'Finally Jungwon,' Heeseung panted as he clutched his arm. He looked at his face, only to find him bleeding. He looked like he was on the verge of crying.

'Jungwon-ah,' Heeseung looked at him, alarmed. 'You're bleeding! You must've hurt yourself really bad,' he tried to hoist him up but Jungwon's legs gave in as he kneeled on the ground.

'Hyung,' he spoke in a barely audible whisper.
' It was you hyung.'

'Yes Jungwon. It was me,' Heeseung chuckled lightly, trying to cheer him up.
He looked pale and petrified.
Heeseung ruffled his hair and offered him a hand.

'Can you stand up and walk?,' he asked him. He nodded lightly and got up with some effort. Through his ripped jeans, a bright purple bruise on his knee was pretty visible, even in the dim light. 'You've hurt yourself badly Jungwon,' he frowned at him. Jungwon's left cheek was bleeding and there was a scratch on his chin. Heeseung's doe eyes went soft. 'You could've called out my name, hyung,' he continued to talk softly.
' You scared me to death,' he mumbled.
'I was running after you Jungwon. I don't know why you panicked. I didn't have the energy to shout at you,' he shrugged.
'Why did you follow me?,' his eyes were on his converse all star sneakers, which were covered in dirt and now probably bore the scratches from his fall.

'This,' Heeseung waved his bottle at him. 'It must've fallen out of your bag while you were leaving. And I have an appointment at seven thirty so I left a few minutes after you did. Looking at it now though,' he examined the bottle and scrunched his nose. 'I can see why you freaked out Jungwon. This bottle looks like a hammer,' he widened his eyes.

Jungwon chuckled lightly. Heeseung smiled. 'Should I drop you home?,' he put an arm around him. Jungwon looked down and stared at his sneakers again. 'I'm fine hyung.'

'No you aren't. Now let's go find find a cab. I'll drop you home,' he squeezed his shoulder gently. Jungwon pushed him away lightly. 'Home?,' he mouthed. 'I have a class hyung!,' he exclaimed. 'Eomma and Appa will kill me if I go straight home!'
Heeseung exhaled deeply.

'Jungwon-ah, I'm pretty sure they won't mind it after they see the condition you're in. You're hurt and scared Jungwon. You need to go home,' he insisted. He eventually gave in to his older friend.  They hired a cab and sat down at the back. 'You've got some explaining to do though,' Heeseung narrowed his eyes and whispered to him. 'What the hell do you think you were doing, loitering around in that dark alley at this hour?,' he looked at him sternly. 'It harbours hooligans and drug dealers. You're lucky it was me running behind you,' he said sharply.
Jungwon sighed.
'I'm sorry hyung. I won't go there again. I thought it was a pretty cool shortcut to get to Dongjak gu but I was wrong I guess.'

'A pretty cool shortcut to trouble,' Heeseung corrected him. 'You know that just because you have a Phoenix birthmark doesn't mean that you will live forever even if someone tries to kill you, right?'
Jungwon nodded. 'Yes. I'm sorry.'

They reached Jungwon's place. 'Hyung,' he held his head in his hands. 'What will I tell my parents? How will I tell them that I fell face first on the ground while I was on my way to the Coaching Center when I was supposed to be there all this while?,' he gulped. 'Tell them you went out for fresh air during the break between classes Jungwon,' Heeseung shrugged. 'Ah. Yeah right hyung,' he exhaled. He took a few deep breaths. He shut the door of the cab and waved at him. Heeseung waved back.
'Jungwon-ah,' he shouted at him. He stopped walking towards his apartment and headed back to the cab. 'Yes hyung?,' he said. 'Don't roam around alone these days. That serial killer they talk about these days is on a murdering spree again,' he said.
'Okay hyung. Bye,' he said emphatically, with a glint of impatience in his voice. The cab sped off again, this time driving off to Geongang Healing Center.
Heeseung began to sift through his phone, scrolling past the messages in the college group chat.
He drew his head back and yawned, stretching his arms. He felt tired.
He wanted to go home too.

Running after Jungwon had taken up all of his energy. He started contemplating his decision of arranging an appointment with the psychiatrist. He looked at his phone to check the time. It was five minutes until his appointment started. He groaned.  Dongjak gu and Songpa gu were in opposite directions, and it didn't take him long to come to terms with the fact that he was late for his appointment. It would take him roughly fifteen minutes to get there, which meant that they would probably call the person next in line for an appointment before him.

Great, he scoffed. Now he had to wait longer to get home.

He opened the message notification from Ahra.
AHRA : Oppa, are you done with your appointment?
He texted her back.
I was supposed to go in now but I'm running late :(
AHRA : Why? Did you fall asleep again ?😂
Nope. I went to see my school friend.It's a rather long but interesting story. I'll tell you tomorrow ❣️
AHRA : okayy

He shut his phone and rested his head against the window. It was half open and he could feel the cold, dry winds of March. But he didn't mind it. He liked it, actually.
He closed his eyes as the chilly winds blew in his face, numbing every inch of it.
The car stopped right outside the Healing Center. Heeseung opened his eyes with a jerk. He had almost dozed off.
'We're here,' the driver announced.
Heeseung scratched his head. It took him a couple of seconds to perceive the fact that he was here for an appointment with a doctor. He paid the driver and left the cab, walking in the vicinity of Geongang Healing Center.
'Err...Excuse me?'

