He felt his head splitting as he opened his eyes - he felt like his vision was riding on a roller coaster, everything was spinning around and unclear as he started to see a familiar figure starting to form, storming towards him with a threatening way-

"Kim stupid Jonghyun," Jonghyun groaned when a pillow hit his face. "I will love to see you, but never again at here do you get it?!"

"Jessica! Jonghyun's wound is really deep; don't just hit him like that-"

"You don't see his stomach on his face, do you, Tiffany?"

Jonghyun shook his head to clear his blurred vision as he tried his best to sit up, feeling the stinging pain in his abdomen immediately while he looked around the white room to see who was present. Everything was still unclear, but at least he could recognize an angry Jessica and a relieved Tiffany who was helping to rest pillows behind his back - Jinki wasn't in sight. He was about to ask about Jinki's whereabouts until Jessica started to ramble about how useless he was and she would flip the whole bed over if he wasn't going to recover within the next three days.

"... C-Can I just ask regarding Jinki's whereabouts?" Jessica stopped her words with a small pout. "Is he safe? I mean, he's all alone after I've passed out and - oh my god did anything happen to him? Was he hurt in any ways and , why did I pass out just because one stab-"

"He's perfectly fine except for some scratches when he fell, Jonghyun." Tiffany rested her hand on Jonghyun's shoulder with an amused expression. "I heard from the police that he actually hit the robber with the brick that you originally held to protect you. That man nearly killed you, silly."

Jonghyun blinked at Tiffany's words - did she just say about Jinki hitting someone on the head with a brick? The gentle Jinki and - what, robber? Jonghyun felt his head aching badly all of a sudden as Kibum entered the room, with an unimpressed face as he had his arms folded across his chest.

"... Wait what do you mean by robber?"

"I can't believe you are dumb enough to mistake a robber for a , seriously."

Jonghyun pushed his eyebrows together in huge confusion as he tried to make out the differences between the two as Tiffany shook her head in disbelief and quickly pulled Jessica out of the ward when she saw the time, hurriedly muttering goodbyes. Kibum gave a polite nod at the both of them as he took steps away from the door to make space for them to exit, and Tiffany stopped her steps when Jinki came into her sight - he was standing outside of the ward with his vision fixed onto the floor.

"He's not in a critical condition, so don't be worried." Tiffany smiled when Jinki looked at her with a relieved expression. "Go inside and look at him. Earlier when you overheard the nurses saying that Jonghyun's wound was really deep, you looked so worried."

Jinki swallowed deeply at Tiffany's words.

"You are Jinki, right?" Jinki looked up at the other voice that talking to him - Jessica. "If you're worried about him, have him know that you are - Jonghyun will be really happy to know that. Furthermore, he was worrying if you were hurt earlier."

-

Relieved was an obvious expression on both of their faces when they looked at each other. Jinki wasn't injured, he only scraped his elbow when the robber shoved him onto the ground while Jonghyun's injury wasn't too severe - at least he was sent to the hospital just in time before he lost too much blood. They stared each other for brief moment with a small smile on their faces before Jinki started to take slow steps towards Jonghyun who started to apologize, with a soft voice.

"Sorry, I actually-"

Kibum choked on the bottle of water he was drinking when Jinki suddenly leaned forward and hugged Jonghyun tightly.

-<3-

"So, before we left last week, Tiffany told Jinki that you will be needed to stay here for quite a while since your injury is quite deep. He actually wanted to come over and visit you today but he is down with this really bad fever so I told him not to come over." Jonghyun found a stack of magazines being thrown onto his lap when he was just about to ask more about Jinki's condition together with a basket of fruits that was rested on the table. "After I've spent twenty minutes on persuading him not to go, he gave me all these things. Magazines, in case you are bored and fruits, since it's healthy."

Jinki was just so kind and caring that those sweet actions warmed Jonghyun's heart in that instant as a smile formed on his lips after looking at those things that Jinki had prepared.

"He won't be coming here for some time. When Jinki falls sick, he takes quite a long time to recover and sad to say, I won't be allowing him to come over until he has recovered completely."

Of course it was the best that Jinki could stay at home to rest since he had fallen sick, but that piece of news that Jinki was not going to come over was just - the disappointment was immediate. Jonghyun could only try to hide his disappointment as he shifted the magazines to the table; it would've been successful if not for the sigh that escaped from his lips.

"Are both of you even dating already?" Kibum could only roll his eyes when Jonghyun got choked just on his saliva and started wincing at how his wound started to hurt when he coughed badly. "It takes Jinki a lot of courage to actually initiate something to someone, so let alone hugging."

