Chapter Text
It has been 4 years since Minhyun started his residency at Wanna One hospital, the most prestigious hospital in Korea. In that span of time, he has been known as the rising star of general surgery. His good looks and excellent mannerism have swayed most patients and colleagues while his capability as a surgeon is highly praised by professors. To sum it up, Hwang Minhyun is perfect.
No matter how tough the situation is the latter can always keep his calm. It is very surprising really to find that said perfect man trembles when he rolls over a new emergency patient to the unit.
It started of as any other day. Minhyun who only knows of life inside hospital agrees to help in the emergency unit. Everything goes well until it is 1 hour before Minhyun’s shift ends.
A shooting has occurred they say. It is weird to find a shooting case in Seoul, but it is what it is. You really can’t be surprised when you are working in an emergency unit. There are 4 number of victims in which only one of them receives a fatal injury. Sungwoon as the doctor in-charge quickly assigns teams for the residents and interns with Minhyun’s team responsible for the one with fatal injury.
Minhyun doesn’t think much when he hears some nurses gossiping about the incident. They say these victims are from Korean Special Intelligent Unit who are supposedly keeping an eye for the president when the president-antis show up. The one receiving fatal injury is their captain who is trying to save his comrades when the shooting occurs.
When he hears the sound of ambulance approaching, Minhyun quickly tunes out everything and focuses on the task at hand. He skims through the patient’s stats to conclude that his patient has indeed fatally wounded. He sighs and checks the patient’s name only to find that his patient apparently has the same name as the person who has haunted him lately.
Ong Seongwu.
Minhyun lets out a big yelp and the chart falls from his hand as if he has touched some acidic solution. He has to make sure. His usually composed mind thinks in panic. Impatiently he shoves the 911 officer to take a good look on his patient.
There he finds him, covered in blood.
If it is not for his tight grip at Seongwu’s bed, Minhyun doubts he’ll still be able to stand up.
Frantically he shouts out set of orders, not caring about the curious glances from his teammates that never see this side of Minhyun, the Minhyun who has lost his calm with tears streaming down his cheek. In middle of the hysteria, when rolling Seongwu’s bed to his respective room, Sungwoon ushers him away and replaces his role completely, leaving Minhyun watching from the side, sobs still uncontrollable.
If they asks Minhyun who Seongwu is for him, he definitely doesn’t has an answer. He doesn’t know what to call this relationship he has with that man. They’ve been seeing each other for a year. It might be a considerably long amount of time for normal people, long enough to know where your relationship stands. For Seongwu and Minhyun though, it is different. They hardly meet each other as Minhyun is busy with hospital duty and Seongwu is busy with his army thing that the younger never intend to explain further. Even with their limited meetings, Seongwu has managed to occupy half of Minhyun’s mind. He enjoys Seongwu’s surprise visits, the time they spent together, Seongwu’s bad jokes, his constellation of moles.. He enjoys everything that is Ong Seongwu.
“You promise to meet me tonight,” Minhyun remembers bitterly as they manages to get Seongwu’s back. They almost lose him or that what the machine has announced earlier. Now, the machine has come back to its steady bip bip sounds and Seongwu’s wound has been properly patched.
“He’s going to be okay for now. You should help with the administration first,” pats Sungwoon gently.
It is embarrassing but when Minhyun thinks of the white form that he knows too well, he realizes that he won’t be able to fill in anything about the younger except for his birth date.
“I.. Can’t..,” answers him softly.
Sungwoon must think that it means Minhyun wants to stay by Seongwu’s side so the shorter man just gives him a pat before leaving the room. It is not entirely wrong either, but truthfully it’s more to the fact that he belatedly realizes that he knows next to nothing about the man lying before him. They have kissed and even sleep together, yet Minhyun doesn’t even know a mere thing like his address. Are they even a thing anyway?
From the corner of his eyes, Minhyun catches a figure standing in front of the door. The man is standing awkwardly as if acknowledging that his presence is a disruption of whatever happening inside the room. He sports a new cast that holds his right hand firmly. His shirt looks like the one that they tore away from Seongwu but with less blood. It must be some kind of uniform. Seongwu’s colleagues. No surprise there, he doesn’t know any either. The black-haired never bother to share anything about his life before he goes wrecking Minhyun’s.
‘And you let him do as his please’ a voice reminds .
Minhyun decides that if there’s anyone who has less right to be here it will be him. So, he lets go of Seogwoo’s hand and carefully gives his bangs one last swipe. He is tempted to give a peck on the now bandaged forehead, but it will be too much for the spectator. Instead he turns toward the man and gives him a slight bow before proceeding to pass him for the door. He hasn’t managed to reach the door when the stranger said softly, “You must be Minhyun-hyung,”
Automatically Minhyun stops on his track. He doesn’t know whether he has to answer the stranger or not because he realized it is not a question. The stranger implies that he knows who he is and whatever he has with Seongwu.
