Dream Wandering • Yunsang

Almost There

An hour and 15 minutes later he was pulling up the gravel driveway to a little cottage in the country side. A little frazzled because he'd taken a wrong turn that sent him down a dead end road, hence why he was now late.

Yunho wished he had more time to appreciate the countryside surroundings because it was oddly comforting to him. Maybe he'd been in the city too long.

He also wished he had time to read the email that Kyungsoo sent him that would tell him about his patient, but he had to head in because he didn't want to seem unprofessional and reflect badly back on the clinic.

He'd just have to put his question cap on and ask for the details about his new patient from the patient themself.

Yunho finished off the last dregs of his coffee from his mug before grabbing his doctors bag from the passenger seat and hoping out of the car.

As soon as the fresh air from the countryside hit his face Yunho paused. It was so soothing, something about that fresh smell was familiar although Yunho had no idea why.

Recollecting himself Yunho straightened his coat and pants before walking to the cottages front door. It looked a bit like a door one might find at the entrance to a fairies home, it was intricate with plants, yet simple.

Yunho knocked on the door handle and waited.

Not before long a short middle aged woman opened the door.

"Good morning! You must be the doctor?" she said looking Yunho up and down.

Yunho nodded and out stretched his hand "I am. I'm Dr Yunho Jeong, It's a pleasure to meet you"

The woman took his hand, giving it a firm shake "I'm Hye-Jung, and you're early" she said with a warm chuckle

"I am?" Yunho questioned.

"Your clinic secretary, Jongin I think was his name, he said you would be here at 9.30am, so you are 15 minutes early" she smiled kindly.

"Oh" Yunho said, silently cursing Kyungsoo and Jongin for the miscommunication on times, but also thankful because it meant he wasn't late. "Well, where's my patient?" Yunho said as he put on his best doctors smile, he wished he had of looked at the patient information and gotten his patients name at least, so he could stop calling them 'patient'.

"Since you're early, he should be out the back for his morning stroll, I'll take you there"

The woman invited Yunho inside and began to lead him through the house, it was simple, quaint, very old fashioned, but it was nice, and also a lot bigger on the inside.

The house looked quite small from the front but it extended quite the ways back.

Soon Yunho was standing out the back looking at the view of the forest of trees in the valley around him.

"He shouldn't be too long, you can take a seat here and wait" she smiled as she gestured at an outdoor chair and table set.

Hye-jeong offered him tea to which he accepted and she shuffled inside to make it.

About 5 minutes later chatter began to resound through the garden and two bodies began to appear through the tree line. One figure, a man, was facing forwards he seemed very old, his body hunched as he shuffled with a walking cane, the other, much younger in simple white pants and a shirt was strangely walking backwards.

It looked like the younger was trying to keep the older man from falling. His arms outstretched as if offering support, support to which the older man didn't seem to be taking any bite of. The older man must be his patient.

The younger figure's back reminded him of Yeosang, he had the same build, and even his hair style was similar. But it probably wasn't Yeosang. It never was.

Yunho had mistaken random strangers way too many times to be Yeosang, this time was probably no different. Right?

Voices of the two became more distinct and clearer as they came closer, and Yunho could have sworn the younger mans voice sounded like Yeosang.

The old man suddenly made eye contact with Yunho and Yunho stood up and bowed slightly while the old man looked him up and down, he then looked to the young man in front of him.

"Yeo I can walk myself! Just because I have a weak heart doesn't mean my legs don't work" with that the old man hit the boys legs with his walking cane pushing him to the side.

But all Yunho could think was Yeo, Yeo . .Yeo as in Yeosang? Yunho's heart sped up, it couldn't be right? Just like this Yeosang was going to appear before him? This whole place for some strange reason reminded him on the dream space, and this man looked like Yeosang from behind, he sounded like Yeosang, was this man his soulmate Yeo-

The young man began to turn around.

Yunho breathed in deeply, holding his breath.

It wasn't Yeosang.

Yunho breathed out. It was just another look alike, from behind anyway, the face of the young man before him in no way resembled Yeosang what-so-ever.

Yunho shook thoughts of Yeosang from his head, he was here to work not daydream about what might be.

The man Yunho had mistaken for Yeosang suddenly saw Yunho and waved cheerfully as he walked beside the old man.

"Good morning" Yunho waved back, before once again outstretching his hand "I am Dr. Jeong Yunho, you must be my patient"

"Don't say patient boy, that sounds too morbid, call me Mr. Lee" The older man said as he shook his hand.

"And I'm Yeo Chang Gu, his grandson, it's a pleasure to meet you"

Mr. Lee motioned at the table and everyone sat down, including Chang Gu whom was there for support.

"Its a pleasure to meet you both too. Well, as you know I am from our clinic's city branch . ."

Yunho continued to give his introduction, he had done house calls before so he knew the basic procedure.

" . .So, can you tell me a little about your condition?" Yunho then said after they had gotten basic formalities out of the way.

Yunho only had the vaguest of idea to what was wrong with the Mr. Lee, he suspected it had something to do with Mr. Lee's heart since he had overheard the older mentioning while he was walking here about it being weak.

Mr. Lee explained how he has had a weak heart since he had a heart attack a couple of years ago and since then has developed an arrhythmia, which is an irregular heartbeat. Making his heart sometimes beat too fast, too slow or too erratically.

Its manageable and but due to his old age is the reason why he needs a doctor to check in on him. Without management and treatment consequences can be fatal to a man of his age.

So Yunho checked his heart rate, blood pressure and asked him questions about the history of his problem and how the previous doctor was working with them to manage it.

They scheduled the next visit and less than two hours later and Yunho was all done, and he was back on the road, heading back to the clinic.

~ 🌻 ~