were hundreds and hundreds of sheets of paper in piles covering every possible surface, all bar a small walkway through the living room.

Hongjoong cautiously stepped around the papers and made his way to the couch. 'Are these in order of reliability of authors?' he asked, glancing over a few of the paper stacks.

Sitting down beside him, Seonghwa nodded. 'Yeah.'

Skim reading over the abstract of one paper, Hongjoong nodded. 'You should put them in order of article relevance and author reliability and prioritise from there in your paper.'

Seonghwa's eyes glanced at him, a little surprised. 'I thought I should have thought of that...'

Hongjoong chuckled, putting down the journal article and bringing the small plastic bag up. 'Na it doesn't matter too much.' He pulled out two small cups of ice cream, passing one to Seonghwa, who reached forward and picked up two spoons that had been sitting next to his laptop. 'Peace offering?'

Seonghwa took the little cup, exchanging it for a spoon. 'This is the best part of my day,' he said softly, peeling off the lid and leaning back with the cup. He dug his spoon in and popped it in his mouth, moaning as the flavour exploded over his tongue.

And Hongjoong laughed. 'If ice cream is enough to make your day, I think I'm concerned for your wellbeing.'

Seonghwa rolled his eyes. 'I've been busy, okay. I've been living off rice and beans.'

'Well I guess the thoughtful thing to do would be to help. Should I cook or research?'

Seonghwa's eyes fell on him for a moment, deciding whether or not he was joking. However upon realising he was serious, his eyes widened. 'You don't have to!'

'Oh please.' Spotting a coin on the table, Hongjoong leant forward and picked it up. 'Heads cooking, tails research.' Throwing it up, they both watched as the coin flipped through the air and landed on the papers with a thud.

Heads.

And then Seonghwa leant out and turned it over.

Hongjoong laughed. 'I see it's tails.' He smirked as Seonghwa glanced up at him through shy eyes.

'Chill, Hwa. Show me the hypothesis and we can bust it out. I'll find, analyse sources and explain it, and you write it in the paper. Good?'

Seonghwa bit his lip, but nodded nonetheless. 'Are you sure?'

Hongjoong rolled his eyes. 'I have ice cream, and I assume there's coffee somewhere. It'll be fun! Point me to a stack~. The sooner we start, the sooner we can get it done.'

And Seonghwa nodded. Glancing around the room, he found a stack and shyly pointed at it. 'M-maybe there?'

Hongjoong smiled. 'Let's do this.'

~~~

A/N: Bruh got flagged again, but this time I legit did ✨nothing✨ 🙄

Lol. behold, the picture that got flagged 🙄

Legit watch me get flagged again for this, wtf

Also, getting my nose assaulted for a covid swab in twenty minutes thx to ✨ burn out ✨. Plz pray for my nasal mucosa 🧎‍♀️