My entire family went to the hospital with me the next day. They insisted on seeing Woohyun and I didn’t decline. We left early in the morning. When we got to the hospital, I told my parents I would go check to see if Woohyun was awake or not and then call them in. I told Sunggyu that Sun Hi was here first, though, because he wanted to see her for quite some time now.

When I got to the room that Woohyun was in, I saw Haneul sitting on a stool next to him bed. She held his hand and talked to him. Woohyun was sitting up but looked extremely weak and pale. He stared into her eyes lovingly and smiled at everything she said, giving the best response he could.

“Next time I tell you not to go outside, you better listen to me,” Haneul said.

Woohyun laughed lightly, “Okay, Hanie.”

“I’ve always hated that nickname,” Haneul pointed out.

“But I love it.”

“Fine, you can call me that.”

Woohyun broke out into his signature grin, “Yay! I love you, Haneul.”

Haneul took his hand and brought it up to her face. She closed her eyes and kept his hand in hers. Woohyun brought his other hand up and took some stray hairs off her face.

“Please don’t scare me like that again, Woohyun,” She choked out.

“I’m sorry.”

“You have to stay healthy and live forever.”

“I’ll try.”

“No!” She cried. “You have to!”

That was when Haneul ran out of the room with tears in her eyes. She didn’t even notice I was there and ran down the hall. I was going to chase her but decided she probably wanted to be alone right now. I turned around and walked into Woohyun’s room.

“You’re awake,” I commented. “Hey.”

He smiled, “You’re here.”

“Of course I would be. Where else would I go?” I asked as I walked over to the stool Haneul was previously using. “Where are the other guys?”

“They were here before but left when Haneul came in.”

“How are you feeling?”

“As good as I can,” Woohyun laughed as if this was a joking matter.

I shook my head, “My parents are here. They wanted to see you. I’ll go get them.”

When my parents came in the room, Woohyun tried to bow at them but it hurt him too much. I yelled at him from the door not to try to bow at people. My parents agreed with me before asking him how he felt. They talked for a while before Woohyun got slightly sleepy.

“You should sleep now, sweetheart,” My Mother said as she pat his hand.

“Nobody has called me sweetheart in a while,” Woohyun pointed out. “I rarely meet my Mother, you see. They’re out of the country right now—my parents.”

“Well, you’re a sweetheart for me. I wanted to thank you for telling Kim Hyun Woo about Sehun’s soccer skills,” She smiled.

“He deserves is,” Woohyun smiled.

“You should really sleep now, Woohyun. I hope you feel better and thank you once again,” My Father said.

My parents said goodbye and I helped Woohyun lie down. I put his blanket on him and kept the emergency button close to him. I left a glass of water on the table next to his bed before walking out. My parents left and dragged Sun Hi with them.

“I want to stay with Sunggyu Oppa!” She yelled as she threw a tantrum.

“Not today, Sun Hi,” My Mother said as she dragged Sun Hi away.

Sunggyu waved goodbye to her from afar before walking up to me, “I won’t get to see Sun Hi as often anymore since you’re rarely going to come to the hospital.”

I rolled my eyes, “Here we go again. I’m not going anywhere far.”

“You won’t be close either, though,” Sunggyu said.

“I might not even go. I don’t want to leave Woohyun in a state like this,” I shrugged.

“He wouldn’t be happy if you told him that.”

○●○●○

I found Haneul crouching down in the far end of the soccer field. She was behind the net with her head down and cheeks stained with tears.

“I found you,” I said before crouching down next to her.

She sniffled a bit before wiping her tears away and looking at me, “Why are you here?”

“To see you, of course. Anyway, the real question is why are you here?”

“I didn’t want to be inside that suffocating place anymore. Nothing good ever happens in the hospital. All people ever do is die!” She cried. “And if they don’t die, they get really sick. It’s not fair. I hate this place.”

“But so many good things have happened here,” I pointed out as I stared at the distraught Haneul.

“Like what?” She asked bitterly. “Woohyun’s sick. What’s so great about that? God, I thought he was actually getting better.”

“Well, if it weren’t for the hospital, you wouldn’t have met Woohyun. You also would have never met any of the guys and most importantly, me,” I gave her a playful look.

“But everyone is only here because they’re sick. Why do we have to be sick in the first place? This isn’t fair,” She said as tears slid down her face.

