We found Seungho passed out on the floor, burning with fever. We tried to wake him up a few times but he was not responding, so we decided to take him to the hospital. We are on our way now...Junhyung's words kept on repeating on Byunghee's head as he rushed to the hospital.

When Byunghee arrived at the ER, he looked for Junhyung and rushed to their side when he found him. Junhyung and the manager were so preoccupied with watching the medical staff as they attended to Seungho, that they didn't notice Byunghee's arrival. Byunghee's heart stopped when he saw Seungho lying lifeless on the bed, with all different kinds of wires and tubes attached to him. After what seems like an hour or so, the doctor approached them and talked to them.

“Mr. Yang contracted a severe form of Pneumonia. The infection got so severe, he developed pus in his lungs and his brain got infected. We have to rush him to the operating room now to remove the pus in his lungs.” The doctor explained calmly.

Byunghee and the others just nodded in response. After transferring Seungho to the operating room, Junhyung and the manager bid farewell to Byunghee because they still had stuff to finish in the restaurant. Byunghee thanked them and sent them off. After which, he called Jin Ju to tell her about Seungho. But Jin Ju was out of town that day, becase of a certain school project, and it will take her 4 hours to get back to Seoul; so she asked Byunghee's help to take care of Seungho while she's on her way back.

Thirty minutes after and the operation was already done. The doctor approached Byunghee and updated him on Seungho's condition.

“We were able to remove the pus from Seungho's lungs, but the infection is still widespread in his body. We gave him powerful antibiotics already, but there are not much improvement in his condition. We have to send him to the ICU for further observation.” The doctor explained.

“Thank you doctor.” Byunghee bowed down in reply.

The doctor was just a few steps away when the hospital receptionist approached Byunghee.

“Good morning sir, are you Mr. Yang's relative?”

“Yes I am. Why?”

“Does Mr. Yang have medical insurance?”

“No...” Byunghee replied nervously.

“Hmm. You see, sir, as part of our hospital's policy we would need an initial deposit of $1200 before Mr. Yang could be transferred to the ICU. ” The receptionist stated bluntly.

“o-oh...I don't have that kind of money right now...Uhm, erm...do you accept credit cards for the deposit?” Byunghee asked nervously.

“Uhm, unfortunately no sir. All deposits should be paid in cash.”

“O-oh...How about I make an intial deposit of $200, is that alright? Then I'll make it a point to pay the rest tomorrow as soon as I get enough money.” Byunghee bargained.

“Unfortunately sir, our hospital's policy for ICU patients without insurance is an initial deposit of $1200 and nothing less than that since the equipments and medications for ICU patients are expensive.”

“It's not as f I'm not paying...I'm gonna pay, I just need time to get the money.” Byunghee pleaded.

“If that's the case sir, we'll be putting Mr. Yang in the holding area for a while. Unfortunately, the holding area do not have enough facilities to monitor nor to revive Mr. Yang in case of emergency. If Mr. Yang codes in the holding area and he dies, the hospital would not be liable for his death.” The receptionist tried to explain as gentle and as humane as possible.

“Can't you do something about it? Please? My friend is in a critical condition...” Byunghee asked, teary-eyed.

The receptionist just bowed down and shook her head. “I'm sorry sir. It's the hospital's policy...”

Byunghee's eyes became teary. He didn't know where to get that amount of money given his limited time. He tried calling Jin Ju, the manager, and some of his friends to ask for money.

After calling up all the possible people he could ask help from, he was only able to raise $550. Byunghee got a bit of hope that the receptionist would agree to take his money, so he rushed back to her.

“Here miss, can you please just take this $550, then I'll give you the rest tomorrow. You have my word! Please transfer my friend to the ICU already...” Byunghee pleaded earnestly.

“I'm sorry sir, the policy is a $1200 deposit. I'm sorry...” The receptionist made a 90 degree bow as she spoke politely.

Byunghee flared up at the receptionist's words. “Damn it! Why don't you just take my money and transfer my friend to the ICU??!! I said I'll pay you guys tomorrow, didn't I?! God! He's dying right there and all you care about is that damn deposit! Aren't hospitals supposed to be a place to save people's lives?!! Why is money so damn important than my friend's life?!!!” Byunghe shouted, startling the other people in the area.

“I'm sorry sir...” that was all the receptionist could say.

Byunghee's tears bursted out like a dam at the receptionist's response. He felt so hopeless and defeated at the fact that his lack of finances would be causing Seungho's death.

