it didn't take long for junhui to shed the sleep from his brain, to switch from a reality filled with dreams and darkness to dawn filled with the early morning sun. his eyes fluttered open as his gaze promptly wandered off to the digital clock on his nightstand. it was only a little after eight, seeing sun was almost fully risen at the horizon.
his thoughts wandered off almost too willingly to the night before, making him stare out of his window with a silly smile stuck on his face. about how minghao had kissed him midst all the commotion they had previously caused, being looked at by all four doctors at once.
despite the fact that he had certainly experienced an adventure the night before, he still felt a little disappointed he and minghao were forced to sleep in separate rooms at the end of the night. it was the punishment they had to endure after breaking the rules of sneaking through the hallways past their prearranged bedtime.
as orange sunlight greeted junhui, he felt the ability and need to get up from bed. the boy rubbed his eyes and blurred with that the dreams that had played like a movie throughout his short hours of sleep. the hardest part of waking up was leaving the soft sheets and duvets that hugged his body and kept him comfortably warm, since summer nights could get pretty chilly in the valley where no houses were around to keep the temperature reasonably up.
however, with minghao on his mind, junhui jolted awake in no time, sitting straight as he stretched his arms high above his head, emitting a groan on the sudden movement of the joints in his shoulders. he threw the duvets off his legs and rushed over to the hallway, mindless of his hair that spiked in every direction possible.
he adjusted his deep collared plain white shirt, being aware of the fact that he was a pretty wild sleeper so he could prevent his collar from revealing too much of his chest. after ruffling through his hair once, flipping it in a decent shape, he entered minghao's room. knocking wasn't necessary as minghao tend to walk in without doing that himself.
however, no trace of minghao was there to be found. it wasn't commonly for minghao to be awake this early, let alone to be elsewhere than his own safe bed. a certain worrying feeling stroke junhui, scared that something might've happened throughout the night. yet he couldn't remember having heard something odd either, making minghao's disappearance even more questionable.
junhui felt defeated to not see minghao in his room, his shoulders hanging low as he slumped down the circling staircase, hearing cozy chattering coming from the living room. and what he saw downstairs was more heartwarming than he expected it to be.
around the large oaken table sat all the remaining patients from the lake house together with doc and roger, including minghao whose expression lit up once his eyes landed on junhui.
minghao waved from his seat, gesturing for junhui to sit down on the empty spot beside him while he took a sip from what junhui assumed was coffee. "good morning everyone!" happiness sparked his tone, all the occupants around the table wishing him a good morning as well.
"say junhui, how about i make you a cup of coffee? just the regular?" doc asked when junhui sat down in the comfortable chair.
"well if you insist." junhui jokingly replied, laughing along with doc who made way to the kitchen.
and with that, he gave junhui the chance to look at minghao, who was sitting beside him in all his glory, wearing his silky and presumably expensive bathrobe that hugged his body perfectly. it was as if the piece of clothing was made for his body type, unique, ideal and flawless, astonishing even.
"good morning, you." junhui said with a content smile, a familiar wave of pride filling his chest on the realization of the fact that minghao had been sitting here with a group on his own intention. "it's good to see you here downstairs."
"oh junhui you should've been here. i've never seen him so talkative as how he has been within the past half hour." wheein excitedly spoke, smacking taemin against the back of his head when the boy tried to steal a piece of her toast. "tae! look, i'm very proud of you that you're getting over your eating disorder but how much effort does it take for you to get your lazy ass off your chair to grab another piece from the kitchen? doc made plenty of it!"
"why don't you go." taemin said, his words barely recognizable as his cheeks were stuffed with the piece of toast he had stolen. "but whee is right, i think it's the first time minghao has been talking to us this cheerful. care to explain what you two did last night?"
the boy who had a smug smirk tugging on his lips received another smack against the back of his head, disappointed sighs from both wheein and yanan being heard. "you're literally nothing more than a dirty minded hormonal teenager. get yourself a boyfriend." yanan chuckled, playfully shaking his head in disapproval.
"oh come on, a boy can dream right?" taemin tried to make a point, receiving a disgusted 'ew' and 'get a boyfriend' from the girl beside him.
"minghao indeed has been quite talkative this morning. i think last night has made big progress for him." doc sat down, placing a cup of coffee in front of junhui. "right, junhui?"
junhui nodded proudly, looking at the boy beside him for affirmation. "oh i definitely think we did, don't you think hao?" he ignored both taemin and wheein's high pitched cheers for the fact that they had made up nicknames for one another, focussing on minghao only.
"i guess." minghao let out a heart warming characteristic giggle, taking a small sip from his own mug of coffee as he mirrored junhui's delighted expression.
junhui doubted anything could possibly go wrong that day.
