Hwan looked around the room he was in and repeated everything he always did: Get up, walk and look around. After that time when something was different for once, his nightmares went back to how it was, which was slowly making Hwan insane.

A few days ago, he saw light coming from somewhere for the first time, and now, he needed that again. A light to save him from this hell.

Instead of looking for a light switch, he walked straight into darkness for a change.

He needed a change, or he was going to go insane. Everything was the same yet he felt even more disturbed every single time.

He suddenly stopped when he noticed something. When he patted the wall in front of him, he realized it was something different. The texture of it was not the same as the wall he touched every time to find the light switch, it was more wood-like.

That was when he touched something cold and suddenly widened his eyes.

It was a door.

30.09

It had been four days since Joo-Won last saw Hwan. He avoided going to the hospital ever since, but now, there he was, standing in front of room 280 with a bouquet of fake flowers in his hand.

There was a policy in the hospital that does not allow flowers inside there, so Joo-Won spent hours and hours making these beautiful handmade ones, but he believed that even those were not really enough.

Just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard a voice behind him. "Joo-Won? What are you doing here?"

Joo-Won turned to Kyong and smiled. "Just wanted to talk with Hwan."

"Oh! He is not there."

"Where is he?"

"Depending on why you want to see him."

Joo-Won sighed. "We might have had a small... quarrel...?"

Kyong frowned. That was probably the first time Joo-Won saw him as serious as that. "What type of quarrel are we talking about? Did you hurt him?"

"What? No no no! I just... I tried to cheer him up and I think I got into his sensitive point... I want to make up for it." Joo-Won showed the flowers to him.

At first, he opened his mouth to say something but stopped and looked closer. "Are these papers?"

Joo-Won nodded, proud of his work.

Kyong smiled and backed away. "This is actually very impressive! And the fact that you even think about it is even more special..." He looked around and sighed. "Okay okay... You are really going to get me in serious trouble... But what you did for Hwan is too cute. So... he is in physiotherapy. He will be back in 15 minutes or something but if you want, you can wait in the waiting area."

Joo-Won smiled cheerfully and bowed. "Thank you!"

As he was running to the elevator, Kyong called him. "Joo-Won wait!"

Joo-Won turned to him. "Yes?"

"Is Xan okay? He usually comes here too but I couldn't see him."

Joo-Won smirked, thinking about what Xander said to him before coming here. "Yep, he is all good!"

Kyong nodded and Joo-Won went to the elevator.

(...)

Joo-Won checked his phone again. 02:30. It had been exactly 15 minutes since he came there. Flower bouquet in his hand, nervously waiting and probably looking like someone who was waiting for his date.

"Hehe... Even the thought of it is not that bad at all..."

As he heard voices from distance, Joo-Won quickly got up and fixed his clothes. He hid the flowers behind his back as he got shy. A nurse came and in front of her, Hwan was in his wheelchair. The nurse, whose name was Min, stopped pushing the chair when she saw Joo-Won, clearly waiting for Hwan. When they stopped, Hwan frowned and closed his phone before lifting his head.

Joo-Won took a small breath when Hwan looked at him. "H-hi."

Hwan did a small head nod, his eyes constantly avoiding looking into Joo-Won's.

Min smiled at them and got on her knees to talk to Hwan better. "I will let you guys talk, okay? You can call me when it's done."

"Actually, I can handle the rest," Joo-Won said to Min with a smile. She looked at Hwan with curiosity, as a way of asking him if he was okay with this with her eyes. Hwan sighed and nodded to show her it was okay. She smiled and got inside the physiotherapy area again.

Joo-Won took a few steps toward Hwan and passed him the bouquet.

Hwan's face changed from a frown to a surprised one. He lifted his eyebrows a little as he was blinking. "What... are these?"

"Flowers. Did you like it?"

"But you can't-"

"These are made from paper. I made them before coming here!" Joo-Won's sudden cheerful voice made Hwan even more confused. Joo-Won quickly cleared his throat and waited for him to do something about the bouquet because his arms started to get tired. He just stayed there, arms reaching out and holding the flowers with his slightly shaking hands as Hwan just continued to examine them with his curious puppy face.

