http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnv1VG4HkiM

 

 

The winds of November started to become chilly that whenever they exhaled, small puffs of smoke would become visible. One morning, the two of them stayed inside and enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate alongside each other's company. Conversation lasted longer than usual, or so they noticed. 

 

"I'll make hotpot when I get home. Take care and if anything happens, don't hesitate to call, okay?" Jongdae just gave a curt nod as Minseok headed off for work. This has been their daily routine since they first met. Sometimes when Minseok leaves during the morning, Jongdae would take a stroll in the park and think about Minseok. Nobody else but Minseok.

 

Everything was going peachy as usual until a knock was heard on the door. Jongdae shifted to the door and his face turned sour at the sight of three familiar men at the doorstep, all had notorious smirks on their faces. "It's been a long time, isn'tt it Mr. Li Jia Heng and company?" Jongdae mumbled with a death glare and a matching smirk. The taller man in front of him cringed at the sound of the unwanted name, but still had intimidating stature nonetheless. "I prefer you call me Wu Yi Fan, and I believe you owe us an apology, Mr. Kim Jongdae." he replied.

 

"What's there to apologize about, Mr. Li?" Jongdae taunted, causing the two others at the back to frown in disapproval. "Oh, there's a lot, Mr. Kim. If you refuse, we'd have to resort to use force. You wouldn't want that, would you?" There was a very obvious smirk from the taller, as well as his minions. "Well?" One of the taller's subordinates piped, patting a metallic baseball bat on his palm.

 

"I see you taught them to be unfair players." Jongdae replied, eyeing the two people behind Yi Fan. They made a face and glared back, trying to intimidate the former. "Besides, I can't afford to apologize when I've done nothing wrong, and to you of all people." he scoffed.

 

"Tch. Stubborn as always." Yi Fan spoke and turned to the two people at his sides. The two understood what it meant and soon, baseball bats and fists were swung, blood eventually covered Jongdae's face but he never gave up without a fight. One particular swing critically hit him on the head, causing him to lose his balance and fall on the floor. As his eyes caught the smirking Yi Fan leaning on the doorway, he tried to stand up and continue fighting, only to be pushed away and get beaten up even more. Eventually, his vision darkened and the last thing he remembered was that Minseok would be home anytime soon. "Minseok hyung, I'm sorry to cause you so much trouble. If I die right now, my only regret would be not telling you how much I love you."

 

--

 

A few minutes later, Minseok walked in the house with the stench of blood all around. Shortly, his heart sank when he saw a bloody Jongdae lying on the floor. The blood drained from Minseok's face and panic was taking over his system. He frantically fished the phone from his pocket and called for an ambulance.

 

On the way to the hospital, the older finally broke down and held Jongdae's hand as tight as he can. "Please save him. He's..." He stopped mid-sentence, trying to find the right word to describe the unconscious man before him, "... someone very important." He bit his lip to prevent more tears from falling and filled his mind with positive thoughts.

 

--

 

"Mr. Kim Minseok?" The doctor chimed with slow pronunciation. "Yes, Dr. Zhang?" the shorter replied. "I have both good and bad news. Which one would you want to hear first?" At that moment, Minseok was afraid of what might happen to his beloved. "Good, please." To say those two words felt like he used up all the air stored in his lungs.

 

"Mr. Jongdae isn't dead." Minseok's heart leapt in happiness, until he remembered the bad news. "And the bad one?"

 

"Yet." Zhang Yixing, the doctor replied with sullen eyes. "You see, Mr. Kim is on a comatose. A particular injury on his head was too severe and would need to much time to repair. If it would repair, that is." He mumbled the last sentence softly so that the older won't hear.

 

Minseok bowed to the doctor and went on to the room where Jongdae was confined. There his love lies, solely depending on life support for a chance to live. He felt so useless that the one who could save Jongdae wasn't him but instead, a mere man-made machine. It was so frustrating and painful that all he could do was kneel down and cry. He held Jongdae's hand and sobbed uncontrollably. No words could explain all the emotions he bottled up since the moment he started falling for the guy.

 

It was dusk. As the sun starts to set, usually they would help each other on the kitchen trying out different recipes and sometimes play with the ingredients. But this time, Jongdae was on an hospital bed and Minseok was beside him. At this time, their laughter and the sizzling sound of the frying pan would fill the room. Sometimes Minseok would ask Jongdae to serenade him, and the latter would happily comply, his angelic tenor voice would bring warmth, just like how fairy tales describe the effects of a fairy's pixie dust. It was that magical for Minseok. But this time, all he could hear was his sniffling and sobbing along with the beeping of the monitor.

 

--

 

Minseok's eyes stung as he tried opening them. He looked around the surroundings and realized that he was still in the room. It was colder and darker, just like the hand he was holding. It was cold and lifeless, aside from the eventual twitching. His heart sank when his eyes landed on his hand, holding Jongdae's. He was hoping that everything was just a dream, but in fact, it was still a continuing nightmare. "You want to hold my hand, right? I know we're just having a bad dream... a really bad dream. Everything's going to be alright. I know you'll be back." He muttered, holding Jongdae's hand tighter than ever. When his tears fell again, the sun was just beginning to rise.

