Hoon opened the window to see that the ambulance had pulled in to his apartment’s car park and the next minute he heard footsteps running up the stairs. He hoped, and begged that they weren’t coming to his apartment, maybe something happened next door? Yeah let’s just hope. Dongho looked at him confused. Hoon just held him close and Dongho just melted into the embrace feeling warm but suddenly worried.

“No matter what happens I’ll be right beside you okay?” Hoon whispered into the other’s ear. And then there was a knock. Hoon let go of the other and just told him to stay there. Dongho nodded mutely and swallowed the small lump that began to form in his throat.

Hoon opened the door to where the paramedics were standing.

“I’m sorry can I help you?” Hoon said, as if nothing went wrong in the past week.

“We’ve traced back calls that were not sent through and since you called over three times we still had to come and investigate. There’s also been a missing person’s file for a Shin Dongho who disappeared on the same day you were making the calls,” Hoon’s eyes widened and his breath hitched. The paramedics looked at each other and then back to Hoon.

“Sir we are going to have to have a look inside your apartment for any suspicions. We recommend you stay in your lounge room until we have finished.” The paramedics walked past Hoon and began searching through his house, Hoon stood there frozen with fear. He knew this was it, he was going to lose Dongho.

The paramedics walked towards his bedroom and he felt like collapsing knowing he was about to lose the one thing he loved.

Dongho was sitting on the bed anxious of what was happening, he was staring at the door waiting for Hoon to walk in and tell him everything was taken care of. When he noticed the handle of the door turning he quickly jumped up and began to walk over but stopped in his tracks when he saw two uniformed men were standing in front of him.

“Shin Dongho?” One of them asked. Dongho shook his head nervously not wanting to give his identity away. The two men looked at each other with one eyebrow raised. The other paramedic pulled out a clip board revealing a picture of Dongho.

“So you’re not this guy in the picture?” Dongho shook his head again. He began to sweat due to the immense build-up of nerves. He swallowed the heavy lump in his throat while waiting for the response of the men before him. The paramedics walked closer towards him and shut the door. Dongho shuffled back, scared of what they were going to do with him.

“If you are being held against your will to say anything you can tell us; if this man has hurt you in any way we will take care of it and he will never be able to harm you again and-“

“N-NO” Dongho cut them off and but that’s all he could say. His words were just not leaving his mouth.

“What happened to your stomach? We had also received information from a concerned pedestrian who tried to help you saying you were hit over the head with a glass bottle, but u refused and walked away. We are going to need to treat your wounds properly and press charges against this man for trying to commit manslaughter. Do you understand?” Dongho was too lost in thought. So that’s what happened to my head. Why can’t I say anything, they are going to take Hoon away and I’ll never see him again.

“Son? Do you understand?” The paramedic turned to his partner. “I think he is in a state of shock, we are going to need to take him to the hospital. Sedate him” The other man nodded and walked closer to Dongho with a mask in his hand, Dongho was still in shock and didn’t know what was going on; he just stared at the paramedic with wide eyes and was shivering.

“Just relax, breathe in … and out” He placed the mask on Dongho’s face and continued to chant those words. Dongho could feel himself get drowsy and his nerves suddenly started to disappear.

Before he fell into a deep sleep he whispered a few last words, “Don’t hurt him; Please”

The paramedics watched the boy close his eyes and they looked at each other confused. He then opened up the patch on the younger’s stomach and found that it had almost completely healed up.

“I’m so confused” The man had said to the other.

“Yeah, he mustn’t of hurt the kid. We will just have to run some               tests and see.” The one analysing Dongho stood up and began to walk back out the bedroom door.

“Let’s get this one into the van, the faster we find the information the better” The two men walked back out into the lounge room where Hoon was sitting on the couch with his head down sitting nervously and playing with his fingers.

One of the ambulance men cleared his throat to grab Hoon’s attention. Hoon immediately jumped up and looked at them.

“W-what are you going to do with him?” Hoon asked with devastation written all over his face.

“We have to run some tests, he seemed frozen and couldn’t say anything, only a couple of outburst of “No” and “don’t hurt him” Hoon took a sharp breath.

“S-so you’re taking him away?” The medics looked at each other again with confusion.

“Sir, may I ask, what is your relationship with this boy?” Hoon took a sudden step back from being confronted and he choked on his words.

