Uki’s POV~

It felt so good to be in a deep, deep sleep after you’ve been so sleep deprived for the past couple of months. You have no idea. It felt like I was asleep for an entire week. It’s odd. The house was actually quiet. I was actually sleeping. And no one was waking me up with any screaming. This was all such a foreign concept to me but I could definitely get used to it! ^^

As soon as my mind started waking up, my body told it to go back to sleep. I didn’t wanna wake up yet. It just felt so good to be disconnected from the world. But man. It sure was getting hot in here. Why is it so hot? Why is my body so achy? Oh yeah. The damn flu. -__-

“Hey, Uki,” I heard someone say softly.

“Mmm,” I groaned in response, not wanting to open my eyes.

“Uki, c’mon, you have to eat something,” they persisted.

“Mmm,” I responded again.

“Uki,” they said, a warning edge entering their voice.

I sighed and gave in, finally opening my eyes to come face to face with someone’s knees. I looked up to see Donghae sitting on his computer chair beside the bed, a bowl of something hot in his hands. He smiled at me, causing me to smile back. With the assistance of Donghae, I managed to sit up, my back propped against the wall, the blanket bunched around my waist.

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked him as he blew on a spoonful of…Rice porridge?! Aww! I love Alex! ^^

“Look out the window for an idea,” he said with a laugh, holding the spoon up to my mouth.

I looked out the window to be greeted with a night sky. What?! But the sun was up when I went to sleep! Oh my goodness, someone slipped me some medicine, didn’t they?! -__- Donghae cleared his throat and I realized that the spoon was still there. I opened my mouth and ate the food. It was awkward having someone else feed me, but it was just so cute seeing Donghae do it, I couldn’t help but to go along with it(:

“So what did the doctor say?” I asked as he fed me another spoonful of the most amazing rice porridge I’d ever tasted in my life! Oh my goodness, I’m stealing your recipe, Alex!

“That you have a really bad case of the flu and you have to be put to bed rest for a week,” Donghae responded, holding up another spoonful.

I ate it and thought for moment after swallowing. “A week? Why? Why would he do this to me? Ugh. What am I supposed to be doing home alone for an entire week?!”

“You won’t be home alone,” Donghae responded, wiping my mouth with a napkin and offering me a drink of water. “Alex and…Leeteuk are gonna be here to take care of you.”

My brows rose in surprise. Leeteuk? And Donghae’s okay with that? Aww. He’s so cute<3 “I see. Doesn’t Teukie have schedules this week?”

“Nope. Our manager gave him the week off ‘cause he’s starting to come down with something, too,” he answered, feeding me another spoonful.

After I swallowed, I said, “I see.”

“Uki, can I ask you something?” he asked me all of a sudden.

I didn’t even hesitate in saying, “Yeah, of course.”

After feeding me another spoonful, he asked, “Was it Troy who came in here and hit you?”

My face fell at the sudden memory and the corners of my mouth pulled down into a frown as I nodded slightly. I could already feel the angry tears welling up in my eyes at the mention of his name. I heard Donghae audibly grind his teeth. I reached a hand out to his jaw with a slight smile and said, “That’s not good for your teeth.”

“How can you be so calm about this?! Siwon and I are literally sitting here and contemplating on whether or not we should kill the stupid bastard. And Alex? Don’t even get Alex started about it. It doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t you fight back, Uki? Why?” he asked. I pulled my hand away and put them in my lap, giving them a sad look. He was silent for a second before saying softly, “He’s done this to you before…Hasn’t he?”

I loved and hated how Donghae just always knew. Despite his clueless nature, he just always knew. No matter what it was. He just always knew. He put the now empty bowl on his computer desk and took hold of one of my hands, giving it a reassuring squeeze. I sighed and began the tale of how my knight in shining armor had somehow along the way become the evil villain of my love story.

“Wh-when we first broke up, I spent forever crying over it,” I began. At that part, he squeezed my hand again, a sorry look on his face. I gave him a sad smile and continued on. “I told myself that I was never gonna fall in love again, that I was just gonna cut myself off from guys for the rest of my life. And although I told myself I was gonna forget about you and completely delete you from my memories, I found myself thinking about you more and more.

“During classes, my notes would somehow morph into your name. In my free time, I found myself looking up videos of Super Junior just to see how you were doing. In between classes, I’d get upset whenever someone was talking about you. So in truth, I never got over you. Ever.

“But then a year passed by and I started missing having someone there for me, someone to go to whenever I was feeling upset or someone to go to when I had amazing news to share. So I started dating again. Nothing serious, just a few flings here and there, but none of them lived up to you. So I started thinking that I could never find myself another guy who lived up to my standards. Then Troy came along.