The stranger turns to face him fully and gives him a deep bow. If it was awkward before, the situation certainly is not improving. Minhyun who is at lost for what to do settles with returning the bow awkwardly.
“I never manage to say this before, but thank you for saving hyung’s life. Twice,” explains the stranger with a grimace on his face.
“I barely do anything today..,” Minhyun lets his sentence trails off. Not many people know about the incident a year ago. Seongwu himself forces him to keep it a secret for reasons he never discloses. It’s stupid but the flutters that come after makes him almost forget about his weird first encounters with Seongwu.
He was volunteering in one of Wanna One’s charity project. It was in a town that settles between obscure zone of South and North Korea. The town definitely lacks development. It hardly had electricity supplies. The people mostly got by through farming and nearby forest. Despite all that, Minhyun had grown to like the place. It was very calming and the people were nice. Therefore he didn’t hesitate to apply for volunteering the 3rd time when the position opened. He didn’t know that his 3rd time would bring him to meet the charming soldier.
Minhyun loved to take a long walk. Situated in a hill, the town offers best view of the starry night. He was trying to find orion constellation when his feet stumbled on something. As one of the clumsy human being outside operation room, him stumbling on something was already a common occurrence. He didn’t put much thought about it and tried to get back up when a wet hand pulled his wrist. The hand was bloodied. Now that he had regained his composition, the stench of blood was very heavy. Curiously he took a peek of a bloodied man. It was scary and his mind kept telling him of many dangerous possibilities, but he shut it down by reminding himself of the oath that he took. He has to save anyone needing help, be it friends or enemy, whenever he can.
Though labored, the man breathed. His pulse was slow but it wasn’t too alarming. Given the wounds on his body, several wide gushing on his side and back, the man’s condition is quite normal. What a strong man. He mused.
“Can you hear me?” He tapped softly on his cheek. Blood has stained the side of his face, but even that couldn’t hide his perfect bone structure.
Instead of an answer, Minhyun suddenly felt himself roughly getting shoved to the ground. The injured man changed their position with him sprawled beneath; chest locked on the man’s elbow until he could hardly breath. He would regret his decision to help if the charades went longer. Apparently the injured man was injured after all and soon the elbow that has locked him lose its strength. Sensing the loosening lock, Minhyun immediately shoves the man and gasping — coughing — furiously for air.
Probably realizing his mistake the injured man threw a funny look at him, “You’re not.. Sorry,” apologized him weakly as he let himself fall back to the ground. He probably had used all the strength he had left with that lock he gave Minhyun.
Minhyun was, by no mean, an angel and he had considered to leave the man be. All the alarms in his head had warned him of how dangerous the man could be. He almost choked Minhyun to death anyway (well.. probably it was a slight hyperbole). Now he was sure that the blood was not caused by an accident. The man must’ve involved in some kind of a fight to receive those and the thought alone should be able to scare him.
He didn’t know what compelled him to do what he did. A rush of kindness, an ounce of courage, and a bunch of stupidity later, he came back with some first aid kit to mend the wound. The injured man didn’t said anything when he tried to sit him up and tear his shirt to patch his wounds. Minhyun thought he was too hurt to comment on things. Later on the man, Seongwu, confesses that he was too mesmerized by him to even form a tangible word. Talk about cliche. Of course Minhyun has scowled after hearing such confession — his reddening ears though has revealed different things.
Everything goes fast from there. Even with limited communication, Seongwu makes sure to spoil Minhyun whenever he can. Minhyun is stupid enough to be lulled by those attention, ignoring the fact that Seongwu never shares anything personal about him.
“Seongwu hyung talks about you often,” the voice wakes him up from his trance, shifting his focus back to the stranger, “I know you prefer grapefruit ade than coffee to wake you up, sunflowers than roses, sunny side up than scrambled. He makes us remember your preferences,” the stranger laughs softly despite his large build, reminding Minhyun of a samoyed.
“Yet he never tells me a thing about you, any of you,” bitterness is apparent in Minhyun voice.
The samoyed looks taken a back, but he replies calmly, “I believe it is for your own safety,”
Minhyun wants to scoff at the cliche. Will he ever feel safe when he realizes now that somewhere out there Seongwu might have gotten killed? He manages to restraint himself, bowing politely and takes his leave instead of spatting the incredulous theory they have about safety.
—
Seongwu is some kind of a high class soldier, a special agent of sort. Minhyun gets that much. Immediately after his condition gets better, the younger is being transferred into a VIP room with tight securities in front.
Even though this Seongwu is pretty much a stranger to him, Minhyun hates the fact that he can’t stop worrying about him. The images of Seongwu covered in a blood—unmoving, keeps relaying in his head like a broken movie.
“Just take a break already! Go see him or go home. You look like a mess, Minhyun,” scolds Sungwoon after he messes up another visitation.
