THE DOCTORS ARE OUT || JEONGCHEOL

EP 28

- Third Person POV -

Mr. Lui was back in Seungcheol's office.

"I keep telling him over and over to clean up after using my grill, but he won't listen!" Mr. Lui was listing out his troubles to Seungcheol.

"Mr. Lui..." Seungcheol wrote away on his paper completing other work as he listened to Mr. Lui talk. But more importantly, he was going through Mr. Lui's file to find out if something happened to explain his sudden arrival.

"Can you believe it? The nerve of that man!" Mr. Lui exclaimed.

"Mr. Lui you still haven't answered my question!"

"Hm? What was it again?"

"Why are you here? Have you been feeling sick lately?"

"Sick? Me? Oh, not at all! I've never been better!" Mr. Lui chuckled. "I just wanted to visit, is all."

"You came all the way here to talk about your freeloading second cousin?" Seungcheol put his paper aside sighing.

"Well, not just that. Sorry, I went a bit off track there... Actually, I heard there's a little Cheol running around here. I was hoping to meet him."

"You heard?"

"You know how Boo is on bingo night, she just doesn't know how to shut up... Why? You didn't want us knowing?"

"N-No, it's not like that..."

"So where is he?"

Seungcheol took a deep breath and called for Chan. "Chan, come here for a second! Come say hi to Grandpa Lui."

Chan left his car toy and picked up his handmade cardboard binoculars as he popped from behind a large shelf of drawers in the room.

"Hello!" Chan beamed.

"Oh my! He looks just like you!" Mr. Lui exclaimed telling Chan to come closer to him.

"Chan, was it? How old are you?" Mr. Lui asked patting Chan's head gently.

"Yes! I'm almost four!" Chan smiled.

"Oh, what do you have there?" Mr. Lui saw a little bit of cardboard peeking from behind Chan.

"Binoculars I made! I'm gonna use it tomorrow! We're going hiking!" Chan showed off his handmade binoculars.

"So, you're going up the trail how exciting!" Mr. Lui laughed. "Did you know, your dad always went on adventures up those mountains back then? He keeps saying there's hidden treasure up there so keep an eye out for it!"

"Woah! Really?!" Chan couldn't wait to find the treasure.

"Of course!"

"What are you talking about, old man?" Seungcheol looked at Mr. Lui suspiciously.

"You don't remember? You were up there a lot when you were around his age. It was such a pain to get you back." Mr. Lui looked back on the fond memory.

"Gotta make a shovel!" Chan exclaimed running away to prepare his treasure-finding kit.

"You know, Cheol... I've known for a while. I was just hoping I'd hear it from you first." Mr. Lui looked sadly at Seungcheol referring to Chan.

"It's not a secret. It's just not the type of thing you'd announce to everyone." Seungcheol stood up. "The details are messy. People would raise eyebrows if they knew."

"We don't need every single detail, Cheol... You're forgetting that this neighborhood pretty much helped raise you. You're like a son to a lot of us so it's only natural that we'd want to be involved even just a little..." Mr. Lui reached up and ruffled Seungcheol's hair. "You never learned! You're still the same kid who's always keeping to himself!"