"Open your mouth a bit more. Ya! That's it! It's a bit uncomfortable at the start but you will get used to it. If you don't want to swallow, just tap my hand and I will take it off and you can spit it!" Dr. Adam Platt told a nervous Jum softly.
He adjusted the bite block and looked intently for the cause of discomfort. Jum's teeth were in perfect symmetry, healthy and pristine.
It looked like there ideally shouldn't be any reason for the pain and jagged edge feel on his tongue.
As a dentist he couldn't help but appreciate the extraordinary smile Jum had, his dimples, nasolabial folds, perfect smile symmetry, lips, teeth ... Jum's overall smile design was extremely impactful ... it was actually a million-dollar smile. And as a man, he was super attracted to Jum.
"Oh! There you are!" Adam smiled and took the tweezer and picked something out of the gum on the premolar. "Better!" He said and took the gag out.
Jum sat up and rubbed his cheeks and spat in the small paper cup.
"It was a fish bone! That's it! Your teeth are in excellent condition! In fact, it's near perfect!" Adam smiled at Jum, he felt very ordinary as compared to the cute Korean man with a perfect smile.
Adam was medium height, well built due to his exercise regime (hypertension ran in his family) and with a mop of brown hair with green eyes.
He kept looking at Jum even after they were done, making Jum nervous and feel awkward.
"Hmm! Dr. Platt... May I leave? ... if we are done." Jum asked shyly.
That's when it struck Adam, it was now or never, this wasn't just a cute guy, he was Kim from high school, his high school crush.
"Kim?" Adam asked and Jum looked up. "Remember me? Adam ... Adams Apple!" His lacrosse team nickname.
When Jum was told the name of the replacement doctor in the clinic because his dentist was on vacation and he knew who he was.
But when Adam had lowered his mask, Jum felt a chill down his spine.
Adam and his friends had made his life miserable in school.
Adam used to physically hurt Jum, push him in the corridor and hit him in the showers with a wet towel.
The bullying continued till Ben intervened and punched Adam out cold.
Oh! He did recognize Adam.
He recognised Adam with his well-built and well-kept physique and those green eyes.
He recognised Adam when he touched him, this time like a doctor but he remembered what those fingers could do when joined together in a fist.
"Yes! I remember you Adam! I still have the mark on my chest from that one time you pushed me in the bus." Jum smiled.
"You owe me a lot of money that I paid my therapist." Jum laughed and packed his phone in his crossbody sling bag with a shocked Adam staring at him.
Adam hadn't forgotten what he did, in fact he was ashamed, having paid a lot of money for therapy himself.
He had a major crush on Jum in high school, to the point that he was obsessed with him.
He used to stalk him and since he didn't have the courage to ask him out, he would attack him as a reason to touch him.
He had actually walked up to Jum in the school bus to ask him to prom but some of his jock friends pushed him and Jum got crushed between the seat side handle and Adam's body.
Adam had got out of the bus, ran to the woods behind his house and cried.
He got drunk, picked on Jum at prom night in front of Ben to get beaten up, which he did.
'Yes Jum! We share the trauma. And a repentant bully carries much bigger baggage than a liberated victim.'
****
Adam ran behind Jum and caught up with him on the street, "Jum!" He stopped him.
"I am sorry! I was an asshole! I have no excuse and no face to ask for forgiveness but I am sorry!" Adam said hoarsely.
Jum smiled openly, "Adam! I had let go of it when Ben knocked you out! It's forgiven but it's hard to forget." He added.
"You and Ben ... are you guys together?" Adam took a chance to segway into asking Jum out.
"No, he is straight! He is engaged and getting married this fall." Jum said nervously, quickly planning what to say about himself.
"And you?" Adam asked hopefully.
"I am straight ... single and straight!" Jum said rummaging through his sling bag for his phone, unable to meet Adam's eyes as he lied.
"You want to come for drinks tonight? Just friends! My way of trying to connect and apologize." Adam knew his gaydar was never wrong, even when they were seventeen and now after eight years. Jum was lying.
"Yeah! Okay! Ping me when and where!' Jum agreed just to prove he wasn't gay.
****
The SUV rocked slightly, the backseats folded flat, as if it was designed by the manufacturers to bone in the back.