It is unfair really. For him to be this distraught because of a stranger when the person of concerned doesn’t even deem him important enough to share tidbits about his life.
Sungwoon must again misunderstands his silence for he adds softly, “It is very normal to prioritize your personal life sometimes, Minhyun-ah. Go! I’ll cover for you,”
Acknowledging his mental mess, Minhyun decides to go home. It is funny how his feet bring him to his room instead.
‘ Is it because his heart wants him to be his home? ’ He chuckles darkly at the thought. Just how bad has Ong Seongwu messed up with his life.
Now that his mind is a little bit clearer than before, Minhyun notices the scar marring the left side of Seongwu’s cheek. It isn’t life threatening of sort, a scratch. A doctor like him who is used to wide, gushing wound will forgo this kind of scratches in initial check-ups. Probably that is why he misses the sign. It is always there, the scratch. Seongwu never comes back to him without any. It should have alarmed him sooner. Minhyun sighs as he runs a hand on the scar. Just how many signs has he missed?
Instead of brooding for long, the doctor side within him decides to check on machineries that are hooked up to the lean body. As he checks on the IV drop, Minhyun finally hears a hoarse voice that he never knows he misses dearly, “I can get used to this, waking up to you,”
Looking down he finds Seongwu smiling his beautiful smile of his stupidly. Minhyun wants to yell, wants to tell him that he will never get used to this—to Seongwu lying helplessly in a hospital bed, wires hooked up all around his body. Yet no words can come out from his mouth.
Seongwu must have realized his silence for he quickly asks, “What’s wrong, babe?”. The younger tries to sit despite the many wires that hooked his body, creating a ridiculous picture of him fighting the wires.
Minhyun pushes Seongwu’s body back down not too gently. It comes to his sense that Seongwu is not like his common patients. Most of them will be disoriented when waking up after receiving such injuries. Yet Seongwu while a bit lagging than usual, seems to get a grasp of what has happened instantly. How many time has he been in this situation again?
Questions that he never thought keeps popping in Minhyun’s head. He feels like his head is going to burst soon. Without realizing it, fresh batch of tears escape his eyes again.
Seongwu immediately goes on alert. Minhyun’s attempt to hold him down goes futile as the younger quickly wraps his arms around him, ignoring how he has disentangled some wires in the process.
“Did I shocked you? I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” whispers Seongwu in his ears as he caresses Minhyun’s back.
Feeling the warmth, Minhyun’s bursts even louder. Soon enough his cries turns to a mess of sobs. It might be caused by the tension he is trying to suppress all day, or those unanswered questions swimming in his head, or the overwhelming relief to find out that Seongwu is okay, but amongst all that Minhyun is sure of one thing..
“I.. can’t..,” the hand on his back stops abruptly. Seongwu pushes him lightly so they face each other.
“Can’t?” if Minhyun is in a better condition, probably he would recognize the fear in Seongwu’s voice.
“I can’t do this, Seongwu. I.. What are we even?” Minhyun is a mess of words, but he just needs to get this out, “Whatever it is I want out. I can’t… Can’t have you do as you please and leave me hanging like this.. I can’t,” still in a sobbing mess, Minhyun doesn’t even realize how Seongwu has turned pale. The grip on his sides is getting stronger. He might already be hurting if not for his mental state.
“Is.. is that what you want? Do I come off as a burden to you?” asks Seongwu softly --stutters.
Minhyun only cries harder.
Seongwu hugs him tighter, afraid to let go, “Ssh.. baby. It’s okay. I promise you it will be okay,”
He can feel Minhyun shakes his head furiously, “Can you even promise this won’t happen again? I want you to come back to me without a scratch,” his voice comes out muffled in between Seongwu shoulders, but it doesn’t go unheard.
Like having a new sense of direction, Minhyun suddenly jolts in his arms. Distancing himself from Seongwu he energetically jumbles out his thought, “You can quit. I can.. I can afford for us both. We can start anew. No secret. We can,” it sounds selfish after he let it out, but Minhyun passes caring. For him, it’s hope.
Seongwu goes rigid at the suggestion. It is an enough answer for Minhyun. They both are living on the opposite world. People say sometimes you meet the right person at a wrong timing. Probably this is Seongwu to him.
“Min.. Trust me you mean a lot to me, but no matter how crazy it seems to you. I love my job. I love mine as much as you love yours. I.. We.. can work this out. I can’t promise you I won’t get hurt, but I’ll always come back to you,” Seongwu intertwines their pinky finger. Nervously trying to coax the older.
Minhyun shoulder hunch visibly, “And for how much longer will you keep having secret? How much longer will I know next to nothing before having you come back to me bloodied like hell?”
Seongwu looks at him forlornly.
So, Minhyun leaves.
The black haired is left to stare at the closed door for couple more hour, not realizing how tears has wet his cheek.