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Simo sat idly in the living room with his two best friends, Chris and Thobbe, as well as his boyfriend, Aimo, beside him,
Currently, he was mindlessly scrolling through Tumblr, it’s an interesting social media platform, one where he could find just about anything in it, from DIYs all the way to memes,
Suddenly, a white bar popped up at the top of his screen,
He saw that it was a text from Tommy,
With a cocked eyebrow, he curiously tapped the message and was taken to the messaging app on his cellphone,
He saw that Tommy had sent him a link to…something,
‘WHAT IS THIS?’ He typed,
Simo watched as three pulsating dots appeared on the screen, indicating that Tommy was typing,
‘IT’S A FUNNY VIDEO, JUST TAP THE LINK AND WATCH IT!’ Tommy answered,
Simo shrugged and tapped on the link,
He watched as his phone took him to the pre-installed app on his phone named “TikTok”, he remembers Chris and Tommy explaining to him that it was an app where people can make funny short videos,
He never saw the appeal in it so he never really bothered with it, other than to make an account on it so that he could look at the occasional pet video, but not much else,
He saw the preview of the video to be a young boy, he guessed to be aged somewhere between eighteen and twenty-five, they wore a large coat of which had a belt on it with a golden star, and on their head, was a winter hat with the Red Army’s insignia sown on it,
Above the young boy is a red block with white text on it, it reads: ‘Soviet troops, in the Winter War’
This immediately catches his attention and makes him raise an eyebrow in curiosity,
What could this video possibly be about?
Let’s watch and find out!
He taps the play button on it and watches it unfold, before his very eyes,
He watches as serious music plays, and the man who’s pretending to be a Soviet soldier looks mildly annoyed, he opens his mouth and says, “I want... every gun we have to fire on that man”
The scene suddenly cuts off to another man, slightly farther away from the camera, a blue box with white text reads: ‘Simo Häyhä’
‘…Me?’ is all Simo thinks as he watches on in silence,
As the serious music continues to play softly in the background, Simo watches as the man who’s supposed to be him, suddenly come to life at the same time as some funky music does,
The man does a small dance at the same time as the music, it’s perfectly timed, and then the video ends,
Simo suddenly finds himself snorting with laughter, he’s trying to keep quiet as the people around him are doing their own things,
He can’t resist but watch the video again,
And again,
And again,
Each time he watches it, the laughing gets worse and worse,
Right now, he’s holding onto his sides as he quietly cracks up, he’s curled in on himself as he snickers like a mad man,
Aimo, who’s sitting beside his boyfriend doesn’t understand what he’s found to be so funny, he cocks an eyebrow and asks, “What’s so funny, Simuna?”
Simo can’t bring himself to even look at his boyfriend as the mental image of the funny dance keeps playing on repeat in his head, making him suddenly howl out loud with laughter,
His whole body shakes as he laughs hard,
Aimo is smiling fondly at his boyfriend as he watches on, he’s still clueless on what made him laugh so hard, but he’s just happy that he’s happy,
If he’s well, then there’s nothing to worry about!
Suddenly, a wheeze escapes Simo’s lips and that causes Chris and Thobbe’s interest to be piqued,
“You okay, lumikarhu?” Chimes Thobbe, who’s watching Simo carefully,
Simo shakes his head just in time as another wheeze comes out, his face is contorted into a wild smile as he quietly laughs, there’s no sound coming out,
“He doesn’t look too good…” Admits Chris,
Several more wheezing noises come out as he laughs hard, and they all further add on to the others growing concern,
Chris watches as Simo’s face turns cherry pink as he continues to wheeze,
Simo can’t get any air into his lungs because of how hard he’s laughing, he looks to be almost coughing as well, Chris can make out small tears in his eyes,
“Alright, someone goes get Pär, Indy… or Lawrence, hell anyone!” Thobbe shouts,
Chris is the first to get up, placing his sketchbook down on the coffee table as he runs off to find one of the aforementioned men,
Simo looks on as both Aimo and Thobbe now seem to be hovering close to him,
Simo continues to wheeze as he can’t stop himself from giggling,
Thobbe looks to Aimo, “Do you think it’s a panic attack?” he asks
Aimo shakes his head, “I doubt it, I know what his panic attacks look like… this is something else…”
Thobbe thinks for a moment when a lightbulb turns on, “Oh! Wait, asthma? Could it be an asthma attack?!”
Aimo looks to Thobbe and then back at his boyfriend, then back at Thobbe, “I-…I-I think so?”
“Shit” Thobbe curses as he watches Simo,
Simo’s making gestures with his hands, some look like he’s clapping too, but they fall on deaf ears as neither of the two can decipher what he’s saying,
“Where is he?!” Comes Indy’s voice from afar, as well as the sound of approaching footsteps,
Thobbe and Aimo look up just in time to see Chris in tow with Lawrence, Pär, and Indy,
They all have varying degrees of concern laced in their faces as they approach Simo,
Immediately, Lawrence gets the two to move to the side, so as to give Simo space,
Indy and Pär examine Simo and both are quick to deduce that this has to be some sort of Asthma attack,
“Right, that’s it-!” Begins Indy as he looks to Pär, “-Let's get him in the car-“ he turns to face Simo, “-I’m taking you to the hospital…!”
