“I love you, Yesung. I always have,” Siwon made a motion to hold Yesung’s hand which was resting at the edge of the round coffee table but the latter swiftly shoved it away. He sighed, his hope dropping by ten percent, but he did not give up. He looked up at Yesung, noticing the uneasy look on his face yet paying it no mind. “Would you love me, too?”

Yesung opened his mouth to speak, but no words were able to make it out. He blinked, only realizing then how long he had been keeping his eyes wide. Sure, he had an unusual feeling the moment he saw Siwon earlier that day. Sure, he liked Siwon in the past and he knew it was wrong for they were relatives. But all his reveries of Siwon were in the past. Past is past and never to be discussed. Once he was able to partially get over the shock Siwon had caused him, he looked down at his mug and held it unsteadily with two hands. “Siwon, I,” he whispered softly yet loudly enough for said man to hear, “I don’t…”

Before Yesung could even finish his sentence, Siwon stood up from his chair. “It’s fine,” he smiled brightly at Yesung… so brightly that only one who was aware of the situation he was in could tell it was fake.

“Siwon,” Yesung looked at him apologetically. As much as he liked and felt sorry for his relative, he just couldn’t say yes to his offer. It being wrong was one of his reasons for rejecting Siwon, but we all know there was something else.

“It’s okay,” Siwon lied, “I’ll give you time to think about it.” He smiled again and walked out of the shop without even saying goodbye. He paid and got rejected; he thought those were enough to fill in for his absent goodbye. And besides, he didn’t want to add up his politeness to Yesung’s debt of gratitude towards him.

Yesung blankly eyed the mug sitting on the coffee table, trying to adjust his mind to what just happened. He stupidly gawked at it for minutes, blinking occasionally. He did not even know what he was thinking about. All he knew was that he was thinking about something.

“That won’t go away if you solely stare at it, you know,” Yesung’s thoughts were abruptly interrupted when someone settled himself on where Siwon was previously at.

“Eunhyuk,” he blinked; the blank expression still on his face.

“Uhh, yeah.” Eunhyuk snapped his fingers and a tall female clad in café uniform instantly appeared in front of him.

“I’ll have a Java-Chip Frappe and strawberry cheesecake on his,” he pointed at Yesung, “Tab.” He quickly said before the waitress even had the chance to ask him whether she should take his order.

“Shouldn’t you be at school?” Yesung noticed that Eunhyuk was clad in his school uniform – baggy, woolen sweater and black trousers – and was bringing along a school bag.

“I should be asking you the same question, mister school nurse,” the younger male smirked. The smile on his face disappeared the moment he set eyes on what Yesung was wearing, “I know you’re hot and everything. But should you really be excessively exposed like that? I mean, seriously. You’re like twenty one in the body of a twenty nine year old guy who looks like he needs to be married.”

Yesung looked himself down and mentally face-palmed at the recognition that he was still wearing what he wore in his sleep – a white, fitted tank and black jogging pants. It wasn’t his fault he panicked the moment he saw unconscious Sungmin and forgot about changing clothes before going out.

“You could’ve at least fixed your hair,” Eunhyuk leaned on the table and rested his chin on his palms. He had an amused smirk on his face, “In my opinion, though, your bed hair look is really hot. You should show yourself out looking like that more often,” he winked.

“Hm,” Yesung brought his mug up to his lips and sipped some of his already cold coffee, “You’re contradicting. And why are you flirting with me? What are you… like, sixteen?”

“I’m eighteen.”

Yesung sighed. Right then was not the best time to meet his overly nosy dongsaeng. “What are you doing here, anyway?”

“It’s raining,” Eunhyuk tilted his head towards the window and pointed his lips, “I was on my way to school when the rain started pouring. So I came here.”

“Liar,” Yesung said exactly a millisecond after Eunhyuk’s statement, “Classes had started hours ago.”

“Well I guess I have no escape then,” Eunhyuk shrugged.

Yesung let out a sigh. He lifted his back slightly from the chair and grabbed his phone from his pocket. He was supposed to check the time but the first thing he saw was the message on the screen saying “Your message has been successfully sent.” He stood up from his chair and walked a few steps away from where he was seated and towards the exit of the café.

