The hospital was situated a few blocks away from the subway station. It stood on several acres of land with large blue and white walls. Several doctors and nurses were rushing around, tending to patients or eager to finish their shift.
"Nurse Shin, Doctor Hyun is calling you!" one nurse yelled at another one while pushing a trolley to the operation theater.
"Where are the reports for the patient in ward 17?" one of the doctors was demanding.
"Did the patient at VVIP room 6 get their daily dose?"
"Prep the operation theater!"
All the employees were in a hurry to do their duties while patients sat near the reception, waiting for their turns. The emergency patients were kept separate from the others, their applications being fast tracked by a busy swarm of nurses while the general patients were being given tokens by another group of nurses. For them, the stress of the job was a lot but it was simply a regular day.
One of the patients was a five year old girl who had a broken wrist. Her mother was catering to her.
"Hyori, it'll be alright," she was telling her daughter. "Don't cry."
"Mommy, it hurts!" Hyori protested.
"The kind doctor will see us soon," her mother promised.
"Token number 91, Doctor Kang will see you now!" the nurse announced over the microphone.
"That's us!" Hyori's mother said and she gently led her daughter to a room. The tag on the door read "Doctor Kang Siwan'. They entered the room to see a dark haired doctor in his mid thirties. He looked more like a celebrity than a doctor with his gummy smile and kind demeanor. With sparkling black eyes and boyish looks, he was easily one of the most handsome men they had seen around.
"H-hello doctor!" Hyori squealed.
"How are you feeling now, Hyori?" Siwan asked with a smile. Seeing his smile, Hyori blushed. Her mother laughed at her expression.
"Doctor, she has a little crush on you," she explained. Siwan was also amused but he was used to it. Children gravitated to him because of his gentle nature and charm which is why he was one of the most popular pediatricians in the country.
"But I am very sad, Hyori," he sighed as he checked her wrist. "You don't listen to what I say."
"I did, doctor!" she squeaked. "I ate well and also drank milk everyday! I took my medicine too!"
"Then how come you have another broken bone?" he asked, mimicking a stern tone.
"I...I was playing with the neighbor's dog and fell off the stairs, hurting my wrist," she admitted.
Siwan lightly poked her head. "Hyori, you know your bones are weak, don't you?" he reminded her. "Even a little bit of stressful work can break them."
Hyori looked down in shame. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I just wanted to play."
Hearing her sad tone made her mother sniff. Hyori suffered from Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a disease which caused her bones to break very easily. Since she was still a child, Siwan treated her with medicines suitable for her age along with the Orthopedic Specialists in the hospitals. It was going to be a lifelong disease because there was no cure for it so Siwan's team was trying to keep her as safe as possible with regular medications. Yet, the little girl yearned to do normal activities like all children.
Siwan patted Hyori's head. "Hyori, you have to be strong," he said. "So that you can grow up well and enjoy a good life. Someday, you might even be able to find a cure to your condition if you work hard enough! So don't worry and follow our instructions. You'll be fine."
He turned to the mother and added, "I've increased the dosage of the medicines. Make sure that she has them regularly. Also, please have an X-ray conducted on her hand so that we can determine the extent of her injury."
"Thank you, Doctor Kang," the mother bowed and gently led Hyori out of the room. Siwan smiled and was about to call the next patient when his land phone rang up. It was his assistant nurse.
"Yes, Nurse Wang," he greeted, picking up the phone.
"Doctor Kang, your brother is here to meet you," she informed him. "He's at the reception."
"Hobin?"
Siwan was excited now. His brother had arrived?
"I'm coming now!" he said, barely containing his excitement. "Please tell the other patients to wait for a while."
"Alright doctor."
He hung up the phone and hurried towards the reception. Scanning around, he was searching for the auburn haired boy who would easily stand out in a crowd. Sure enough, he found his brother, Hobin, standing at a corner with a pretty nurse. He was flirting with her while checking her palm.
"You really like romantic dramas, right?" he was saying. The nurse was dazed by the beautiful man who was flirting with her and she giggled.
"How did you know?" she asked.
"I have many tricks," he winked. "Wanna see another one?"
She enthusiastically nodded. Hobin pointed to a random direction and said, "Look there."