Simo can only giggle harder at their worried faces, he thinks that there really isn’t anything to worry about,
Pär nods, and helps to get Simo to stand,
Their concern for their dear friend only grows when suddenly, Simo’s legs nearly give in under him,
Thankfully, however, they don’t as Pär is quick to catch him and guide him the rest of the way towards the car,
With them, Joakim, Manfred, and Hannes come to join Pär and Indy as they head to the hospital, having heard all the commotion,
Lawrence stays behind with the rest, so as to keep an eye on things at home,
And so, the small group rushes off to the hospital…
Finally, at the hospital, Indy is with Simo, who is laying on a medical bed, ready to be attended to at any moment by a medical practitioner,
Behind him, Indy hears the curtain move and he turns to see who it is, he finds a young nurse,
“Ah, hello…” he greets,
“Hello, sir, what seems to be the problem?”
“I think my boy here-“ he gestures to Simo, who is still very much wheezing, “-Maybe having an asthma attack…”
The nurse nods and just as she turns to look at Simo, she finds that the left side of his face has massive scarring tissue on it, the eye on that side seems to be half glazed over, perhaps it has something to do with the scarring?
She eyes his scars with a great deal of concern,
Indy is quick to pick up on her worry, “Oh-!” he begins, “-D-Don’t worry about those scars, he’s always been a bit of a problem child when he was little-“ he waves a dismissive hand, “-He’s fine…” he finishes,
Simo looks to Indy, a slight eyebrow cocked as he heard what he said,
Had he just covered for him by acting as his father?
Huh…
Suddenly a mischievous idea flashed in his mind that made him grin ear to ear,
Through sheer willpower alone, Simo forces himself to stop laughing,
Of which he successfully does!
“I got shot in the face!” he proudly proclaims,
The nurse’s eyes grow wider, almost like saucers in her skull as she eyes him further, her concern growing slightly more,
Indy on the other hand panics, “NO HE DID NOT!” he shouts as he tries to desperately hide the fact that Simo nearly gave everything away,
Pär, who is just outside with Manfred, Joakim, and Hannes gets up from his seat, “Alright, I’m going in there-“ he speaks as he heads on in,
“Nurse Abby?” Pär calls out to the young woman,
“Yes?” says the nurse,
“Don’t listen to him, he’s just fooling around, that was from an accident years ago…”
The nurse nods, “Oh… okay then…” is all she replies with, Pär is thankful that she knows him and his family well enough to not question his judgment,
Outside, Joakim and Manfred are quietly cracking up after having heard Simo’s comment and Indy’s reaction,
Hannes is beside the two, trying to keep them under control and quiet so as to not disturb the doctors and various patients nearby,
Back inside of the room, Simo is laying back on the bed, holding his head, there’s a look of exhaustion to him,
Indy, bless him, worriedly looks at him and asks, “Are you ok, Simuna?”
He watches as Simo moves one of his hands to look at him, he gives a tired loopy smile, “I’m dizzy…!” he exclaims,
At that, the nurse quickly rushes off to get some oxygen and an oxygen mask to go along with it, to allow him to breathe and get the necessary oxygen inside of himself,
Moments later, she arrives when the necessary equipment and begins setting everything up for her patient,
Once everything is done, she hands the mask to Simo, who takes it and puts it on, he begins breathing in the slow air that is pumped through the small tube of the mask,
He feels his lungs slowly being filled with the rich oxygen, that is slowly making his dizziness dissipate,
Pär and Indy share a look, followed by a sigh as they sit down on some chairs that where placed in the room and watch as the nurse eventually leaves them be,
As they’re left alone, they sit in silence,
That was at least until Simo spoke up again, “Guys, look-…” he begins, “-I wasn’t having a panic attack or asthma or anything! I was laughing at a dumb video Tommy showed me!” he explains, while still under the mask,
Pär and Indy are silent for a moment before Pär finally speaks up, “…Really...?” he asks,
Simo can tell that he’s severely disappointed by the tone of his voice…
By the time that they all eventually get home, Tommy has gotten several disappointed talks by Lawrence and Indy,
And he’s about to get another from Pär,
However, just before that, he’s talking to Simo,
“Sorry youngster, I tried to calm him down!” he exclaims,
He watches with a smirk as Tommy tenses up slightly at being called a ‘youngster’, “Well… did it work?” he asks him,
“Nope!”
There’s a knock at the door and suddenly, the door is swung open to reveal a frowning Pär,
Uh oh… it looks like Tommy’s going to get yet another disappointed father ™ conversation…