He tapped lightly at the desk of the receptionist who was busy skimming through her laptop.
'Yes. How may I help you?,' the receptionist smiled at him brightly and bowed.
'I believe I had an consultation with Dr. Gwan about ten minutes ago. I'm afraid I've missed it,' he handed her his phone, showing her the text from yesterday. 'It would be great if you allotted me the next slot for an appointment today.'
The receptionist nodded. She looked at the text in his phone and typed away on her laptop.
'You can go in after the next patient, Mr. Lee. Until then, you can wait outside his room on the second floor,' she said. Heeseung bowed and took his phone back from the receptionist, heading to the escalator.
He reached the second floor and sat on the bench outside Dr. Gwan's room. He started playing Tetris to pass the time.

'Lee Heeseung,' a guy with a notepad and pen motioned him to come in. 'That was much quicker than I expected,' he thought.
He walked into the room. A lady looking like she was in her early thirties asked him to take a seat. 'You can leave now, Kyungsoo,' she said to the guy with a notepad. He nodded and left. The woman turned to face Heeseung and smiled. 'What issues have you been dealing with lately?', she said.
'Issues?,' he mouthed.

Dr. Gwan chuckled. 'There must be some reason you came to see me, right?'
'Ah,' he closed his eyes momentarily. He knew this was how it worked but somehow spilling the beans about his personal life to a random woman seemed like the most outlandish idea ever. She studied his face carefully. 'If you're not comfortable just yet, we can have a little ice breaking session,' she smiled.
'Okay,' he nodded. 'So,' Dr. Gwan began. 'Caladrius or Sphinx?'

Heeseung widened his eyes and leaned away from her. 'How do you know that?'

Dr. Gwan chuckled. 'Relax. I could have checked it through the form you submitted for an appointment, couldn't I?' 'I guess yeah,' he looked at her sheepishly. Of course she can find out his birthmark type. He submitted this information to the hospital. He facepalmed mentally.

'But that's not how I guessed your birthmark, Mr. Lee,' she said. 'Most of the people who come to visit me are caladrius or sphinxes,' she sighed. Heeseung knitted his brows together. 'Why is that?'
The psychiatrist sighed. 'For sphinxes, great intellect comes with greater understanding of the world. They know too much. And that's probably what scares them. Either that or they feel like they know stuff they would be happier not knowing,' she shrugged. 'For Caladrius, it's the heavy emotional baggage that comes with their profession. Most of them become healers, even if they don't want to because that turns out to be the only thing they're good at,' she chortled lightly after she finished speaking. 'I can't really tell you for sure though. I'm neither of these. I'm a nixie.' Dr. Gwan folded her hands on her desk and looked at him.

He stared back.

'Heeseung-ssi,' she said emphatically. 'This is the part where you tell me what kind of birthmark you have.'
'Oh. Yes of course. I'm a sphinx,' he said, his gaze shifting to his fingers. 'So? Am I right about your concerns? Or is there something else you need me to know?,' she said.
'Well actually,' Heeseung bit his lip. 'I feel like I've been experiencing bouts of amnesia these days.'
'Amnesia?,' the doctor squinted at him. Heeseung nodded.
She pulled out a pen and started noting in her diary. 'Can you please elaborate?'

'I sleep and wake up at odd times. When I do wake up, for a few minutes I have no recollection of where I am and where I was supposed to be. I also fail to remember the details of the previous event, the one which led me to that state of being. I really don't know what's happening,' he held his head in his hands. 'Don't worry, Heeseung-ssi. That is exactly what we're here to fix,' she patted his shoulder. 'When was the last time this happened to you? I mean the last day you experienced this?'
'Yesterday,' Heeseung said. Dr. Gwan's hands kept scribbling something in her diary as they spoke. 'What were your surroundings like when you woke up?'

' It was dirty. There were soju bottles everywhere. My room was completely filthy which is rather unlike me. I'm an extremely organized person,' he said.
'Hmm. Since when have you been facing this problem?'
'It's been a couple of months now,' he said. 'But these past few weeks it has been really frequent that's why I decided to consult you before my issue escalated into something big. You see, it has started affecting my relationships with people.'
' I don't think you have anything to worry about, Mr. Lee,' Dr. Gwan smiled. 'I believe you have the tendency to get extremely drunk and then black out. It's pretty normal to black out after drinking and having no recollection of the preceding events.'
Heeseung sighed.

'However,' she said, 'This doesn't mean that you can continue living the way you do. You seem to have a compulsive addiction to alcohol. If you don't handle it right it could grow into a bigger problem. I'm happy you recognized something off early on ,' she handed him a prescription. 'This should help keep the withdrawal symptoms at bay and help you control your urges.' Heeseung bowed to her. 'Thanks,' he said and left. He crumpled the medical prescription in his hands. He should've been happy that it was nothing serious, right? But somehow it didn't feel that way. He handed over the prescription to the pharmacist at the first floor of the hospital and collected his medicines. He started walking towards the road. He felt like an idiot. All this time it was nothing but crippling addiction to alcohol. He exhaled deeply. Nevertheless, now that he knew what the problem was, he could fix it and go back to being the person he was.

Author's note
I know it's a boring chapter. I'll try to write a better chapter next time❤️
Vote and comment if you like reading this chapter. Thanks❣️