I wiped them away with my thumb before moving to sit in front of her. I took her face and cupped it in my hands, forcing her to look at me.

“You’re here to be healed. That’s what the hospital does. It makes miracles happen, you know. None of you would have lived till now if it weren’t for the hospital. These extra years of life—because of the hospital—have given you an opportunity to learn so many new things and meet many new people. Think about it, where else would you want to be right now? Don’t you want to be here with me, the guys and Woohyun?”

Her bottom lip quivered as she nodded her head. I smiled, “Good. Now look on the bright side, Woohyun’s still here right now. Let’s go see him.”

I helped her up and we walked back into the hospital. I had been encouraging everybody that Woohyun would be okay all day. But it was hard. It was hard because I wasn’t so sure if I could believe my own words.

○●○●○

The last day before the first soccer practise came. My Mother had already packed my bags and everything was set to go. Everything but my heart, that is. I felt uneasy leaving when Woohyun was in such a horrible state. He hadn’t gotten better, but, got worse. Woohyun was given a lot of medicine to ease the pain inside and he slept for most of the day.

When I got to the hospital that morning, everybody was still sleeping except Myungsoo. He invited me to get some breakfast with him and I did. We decided to eat outside to get some fresh air.

“I don’t want to go,” I confessed to the trustworthy Myungsoo.

“I wouldn’t want to go either if I were you.”

“I can always just go next year,” I said as I stole a grape from Myungsoo.

“But Woohyun wouldn’t like that. He’s the type of person who would get out of his bed and drag you there, you know.”

I chuckled, “He won’t even realize. He hasn’t mentioned anything yet, so it’s okay.”

Myungsoo sighed before pushing the half-filled plate away, “Let’s just hope he gets better.”

○●○●○

Woohyun woke up at eight o’clock that night. We all thought he was sleeping but he had actually fallen into a coma. The news only made us even more worried. We were hanging out in his room that night talking about whatever came to mind.

“Aren’t you hungry? You never had dinner. Go eat,” Woohyun urged in a broken voice. He barely had the ability to speak and it was quite hard understanding what he had to say.

“Yea, go eat. I’ll come afterwards,” I said.

Soon it was absolutely quiet. Only the beeping from the machines in the room could be heard. Woohyun stared ahead blankly. After a while, he opened his mouth to speak.

“I don’t feel good,” He said. “I’m tired.”

“Do you want to sleep? I’ll help you,” I said as I got up to fix his bed. But he made a small noise and waved his hand limply telling me to stop.

“I think I’m going to sleep for a very long time now,” He said between breaths. “I’m too tired to be alive.”

I froze, “No, Woohyun. You can’t sleep. Stay awake!”

He began closing his eyes, “I’m tired, Sehun.”

“No,” I said, my heart beating rapidly. “Open your eyes!”

“Will you do this dying man another favour?”

I held onto his hands before speaking to him sternly, “Stop saying you’re dying!”

“Take care of Haneul for me and make sure you go play soccer. You better not be here tomorrow, Sehun. My ghost will come haunt you.”

I gave up trying to tell him to stop saying things like that. He opened his eyes once again and looked at me before smiling. He smiled that wide smile in which his whole face lit up. It was the smile I always made fun of but was always pleased to see.

Tears fell out of my eyes as I felt completely hopeless, “Okay, I promise.

“Thank you,” Woohyun smiled once again. “I’ll just sleep now.”

His eyes closed and my head darted to the heart monitor. Thankfully, it showed a steady heartbeat. I turned my head back to Woohyun and watched his calm face.

“You ,” I lamely said, tears still on my face.

His chest rose and sank in steady intervals. I liked listening to his breathing. After all this time, I learned that I memorized how he sounded when he slept.

It baffled me that Woohyun hadn’t cried once. I wondered whether he was sad or not about his condition. I knew he thought he was going to die. And it scared me that I feared he would as well. I tried not to think about that, but it was impossible.

I watched him sleep until midnight that day as well. I made sure the rest of the guys were in bed before leaving. I took the bus home and sat in the back, staring out of the window to distract myself. But my thoughts wandered back to Woohyun. There was nothing I wanted more than to watch the stars with him again.

○●○●○

It was that night that my phone’s ringing woke me up. I found out that since 2:08, my chance to go stargazing with him had long passed.