A/N: Warning. VERY long chapter ahead. Please bear with the bitter-sweetness, the truth is slowly unfolding ^^

P.s: I'm so happy that you like the previous chapter. Thank you. And welcome to new readers and subbies, hope you like this story.

Third Person’s POV

The night continues with a peaceful silence. Only the sounds of trees rustling and crickets are heard. The dark sky of Seoul is still decorated by millions of twinkling stars, beautiful and breath taking. The temperature is low but somehow, all the pair can feel is warmth.

Nayoung is still safely secured in his embrace and her arms are still wrapped around his waist. She locked her fingers together behind his back. She doesn’t want to let go.

Her breath has lowered down from erupting herself into a hard bawl, she’s now calm and quiet. The cry makes her eyes heavy but she wants to lengthen this waking moment with him. She keeps her eyes open even though it feels like her eyelids were being pulled down.

But Hyukjae patting on her back makes it hard to stay awake. Her mind is slowly shutting down as she restrains the desire to yawn loudly. When Hyukjae starts humming a lullaby, she completely loses it. She involuntarily falls into a deep slumber.

Hyukjae can feel her arms around him are slowly loosening. He removes his chin from the top of her head and looks down at her face. An angelic face and steady breathing greet him immediately. He wipes the remaining tears away from her cheek and hugs her once again. How he missed having her in his arms, how he missed watching her sleep and how he missed listening to her even breath.

A small smile tugs on his lips when his head keeps reciting the word. Stay. Nayoung wants him to stay. She had wanted and still wants him to. He’s contented that nothing has changed. The only difference is now he will stay; no matter what, he will.

Suddenly Nayoung stirs in her sleep. He looks down at her again. “Are you cold?” he asks squeezing her a little.

Nayoung unconsciously makes herself comfortable in his embrace snuggling up to him. Hyukjae smiles and her cheek gently. After a few minutes, the sleepiness creeps to his eyes. He begins to shiver from the wind that constantly freezes his back.

Sighing, he unwraps his arms around her body making her feel empty. He turns his back to her and slings her arms around his neck, grabbing the back of her knees to either sides of his waist. He stands up and begins to piggyback her.

“Why are you so light?” Hyukjae asks to her sleeping face. “Aish, you really didn’t take care of yourself, did you? Did you take my words as something pointless?” he his breath through his teeth.

He starts walking down the familiar route to her house. Each step he takes is slow and light, he doesn’t want this moment to end up so soon. Her breath against his neck tickles him. The feeling of her warm body on his back gives him the sparks.

“Yah,” Hyukjae calls lowly. His eyes still darted straight to the front staring far away. “Did I come back too late?” he asks absentmindedly.

He hears her sighing in her sleep and turning her head to the other side. A laugh manages to escape his mouth, bitterness is dripping in it.

“It was hard for you?” he questions. Again, he doesn’t get her reply. He sighs heavily and tightens his grip around her legs. “For me, it was. It was really hard, actually. It’s quite a miracle that I could survive until now.” He snickers to himself. “Even I was surprised. I didn’t think I could deal with everything. Strong, aren’t I?”

Nayoung, of course, doesn’t answer.

“Psh, yeah I know. You’re saying that you’re the strong one in your sleep, right?” he scoffs jokingly. “But I have to admit, you really are the strong one. You could cope up with everything that happened to you. I’ve always been a big fan of your capacity of handling any situation, I hope you know that.”

He kicks a pebble under his foot softly. “And I hope you can forgive me. For everything.” He turns to look at her again. “Maybe the decisions I’ve made were actually pretty stupid. But at that time, I thought it was the best. The best for you. For the both of us. So I’m sorry if that didn’t make you happy. You’ll forgive me, right?” he bumps his forehead lightly to her head. “You should, Kang Nayoung. Because I’ll keep coming into your life from now on, whether you like it or not.”

They arrive at her house all too soon for him. With his right hand still under the back of her knee, he presses the door bell. The big house is quiet, the front yard is lightened up. He stands there in the terrace waiting for someone to open the door.

The surrounding is still pretty much the same, except for the fact that the yard is no longer ornamented by various colored flowers. Mrs. Kang was the one who used to take care of those beautiful flowers. Now that she’s no longer in this house, the flowers are no longer here as well.

Hyukjae feels a sharp pinch in his heart. He turns again to Nayoung and murmurs a solemn ‘sorry’. His attention is turned back to the door when someone opened it for him.

Out comes a sleepy Sunhwa Ahjumma. But the drowsiness quickly leaves her when her eyes land on his face. “H-Hyukjae?” she stammers in shock.

“Ahjumma.” Hyukjae nods his head with a smile.

