Chapter 21

[The Boy Who Can Fly]

There was once, this conversation they shared when they were still in the mental ward years ago.

“Do you think a human can fly?”Kyuhyun asked.

Taeyeon shrugged. “I don’t know. Is that human Peter Pan?”

“Peter Pan?” he echoed.

“You don’t know?” Taeyeon inquired, surprised. She wondered whether the rich kids these days really had no access to fairy tales or it was only in Kyuhyun’s case. “The lady at my orphanage used to tell me about him. About a boy who refused to grow up, and he lived in Neverland. And he could fly, too!”

“Neverland? Is that a nice place?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to go there?”

Taeyeon smiled. “Maybe. Someday. After this all ends, maybe I’d like to go to Neverland.”

“I want to go there…”

Taeyeon laughed. “You can’t.”

Kyuhyun frowned. “Because I’m not Peter Pan?”

“No, Silly. Because you have no fairy dust with you.”

“Fairy dust?”

“The dust that enables you to fly. With that, you are able to go to Neverland.”

He pouted. He was 17 years old, but he was always a child at heart. His father was always angry at him for that, and his mother always acted as if he was such an embarrassment. He thought that his parents were no fun. Perhaps it was why he liked Taeyeon. The girl was a child at heart too. “I want to go to Neverland now…”

Taeyeon grinned as she clutched her rag doll closer to her. “Someday, Kyu. I promise. I’ll try to get the Fairy Dust for you first, okay?”

Jessica’s breath was caught in as she gazed upon the sight.

Kim Heechul might be smart, but sometimes, he was really the type to act first and think of his actions later. In a split of second after they witnessed Taeyeon stabbed Kyuhyun’s neck, Heechul quickly stood from his earlier crouching position. He pushed the door opened and ran towards Kyuhyun.

The sudden noise alarmed Taeyeon and she looked to the door’s direction right in time before Heechul lunged forward to her.

Seconds always mattered, especially to a trained assassin as she was. Heechul was a man and he was taught self defense as part of the Kim’s curriculum, but he lacked the experience and instinct a true killer possessed. The seconds passed quick before his eyes, but it all felt like a slow motion for Taeyeon.

The girl pulled the dagger she had just dwelled deep into Kyuhyun’s throat out, spun it between her finger, and attacked Heechul with it.

The first hit point was owned by Taeyeon, as she managed to plunge the dagger into Heechul’s left shoulder. He gritted his teeth in the attempt to bear the pain as blood gushed out of the new wound.

Jessica stood like a rock on her spot. Her body shook greatly and her eyes could not have gotten any wider anymore.

Taeyeon pulled the dagger from Heechul’s shoulder out and attempted to stab Heechul again. Fortunately, he managed to evade her second attack and she stumbled forward when she missed her target. Heechul tried to ignore the pain that shot through his body and used his right elbow to jab Taeyeon’s back hard.

He was never a feminist anyway.

The female assassin clicked her tongue in distaste and groaned mildly when Heechul’s leg kicked her body savagely. It was nothing for Taeyeon though. The trainings she had endured in the past made her ignore the dull pain in her body. The girl quickly rolled from her lying position to avoid Heechul’s next kick. She eyed the dagger that lied on the ground.

Heechul saw it too.

And they both jumped together to reach the dagger.

Taeyeon was smaller, quicker. Her thin fingers wrapped around the dagger’s handle, but Heechul grabbed her wrist. Taeyeon kicked Heechul on his groin and the boy suppressed the urge to roll down in pain. Gritting his teeth, he tried to use his man’s strength to twist Taeyeon’s wrist. Taeyeon’s other free hand, however, managed to steal a jab from below to Heechul’s chin.

Heechul’s grasp around Taeyeon’s wrist was finally released. Out of habit, Taeyoen twirled her dagger again and leaped forward to him. Heechul had his back pressed against the concrete rooftop ground, while Taeyeon hovered above him, the dagger was inching closer to his face.

He tried to push the dagger away, but Taeyeon was very strong, despite her small body.

Die.

Heechul gritted his teeth. He did not want to die!

Screaming at the top of his lungs, he called out, “Jessica!!”

Jessica shuddered, and was pulled back from her trance by Heechul’s scream. Forgetting anything about rationality and her original fear, Jessica ran towards Heechul’s direction and swung her high heels at full force to Taeyeon’s head.

Jessica’s hit opened the opportunity for Heechul. Taeyeon was distracted, and Heechul gathered up the strength to push Taeyeon’s body off her.

Realizing her position, Taeyeon glared at both Heechul and Jessica, before she tightened her grip around the dagger and ran away. Taeyeon’s long white dress was swung by the wind when she rushed downstairs and disappeared from their sight.

Jessica glanced at the ajar door, feeling her energy to be completely drained. She almost fell to the ground, but she remembered something.

“Kyuhyun!” she shouted as she quickly leaped towards Kyuhyun’s direction.

Kyuhyun’s body was laid limp on the rooftop floor. Blood seeped out of his neck. His eyes were closed but his face contorted in pain as he choked more blood out of his damaged throat.

Blood.

Like your parents’ blood...

Jessica nearly slapped herself. It was not time for her to be trapped in the past again. The sight of Kyuhyun’s blood sickened her, truly. Jessica felt like she wanted to vomit. But she immediately knelt down beside Kyuhyun, tore a handful of her expensive dress, folded it quickly, and pressed the cloth to Kyuhyun’s gaping wound.