Taking a deep breath and swallowing the lump in his throat, Byunghee decided to do what he swore he'll never do in his entire life: to kneel down and beg. He couldn't help but burry his face in his palms as he kneeled down before the receptionist.

“Please madame...Please...Just take my money and bring him to the ICU already....” Byunghee pleaded as he cried.

All the people watching were already shooting darts as they glared at the receptionist for what she was doing, but the receptionist just bowed down and ignored the people. “Please stand up sir...I'm sorry, I can't do anything about it...I'm just an employee here too sir, i don't make the policies...” the receptionist consoled Byunghee as he continued to lament on his knees.

“How much does he need to get his friend to the ICU?” A booming voice of a male suddenly filled the silent room.

Byunghee's head shoot up to look at the person who spoke. He lost his breath when he saw the source of the voice.

The man slowly walked towards the receptionist and, with eyes widened with anger, he shouted at the receptionist:

“I said, HOW MUCH?!!!”

The receptionist jumped at the man's question.

“a-..a-a thousand two..two hundred dollars...sir.” The receptionist mumbled in fear.

Byunghee stood up and held the man's hand before he could finish writing off a cheque. “Y-you don't need to do this...I-I can handle this...” Byunghee said, terrified.

The man just smirked at Byunghee, inched his face close to Byunghee, caressed Byunghee's hands and whispered to his ear, “No worries Gio, you know you're my favorite man. I got your back.”

Bunghee felt chills running down his spine hearing the man's words. Not just any man, but a man he dreaded to ask help from. “S-sunggyu...No need...” Byunghee tried to stop him, but too late. The cheque was already signed and was thrown at the receptionist's face.

Byunghee's body remained paralyzed as he watched Sunggyu, his former customer a the service who is very demanding and violent, disrespect the receptionist by throwing the cheque at the receptionist's face. Byunghee wanted to take the money back, but he didn't want Seungho to remain in that holding area for long.

Sunggyu wrapped his arms around Byunghee's shoulders and dragged him away from the scene towards the nearest restroom.

Once hidden from the public's eye, Sunggyu pinned Byunghee to the wall and inched his face close to him.

“Where did you go Gio? I was looking for you for a long time now, but your manager told me that you're not working there anymore...Is that true?” Sunggyu asked as he tried to pull Byunghee's face closer to his. Byunghee shook his head to get away from Sunggyu's grasp.

“Tsk tsk...You silly thing...I told you you couldn't get away from me...And now that you owe me a lot of money, you must make sure we'll have a great time.” Sunggyu whispered devilishly to Byunghee.

Byunghee felt chills hearing Sunggyu's words. But he didn't want to turn back now. He forced himself to smile a bit as he pushed Sunggyu carefully. “O-o-okay...But..But not now Sunggyu..M-my friend...he's in a critical condition an-”

“Ssshhh...I understand. Don't be so nervous Gio. I promise, I'll play it nice this time.” Sunggyu inched his face closer to Byunghee, but Byunghee turned his head away.

“Please, not now...” Byunghee whispered as he slowly pushed Sunggyu away.

Sunggyu smirked at him and stepped away from Byunghee. “Alright. I'll let you off for now. But after this is over, make sure to PAY.ME.BACK.” Sunggyu said, whispering the last three words In Byunghee's ears before he walked away.

Byunghee felt his heart dropped when Sunggyu left. A few moments leter, he heard Sunggyu scream. “YOU MAKE SURE THAT THIS PATIENT GETS THE BEST OF CARE NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT COSTS!” ended by a loud banging of the wooden table.

Byunghee's knees gave in and he sat on the floor as he burried his face to his palms. He let out a deep sigh, hoping to calm himself down.

I'm screwed. He thought.

>

Seungho was immediately transferred to the ICU after settling the payments.

Byunghee looked through the glass panel as he carefully observed the state Seungho was in: he was hooked to 2 different kinds of IV fluid; even from afar, Byunghee can see Seungho's laborious and heavy breathing despite being hooked up in a respirator; and hIs cardiac monitor showed fast, irregular heartbeats, that made Byunghee more nervous.

Let's hope the infection we'll be cleared out immediately, or else the risk of him dying from the disease would get higher. The doctors words after Seungho's surgery kept running in Byunghee's mind as he looked at Seungho.

“You'll be fine man. You'll be getting the best treatment, don't worry. Just hang in there, man...hang in there...” Byunghee couldn't help but tear up at his friends condition.

