Baekhyun was still lying in bed when he heard a deep voice whispering into his ear to wake up.

“Channie, just let me sleep for another five minutes,” Baekhyun murmured with his eyes still shut.

“Come on. Don’t be lazy. You’re going to be late for class. You still need to wash up and have breakfast,” the voice pestered.

“I’ll skip breakfast. Just let me sleep for another five minutes,” Baekhyun muttered without opening his eyes.

“I’m going to start tickling you and drag you out of bed if you don’t get up now lazy bones,” the deep voice warned in a teasing manner.

“Aish,” Baekhyun grumbled as he opened and rubbed his eyes. “You really do know me that well to know that this threat always works.”

And towering over him was Chanyeol and his bright creepy smile.

Baekhyun blinked his eyes and in a matter of seconds, Chanyeol vanished. But in the next moment, Chanyeol reappeared, and was drawing the curtains to let light into the room. He disappeared again only to show up the next moment putting on a shirt in their shared bedroom and staring into the mirror and fixing his hair. This act of Chanyeol fading in and out, doing random things – sitting at his desk studying, sitting on bed playing his guitar, tidying the sheets and his bed – lasted a few moments until Baekhyun sat up in his bed in a daze.

He turned to the single bed next to him which was joined after they had become a couple. The sheets were neat and immaculate as though no one had lay on it for days.

He could hear the knocking on his door and a voice calling out. “Hyunnie, it’s time to get up. Can you hear me?”

The knocks persisted for a while before the voice said, “Hyunnie, I’m coming in.”

The door opened and Sungmin entered the room carrying a nicely pressed suit in his hand.

Sungmin hung the suit on the cupboard’s door as he traipsed towards Baekhyun. He sighed as he sat on Baekhyun’s bed.

As Sungmin caressed his adopted son’s face lovingly, he asked, “Hyunnie, don’t you want to say your last goodbyes to Chanyeol?”

……

Baekhyun and Eunhyuk had got onto the ambulance with the mortally injured Chanyeol. Throughout the ride, Baekhyun gripped Chanyeol’s hands and begging the wounded boy to persevere and not to die as he spoke about the things they have yet to do together. Chanyeol still had a pulse though it was getting faint, so there was still hope. Baekhyun was shaking his boyfriend lightly and trying to rouse him despite the attendant’s warnings not to do so. Baekhyun’s tears had dried up. He wasn’t able to cry as he focused his efforts and attention at trying to stay alive through the frenetic desperation in his tone.

“Channie, please hang on in there. Please don’t die. We’re reaching the hospital soon.”

“Why is the hospital so far? How long more before we get there. Please drive faster.”

“You’re supposed to write a song for me to sing. You promised me that. So you have to stay alive to fulfil that promise.”

Eunhyuk sat quietly in the ambulance with a deathly pale look in the ambulance. The scene was so familiar and foreign at the same time. He remembered the vicious attack that he and Donghae had suffered, and how he pleaded for Donghae to stay alive. Eunhyuk had no recollection about the ambulance because he had already passed out by then.

“Please, if there is a God, or if there is such thing as a miracle, please don’t let me the same tragedy that happened to me and Donghae befall on anyone else again,” Eunhyuk closed his eyes and prayed silently.  

……

When they finally arrived at the hospital Chanyeol was wheeled in for emergency treatment. Baekhyun wanted to follow in but was blocked and forbidden by the medical personnel from doing so. He screamed out Chanyeol’s name and wanted to bulldoze he way through, but Eunhyuk held Baekhyun from behind as Baekhyun trashed about in Eunhyuk’s restraint.

“I want to be with Channie. I want to be with him. Channie!” Baekhyun yelled as struggled unsuccessfully to break free from Eunhyuk who was much stronger than him (Baekhyun).

“Baekhyun! You’re only going to hinder his treatment,” Eunhyuk reasoned. Eunhyuk was trying his best to keep his cool even though he was being torn inside by the pain at reliving his past through Baekhyun.

“Channie needs me! Channie needs me! What do you know ahjusshi?” Baekhyun shouted. “Do you know the pain of seeing someone you love being hurt badly and on the verge of death?”

And those words stung Eunhyuk as he gave Baekhyun a slap on his face and warned him. “Unless you want the staff to sedate you and resulting in you being unable to keep watch over Chanyeol, you better calm down.”

This seemed to knock some sense into Baekhyun. He stopped struggling, clasped his hands and paced worriedly outside the room. Meanwhile the staff tried to persuade Baekhyun to get his injuries tended to, but he refused, insisting on staying vigil outside the room. 

Soon, Sungmin and Kyuhyun arrived at the hospital and rushed to Baekhyun’s side. Gripping Baekhyun’s hand Sungmin asked a tearful Baekhyun gently, “Hyunnie, what happened?”

