"do you want my autograph?"
"uh.. excuse me?" junhui confusedly shook his head, thinking the boy was just messing around with him at first. which still would be strange since they barely even knew each other.
"i said, do you want my autograph?" the boy repeated himself with a dead serious expression plastered to his face. is this some sort of joke? though junhui had to admit, the male next to him indeed was pretty accurate to a celebrity with his shining thin bathrobe that hugged his body perfectly and was undeniably made for him.
yet still, no traces of arrogance were to be found in his expression. his eyes gave away a sense of desperation.. which made their whole conversation even more weird.
"what would i need your autograph for..? i'd rather have your name instead." junhui gave it another attempt to start a normal conversation. though this only seemed to frighten the boy, whose sharp cat-like eyes grew twice the size.
panic clouded his expression as he started stammering unrecognizable things. instinctively junhui moved forward and reached for the boy's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down, as it was his usual way of giving comfort. but the only thing that happened next was the boy letting out a silent shriek of terror as he pulled his knees up to his chest and crawled to the furthest corner in the couch.
"oh who do we have here? a new face i see?" another male voice entered the room, though he wasn't able to shift his gaze from the raven boy's eyes that were filled with terror. "we weren't being mean to him, right?"
the, as junhui assumed, doctor walked over to the boy and gently caressed his hair which made the two boys break eye contact. "i think it's time for you to go to your room, what would you say?" the boy willingly nodded and got up from the couch, grabbing his book he accidentally dropped on the fluffy carpet in front of the fireplace.
before junhui had the chance to say more, the boy had gone upstairs, accompanied by the whom he assumed doctor. what a strange first meeting. junhui could barely even comprehend what exactly just happened.
"junhui! over here!" his name got called out by doc, who he had met earlier at the door. junhui got up from the couch and walked over to the large dining table, where the middle aged man had already taken a seat. "sit down, sit down."
junhui took a seat on the opposite side of the table, staring down at his cup of hot coco with a generous amount of whipped cream on top and all the other papers that lay scattered over the tabletop. "now lets see what we have here.."
"oh.. eh.. excuse me. can i ask something first?" junhui asked, still a little devastated about the unusual first meeting. once he gained the man's full attention he decided it would be for the best if he just asked about this boy. "the boy who sat at the fireplace, who is he?"
"you mean minghao? the boy with the black hair?" the doctor assumed, making junhui nod immediately. "oh minghao.. he really is one of a kind."
"he surely is." junhui agreed, thinking back about their extraordinary first meeting. how could one just shamelessly offer an autograph when the other didn't even recognize him at all. "am i allowed to ask some information about him?"
the doctor nodded in approval, clearing his throat after he took a sip from his hot coco. "oh our xu minghao. he's been here for over two months after being sent by a mental hospital. he appears to be a famous dancer here in korea. but as many other young idols, the business has both messed his body and mindset up pretty bad. if i'm not mistaken he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, ptsd for short. that's why his behavior appears as a little odd. i personally think he might be in a state of shock too, but it's never officially concluded."
junhui felt his heart sink a little on the unfortunate description. if he just hadn't approached him so careless this minghao might've reacted better on his presence. but on the other side, he couldn't have known this information previously..
"the other three doctors have called him a lost cause repeatedly, they don't think there will ever be a way for him to heal back to his old self. which is understandable since he never exactly has spoken to anyone since he came in here before-"
"-wait, but he just said something to me." junhui rudely interrupted the doc, trying to understand minghao's current state better.
"he has? interesting, would you mind telling me what he has said to you? he rarely even speaks up to any of us without someone having to force him." the doctor squinted his eyes and frowned confusedly, finding it oddly surprising as to why minghao had said something on his own intention in the first place.
"he asked me if i wanted his autograph. but now you said what he suffers from and what caused it, i might understand why he said something like that to me." junhui scooped a spoonful of whipped cream from the top of his cup, eating with a visible thoughtful expression plastered onto his face.
"that surely is interesting. say, maybe you should try to talk to him again some time. it's been a long time since he has said something to anyone around here and he's only a few months younger than you. this place was supposed to calm him down, but i personally think it's only making his situation worse. which his previous doctor's from the mental hospital say is debatable, but everyone here thinks otherwise."
the doctor took a small break, sliding a hand over the almost smooth surface of his head, deep dimples forming in his cheeks once a warmhearted smile appeared again. "but let's not worry about minghao now, you just got here! let's take a look at your papers, shall we?"
junhui hummed in response, managing to fake a smile as they focussed on the bookwork of papers that lay in front of them. no matter how much they talked that evening, junhui just couldn't get his mind off this certain minghao. his story and disorder really caught up majority of his thoughts and junhui just couldn't let go of his miserable life story.
perhaps he would give it a try and get minghao to talk with his optimism.
a/n
hi there! it's been a while since i did this in one of my chapters, but i felt like pointing out a little thingy.
so.. eh.. this morning (yeah i know the first of january) my mom's boyfriend decided it would be best to pack his stuff and leave. and since i have a pretty bad to even no relationship at all with my own dad, i grew kinda really attached to this man through the past seven months he's been here.
to cope with the grieve i decided to write, so i'm really sorry if it's shitty or not like how you're used from me. but yeah, sorry.
i hope you had a better start this year!<333
-dana