It didn't take Hwan long to realize that he kind of forgot how flowers looked since he never went outside and couldn't see flowers from the window in his room. 

After a whole-ass minute, he finally lifted his hands and slowly took the bouquet from Joo-Won's hands. As he was getting them, Hwan's fingertips brushed Joo-Won's, which made Joo-Won feel like his face was burning up.

Joo-Won watched him with great excitement in his eyes as he was touching the flowers with the tips of his fingers.

"I can just die right now. Can someone bury me? Because I cannot feel my heart."

"Thanks," Hwan said with a small, but genuine smile.

Joo-Won smiled happily.

"They are so pretty."

"DUDE HAVE YOU EVER LOOKED AT A MIRROR?! Okay, wait calm down Joo-Won. Calm. Down. Calm. Do- "

"I appreciate it. You did these, right? That's very... thoughtful of you- are you fucking crying?"

Joo-Won widened his eyes as he quickly touched his face. His smile was frozen on his face and tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"No, I... I just... I really don't have a fucking clue I am so sorry for that. Oh God, this is so embarrassing..." He sniffed and quickly wiped away the tears, but stopped when he heard Hwan's little laugh. Joo-Won looked at him as he was chuckling, mesmerized, and at the same time, probably looking like he saw a ghost.

Hwan smiled and lifted his head to look at Joo-Won. "Sorry. That was funny."

"N-no problem at all!" Joo-Won got on his knee as Hwan was watching him. He smiled softly, which made Hwan just blink a few times. He then cleared his throat. "I am really sorry about what happened before. That was extremely ignorant of me. I am not waiting for you to accept my apology this easily but... Please know that I never meant to make you feel bad..."

Hwan continued to look at Joo-Won, not breaking the eye contact this time. It was clear that his expression softened. When he finished, Hwan smiled sadly. Joo-Won didn't even know if he could call that a smile. The side of his mouth lifted just for a split second before his face was buried in a wave of sadness. "I'm sorry for jumping to assumptions. It was not right... Everyone has different lives and struggles. I can't understand what you are going through and you can't understand what I am." When Hwan said that, Joo-Won felt his eyes burning. He looked down for a few seconds before looking back at Hwan, who continued while fondly looking at him. "You couldn't know."

"But I... I should have... I should have been more thoughtful..." When he felt his eyes were burning, even more, Joo-Won stopped talking. He turned his head to the floor to hold back the tears. A sudden memory of his painful scream passed through Joo-Won's ears, making him bite inside his cheek and hiss while shutting his eyes close.

When Joo-Won silently moaned in slight pain and held his head, Hwan got worried for a second. "Are you okay?"

Joo-Won just nodded and sat on the spot he was kneeling before shaking his head as no and taking a shaky breath. He tried his best to hold himself together but eventually couldn't do it anymore when he felt Hwan putting his hand on his shoulder.

He put his other hand on Joo-Won's head and guided him to rest his forehead on his knee. "It's okay." His gentle voice made Joo-Won feel both better and worse. He sniffed and slowly lifted his head, only to see Hwan looking at him with a small, sad smile.

Joo-Won wiped his tears for the second time and thanked God again that the waiting area was empty. As he was smiling back at Hwan, he stood up and fixed his clothes.

"Sorry... That was too embarrassing..."

"It really was."

Joo-Won laughed, jokingly hitting his arm as he was chuckling silently. Then, he put his hands on the push handles and they silently went to the elevator while trying to silence the thought of just jumping out of a window because of embarrassment. 

As they were waiting for the elevator, Hwan continued to examine the flowers. "To be honest, this is probably the nicest thing someone has ever done to me. I might not remember clearly what really happened before I came here, but I am sure that this one is the nicest." 

Joo-Won didn't know whether to be happy about the compliment or feel bad that this small gesture was the nicest thing happened in his life.

When the doors of the elevator closed, Joo-Won looked down at Hwan, only to find him softly fondling the flowers with his fingertips again, but this time, with a heart-warming smile.

__________________________________________

Min the nurse (36)