Choi Seunghyun almost choked on his vodka when he spotted his girlfriend. 

Song Eunhae was standing across the room from him with her back to the wall. A dress of black and darkest green lace clung to her like a second skin. It was fashioned to look like a cheongsam with short sleeves and a hem that just barely qualified as being knee-length. Bits of golden skin were visible through the myriad of tiny holes in the fabric of which the dress was made. Seunghyun’s gaze moved down to her legs and dwelt on them for a period of time that was considerably longer than would have been considered gentlemanly before shifting to the incredibly y purple heels that completed her outfit. He raised one dark eyebrow questioningly. Black, green, and purple. That was an...interesting color combination.

Eunhae felt the warmth of his gaze and blushed in her subtle way, glad that her complexion wouldn’t betray the sudden rush of blood into her cheeks. She looked up from the floor and a smile blossomed on her full pink lips when their gazes locked. Her temperature suddenly went up and she knew it was because he was nearby. Her heartbeat sped up like it always did and the butterflies that had been sporadically inhabiting her stomach returned with a vengeance to flutter crazily. She took a deep breath and an instinctual step towards him before she remembered why she was there. Her heart skipped a beat, her feet paused in their movements and her smiled suffered an instantaneous death. The warmth seeped from her body and escaped, it seemed to her, into the highly polished blonde oak flooring. The world froze for a second and when it began to spin again, it felt like it was all going too fast. The music was too loud and she couldn’t draw in a breath. A wing of panic brushed at her.

Seunghyun was smiling and then he wasn’t. His face rearranged itself into a perfect “da fuq?” meme. He was watching Eunhae closely and he was completely confused at the way her expression had been so happy and full of love one second and so dead and cold the next. He became even more confused when she brought her hand up to her heart and then her heel and all but dove into the crowd of people between them. Shock had him paralyzed for the space of a heartbeat or two. Then he began to move, elbowing strangers and friends alike as he attempted to follow her.

Teddy, standing unobtrusively somewhere behind Seunghyun, had watched the entire non-interaction go down and now he made a frantic dash for the girl. He flat out ran, twisting and turning his body as he slid between couples and around singletons. His feet pounded against the floor and he felt an unfamiliar ache in his side when he finally caught a glimpse of Eunhae disappearing down a flight of stairs. He pushed on, ignoring the pain, and managed to catch up to her. He pushed himself even harder and reached out to wrap his fingers around her wrist.

Seunghyun panted loudly, frustrated that he had lost sight of his errant girlfriend and even more so that he had had to stop looking for her to catch his breath. He was convinced that he wouldn’t be able to find her now, given that she had gotten such a huge lead while he was standing here wasting precious time breathing. The fact that she had run away from him and had kept on running was like double-edged sword piercing into his heart. He straightened up and hardened his resolve. He was going to find her and find out what this was all about.

Five long minutes had passed. Eunhae spun around on her silver stool at the long bar and giggled. Teddy held back the reflexive rebuke that had sprung up on his tongue at her childish action and reached for his glass of Pinot Grigio. He brought it to his lips and sipped experimentally. To his surprise, he actually liked the wine. He had slipped off to the men’s room and had found it sitting at his place when he’d returned. A grinning Eunhae had informed him that she had taken the liberty of ordering for him, that she thought it was something he’d like and that he wasn’t allowed any stronger liquor because she was planning on getting smashed and he was going to drive her home.

Eunhae tilted her head and watched as the bartender poured her vodka. The tip of her tongue poked out from between her glossy lips and shifted on the stool so that it moved from side to side. The bartender gave her a flirtatious looked as he handed her the glass that contained her drink and his breath caught in his throat when she leaned towards him, revealing a tantalizing bit of cleavage in the process. He was caught totally off guard when she snatched the bottle of Van Gogh Blue from his hands and popped it straight between the lips he’d been fantasizing about.

Seunghyun was so angry he could hit something. He’d rather hit somebody. To be more specific: he wanted to break Teddy Park’s legs, both of them, with a baseball bat. In his imagination he’d already done that thrice since he found out from Dara that CL had heard from Lee Hi that the older man had left the party with Eunhae in tow. Then Jiyong had told him that he’d seen the pair ducking into one of the more secure bars in Itaewon. Now Seunghyun couldn’t decide if he was going to merely incapacitate Teddy or if he’d rather kill him the moment he found them.