“Yah!” Eunhyuk raised his hand to get Yesung’s attention – but then realized he was stupid for Yesung had his back turned towards him, “You’re still paying for my order.”

Yesung tilted his head slightly towards Eunhyuk’s direction and gave him a blank glare which made the latter sink to his sink.

“You should’ve brought along an umbrella,” Eunhyuk snarled exactly after the wind chimes above the café exit clanged.

&&

Kyuhyun impatiently paced around the room with his fingers brutally gripping his locks. He was panicking – he does not panic. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he semi-yelled at Ryeowook who could only sit and watch him walk around anxiously.

“Slipped out of my mind,” the smaller boy said uneasily as he fidgeted in his seat.

“Slipped out of your mind?” Kyuhyun snarled. He stopped pacing and turned to Ryeowook with an intense glare on his face. He slammed his arms to his sides exasperatedly, “What if something bad happened to him? What if he’s in an actually bad condition right now? Is that all you can say? It slipped out of your mind?”

Ryeowook felt himself sink in his seat. He wanted to speak but he didn’t know what to say. He felt disrespected for Kyuhyun was younger than him and had no authority to speak to him like that yet he knew he did something wrong. All he was able to do was stare at his fidgeting fingers as Kyuhyun nagged him.

“Let’s go,” Kyuhyun pulled Ryeowook up by the hand. He was wearing a black turtleneck, baggy jeans, a hat, shades, and yellow furry mask.

As much as Ryeowook wanted to tell Kyuhyun that his cute, furry mask looked out of place with his whole outfit, he was aware of how dead serious the latter was and he didn’t want to go floating in the air for something that was supposed to be a joke. Kyuhyun pulled Ryeowook out of his seat, out of the house, out of the building, into the rain, and into his car. Ryeowook settled himself in the front seat and stared out the window. It was raining heavily. It was only 11am and the sky was already dark as that of 7pm.

“What hospital was it, again?” Kyuhyun asked. He started the engine and pulled the lever so vigorously that it made the boy beside him gasp.

“A-Asan,” Ryeowook stammered.

“Call Yesung.”

“What?” the boy seated in the passenger front seat widened his eyes at Kyuhyun’s statement, “Kyu. You do know there’s something going on…”

“Just call him,” Kyuhyun hissed before Ryeowook could even finish his sentence. He backed his car up and started driving.

Ryeowook sighed. He shakily took his phone out of his sling bag. He didn’t want to call Yesung but part of him wanted to talk to the man. He dialed 1 and pressed the call button. A shiver ran down his spine the moment the phone started beeping. It beeped once, then twice, “The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please try again later.” And another beep, “He’s not answering.”

“Call him again,” Kyuhyun said dully without even looking at Ryeowook.

Ryeowook sighed as he tried calling Yesung again. He got the same response from his operator. He suddenly felt worried about Yesung. It was raining and the last place he saw him in was outside his home. He thought that maybe Yesung was still having coffee in the café he saw him in… or maybe the guy he was with took him away. Ryeowook briskly shook his head, hoping the thought would get shaken away as well.

“Keep calling him until he answers.”

Ryeowook heaves another sigh. “I’m telling you,” he dials Yesung’s number anyway, “He’s not answering.” He did as Kyuhyun said. He kept calling and calling and getting the same response from the operator. Part of him wanted to tell Kyuhyun that no matter what he did, if Yesung’s busy, he’s busy, but the other part of him wanted to hear Yesung’s y, breathy voice so bad. He missed Yesung and he wouldn’t even deny it to himself. It had only been a day. It’s dumb, yes, but that was the way it was. He didn’t stop calling Yesung until they finally reached Asan hospital.

Kyuhyun maneuvered his car into the middle of two other cars in the parking lot. He turned to Ryeowook, “What did he say?”

“He didn’t answer,” Ryeowook pouted.

Kyuhyun sighed exasperatedly. He turned the engine off and stepped out of the car. Ryeowook did the same. He quickly walked towards the hospital building, not even minding the rain.