“We were robbed and assaulted. Channie was stabbed trying to protect me from…from…” Baekhyun replied haltingly before breaking down as he recollected the situation.

“How’s Chanyeol doing?” Kyuhyun asked.

Baekhyun could only point silently into the curtained room where Chanyeol was receiving emergency treatment.  

The news that Chanyeol had been assaulted and wounded was like déjà-vu for the KyuMin couple – it was like reliving the nightmare of Donghae’s murder and death from many years ago. Sungmin shivered a little as he recalled the incident as he closed his eyes to utter a silent prayer. Sensing Sungmin’s jitters and worries, Kyuhyun just held Sungmin’s hand and squeezed it tightly for reassurance.

When the curtain was finally drawn, a sombre looking doctor with blood on his gown and gloves came forward. “Are you the boy’s relatives?”

“We’re his guardians,” Kyuhyun replied.

“We’re sorry. We’ve done all we could. His injuries were fatal and he lost a lot of blood. We’re sorry for your loss. You may have one last look at him.”

Before waiting for the doctor to finish, Baekhyun let out a heart-wrenching and ear-piercing shriek and ran into the treatment and into the cubicle where Chanyeol was. Sungmin stumbled backwards at the shocking and saddening news, bursting into tears as Kyuhyun tried to support Sungmin from falling as he fought to control his own tears. Eunhyuk collapsed into the seat as his resolve and strength were reduced to tears and sadness.

“This isn’t fair,” Kyuhyun thought to himself. “After all that Chanyeol had been through. This isn’t fair. Where is God? Where is justice?”

Chanyeol was lying on the stretcher. His entire body including his face was covered up by a sheet. With shaking hands, Baekhyun gingerly uncovered the sheet from Chanyeol’s face down.

Other than the few bruises on his face, Chanyeol was still the handsome teenager as ever. His eyes were shut. He looked as though he was in a deep sleep – peaceful and still.

Baekhyun caressed his dead boyfriend’s visage. With tears flowing and dripping onto Chanyeol’s face, Baekhyun cried out heartbreakingly, “Channie, this is not a joke. This is not fun at all. Get up now. Please don’t do this.”

Baekhyun was about to collapse from his grief but he grasped at the sides of the stretcher to support himself.

“Channie,” Baekhyun pleaded affectingly, “Come back. Come back to me. Don’t go. There are still so many things we have yet to do together. Wake up. You promised that we would be together for a very long time. Don’t break your promise me on me now you bastard. Wake up.”

Baekhyun picked himself up and managed to stand upright. Bending forward, he then lurch his hands at Chanyeol’s lifeless corpse and began to shake it. “Park Chanyeol, why aren’t you listening to me? Wake up!”

By then Sungmin and Kyuhyun had joined Baekhyun and were alarmed to see what the younger boy was doing to Chanyeol. They grabbed hold of Baekhyun and tried to restrain him but Baekhyun was using all his might to shake Chanyeol as he hollered in a blood-curdling voice, “Wake up! Wake up!”

This commotion attracted the medical staff’s attention. Sungmin and Kyuhyun finally managed to lift Baekhyun away from Chanyeol as he kicked about and screamed. One of the staff came, covered Chanyeol’s face up with the sheet again and together with another colleague, proceeded to wheel him out to the mortuary. This caused Baekhyun to panic. He started to kick and thrash about more as Sungmin and Kyuhyun struggled to hold him back. 

“No!” Baekhyun shouted. “Where are you taking him? He’s not dead! Don’t take him away! Get up now Channie! Show them Channie! Show them that you’re not dead!”

But Chanyeol’s body slowly disappeared from their sight. With one loud heartbreaking cry of ‘No’, Baekhyun was finally exhausted from his battle and collapsed into the embrace of his parents. A nurse quickly stepped forward to inject Baekhyun with a sedative as they began to treat his injuries.

……

It was already dawn when the KyuMin couple and Baekhyun returned home. There was a cloud of gloom hanging over the other boys. Joon-myun was pacing up and down the living room with clenched fists. Sehun was in a daze and stared blankly into space. Kyungsoo was resting his head on Jongin’s shoulder. Kyungsoo’s eyes were blood-shot while there was a look of grimace on Jongin’s face. Yesung and Ryeowook were there with the boys.  

The boys had heard about Donghae’s story and learnt how he had been clobbered to death as a result of a hate crime. They cried when they first heard of the brutality, but it never did hit them as personally and badly like now when one of their peers, someone they had been living with, was killed and taken away from them so suddenly.

Before anyone could speak, Baekhyun just headed to his bedroom without a word. The other boys turned their attention towards their guardians hoping against hope that Chanyeol’s death wasn’t true.

