Sunday came and Jin-kyu and Sammy managed to arrive at Helena's downtown office without too much difficulty for the one o'clock appointment.
"Definitely going to snow soon," Jin-kyu muttered as he pushed through the lobby doors, blowing on his red and frozen fingers.
"I'm glad I have my mittens!" Sammy announced gleefully, waving a knitted blue mitten-clad hand at Jin-kyu.
"Good for you," Jin-kyu replied, wondering why it was he had managed to buy Sammy, his 'cursed' sculpture, mittens and yet forgot to purchase some gloves of his own?
Jin-kyu was pretty sure that the ones he already owned had fallen victim to either Coppélia and Galatea or to his apartment's resident mice - who unfortunately had not fallen victim to Coppélia and Galatea.
"Jin-kyu look!" Sammy gasped, "your therapist has a pet!"
Jin-kyu glanced up to see Sammy rush over towards a large fish tank complete with one of those stick on plastic backgrounds imitating the ocean. This one even had a large fake treasure chest that popped open every so often to blow bubbles, albeit rather pathetically.
"That's great," Jin-kyu replied, rather unconvinced as he eyed the solitary and rather ill-looking goldfish who appeared to be swimming in lopsided circles.
Sammy, of course, began to tap on the glass before Jin-kyu snapped, "Stop that."
"Jin-kyu?"
Jin-kyu wheeled round to see a rather bemused looking Helena standing in her office doorway. "You brought a friend?"
"He's my life model," Jin-kyu replied quickly, "and he's from out of town."
"Do they not have fish out of town?" Helena asked with a raised eyebrow, nodding in Sammy's direction. Jin-kyu noticed that the younger man was still tapping on the glass.
"I'll get him to stop," Jin-kyu sighed.
"Oh no it's fine!" Helena chuckled, "But if he prefers, there are plenty of magazines here as well, for friends and relatives."
"He's my life model," Jin-kyu repeated with a frown.
"Yes," Helena smiled indulgently, "you mentioned."
***
"The hour's up," Jin-kyu stated, glancing up at the grandfather clock Helena had in the corner of her office. Jin-kyu spent an inordinate amount of time looking at that clock.
"You know, normally I'm the one having to say that," Helena commented with a slight smirk, "but I won't take it personally Jin-kyu."
Jin-kyu huffed as he rose to his feet. He hated the chairs at Helena's, they were all faux-antique and he sank into them, making him feel trapped. The first time Jin Kyu had had an appointment he could have sworn the fire brigade were going to have to be called to pry him out.
"It's really nice to see you sharing your time and space with someone Jin-kyu," Helena said, gesturing towards the door.
Jin-kyu opened his mouth to reaffirm that Sammy was in fact, just his life-model, but the smug anticipatory look on Helena's face made him snap it shut again. He settled for a glare instead as she smiled and led him back into the waiting area.
"What on Earth?" Helena frowned as the two of them came across a large puddle of water sitting on top of the floorboards.
Jin-kyu groaned as he followed the water trail across the room to where Sammy was perched, cross-legged on the couch, his face flushed and sporting what was clearly a sopping wet sleeve.
"I may have tried to pet the fish," Sammy explained, the blush on his cheeks burning a deeper red and spreading down across his throat.
There was a weary sigh from Jin-kyu's left. "I'm going to go against all my professional instincts here and insist that I only deal with one patient at a time," Helena muttered, throwing her hands up and turning to walk back into her office.
Jin-kyu turned his glare back on Sammy as the younger man squirmed on the very damp looking couch.
"He looked lonely," Sammy shrugged, not meeting Jin-kyu's eye.
"Really?" Jin-kyu asked. "Well maybe I could take you to the zoo later and you can try and pet some of the lonely looking tigers?"
Sammy glanced up at him, frowning defiantly, "How are you gonna display a sculpture with only one arm?"
Jin-kyu's mouth dropped open in surprise before he closed it quickly and narrowed his eyes, "Get up, we're leaving."
He shook his head as Sammy shuffled towards him, dripping across the floor. "Jesus, you're soaked. You're going to freeze outside - it's like thirty-six degrees."
"I'll be fine," Sammy pouted, "not human remember."
Jin-kyu frowned as Sammy trailed through the door in front of him, leaving Jin-kyu to subsequently roll his eyes and attempt some interesting acrobatics to side-step the watery puddles down the hallway.
"Sammy - wait!" Jin-kyu called out, catching up to the younger man and grabbing hold of his shoulder, pulling him back away from the front doors to Helena's building. A gust of wintry cold air flooded the hall, making Jin-kyu momentarily rethink the offer he was about to make.
"Fuck it. Sammy take off that sweater - you're going to get pneumonia if you go out there like that."
Sammy narrowed his eyes at Jin-kyu but then begrudgingly pulled of the sopping garment, catching Jin-kyu in the face with one of the sleeves, resulting in a cold wet slap of fabric.
"Fantastic," Jin-kyu muttered as the dirty fish tank water dribbled down his chin. He then shucked off his own sweatshirt and jacket and handed them to Sammy who was currently clad in only a T-shirt.
"But...what about you?" Sammy asked with a look of concern.
"I run hot," Jin-kyu shrugged as he felt his skin already begin to goose-pimple under his rather thin shirt.
Jin-kyu scooped up the wet sweater and wrung it out as best as he could before steering Sammy out of the front doors and into the arctic levels of cold waiting for them in the street.
He also did his best to ignore the string of expletives and subsequent crash behind them as Helena's next appointment went to enter the building and evidently encountered the giant puddle that they happened to have left behind.
Jin-kyu couldn't help but feel that his phone was lying to him about what temperature it was outside because it felt like it was like minus forty. By the time they made it back, Jin-kyu was pretty sure he would have icicles hanging off his stubble like some kind of intrepid Victorian explorer.