 

--

 

Few weeks have passed since the news and Minseok goes to work with puffy red eyes and a forced smile. His co-workers were whispering but he didn't dare tell any of them what happened, except for his best friend in the office, Xi Lu Han. One particular morning, Lu Han was having mixed emotions of Minseok's fixed decision. He was resigning work to have his full attention on Jongdae. Lu Han tried persuading Minseok to stay so that he could sustain the latter and his partner financially, but everytime all he got for a reply was a sad smile and "Don't worry, I've saved up enough for us."

 

It's been three days after Minseok submitted his resignation letter. He decided that today would be his last appearance in the office. He thanked everyone that he worked with for the past few years. Time quickly passed and he's about to turn his back on the place that treated him as family for so many years. As he finished packing the last of his traces on his cubicle, Lu Han approached him and cleared his throat. "Take care of him, okay? I know how much you love him. He's a lucky guy." He gulped, patting Minseok on the back. "Thanks, man. I will." Minseok replied. Lu Han beamed at him, the clock finally struck five. "So, I'll be seeing you around, then. Oh, don't forget to take care of yourself too. If you need anything, you can always call me." he added as Minseok headed to the doors. The older just gave a nod and turned to left, not realizing the hidden meaning behind his best friend's words.

 

Lu Han headed back to his cubicle with a sad smile. His eyes started to sting and when he heard the door close, he bowed his head in defeat. He doesn't know why he's sad. It may be because Minseok's pain, Minseok's absence or Minseok's in love with someone else. Eitherway, he's still defeated and the mere fact of being friendzoned, best friendzoned, was painful and all he could do was hold back his tears until he gets home.

 

--

 

After setting his things inside his home, Minseok headed to the hospital and decided to transfer Jongdae to his house where he could watch over the younger, minus the increasing hospital bills. Though the doctors told him that it would be risky, he was still willing to have Jongdae by his side. Since the doctors couldn't do anything about Minseok's stubborness, they decided to end the argument and agree.

 

--

 

The medical team finally finished setting up Jongdae and left Minseok a few sets of instructions before leaving. Silence and cold air filled the room. He took a seat and lingered beside the unconscious love of his life. He looked out the window and saw the sky draped in black, no traces of white sparkling spots visible on its gloomy canvas. The trees shook violently as if following the wind's commands. The rest of his vision was blurry, not sure if it was his tears or that it was raining, lightly raining. 'A drizzle.' And then he thought about that encounter in the alley, the day he first met Jongdae.

 

His gaze drifted at the man beside him, lying on the bed, fingers twitching occasionally. The clock struck six fifty-three and the image of a freshly-showered Jongdae stepping into the kitchen crossed his mind. A flush formed on his cheeks and that's when he realized that exactly at this time two months ago, he finally fell in love. He recalled the feeling, that feeling when billion particles of pixie dust conjures an equal amount of butterflies hovering in your stomach which also emits a billion more pixie dusts that conducts the electricity from who knows where. The electricity powers up the source of blood and uses a thousand volts to pump blood to your cheek, all the while emitting several sparks here and there. And the magical thing was it only took one simple glance to make all those things happen.

 

He turned off the stove in the kitchen and set his ramyun to cool for a while. He prepared the table, absentmindedly setting the space across his seat. He thought that if Jongdae could smell the ramyun, maybe, just maybe he would wake up and the two of them would be back to normal, as if nothing bad happened. He then could tell his feelings and maybe, just maybe Jongdae felt the same too. He began to eat while glancing at Jongdae's lifeless body every once in a while. He could wake up at this moment. Maybe, just maybe.

 

After a quarter of a bowl, he stood up and went to Jongdae's side, holding his hands and caressing his knuckles back and forth. "Jongdae-ah, wake up. You're ramyun's gonna get cold. You wanted one since it's rainy, right? Or you might want hotpot that's why you're not answering me. You could tell me now and I might cook for you. Please don't be mad, Jongdae-ah." His tears are now uncontrollably dripping on his lap as his sentences were cut between hics. "I... l-love you, Jongdae-ah. P-please don't do this... this to me. Please."

 

--

 

The winds got a tad more chilly as the year was about to end. The string of hope was cut drastically as the Dr. Zhang called Minseok over to report about Jongdae's health progress. "At most, a month and a half." Seven words and a bizzare mixture of emotions take over Minseok's system. Dr. Zhang looks away with sorrowful eyes from yet another burden of bearing devastating news. Minseok could only nod and give a bow before he left.

 

A month and a half, the phrase repeats itself over and over Minseok's mind as he walked home, earnestly hoping for Jongdae's wake only to disappoint himself once he enters the doors. "Snap out of it, Minseok! Do you really believe that he'd leave you in a month and a half?! He might wake up any time now. Have hope!" His subconscious scolds him, his fist landing on the concrete wall. It's the first time his mind feels so much frustration that he had to feel pain to check if he was still alive. His soul was dying, and suddenly he thought of letting Jongdae into his life was a mistake. And yet again, he scolds himself for that thought: physically and mentally.

 

 

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A/N: SKAJFDKASRIAFDSA THE NUMBER OF NINJA READERS FOR THIS FIC! <3 I LOVE YOU GUYS~ <3