Over the course of days Jiyeon learned how to make Kris talk. All the doctors before her had repeated the same mistake again and again. Their problem, they had treated Kris like a mental patient. Sure it did sound ironic but so was the case. Jiyeon instead of asking those same meaningless questions like her predecessors chose to tell him about her instead. At first she was unsure of how to proceed with him. As time went by she learnt that Kris had a mind of his own and sometimes he made it known. She'd walk into his room every new day and talk about herself or whatever came into her mind. Kris would keep quiet and listen, sometimes making his comment now and then telling her snippets about how he felt.

There were good and bad days for her. On good days everything went well for her. She'd wake up on time, not burn her toast, catch her train and Kris would speak more than 10 sentences. Unluckily for her, today as she believed turned out to be the latter one. She'd woken up 10 minutes late, courtesy of that stupid alarm (the battery died unexpectedly), stubbed her toe on her way to the bathroom, found that her favourite pair of jeans had a hole right at the crotch part that too when she was already 5 mins away from her home, so she had to rush back and grab whatever she found first on the wardrobe and then to add icing to the cake a ert on the subway slapped her arse.

Yes, people let me repeat. He SLAPPED her ARSE!

In return she'd only fumed with anger, embarassed that she did not have the time and the guts to flip him off.

Currently Kris being unco-operative was just a cherry on top.

For the upteenth time she sighed.

Exasperatedly she rubbed her face.

"K-Wu Fan, why are you being like this?"

The said figure stood rooted to its spot. Jiyeon was asking him to come sit on his bed so she could examine him but today it turned out Kris was also not in the mood as well.

"Kr- WU FAN!" She huffed standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.

She tried pushing, pulling, shoving and even lightly hitting him but he would not move from his current spot, which was the center of his room.

"I know you love this spot of yours very much but no one is going to steal it, okay. So can you please come sit on your bed and give your current spot some rest?"

When he refused to budge, Jiyeon had it.

"Wu Fan!" She whined.

"Do you dream?" His cold voice cut her.

Suprised she looked up. His eyes were gazing onto hers questioning her.

"Eh!" Out came her reply.

"Do you dream?" He repeated his question again.

"I do." Even though this was a sure statement, looking back into his dark eyes made her question its validity.

"Do you have nightmares?" He questioned again.

Without realizing it, her eyes softened.

So this was why.

"I do." It came out in a soft whisper.

When Kris showed no more signs of questions again, Jiyeon slowly held both of his hands with her own.

No matter how cold his surface appeared to be, his hands defied his outer appearnace.

It was warm, she noted. Just like the gentle rays of the morning sun.

"Mind telling me about it?" A faint smile tugged at her lips.

Kris could only stare back at her.

She slowly led him to his bed and made him sit upon it. Kris looked down at his feet unsure of what to say. Jiyeon waited standing patiently in front of him. Minutes passed. When he finally raised his head, Jiyeon was still looking at him with that faint smile in place.

"They're scary." He continued.

"I know."

"I keep having them."

"Since when?" Jiyeon already made a mental note to search about the symptoms and cures depending on what his answer would be. However when it came, she was left stunned.

"Since I was 10."

"How many times?" She managed.

"Every night. It only gets worse."

He looked up at her as if asking her to find a cure for him.

Nightmares caused from a variety of factors. Stress, drugs, physical condition, hereditary, after events of a traumatic incident, high emotional quotient, depression and many more. Jiyeon knew that Kris suffered from a serious case of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. So the only reason she could link his nightmares to was that it must have been the after effects of a traumatic incident in his life.

The reason he was admitted here. Just how bad could it have been?

Her heart ached at this thought. And she started to find swallowing hard. But she could not look like this in front of him. Especially when he had confided such an important matter to her. He did not like talking about his past. It made him more than upset. It turned him into a raging lunatic. She was more than well aware of that fact when she'd made the error of talking about it to open him up during her first week. Knowing that now, it made her feel a little more than proud. Her heart swelled at the thought.

Wait a minute. Rewind. Did I just say my heart swelled?

Obviously not. A-and even if it did its beca-ause I'm the first doctor to get him to open up. Y-y-yes that's it. That's the reason why.

She looked at him again and all thoughts and excuses flew out from her head.

What she was currently looking at was not the cold unapproachable Kris everyone in the institute feared. It was that helpless kid that no one had been able to reach during his hospitalization of 11 years that she saw.

Out of nowhere, she felt a pang in her heart.

11 years. That's a really long time.

As if on reflex her body acted on his own. She did not know what she was doing but it just felt the right thing to do. It was at moments like this that actions mattered more than words.

Closing the distance between them, she put her hands around him and enveloped him into a hug.

Kris's body froze upon contact. No one had dared to touch him all this time. The sudden contact with another body felt so foreign that he was rendered clueless as to what came next and when it did he would still remain as dumbfounded as he was now.

"Relax." Her warm voice broke through his reverie.

"You're too stiff." She lightly chided.

It was an odd sight indeed. Jiyeon hugging him with all the warmth she possessed while Kris lay there as stiff and cold as a marble statue with his hands rigid by his side.

"They say time heals all wounds. Obviously yours is taking too long." She whispered into his ear.

"But don't worry it will heal yours too. It's just waiting for the right time."

"You think." Kris croaked.

"Mmm. Those nightmares still remain there because you're badly holding onto the past. I can't blame you for doing that either. If that's the only memory you have left, then you're free to keep it. But if those nightmares keeps on frequenting you again, this is the only cure I have at the moment."

Minutes passed before Kris finally spoke again.

"You keep on confusing me with Kris again and again. Is the name Wu Fan too much of a burden for you?" He did not know why he was asking this but he felt he had to if he wanted to shed another layer of his protective shield in front of her.

Please tell me that you're not the same like those others.

Jiyeon inhaled sharply.

"It's not like that. I'm sorry I keep on confusing your name with Kris because the whole institute calls you that name. Hearing 'Kris' all the time sometimes gets to me."

She moved from the hug and stared at his face.

"And no, its an honour that you're letting me use your real name. I'll make the utmost use of it." She brightly smiled to emphasise her pure intentions.

"I'm fine with Kris too." He whispered back.

"I know."

"So next time don't give me a hard time beacause of it, either be your nightmares or the names. You can just come up to me and ask for another round of hugging session. Okay?"

Kris suddenly felt his body go lax. He found his arms moving on their own and soon they were hugging the petite frame of Jiyeon against his huge body. At that time, it just felt right.

Jiyeon smiled.

After all actions did speak louder than words.

Yes, finally uploaded. Yeah, I know I did it one day late so sorry for that. Seriously I think I don't know what to write all the time then I sit in front of my computer and then my hands start flying over the keyboard without any knowledge of what I'm doing.

And YAY for T-ARA's comeback, Day by Day. Seriously, it's supercool. I loved the song and the MV. Jiyeon's so badass there. Anyways, subscriptions and comments are supa-loved. Till then, enjoy!