"Baby, wake up now~ Stop sleeping. Tsk tsk. How can you let your handsome boyfriend dying out of boredom." His soft whine woke me up from my beauty sleep. I opened my eyes and look up at his gorgeous face sleepily. Instead of answering him, I snuggled into his chest closer and breathed in slowly. 

"I'm still sleepy, Jongin..." I mumbled against his chest as I felt his arm tightened around my waist. He kissed the top of my head before letting out a small chuckle.

"When did you ever not feeling sleepy, baby? You're like a sleeping beauty. My sleeping beauty." He said in a teasing manner. I looked up and pout at him with my eyes half-opened.

"Stop teasing me~" I whined softly before I felt a kiss on my pouty lips. He grinned cheekily and stole a kiss on my cheek. 

"I love you, Iris." Hearing that precious words, I couldn't help but to blush over and over again. I had always loved how my name sounded when it came from his lips. His voice seemed to caress the words. Jongin laughed before stealing a kiss on my cheek again.

"Mmm, I love you too. Very very much." I said. I was about to close my eyes to continue with my sleep when he gave me a big smooch on my lips. 

"Baby, wake up. It's nine in the morning." He whispered and played with my fingers. He brought my hand to his lips and gave my fingertips light kisses, caressing my knuckle gently as if it would break even at a slight touch. 

"Hm..." I replied before opening my heavy eyes to look at him. He gave me a gentle smile before kissing my nose. I scrunched my nose and give his nose a light pinch. 

"Cute." Jongin chuckled as I made my attempt to sleep again. 

"Baby, wake up. I need my morning kiss. Do you want to kiss me, baby?" He said, puckering his lips. 

"No~ Besides, you already received your morning kiss just now. Kisses if I may add." I whined and sat on the bed. 

"Hm. Did you even hear what I said just now?" He said and I turned to look at him, only to found him with a hurt expression plastered on his handsome face. 

"Uh, of course I heard it. Do you want to kiss me, baby?" I repeated exactly what he said. He grinned cheekily before shrugging innocently.

"Sure, if you insist." With that, he leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips. I frowned and folded my arms while looking at him.

"Jongin, you're so childish. Whatever, I'll just make us some breakfast." I said before tying my hair into a messy brown. 

"Only with you, baby~" He sang playfully. I was about to stand up when he yanked me back on the bed softly. I rolled my eyes at his playfulness but smile nonetheless.

"Wae~~~" I asked with a hint of playfulness. Jongin pouted and stare me with his puppy eyes.

"I wanna cuddle and spend my Sunday with you~ Today is our second anniversary." He said childishly. I giggled happily before nodding my head. Jongin hugged me before tangling our legs together. I circled my arms around his neck and craned my neck up to give him a peck. 

"Happy anniversary, baby. I'm sorry that sometimes I get jealous thinking that someone else could make you happier than I could. I guess it's my insecurities acting up. Because I know I'm not the smartest or fun and exciting to be with, although I know I'm the most handsome guy you'll ever meet." He shrugged. "But I do know that no matter how long and hard you look, you'll never find somebody that loves me like I do." He said and kissed my nose. What did I do in my past life to receive this wonderful guy in my life...

"I love you, Jongin."

"I love you, Iris." We said exactly at the same time and burst into laughter.

Well, that was months ago. Jongin was like a different person now. He had been avoiding me for some unknown reasons. And I was being left alone in my apartment. Where could he be? 

We didn't live with each other. Usually, Jongin would come and sleep at my house every weekends but I noticed, he would give me excuses that he can't come to my house. At first, I just shrugged off the thought of him cheating on me. There was no way that he would cheat on me. Didn't he say he loved me? He loved me, right?

I tried to ignore the pain in my chest. It hurts, physically and emotionally. I had been coughing up blood for the past few minutes and it had been like this ever since I remember. The massive headache was not helping either. 

I was diagnosed with lung cancer stage three. I was surprised at first because I thought I had recovered from my cancer three years ago. I remembered it clearly when I went to the hospital. 

"Iris, it's nice to see you again." Dr. Park smiled at me. She was the one who help me with my surgery. I bowed and smiled at her before taking a seat in front of her.

"Dr. Park." My voice became hoarse as I greeted her and I fiddled with my fingers. Dr. Park chuckled and reached out to pat my cheek.

"Drop the formalities, Iris. I've known you since you were a kid. You can call me mom. Your late mother had told me to take care of you like my own child." She said with a motherly smile plastered on her lips. I nodded with my head hung low.

"I t-think the symptoms are coming back." I mumbled.

"Oh, dear. How long has it been?" She asked in concern. My bottom lip trembled as a tear slipped out of the corner of my eye and down my cheek. 