Jonghyun could remember that moment when Jinki hugged him. The feeling was so real that it felt almost impossible, for Jinki to hug someone was just so difficult. Jinki was hugging him so tightly, still and it took him ten seconds before he snapped back to reality and quickly hugged him back with a really silly grin on his face. Jonghyun would be honest, that hug made him feel special.

"I'm not sure; maybe he's just very grateful that I saved him or something-"

"Indeed, Jinki was really grateful and - thank you."

Jonghyun broke into a small smile at Kibum's words, and thought about that evening at how Jinki was staring at him with really grateful eyes as they smiled at each other - thinking back of what happened that day just couldn't stop bringing a smile onto his face.

"Jinki has already thanked me-"

"No it's me, Jonghyun. I'm thanking you for helping Jinki." Jonghyun felt himself going speechless when he heard those words from Kibum - he sounded so sincere. "It means a lot."

Jonghyun had mentioned this many times before, right? Kibum always had this really unreadable expression when he spoke about Jinki in the past, and even if he learned about what happened in the past didn't help to understand that better. All he could understand was, Kibum was probably one that would do anything to protect Jinki.

"I know," Jonghyun whispered.

-

"I thought I won't have to lie on the bed like a statue anymore when I finally get out of that stinky hospital and back to home." Jonghyun shuddered at the thought of hospital; he seriously didn't like to be reminded of that place due to obvious reasons and life was really fair - he was forced to stay there for three weeks. It then took him three days to persuade Tiffany to allow him to be discharged. "In the end, Tiffany and Jessica came over every day to keep an eye on me and from a statue, I turned into a prisoner. For three weeks, I haven't eaten any food with seasonings and I seriously can't move unless I've a valid reason which most of the time, Jessica ruled it to be invalid."

Kibum raised an eyebrow awkwardly at Jonghyun's sudden outburst while Jinki could only tilt his head to the side with a puzzled look.

"Can't believe that I've spent another two weeks staying at home doing nothing - I am not even a baby, Kibum. Don't even mention how I haven't gotten a chance to see Jinki -- I mean that's just depressing because we are seriously lagging behind from the university's assignment." Jonghyun swallowed deeply as he straightened his back, with a small frown on his face. "Can't believe that life hates me so much now that I came over to your house to see Jinki for the project and-"

He was forced to stop his words when a pink pillow was flung towards his face by Kibum who clearly looked annoyed.

"Kim Jonghyun, are you crazy? All I did was to give you a glass of plain water since fruit juices ran out."

Jinki broke into a small smile when Jonghyun cleared his throat as he scratched his nape in embarrassment. Kibum rolled his eyes before taking the glass of water back and shot a glare at Jonghyun - who just gulped nervously in return. Jinki quickly took the empty bowls of chips that they were eating earlier before Jonghyun came to Kibum who was making his way to the kitchen to get some fruits and tea instead--

Jonghyun stopped whatever that he was trying to do to cover his embarrassment when he noticed how hesitant Kibum looked before he took those bowls from Jink, who was still having a small smile on his face; he probably didn't realize how nervous Kibum looked when their fingers accidentally touched even if he had tried to avoid it -

What?

"Why are you behaving so uncomfortably around Jinki?"

Jonghyun could only stare in disbelief when Kibum pretended that he hadn't heard his words and continued to slice the apples into neat pieces - Jonghyun would still be ignored if he hadn't taken that knife out of Kibum's hands and threw it into the sink. The sharp clattering sound of the knife knocking against the cold sink was heard along with the soft noise Kibum made by clicking his tongue when he shot a glare at him.

"What?"

"You heard me, Kibum."

"What you've just said is just plain ridiculous, Kim Jonghyun. I don't even want to answer that," Kibum tried to put on an amused expression which came off as a stiff smile - it was even more obvious when the usual unreadable expression came again. It was immediate that Jonghyun felt apologetic at that - it was like he had touched a really sensitive topic that Kibum didn't want to talk about. He really didn't want what happened with Jinki to happen again - with him jumping too close into sensitive topics and bringing hurt. "We are best-friends, so how will I be uncomfortable around Jinki?"

Jonghyun could only remain silent as he nodded, giving a consoling pat on Kibum's shoulder for whatever reasons that he didn't know since Kibum just looked like he needed it and left the kitchen.