But their worst fears were confirmed when Kyuhyun informed them in a hoarse voice that they had to start preparing for Chanyeol’s funeral.

Sehun stood up and walked off; Joon-myun hit the walls in frustration with his fists; Kyungsoo started sobbing again as Jongin tried to soothe Kyungsoo by him.

Jongin did not know how to react. He was shocked beyond words. Chanyeol was the first person around his age group to be killed in cold-blood. He had read reports of youths dying in accidents or killed in fights, but he did not know them. But Chanyeol, the smiling giant was now gone. He wouldn’t be able to talk to Chanyeol again. They may not have been the closest of friends, but he could not forget that Chanyeol was one of the first faces he had seen when he woke up in Heaven. Jongin could not forget the deep voice telling him that he (Jongin) was in Heaven, nearly scaring Jongin out of his wits. He remembered Chanyeol pinching him and fetching him water to help him with his hangover. And he felt guilty for teasing Chanyeol about his idiotic and funny expressions, and having boy problems with Baekhyun.

And then a pang of sadness suddenly overcame Jongin. “So this is what it feels like. So this is what Kyungsoo had probably experienced,” Jongin thought to himself as he let his tears flow. “Except that it was probably worse for Kyungsoo.”

Jongin quickly wiped his tears and turned his attention towards Kyungsoo. He brushed Kyungsoo’s hair and asked gently, “Hyung, are you okay?”

Fighting back his sobs, Kyungsoo replied, “I’m fine.”

“I’m just worried. Do you need to take your medicine now? Do you need an increase in dosage? I can go grab it for you,” Jongin offered.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’m upset over Chanyeol. I lost another friend. It reminds me of Jino’s death. I’ve lost two people to death. Two lives just gone…like that. Two people whom I would never have a chance to talk to again. Two people who could have a good future. Why is this so unfair?” Kyungsoo blubbered on.

Jongin could only put a comforting arm round Kyungsoo and kissed him on his forehead and hoping for that Kyungsoo would not suffer a relapse. 

Ryeowook headed off in search of Sehun as Yesung approached Joon-myun and grabbed the teenager by his arm.

“Stop it, Joon-myun, you’re hurting yourself,” Yesung chided gently.

“Am I a bad guardian?” Joon-myun turned to look at Yesung with his tear-filled eyes.

“Why do you even say that?” Yesung asked.

“I wasn’t able to protect Chanyeol.”

“It’s not your fault,” Yesung comforted Joon-myun with a hug. “You couldn’t have prevented this.”

“Ahjusshi, I can’t forget the last outing we had two weeks ago – all six of us with appa and umma. We went out for Sunday brunch. That was the last outing we had gone out together as a family and because I was mad at Kai and Kyungsoo, I ignored them and the mood wasn’t so good,” Joon-myun recounted in between sobs. “Chanyeol and Baekhyun were trying to brighten the mood with their jokes…they wanted all of us to be happy and be at peace. I wish…I wasn’t so petty…”

“That was our last outing as a family…Chanyeol…he was a brother to me…I…I wish there are some happy memories of our last outing together, but because of me…”

……

Ryeowook found Sehun sitting by himself at the bar counter. Sehun appeared numbed.  

Ryeowook approached the counter, propped himself on a bar stool next to where the tall teenager sat, and patted him on his back.

“Is Chanyeol hyung not really going to come back?” Sehun’s voice quivered.

“He isn’t…”

Sehun nodded his head in understanding. “I’m going to miss him.”

After a while, Sehun asked in a weary voice, “Uncle Ryeowook, why do bad things happen to good people?”

“Sehun, to tell you the truth, I don’t have an answer for that,” Ryeowook sighed. 

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And so I did. And so I killed off Chanyeol. 

I noticed that the number of subscribers decrease when I killed off Donghae. I'm pretty sure the number of subs might decrease when I killed off Chanyeol. But can I beg  you not to abandon this story just because some character died or something. Please?

I know the last chapter, this chapter and probably the next chapter are full of sadness and angst. I know the story has become very heavy all of a sudden that it seems so bleak and not fun any more. But please bear with me.

Just as how this chapter concluded with Sehun's question and Ryeowook's answer, this is how I feel.

I can't tell you why I allowed this thing to happen to Chanyeol. I don't have an answer why. Actually I do, because I'm the author. I can kill off any characters as I like.

But I don't have the power in actual life. 

More lives might be lost by the end of the story. You can petition me to keep the characters alive...though...

How many of you guys cried reading this chapter?

Anyway thanks for all the support, comments and subscriptions. Please keep the comments and subscriptions coming. Don't let it drop because I kiiled a character off.

Do check out  and comment on my other fan fics if you have not already done so.

My other fan fics

KyuMin: Almost a love story

KyuMin: 60 Days 

It's You (너라고) Neorago (a YeWook fan-fic)