NOTICE: So, I had already uploaded the last chapters, but they have been gone for more than a week now, and since I have gained new subscribers during this time, I think it is only fair that I don't wait for this to be corrected, but upload the end of the story again for them to read. Also, I lost a few of your comments before I had the chance to reply, and I am very sorry about this! D: I am always grateful for your comments, so if you have commented and are yet desireing a reply, please let me know! I don't want anyone to feel that I have forgotten them.
That's it from me, enjoy the story ~

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Even though he had wanted to ask Aron more about Solum, Minki couldn’t suppress the urge to sleep when they were finally on the plane back to Seoul. His shoulder hurt and it had been a struggle for both him and Aron to not let it show on their faces that they had both been shot less than an hour before boarding the plane. They would have to get the wounds examined and redressed when they reached the hospital in Seoul, but until then all he could do was to try and ignore it. Luckily he was so tired that fell asleep almost right away.

Minhyun had done as planned and bought off the entire first class space on the plane to make sure they were alone. He had his fingers tangled with Aron’s and he desperately wanted to lean his head on the older boy’s shoulder, but was afraid it might be taking it a bit too far.

“Aron?”

“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking about?”

“Oh… Nothing”. He smiled and turned his head away from the window; he had been staring at the clouds in silence for more than an hour.

“Liar”. Minhyun drew a sigh of sadness. “You were thinking about Minki again”.

“Minhyun, I swear it wasn’t like that… I’m just worried. He’s been having these headaches all since you arrived and he really doesn’t seem to feel well”.

“He told me it’s because he has to sleep every night. His body doesn’t like having its pace of day and night messed with, it’s quite common, really”.

“I guess you’re right…” Absentmindedly he placed one arm around Minhyun and drew him close for a quick kiss. “I’m sorry. It’s just not easy to stop caring after having looked after him for so long”.

“Well, it’s my own fault really”. Minhyun carefully leaned his head on Aron’s shoulder. “You wanted to forget him, I told you I’d make you forget… I just haven’t done it properly yet”.

“Is that how you look at it? Because you have been doing quite a lot already”. He smiled and squeezed the younger boy with a clear affection showing on his face. No, he couldn’t forget Minki. But there was no way he was going to give up the boy in his arms.

Devastated, Minki fell to his knees next to Jonghyun’s bed, crying against his shoulder.

“Hyung, I’m so sorry I left… I’m so sorry, I’ll never ever leave you again, I swear…”

Jonghyun reached out for Minki’s hand and slowly he led it to his lips so that he could kiss the younger boys trembling fingers.

“It’s all right… I know why you left”. He smiled and Minki looked at his face. Even though he was paler than usual his eyes gleamed from happiness from having Minki near him again. After having looked at Minki for a while he turned his head to Aron and Minhyun.

“Hey guys. I’m glad you’re here… I never thought I should see you again Aron…” He drew a sigh from exhaustion. “I thought you left for good that night…”

“I thought so, too” he muttered, then shaking his head to forget about it. “I’ve thought about it Jonghyun. If you want to try and do a transplantation, then it should be prepared right away. In that case we should be ready in two days”. His expression went very solemn and Jonghyun closed his eyes for a while.

“They’ve told me about the risk... I guess it’s the best thing they can do, right?”
“I’m afraid so”.

None of them said anything; the seconds went by in silence, until Jonghyun finally opened his eyes again and looked at Aron.

“It’s my only chance, I’ve got to try and live through it.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Yes… If I don’t do anything I’ll be dead shortly anyway…”
“Hyung, it’s your life you’re talking about!” Minki looked as if Jonghyun had hit him. “I want to be with you for as long as possible”.

“It’s a matter of days Minkiah…”
“I don’t care! Even if it’s only a few days, or even hours, I still don’t want to lose the time with you. Please don’t ever talk about your life in a sentence containing the word “anyway” again, you make it sound like it’s not important”.

He was holding on to Jonghyun’s hand, but his grip was shaking.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean it like that”.

“It’s okay, I know you didn’t… I’m just a little tired, that’s all”. Jonghyun had to admit that the blonde indeed looked as if he could use some sleep. He had black circles under his eyes and he was almost as pale as Jonghyun.

“Aron, I want to do the transplantation. I can’t just lay here and die, I have to do something”.

“Fine. I’ll talk to the doctors right away”.

Minhyun decided to go with him to let Minki be alone with Jonghyun for a while. Minki straightened his back a bit so that he could rest his arms better on the side of the hospital bed. Slowly Jonghyun reached out and wiped the still running tears from the younger boy’s eyes.

“Don’t cry Minki… I promise I’ll be fine”.

“You do?”