“I-I don’t really know” Hoon looked at the ground again with the sudden pink rising in his cheeks.

Again, the medics looked at each other.

“Well, from what we have gathered through the information that we’ve found; he has been stabbed in the stomach, quite deep, he had also been hit over the head with a glass bottle and for all we know .”

Hoon’s eyes shot open knowing that they had just had the night before. He mentally face palmed himself for giving into his lustful thoughts. Now he was completely done for, he will never see Dongho again.

“Y-you couldn’t possibly think I did it? I was the one who helped him”

“We are not saying you did, but, there is a possibility. We have to run tests, and if you did help him, you shouldn’t have to worry about anything. Please excuse us for a second; we need to grab something from the van”.

Hoon nodded fearfully and waited for the medics to exit the door. After they had left he ran to his bedroom and pushed open the door where Dongho was laying on the ground heavily sedated.

Hoon ran to his side and immediately embraced the others dead weight body in his arms.

“Dongho! Dongho! Wake up. Please.” Hoon began to sob into the younger’s softly heaving chest as he held him close.

“I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. What’s going to happen to us? Will I ever see you again? Will you remember me? Will you still love me? Please; Don’t forget me”. Hoon held Dongho close to his heart; A place where the other will always belong.

He laid Dongho back on the ground and leaned down to give him a last kiss; one that he would remember for ever. “I love you”

The paramedics walked back in the room with a gurney to take Dongho to the ambulance downstairs. They walked in and saw Hoon caressing Dongho’s cheek. Hoon quickly retracted his hand and stood up to face the medics.

“I’ll be coming with you” The medics put Dongho on the gurney and began to walk out the door.

“That won’t be necessary. We’ve got this under control”.

Hoon followed them out the front door and down to the car park where the ambulance was. Pedestrians peaking their curiosities eyed Hoon confusedly as he walked with the medics.

“But you don’t understand; I want to go” They put Dongho in the ambulance and shut the door. Hoon felt something inside him just break.

“I’m sorry sir, only family members are allowed”.

“But he doesn’t have any family members; He’s an orphan. Please. Just let me be there for him”

The medics looked at each other sorrowfully before climbing into the van.

“We are terribly sorry sir. And just for reference, after he has surgery on his head, he probably won’t remember you or anything that’s happened in the past week, and his memory will go back to the way it was before the incident. Again, I’m sorry sir”. As the van started to leave, Hoon just couldn’t move. He was frozen in shock and devostation. How could he be so stupid in thinking that he would have Dongho forever without someone asking about the boy’s whereabouts, but hearing that Dongho probably won’t remember him, just completely tore him. Hoon regained consciousness and ran upstairs to get his keys so he could go to the hospital straight away.

He ran through the door and into his room to put some appropriate clothes on, he through on a black v neck shirt and dark blue denim jeans. He was running around the house trying to find where he left his keys. He searched his pockets and under the bed, then the kitchen and the lounge room. It wasn’t until he lifted up the couch cushion in the lounge when he felt tears b at his eyes. Dongho’s pink notebook was buried under the cushions on the couch. He picked it up and began flicking through the pages.

He laughed and cried all at the same time as he read bits here and there. It wasn’t until he read the last entry and the words “Hoon, I love you” were written right on the page in front of him, that he realized what he was originally doing He felt around the couch a bit more before he found his car keys and he bailed out the door not bothering to lock it since Dongho was more important than the house he lived in and he wouldn’t even care if it got robbed.

He fumbled with the keys of the car in an attempt to be fast when realistically he was just making himself slower… and look like an idiot.  Once he finally got in the car he didn’t turn on the music, but instead, he was in that much of a rush that instead of reversing he slammed on his accelerator and smashed into the concrete wall in front of him. He sat there in shock for a few seconds before grabbing his keys, opening the door and running to the nearest bus stop.

