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"SU myungho! you are needed in room 21."
i immediately put down the paperwork i was doing and went over to room 21. that's jun's room. what could possibly happen to jun? i thought. he was perfectly fine just the day before.
the boy was at stage iv lung cancer, you idiot, i reminded myself. i shook my head in an attempt to get rid of the voices as i ran to room 21.
i opened the door to see that jeonghan and seungcheol are already there. i panted and went over to their side.
"i know this is a bad situation," said seungcheol, "but you are an intern and things do happen in hospitals. i'm not going to test you on what to do now because — move, jeonghan! — jun needs to undergo surgery now. so, move out of the way, please." i did as the oldest doctor here said and glanced over at the boy laying on the bed.
i could see swelling in jun's lymph node, which pains my heart. he's in stage iv a, which means he still has one more stage before he's... gone. the thought of the cheerful boy just disappearing from the world twenty-eight days later pains me. i felt an arm slinging around my shoulders and i looked up, seeing that it's jeonghan smiling painfully down at me. we're all hurting, i reminded myself.
"we've got an excellent team of surgeons, led by surgeon chwe hansol and surgeon hong joshua. i'm pretty sure you've heard their names before. so you don't have to worry, not at all." i met jeonghan's eyes and saw there were pain and sadness behind his beautiful eyes. i placed my hand on his that was flung around my shoulder, "he's going to be okay."
jeonghan looked down at me and chuckled lightly, quickly wiping his tears to prevent me from seeing them, but i saw them already. "hey, i should be the one comforting you, not the other way around. anyway, can you look over jihoon for a while? soonyoung's applied leave for the afternoon."
i nodded and went over to the blonde boy. he looked like he's trying to prop himself with his pillows, so i rushed over and helped him. jihoon glanced up and glared at me, "you're not young. who are you?"
i smiled subtly at the nickname he gave soonyoung, "i'm su myungho, nice to meet you. i'm an intern here and—"
"right, you're the boy looking after jun. how's your internship so far?" he asked, grabbing the cup of coffee on his bedside table as he sipped on it, looking up at me and expecting an answer.
i shrugged, "well, i've just been here for, what, two days? jun has been nothing but a pain in my ass. but he made me laugh loads, so i'm thankful that i'm looking after him for my internship."
a small smile crept up to jihoon's face, "good. you know, i've known jun ever he came to korea. i'm sorry if i'm boring you (in which i shook my head and told him to continue). alright. um, basically my mom and his mom were high school best friends and they kind of got pregnant in the same year, which resulted in me and jun being born in the same year.
"when he came to korea, i was asked by my mom to, like, bring jun around and show him things throughout the summer holiday. i hated it at first, but then i fell in love with how much jun made me laugh and how carefree he always is. i'm not in love in love with him, but i love him. of course, there were times when he was serious as hell, but most of the time, he's just as lighthearted as he can be. he's an actual happy virus." jihoon smiled, possibly at the thought of his best friend. and then his smile dropped. quite dramatically, might i add.
"and then i got sick. i got sick before he did. he told you he came here when he was 11, didn't he? i got sick when we both turned 14, so three years after he came here. i never failed to see him smile whenever he visited, though. he always came into my room and told me what happened at school. jun never cried in front of me, and i was honestly starting to think that he's incapable of that. that was what i thought until he got admitted into the hospital."
i removed my hand from jihoon's left arm after i finished inserting his iv needle, "what do you mean?"
jihoon looked up at me and smiled regretfully, "he never stopped crying, not until he was at stage iii. and you, being the intern in charge of him, know that stage iii wasn't that long ago. jun never stopped crying, and i didn't reach out and ask him why he cried. i bet it has to do with his cancer, but i had zero ideas why he cried, and i hated it. i still regret it 'til this day." he chuckled bitterly, "i'm such a bad friend, aren't i?"
i shook my head, trying to reassure him, "no, you're not. you didn't know back then what to do. he got admitted into the hospital 4 years ago, so you both were just teenagers. and teenagers do stupid stuff, or not do in the case, and then regret it later. jihoon hyung — if you don't mind me calling you that — you regretted not asking him why he cried. you can't turn back time and ask why he cried at that time, but you can always ask him now. you still have time, jihoon hyung."
jihoon looked at me with his smile growing. "thank you, myungho. i'm sorry i overheard your conversation with jun, but i heard you didn't like being called your chinese name. i understand that. also, you can call me jihoon hyung."
