The Odd Doctor Out | A Drama | S. 1

175 🩺 Soft

Sitting on his bed with his laptop in front of him, Yeosang stared at the little USB in his hands. Sticky note laying neatly next to his laptop, he took a deep breath, making his decision.

Plugging it into the drive, his computer picked it up almost immediately, a flash-drive name coming up entitled "IMPORTANT - For sangie ♡"

Heart throbbing, Yeosang slowly moved the cursor over the drive, hesitating for a moment, before he clicked on it.

Folders came up, all labelled with years and one lonesome word document entitled "to finish - Sangie's card."

Not wanting to read anything the blonde had poured his heart into, Yeosang ignored it and clicked on the folder from 2017.

He was immediately met with a list of videos, all labelled with dates.

Nervously, Yeosang clicked on the first one, bringing it up in the viewer and pausing for a moment before pressing the spacebar to play.

'Hyung-aaaah!'

Horrific blurry filming accompanied Wooyoung running up and hugging Yeosang as he walked out of the orientation office at uni.

Yeosang's eyes immediately filled with tears as his own memory played alongside the video he hadn't even known Wooyoung had been taking.

'Oh? Joong.' His own voice played out as him on the screen glanced over Wooyoung's shoulder to see Hongjoong coming to join them.

'Photo! We should take a photo!' Wooyoung said, dragging Yeosang as he laughed over to stand with Hongjoong. The two of them together, Wooyoung's filming became far less erratic as he apparently pretended to get ready to take a photo. 'Sang-ah, how was your first day?!' he asked, and although Yeosang distinctly remembered Wooyoung only delaying the photo, here, he was filming, catching everything precisely on tape.

'I never thought that med school would be as interesting as this,' he heard his own voice say as he watched himself look around with happy, ecstatic eyes. 'I barely even did anything today and I feel like I'm about to start some kind of wild journey.'

He watched as Hongjoong rolled his eyes.

'Ya! Stop judging me! I'm allowed to be excited! I studied really hard to get into this uni.'

'I know! I know I know!' Hongjoong laughed, forcing him into a headlock and rubbing his knuckles over his head. 'Enjoy it while the stress is absent. It'll probably last three days max.'

'Ya! Stop arguing! I'm supposed to be taking a photo! Stand still!'

Siting in his bed with tears falling down his cheeks, Yeosang ran his fingertips over the screen as he saw himself complain. 'Naw~w~w~ but you have to be in it too~o~o.' And Yeosang in his bed wished that he could see Wooyoung, as well as hear him.

'Maybe I want a photo of my two favourite people?!' Wooyoung countered, despite giggling.

'Come here!' Yeosang laughed, leaping forward to grab a hold of him, and the last of the video was of Wooyoung scrambling to hide the filming from him, a scuffle and laughter from all of them before the screen went black.

The video closed on it's own, leaving Yeosang sitting with teary eyes, trying his best to be quiet. He immediately exited from the folder, but as he tried desperately to eject the USB, he accidentally opened a folder from 2019.

There were far less videos here, but one caught his attention, and before he knew it, he was clicking on it...

The video opened with him and Hongjoong on the couch with their noses in textbooks, Hongjoong sitting at one end, with Yeosang laying with his head in his lap. Hongjoong's textbook rested on the armrest, and Yeosang's rested on his stomach as they shared highlighters - a moment Yeosang didn't even remember.

He had to bite into his hand not to cry as he unsteadily hit play.

'Ya, are you taking a photo of us?' Yeosang asked suddenly, looking up from his book, his hair its natural brown that he hadn't seen in ages...

'No texting, why? Did you think you were special?'

Glaring at Wooyoung, the moment Hongjoong started laughing from above him, he smacked him in the chest.

'Ow!'

Yeosang quickly reached out and pressed pause. With no tissues left, Yeosang used his sleeve to wipe his eyes so he could see.

He pressed play.

'Don't laugh at me.'

'I'll laugh at you if I want!'

Yeosang watched his past self roll his eyes dramatically.

'Ya! Stop fighting. You were getting along so well,' Wooyoung scolded from behind the camera.

'Of course we get along,' Hongjoong said, ruffling Yeosang's hair into his eyes.

'Aiish, ya! Why are you picking on me so much lately?!'

Hongjoong shrugged. 'Because you're going after my job?'

Yeosang's teary eyes suddenly froze. He may not have remembered this one exchange, but he certainly remembered this point in time.

'Oh please. Just because I got to work my placement in paediatrics, doesn't mean I'm coming for your job.'

'You enjoyed it too much.'

'So what?!' Yeosang shot back. 'Besides, I wouldn't want to work with you anyway.' He poked his tongue out for good effect, and as Yeosang watched himself on the screen, he felt his chest pull. He remembered how much he had loved those shifts... How he'd loved every single placement there since...

But he could also see in the video, the slight show of guilt on his own face as he realised that becoming a paediatrician wasn't the plan. The plan had been to become someone who could help Wooyoung...

Guilt crossed Yeosang's face in the past, and in the present, and he saw himself on the screen glance up at Wooyoung, who froze almost immediately, picking up on his sudden emotion change.

'Ya... Hyung-ah... What's that look for? Did I do something wrong?'

Yeosang on the screen froze for a moment, before he rolled his eyes dramatically. 'No! Am I not even allowed to look at you any more?!'

Wooyoung laughed, relief clear on his face. 'You're impossible.'

And then the video cut off and went back to the main screen.

Wiping at his tears, Yeosang suddenly felt sick. He wanted to throw the USB away, but he also couldn't bring himself to even eject it from his computer. There was an entire history here, some of which he didn't even remember. He was literally holding their lives before him.

And so somehow, after an eternity of staring at the screen, through teary eyes, he navigated back to the main screen and clicked on the first folder, opening the very first video.

The moment an image popped up of him and Wooyoung as just small boys, back in their family home in the bathtub playing with rubber ducks, Yeosang immediately felt tears stream down his cheeks. His mother had token this video, almost twenty years ago.

Hugging his pillow to his chest, Yeosang took a deep breath. He missed these times. He missed his life.

And maybe, if he just watched all of them, he could relive those moments he cherished so.

...

He pressed play.

~~~

A/N: Still not a good place to leave it, lol. Fuck, I think I know where I'll leave it. It's coming somewhere.