“Kyu! You’ll catch a fever if you walk around like that,” Ryeowook ran towards Kyuhyun’s side and raised a book he grabbed from his backpack above the latter’s head. He could have put it above his since Kyuhyun was wearing a woven hat and he wasn’t… but that was just the way he was.

Kyuhyun didn’t even bother looking at the older boy trying to keep his head safe from the rain – he didn’t even notice he was there. All he could think about was Sungmin. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was thinking about Sungmin, all he knew was that said person’s name kept running in his mind. He went towards the receptionist the moment they reached the hospital’s interior, griming the already grimed beige carpet splayed on the floor. “Is there a Lee Sungmin brought into here?”

The middle-aged woman behind the desk looked at Kyuhyun for a few seconds – she probably found his getup peculiar. She lifted up a blue book and browsed through a few pages. She then ran a finger down one page. “Yeah. He’s at Ward C, second floor.”

Kyuhyun briskly walked towards the elevator after hearing what the receptionist said. He could have sworn he heard his heart beating. Ryeowook bowed at the woman and ran towards Kyuhyun, trying to catch up with him. ‘You’re more worried than I am,’ he was itching to tell Kyuhyun. They got up to the second floor and into the ward the receptionist told them Sungmin was in. “Sungmin,” Kyuhyun said, making one of the nurses in the room turn towards him.

She smiled at Kyuhyun and walked towards one of the curtained beds. She drew the curtains open and revealed a peacefully sleeping Sungmin.

Kyuhyun ran towards his side and so did Ryeowook. He was peacefully sleeping yet he ironically looked uneasy. He was pale, and there were black circles around his eyes. “What did Yesung do to him?” Kyuhyun uttered to himself.

“Yah,” Ryeowook snapped at him.

Before Ryeowook could even tell Kyuhyun what he wanted to, the nurse from before butted in. “About an hour ago, he was rushed into here by some older man then he left,” she sighed, “Sadly none of our doctors are available as of the moment so we can’t really comprehend what’s wrong with him. But… it seems like he passed out from solely stress.”

Kyuhyun and Ryeowook both hoped that it really was because of stress.

Ryeowook took his time to stare at the nurse and think about what could have happened – although he probably already knew. His phone suddenly rang. He gasped and excitedly took it out of his pocket, thinking it was who he was hoping for it to be. It was an unregistered number. He frowned. “Hello? Yes… yeah,” he widened his eyes, “Where are you? Ok. I’ll be there.”

He shoved his phone into his pocket and ran out of the ward.

“Ryeo,” Kyuhyun tried to call out his name, but before he could even do so, said boy disappeared. He sighed. Now all he can do is stare at Sungmin’s face and wait for him to wake up… if he ever will, that is.

&&

Eunhyuk stumbled into his house just after he succeeded unlocking the main door with hardship. As if it's not bad enough that he fell to the floor all soaked, he just had to have someone equally soaked shifting their weight on top of him. He breathed heavily and stayed that way for a while, waiting for his breathing to go back to normal.

"Aigoo, hyung," he said in between pants as he pushed away the body on top of him that went rolling once to the side. He stood up and pulled his soaked, unconscious company to the bathroom by the shoulder.

Just when he was halfway to the bathroom, the main door flew open and a vexed Donghae fled into the scene. "Eunhyuk!" he yelled, worry evident in his tone. His wide worried eyes transformed into glaring ones once he laid eyes on Eunhyuk trying to carry a person he knew. "So let me get this straight. You called me to come here to what? Show me that you're fooling around with other guys?" Donghae frowned, "But we just made up!"

"!" Eunhyuk hissed, "It's not like that. I'll explain later. Right now I need your help," he glared at the man he was pulling, "With this guy."

The frown on Donghae's face disappeared as his lips formed into the shape of an "o."

"Yah!" Eunhyuk yelled, "I told you to help me! Are you just gonna stand there and watch?"

Donghae ran towards Eunhyuk and grabbed the unconscious man's legs and pulled them up while Eunhyuk carried him by the shoulders. "I'm helping you now. Are you still having PMS?"

