love in autumn | taegyu

III. "October"

Beomgyu walked down the stairs of his home, he was dressed in a white tee shirt with black and white striped cardigan. He'd paired the two with a set of destressed blue jeans and some old tattered vans he had lying around. He held his phone in his hands, sending playful text messages to Heuningkai as he began searching for what he wanted for breakfast.

"Beomgyu, can I talk to you for a moment?" His mother asks. "It's important."

Beomgyu looked up at her as he eopened the bread bin to grab a few pieces for his morning and he nodded. "Sure Umma, is everything okay?" He asks.

She took a deep breathe and sat down across the island, folding her hands together. Beomgyu could tell by her body language that something was wrong, maybe a family had died, maybe he lost his job at the hospital, maybe she lost hers.

"It's about Taehyun." She said softly. "Something happened."

Beomgyu swore he felt his heart stop. He dropped the bread on the counter and stared at his mother, anxiety beginning to cloud his thoughts. His palms had begun to sweat and she was still trying to figure out how to tell Beomgyu what had occurred.

"What happened? Did someone harm him?" Beomgyu asked. "Did he get sick again?"

Did he die?

Beomgyu pushed that last thought out of his head, as much as he wanted to ask he was dreading his mothers answer.

"His lung collapsed last night." His mother answered. "He's been put on a ventilator."

"But I can still see him right?" Beomgyu had begun to panic, his hands softly shaking. "Tell me I can still see him. I promised him I'd come back today."

"Beomgyu. He's not breathing on his own right now." She replied, moving to hug her son who looked like he was going to self combust. "He wouldn't want you to see him like this." She whispered.

Beomgyu had spent alot of time at that hospital. He'd seen numerous patients on ventilators. He'd even helped put some of them on the ventilators. "Please Umma. I promised." He pleaded, his words muffled by his mother's strong hold.

"Fine." She gave in. "But only for a little while, okay sweetheart?" She tilted his chin up, making Beomgyu look into her eyes.

"Thank you Eomma." Beomgyu half heartedly smiled. "I love you."

"I love you more my sweet Gyu." She smiled back before kissing the top of his head and letting him finish making his breakfast.

Beomgyu ate quickly and then rushed to make sure he had everything he needed in his bag. He brought a few new books for Taehyun to read when he woke up, along with his polaroid camera instead of his digital one. He also brought a sketch pad and some colored pencils, Taehyun loved art and even Beomgyu couldn't manage to draw a straight line he still wanted to create a piece of work for his friend's room.

"Beomgyu, please don't force yourself to stay in there if you can't handle it." His mother said as they stood outside of Taehyun's door.

"I'll be fine," Beomgyu assured her, turning away to open the door. "You can go."

Beomgyu walked into the room while clutching the strap of his shoulder bag. The machine was quiet and he watched as Taehyun's chest would rise and fall with every assisted breathe. Beomgyu had never realized how truly skinny Taehyun was until he seen his body underneath the hospital gown. He looked so unhealthy, but Beomgyu knew it was hard for CF patients to recieve proper nutrients and they needed a feeding tube sometimes.

"Taehyun, it's Beomgyu. I know you're sleeping right now, and that's okay but I hope you don't mind if I stay here for a little while. I'm just going to draw and color, maybe read," Beomgyu spoke in an extremely gentle tone, he didn't want to harm or accidentally wake up Taehyun.