Fearless Voyage | Soonhoon

Being Freaks

"Why are you being such a freak?! Why can't you simply be normal?!"

Woozi sighed under his mask, side-eyeing his bedroom door.

He still hoped.

But no. There was nothing. No curly tuft peeking behind it shyly, no slit-like eyes smiling at him fondly.

Nothing.

Hoshi had stopped coming.

"So you're saying that you can see people's death date?"

The small boy frowned. He wanted to shuffle on his other side, so he could see out of the window. But he couldn't, his mask was tied to the respiratory machine, forbidding him to move. With another sigh, he took the plastic object off his face, immediately feeling the lack of air burning his lungs.

But it was okay. He had to put up with it.

Cautiously, he slid off the bed, setting himself on his wheelchair. He had to pause for some seconds, catching his breath, struggling to ignore the pain in his chest. His nurse entered the room at the precise moment, a sad smile stretching her lips as she locked gaze with her patient.

"Woozi..." 

"Let's go noona. Maybe he is already there." He cut her off with a determined tone.She didn't object, knowing that it would be useless.

It had been one week since that day. One week since he hadn't seen Hoshi. Everyday, at the same hour, he would wait in front of Dr Kwang's office, hoping to see that particular someone appear and smile at him as he would always do. But to no avail.

However, Woozi wouldn't give up.

"I don't care if you are a freak, Hoshi... Since I am no better."

***

"Long time no see."

Hoshi literally sprang out of his seat, surprised by the unforseen presence appearing beside him. But when his eyes met with the pink-haired boy's ones, the colour drained  from his face, his heart started thumping wilder.

No.

He couldn't look at Woozi anymore. Because now Woozi knew. Woozi knew he was a freak. And freaks shouldn't exists, right? 

"Ondine's Curse."The voice stirred Hoshi out of his internal conflict. He looked back at the boy who had talked, lips parted in perplexity.

"Ondine's Curse." Woozi repeated emotionless. It's the name of my disease." Hoshi's eyes widened in shock. "It is a rare disease. Basically, I forget how to breath, and mt heart beats too slowly." Hoshi gulped the lump in his throat that was choking him. "In other words, I'm cursed. I am a freak." Woozi concluded, still no feelings apparent on his face.

Hoshi lowered his gaze, trying to focus on his breathing, his brain struggling to process the new information.

"And what's your curse?" The smaller one asked, breaking the silence.

Hoshi locked their gazes again, lips parted, but no sound coming out. Something was keeping him from admitting it.

He was scared.

"You can see people's death date?"

Hoshi gasped at the question. But Woozi seemed unfazed by it, no matter how abnormal it was. So he simply nodded in agreement.

"So what is my death date?" He asked as if they were talking about their meals. The other started nibbling at his bottom lip.

"I don't know, you don't have one. For some reasons..." He admitted. Tension was still thick between them. But Woozi's dry chuckle somehow seemed to ease it. 

"So I am a freak to the core." He smirked, "I don't even have a death date."

"Don't say that." Hoshi suddenly snapped, coming closer to him. And without any explanation, he kneeled in front of his wheelchair, burying his face into Woozi's knees. "Don't say that please." His voice was partially muffled, but the tiny boy could still distinctively hear it. "Because to me, out of everyone, you are the only normal one."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Woozi didn't know that his heart wasn't the only one beating faster than normal as he entangled his fingers in the boy's hair, caressing it tenderly.