Teddy stared. His eyes had widened to twice their usual size as he watched the slender girl next to him down half a bottle of vodka in the space of a few seconds. He’d never seen her drink like this. Not when her first boyfriend had dumped her at the high school prom. Not when her mom had left the family the week before she turned seventeen. Not even when she’d been denied acceptance to the one college she had actually wanted to go to. He didn’t know what to do. He’d known for five years and he had never seen her drink anything stronger than iced tea. When she stopped to take a proper breath he took the bottle from her hands and handed it back to the stunned bartender, apologizing for his friend’s behavior as he did so.

Eunhae gently lifted Teddy’s drink from the bar and took a quiet sip from it, managing to replace it before he turned back around. She pasted on an expression that combined sadness and regret and mentally counted backwards from ten. She’d only gotten to six when he had to look away. She grinned. He could never stay mad at her when she looked at him like that. Especially not now.

Seunghyun spotted them the instant his eyes adjusted to the lightning and he was halfway across the floor before Teddy sensed that something was wrong. The older man turned around to find a very angry T.O.P glaring at him so intensely that he thanked God that looks couldn’t commit any harm of their own accord because if they could, he’d have been a dead body staining the white carpet. He opened his mouth to say something and was cut off by a scream that pierced the air and echoed coldly in his bones.

Seunghyun forgot his anger. He forgot his intentions. It was all washed from his mind as the scream was repeated because he knew, in a way that he would never be able to explain, even before Teddy reacted, that Eunhae was the cause.

After the initial immobilizing shock Teddy shut down all emotion and became a fully functional robot. He pulled his phone from his pocket and called for the emergency service while entering the bathroom to confirm what he feared. Nausea roiled in his stomach when his eyes latched onto the convulsing body on the immaculate tiles. He knelt at her side even as he relayed information to the dispatcher on the other line, one hand searching his pocket for something he could use to protect her tongue.

Seunghyun watched Teddy from the wall near the door. He didn’t know what to do. He was afraid that anything he did in an attempt to help would actually be a hindrance. He focused on Teddy because he knew that if he let himself focus on Eunhae he’d become an irrational emotional wreck. So he breathed and waited and watched and he prayed. He prayed harder than he had prayed for anything else in his life. He prayed a string of pleas. He bargained. He straight up begged.

Eunhae woke up later to an annoying incessant beeping and the warmth of soft skin on her cold fingers. The almost inaudible sound of a sleeping person’s breathing and the scent of Seunghyun filled her lungs as she took her first conscious breath. She was tired and opening her eyes felt like a tremendous effort but she did it eventually and gasped when she saw that he was sleeping in a chair at her bedside with his head resting against her leg and his hands clasped around hers. Tears slithered down her face and her weakened resolve cracked open and splintered into dust. She couldn’t go through with what she’d intended to do.

Teddy peeked into the room and smiled, then grimaced. He had been half hopeful and half afraid that she would rethink her plan. Now that she had, he was proud of her and yet afraid that both she and Seunghyun were going to be hurt very, very badly. He promised her silently that he would stand beside her no matter what.

When Seunghyun opened his eyes, he found a group of expressionless doctors and a smiling Eunhae watching him. He blinked, rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes and frowned. There were a lot of doctors. He glanced from them to his girlfriend and back again. She reached for his hand and squeezed it reassuringly. He smiled a little at that and then turned to face the waiting physicians.

Eunhae nodded and the doctors began, moving to their proper places. One spread her x-rays up and began to explain the images. Another held a box of tissues. A redheaded female stood by waiting to suggest counseling. A fourth just stood there, watching in case they needed to call security. A surprising number of people who got news that their significant other was terminally ill had attempted to hurt the doctors who broke said news in the past.

Seunghyun paled at the words “inoperable brain tumor”, went cold at the words “limited options” and had to bite his lips at “less than six months to live”. Eunhae sat there, smiling at him the entire time and he couldn’t believe that what they were saying was true. He couldn’t but he did. Because there was no logical reason why they would say them if they weren’t. She hugged him when the doctors left and let him cry. Then, when Teddy had stopped eavesdropping she brought her lips to his ears and whispered, “Day by day. We can live that way. We can love that way.”