“Of course I do. I couldn’t bear to leave you sweetie… I want to stay with you forever”. He smiled as his words make Minki sob again. “The real question is, when this is over will you still want to be with me?”
“Hyung, what are you…”
“It’s not just the surgery you know… They say it could take almost a year for me to recover. It’ll be tiring and I will have to stay in the hospital for months. Would you wait that long for me?”

Minki took a deep breath and looked at Jonghyun with a mix of affection and stubbornness lightening up his eyes.

“I will wait for you until the end of the world. I don’t care how long it takes for you to recover… Someday we’ll be able to go out and look at the stars together, right? Even if it’s years from now there so much we have to do. I want to walk on the beach with you, holding hands while drinking bubble tea and… and maybe we could go to Japan and see the cherry blossoms next spring…” His cheeks started to colour, but he didn’t look away for as much as a second. “I want to do all of that together with you, even if I have to wait for a very long time. I’m not leaving you hyung, I couldn’t bear it”. He leaned in to kiss the brunette on the forehead, something he’d never done before. Jonghyun looked stunned at him, then a smile broke onto his lips.

“What did I even do to deserve you?” he murmured and finally Minki had to look down when the other one lifted his hand to lace his fingers in Minki’s white locks of hair. For a moment he couldn’t find anything to say, then the blonde nervously managed to whisper: “I have something for you”.

With shaking hands Minki took out a small bag from his pocket and handed it to Jonghyun, blushing and shy. “What is it?”
“Couple rings…” he muttered, looking hesitatingly at the brunette. “I bought them at the airport. You probably think it’s stupid and really girly and… super dumb of me, but I…”

Jonghyun shook his head, smiling as he took out the two small metal rings. They both had writing on the inside.

“I don’t think it’s stupid at all” he whispered, studying the rings with eyes shining from happiness. “Here, let me put it on you”.

Blushing even more Minki hold out his hand to let Jonghyun put the ring with the word “Forever” on his slender finger with a smile.

“There”. He put the other ring on his own finger, looking briefly at the words inside of it, “and ever”. Then he took Minki’s hand and they clenched each other’s fingers as if they were afraid the other one would cease to exist if they let go.

“Now you are completely and utterly mine” Jonghyun breathed before pressing his lips against Minki’s, willingly yielding to the inquiring touch of his tongue. When they ended the kiss Minki buried his face in the older guy’s shirt, silently muttering: “I always was”.

They had chosen a table a bit removed from the entrance of the cafeteria and from that by which Jonghyun’s parents were sitting. Aron and Minhyun had bought a sandwich each while Minki insisted that he wasn’t hungry. Instead he had been sipping from a bottle of water for the last ten minutes.

“He looked better than when we left, didn’t he?” he speculated, resting his head in his palms. “When we took off he almost couldn’t speak at all…”
“It’s because he was linked to that hemopurifier. Remember I called about that?”

“Yes, you did… What is it?”
“It’s a machine that cleanses the blood. It’s normally used for HIV-patients, but it works on other infections, too, so I thought we should give it a try. Looks like it’s done wonders already.”

“You’re sure it couldn’t do the trick? Completely?”
“Sadly, no. As I said, the Helix fusions with regular blood and it’s very persistent. If you manage to separate it from the patient’s own blood you’ll have to find a way to it out of his system again right away, or it’ll just fusion once more. It’s really tricky… But if Jonghyun were to get another blood type now, it’d probably be strong enough to kill off the Helix-blood. He’s had it in him for days now, it should be weakened by now”.

Both him and Minhyun took a bite of their sandwich, and Minki looked away, uncomfortable. He had decided not to sleep until Jonghyun felt better and almost as if his body reacted to the thought alone, his headache had started again.

“What do you mean, it should be weakened by now?” Minhyun asked, tilting his head a bit.

“The Helix-blood dies after a while, it can’t live inside a host for very long. It destroys everything inside a human body and is then destroyed itself because the body fights back so dramatically. But we can’t wait for it to die, it’ll have killed Jonghyun before then. It takes months for it to disappear, a host body can’t hold that long.”

“I see…”

Two hours later Minhyun decided that he had to go home before his parents realised that he was gone. Aron went with him, as he didn’t have anywhere else to sleep until he had gotten himself a new flat, and Minki didn’t want to sit in the cafeteria next to Jonghyun’s parents so he went back to the corridor with Jonghyun’s room and placed himself in a chair next to the door.

Jonghyun was asleep, and Minki slowly noticed that it was dark outside. He should sleep, too, yet he couldn’t stand the thought of staying at home for hours just one day before the surgery now. Instead he decided to fall asleep in the chair outside his boyfriend’s room, even though he’d rather had been next to him holding his hand, but no one was allowed inside the room anymore; his immune system was at its lowest and they couldn’t risk for him to be struck by another infection.

Unwillingly he closed his eyes, dreaming himself far away from the aching in his head.