-<3-

Jonghyun really did wondered if it was all worth it to work so hard for the assignment - apparently the lecturer totally adored the mash-up that they came up with and actually asked the both of them to perform during the university's open-house to welcome the freshmen which clearly meant that there would be a huge number of people. Jonghyun was horrified at that news and even though he had tried to reject it after thinking how afraid Jinki would be, the lecturer actually said that he would down two grades of their assignment if they ever declined his suggestion.

Was that even legal?

Of course, Jonghyun felt really proud that their assignment scored the best grade among all but really, just look at the crowd that was starting to gather at the auditorium. Jonghyun could feel his heart in his throat just by thinking how the both of them were going to perform in front of all these people and worse, the lecturer warned him not to mess up in front of the special guest - a politician that Jonghyun couldn't bother to remember.

"This is really ridiculous," Jonghyun pulled the red curtains shut as he turned to look over his shoulder at Jinki who was sitting on the chair, playing with his fingers nervously. There was some amendments in the performance from the lecturer (what did he really want?) - Jonghyun was supposed to sing the chorus of the first song they picked at the start of the performance and afterwards Jinki would enter the stage to play the piano of the second song before they moved on to their mash-up which both of them would play the piano together. "Our university is not even a zoo, so why is there so many people?"

Jinki just looked at him with a troubled expression which Jonghyun totally understood - one mistake and their assignment's grade would be a C instead of an A.

"Let's just... not be that nervous, alright?"

Jonghyun was about to say even more reassuring words to Jinki who looked really nervous until the lecturer suddenly shouted from the other side of the backstage that their performance was starting in thirty seconds - great reassurance, really. Now it was not just Jinki who was nervous, Jonghyun himself was, too. Just imagining how he was really going to perform for that huge crowd got him feeling all so dizzy-

Jonghyun blinked in surprise when Jinki just stood up from the chair and grabbed his hands so tightly before shutting his eyes with a nervous expression, still. Jonghyun had a small smile on his lips as he squeezed Jinki's hands lightly before letting go of it - at least they had each other's courage and support, not that bad anymore right?

"I'll be going first then Jinki," Jinki nodded his head with a small nervous smile. "I'll see you later on the stage."

-

If they were to get an A- instead of an A+ for this assignment, Jonghyun was going to pull that evil lecturer's hair out. He couldn't believe that he had managed to sing in front of so many people earlier; that number of audience present was enough to fight a war. Luckily, he wasn't required to sing the whole song but just the chorus - he remembered his grin became much more genuine and less stiff when Jinki entered the stage.

Although the feeling of being nervous was really pressuring, but Jonghyun totally loved the moment when they played the piano together to showcase of their mash-up. The cheers and applauses that they had gotten afterwards were just amazing.

"We did it, Jinki." Jonghyun mumbled lifelessly as he quickly found a seat at the backstage for his back that had been so stiff and straight throughout the whole performance. He had totally forgotten what did it meant by "relax" when he was performing earlier. "I suppose that we did not make any mistakes?"

When there was no response, Jonghyun lifted his head to look into the mirror to see where Jinki was - he was sitting on the floor, his back facing him. Raising an eyebrow, he grabbed onto the arms of the chair that he was sitting on and spun it around to get a clearer view of where Jinki was.

"Jinki?"

Jonghyun watched as Jinki turned slightly from where he was sitting at and he could see the huge bottle of water that Jinki was swallowing down with a really tensed expression. A grin couldn't help but make its way to Jonghyun's lips when Jinki finished the whole bottle and smiled at him sheepishly - his fingers were still trembling from the aftermath of performing to such a huge crowd.

"I think we are both too badly freaked out," Jonghyun broke into this small and light laughter as Jinki nodded with the cutest grin that Jonghyun had ever seen. "But after showing them the music that we have worked so hard to come up with, the responses were really nice to see.”

Jonghyun tried to empty his thoughts of how it’d be even better if his mother were still here to see, pushing his lips to form a smile as Jinki nodded again, agreeing with his words as he kept the bottle back into his white bag - he was biting his bottom lip and was still breathing in and out deeply. That moment out there when they performed together was really a special experience, it was fun to go through that but apparently it was also really stressful at the same time - what if he sang out of tune or Jinki pressed the wrong key accidentally? Jonghyun cringed at that thought as he stood up from his seat, offering a hand to Jinki who was still sitting on the floor.

"Take a seat at the chair, it's more comfortable."

Jinki's fingers brushed against his palm for that split moment before Jonghyun felt a weight knocking onto him so suddenly - the scent that followed was absolutely familiar and he could immediately recognize who it was once he saw the straight blonde hair.