&&

Kyuhyun had been sitting on the wooden chair beside Sungmin’s bed for almost an hour now. He had lost track of how many times he had asked the nurse questions that go around the lines of “What’s going to happen?” “Is the doctor here already?” “What was diagnosed?” He felt the urge to ask again. He opened his mouth to speak and closed it again, thinking that he was going to get the same answers as before. He sighed.

“When is he waking up?” he asked himself. He stared at Sungmin’s face which was tilted to his side. He noted every one of the boy’s features. “He truly is beautiful.” Thinking back, he realized that there really was something between him and Sungmin… something he had never felt for anyone before, not even for Ryeowook. Was it love? Not quite. ‘If it is love, it’s newfound,” he thought. They had on the day they first met, he used him for stuff like getting away from a scandal and making the person he loved jealous, he treated him like , him. He realized that somewhere along those lines, he did develop a special something for Sungmin. ‘Or maybe,’ he thought to himself, ‘I had always loved him. I was just too prideful to admit it to myself.’

He held Sungmin’s right hand with his two hands. “I guess,” his thoughts finally decided to come out of his mouth, “I guess I did… no. I guess I do love you, Sungmin.” A soft smile played on his lips as he thought about the things he could have done for Sungmin during their times together. The soft smile turned into a sad one as he thought about it again, looking at it from a different angle.

“Excuse me,” Kyuhyun was just beginning his reverie when the nurse from before interrupted him. He looked up, “Sir, the doctor is here.”

Kyuhyun hastily snapped up from his chair, pushing it banging to the wall. “Really? It’s about time!”

“You’ll have to leave for a bit,” the nurse said.

&&

Ryeowook paced around the story’s hall. It had been two minutes since the last time he rang the doorbell but nobody was answering the door yet. He tried calling Yesung’s phone a few times but he never answered. “Maybe the caller was some kind of creep trying to lure me in,” he uttered anxiously, feeling a shiver run down his spine. He mentally slapped himself for trusting the unregistered number too quickly. Just then he heard a thud coming from the other side of the door. He jumped backwards, nervous. Finally, someone opened the door for him.

“Donghae?” Ryeowook widened his eyes. He did not expect Donghae to be the one to answer the door for him let alone did he expect Donghae to be the unregistered number. The caller’s voice was squeaky, and Donghae’s voice was nasal. He was sure it wasn’t Donghae.

Donghae gave Ryeowook a small nod and signaled him to come in.

“Who’s house is this?” Ryeowook looked around as he stepped in, immediately kicking off his wet shoes and leaving them outside the loft. Him being into Donghae’s house before was one reason he knew the house wasn’t Donghae’s, the latter being the opposite of how clean the house was was another.

“Eunhyuk’s,” Donghae said as he locked the door and Ryeowook didn’t even need to ask. He walked towards the bedroom, expecting Ryeowook to follow him.

Ryeowook was led into the bedroom where he saw Yesung lying on the bed with a damp, folded face towel resting on his forehead. He instantly ran and flopped towards Yesung’s side. He held the man’s cheeks and tilted his head towards him – oh how he missed holding Yesung.

“He’s sleeping,” Donghae said, leaning on the door jamb, “Eunhyuk hasn’t told me what happened yet.” Donghae was obviously annoyed as he said that. He was still feeling anxious about the man. Sure, Eunhyuk wouldn’t have called Ryeowook over if there was really something going on, but he still needed an explanation.

“Where’s Eunhyuk?” Ryeowook asked, not taking his eyes and hands off sleeping Yesung.

“He’s in the shower.”

As if on cue, a plain white tee and jeans clad Eunhyuk walked out of the bathroom with a white towel draped on his head. His eyes landed on Ryeowook right away, “You must be Ryeowook.”

Ryeowook nodded. He furtively observed Eunhyuk’s face by pretending to run his eyes from his sides as not to seem impolite by staring. For some odd reason, Ryeowook found his name and appearance familiar. He just couldn’t put a finger on where he saw him in.

