‘’Jaehwan hyung, Jaehwan hyung, wake up—‘’

Jaehwan’s eyes slowly fluttered open at the sound of familiar voice calling to him. ‘’Hyuk-ah,’’ he said hoarsely and blinked at his lover. ‘’What is wrong? Where am I?’’

‘’Hi, I’m Lee Taeil, nice to finally meet you,’’ Taeil smiled at confused Jaehwan ‘’and this is Jihoon,’’ he pointed to the other guy.

‘’Um, hi?’’ Jaehwan said and turned back to his boyfriend, sending him a questioning look.

‘’You know,’’ Sanghyuk started talking ‘’at the checkup—‘’

‘’Oh, right, last thing I remember is that, how did it go?’’ Jaehwan asked curious.

‘’Well the thing is—‘’ Sanghyuk’s heart started beating like crazy and his hands started shaking. He knew he needed to tell him, but he was scared. They intentionally erased the torture part from Jaehwan’s memory but he needed to at least tell him. Tell him that he is no longer—

‘’Something happened right?’’ Jaehwan’s voice got quieter ‘’something went wrong, right Sanghyuk? Just what the hell happened?!’’

‘’Calm down, please,’’ Sanghyuk begged ‘’everything is okay now, don’t worry. Just—‘’

‘’Then tell me if everything is okay, what happened there. Why don’t I remember?’’

‘’Because… They found us and…’’

‘’You got hurt,’’ Jihoon butted in because he couldn’t stand the tension and Sanghyuk’s beating around the bush anymore ‘’pretty bad. You are here because you needed help. But now you are just fine.’’

‘’How bad?’’ Jaehwan asked confused. ‘’So, this is a hospital?’’

‘’Erm, not exactly a hospital,’’ Jihoon answered ‘’but if you look at it in that way, you can call it a private hospital, ha ha. No, but seriously; you were really hurt and Sanghyuk brought you here, we live here by the way, and begged us to help you. And who are we to refuse this guy? So we made you better, literally.’’

‘’Made me better? What is he talking about, Hyuk-ah? What do you mean I was hurt?’’ Jaehwan demanded answers from his boyfriend.

‘’When they found us, they dragged you in some room,’’ said Sanghyuk with a shaky voice ‘’along with Hakyeon and Hongbin hyung. I don’t know what exactly was going on in there, but when I found you, you were beaten up really badly and unconscious. You lost a lot of blood. We somehow managed to escape and I brought you here right away, because I know these guys and trust them with my life. You underwent an operation and as you can see and feel you are as new. Nothing to worry about,’’ he added with a quiet voice.

‘’Okey dokey  then!’’ suddenly said Jaehwan more cheerfully ‘’if nothing is wrong anymore we can go home now, right?’’

‘’Umm, I guess so?’’ said Taeil ‘’Wait, but first you should adjust to—‘’ he didn’t get to finish his sentence because Jaehwan tried to stand up and fell on the floor.

‘’Ha ha, you’re just feeling weak because of the surgery,’’ Sanghyuk faked his laugh and tried to help his boyfriend to stand up.

‘’But I don’t feel weak at all,’’ Jaehwan murmured ‘’in fact, I—‘’ he grabbed Sanghyuk’s wrist to show him his grip is strong enough but as soon as he put a little pressure the sound of bones cracking filled the room, followed by Sanghyuk’s scream.

‘’Oh my god, oh my god! I-I didn’t mean to—‘’ Jaehwan widened his eyes in fear and backed one step away, hands covering his mouth. But his legs felt really strange, so he lost balance once again and went crashing on the floor.

‘’I’m fine. I said I’m fine!’’ Sanghyuk shouted at the worried Taeil who came rushing to him and pushed him away with his unhurt hand. ‘’Jaehwan, don’t worry, it’s because of the anesthesia and… you didn’t hurt me at—auch,’’ he started blabbering in panic.

‘’Don’t lie to me Sanghyuk-ah,’’ Jaehwan said seriously ‘’I know something is wrong. So, what are you not telling me?’’ and looked up at his freaked out boyfriend.

‘’N-nothing,’’ Sanghyuk continued lying ‘’It’s just—‘’

‘’Oh, for ’s sake just tell the guy the truth!’’ suddenly Hyuntae who kept quiet all this time started speaking ‘’how do you even imagine not telling him that his body has been almost totally replaced by something artificial? He must feel it anyway, don’t make him even more confused. Don’t lie to your boyfriend, Sanghyuk.’’

‘’Shut up, you idiot,’’ hissed Sanghyuk at his friend, but it was already too late.

‘’S-something artificial? My whole body?’’ Jaehwan stuttered in disbelief. ‘’Tell me I heard wrong. That I misunderstood,’’ he looked at his lover with such fear in his eyes that Sanghyuk had to look away, anywhere but those eyes.

‘’You didn’t,’’ sighed Jihoon ‘’you were on the verge of death. Your body was demolished. We had no other option, but you make you a new one, actually to upgrade your old one.’’

‘’No,’’ whispered Jaehwan in utter shock ‘’how could you? You’ve made me a monst—‘’

‘’Your brain is untouched so you are technically just as any other person who underwent surgery, like those people with artificial knees or hips or lunges… just better—‘’

‘’Don’t tell me I’m still me!’’ Jaehwan started shouting ‘’how could you?! You had no right!!’’ looking accusingly at Sanghyuk.

‘’You are not like Kibum!!’’ he shouted back ‘’You ARE still you! If you look closely you see that your body looks the same as before.’’

‘’But it’s not,’’ said Jaehwan.

‘’No, it’s not,’’ answered Jihoon ‘’once you’ll get used to it and learned to use it right you’ll see how much better it got. You can’t even imagine what you’ll be able to—‘’

‘’I don’t want to get used to it. I’ll never accept it,’’ interrupted Jaehwan.

Sanghyuk’s worst fears were becoming true; he knew that Jaehwan was going to be upset after finding out what they had done to him. To be honest, Sanghyuk had only done that because of himself; he couldn't bear the thought of the other one leaving him completely alone, there was no way that he could survive without Jaehwan around; his boyfriend meant just too must to him to let him go. Sanghyuk knew that it was a selfish thing to do, es