The next morning, Eun-Ae and her escorts rose in the early hours of morning to return home and prepare for her next venture. Still blinking sleep from their eyes, they drove out of the deep woods back into the city, speeding home so that Eun-Ae could receive her daily cocktail of painkillers and vitamins that were feeble attempts to stave off her death sentence. Thankfully, none of the boys commented when she crawled out of Key's tent that morning, whether that be on account of common decency or the fact that they were probably too sleepy to pay much attention. When they rolled into the driveway and half-walked, half-dragged themselves to the front door, Eun-Ae's mother was there waiting with a pot of fresh coffee brewed, and the boys almost fell to their knees to worship the mother as an angel sent from the heavens to bless them with the heavenly gift of caffeine.

While the boys were busy gorging themselves with the bitter liquid, Eun-Ae shuffled to the stairs, rubbing her eyes sleepily as she headed for her room to wait on her nurse to check her vitals and administer her medications. She grabbed onto the banister as she tottered up the steps towards the second floor, half-listening to the banter migrating up from the kitchen.

That's when she began screaming.

Fiery pain like she had never felt before exploded in her legs, causing them to buckle immediately. Thankfully she had been clutching the handrail, for if she had not been she would have tumbled head-over-heels down the steps. Her arm jerked violently as she fell back, taking all of her weight as she hung pretty much in open air, her feet sliding uselessly across the carpeted steps. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she wailed in agony; Eun-Ae's legs hurt often, but she had never felt something like this. It felt like she was submerged in lava, slowly melting and driving her nerves insane from her feet to her hips. It was so intense that her vision began to grow black at the edges and her head began to swim, and the momentary lapse in her full consciousness made her fingers slip from the wooden banister. She gasped as she fell backward into open air, unable to catch herself as her legs refused to keep her steady. As the plastic tube swung through the air, the tank tipped backwards and went tumbling down the stairs in a serious of thunks.

“Eun-Ae!” Key shouted, and she heard rapid footsteps across the tile floor as he raced to catch her. Rather than meeting to hard, unforgiving surface of the stairs, she slumped into his solid body, but the force of her fall still caused him to lose his balance. With a grunt, he fell backward on the floor, cushioning her fall. Eun-Ae could not inquire to his condition, however, because she was too busy writhing in agony. She rolled off of him, gasping for breath as she tried to remain awake while it felt like her legs were being ripped from her body. Another strangled scream escaped from her, and she pressed her forehead against the smooth tile, mildly appreciating the cool sensation against her skin. Key groaned before rolling on his side, putting a hand on her back as he lifted himself up. “Eun-Ae. Eun-Ae, what's wrong?” he whispered.

“M-my legs,” she hissed through her gritted teeth. Even uttering those few words was an effort. She didn’t understand what was wrong. She hadn’t missed her appointment for her medications, and even if she had, it normally took an hour or so before an episode like this would surface. What's wrong now? She thought bitterly. Through her hazy eyes, she could see her tears splashing down on the tile floor. I’m not gonna make it, she thought miserably. It's only my ninth day… How can I put up with eleven more days of this? It makes me want to die… she thought as she laid her cheek against the floor, trembling. She looked up and her gaze caught Key's, and his eyes were nothing but concern. No… No, I can't think like that. I have too much to live for.

She closed her eyes as she heard the feverish pitter-patter of her nurse's feet as she rushed down the stairs and over to the collapsed girl.

“We have to get her upstairs! She needs to be sedated!” the nurse huffed as she kneeled down beside Eun-Ae and began checking her over. Eun-Ae screamed as the nurse rolled her onto her back; just the feeling of the floor sliding across her skin felt like they were taking a chainsaw to her. Eun-Ae couldn’t tell if her nerves were over-firing or her bones were finally breaking from the strain of the cancer, but really, she didn’t care. She just wanted it to stop.

At the nurse's prompting, Key scooped her into his arms while the nurse grabbed the oxygen tank, and together they carted the cancer-ridden girl to her bedroom. Key laid her in the bed, pushing her hair from her sweat-drenched forehead while the nurse fluttered about flipping on the various machines.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered to her as he gently held her hand and her hair, kneeling beside her bed as he consoled her. “Just relax. She's gonna get you all fixed up, okay? It will all be over soon,” he breathed soothingly, and Eun-Ae's eyes were trained on him. Key… My Key… she thought with a tiny smile, using the last of her strength to squeeze his hand. Then, she felt the I.V. poke into her arm, and the cold rush of morphine flushing through her system, and everything faded into darkness.

By the time she awoke, the sun had sunk low into the sky, casting her bedroom in a golden glow as she slowly returned to the waking world. She blinked in the gloom, breathing deeply as she glanced around the room sleepily. Her legs throbbed slightly, but painlessly, which she was thankful for. She turned her head as movement caught her eye, and it was Key slipping into the bedroom. “Hey. How are you feeling?” he asked as he walked over and swept some stray hairs out of her face.

“Tired and sore, but otherwise all right,” she answered and turned to the window with a forlorn sigh. The sun was rapidly fading into the cool night. “Well, so much for my ninth day,” she frowned with pursed lips. Damn this body of mine. It's already a ticking time bomb; the least it could do is behave for three weeks and let me do as I wish, she thought bitterly before sighing and flopping back against the pillow. “I might as well go back to sleep,” she muttered.

