16 LOVE LETTERS. MINSUNG

consultation.

"where's the sixteenth letter, jisung?" dr. choi asks his patient, holding the other papers he'd been given.

jisung sits there, silently staring off into the oblivion, ignoring his doctors question, even when he asks again. the boy snaps back into reality, a smile on his face, after dr. choi waves his letters in front of his face. "yes?"

"jisung, i told you to write sixteen. there are only fifteen letters here, where's the last one?" he asks again, sternly.

"oh, i must've left it at home." jisung chuckles to himself, although the situation is far from funny. "i'll give it to you tomorrow, at our next appointment."

with this, the boy lifts himself off the couch cushions and heads for the door, completely unaware of their appointement being only half-way done. he waves off the doctors calls for him to sit back down, and heads right out the door, his thoughts clear and new.

goodbye, dr. choi. it's been fun. he thinks to himself, skipping down past other therapists.

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the next day dr. choi gets into his office, ready to consult his patients. he goes through the list of the days' appointments, to get a good idea as to what he'd need to take on. a short sigh escapes his lips as he sees the first for the day: han jisung.

the doctor admits to loving the boy, he adds a challenge to his work life and he truly does wish to help the young boy after everything that has happened to his once birght and happy soul. but jisung tends to refuse to listen to what the doctor has to say. not in a form of rebellion, of course, he is too broken to even think of such things, but simply zoning out. which, frankly, is normal for patients with his background, but something about han jisung that just seems to want to add trouble to poor dr. choi's life.

9:23, he should arrive sometime in the near next ten minutes, dr. choi says to himself, looking up at the clock hanging above his door.

ten minutes go by, and yet there is no sign of the boy, the doctor stays calm and collected as it's normal for people to be late, especially jisung who seems to have lost his sense of time since the accident. it's when twenty, thirty minutes pass by that dr. choi gets impatient. he gets up from his desk and heads for the door, planning to go to the front desk and demand a call to the boy's house. just as he reaches for the door handle, dr. choi is pushed back by the door already opening in front of him. he assumes to see the familiar blond boy running in, but is met with mr. son, the receptionist.

"dr. choi." he says, surprised to see the man already at the door. "you startled me."

"my apologies youngtaek, please come in." the doctor opens the door to its full capacity, stepping aside to let the receptionist walk in. "what brings you here?"

"you had an appointment with patient han jisung, am i correct?"

"yes, indeed, but he seems to running half an hour late. i was just about to come over and ask to make a call." dr. choi explains.

"there is no need, we recieved a letter coming from his address. the enveloppe simply states: 'to dr. choi, my sixteenth letter.' i assumed it must've been the reason for his absence."

"thank you, mr. son. may i read it alone?"

the receptionist nods, directly heading out the door.

dr. choi takes a seat on the couch, opening the enveloppe to take out a bright pink piece of paper. the doctor smiles at jisung's colour scheme, but the expression soon drops when he reads what it contains.

oh no, jisung, no, no, no jisung. what have you done, jisung?

the three sentences danced in his head the second he started reading the boy's writing...