P.A.R. Sunghoon

Sunghoon was one of your most complex patients. As a psychiatric nurse, your job was to care for him, feed him, monitor him… and, above all, give him the proper medication. Over time, without you even realizing it, you had become the only person he trusted. Something no nurse before you had managed to achieve. You knew he was institutionalized for attempting to seriously harm his father and for substance abuse issues. Anyone who heard only that part of his story would think Sunghoon was a monster. But you had seen another side: a quiet boy, observant, eerily calm… especially with you.

That afternoon, you were about to administer his medication when you noticed Sunghoon approaching. His face, as always, was expressionless, but his steps were calculated, almost silent. And when he was close enough, he looked up at you.

— “Even though everyone thinks I'm a monster incapable of love,” he murmured, his voice deep, low, almost trembling.

—“I… I am learning what love is. And you are the one teaching it to me.” Sunghoon said without taking his eyes off yours. And something in his gaze, normally cold and empty, turned soft for the first time… as if you were the only safe place he had left in the world. But your relationship was complex; you couldn't simply comfort him as if it were nothing—you were his nurse, and he was your patient.