"He didn't survive"

"Oh, ghad. Gab!" A woman shouted as Gabriel regained his consciousness.

Gab blinked many times, trying to focus his vision. He recognized the woman in front of him. She was in her mid-50s, but she looked so young for her age. "Mom?"

"Yes. Yes. It's me, baby."

Gab's brows furrowed as he looked at the woman's worried face. He then gently took his hand out of her hold. "Why are you here?"

The woman's expression changed. She stood properly and averted her gaze. She knew her son would show indifference towards her. "I'm your mother, and my son was hurt. Of course I will visit."

"Ah." Gab took a deep sigh and looked around. "Where's Gabe?"

"He was here?" The woman grimaced. "So, you're together?"

"He's my brother. And I'm hurt; of course he will visit," Gab replied in a sarcastic tone. His gaze was colder than the temperature of his room's air conditioning.

His mother clenched her fist. "I told you not—"

"I'm not a kid anymore, mom. You can no longer dictate who I should and should not talk to," Gabriel firmly said, cutting his mother's sentence while directly staring into his mother's soul.

Alreign was just looking out the small transom window, eavesdropping. He noticed Gab was losing his temper, so he entered the room and cleared his throat to get their attention. 

She took a step back with her eyes dilated. Fear enveloped the woman's body as her eyes met Alreign's. "Wh-What—Y-You're already dead. You're—"

"I get that a lot, ma'am. But I'm not the person you're thinking," Alreign calmly said with a sweet smile formed in his lips. Gab also just played along—he knew Alreign was getting him out of the situation.

The woman's brows furrowed. "What? Who are you then?"

"I'm his doctor." Alreign looked around the ward and saw the calendar at the corner left of the table, beside Gab's bed. Half of it has a calligraphy style of the word 'Dream'. 

"Dreame. I'm Dr. Dreame," Alreign introduced, which made the woman fall silent.

"It's his time for a checkup, ma'am. Well, I would like to ask the patient if he wanted someone to be here during his checkup or—"

"No need to ask him. I'm leaving anyway," the woman said without looking at Gab. "You should ask if he wanted his brother to be here instead."

The woman left just a second after she said that sentence. Alreign and Gab were in an awkward silence after she left.

"Is she your biological mother or what?" Alreign asked in confusion after he witnessed her attitude.

Gab sighed. "Our biological mother died after giving birth. My dad remarried, I guess when we turned 3 or 4? I don't remember."

Alreign nodded. "I see. I used to wonder why both of you had a rough relationship with her. Now, I understand."

Alreign sat beside the hospital bed and checked Gab's wound on his side of the hip. "Want me to heal it?"

"Of course. Who would want to suffer from pain?" Gab retorted. 

Alreign just smiled, then he placed his hand on Gab's chest. He gradually felt a warm sensation in his palm and saw the color surrounding Gab turn green from blue.

A short moment later, Gab stopped feeling the soreness from the gunshot wound he got when the security guard shot the man wielding a knife earlier—the bullet hit him as well when he tried to protect the man.

"I still can't believe it." Gab removed his bandage and checked his wound—it was indeed magically healed. "Yeah. It's really unbelievable."

"I know," Alreign chuckled.

Gab looked at Alreign as if he remembered something. "Wait. What about that man? How is he?"

Alreign looked down, showing disappointment. "He didn't survive."