Byun Baekhyun
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Diagnosis: Anorexia Nervosa

Park Chanyeol
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Diagnosis: Depression
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Two years.

Two fucking years since his father locked him inside this mental institution slash rehabilitation center filled with patients and old women in white jackets, trying to force food down his throat every morning.

Apparently he had an eating disorder, and apparently he couldn't leave the center without getting to a healthy weight.

He planned on never seeing his father again, and he also planned on killing himself as soon as he left the rehabilitation center.

It was early morning when the old lady tried to feed Baekhyun again, and it was early morning when he went outside for a walk.

It wasn't really outside, it was just a place inside set up to look like a park
with fake trees and plastic grass. It still smelled like drugs and salt, but at least it looked real.

And of course, it didn't take too long for Chanyeol to notice the sharp cheekbones and angular limbs through the paper trees.

His eyes first caught onto the dark hair before he noticed the pale face and thin legs.

He zoned out, looking in  the boy's direction for a while, until he noticed that the boy was staring straight back. Chanyeol turned away, flustered and embarrassed, and kept walking. Baekhyun did the same, and it seemed to be a ridiculous coincidence when they met the next day.

Their shoulders collided, and both of them whispered a quiet "sorry, excuse me" before walking past each other.

It was two days later when Chanyeol saw Baekhyun in the cafeteria with a woman holding a spoon in front of his mouth. He saw Baekhyun shake his head, and then the woman trying to say something before Baekhyun walked out of the room.

It was then that Chanyeol realized that Baekhyun was probably one of the rebellious patients who never listened, and it was then that he assumed that Baekhyun had an eating disorder.

There were dozens of patients like Baekhyun, and Chanyeol saw dozens of those patients everyday. Some only blanked out as a doctor worked on coaxing them to eat while some even cried. It wasn't only an eating disorder, it was also a mental one, and it would become the person's mindset once it got to them.

So the morning that Chanyeol saw Baekhyun walk out of the cafeteria, he followed after him.

They ended up on one of the landings of the stairs.

Baekhyun turned to Chanyeol, "Who are you?"

There wasn't any venom in his voice. It was just a simple question.

"Depression," Chanyeol sat down on one of the steps, "It's been a few months since I came here."

Baekhyun sat down next to him, nervous to look him in the eye. But something about Chanyeol told him he could be trusted.

"I'm kind of dying," Baekhyun played around with his fingers, "They say that I could die, that I will die, but they don't seem to realize that the problem is that I don't know how to live."

Chanyeol looked down at Baekhyun sympathetically. He was small and frail, and he didn't seem to smile. His hair was long, dark, and it covered his eyebrows but left his eyes.

"You seem so normal," Baekhyun looked back down at his feet.

"Me?"

"Yeah... you at least know what you need to do to live."

"Not really," Chanyeol leaned his head against the wall, "I might have forgotten how to die, but I haven't figured out how to live."

Baekhyun let his chin rest in his hand, "But I can't forget how to die," his voice rang out, soft but clear.

Chanyeol went down two steps so that when he turned around, his eyes met with Baekhyun's.

"If I can do it, I don't know who couldn't."

His lip twitched into a smile as he looked into Baekhyun's eyes.

They were dark brown, almost as dark as his hair, but not quite.

Not quite. ||