Brain surgery. 

That was the final option, the last thing that the doctors could do to fix Hongki’s mind. The chance that he would survive was slim. It would cost an insane amount of money. He would have to shave off his beautiful hair.

He did it. He cried when they shaved his hair. He went into the surgery room alone, with no one there to hold his hand. No one waited for him, no one came to give him support. Alone, like he had been for the last two years. 

He woke up from the surgery alone, so many drugs pumping through his system that he couldn't even tell his head had just been cut open. He fell in and out of sleep for several days before he finally became coherent.

He had a dream, in his drugged-like state. Jonghun had come to visit him. He sat beside him on the bed and held his hand. Jonghun had bandages over his eyes in the dream. Hongki cried.

“Hongki.” Jonghun’s voice was clear as day. “I don't even know if you remember me. Get well soon. I’ll see you when you get out, right?”

Hongki tried to speak, watching as Jonghun got up and disappeared from the room. He tried to scream and call out for the other man to return, but nothing happened. He just fell back into his drugged slumber and dreamt no more.

The next time he woke up, his head was throbbing. He whined holding his head. There was a huge bandage covering where his hair should be. Dreams came and went, strange dreams of rooms filled with smoke and fire at his skin.

Two weeks passed until the doctors released him. He had recovered well from his surgery and his memory was improving. The doctor gave him one last check up and a nurse wheeled him out of the hospital. A group of nurses had been there to say goodbye to him and it was HaYul who came with HaeRim to pick him up.

“I had a dream.” Hongki muttered when he was back in the mansion, alone in the bedroom with his wife. “When I was in the hospital.”

“Is that so?” HaYul was reserved. Careful. She seemed afraid that the smallest action would cause Hongki to break again. “What of?”

“Jonghun came to see me.” Those words cause HaYul to pause, dropping the bags that she was putting away.

“Y..you dreamed about him?” She turned and looked at him. “It was just a dream..”

Hongki nodded. “He had bandages on his face. He sat beside my bed with me”

HaYul bit her lip “Hongki, I have to tell you something..”

“Hmm?” Hongki was rifling through his closet, airing out his clothes that had been untouched while finding something to change in to so he could get out of the aweful scrubs and take a shower.

HaYul sighed, walking over and putting a had on Hongki’s shoulder, making him stop and look at her. “Jonghun is gone, Hongki.”

The world stopped. The words came as a punch to the gut. No tears came,no response came. He simply turned around and walked into the bathroom to get into the shower.

It was half an hour later, standing in huge shower, that the words seemed to finally hit him. He finally understood. He dropped to his knees in the shower and cried.