Feeling something touching his cheeks and pressing deep, Leon's eyes flickered. White light stabbed him in the eyes as his vision slowly cleared.
Five long limbs waved at his face as he began to see clearly.
"Is he awake?" a feminine voice echoed around him from a distance, jolting his attention from the limbs to his left side.
He blinked once, twice, then, on the third, he rubbed his left arm across his eyes, clearing the drowsiness completely.
"Huh," his eyes widened as he saw a nurse standing beside him with a frown.
Leon shook his head, looked at the nurse's face for a while, then tilted his gaze to the bed he rejected that night.
Seeing two other nurses – younger than the one who stood by his side, Leon swallowed hard and lowered his head.
Although his eyes were closed, he could imagine the looks on the two nurses' faces as he listened to them.
"…what on earth could make someone soil themselves this much?"
"…Are you sure that's urine? I smelled my palms after lifting the first cloth, and there's no bad smell."
"…Did you really put your arms near your nose?! Never do that again, or you'll catch an infection you'll regret for life."
"…It wasn't on purpose."
"…Was I the one who made you do it, or did you do it yourself?"
"…Have I blamed anyone? My nose was itchy, that's why, but I didn't touch it."
Lifting his head, Leon's gaze fell on a fair lady with big brown eyes that seemed to be swallowing him whole.
'Oh God! I can say she's insulting me in her head,' he thought as he rose from the foamy chair he sat in.
The nurse who stood at his left side looked at Leon with a strange stare as he walked past her and entered the washroom.
Leon slammed his arms on the edges of the sink, lowered his head, and gasped for air. His chest rose and fell countless times as if he had run a marathon.
"Shit!" his eyes widened the moment he raised his head and saw his reflection in the mirror that stretched from the ceiling to the top of the sink.
He stumbled five steps back and leaned against the wall behind him. He tilted his gaze at his arms, opened his mouth wide when he saw his bone- and vein-filled arms now having flesh.
"What happened to my bones and veins?" he felt his own voice vibrating through the wall he leaned against.
Forgetting how to close his mouth, Leon moved forward, nearing the mirror he had just run away from.
He licked his lips, turned his head, and raised it slightly, checking the cheekbone and the jawline, now giving him a princelike look.
Whips of giggles erupted from his lips as he finished scanning his face.
'Is that why the fair nurse couldn't stop looking at me?' A crazy thought slammed into his mind, but he shook it off and smiled.
He raised his arms, checked his muscles, and gave a chilling smirk as he flaunted like a bodybuilder.
Though ashes lay on his skin, giving his chocolate-colored skin an ash color, he didn't bother to wash them off.
Standing at the front of the mirror for ten minutes straight, Leon moved to where the shower was, and stood under the bath naked.
A smile tore on his face as drops of water fell on his jet-black hair and streaked on his entire body, clearing the ashes from him.
Stepping out of the bath after spending only two minutes, Leon walked to where he had hung his boxer and the long white patient robe.
He walked to the mirror, stared at himself for five seconds, and walked out of the washroom, smelling of vanilla and rose flower.
Footsteps, conversations, and arguments paused when he walked back to where the nurses stood.
No one talked, but he could imagine how their expressions were by just looking at the faces of the fair nurse, the chocolate nurse, and the nurse who looked to be in her late twenties, who had her upper button open.
Leon paused as he saw the nurse with an unbuttoned shirt, clearing her throat.
"Mmm, Leon, right?" she asked, scrubbing her one-inch blue nail in her long brown hair.
Leon's attention fell from the nurse's question and landed on her hair as he saw a long strand fall on the nurse's shoulder.
"Hello," the nurse tapped her finger, drawing the boy's attention back to her.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm Leon," Leon shook his head and nodded.
"How come your bed is so… wet?" the nurse asked, folding her arms and frowning.
Before Leon could answer, he saw two people through the transparent glass, walking toward the door of the room where he and the other patients were.
"I don't know," Leon's shoulders raised as he answered with honesty.
"How can you say you don't know? Weren't you the one sleeping there before relocating to the couch?" The nurse's voice intensified.
"Mm, yeah. But I woke up sleeping in the drenched bed. So I have no idea." Leon sighed heavily and lowered his head.
Not feeling convinced, the nurse tried to question the boy again, but stopped when she saw the reaction from the two younger nurses.
…
Leon walked from the nurse's sight, embarrassment filling him like the air flowing in and out of his lungs.
Slowly, he walked beside the beds, stepping on the green leaves that were scattered on the ground in the room.
Stopping by the window, fresh air moved across his face, raising the strands of his hair that seemed to be covering his forehead.
'Did I have this changed overnight, or ever since I got admitted here?' he said low in his thought as he stared at the buzzing road that was just a few meters away.
…
"What happened here! Where is he?" a familiar voice boomed behind his back.
"The boy is there, you can ask him. He didn't give us any tangible reason."
Hearing the unbuttoned-shirt nurse's voice, Leon swallowed hard and then sighed.
Slowly, he tilted his gaze from the buzzing street and froze when he saw Mr. Lee standing at the front of the bed, where the fair-colored and chocolate-colored nurses stood.
Leon's mind reeled with answers to give when he saw the manner in which Mr. Lee kept nodding as he slowly walked beside the nurses, his eyes tightly locked on the bed without a bedsheet.