>_____<;;

Namjoo looked up from the papers she was assorting when she heard the door open, but saw none other than Changmin walk in.

“Hi,” he greeted, “how’s work going? Do you like it?”

“It’s nice,” Namjoo replied.

“Say,” Changmin began leaning his hands against the desk, “has your sister said anything about me?”

“If it’s about how she wants to gut you, then yes,” Namjoo nodded.

Changmin slightly laughed, “You’re very honest.”

Namjoo shot him a smile.

“So, you want to give me some advice on how to appease her anger? You know, since you’ve given me advice before.”

Namjoo glanced at Changmin wondering what kind of intentions he had.

“Just to get back on your sister’s good side,” Changmin added. “I’d still like to see her face now and then. Like that.”

A smile crossed Namjoo’s face and she glanced down at her desktop before looking back at Changmin, “I told you she likes flowers, right?”

“Flowers,” Changmin repeated and nodded. “Ok. Thanks, I owe you one.”

When Namjoo clocked out of work she had one destination in mind before heading home to Chorong. Since Victoria was staying late for work, Chorong had promised to treat her out and Namjoo knew Chorong was hoping to cheer her up.

Namjoo alighted from the cab a few minutes later and stared up at Chanyeol’s apartment building. Pressing her lips together for encouragement she walked in through the doors and headed up to his place. While waiting for the elevator to bring her up Namjoo rehearsed in her mind what exactly she wanted to say, and she knew that no matter how it went Chanyeol would end up angry with her.

Once the elevator opened she slowly trudged toward his door and rung the bell. Chanyeol didn’t answer the door so she rang the doorbell again and waited until she heard the locks being unlatched inside. He looked slightly shocked to find her standing there and immediately opened the door even wider. The excitement in face suddenly made her feel sorry.

“Can we talk?” Namjoo asked.

She walked inside and paused after a few steps.

“Do you want to sit? Are you thirsty or anything?” Chanyeol wondered a little nervously after closing the door.

She could feel her mind slowly become blank as she thought about all the many times she let him get to her soft spot.

“No, just…I just want to say a few words.” Namjoo couldn’t bring herself to look at him even when she could feel his eyes searching her face.

“W…what is it?” he wondered. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit?”

Namjoo could feel her heart sink, but she couldn’t deal with being grieved any longer and she really didn’t want another pile of grief on top of another. She wanted to be alone until she could forget all the heartache given to her.

“Lets break up,” Namjoo said and finally lifted her head up. “I’m not coming back to you. I can’t.”

“What?” he asked in shrill disbelief. There was nothing, but shock apparent in his face. “You’re kidding me, right? After all that…” then he let out a snort, “so you’re leaving me for him? Is that it? Because he’s a lot better than me? I didn’t think you were this kind of person.” Chanyeol angrily kicked at the ground. “Who the hell is he? Don’t you think I deserve to know that at least? Was this whole ‘I need a search for myself’ thing a lie just to be with him!? You lied to me? Is that it? I didn’t think you were this kind of person, Namjoo. You’ve changed so much…I can’t believe you.”

And bit by bit Namjoo felt the rest of her get blown away like the dust. She didn’t know what to say and his words hit a spot inside before she felt herself start to bleed.

“So is this what’s going on?! Is this what you’ve been hiding from me? You’ve been two-timing me?” Chanyeol continued his voice shaking with so much anger. “Say something!”

“I can’t tell you,” Namjoo’s mind started to race.

She saw flashbacks of her and Chanyeol, and flashbacks of her going back to the past with Luhan, then seeing Chanyeol again. All events hammered themselves into her head so fast she felt like she was going to explode on the spot.

“You can’t?” Chanyeol repeated appalled. “This is the same as every other time. You can never tell me anything! You can never be honest.”

Namjoo blinked her eyes and clenched her hand around the strap of her purse before she nodded her head, “Bye, Chanyeol.”

Her heart was squeezing itself so hard that by the time she walked out she almost couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much and she was fighting so hard to hold back the painful tears she felt the veins popping in her eyes. Namjoo let out a distant cry before she stumbled out into the street and clutched onto her chest.

She wanted home, she wanted her sisters, and she wanted a hug. For once, she wished everything was right again.

And Namjoo heard tires screech before she turned to look down her left just in time to see the car speeding toward her. The last thing she heard was her body tumbling, colliding into it before she fell flat against the concrete.

>_____<;;

Victoria could hear her heart pounding within her ringing ears.

No…

No…

NO!!

Her shoes clanked against the ground as she ran through the hallways of the hospital.

“Miss, running is prohibited in here!” the nurses shouted out to her, but Victoria couldn’t hear them.