"Jessica, I thought you were a bull or something." Jonghyun muttered softly as he felt her arms around his waist tightly. This little sister over here hadn't learned how to control her strength - she was hugging him really tightly. "I think you have forgotten that I've a wound over here, hello-"

Jinki broke into a small smile when Tiffany suddenly came running towards them and hugged Jonghyun too, much to the half-blonde's horror even though the brunette was much more careful with her strength. Jonghyun's complaints were totally muffled as Jessica pressed his face against her shoulder purposely to shut him up after the half-blonde commented on how the hospital was blind to even recruit her in the first place. Tiffany just ruffled Jonghyun's hair with a sweet smile as she mumbled softly about how proud she was of Jonghyun since the performance was really awesome.

They really looked like a family, and Jonghyun hadn't realized how envious Jinki looked after looking at them.

"Jinki?"

-

The brown-haired turned to see his best-friend standing at the other corner of the backstage. He quickly picked himself up from where he was sitting at and nodded his head with a small smile when Kibum signalled to him if he wanted to go to the canteen. It didn't take Jinki more than a second to make his way quickly to where his best-friend was while Jonghyun was still trying to struggle of out his sisters' tight hugs.

"Both of you have been rehearsing since the morning," Kibum muttered, relatively soft compared to how Jonghyun's loud laughter was heard when Jessica nearly slipped as he struggled. "I guess hungry stomachs are the worst feelings to have so - let's grab some warm burgers?"

The door of the backstage was pulled opened gently by Kibum, carefully not to make any noises as they exited the place with Jinki munching on the small packet of biscuits that his best-friend had just passed to him. As usual, the corridor that was bustling with people all formed into quiet groups when Jinki came into their sights-

"Go back to nursing school, seriously...!"

And Jonghyun's voice could be loudly heard.

-<3-

Jinki hadn't looked that happy ever since that traumatizing incident had happened to him - he even seemed to be really proud of himself for completing the performance. Kibum was of course, more than just proud after seeing his best-friend having the courage to play the piano before so many people without backing out. Perhaps Jonghyun had really changed him; not once Kibum had thought that Jinki would be able to smile so care-freely and held that much of courage after everything.

Kibum would say that he was thankful to Jonghyun, really. He felt really nostalgic when Jinki entered the stage; it was like bringing him to the past when Jinki totally loved performing. In high-school, Jinki was the school star and he often went up to the stage to give impromptu singing performances - he even had a small fan-club following him around at times.

At times like these, Kibum would always ask himself this particular question that had never stopped appearing in his mind: what if he had answered Jinki's calls in time?

"I've recorded the performance, Jinki." Kibum quickly stopped those regretful thoughts and pulled his camera out - a small smile tugged at his lips when Jinki took the camera with a thankful and cheerful look. He guessed even after everything that Jinki had been through, a small part of him still loved and craved to perform. "You should've seen how nervous Jonghyun was-"

His words were interrupted with a loud bang as Jinki got shoved to the locker and the camera fell to the floor after slipping from his slender fingers. Kibum turned immediately to see a group of people that he had never seen in the campus before - they were most probably new-comers. Kibum was about to give chase to those losers that were cackling childishly while scuttling away if not for Jinki who quickly held onto his sleeve tightly.

"Wait for me here, okay? I'm not going to do anything, just going to skin them alive-" Kibum exhaled softly in frustration when Jinki just shook his head lightly, like everything was fine - if he hadn't noticed how Jinki's other hand was clutching at his own shoulder, he would've pulled away from his best-friend's grip immediately. "Did you hurt yourself?"

Kibum felt himself getting speechless as Jinki just shook his head again when his shoulder really looked like it was hurting - he had always been like this, never wanting people to worry about him and not even having any temper that just made him an easy target to be taken advantage of.

"Jinki, those people will definitely think that it's okay to push you around like that again in the future!"

Kibum's voice just got softer as he reached an end to his words when Jinki broke into this wide smile that honestly - he had missed seeing it so much. That smile was just so... it reminded Kibum of the past when Jinki would smile like that whenever he tried to calm him down.

"... Fine, fine. Let me take a look at your shoulder? You might have bruised yourself - ... Lee Jinki! Where do you think you are going!"

As Kibum breathed out a soft laughter as he quickly ran to where Jinki had escaped to, he thought silently about how the both of them had changed ever since Jonghyun came. Never did he thought that there would be a day for him to see Jinki smiling so brightly again.