eleven;

It was already dark when Myungsoo finally woke up. I was alone in the room since his mother had gone home with Chorong after I insisted that I’d stay for the day. Mrs Kim looked exhausted after all, so I thought she could use a bit of rest.

Myungsoo glanced around the hospital room quietly, as if to take in where he was in. I never noticed how fragile he could look, and how thin he had been. “Here again,” he commented, before turning to face me. “Somehow I always manage to end up here,”

“How are you feeling?” I asked, ignoring his remarks.

“I’m okay,” he nodded. “What happened?”

“You passed out while climbing the hill,”

“Ah,” he faked a smile. “I was just tired, I think,”

“You sure?”

“Yup,”

"You almost gave Chorong a heart attack, though,"

He chuckled. "Remind me to apologize to her afterwards,"

I stared at him as he fixed his gaze outside the window.

“Hyung,” he called.

“Mm?”

“You must have hated me, right?”

“What?”

He faced me. “I came into your life and took away everything, even your most prized possession,”

I gritted my teeth and said nothing.

“You know, hyung, at where I used to live before moving here, I had no friends at all. No one wanted to befriend a boring, sickly kid who can’t play anything in case he gets tired,” he said with a sad smile. “But on the very first day I came here, I met you two right away. You never minded the fact that I was sick and would come up with so many games that I could play along,” he went on. “But I guess I got greedy. I wanted more,”

“Myungsoo yah,”

“I’m always receiving things from you, but I never give back,”

“It doesn’t matter―”

“I’ve been so selfish,”

“Myungsoo yah,”

“Hyung,” he interrupted me. “Can I ask for one more favour? One selfish request from this ungrateful dongsaeng of yours?”

I heaved out a sigh. “What is it?”

“Can you let me have Chorong noona for a bit longer?”

“She was never mine in the first place, so why ask for my permission?” I scoffed.

“Hyung,” he called softly. “Her heart was never mine. It belongs to someone else. I knew it even before she realized it herself.”

I continued to stare at him in silence as he turned to his pillow and rested his head on it, closing his eyes. “I’m tired. Can I rest now?”

The air was still between us, and despite the humidifier next to his bed, I felt cold tingling down to my spine. I rose from the chair and paved my way towards the door.

“Hyung,” I heard his faint voice behind my back, and I paused where I stood. “Let me be selfish for a while longer. Just a tiny bit longer,”