Imaginary Boyfriend

3

Jacob put on his blue denim coat over his white t-shirt, looking better than other teenagers who followed this trend around.

He was still very unsure of what he was going to do. His mind was in constant conflict. 

Boyfriend? He wasn't even a good friend to his friends, always hiding behind a mask. Not that he had many friends.

What surprised him the most was the part where Reve told him that Soomin's parents agreed to meeting him.

He was hoping that they would refuse to this proposal. But again, he wasn't really experienced when it came to people.

He looked at his reflection for one last time before leaving his room to join his brother in the living room.

"Ready?" He hummed and grabbed his shoes.

"I had met her mother before. She is really sweet an easy going person." Reve said grabbing his shoes too.

"If you ask me, she is weird to accept all this." Jacob said making Reve scoff.

"It's a masterplan. And desperate times call for desperate measures." Reve said while patting his back after both of them has their shoes on.

"I don't have a good feeling about this." 

"I do. And I have 100% success rate in everything."

"You have had like 10 patients ever since you became a new patient. That's not much to declare yourself a God you know"

"I've been practicing for almost a year now!" He said as he stood up.

"Trust me. I'll handle it all."

"Time will tell us that."

"It sure will. I'm sure they're waiting for us already." Jacob sighed and stood up from the ground.

"Brother, I would not do this for anyone else."

"I know, I am thankful."

"Like you should be." 

They both walked to Reve's car, their parents car initially but he did a good job to maintain it.

Jacob had many memories with the car but more with Reve than with their parents. They both left the boys when they were just kids, leaving the elder boy in charge who was only 16 at that time.

"Can I drive?" Jacob asked but left a grunt when he saw his brother opening the door to the driver's seat.

"If everything goes as planned, I'll let you drive us home." Reve said and got in. Jacob dragged his feet to the passenger's seat and wore his seatbelt as soon as he sat down.

The ride to the hospital was filled with random topics about Reve's work and Jacob's college life. Although both of them mentioning it very less and that was appreciated by both the brothers.

There was some things that was better left unsaid.

In about 20 minutes, Reve was parking his car in the staff section.

They both were now walking towards his cabin, this gave Jacob to look around the hospital.

There was nothing that he hadn't seen before, he has been visiting this place ever since Reve was a junior intern which was around four year for him.

He saw familiar faces greeting both him and his brother, feeling proud of his brother who received all this appreciation and respect everyday.

He remembered spending his nights here when he was just 15 years old because his brother didn't had the heart to leave him alone at home, this place like his second home and Reve as his third parent, only parent now.

Jacob sat on the chair outside his cabin, as instructed by his brother while Reve did a few checkup rounds that he knew could take minutes to hours from experience.

He then started playing a random game to kill time.

After about an hour, Jacob and Reve were sitting in Reve's cabin with Soomin's parents and were discussing about Jacob as her imaginary boyfriend.

"You are not allowed to touch her with bad intentions and you're not allowed to make her sad. Stick to what you have to do." Soomin's father said throwing stares at Jacob.

"Yes sir." Jacob said fidgeting.

'It feels like meeting the parents of the girl I have been messing around with.' Jacob thought and sighed.

"Just remember that she might get angry quickly." Her mother said sweetly.

"Also she is emotionally weak." She added and he nodded.

"Can you please tell her friends about Jacob? So that they can act like he is not there." Reve asked and they nodded.

"She doesn't have a lot of friends to start with." Soomin's mother said again.

"I am sorry if it is personal but why is she trying to cure herself if there is no cure? I did some research and it said that Aphantasia is incurable." Jacob said and Reve sighed.

"She is a special case. A normal aphantastic can learn and describe. But she doesn't try." Reve said and her parents nodded.

"So I have to help her in what?" Jacob asked again.

"You have to push her inside her mind. You have to make her confident and accept herself as she is." Her father said and smiled

"I don't think she needs to do that." He mumbled.

"I mean if the only issue here is that she is not trying then I can only help you guys so much. I don't really know how this is going to turn out." He saw the mother's shoulder slump down.

"We just, we don't want to leave any door unopened. We have tried a lot of things, therapy, camps, countless appointments with numerous doctors all because we want her to smile like she means it." Her mother explained.

"We don't want this too. We don't even know you both, sorry if I'm rude, but we're trusting you because we love her. We want her to love herself too." Her father added, holding the hand of his partner.

"We know normal treatment won't do anything to her. She is too stubborn for that. We don't want her to stop trying but we also don't want her to think of it as a necessity."

Jacob sighed after listening to her parents, he couldn't ignore the plead in their voices.