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열여덟

hyunjin was sitting in the waiting room, his leg bouncing up and down as he waited for any updates about felix's condition.

he sighed, tilting his head back. it's been around a half an hour since he arrived here after making sure han would take care of things at the gallery.

suddenly, a nurse came up to him.
"are you here for lee felix?"

hyunjin shot up from his seat.
"yes. how is he?"

"I'm gonna say this as simply as possible. it's obvious he fainted because he hasn't been eating properly. do you know if he has been having a hard or a stressful time? or does he have some past with eating disorder?"
the nurse asked.

"he always had a little battle with food. I have known him for a really long time, and this isn't the first time something like this happened to him. he did have a progress around four years ago, and for about a year he was eating well,
but...we lost touch."
hyunjin said.

the nurse nodded.
"alright, thank you for telling me, I will keep it in mind. you can go see him now, but please be silent. he is not awake yet, so please don't wake him up."
she said.

hyunjin nodded and the nurse lead him into felix's room, walking away afterwards.

opening the door of the room, hyunjin could see felix laying on the hospital bed, his eyes closed. with a sigh, hyunjin quietly took a chair and put it next to felix's bed, sitting on it.

hours went by without any movement from the boy on the hospital bed. he was still in a deep sleep.

frustrated, hyunjin sighed, resting his elbows on his thighs, holding his hands together.
"why aren't you waking up?"
he whispered, his eyes on felix.

suddenly, someone opened the door.
hyunjin thought that it might be the nurse who lead him in here, or a doctor who would tell him when will felix wake up.
but no, it was just jisung.

"hi."
he whispered, before he took another chair and put it next to hyunjin's.
"I closed the gallery at time, set the alarm on, and made sure everything was okay before I left. the guards are doing their usual rounds now."

hyunjin nodded.
"thank you."

"what about felix?"
han asked.

"he hasn't been eating properly. that's why he fainted."
hyunjin sighed, leaning against the chair, his head falling back.
"but no further updates."

"he still didn't wake up? but it's been like...four hours."
jisung said, a bit shocked.

"yeah. that's why it's so frustrating. he should already be awake by now."
hyunjin said.
"are these doctors even doing their job?"

"I mean...they are dealing with much more serious things. felix 'just' fainted."
jisung said, looking at his friend with doe eyes.
"but it's weird he's still not awake."

hyunjin hummed in agreement.
"yeah. I'm gonna be staying here until he wakes up. go home and get some rest."

jisung shook his head.
"no, there is no way I'm leaving."
he said, before sadly looking at felix.
"I feel guilty. if I just made sure he was properly eating his lunches this might wouldn't happen."

"stop jisung. felix told me how you always insist that he joins you for lunch, and when he doesn't, you always bring something to him. there is absolutely nothing that you should be feeling guilty about."
hyunjin said, gently patting jisung's shoulder.
"if there is someone who should feel guilty, it's me. he lives at my house. I was supposed to make sure he would eat properly."

"I think you can't blame yourself for that."
jisung said.
"it's no one's fault, really. it just...happened."

"but I could have prevented it."
hyunjin said, not even looking at jisung.

"you couldn't, no one could. stop thinking that."
jisung said.
"I'm gonna go grab a coffee. do you want some too?"

"yeah, that would be nice."
hyunjin nodded.

"alright, all be right back."
jisung patted hyunjin's shoulder before walking out of the door.

•~•

pain.
that was what felix felt first when he finally came back to his senses.

disoriented, he slowly opened his eyes, not quite understanding what was happening, or where he was right now, because there is no way that this was his amazing comfortable bed.

looking down, he noticed he was actually laying on a hospital bed. he was changed into a hospital gown, and he noticed that they were putting some liquid inside of him trough a cannula sticked into his vein.

when he remembered what happened at the gallery, it all suddenly made sense.

sighing, he looked to his left, getting a little startled when he noticed hyunjin and jisung sleeping on the uncomfortable hospital chairs. if he wasn't so weak, he would definitely scream because of how startled he was.

felix smiled slightly, happy that he wasn't in the hospital alone.
he HATED hospitals.
it always made his skin crawl, and not in a good way.
perhaps because of his memories.

felix kept looking at the two boys sleeping in the chairs. he found it quite adorable. jisung had his head laying on hyunjin's shoulders, while hyunjin's head was resting on top of jisung's.

something else suddenly caught felix's eyes tho.
he wasn't sure if he was seeing right.
maybe he was still in a haze.

he gently rubbed his eyes, before looking at hyunjin's chest again.

but no, he wasn't having any hallucinations.
over hyunjin's shirt laid a necklace.
a necklace too familiar to felix.
it was a necklace felix lost just few months before he left to Australia.
he and hyunjin were looking for it everywhere for days, but couldn't find it.

the string of the necklace was big enough that hyunjin's shirt would normally cover the entire necklace, but somehow it got out, and was visible.

suddenly, felix remembered something from the night he shared with hyunjin that he seemed to forget.
when he was laying on the couch, hyunjin hovering over him, pleasuring him in the most toe-curling way, the necklace was hanging right over felix's eyes.
how could he not remember that?

and more importantly, why was hyunjin wearing his necklace?