The middle aged woman looks at him with wide eyes before looking at Nayoung on his back. “Omo,” She gasps. “Is she okay?”

“She’s okay. Just asleep.” He tells her half whispering.

“Come in, come in.” She opens the door wider for him. As he walks past her, she looks at him still in a daze, forgetting that Nayoung should’ve been in her room sleeping instead of being carried by Hyukjae from God-knows-where. She just didn’t think she would be seeing the young man again this late.

Hyukjae still can clearly remember the direction to her room. He walks up the stairs, careful not to miss a step with Nayoung still on his back. He makes it to the second floor. He meets a long and dark hallway. The end of the hallway is her room.

He pushes the door open slowly, a big bedroom comes to his sight. The wallpaper is light purple with white floral pattern, still the same as he could remember it was. The position of the bed, the nightstand, the carpeting and the drawer are still the same, too.

He walks toward her bed and slowly laid her down. He tucks her in the white blanket, pulling it up to her shoulder. Nayoung lets out a comfortable sigh again turning to her side. Half of her face is buried into the pillow.

Hyukjae caresses her cheek gently. He traces her face with the back of his fingers. Every detail of her face seems to captivate his eyes, watching her face this close feels like a dream to him. He’s been waiting for this moment for years already.

Exhaling in contentment he stands up and closes the lights. “Sleep tight, Nana-yah.” he closes the door, careful not to make a sound.

When he turns around he meets Sunhwa Ahjumma in front of Nayoung’s room. He smiles lightly to her.

“When did you come back, Hyukjae-ah?” she asks.

Hyukjae massages the back of his neck in tiredness. “Three months ago, I think.” He chuckles lightly and starts walking to the stairs. The woman trails beside him.

“Where have you been?” she asks again. She remembers clearly how he left somewhere without any traces.

“Just here and there.” he shrugs. “How have you been, Ahjumma?”

“I’ve been alright.” She says.

Hyukjae stops right on the last step of the stairs. He looks at the marble floor with a blank expression. “How about... Nana?”

She turns to him and observes his face cautiously. “I don’t know how to answer that, Hyukjae-ah.” She answers honestly. “A few moments of her life have been tough for her.”

It feels like his heart is being squeezed when he hears this. Of course he knows it. But someone spilling it out to him just stings him.

“At one time, she told me that she felt like everything was weighing down on her.” She tells him quietly. “She told me that she felt the whole sky was falling onto her. When... when you left, when Mr. And Mrs. Kang divorced, when she was rejected by most of the universities in Seoul.” She explains. “I still can’t understand the last one though. She was really smart in her school, but why did they reject her?”

Hyukjae forms his fists into a ball, his body is slightly trembling. He feels tears of anger gradually b in his eyes. He hates the fact that he knows the answer for that question all too well. He gulps down the lump in his sore throat.

“She once felt she couldn’t bear it anymore.” Her voice is barely audible.

He keeps silent but his gaze to the floor gets hardened. Maybe SunHwa Ahjumma wants to leave it vague to Hyukjae. She doesn’t want him to blame himself for this; she’s always been soft hearted even though she disapproves him for leaving Nayoung alone at that state.

Too bad he already knew what she was implicitly talking about. The car accident. It was definitely the moment where Nayoung couldn’t put up with things anymore.

It happened on his birthday 5 years ago, a year after he left. That’s the worst memory he had of her. I’m sorry, Nana-yah. I’m so sorry.

“I-I should go now.” Hyukjae blurts with shaking voice. The latter looks up at him with confused gaze, noticing the change of his tone but shrugs it off.

“Okay. Be careful on your way, Hyukjae-ah.” She opens the front door for him.

“Ahjumma,” he stops just before he walks out the door. “Please make sure she eats her breakfast tomorrow. I don’t want her gastric to act out again. And don’t wake her up until nine, okay? She really needs rest.”

Sunhwa Ahjumma is stunned. There goes the old protective boy she once knew. “I will.” She nods.

Hyukjae gives her a small smile and walks out the door. “Thanks. Good night, Ahjumma.”

With that he walks out of the house. Until he hears the sound of the door closing, he stops again and glances back at the house.

His hand abruptly reaches up to his chest. He feels his heart beating fast there. His hand trembles violently as beads of cold sweat start to form on his forehead.

The car accident. That topic always pulls out the bitter memory. He hated seeing her cry when he had to leave, but he wanted to kill himself when he saw her lying on the hospital’s bed lifelessly. And it was because of him.

Hyukjae feels a sudden throb attacking his head. He begins losing his balance as he walks up to a lamp post and leans his body on it.

The car accident... it’s still too fresh in his mind, too tragic to be forgotten. It keeps flashing back in his head.