Inside her head she saw a picture of her sister on her deathbed and another coffin being lowered into the ground of the earth. It sent her heart racing uncontrollably. Victoria wasn’t ready for another loss in the family.

Upon reaching the ER she grabbed the nurse who was just walking out of those bright doors and asked panicked, “Where’s my sister? Where’s my sister? How is she?”

“Miss, calm down,” the nurse calmly spoke shrugging her hands off, “what’s her name?”

“Victoria!” Chorong slid around the corner behind her before dashing toward her.

“Chorong,” Victoria cried out before letting go of the nurse.

“Where’s Namjoo!?” Chorong questioned.

“I don’t know, I can’t find her,” Victoria cried and heard herself whine like a child. “I can’t believe this is happening. We need to turn back time; bring Luhan back here or something...”

Chorong felt her eyebrows burrow into her face before pulling Victoria into a hug.

“She won’t die; she can’t leave us like this.”

“I knew something was wrong. I should’ve talked to her about it no matter what. I should’ve talked to her about Luhan,” Victoria sobbed. “It’s all my fault. Namjoo needed the support I didn’t give her. It’s all my fault.”

They sat in the hallway crying on and off until the doctor stepped out two hours later.

“Kim Namjoo’s guardians?”

Victoria and Chorong immediately dashed toward him as if there wasn’t even a second to waste.

“How is she?”

“She has fractured ribs, which should heal over a few weeks,” the doctor informed, “she’s also suffering from a minor concussion, but…”

“But what!?” Victoria raised her voice unintentionally.

“She should have woken up by now,” the doctor continued trying not to shrink under Victoria’s stare, “if she doesn’t come through in the next four hours, we’re going to have to consider her in a comatose state.”

“A…a what!?” Victoria stammered unable to comprehend anything being said. It didn’t take long for her fury to shake her. “My sister will not be in a coma! You go back in there and wake her up, right now!”

Chorong let go of her and dropped against the wall muttering, “This can’t be happening…no…”

“I’m sorry,” the doctor apologized before taking his gloves off to walk away.

Victoria let out a snort of disbelief and immediately charged down the hallway.

“Where are you going?” Chorong hurriedly chased after her.

“To the police station,” Victoria grumbled before starting off at such a run that Chorong couldn’t possibly catch up.

The deep afternoon sun was starting to set creating a calm purple glow amidst the sky, but it was nothing Victoria wanted to see at the moment. She wanted the sun to be high in the sky as it had been that morning before she left for school. Victoria wanted time to turn back. She wanted to return to last night when she’d caught Namjoo returning home. She wanted to sit Namjoo down and talk to her about how she was hurting. She wanted Namjoo to cry about Luhan and cry forever. Victoria didn’t want this…

Tears blurred her vision as she drove down the street. Her heart hurt because this had happened and because her younger sister had been helplessly put in this situation. And it had all happened because dumb Luhan had decided to reappear in this lifetime and leave. He didn’t need to abandon her sister like that. Victoria would put all the blame on him until she felt justified. She wanted nothing, but justice for her younger sister’s sake right now. She would do whatever she was capable of in order to get that.

“Where is he!?” Victoria muttered kicking the doors as she walked in. “Where is he!? Where is that bastard!?”

The officers at work left their stations to find out who it was that was screaming.

“Miss, can I help you?” an officer asked.

Victoria immediately turned toward him grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, “Get that back here. NOW!”

“Miss, please calm down,” the other officers on standby hurried over to force her to release him, but Victoria was so enraged she couldn’t control her own hands.

She wanted to grab the life of any standing man and use him as a punching bag because she was just so angry.

“Victoria?” a voice asked.

Surprised, she immediately released the officer before turning around to see Changmin standing in the hallway staring at her. Victoria blinked her eyes and felt tears slide out.

“What’s going on? What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Someone get security!”

“Hold up!” Changmin shouted toward them before dragging the childishly crying Victoria aside. “What did you just do!?”

“You’re a criminal investigator, aren’t you?” Victoria hissed. “Then bring that man who ran over my sister back here. I want him here NOW!”

Changmin blinked his eyes before asking, “Chorong? Namjoo? What happened?”

“I SAID I WANT THAT HERE NOW!” Victoria screamed and punched his shoulder. “Fine! If you don’t, I will!”

Victoria spun around and started stomping toward the doors, but felt Changmin pull her back. Her back collided against the wall before she began sobbing shamelessly.

“This shouldn’t be happening…everything was fine before…why did it have to happen…” Victoria cried before sliding to the ground.

Changmin watched her cry and turned when he felt an officer tap him on the shoulder to ask if he needed assistance. He shook his head before getting down onto a knee and pulled Victoria into a hug patting her back to comfort her.

>_____<;;

Chorong remained alone in the hallway, sitting with elbows on her legs, hands clenched together, and prayed continuously.

