"Me falling in love with you was unavoidable. I needed you like the desert needs rain."
✱
Shin Hoseok, a highschool drop out, has three jobs to pay for his life.
Chae Hyungwon is a socially awkward and shy kid with family issues.
No one could have k...
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The next few days went by uneventful.
Hoseok had a few shifts at the coffee shop, where he caused havoc as usual and went to the park where a car wash project was held by a local gas station and they offered 30.000 won per day.
Whenever he had a break he'd look at his phone and scroll to the latest message with Hyungwon.
To Hyungwon - 7:31 am: _____ sure! let's be friends :)
✅✅ read, 2 days ago
Hoseok wondered why the shy boy left him on read. Maybe he should write him again?
He began typing a few times but deleted everything again. Hoseok didn't want to force himself on the kid. But what if Hyungwon was too shy to message him first?
Some of his co-workers called him back to work and Hoseok put the thoughts on the back of his mind.
______
It was the most important day of the week.
Hoseok went through the white corridors of the hospital he knew so well. It was Wednesday, the only day of the week he allowed himself not to work.
As usual the corridors seemed endless. The way getting longer with each step, with each visit.
Hoseok didn't notice anything around him, his vision narrowed into a small tunnel. That was until he came to stand in front of a certain door.
Room 678
It took all the courage Hoseok had to knock on that door, even if he knew that there would be no response.
He opened it slowly, disappearing in the quiet and dark room.
"Hey Mom", he whispered to the woman lying on the bed. As usual he felt anger bubble up at the pitch of his stomach as he saw the closed curtains and the dim light. His mother deserved better but for a woman who had no chance of ever waking up again, no one saw the need to make her room a pretty one.
Hoseok was in the middle of opening the windows, as the Doctor came in.
"Doctor Moon", Hoseok bowed deeply, "how is she today?"
Doctor Moon was a middle aged man, who knew Hoseok his entire life. He once saw the boy cry over his father and now his mother was here aswell. Hoseok himself had been lucky to get out of the car alive. He pitied the boy and tried to help him where he could.
"She is doing good", the man lied. Hoseok asked the same question every Wednesday and the Doctor didn't have the heart to say anything else. But he knew that, deep down, Hoseok had realized that his mother would never be 'doing good' again a long time ago.
"Hoseok"
The boy looked up from his mother, who just seemed to be asleep. The tone in Doctor Moon's voice was all too familiar to him.
"The next payment is up, I know. Only one more shift and I'll have the money", Hoseok said without waiting for the man to say it.
The doctor just nodded, going over to him and placing a firm hand on his shoulder.
"You are the last family she has. Maybe it's time for you to make a decision."
With that he left him alone.
______
Hoseok closed the door behind him and felt the pang of guilt in his heart for feeling relieved that he was about to leave this place.
He went down to the entrance hall, getting greeted by the nurses on his way. They giggled and hid their faces, always excited to see the handsome, yet sad boy every Wednesday.
Tired, he sat down on one of the benches, watching the people around him.
Hospitals were such a tragic yet beautiful place. You could see a young woman taking her sick grandfather for a stroll around the hospital gardens or a family with a newborn baby, about to show her or him his new home.
Happiness and Sadness were a narrow path in a place like this.
"Thank you Doctor Park, we'll make sure to accompany him the next time as well", he heard the voice of a woman, she was standing in front of the doors to a different wing of the huge place. She was shaking the hand of one of the female Doctors, which Hoseok knew as Doctor Park. Specialist for psychotherapy. Doctor Moon had suggested Hoseok to visit her more than once but the boy had always refused.
Hoseok studied the small family standing there. Next to the woman, who had spoken, stood a man and a young boy. He was tall and lanky, his dark hair kinda familiar to Hoseok.
The boy looked his way.
Right in that moment, with Hyungwon looking at him in the middle of the hospital, Hoseok knew that this boy was more than just a shy kid with no friends.