“He was the hotshot on campus. The one that had all the girls fawning and all the guys hating. And to think that he would be interested in me? A little freshman who was 16 at the time while he was already about to graduate with his bachelor’s in law? It was a preposterous thought, but somehow, it clicked. I honestly think the only reason why I liked him so much was because he reminded me so much of you. He was kind, he was thoughtful, he was sweet, he was very good looking. He was just all a girl could ever ask for and then some! He was just an all around great guy, and I really thought that we would last. Which we did! Two and half years.”

I smiled sadly at the knowledge of what was about to come next. I really didn’t wanna continue. I never told anybody about this, not even Michelle, who was my best friend at the time, knew about any of this. But Donghae squeezed my hand again, letting me know that it was okay.

I took a deep breath and shakily continued. “The first couple months were great. Everyone started getting used to seeing us together, so they stopped hating on us. And he was just an all around great guy. He still opened doors for me, he pulled out my seat for me, he carried my books for me. He was a gentleman. And I’ll admit. I found myself starting to fall in love with him, but I still couldn’t help but to compare him to you in just about every aspect. His eyes, his smile, his laugh. Everything. And then about a year into the relationship, something snapped. The relationship starting taking a turn for the worst.

“By this time, he had already graduated and was looking for an internship with a law firm so he could start studying for his masters. When no one would accept him, he started getting more moody and angry and I should have seen the signs right then, but I just didn’t. I was too blinded by how much I loved him. Or how much I thought I loved him. One day, when I was hanging in his apartment making dinner, he just out of the blue snapped.

“He yelled at me, telling me that it was somehow my fault because he couldn’t get his internship, saying that I took too much of his time. I of course, being the type of person who doesn’t take getting yelled at very well, yelled back at him, saying that I had nothing to do with it, that it was just his incompetence that was holding him back.

“At first, it started out with him throwing the remote at me. Angry, I took the lasagna I was making and threw it on the floor, telling him to make his own damn dinner and to call me when he calmed down. As I was grabbing my stuff to leave, he came up to me and just backhanded me across the face, telling me that if I ever acted up like that again that he’d leave me. Hearing him say that just kinda got to me. I didn’t want him to leave me because he reminded me so much of you, so in a way, him leaving me also meant you were leaving me, and I couldn’t bear to go through with that twice. So, I became the good girlfriend that he expected me to be. But that didn’t mean that he stopped hitting me.

“If something wasn’t to his liking, he’d take it out on me. If he got angry about something, he’d take it out on me. If he was drunk, he’d take it out on me. It got to the point where he made me move in with him so he could keep an eye on me. And he hated the fact that I was already getting my masters when he couldn’t even find an internship for himself, so he almost made me quit that, but I wouldn’t. We got into the biggest fight that night. I actually defended myself for once because there was no way I was giving up my masters, what I’d been working so hard to get.

“At first, it was just a normal night. I was cooking, he was watching TV, and we were making small talk. Then he told me ‘I want you to drop out so you can be here to take care of me all the time. Got it?’ I turned to him, shocked that he had the nerve to ask me to do such a thing. I flat out told him no. I told him that if he wanted someone to take care of him 24/7, he can go find himself another girl because there was no way in hell that I was giving up my studies for his sorry . He got angry, started yelling like usual, but what he didn’t expect was for me to yell back. For six whole months, I’d kept my mouth shut, but I was beyond pissed, and those six months’ worth of arguments started spilling out. And for the first time, I hit him back.

“After he slapped me, I stood right back up and punched him right in the face. Ended up with a broken nose and a fractured jaw.” I smiled proudly at that memory. And then I shook my head again. “So he ended up just continuously hitting me, but I fought back. I was pissed and I was sick and tired of his bull. In the end? I ended up waking up in a hospital the next day. He had hit me so hard I out. The doctors were all worried and the police had gotten involved. They asked me if I wanted to press charges, but somehow, something told me not to do it. So he went free. We took a months’ break before he came back to me and apologized. He promised me that he’d never lay a hand on me again, that he was stupid for what he’d done and he’d do anything to win me back. Obviously, I took him back. I don’t know why, but something inside me compelled me to do it, telling me that he’d changed, that he was different. And for the rest of the relationship, he was. Until I found out he’d cheated on me. And then he comes back and after six months of keep true to his promise, he breaks it.”

I hadn’t even realized that I was crying at this point, but I didn’t care. It felt good to finally get all of this off my chest. I looked at Donghae, who had an expression crossed between anger and sadness on his face. Then he threw his arms around me as I cried, soaking his T-shirt. I don’t know how long he sat there, just holding me, but he did. And after I calmed down, he took my face in his hands and started out by gingerly tracing my bruise with kisses before finally planting a sweet kiss on my lips.

He pulled back and looked straight into my eyes, saying, “I will take care of you. I promise I won’t let anything like that happen to you ever again. You deserve better.”

I smiled at him sadly through the silent tears that were falling down my cheeks. He wiped them away with his thumb, shushing me gently, telling me that everything would be okay. I just looked at him and said, “I do deserve better. And better is exactly what I’ve found.”