Beomgyu and Yeonjun have been friends since childhood. Beomgyu, the son of a CEO of a luxury car company. Yeonjun, an orphan on a scholarship for their arts school. The feelings have always been there, but neither brave enough to voice them.
When Be...
Beomgyu falls asleep earlier than usual, waking up so late that he misses breakfast and lunch. He's listless, walking the ward's hallways with a restless edge to him—one that feeds off of his nervous energy.
He cries silently before he sleeps, burying his face into his pillow so that Yeonjun can't hear. There's a hole in his heart, an emptiness that he can't quite define.
Yeonjun does his best to bring levity to Beomgyu's world. But it's like the latter has a shield in front of his eyes, blinding him and negating him from seeing the sunlight. He never thought of the expression eternal night until now. That would sum up the first week in the psych ward.
Taehyun, Huening Kai, and Soobin also try to cheer him up—even if they have their own demons to deal with. But he only answers their questions and says nothing more. He feels guilty that he can't give them more. The old him would be embarrassed seeing how lifeless he's become.
The doctors change his medication, seeing that the current prescriptions aren't working.
In the hall, they stop him right after he wakes in the afternoon. His hair is like a tangled bush, his face breaking out with acne, his teeth needing brushing and his clothes sticking to his skin after two days without showering.
"Take this," the nurse says, holding out his hand to reveal three large pills.
Beomgyu turns around, walking in the opposite direction.
"Choi Beomgyu!" The nurse calls out.
Yeonjun stops him in the middle of the hall, standing like a bulwark. "Beomgyu, what are you doing? You need to take your medicine."
"I'm not taking anything," he says, trying to brush past.
They knock shoulders. Yeonjun places a palm on Beomgyu's shoulder, gripping tight. "Beomgyu."
Tears sting Beomgyu's eyes. He shakes off Yeonjun and runs down the hall. There are not many options in terms of places to hide, but he finds the last room—the place where the doctors do their evaluations and where he met his parents—to be empty.
He slips inside, locking the door before Yeonjun can keep up. He leans his back against the door. He ignores the pounding of Yeonjun's fist, keeping his eyes on the glass wall that overlooks one of the busy streets of Gangnam. He would do anything to escape. He never thought he would miss school, or rushing to catch the train, or his parents interrupting his gaming for him to eat dinner.
The nurse and Yeonjun are talking with a low voice outside. Yeonjun's voice raises, and the nurse pauses before grunting in reply. Footsteps clatter down the hall again.
Beomgyu expects to hear the nurse again, insisting him to take the new pills. He prepares to meet him with silence. They will unlock the door, and he'll have to take it eventually. But he'll resist for as long as possible.
He wasn't expecting to hear Yeonjun's voice, gentle and pleading.
"Beomgyu, please. It's just me. Come out." He pictures Yeonjun swallowing, pulling his brows together insistently.
"I'm not getting better," Beomgyu says. He presses his back harder, as if that would keep the door locked permanently. He wipes at his eyes, embarrassed that his skin comes back wet. "There's no point."
"It's only been a week!" Yeonjun says, exasperated. "You have to give yourself time."
"Please go home, Yeonjun." Beomgyu regrets the words as soon as they come out, but it'll be best—for Yeonjun to return to school, to his normal life. "You're suffering because of me."
"I'm suffering for you," Yeonjun says, "and it's completely my choice. You can't get rid of me."
Beomgyu fights a smile, which seems out of place among his tears and buzzing mind. "I'm still not coming out."
"Then I can wait." Yeonjun has that insistence in his words, and Beomgyu knows he's made up his mind.
It'll be a battle of who's more stubborn. Each boy has won an equal amount of times.
Beomgyu knows he's being a brat. He should take the medicine. He should make an attempt, not just drowning in his sorrow. Yeonjun, his parents, and his friends at school are rooting for him.
But he cannot ignore the unease in him, the darkness that threatens to overtake him completely. He still can't put an exact name to it. The hopelessness. It's a mixture of many emotions, he realizes, and it's so easy to just let himself wallow in it. Almost like it's comfortable. Almost like he has no choice but to submit to the chaos in his head.
But he has another choice. He could trust the doctors here, trust Yeonjun, and take the damn pills.
He's lost this battle of stubbornness. He turns and unlocks the door. He pulls it open.
Yeonjun was leaning against the door as well. He almost falls to his face when the door swings in. "Shit!"
"Sorry," Beomgyu says, trying not to laugh. He hasn't laughed in a while, and it's a welcome change to find his humor again.
"Now that you're seeing reason..." Yeonjun reveals his hand, holding the three pills. In his other hand, a cup of water.
Beomgyu is surprised that the nurse trusts Yeonjun to give him his medication—shouldn't that be a massive break in protocol?
But Yeonjun has proved himself to be Beomgyu's greatest support here. The doctors and nurses know it. The other kids know it. Perhaps the nurse knew that Yeonjun would be the only person who could convince him to take the medication.
Beomgyu takes the pills in his hands, swallowing them one by one, a gulp of water in between each one.
"Good boy," Yeonjun says.
Beomgyu blushes immediately, and even though he knows Yeonjun isn't trying to flirt, he keeps imagining being told again and again Good boy.
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