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—
I walked into the cafe and smiled at the barista behind the counter. the barista smiled back at me and asked, "what would you like today, sir?"
i glanced over the menu on the countertop. it was my first time here and i was hoping to buy jun a coffee, a snack as well, perhaps. "may i have a grande mocha with whipped cream, six double chocolate cookies, and a tall americano, please?"
the barista puts my order into the machine and looked back up at me, "that would be 6.80. do i— do i know you from somewhere?"
i frowned, trying to recall the face in front of me. he does look familiar... then my eyes widened in surprise, "jacob? when did you come back from canada?"
jacob chuckled, "tell you what. i go off in a few and we'll catch up, yeah?"
i nodded, glancing at my watch, "well, i have half an hour till i have to be at my internship, so sure."
a few minutes later, with me sipping on my americano, jacob went to my table and i smiled at him, "hey."
jacob laughed, "hey. so, how are you now?"
jacob and i were friends for a while when jacob came to our high school as an exchange student for a total of three months. he went back to canada afterwards, and we never exchanged phone numbers or anything. but it feels nice seeing an old friend again.
"well, i'm interning in seoul national hospital. i, uh, i really shouldn't be revealing his information to you, but i'm going to tell you anyway since i trust you enough not to tell anyone else. anyways, his name is wen junhui, he's from shenzhen, and i fell in love with him." i said, ducking my head down in shyness.
jacob widened his eyes, "fallen in love? that sounds straight out of a k-drama! but i'm so happy for you. you can not answer if you don't want to, but why is junhui in a hospital?"
i opened my mouth, about to tell jacob, but i closed it and reconsidered my answer, "uh, i'd rather not tell. it's his privacy."
jacob nodded and smiled, "that's fine. well, i hope you won't regret that decision." he winked, and i rolled my eyes, chuckling. "oh, trust me, i won't."
the two of us stayed in the cafe for about twenty more minutes before i decided that it is time for me to go to the hospital. we exchanged phone numbers and we bid goodbye, me promising jacob that i'll contact him soon.
i opened the messaging app and saw that there were four unread messages from jun.
junnie where are u?
junnie haaaaao
junnie when are u coming to work :(
junnie i miss u :(
i chuckled at jun's clingy messages and quickly typed a reply to him before picking up my pace in order to get to the hospital as soon as possible.
miinghaao im coming!
—
"sorry i'm late!" was the first thing i said when i went into the room. i saw that soonyoung and wonwoo are already there, soonyoung patting wonwoo's back with wonwoo leaning on mingyu's bed. i frowned in confusion, where is mingyu?
"guys? what's wrong?" i asked softly, looking around the room only to find that jihoon and jun weren't here as well. i saw jun's phone on his nightstand and my frown deepened. i glanced at the time and let out a relieved breath. jun and jihoon are probably doing their chemotherapy now.
soonyoung looked up at me and his smile was full of grief, full of sadness, "mingyu's needing to transfer to the icu because of an alarming situation with his brain."
i felt my heart stop for a second.
mingyu? with a stage ii brain cancer? how did he out of the three patients here get sent into the icu?
"jihoon ssi found him in the middle of the night with a seizure. he's been sent to the icu ever since." stuttered wonwoo. (i'm too lazy to type stutters so)
i put down the things i bought from the cafe and went in front of wonwoo and hugged him tightly, rubbing circles on his back and muttering reassuring words into his ear. i know it never helps, but that's the least i could do now.
i pulled away from the hug and shook him slightly, "hey, listen to me. you're one of the strongest people i ever met and had the pleasure to know, hell, even to fall in love with. you're so, so, so strong. and that's why you can't lose hope now. we're all struggling here, struggling with hope. but we will pull through. and trust me when i say that mingyu will get better."
wonwoo looked at me with his glassy eyes and sniffed, rubbing his nose with the back of his left hand. "yup, you're right. thanks, myungho."
i smiled, seeing that my words helped lift wonwoo's mood, "anytime."
soonyoung told wonwoo to go to the toilet to wash up a bit and then he turned to him, letting a long breath out and placed his hands on his jutted-out hips, "how the hell did you do that? i've been trying to stop him from crying for hours and you say, what, a few words and he's alright? pft, you guys must have had some love for you to comfort him so easily."
i shrugged and cracked a small grin, "well, i do know ways to comfort him from experience."
—
half an hour later, wonwoo was allowed to go to the icu to visit mingyu. i'm not kidding when i tell you wonwoo's face actually lit up and he jumped from mingyu's bed and ran all the way over to the icu. soonyoung and i just watched his actions in surprise, both of us not knowing that the jeon wonwoo has a side like that.
"hao!" jun smiled when he saw me and engulfed me in a hug. i was caught in surprise but i quickly wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"hey." i said, smiling at my boyfriend. my boyfriend. oh god, i'm so lucky.
jun chuckled, "hey." he looked over to his bed to find the grande mocha with whipped cream and six double chocolate cookies, and he cracked a grin, "hao~ did you buy those~"
i chuckled and motioned jun to eat them, to which he happily did. the joy that boy had displayed on his face when he ate the cookies had me wondering how long had jun not been able to eat chocolate cookies.
"ew, you two lovebirds are actually disgusting. get out of my sight." jihoon fake gagged and rolled his eyes at us, though he has a small smile on his face that i'm sure he didn't want us to see.
soonyoung slapped him lightly on the arm and grinned, "we're just like them, hoonie. stop complaining!"
jihoon looked back at us and fake gagged, again. "no, we are not. you never buy me things for cafes."
soonyoung went all red before jun burst out laughing, me joining in with a little chuckle. "jihoon! you never said you wanted!"