"I started to notice it since a year ago. At first, I was just having some massive headaches, loss of appetite and fatigue, but I've been coughing up b-blood for the past few months."

"Oh my god, Iris! You should have come sooner! Are you having other symptoms than coughing up blood and weight loss?" She asked as she patted my back in a comforting manner. 

"My chest and shoulder hurts when coughing and I easily get tired."

"I think the cancer are coming back." With that, I broke down crying. Was I worth this mess?

"B-but you said it before that you saw no evidence of any cancer???" I choked out the words out of my lips. Dr. Park sighed and returned to her seat. Twirling her pen around her fingers, trying to calm herself. 

"I'm so sorry, Iris. It’s not possible to guarantee that a person who has completed cancer treatment will never have the cancer come back. There is always still a chance that some cancer cells survived in your body, even though they cannot be seen or found with any test used today. These cells can begin to divide and make more cancer cells. Over time, the cancer can grow enough to be found." She said and smiled sadly at me. I covered my mouth with the back of my palm as the trust flashed upon my mind, every word she said sunk in like a knife into my chest.

"B-but–"

"The first cancer might come back. A recurrent cancer starts with cancer cells that the first treatment didn’t fully remove or destroy. This does not mean that you got the wrong treatment. It does not mean that you did anything wrong after treatment, either. It means that a small number of cancer cells survived the treatment you had. There were probably too few to be detected on tests or scans. But over time, these cells grew into tumors or cancer of the same cells as the first one. Not all of the factors that help cancer cells grow have been found yet. Even though treatment may seem to get rid of all of the cancer, there may be just one tiny cancer cell left someplace in the body. This cell might not cause any harm for many years. Suddenly, something can change the immune system and “wake up” the cell. When it becomes active, it can grow and divide to make other cells. Finally, it becomes big enough for we can detect it as a recurrence." She finished her speech and lowered her head to wipe the tear that slipped out of her eyes secretly.

"Let's get you a clinical trial, hm?" She asked softly.

EXO's Hangout Villa.

"What are you doing here, Kai? Aren't you supposed to be at Iris's place?" Kyungsoo asked his best friend as he watched how the younger ones took a big gulp of his soda. Kai glared at him before throwing the empty can in the dustbin. 

"Oh geez, shut up. I'm getting bored of hearing her name over and over again." He said and rolled his eyes in annoyance. Just then, he heard his phone ringing inside his pocket and he sighed. He pulled out his phone and looked at the caller id only to saw his girlfriend's name.

"Annoying." Kai mumbled and tossed his phone on the kitchen counter making a thud. Kyungsoo eyed his best friend with worry. He didn't want his best friend to regret what he was doing later on.

Not long after that, his phone rang again. Kyungsoo peeked at the caller id and his eyes narrowed towards Kai.

"Are you not going to answer her call?" He asked and folded his arms, staring at the guy before him with a judging look. Kai rolled his eyes in annoyance and took his phone to accept the call.

"What?!" His tone was harsh and Kyungsoo's eyes widened at how rude he was. 

"Hi, I just wanted to call you because I miss you. Are you coming tonight?"  She asked softly as the tears fell down her cheeks after hearing his tone. Her voice cracked but Kai was too annoyed to notice. 

"I'm not coming. I'm busy with my new project so stop disturbing me." He said in one go. But he couldn't help but feeling guilty at how harsh he was being towards her.

"I'm sorry. It's just that... it's been so long since we both spend time with each other." Iris mumbled and forced a chuckle. 

"I'm hanging up." He said and looked everywhere but Kyungsoo's judging eyes.

"W-wait!" Iris squeaked in panic.

"What else? Geez, so annoying." He said and sighed. Iris gulped the lump in and let a small smile painted on her pale lips.

"I love you, Kim Jongin." 

"Yeah, yeah. Bye." With that, he ended the call and shoved his phone into the pocket of his jeans.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Kai?!" Kyungsoo yelled, obviously fumed at the way Kai was treating his girlfriend. 

"Oh come on, you know that I easily get bored of girls. She should be grateful that she's the girl that I've been with for a long time." He said as if it was the most normal thing to say out loud. Just then, he received a hard punch square in the face. Jongin fell down from the chair and looked up at his best friend with a shocked expression.

"What's wrong with you, hyung?!" He yelled furiously. Just then, Suho, Luhan and Kris came and their eyes widened at the sight of Kai with his bloody lips.  

"What's wrong with me? What is wrong with you! He said as he hovered over the younger one's body to give him another hard punch but he was stopped when Kris yanked his left arm.

"Let go of me! This stupid need to be teach a lesson!" He yelled and wiggled his arm out of Kris' strong grip but failed due to his strength compared to Kris.

"Hey, calm down. What did Kai do?" Suho said as he patted Kyungsoo's back to calm him down.

