The clinic was different that day. Edgar was gone, but his presence was still inside the walls... The silence was heavy...
A while after Edgar left, Jun put on a cardigan and quietly went out. He didn't say where he was going, and Levi didn't ask.
But just because he didn't ask, didn't mean he didn't care.
Hours passed. The clinic was silent. Levi was sitting at the desk, trying to write down new types of medication, but his hand holding the pen always hesitated.
'A transient'.
That phrase kept going round and round in his mind.
He'd thought he was protecting himself when he said it, but now he realised: That sentence had driven Jun and himself into a suffocating distance.
Jun hadn't returned in the following hours, and the clinic slowly began to fill up... Elderly patients, familiar faces from the neighbourhood... Some of them came to the clinic every day to be examined, most of them to gossip, but this time they all entered with a different look.
-"Is that young boy here again?" asked Mrs Holloway,
-"We knew you were staying here, but..."- someone else looked at him suggestively before he could continue,
-"It's probably not true," said another.
Levi didn't answer any of them. He was used to the idle talkers of the town. They would shut up in a few days.
Jun returned in the evening when the sun went down.
His face was pale. He went inside quietly.
He locked eyes with Levi on the doorstep.
There was no anger or resentment in his eyes; he was just tired.
Without saying anything, he went to where his bed was, slowly curled up on his bed, closed his eyes and tired eyes from crying surrendered to sleep.
In the following days, a few other things changed at the clinic.
Patients no longer treated Jun the way they used to.
People who used to smile kindly at him now turned their heads away, didn't make eye contact when they responded.
One woman struggled to avoid touching his hand while taking medicine, as if Jun had a contagious disease.
One man turned round and walked back when he saw her in the clinic.
Another said, 'Are you still here?' in mockery.
Jun didn't answer any of them. He didn't defend himself, he didn't say a word. Every day he organised the paperwork, put away the medicines, cleaned the clinic. He just made it all quieter.
Levi was aware of the looks and the words. He was watching everything, but he didn't know what to say. Silence was the hardest thing for him right now.
One evening in the small kitchen of the clinic, Levi was brewing tea while Jun took both of their mugs and put them on the table.They sat together and drank their tea.
Levi swallowed and looked at Jun to say something.
But just then Jun slowly put his blue mug on the table,
he looked at Levi briefly but sadly.
Then he got up and went back to the small area where his bed was.
Only a whisper escaped Levi's lips:
-'I apologise.'
No one heard.