He groans a bit too loudly. He doesn’t want to break down here in the middle of a deserted street. But the memory is already starting to unfold once again. He envisions it once again.

April 8th, 2007

A guy was running rashly between the crowds of international terminal arrival at Incheon Airport. It was like he didn’t hear any of the grunts and angry shouts from people he thoughtlessly bumped into. He was carelessly wearing a blue t-shirt and black washed jeans, but his face was tensed up and all pale white. Tears streamed down both his cheeks.

The guy was no other than Hyukjae himself and he was panicked. No, even the word panic was an underestimation.

He just got back from campus when he received an email from Daeyoung. It was sent three days before.

Nayoung’s just hit by a car.

The words were simple but bold enough to slap him in the face. That didn’t take him more than one minute to recover from shock and he immediately called for a flight to Seoul.

Everything went by like a blur to him. He was doing everything in panic. He grabbed his phone, wallet, and a car key. But it was really hard since his hands wouldn’t stop trembling and his heart wouldn’t normalize its rate. He couldn’t even bring himself to imagine what her state was like at that time.

He drove his car passing the speed limit through the road of Manhattan to the airport. Almost creating another car accident on the way. But the flight to Seoul, it nearly murdered him. It felt like eternity just to reach Incheon Airport. He couldn’t stop asking the stewardess when they would land at Seoul.

Once he arrived there he didn’t care about anything anymore. Everyone walking around him seemed to have walked too slowly, almost like a snail. He couldn’t control himself when he just ran straight to a taxi, bumping his body into a few other people in the process. The furious barks coming from them passed him like thin air.

Soon he arrived at the hospital. He made a mad dash to one of the nurses at the receptionist table and asked for Nayoung’s treatment room.

“Patient Kang Nayoung. Room 104.” The nurse answered. The number of her room was carved into his memory even until now. He just couldn’t forget the number, it was the room where Nayoung had to be positioned between life and death.

When he arrived in front of the white door, he unthinkingly crashed it open only to find Nayoung motionlessly lying on her bed and Daeyoung standing beside her. Daeyoung lifted his head from his sister, immediately glaring at him. It was like he was trying to murder him with his stare.

But Hyukjae couldn’t care less. He walked with wobbly legs to her bed. Nayoung looked so pale. She was unconscious. Her face didn’t get any scratches from the accident but there was this thick bandage wrapped around her head. Her breathing was supported by a device. A tube of IV fluid was connected to her arm.

It felt like a pair of imaginary hands was strangling his neck until he almost lost the ability to breathe properly. He felt his heart dropping to his stomach.

“N-Nana...”

“Don’t come any closer.” Daeyoung slapped his hand away when he reached out to her face. He glared at Hyukjae, his eyes dripping with ice. Hyukjae was silenced by Daeyoung’s sarcastic chuckle. “So you still cared for my sister?”

Hyukjae stared down to his feet. “I-I...”

“Leave.” Daeyoung hissed.

Hyukjae looked up abruptly. “No.”

“Why? That’s what you’ve been doing, right? Leaving her alone.” He scoffed.

Hyukjae clenched his teeth but he kept quiet. He couldn’t say Daeyoung was wrong.

“Why did you come here?” Daeyoung asked. “To see the aftermath of your leave on my sister?”

“Kang Daeyoung,” Hyukjae glared at him.

“What? Did I guess it right?” Daeyoung raised his voice. “Now my sister is broken. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Are you satisfied with that?”

“Stop it.” Hyukjae was trembling in fury.

“Too bad I won’t.” Daeyoung replied. “Maybe you should know why she was hit by a car in the first place.”

Hyukjae got even paler.

“My dear sister,” Daeyoung her cheek gently before glaring back at his best friend. “was waiting for you at a park.” He made sure his words stabbed him enough. “I’ve told her not to. I’ve told her you wouldn’t come back. It’s been a year, you might have forgotten her. But she insisted. She believed you’d be back.”

“Daeyoung,” Hyukjae pleaded.

“She said she was going to give you a present.” He advanced on Hyukjae, until he stopped just a few inches from him. “She said four days ago was your birthday.”

Hyukjae could no longer hold his gaze to Daeyoung. His eyes were too cold to be stared at.

“Are you losing your confidence now? Did you just realize how much of a bastard you are?” suddenly Daeyoung lost his self control and slammed Hyukjae against the wall. He grabbed his collar harshly but his expression remained composed. “Did you know how much she’d been shedding tears?”

Hyukjae looked away feeling the guilt completely crushing him.

“I’ve trusted her to you, Lee Hyukjae. How could you just leave like that?” his voice started rising again. His eyes burning in rage, and Hyukjae’s silence just snapped something in him. He pulled his collar brutally. “ANSWER ME, YOU BASTARD!! HOW COULD YOU?!!”