“!” He looked at the bus time table and sighed in annoyance when he saw that the next bus didn’t come for half an hour. “Just my ing luck” He grumbled to himself. He sat down on the bus bench which was void of any people and sat back with his head tilted to the side. Once he was reasonably relaxed he felt tears prickling at his eyes. Any time he was relaxed, all he could think about was the times he spent with Dongho, and how much he missed him. How much he craved for the younger’s touch when he wasn’t around. Before he knew it tears were spilling out of his eyes and he was trying to stifle his sniffles. He furiously wiped at his eyes and stood up to look at the bus time table again. “Still another 27 minutes” he murmured. He looked around the streets and thought for a while. It isn’t that far to the hospital, only an hour away, that’s not too far, I could probably make it in time. Anything for him. And without a second thought he ran. He ran like there was no looking back, his concentration was focused on Dongho and Dongho only. Nothing was going to stop him.

~.~.~.~

3 hours had passed and he had finally gotten to the hospital. He felt like passing out but he had no time for that. He pushed the doors open and walked straight up to the front desk puffing like he was searching for the last bit of oxygen on earth. The lady at the front desk stood up rapidly and went around to him.

“Sir? Sir, please, calm your breathing. Please. Sit Down.” Hoon breathed in and out slowly, while going to sit on the chair. The lady just grabbed the phone while rubbing his back and began to dial the phone.

“No” Hoon breathed out. She put the phone down and looked at him confused. He looked at her name badge and could vaguely make out the character on the badge with the spinning of his head. “Please Fei, I need to see Shin Dongho” he rushed out breathlessly. She continued to stare at him and she grabbed her water bottle from her desk and gave it to him. He looked at her thankfully and grabbed it off her before downing the whole bottle. He rapid breathing finally started to slow down.

“Shin Dongho has just had surgery, I don’t think he will be awake, he is most likely in a comma” She said, reading of her patients list. She sat down next to him and continued to rub his back as he continued to steady his breathing. She touched his face with the back of her hand and quickly drew it away in disbelief.

“Sir, you have an extreme increase in temperature, I think you need to see one of the nurses”

He only shook his head and repeated his original objective.

“Please Miss Fei, I really need to see him” She nodded her head approvingly and helped him to stand up. His legs really felt like jelly, but it was worth it knowing he was about to see Dongho. Fei kept leading him down the hall, at a slow pace of course and she talked with him about certain procedures he’d need to take in order to be able to see the younger …

~.~.~.~

Dongho slowly opened his eyes feeling a sudden pain attack his head. All he could see was white. Am I dead? He thought. But as his eyes opened a bit more he looked to his left and noticed he was attached to a machine that looked like something you would find in a hospital. He sighed with relief; but then opened his eyes in shock.

“A Hospital?!” He sat up fast but soon fell back down as he felt a sudden pain race through his entire body. Was it pain? He thought it was … but it wasn’t lingering. He tried sitting up slowly, he sat up against his pillows and grabbed the glass of water that was on the side table and took a small sip. Where am I? His thoughts were interrupted when the door opened slightly. He put the glass back looked up only to see a man in an official white coat walk through the room and come to his side.

“Ah, you’re awake, how are you feeling?” Dongho just stared at him with furrowed eyebrows.

“O-okay, I guess. Why am I here?”  The doctor sat on the end of the bed and began to explain everything. He explained his wounds and that a man had taken him in and helped him, but also may have him according to the evidence. Dongho’s eyes widened in shock; The man reassured him that it may not have been possible since there were no other wounds, as if he wanted it.

Dongho was still shocked, yet he kind of had a tingly feeling inside and his face began to heat up. The doctor got up and bid him a good bye and good rest. Who is this man? He spent about an hour trying to remember that one man who helped him, he knew he was important; but why?

A few moments later the door opened and a lady walked in.

“Mr Shin. You have a visitor” She opened the door a bit wider and a man walked in. His face was tinted a slight pink, he looked fatigue and his hair was slightly damp. He looked like he had just rushed a marathon. But he looked closer at the man and something ticked in his head … Him.

~.~.~.~

Hoon walked nervously with Fei and they finally reached a door with the number ‘101’. Hoon swallowed the lump that was currently residing in his throat and he breathed out nervously.

“Are you okay?” Fei asked concerned at the look on Hoon’s face. Hoon nodded and waited for her to open the door.

“Mr Shin. You have a visitor” She opened the door a little more and moved out of the way so Hoon could walk in. Hoon walked in, eyes looking at the ground before he finally looked up and looked at Dongho. He wanted to cry… right then and there, just burst out crying until Dongho smiled at him.

“Hoon?..”

~.~.~.~