"Calm down?! Did you know that this idiot is just playing Iris' heart? All this time?!" Kyungsoo shouted. 

"W-what?" Luhan asked in surprised. Did I just hear it right? But didn't he told us that he really loves Iris?

"I'm not playing with her heart! I really did love her, okay?! I don't know myself! I just found her really annoying and boring for the past few months and she seems like keeping something from me. "

"So, now we're playing with past tense, huh? Stop. You're hurting her." Kyungsoo said in a harsh tone. Kai couldn't help but to look away.

"Soooo, where's the others?" Suho said, trying to lighten up the gloomy mood. 

And he received no response at all.

The knock on the door woke me up from my sleep. I glanced up at the clock and it read 11p.m. Tying my hair into a loose ponytail, I walked to the door and opened it. Upon seeing the sight of Jongin standing in front of me with his hands were tucked in his jeans pocket, a happy smile spread on my lips in a matter of seconds.

But the look on his face made my smile faltered and then faded. He was looking at me with those pair of unreadable eyes. His eyes were no longer screamed warmth and loving. It showed no emotion. 

"Let's take a walk." Although his words sounded strange, I had decided to obey. I wore a hoodie that reached just under my bum with a black leggings. I pulled the hood over my head until it obscured the top half of my face. Checking my appearance in front of the mirror, I smiled a little because the hood was almost covering my pale face. 

"Please don't let him notice my pale face..." I silently prayed to god as I made my way out of my room. Jongin was waiting for me in the living room while playing with his phone. 

"Hey, I'm ready. Let's go." My voice turned hoarse and Jongin narrowed his eyes at me. 

"What's wrong with you?" 

"U-uh just a slight fever. Nothing serious." I said and forced a smile. Jongin sighed and grabbed my hand in his bigger ones.

"You should take care of yourself." Hearing that simple words just made my day, although I was still bothered by the the look on his face. But I decided to just shrug it off.

"I will." I grinned. We walked along the road hand in hand while swaying it lightly. The happy smile on my face was still there. I leaned my head on his shoulder and hugged his arm using my free hand. 

"I miss you, Jongin." I said and gave him a gentle smile before reaching out to peck his lips. He squeezed my hand a little before giving me small smile. 

"Do you want to watch the fireworks?" He asked me as we arrived by the riverside. I nodded my head as we sat at the nearest bench waiting for the clock strikes midnight. I was glad that he still remember that I loved watching fireworks. I remembered this place clearly. This was the place where Jongin asked me out. This was the place where he had confessed to me.

"Jongin, will you hate me if you know that I'm hiding something from you?" I bit my lower lips in anxious as I waited for his answer. He looked at me and gave me a smile that warmed my heart. But still, I was waiting for his answer. 

"Why are you so pale? Did you take care of yourself well enough?" He asked as he tried to pull the hood off my head but I was quick enough to dodge when suddenly I started coughing hard. I closed my mouth as I continued coughing. Jongin helped me by rubbing my back. As I started to calm down, I removed my hand from my mouth and searched for my bottle that I bring with me earlier.

But when I turned to look at my boyfriend, I saw his eyes widened staring at my lips. Just then, the reality hit me that maybe I was coughing up blood in front of him. I quickly searched for my handkerchief and dabbed the blood on my lips. I took a gulp of the water and spat it to cleanse the metallic taste in my mouth.

"Are you sick, Iris?" His question caught me off guard. Not only that, but the way he called my by my name threw me off guard too. He had stopped calling me by names and I couldn't help but to wonder why.

"Aniya... My gums was bleeding because of brushing teeth earlier." I said and laughed it off. My pale lips looked slightly red from the blood earlier. 

"There's something I want to tell you, Iris... Let's–" The fireworks cut his words off and I laughed. I focused my eyes at the fireworks and leaned my head on his shoulder to enjoy the view.

"Let's break up." 

I froze on my spot after hearing the words coming out from his lips and slowly raised my head to stare at him. I laughed and bring my legs closer as I hugged my knees close to my chest.

"Stop joking around, Jongin." I said and smiled. But the serious look on his face was like an eraser that erased the smile off my lips. He removed my hands that were hugging his arm and stood up. His back was now facing me.

"B-but why?" I forced the qords out of my lips but I swore to myself that I didn't even want to hear his answer as it was just going to break my heart even more.

"I'm the type of man who easily get bored and annoyed. You're too clingy to my liking. You're the girl I last long with and now I'm breaking up with you." The way he let those words out of his lips so easily made world crash apart. 

I just wanted to spend my time with him and there he was, calling me clingy. His reason of breaking up with me was absurd. Too absurd! Bored? That was the reason why he wanted to break up with me?

"Did our three years of relationship mean not