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Seokjin loved playing video games. He could spend his whole day behind his Xbox without getting sick of it. Especially playing Mario games. Seokjin had a weakness for those. He owned every single Mario game that had ever been released. His favorite: Mario Kart. He just loved playing Mario Kart. He would even play the game to the extent of burning his hands. Multiple times. Seokjin was one dedicated player.
-
Namjoon was the definition of a klutz. He would break everything he touched, would cut or bruise himself without even noticing. He would bump into walls, people, animals. Namjoon couldn’t pass the day without letting at least five things drop out of his hands. He had scars everywhere, from between his toes to right behind his left ear. He had become a regular at the local emergency room to the extent of knowing every single doctor working there. Namjoon was basically the god of destruction.
-
‘Hyung! Hyung! I think the thing you’ve been cooking is burning. There is this awful smell around the house.’ Jungkook ran inside Seokjin’s room to warn his hyung, only to find the latter crumpled up sideways on his bed with his game console glued to his hands. Literally glued.
‘Hyung! What happened?’ Seokjin shrugged while he continued playing his game. Jungkook looked closer at his hyung, called his name again. Seokjin didn’t respond. Jungkook decided to stand in front of the television. ‘Move.’ Seokjin was about to win the game. A very, very important game. ‘Hyung, no. Put that game console down.’ Seokjin growled again. He had lost the game. Seokjin didn’t move, kept glaring at Jungkook for a couple minutes. He tried to put the console down after, only to find it being stuck to his hands. He shrieked. ‘Jungkook-ah help me. I can’t put it down, it’s stuck. It’s stuck!’ Seokjin was hysterically trying to put the console down, pull it off his hands. Jungkook started to laugh. Seokjin was not amused.
‘Stop laughing and help me!’ Jungkook could neither stop laughing nor help. Seokjin glared at the younger.
‘Do something!’ Jungkook shook his head, tried to hide his laugh. ‘Hyung, this is the third time you’ve burned your hands while playing Mario. I thought you should’ve learned by now to take a break every now and then.’ For the third time Seokjin growled at the younger.
‘Just drive me to the hospital.’
-
‘Well look who we have here. It’s been so long, Namjoon, I almost thought you had died this time.’ Namjoon smiled sheepishly at the nurse behind the desk. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint you, hyung. How is little Jimin doing?’ She just looked at Namjoon, shook her head. ‘What did you do this time?’ Namjoon shrugged. ‘I was changing a light bulb. Suddenly I got a shock and fell. I didn’t feel anything, but Hoseok suddenly screamed and said that I’d broken my arm.’ Namjoon wiggled the fingers of his left arm while he was holding said arm in place with his right. The nurse sighed. ‘Take a seat. You know the drill. It might take a while today. We have a family in with explosive diarrhea and everybody is trying to find out what’s wrong with them before they …’ She stopped talking, felt shivers on her back.
‘Whatever, just take a seat. Keep your arm in place.’ Namjoon nodded, walked back to the seating area. He sat down next to a boy who seemed to have an Xbox controller stuck to his hands. ‘Impressive.’ Namjoon nodded at his hands. Another boy from across suddenly put down the comic he was reading. ‘Sixth time. You would think he’d know better by now, though, but he doesn’t. I’m Jungkook, his guardian.’ Seokjin glared at the younger. ‘It’s the fourth time and he is not my guardian. Don’t listen to that brat, please. I’m Seokjin.’ Namjoon nodded. ‘You know in the West people give each other a hand when they meet. Would have been funny if we had been there, you know. Kim Namjoon is my name.’ Jungkook chuckled, shook his head and picked up his comic book. Right then Hoseok entered the waiting room. ‘Damn what’s that smell in here.’ The nurse behind the desk coughed. Hoseok turned around and greeted her. He waved at him.
‘Nurse Min. Nice to see you today. Lovely that new haircut. Dark and wild.’ Nurse Min blushed, quickly turned away.
‘Good fellow. So Joon, what is this smell?’ ‘Burnt hands.’ Hoseok turned around to look at Jungkook with a confused look on his face. The younger had put down his comic again.
‘Unless you’re talking about the other disgusting smell around here. That’s poop. Just pick the more pleasant one and concentrate on that. You’ll forget about the other. I’m Jungkook.’ Hoseok turned back with an even more confused look on his face. ‘Why does it smell like poop in here?’ Namjoon shrugged. ‘A family with bowel problems. Nurse Min said they’d be busy with them for a while. We have to wait until they’re done.’ Hoseok shook his head in disbelief.
‘You don’t have to wait you know. After fifteen times I think I know how to manage in here.’ Namjoon was feeling sorry for his best friend. The duo had moved to the city only two months ago and they had spent exactly a quart of that time in this waiting room because of Namjoon. Hoseok had known about how much of a klutz his best friend was, but he hadn’t expected him to be this bad. ‘Are you sure you can handle it?’ Namjoon nodded. ‘I’ll be fine. You should go and do whatever you were planning on doing today.’ Hoseok thanked him. After teasing nurse Min for a bit, Hoseok left the building. It was Jungkook’s turn to whine now. ‘Hyung can I leave too? I’m hungry.’ Seokjin felt his blood boil. ‘If you’re hungry then what am I supposed to say Jeon Jungkook! I’ve been sitting here for three hours already dying because my mouth is as dry as the Sahara and my stomach is as empty as that bucket of fried chicken you ate an hour ago right in front of my nose without offering me a single bite and now you say you want to leave again because you’re hungry? Just go and make sure not to come back until I call you to drive me back home you little brat. And even then make sure that I don’t have to see your little bunny face.’ Jungkook looked at his hyung, amazed. ‘Wow, I didn’t know you still had it in you hyung. Nice, nice. I knew anger management therapy was bullshit. Remind me to write that down. I’ll bring you a Snickers for the ride back home, okay?’ Jungkook stood up and left the waiting room. Seokjin and Namjoon were the only two left. Besides nurse Min and the smell of burnt hands and poop, of course. ‘Damn son, who hurt you?’ Seokjin turned around to look at Namjoon.