“Lower down your voice!” Hyukjae screamed back, looking at the direction of Nayoung’s bed. “She’s sleeping. If you want to punch me or anything, please not here. She-”

“How could you manage to be this dumb?” Daeyoung cut him off. He raised his hand and pointed to her motionless body. “My sister right there... she’s not just sleeping. She’s... in a coma.”

Hyukjae’s breath was immediately caught in his throat.

“But you’re right. I want to punch you. No. I want to kill you, actually.” He towered down at him. “But let’s finish that up outside.”

Hyukjae didn’t get the chance to escape from Daeyoung. The other male had grabbed him harshly on his arm and pulled him out of the hospital to a deserted yard. But it’s not that Hyukjae wanted to escape. He knew he deserved it. Anything Daeyoung would be doing to him, he deserved it.

That’s why he didn’t dodge back when Dayeoung began beating him up. Hyukjae felt he should let him do whatever the punishment he deserved to get. After all, if he were at Daeyoung’s place, he was sure he would have done the same thing if someone he trusted so much hurt his sister.

His punches made him numb. Physically and emotionally. Just as Daeyoung was about to throw his millionth punch, he held back in frustration and shoved Hyukjae to the ground.

“Why didn’t you fight back?!” Daeyoung shouted with racing breath, his knuckles had gone insensible. He was expecting a satisfaction from beating him up but the feeling didn’t come. Instead, he began to feel guilty.

Hyukjae grasped for his breath, losing most of his energy. His body was throbbing everywhere. He didn’t know what his face would look like right then. He could taste blood from the corner of his lips.

“H-how did... that happen?” He murmured from the ground. “The car accident... how did that happen?”

Daeyoung stared at him in disbelief. Hyukjae seemed to have half unconscious with that swollen face. But instead of worrying his own condition he was worrying about Nayoung’s accident. “You’re unbelieveable, really.” Daeyoung spat out.

Hyukjae shook his head lightly. “How did that happen? W-when? Did the driver-”

“How could my sister be that stupid? Falling for a guy like you.” Daeyoung looked away. He shouldn’t have felt this guilt. But he felt it. The guilt ate him up. “She was waiting for you at the park. She had texted you a thousand times already but-”

Daeyoung was cut off by Hyukjae’s loud cough. Droplets of dark red blood were spurted out of his mouth. Apparently Daeyoung’s punch on his stomach was too strong.

Daeyoung’s cold eyes were quickly changed into worried ones. After all, it was his best friend that was coughing blood in front of him. “Y-yah,”

“Sorry,” Hyukjae attempted to let out a chuckle. “Go on.”

Daeyoung hesitated for a bit but eventually he continued. “That day, she waited for your reply. She waited for your coming. But you didn’t come.” He started glancing worriedly at Hyukjae. He was still on the ground and closing his eyes, but he listened to him. “She gave up eventually. According to the eyewitnesses around the park, she was crossing the street. Many cars were passing by but she didn’t wait for the traffic light to turn green for pedestrians.”

Daeyoung paused to clench his fists. Hyukjae’s eyes shot open. The explanation was even stronger than the pulsating wounds on his face.

“Nayoung saw a car accelerating to her direction but she...” Daeyoung closed his eyes, his voice wavering. “She didn’t move away.”

Hyukjae felt his eyes burning. The words went straight into his heart. She didn’t avoid the car. That meant she no longer had the desire to live anymore.

He left her. Her mother left her. The dream she’d been chasing was being taken away, and her family’s company was falling downwards.

Nayoung felt her only hope was him but he didn’t even come. He would've thrown himself off a cliff if he could.

But he couldn’t. She needed his presence beside her to escape from the coma. That’s if he was still her only hope.

Hyukjae struggled to stand up, fighting back the throbbing sensation shooting up from his stomach.

Daeyoung was alarmed. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“Nana,” Hyukjae muttered. “She needs me.”

Daeyoung blinked, Hyukjae was always unpredictable. “Lee Hyukjae.” He grabbed his arm again. “Why?”

“She needs me.” Hyukjae repeated weakly trying to pry him off.

“I don’t understand,” Daeyoung shook his head. “You left her. You cut off every single way for her to reach you. You made her so pathetic. But-”

“I love her.” Hyukjae said. His jaw trembled. He felt a huge relief when he could finally voice that out. Not even Nayoung herself had him confessing to her.

Daeyoung was shocked. “W-what?”

“I love her.” He repeated. “I love your sister.” I love her too much. Hyukjae turned around slowly and pressed a tight smile. “That’s why. Now can you let me go? Nana needs me.”