"Your clothes smell nice," Sammy announced as they rounded the corner towards the subway entrance.
"Uh huh," Jin-kyu replied, teeth chattering and eyeing the steam rising from the vents in the sidewalk like a starved man would a big mac.
"You were a really long time with that Helena woman," Sammy sighed, "what do you talk about?"
"F-feelings," Jin-kyu answered, now shivering violently and hoping that he caught hypothermia and died before Sammy decided to continue in this vein of conversation.
"Why do you need to pay someone to talk about your feelings?" Sammy stopped on the sidewalk, frowning.
"Keep moving," Jin-kyu growled, reaching out to grab Sammy's sleeve and dragging him forwards. "And you pay people when they do a service for you. Helena does me a service by listening and telling me how to improve my life."
Jin-kyu rolled his eyes as a group of mothers passed them by and, upon noticing Jin-kyu's seasonally inappropriate attire, shook their heads and clucked their tongues.
You would think him being freezing was personally offending them.
"Can't you just talk to Sun-hee?" Sammy asked, rubbing his hands up the sleeves of Jin-kyu's jacket.
Jin-kyu snorted loudly before tucking his own hands under his armpits, "I'd rather pay to ensure that never happened." He huffed and paused, "The point of a therapist is that they're a stranger, sometimes...sometimes you just need to talk to someone who doesn't know you in a personal way."
"Like I talk to people on the subway!" Sammy exclaimed.
"No Sammy. Definitely not like that," Jin-kyu groaned. "Firstly, it's everyone for themselves in this city - no one cares about anyone else's problems unless you pay them - hence Helena. And secondly - I don't think the people you manage to find to speak to you on the train have psychology degrees. Half of them aren't even sober."
"What about me?"
"Unless you've managed to locate my liquor cabinet I'm pretty sure you're sober Sammy."
"No!" Sammy laughed, "I mean you could talk about your feelings to me? I'm a stranger right?"
"...Right," Jin-kyu replied, frowning. It was strange, for having only known Sammy for five days he felt like the younger man had been in his life for a lot longer than that, like a foot fungus that wouldn’t go away.
"But you don't have a psychology qualification," Jin-kyu added.
"True," Sammy replied thoughtfully, "but I also don't charge for my sessions."
"I think you're labouring under the misapprehension that Christmas sweaters grow on trees." Jin-kyu commented gruffly, but he rolled his eyes as he caught Sammy grinning at him.
"Wait!" Sammy called out, suddenly grabbing hold of Jin-kyu's hand. Jin-kyu raised his eyebrows as he felt the tight grip of Sammy's fingers wrap around his own through the knitted mittens.
"Please can we go to Starbucks?" Sammy asked, pointing at the coffee shop across the street.
"Are you fucking serious?" Jin-kyu snapped, "Sammy I'm freezing my balls off here and the subway's right there."
Sammy tightened his grip on Jin-kyu's hand. "Please?" He implored, motioning with his head to the large coffee shop with fairylights and Christmas wreaths in the window. "It won't take long, I know exactly what I want to get."
"How do you even know what a Starbucks is?" Jin-kyu grumbled but nodded his begrudging acquiescence as they waited for the lights to change so they could cross the street.
Jin-kyu couldn't say he wasn’t grateful however, for the warm gust of heated air that descended over them as they entered the coffee shop. It was predictably packed and being a Sunday there were bawling kids everywhere and teenagers lined up in pride of place on the high stools next to the window.
"Oh," Sammy made a disappointed face, "there are no seats?"
"You can get whatever you want to go I'm sure," Jin-kyu grunted, drawing some cash out from his wallet and nudging Sammy forwards into the queue behind a frazzled looking woman in a suit.
Jin-kyu figured he may be freezing but at least he wasn't having to work on a Sunday.
Or any other day really.
"Just be quick about it," he snapped at Sammy who jumped back from where he had been fingering the plastic-wrapped candy-canes.
When they eventually reached the cashier, Sammy took a deep breath before reeling off some ridiculous Christmassy sounding concoction involving caramel, cream and hazelnut.
Jin-kyu suspected there was probably ground essence of fucking reindeer in there as well.
Sammy turned to Jin-kyu proudly, "I saw an advertisement for this drink on the subway!" He explained, "GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU WARM THIS WINTER," he added loudly in his 'reading' voice. "I figured...I figured seeing as you gave me your jacket you'd need it," he finished with a hopeful look and Jin-kyu guessed the red blush across Sammy’s cheeks wasn't just from the cold.
"You...you're ordering it for me?" Jin-kyu frowned as Sammy shuffled awkwardly on his feet before nodding.
Jin-kyu groaned, now feeling uncomfortably guilty for snapping at the younger man. "Is there..." Jin-kyu huffed, "Is there anything you'd like to try Sammy? You can order whatever you want, I'm paying."
Sammy's eyes widened almost reverently before he whispered, "Hot chocolate."
Jin-kyu added the beverage to their order, requesting whipped cream and marshmallows after seeing the look on Sammy's face.
"This is amazing!" Sammy gasped after taking his first gulp of the hot chocolate as they pushed back out through the doors onto the street.
"Glad you like it," Jin-kyu nodded before taking a sip of his own drink and feeling a tingling warmth spread through his body. "Huh," he cocked his head at the paper cup before Sammy grabbed his other hand again and pulled him forwards.
"Let's go home!" Sammy declared. The younger man smiled back at Jin-kyu, his nose turning red and his lips shiny from the hot chocolate. Puffs of steam fluttered out as heated breaths in the cold street air.
Jin-kyu blinked before nodding back at him, "Yeah okay, let's go."
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