A Falling Star

Two

Ohm Pawat looked up when he heard the door to his room open. It was another doctor. His shoulders slumped a bit. He'd been hoping his family had finally arrived; he desperately wanted to see them. He'd left the day before in a fit of rage after a huge argument, and the accident had really scared him. He could only imagine what it would've done to them if he'd died after leaving them like that. He knew he needed to apologise.

He turned back to face the doctor when he realised the guy hadn't come any further into the room. He took a quick inventory of the man's appearance, being struck by how he seemed almost fragile. He was short—no more than five, seven or eight and he'd bet the guy didn't weigh more than a hundred and thirty pounds. He had light brown hair, falling in soft waves to the sides, delicate features, and dimpled cheeks. His eyes, though, were incredible. Ohm had never seen anything like it. They seemed to be pitch black.

When the man coughed as though nervous, Ohm felt a blush creeping over his face, realising he'd been staring.

"Uhm ... sorry. I'm Ohm. Ohm Pawat." He spoke and then felt like an idiot. The guy was a doctor; of course, he knew who he was. He missed the pain-filled grimace that flitted over the man's face before he stepped forward.

"Yes. I'm Nanon Korapat. I heard about your accident, and I just wanted to see how you were doing." He had to restrain himself from grabbing onto the man on the bed. It was the cruellest of jokes to have his lover so close and yet so completely out of reach.

"Do you remember what happened?" Nanon knew the police would've asked him all about the accident, but he needed any excuse to stay with Pat a little longer. He grimaced again, realising that it would take him a while to get used to the fact that the man in front of him was actually Ohm Pawat and not Pat Jindapat.

He reigned in his thoughts when Ohm answered. "Yeah, actually. I'd just gone around that hairpin turn before the road started to descend towards Savior Meds. There was a truck blocking the entire road. I slammed on the breaks, but I was too close already, and I ended up smashing into the cab of the truck. I must've passed out after that, because the next thing I knew, I woke up here."

Nanon immediately realised that Ohm was remembering the accident from a year ago and not the more recent one. The police had pieced together what had happened, seeing as Ohm was unable to remember at the time and Khunnote had told him about it.

He just nodded, unable to speak for fear of bursting into tears. He took a deep breath before turning around and mumbling goodbye as he headed out the door. As soon as Nanon was out of sight in the hallway, he sank down against the wall, curling into a ball as great, heaving sobs wracked his body.