‘I mean you sounded like a thirty-something woman on the first day of her period. Or a conceited little girl who didn’t get an iPhone 7 for her birthday but an iPhone SE. Or wait maybe an old lady in line who is like complaining about how long the line is while there is only one person in front of her. Or …’ Seokjin cut Namjoon off by slamming the Xbox controller in Namjoon’s stomach. ‘Just shut up before I hit you in the face with this thing.’ Namjoon shrugged. ‘Doesn’t matter to me. I’ve already broken my nose twice; a third time wouldn’t be that special anymore. I’m lucky to have this nice insurance company. They cover literally everything. This one time I was walking outside and suddenly this massive piano fell out of the sky right on my feet. I broke eight toes and wasn’t able to walk for months. My insurance company didn’t even think about it and paid for all expenses. Or this other time when I managed to burn my left ear while eating at this fancy pizza place. I somehow fell backwards and bumped into the waiter who was holding this big pizza shovel thing and boom it hit me behind my ear. You know I could show you the scar but I’d need a pair of hands to do that and since we’re both out of hands right now I really can’t. What a shame.’ Seokjin wished his ears had been glued together instead of his hands. This Namjoon was literally giving him a headache. He just couldn’t shut up.
‘Oh and I have this other scar right under my upper lip. Can you see it?’ Namjoon leaned forward so that Seokjin could have a closer look.
‘It’s really small. Did you see it?’ Seokjin just nodded without looking for the scar. Seokjin however did look at Namjoon’s lips and suddenly knew how he could shut up the talkative boy.
‘Well when I was like 5 I got stung by a bee right there. Two years later, another bee stung me on that exact same spot. And another three years later it happened again. And then six years later it …’ Seokjin had closed the small gap between their lips. Namjoon felt his eyes widen. Their lip contact only lasted for a couple seconds, but to Namjoon it felt like much longer. ‘I told you to shut up. Please.’ Namjoon nodded, felt a little hot. Seokjin felt completely at peace the next two hours. Namjoon was quiet, the waiting room was empty. Finally, Seokjin could take a rest.
-
Since the little kiss two hours ago, Namjoon’s mind had been completely occupied by Seokjin. Yes, he had felt this weird tension when he had entered the waiting room earlier that day. Yes, he had figured that maybe that same weird tension might had to do something with this attractive man sitting in the waiting room. Hell yes Namjoon knew he had been talking way too much since that Jungkook kid had left. But he couldn’t help it. It was Seokjin’s fault. If only he hadn’t been that attractive. Namjoon had been ogling the man beside him every fifteen minutes or so. He didn’t dare to speak up. In the past two hours, a lot of doctors had passed through the waiting room. The situation inside wasn’t looking too good. Nurse Min had told them it could take another hour or so. In the same two hours, about 5 people had entered and quickly left because they couldn’t endure the smell inside. Namjoon didn’t mind the wait that much. He was used to it.Seokjin was dying. When he got mad at Jungkook earlier, he wasn’t joking. He was hungry and thirsty and tired and felt completely disgusted by the lingering smell of poo around. He had tried to ask nurse Min to give him some water, but the nurse had been occupied with the family inside for the past our so he couldn’t really ask him anymore. Calling Jungkook wasn’t an option as well, because Seokjin couldn’t really grab his phone out of his pocket. Asking Namjoon was completely out of the question for exactly three reasons: one; Namjoon couldn’t really use his hands either, two; Namjoon had been way too annoying ever since he had arrived at the waiting room and three; Seokjin’s phone was in his front pocket and nothing would look as weird as a guy trying to grab a phone out of the front pocket of another guy. Seokjin would rather die than ask Namjoon to help him. He had no other choice.
-
Another half an hour passed and Seokjin could feel his lips getting chapped. He hated having chapped lips. Nurse Min was still nowhere in sight. Seokjin’s stomach grumbled. As a reaction to Seokjin’s stomach, Namjoon’s grumbled as well. The two looked at each other. Seokjin chuckled. ‘We are pathetic. Just look at us. Two men sitting in a hospital waiting room waiting for a couple doctors to finish up with this literal shit family unable to move or even do anything because one of them has a broken arm and the other has his hands stuck to an Xbox controller. And to make it worse; they are both hungry.’ Namjoon laughed. ‘Hungry and grumpy.’ Seokjin nudged Namjoon with his elbow. ‘I lost an important game this morning. Trust me, I’m not a grumpy person.’ Namjoon turned to Seokjin. ‘What game?’ Seokjin felt his cheeks lightly heat up. ‘Mario kart.’ Namjoon burst out laughing. Seokjin nudged him again.
‘Don’t laugh at me like that! You’re the person who had like four bees sting him at the same spot.’ Namjoon shook his head. ‘It were nine bees. Over the course of seventeen years.’ Seokjin laughed.
‘If you had only let me finish the story, you would’ve known.’ Namjoon leaned over again to show the scar to Seokjin.
‘Besides, a scar like this would need more than four bees you know.’ Seokjin leaned forward to observe the scar for real. Namjoon saw his chance and smashed his lips onto Seokjin’s. This time, their lip contact wasn’t limited to a couple seconds. Namjoon was over the moon.
-
‘You know, Joon, I had never thought you would find true love at a hospital waiting room that would smell like shit for hours because a family would turn out to be allergic to Mexican food.’ Namjoon patted Hoseok on the knee. ‘Love doesn’t have to smell like roses to be there.’