She knew she should have taken some sort of action, but she hadn’t wanted to burst Namjoo’s bubble until she was ready to talk. And Namjoo hadn’t looked ready to talk at all. Someone who was broken and started the next day as normally as any other fine person could only be giving out warning signals. Chorong should have caught on. She should have caught on…

Chorong felt like a failure. She knew best how it was to lose someone and how hard it was, so why hadn’t she approached Namjoo instead of hesitating?

She was a failure…such a failure…

For a long hour she sat alone and looked up when she heard footsteps. Victoria had returned from wherever it was she’d been, but she honestly didn’t look any better than when she’d left. Chorong felt her take the seat next to her and they locked their arms around each other in silence.

Just two was a lonely existence. Three should have been it. It had always been three and should always be three.

They waited until the doctor came back to report that Namjoo was being moved to the ICU. She was in a coma and there was no way to wake her up now unless they decided to pull the plug sometime later in life.

For about half the night Chorong and Victoria both cried their own tears; their heartbreaking sobs filling the hallways as ghosts of the night.

It wasn’t until early morning that they were allowed to enter the room to visit Namjoo. Even the air inside was as suffocating as it had been outside. Chorong felt her lungs clog up and the emotions surge through her again as the hospital bed became more visible. This was only more realistic by the second and Chorong felt it hit her so hard. She didn’t want any of this. She didn’t want Namjoo in that hospital gown. She didn’t want Namjoo sleeping in that bed. 

“I can’t do this,” Victoria managed through muffled cries and turned away as she approached the unconscious Namjoo. She raised her hand up to her lips and sobbed into it uncontrollably.

Chorong watched the tears fall sloppily from Victoria’s eyes and peered down at her sister who looked like she was just sleeping. The sudden thought about the nights when Chorong had crawled into Namjoo’s bed to sleep with her made her heart ache and she felt a sob shudder through her. This time Namjoo wouldn’t be able to shrug her off if Chorong placed her leg over her. The memory was painful and Chorong lowered her head for a moment.

“Namjoo,” Chorong cried and grabbed Namjoo’s hand, “if you can hear me, please wake up.” A sob shuddered through her and she felt her nose start to run again. “We’re still here for you, you know that, right? Right?”

Chorong felt the tears fall just as sloppily as the ones on Victoria’s face and wiped them with her hand.

“I’m so sorry,” Chorong apologized, “I shouldn’t have left you that day, then Luhan wouldn’t have left, and you wouldn’t have ended up like this. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry, Namjoo.”

But Namjoo didn’t reply, squeeze her hand, or give her a hug to let her know it was all right; knowing that she wouldn’t possibly be able to made Chorong’s heart ache even more.  

>_____<;;

“I can’t leave,” Victoria glued herself to the glass window where they could look at Namjoo from outside in the hall.

Chorong stared at her younger sister from the glass window without a word. Her mind was frozen numb.

“Doesn’t it look like she’s having a good dream?” Victoria asked. “But why isn’t she waking up? Do you think she hears us?”

“She heard us,” Chorong replied quietly. “I don’t want to leave too. What if she wakes up when we’re not here?”

Victoria reached her hand up to dry the oncoming tears. “What if she doesn’t know where she is?”

“Namjoo can’t possibly be that stupid,” Chorong replied and she quickly reached over to grab Victoria’s hand. “We need to go. We still have to inform Namjoo’s workplace.”

Victoria glanced toward her sleeping sister once more and squeezed Chorong’s hand before they walked out of the hospital looking back every so often as if Namjoo would come running after them. Victoria almost wished Namjoo would and the mere thought of it cracked her heart open even more.

While Chorong was showering Victoria finished cooking their breakfast and sat down to stare at the omelets without much appetite. Her mind blanked and she thought about how Namjoo would come hopping into the kitchen to grab whatever was there before chit-chattering with them. Victoria felt her mind spin. Namjoo was everywhere in the house.  

“I can’t eat this,” she told herself and set down the fork she’d picked up.

Victoria closed her eyes and leaned her head against her hand. She was suddenly feeling more stressed than ever. How would she be able to cope with this?

The ringing of the doorbell made her turn around and stood up. Who would be visiting them so early in the morning?

“Hi,” Chanyeol greeted when she opened the door, “is Namjoo home?”

Hearing her sister’s name made her feel weak and she felt like bawling again. How would she be able to say that Namjoo wasn’t?

“Is it ok if I talk to her?” Chanyeol asked then added after a moment of silence, “I was a little rough yesterday, she might be angry but can you tell her to come down?”

Victoria’s eye unintentionally twitched and she felt something bad fly through her. 

***Chanyeol's in some for some real trouble lol!

***bleh~ this segment is sloppily written. i shall edit it later