Eunhyuk walked towards Ryeowook and sat beside him on the floor, noting the glares Donghae was shooting him from a few feet away. “I saw him at the café earlier. We spoke for a while then he suddenly ran off into the rain. He went into the hospital then he walked out. I followed him, offering the umbrella I brought along with me but he ignored me and kept walking around. He said he was looking for something. Then suddenly in the middle of an alley not far away from here, he collapsed and I brought him here. Now he’s got a fever,” he breathed deeply, “Is that good enough of an explanation?”

“Why did he go inside the hospital?” Donghae asked, the snobbish look on his face gone. All Eunhyuk could do was shrug for he didn’t have the slightest idea – all he knew was that Yesung was an abnormal individual who finds the opportunity to look for something missing the moment he finds out that the weather is bad.

Ryeowook drooped into a sitting position. He looked down. “I think I know why,” he uttered, earning curious glances from the two other (awake) people in the room, “It’s hyung.”

Donghae’s jaw dropped. He stood up straight. “What happened to Sungmin?”

“Sungmin?” Eunhyuk asked, shock evident in his voice, “Sungmin’s in the hospital?”

Ryeowook’s head snapped towards Eunhyuk’s direction. His eyes widened as he looked at his face. He did not even mind being called polite anymore for he was feeling slightly slurred. Now he knew where he saw Eunhyuk. He was his brother’s ex-boyfriend. He regained his coherence, “Yesung brought Sungmin-hyung to the hospital. I don’t know what happened, though. Kyuhyun’s with him right now.”

“Aigoo,” Donghae exasperatedly swung his head to the side with a frustrated look on his face, “I knew there was something wrong with him!” He sighed, “Can we leave you here?”

Ryeowook blinked. He didn’t know what to say. He was still on the rocks with Yesung and he didn’t know how he should act the minute Yesung wakes up. But then again, he missed Yesung and he had had enough drama. “If it’s okay with Eunhyuk.”

Eunhyuk gave Ryeowook a nod, “I trust you not to destroy my house. You’re not Donghae, after all.” He managed to joke despite the tightening in his stomach. He stood up and put on his long coat, “If my roommate comes back and we’re not yet home, just tell him that you’re my visitors.”

Ryeowook nodded even though he did not like the idea. He had no choice.

Donghae and Ryeowook marched out of the room and the next thing Ryeowook heard was the thud the closing of the main door made. He sighed, readying his words for Yesung.

&&

“What happened?” Kyuhyun stood up from the chair he was sitting on the moment he saw the doctor draw the curtains to Sungmin’s bed open.

“He’s under coma,” the doctor said. “But there seems to be something else. It’s uncertain to me right now.”

‘What are you a doctor for?’ Kyuhyun fought the urge to ask.

The doctor took out a file and a pen, “Has he shown any symptoms of mental breakdown?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Is he stressed?”

“Pretty much.”

“Does he bleed?”

Kyuhyun paused, trying to contemplate what the doctor was trying to ask. “Just in case you don’t know, he’s a guy.”

“I mean… does he vomit blood or whatever?”

Kyuhyun suddenly felt stupid. “He does vomit. I’ve never seen him vomit blood, though.”

“His name is Lee Sungmin, right?” the doctor started scribbling something on the paper. “We’ve checked his records. It seems he’s got this odd unnamed disorder in the head. It’s a one in a million case.” The doctor clicked his tongue, thinking of ways to break it down to Kyuhyun, “It was due to trauma. It was probably back when his parents died. Since then he wasn’t able to live normally. He slowly got physically damaged. I’m afraid he might have reached his limit and broke down.”

Kyuhyun widened his eyes in disbelief. The doctor said it simply yet it felt like it was so big. “So what’s going to happen?”

“He took medications, of course, to keep his head going. The medications were either to fix him or to have him manage to survive for at least a while. The reason he’s in coma right now is because he had reached the limit of his medications,” the doctor took a deep breath, “Now there are two things that can happen. One, he may wake up again, meaning the medication worked and a little more than three-fourth okay. Two, he’ll never wake up.” Another deep breath. “There had been very few people who had gone through this. Only one out of six were able to survive.”

&&

“Eunhyuk?” Yesung moaned, shifting his position on the bed.

Ryeowook stiffened up. His back was facing Yesung so he didn’t know whether the latter was awake or asleep. He did not have the courage to check, either. “Uhm… they left.”