The nurse turned and Hobin snapped near her left ear to produce a coin which he was hiding in his sleeve.
"Woah!" the nurse squealed. "How did you-"
"For you, my lady," he teased. "A pretty penny for a pretty lady."
The nurse giggled hard at his flirtations but the clearing of someone's throat made her jump. Turning around, they saw that Siwan stood there, watching them.
"D-Doctor Kang!" she stammered. "I was just-"
"Please go back to your station, Nurse," he simply said. The nurse was flabbergasted as she scurried towards her station. Hobin leaned against the wall, smiling at his brother.
"Still such a party pooper, my brother," he grinned. Siwan shook his head but spread his hands to hug his younger sibling. Hobin was glad to embrace his brother after so many months. Their work which kept them apart had finally landed them in the same town.
"Did you eat?" Siwan asked. "Mom called me this morning to nag me about how you might get lost in the city if I don't go and pick you up!"
"Typical mom," Hobin sighed. "She forgets that I can speak the language of this country well and also have digital maps on my phone. Yet, she worries so much!"
"Well, you have a penchant for falling into trouble with the ladies," Siwan sighed as he led his brother to the cafeteria. They placed orders for coffee and sat at a table.
"How long are you gonna be here?" Siwan asked, sipping on his latte.
"I wanna stay here for a while," Hobin said. "The Commissioner has invited me himself because they need an expert who could help them create criminal profiles. In the meantime, I'm gonna continue my practice in this hospital. Thank god I'm a psychiatrist. I can work here for a few hours then at the police station before hitting the clubs."
He smirked, taking a sip of his Chocolate Mocha. Siwan shook his head in amusement.
"How did you even manage to get a college degree in your teens, is beyond me," he sighed. "I thought people who were born geniuses would work more."
"My motto is to finish off all work early so that I can be lazy for the rest of the day," Hobin snickered. "During work, I'm serious but after that, I'm quite the party animal."
"Ahh yes, the infamous Doctor Demon," Siwan recalled. "That's what you were nicknamed in the States, right? For your...unusual methods."
Hobin shrugged, pretending not to know what he was talking about.
But Siwan was right. Hobin's usual style of treatment differed from others. He used his powers to read people's memories which led him to crack open many mysteries and instances of abuse faced by his patients. His impeccable treatment caused many to dub him as Doctor Demon because they felt he was quite a sadist for guessing their minds so easily. Even though Hobin tried to use his abilities as less as possible, he still had a knack for guessing things correctly even without his powers.
Hobin did not care much about it though. As long as he succeeded in treating the patients and getting his due from them, he did not care what they called him.
"I'll be sitting on the second floor," Hobin said. "They gave me a big space at the corner since I need complete silence."
"Where will you be staying?" Siwan asked. "I know you don't wanna go to the mansion but it's your home!"
Hobin did not reply but kept on sipping his coffee. He was not sure why but he did not dare to step in their family mansion. There was this irrational fear in him, a strange force repelling him from going near that place. It was strange because he never set foot in it after the family had left it. He was barely a day old when Doyoung and Siwan moved out of the mansion. Yet, he was scared of that place.
Other than the dreams of that little girl, he also experienced nightmares of something else. In those nightmares, he was locked away in a cellar of a large mansion. He sat in a corner, quietly crying while a spectacled man in his thirties popped up in front of him. The man had a sadistic look on his face and held a whip in his hand.
"You bastard…" the man's cold, chilling voice echoed in his ears. "I won't let you ruin my image. Never!"
Hobin was in a daze as he recalled the dreams of the strange mansion. Siwan noted his brother's expression and poked him, breaking Hobin out of his reverie.
"What happened?" Siwan frowned.
"Nothing!" Hobin quickly said. "I just don't wanna live in a mansion. I prefer a small space where I can be alone with my...friends."
Siwan groaned. His brother was only focused on getting the girls.
Just then, Hobin's cell phone rang. He took it out to see a message from the Commissioner of the Police. It was short and concise.
"A family has been murdered at U-Street," it read. "Suspect missing. Need you here."
Hobin slightly grinned. Looks like I'm gonna have a lot of fun today, he thought.