>

It's Seungho's 4^th day in the ICU already. The doctors told Byunghee that the infection was slowly getting cleared out from his system and Seungho's condition is slowly getting better; however, he hasn't woken up until now.

Byunghee can already feel the exhaustion creeping in due to balancing his schoolwork and taking care of Seungho, but he it all up. Jin Ju was helping out with taking care of Seungho; but because of the demands at school, Byunghee couldn't help but feel exhausted.

That afternoon. Byunghee was so exhausted he fell asleep while watching Seungho. His journey in the dreamland got disrupted when he felt something flicking his forehead. He openned his eyes forcibly and, to his surprise, he saw Seungho smiling down at him.

At first he thought he was just hallucinating, because the respirator tubes were partially blocking Byunghee's view. When he looked closer at Seungho, he saw Seungho's smile growing bigger behind the tapes that secured the respirator tube in his mouth.

“Seungho!” Byunghe exclaimed as he hugged Seungho tightly.

Seungho coughed violently as the tubes going through his mouth to his lungs got shaken when Byunghee hugged him tight. Byunghee immediately let go of Seungho and apologized to him. Seungho could only smile at him, the tubes preventing him from talking. Byunghee called the doctor immediately to check on Seungho'.

After checking his vitals and replacing the respirator tubes with an oxygen mask, the doctor left leaving Byunghee and Seungho alone. Not a few seconds later, Jin Ju arrived for her routine afternoon visit to Seungho. Jin Ju ran to Seungho's side immediately and kissed him in the forehead.

“I'm glad you're awake man...You made us worried bigtime! I told you should take it easy! Look at what happened to you.” Byunghee nagged, showing his irritated expression at Seungho as he does so.

“Byunghee's right Seung. You are beating your body too much at work...Look at what happened to you! And seems like you didn't have any plans on telling us about it! If not for you getting hospitalized, we wouldn't even know you got sick!” Jin Ju added, anger, worry and dissapointment obvious in her voice.

“I-I'm...s-sor..ry.” Seungho mumbled breathily, as he was still having a bit of difficulty in breathing and he was still feeling weak due to the fever (due to infection) and the powerful antibiotics.

Byunghee and Jin Ju softened at Seungho's pitiful look, and so they just smiled at him.

“Alright, alright. We'll forgive you this time. But I hope you this won't happen again.” Jin Ju said with a smile as he brushed Seungho's hair to the side.

Seungho just smiled and nodded, his eyes drooping already after just a few minutes of being awake.

“I think you should go back to rest, you sleepyhead.” Byunghee chuckled at Seungho's sleepy expression before he tapped him in the chest lightly and smiled at him. Seungho nodded and smiled in response. In no time, he was asleep.

>

After 5 more days in the regular ward, Seungho was approved to be discharged by the doctor. When Jin Ju left that evening, Seungho took the opportunity to talk to Byunghee regarding the payment to his hospitalization.

“Uhm, Byunghee, my bankbook is hidden in my cabinet drawer. You could withdraw all the money from that account,. And if that isn't enough, you c-”

“No need Seungho. I...erm...See, ahh...a...a friend of mine...yes, a friend of mine...runs this charity that...uhm...provides financial aid for working students. I presented your case, and he granted full financial aid for yor hospitalization.” Byunghee stumbled in his words as he tried to make up a good story on how he came about with the full payment for Seunho's hospitalization. But Byunghee's stuttering made Seungho suspicious.

“Hmmm....A friend in a charity huh. What's the catch?” Seungho asked, as if doubting Byunghee's words.

“No catch! Just...They just want to help alleviate the living conditions of working students. That's all.” Byunghee lied, giving a big smile to Seungho.

Seungho raised a brow at Byunghee. “I see. I should meet this friend of yours to thank him for his kindness. Or else maybe I should just give back what I owe him.” Seungho said, still trying to probe if Byunghee's story is true.

“NO! No need...he's uhm..he's out of the country. For projects in other countries...” Bunghee busied himself with packing Seungho's clothes, turning his back on Seungho.

“Oh. OK then. Tell me when he comes back, so I can treat him to dinner or something.” Seungho smiled as he spoke. He was still doubting the credibility of Byunghee's story; but for the meantime, since this so-called friend of Byunghee's is out of the country, he just contented himself with what Byunghee said until he gets the chance to be introduced to this mystery friend.

Besides, he doubt the possibility of Byunghee lying to him. Byunghee hid things from him in the past, but never did he lie to him. And so Seungho just relied on this fact to convince himself that what Byunghee said is true.

The following day, Seungho was discharged from the hospital.