“Oh, don't say that!” Key cried. “There's still some things we can do! Granted, it won't be as grand as an adventure as we've recently been doing, but it will still be fun! Come on,” he insisted and shook her arm with a pleasing expression, and curled into a smile at his childish whimsy. Well… It's still early. Might as well not waste the day. “Can you walk, Eun-Ae?” he asked her with knitted eyebrows, and she in a breath as she sat up and gingerly threw her legs over the end of the bed. Slowly, she eased herself down to the floor, putting her weight on her fragile legs and standing up. She held her arms out for Key in case she fell, but though her legs wobbled a little bit, they didn’t not blaze with fiery pain nor buckle under her weight.

“I think I’m okay,” she concluded and looked up at him with a big grin.

“Great! Let's go downstairs and think up something to do, huh?” he smirked and grabbed her oxygen tank. Though it was slow-going since she did not want to push herself, they made it downstairs without much incident and settled in the living room to contemplate the situation. Suddenly, Taemin, who was stretched out on the floor, jumped up and tucked his legs underneath him.

“Ooh! I have an idea!” he cried elatedly. “We can have a slumber party, just like when we were little!”

“A slumber party?” Jonghyun sniffed as he crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah! We can do all the stuff we used to- we can build a pillow fort and have a pillow fight and stay up late watching dumb kids' movies!” the boy insisted with a triumphant snicker. “It'll be great! Whadaya say, Eun-Ae?”

“It has been a very long time since I’ve had a slumber party,” she answered with a small nod, admittedly intrigued. It was so late in the day that there was little the group of young adults could find to do, and Eun-Ae was so tired that staying in with her friends was quite appealing. “Sure, why not? I think it'll be fun!” she agreed after a minute of thought, and Taemin jumped up with a happy squeal.

“Hooray! Oh! I’m gonna go get Twister! Is it in the same place, Eun-Ae?” he gasped and went racing up the stairs without waiting for an answer to tear apart their hallway closet. As the boy came running back down the steps with the game board held over his head, Eun-Ae's mother delivered a twelve-pack of soft drinks and several bags of potato chips before meandering off to the back of the house to leave them to their own devices.

“Man, I don't think I’ve played Twister since I was thirteen,” Key remarked with a smirk as he watched Taemin throw open the box and begin setting up the popular party game with gusto.

“Well, that'll just make your easier to kick, then,” Onew grinned mischievously at him.

“Excuse me? No, no, no, no. You’re the one who's going down, buddy,” Key retorted hotly and crossed his arms. They’re always so competitive, Eun-Ae thought with a giggle and took the spinner when Taemin handed it to her. Many years ago, her mother had purchased an extra-large mat just for occasions such as these, when Eun-Ae and the five boys would crowd in the living room hopped up on sugar to tangle up in the party game. After that they would bury themselves in pillows and blankets and stay up watching movies, one by one drifting off to sleep until her mother came in the next morning to find them sprawled out all over each other, snoring softly with little smiles on their faces. Those were good times, she thought.

“Hey! Eun-Ae! You gonna spin it or what?” Taemin demanded hotly, and she jerked out of her reminiscent mood to hurriedly spin the arrow and direct them. In just a few moves the five of them were already cursing at each other in a hopeless tangle of legs and arms.

“Get your out of my face, Minho!” Onew snapped.

“Man, get your face outta my !” the boy shot back in irritation as he attempted to bend over backwards to reach the red spot that was available. After a few seconds of straining, he suddenly wobbled and lost his balance, bringing Jonghyun down with him.

“Dammit, Minho, you always do this!” he whined as he rolled off the mat and shook carpet fibers out of his hair, sitting up grumpily before grabbing a handful of chips and stuffing them into his mouth.

“I think my arm is breaking!” Taemin wailed. He was stretched out as far as he could go, poor thing. “Ah! I yield!” he shouted before flopping onto his belly miserably. He crawled away to leave the last two competitors, Onew and Key. Eun-Aw giggled as she spun the spinner again.

“Left foot on blue,” she mused and watched them struggle to perform the command.

“Can't you just give up already?” Onew whined loudly and butted Key in the side with his head in his attempts to get his foot onto the blue spot.

“No can do. Gotta look good in front of Eun-Ae,” he snickered and shot her a wink, but while he was distracted Onew moved and knocked him off-balance. “Oh, !” he cried as he waved an arm in an attempt to regain himself, but ended up tumbling to the floor in an ungraceful heap. “Dude, you did that on purpose,” he whined while Onew jumped to his feet and crowed happily over his win.

“Again! Again!” Taemin squealed.

“Taemin, you have a potato chip in your hair,” Minho sighed deeply, and the boy began attempting to look up to see where said chip was hiding in his fluffy locks. Eun-Ae watched them with a warm smile.

Maybe I didn’t have to go on all these fancy trips, she thought. If I could spend the rest of my days, like this, just goofing off in my house with my five best friends…

I think I could die happy then, too.