AGAINST THE WORLD || MARKYONG [#2]

Sharp Edges

"I don't want to," Taeyong replied, taking his crutch from the psychiatrist. "I want to go back to my room."

"Okay, that's fine. I'll ask Haneul if she can—"

"I don't need her with me. I want to be alone," he interjected, making his way to the door.

Doctor Kim frowned as Taeyong walked out of the room and immediately turned to return to his room. He followed the patient anyway, even though he knew that he didn't appreciate his presence, and watched as Taeyong walked into the room and pulled over the polyester curtains, blocking out the sunlight from the window before climbing underneath the desk and sitting there.

Haneul had told Doctor Kim about the patient's habit, but it was entirely different seeing it firsthand. Taeyong's bed was stripped of all of its coverings and they were all on the ground beneath the desk, arranged in a way that Doctor Kim could only compare to a nest. He recognized it from the videotapes from Namhyeon. Taeyong slept in a small, square room when he wasn't in a padded cell. He didn't have a bed, due to his tendencies of climbing underneath it and making the nurses' jobs harder than they needed to be. Much of the time, the room was entirely empty, except for a few basic items like pillows, blankets, and a plastic cup of water.

As there wasn't ample space beneath the bed, Taeyong had resorted to using the desk as a form of covering. Doctor Kim gathered that he felt safer that way, and it made his heart ache. He didn't want him to feel like he had to hide himself from the world.

Taeyong didn't notice Doctor Kim's observance as he lay down on his pile of pillows and the duvet from his bed, but looked up when he heard the door creak, his brow furrowed in frustration as the psychiatrist stood in the doorway. Doctor Kim forced a smile. "I'm closing the door for you. I know, we tell everybody that they should keep them open until lights out, but it's fine. I'll let the nurses know to leave you alone until it's time to eat, okay?"

Before Taeyong could respond to Doctor Kim, the door was closed, leaving him in the dark, with the only light being from the small window on the door. He turned over, repositioning himself so he was facing the wall, and closed his eyes, feeling nothing but the cool breeze from the open window on his body as he let himself drift off to sleep.

—

Alone in his small bedroom on Ward Three, Yuta was laying on his bed. He didn't have Johnny to entertain him, and he wasn't allowed to interact with the other patients. He let out a sigh as he looked up at the ceiling. He hadn't seen Sicheng in over a week, and even his psychiatrist hadn't spoken a word to him in a while either. It was as though everybody he knew was disappearing without a trace. At least Seoyun, his nurse, had been creating small talk when she delivered his medication for the day. It was all that was keeping him sane.

A knock reverberated off the walls of the room, and Yuta turned to look at the door. On the other side was the last person that he would ever want to see—Doctor Ryu. He was determined to keep Yuta away from Sicheng, and he hated the older man for it. Gritting his teeth, the patient sat up. "What the hell do you want?"

"I'm here to tell you that you made Doctor Ji quit," said Doctor Ryu, looking down at his file. "That makes him... the third in the last three years."

"Oh, isn't that unfortunate?" asked Yuta, with a prideful smirk on his lips. "He was getting so close to unraveling the mystery of Nakamoto Yuta, but he jumped ship."

"Unfortunately for you, I won't be letting that happen again," said the psychiatrist, taking a set of keys out of his pocket.

Yuta watched curiously as the door was pulled open, but when his eyes settled on a pair of handcuffs in the older man's hand, he scowled. He didn't need to spare a thought for them to understand what was about to happen.