No One’s POV:

When Moon managed to make it back to the hospital after the staff meeting, on account of being Joo Eun’s acting guardian, he was in for a major shock to see the bed she was supposed to be in, totally empty and Jiwoong being nowhere in sight.

He quickly ran over to the reception desk and enquired them about her, and let out a heavy sigh when they informed her that she has been shifted over to a separate room. He wanted to give Jiwoong an earful for what he did but the moment he opened the room’s door, he got distracted by Joo Eun being conscious.

“Oh my, Joo Eun-ah! You’re awake finally? Thank God! Do you have any idea how much you got us all worried?”

“I’m sorry,” she smiled at him weakly.

“If it was not for this fellow’s torturing, we wouldn’t have found you on time.” Moon said, patting Jiwoong’s shoulder while she looked at her friend with a wide smile and mouthed a ‘Thank you’. “Anyway, you need not say sorry to me. It was James who got totally freaked out.” Her eyes widened hearing it and took a nervous glance at Jiwoong who was still unaware of her relationship with James.

“But why did James freak out though?” Jiwoong asked, giving the two a look.

“Naturally, it’s because –” Moon started but Joo Eun quickly interrupted him.

“Moon, where’s Sooyoon?” she asked while the other two looked at her, questioningly.

But before Moon could answer her, “Why do you want to know? You are like this now, all because of him!” Jiwoong successfully got diverted now but started ranting instead while Moon answered, “He’s held back in college with some work. He will be here, maybe later in the evening.”

She smiled at him while ignoring Jiwoong who was still ranting. But a moment later when she started to feel like he was going over the limits, she asked him calmly, “Didn’t you already know who he was and still kept it a secret?”

He quickly got quiet for a moment before he started to get flustered, “I, um, I didn’t hide it purposely. I-”

“It’s all right, Jiwoong. I’m not angry on you. I know you must have had your reasons and in the same way, I believe Sooyoon had his own reasons too.”

“Then why did you try to do something stupid?” Jiwoong glared at her.

“Do what?” she looked back at him, confused.

“Try to take your life!” he said, as if just saying it out would take off someone’s life.

“What? Who told you that?”

“Then what were you trying to do?” Jiwoong asked while Moon said, “Jam-, I mean your brother told me that he thinks that you were trying to take away your life.”

She suddenly avoided having eye contacts with them. “I wouldn’t deny that the thought never crossed my head. But I didn’t want to give in to them. So I put some ice in the tub as I wanted to numb my senses to keep the thoughts at bay, especially when I was alone.”

For a moment, Moon and Jiwoong wasn’t sure what to say exactly. Then Moon received a call, breaking the silence in the room and soon after Joo Eun and Jiwoong acted like nothing happened.

Moon came back a moment later, after he was done with the call. “Joo Eun, um, your brother just spoke to me. Unfortunately, he had to stay back longer than planned and he wanted to know if you’ll be all right.”

“Why can’t he ask that to her directly?” Jiwoong asked, making Moon get flustered.

“Yes Moon, tell him I will be okay.” She smiled at him before turning towards Jiwoong, “I don’t have my phone with me, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” He smiled at her, sheepishly.

A few hours later, Sooyoon finally managed to make it back to the hospital. Even he at first, was taken aback by the change of patient at her earlier bed. But since Moon was supposed to be there in the hospital already, he quickly contacted him and found out about the new room.

Initially the room was filled with slight awkwardness and some tension. Moon decided to let the two on their own as they have some things to be settled. However, Jiwoong refused to leave the hospital as he was still angry on Sooyoon for letting Joo Eun get hurt. And it took Moon a while to finally drag him out of there.

Now the room was only filled with some awkward silence and neither of them took the initiative to break it. Sooyoon was not sure on how to start the topic while Joo Eun wanted him to tell her about it on his own.

The nurses on rounds took a check on her, gave her the medicines and left but the two still haven’t spoken a word to each other yet. They even had their dinner in silence.

The medicines started to kick in and she started feeling drowsy, “I’m sleeping now.” She mumbled to him softly while he hummed in response.

She woke up a few hours later in the midnight and found him still sitting on the chair with his head resting on the bed. His eyes were closed, so she observed him for a few minutes and since there were no movements from him, she assumed he was sleeping.

She raised her hand and gently touched his head, softly combing his hair with her fingers. Hardly a few seconds later, he opened his eyes before slowly lifting his head, “Are you all right?” she nodded, “do you need anything?” she shook her head.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke, “Did I wake you up?”

“What? No, no,” he shook his head and then the silence returned.

A moment later, she rolled to the edge of the bed and patted the empty space beside her while he stared at her blankly. “I just want to sleep. But the choice is yours.” She said before turning around to the other side, showing her back towards him.

After a few moments of silence, he slowly got into the bed beside her. “Joo Eun-ah,” he called out to her softly while she just hummed in response. “Um, about hiding the truth –”

“I’m sleepy now. So could we talk about that later?” she interrupted him.

“Yeah, okay. Sleep well.” He replied hesitatingly and the room got filled with silence yet again.

A few minutes later, she rolled around once again and wrapped her arms around Sooyoon who was lying on the bed beside her. Somewhere in the back of her head, something was telling her that things might not be the same anymore and so, she wanted to make the most of now.

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