Moments tick by and no other movements came from him.  She finally opens her eyes and sees him frozen in place above her.  Only he was no longer angry.  He was crying.

Kris was crying?

“Why are you crying?” She whispers.

“I’m an idiot,” he mutters.

She frowns.

Removing himself, he stepped away allowing her room to get up and cover herself up.  She then scrambles to the other side of the bed to put some distance between the two.

“Go Luna, just go,” he mumbles softly.

“What’s wrong?” She asks.

“Please just go Luna before I do something I’ll regret,” he told her gently.

“I didn’t come here to run away from you, I wanted to make sure you were really alright,” she told him.

“I’m mighty fine Luna as you can see.  I’m exhausted and drained.  What else do you want from me?” He points out.

“I’ve never wanted anything from you – remember?” Luna reminded him.

“Oh that’s right.  My money, my background didn’t mean a thing to you,” he sighs.

“No, only you is what matters to me,” she corrected him.

He sighs again.

“When I’m asking you nicely to go, please just go,” he told her again.

“Not until I get my answer about Elly, your sister,” she shook her head.

“She’s here and recuperating but still not in the safe zone,” he sighs again.

“What’s wrong with her?” She asks.

“If you really want to know then I’ll take you to her but after that, you must leave and never come back,” he told her.

“Do you really mean that?” She wonders.

“Yeah. The same way you meant it when you walked out on me that night,” he reminded her.

Before she could respond, he pulled out another t-shirt for her to wear in place of the blouse he tore off.  She quickly put it on and literally dragged her all the way across the corridor until they reached a room that had nurses and doctors stationed outside the door.

“Mother and father just left for a meeting but she should be awake now,” he told her before opening the door.

There Elly lies looking pale and exhausted.  Luna wanted to cry but she knew better than to do that when a person is already ill, they need to see strength and happiness in order to move forward.

“Elly…” she whispers.

“Luna….is that you?” She whispers back.

Luna nods.

“Thank you brother. Thank you so much for bringing her back,” she cried.

Luna frowned.

“I didn’t bring her back Elly.  She was always there.  Remember I told you she had school just everyone else,” he reminded his little sister.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” she tried to shake her head.

“I know what you mean Elly.  I’ve never left, I’ve just been away that’s all,” Luna interrupted.

“I knew you would come back.  You were the type to keep your promises,” she smiles.

Kris took a deep breath.

“I’ll leave you two alone,” he told them and left the room.

“What happened Elly?” Luna asked in concern.

“I told brother that when he becomes sad, I will become sad too.  His happiness is my happiness.  One day he looked torn up and very sad.  I’ve never seen him cried like that and when I tried to talk to him, the only thing he said was that it was over,” Elly slowly explains.

“But why did your health decline?” She wondered.

“I lost my appetite and then I stopped producing white blood cells – from there everything went down the hill,” she explains.

“Could it had been prevented?” Luna asks.

She shrugs.

“Everything happened so fast, even the doctors were confused,” she told her.

“Why did you think it was me?” Luna asked cautiously.

“You’ve been the only person to touch him this deep and when he lost sight of everything, I knew something went wrong with the two of you,” she answers.

“But he said it wasn’t me, why didn’t you believe him?” Luna asks.

Elly chuckles.

“Brother is not a good liar, never was but I could tell,” she smiles.

“How are you feeling now?” Luna asks.

“Better but I had better days too,’ she was back to frowning.

“You should have taken better care of yourself,” Luna winced.

“With my illness, it can choose to go at any time – I have no control,” she shook her head.

“Was this done on purpose?” Luna asks.

“Yes and No – but really I truly did not realize that by skipping one round of meds would put me in this state,” she honestly answers.

Luna could only shake her head.

“Luna, do you still love my brother – after everything he had put you through?” Elly asks.

“I never stopped loving him.  I wanted to test him like he did with me but fail miserably – look at where it put you,” Luna groaned.

“Don’t blame yourself – I don’t and you shouldn’t either,” Elly tried to cheer her up.

Luna could only feel sorry for herself.

“I got an idea but you have to go all the way with me on this,” Elly perks up.

“Idea?”  Luna repeats.

“I know brother is really upset at you but we can test him how mad he is – if he’s just putting up a front, we’ll know it,” she suggested.

“What do you mean?” Luna asks.

“Come closer,” she urges.

**** Whispers……………………………………………………***

Luna changed into more comfortable clothing and joined the group for dinner.  All twelve of them were in a deep conversation, meanwhile Elly was already at the table taking her meds before eating supper.  On the way down, the maids mentioned something about the parents heading into the city for a convention meeting and will not be back until the end of the week since Elly was stable.  So it is just her and Elly along with the twelve boys.  She can only hope the plan will work out before she fell into pieces.

“Dinner will be serve,” the maid announced and everyone made their way to the table.

“Glad you can join us Luna,” Suho greeted.

“Thank you for asking,” she nodded politely.

Not once had Kris turn to look at her.  His mind seemed occupied.  She was seated next to Elly yet across from him but that didn’t help when he kept his attention to Suho and Xiumin who were all lost in a mini-meeting.

Elly nudged her to give her the sign to begin.

Luna quietly nods.

Lifting some raw vegetables, she places them on Elly’s plate.

“Unnie, I don’t like raw veggies – take them away,” she whines.

“They’ll be good for you,’ Luna tried to reason with her.

“Elly, eat it,” Kris growled.

“Why?  It’s my body,” she argued back.

“Look, you need to eat as much as you can.  You’ve lost a lot of weight,” Kris points out.

“So what, it’s not like I’m going to live forever,” she argued back.

“How many times have I told you – your life is as precious as anyone else,” he reminded her.

“So many times that it’s playing back a ringtone in my mind – it’s annoying,” she pouted.

“Just eat,” he orders.

“You’re not mom or dad so stop being bossy,” she points out.

“Elly, now is not the time to be picky, you need all the nutrients you can intake,” Luna told her gently.

“What do you care!  You left my brother to pick up the pieces and now you’re back here bossing me around too,” she yelled.

“I’m only here to help,” Luna winced.

“Like this morning – I’ve already told you many times.  Promises means a lot to me but you don’t care since you’ve broken it,” Elly points out.

“Elly!  You do not speak to guests that way ever,” Kris shouted alarming both Luna and Elly at the same time.

“Um, how about we calm down.  If Elly doesn’t want raw veggies, let’s give her some cook ones,” Suho suggested.

Elly made a face.

“I don’t want veggies period,” she pouted again.

“You’ll eat whatever has been placed on your plate,” Kris ordered.

“I don’t have to.  I rather starve to death than watch everything fall apart,” she yelled.

Luna closed her eyes to take a deep breath.

“Alright, if you don’t want raw veggies – what would you like?” Luna asks.

“It doesn’t matter what I like – brother is going to boss me around to eat whatever he thinks I should eat,” Ell continues to pout.

“Luna, stay out of this one,” Kris warned her.

“You’re not making the decision any better,” Luna winced.

“If you would have stayed away like you wanted to, we wouldn’t be here arguing over nothing,” Kris literally yelled at her.

Luna froze in place.  He’s never yelled