small words || jeongcheol

18: trauma.

"Hey," Seungcheol said as Jeonghan entered the examination room. "You're looking better."

Jeonghan wrinkled his nose at him. He still felt bloated from yesterday, when he'd forced himself to eat more that his body could deal with. His tummy hurt, and even his face felt chubby. That was all in his head, though.

"What do you mean by that?" he muttered, shrugging out of his pyjama shirt.

"Your cheeks have more colour?" the nurse mused. "I don't know."

Jeonghan shrugged, tugging off his pyjama pants and stepping onto the weighing scales in just his boxers. He winced, looking away as Seungcheol adjusted the scale.

"You don't wanna look?" he asked quietly.

"Not today," Jeonghan said shakily.

"You can step off."

Jeonghan stepped back onto the floor, turning away from the numbers. It was higher than yesterday, he just knew it was. There was no getting away from it.

"You okay?" Seungcheol asked as he slid his specs onto his nose, peering over them.

The long-haired boy's mind flashed back to the previous day and the whole crying, "I want to be pretty" incident. He closed his eyes for a moment. He had overreacted. He could deal with this on his own.

"Yeah, f-fine," he mumbled, hurriedly putting his pyjamas back on.

Seungcheol spared him another glance before finishing with the records. He took off his glasses.

"You can talk to me, Jeonghan," he said quietly.

"I overreacted yesterday," Jeonghan blurted.

Seungcheol looked at him.

"I made a big deal of it when," Jeonghan exhaled, placing a hand over his eyes, "when it wasn't. So, sorry you had to see that."

"Jeonghan," Seungcheol sighed, getting up and crossing the room. "Don't say that. It's okay, you were upset."

"But if you could just forget about-"

"I'm not going to do that," he said gently, placing a hand on Jeonghan's shoulder.

"But-" Jeonghan began, looking at Seungcheol with teary eyes.

"Look, I know you're struggling, Jeonghan," he said quietly, "And it's okay to admit that. I can see that there's... things you haven't told me, and I hope that you will be able to tell me sometime - because I care about you, and want to help you."

Jeonghan tried to hold in his tears as he pouted. He frowned at Seungcheol for making him feel like this. He didn't like to feel weak.

"It's okay, Jeonghan," Seungcheol repeated, gently drawing the boy into a hug.

The long-haired boy allowed his tears to escape as he hid his face in Seungcheol's sweater. The Nurse's hands were warm on his back, his arms providing a layer of protection rather than feeling like a cage. Jeonghan felt safe.

"I will tell you," he mumbled, "Just not now. I don't want to talk about it."

"I understand," Seungcheol said softly, Jeonghan feeling the vibrations in the Nurse's chest as he spoke. "But I want to be a friend to you, so you can trust me."

Jeonghan reluctantly pulled away and nodded. "Thanks, Seungcheol."

"Anytime," he told him.

The long-haired boy walked out of the examination room, dragging a hand across his eyes to dry his tears.