Kyuhyun choked more blood. Redness was splattered to Jessica’s face.

Her hand trembled as she pressed the cloth to Kyuhyun’s neck, hoping that the bleeding would stop.

She did not want to see people die before her eyes again. Not anymore.

Kyuhyun’s blood cough got more severe and Jessica nearly cried in frustration.

“Calm down,” a male voice resonated behind her, and Jessica’s sobs stopped.

Heechul came. With ragged breath, he also kneeled next to Kyuhyun, slipped his right arm beneath Kyuhyun’s body and pulled him up into a sitting position. Struggling, Heechul muttered, “We need to reposition him so that his wound is above the level of his heart…”

Jessica gulped down and nodded. She could see how Heechul was having difficulty to raise Kyuhyun’s body, with his own wounded shoulder. Instinctively, Jessica also s her other arm beneath Kyuhyun’s body and pushed his back upwards slowly. Kyuhyun’s limp body finally was seated down, after all the efforts.

With raspy breath, Heechul muttered quickly, “Continue to press the cloth to his wound. His bleeding is getting worse.”

Jessica nodded again as she divided her strength. Her left arm was used to prop Kyuhyun’s back, while her right arm continued to press her former dress to his wound.

Heechul groaned as he moved his left hand to his pants’ pocket to get his cell phone. He could still feel the injury from Taeyeon's earlier attack.   Biting his own lips to stifle the urge to groan more, he finally managed to fish his cell phone out of his pocket. With trembling finger, he flipped his phone opened and pressed one of the speed dial button.

The seconds were killing Jessica as she moved her attention from Heechul to Kyuhyun back and forth. Heechul’s face frowned in clear impatience as he waited for the person at the end of the line to answer.

When finally the voice at the end of the life responded, Heechul muttered everything so quick that even Jessica could barely register anything.

“Kibum, call ambulance and get medical help to the rooftop of Seoul Opera House. Don’t ask. Just do it, now.”

Kibum was the type to quickly respond. “Got it,” he said and the line was dead. Heechul’s grip on the phone weakened and the phone fell to his lap. He closed his eyes, but still managed to focus his strength on his right arm to support Kyuhyun’s body.

Jessica’s face was covered with the mixture of blood, dry tears, and sweat. Her dark brown hair was matted to her face, slick with her perspiration. She felt disgusted and she was really itched to shove her hair off her face, but she knew that almost literally, someone’s life depended on her hands.

Heechul and Jessica sat there, focused on their own tasks, and no words came from their mouth.

Heechul’s tremble and continuously running blood from his shoulder wound, however, finally made Jessica spoke.

“Your wound …Are you alright?”

“Don’t act as if you care, ,” he still managed to snap out.

Jessica snorted. “If your mouth is still that vulgar, I assume you’re alright.”

“Of course,” he said.

But Jessica knew. When Heechul had been treated in the hospital for his stomach wound weeks ago, Jessica had witnessed how… illogical Kim Heechul’s pride had been. He had attempted to fool both Ryeowook and Donghae to think that his wound was nothing, while actually, the gash had been nasty and had surely inflicted him a lot of pain. Somehow, Jessica had a feeling that this was one of those times where Heechul pretended to be strong to protect his ego again.

She saw it. The tremble of his arms, the beads of sweat that were running on his face, and the endless blood from his shoulder…

“…You’re impossible,” she voiced out.

“Just… shut up,” he said as he closed his eyes.

Fortunately, help from the ambulance came not so long after. The medical staffs stormed inside the rooftop with their equipments ready. Only after making sure that Kyuhyun was safely carried by the army litter that Jessica and Heechul let their bodies fell to the cold tiles of the rooftop. Another medic came seconds later to treat Heechul. Jessica had no injury, but she was covered in blood, and she was too tired to assure people that it was not her blood. She obeyed when they all carried her to the hospital.

Her grandmother was even already in hospital before Jessica’s ambulance reached it. She supposed her driver was a very effective messenger. Jung Hyori said nothing to her granddaughter but her eyes spoke the fear (and did she detect worry?) upon looking at the visible blood all over her body. Glancing at her grandmother’s wide eyes, Jessica sighed and told her, “I’m alright. It’s not my blood.”

Jung Hyori was always paranoid though. She insisted the doctors to have her granddaughter thoroughly checked before she agreed to stop nagging at the doctors. Jessica knew that no one could really resist her grandmother’s will, so Jessica just stayed there as the nurses tried to clean the blood off her face and remained silent when the female doctors checked her well being from head to toe.

As Kyuhyun’s blood trail on her face was wiped off, her calmness returned.

“How is he? Cho Kyuhyun?” she asked the doctor who was examining her right arm.

“Critical,” the doctor did not bother to lie. “But he could have been worse.”

Jessica nodded. She hesitated for a moment before she posed her next inquiry, “And the other guy? Kim Heechul?”

The doctor chuckled. “He’s a regular, here. Don’t worry about him. With proper treatment, he will be released soon,” the female doctor glanced at Jessica’s legs and ran a quick but effective examination. “You’re alright.”

“I suppose,” Jessica muttered. “Can I go home now?”

“Yeah, sure. Your grandmother has taken care all the administrative stuffs and there’s only minor brush on you anyway. But you should be careful and…” the doctor could not ensure whether her patient still listened anymore, because Jessica already hopped off the bed and walked out of the hospital room.

She assured herself that it was out of courtesy.

After all, they did save a life together. She still despised him, and she was sure the f