“Ryeowook.” Yesung sat up and put his hand on said boy’s shoulder, pulling on him slightly to see his face, “What are you doing here?”

Ryeowook stiffened at the feel of Yesung’s hand on his shoulder. He had never felt that nervous around Yesung before. “Eunhyuk asked me to look after you,” he blurted out hastily.

Yesung blinked, trying to figure out how Ryeowook and Eunhyuk were connected. He shrugged it off, thinking he was some kind of friend from school. After all, it’s a small world. He noticed Ryeowook’s stiffened state. He slipped his hand off Ryeowook’s shoulder, making the latter’s position soften a bit.

They stayed that way for a good thirty minutes. The two of them had been meaning to see each other and speak since the day they parted. Neither of them had imagined their next meeting to be so awkward.

“Ryeowook,” “So,” they looked at each other and said simultaneously and abruptly turned back at the same time.

Yesung rubbed his nape. “Ryeowook,” he finally decided to stop beating around the bush and finally speak to said boy, “Are you still mad at me?”

The younger boy didn’t answer Yesung. He kept his back turned at him. He didn’t know what he was feeling, really. He knew he wanted to see Yesung again, but he didn’t know that he couldn’t handle it.

Yesung sighed and stood up despite the heaviness he felt all over. He settled himself into an Indian sitting position in front of Ryeowook whose head was turned down. He took a deep breath and started talking, his voice huskier than ever, “Ryeowook, I know I said some things to make you feel bad. It was just that… I really got into a bad mood after seeing my father again.”

Ryeowook finally looked up at him. His face was blank. He stretched his arm towards Yesung’s side, making the latter look up at him with wide eyes, and made a motion to slap him in the face… but he didn’t. His arm stopped going its way when it reached three inches away from Yesung’s face. He was angry but he couldn’t get himself to hurt Yesung.

“Ryeowook,” Yesung uttered, still staring at said male with wide eyes. He held Ryeowook’s hand which was adjacent to his face and brought it to his cheek, “I deserve it.”

The smaller boy felt his chest tightening. He had been holding his tears in and he couldn’t take it any longer. He started bawling as he threw himself towards Yesung and flung his arms around the latter’s neck. He sobbed strongly against Yesung’s collarbone. “I’m so sorry!” he wailed.

Yesung ran his hand in circles around Ryeowook’s back, whispering “shhh” and planting butterfly kisses on his head. “It’s okay, stop crying,” he murmured repeatedly. After a few minutes of whispering sweet nothings against Ryeowook’s hair, the latter stopped sobbing but he was still shaking. Yesung pushed him away slightly to get a good look at his face. His eyes were still puffy and his lips were formed into a downside bracket. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Ryeowook nodded vigorously as he squeaked. He threw himself at Yesung for the second time, but this time, his lips met the other’s.

Yesung pushed him away. “Ryeowook, you’ll catch my fever!”

“I don’t care.” Ryeowook smashed their lips together again. He flung his arms around Yesung’s neck and got up on his knees, straddling Yesung’s legs. He pushed his weight fully onto Yesung and the latter fell backwards.

Yesung pushed his tongue into Ryeowook’s mouth and Ryeowook did the same with him. A war of tongues took place in their mouths. He laced his fingers with Ryeowook’s hair and ran his free hand down the latter’s back, brushing his hand against his . He sat up, pushing Ryeowook up as well. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

Ryeowook nodded. “I love you,” he planted a small kiss on Yesung’s cheek. “I haven’t seen you in days. Even though we never did it before, you left me longing for your touch. And now, I want you,” he whispered into Yesung’s ear – and for once, the latter found him hot.

Now it was Yesung’s turn to push the Ryeowook down. He clicked his tongue. “Damn, now you’re making me want you.” He went on all fours on top of Ryeowook and ed the upper portion of his polo. He spread it apart and kissed him on his neck.

“Wait,” Ryeowook patted his boyfriend’s back, “We’re in someone else’s house.”

“We’ll clean up when we’re done,” Yesung smirked. “And if you catch a fever later on, remember, it’s all your fault.”