Although Kyuhyun had a comfortable king-sized bed all to himself, he was tossing and turning about under the sheets, unable to fall asleep.

Just then he heard a knock on his room door. He took a look at the digital clock. It was a few minutes before midnight. He grunted as he dragged himself out of bed towards the door as the knocking persisted. 

Who on earth was disturbing him at this time of the night?

“Who’s there?” Kyuhyun asked.

“Kyuhyun, it’s me,” a coy and coquettish female’s voice responded.

“Victoria...?” Kyuhyun mumbled to himself as he unlocked the room door and opened it. Outside stood Victoria in a long t-shirt and shorts with a pair of wine glasses and a bottle of wine in her hands.

Kyuhyun stood hesitating at the door until Victoria broke the silence and waved the bottle of wine at Kyuhyun. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Sure,” Kyuhyun replied awkwardly as he stepped aside to make room for Victoria. “Come on in.”

Kyuhyun then closed and locked the door as he followed Victoria in. Victoria noticed the crumpled sheets as she passed by whilst heading for the table. She set down the glasses and wine, turned towards Kyuhyun, and embraced him tightly and kissed him on his lips.

Kyuhyun was taken aback by Victoria’s gesture as he recoiled from the sudden show of affection instead of reciprocating.

“Am I disturbing your rest?” Victoria cooed.

Kyuhyun shook his head.” I wasn’t able to get to sleep anyway.”

“So shall we have a drink? I’ve brought some wine over,” Victoria coaxed. “It might help you sleep better.”

Kyuhyun merely nodded his head in response. Beaming, she led Kyuhyun by his hand and sat him down at the table. She reached for a corkscrew to open the bottle and she poured the red wine for the both of them. Kyuhyun sat stiffened like a zombie, expressionless in the chair. Victoria then offered him the wine glass as he accepted it with a forced smile.

“Let’s cheers,” she said as she brought her glass closer towards his. Kyuhyun obliged as they clinked their glasses together before taking a sip of the liquid.  

“Kyuhyun,” Victoria cajoled, “Shall we arrange for our parents to meet officially again to discuss our engagement since the previous meeting fell through due to you know...”

Victoria paused as she knew that Kyuhyun was still traumatised by the accident. Any mention of the accident would trigger his unpleasant memories and thoughts about it.

“I mean our engagement is a given thing. It’s just a matter of time before the ceremony is held. Our parents know about us, they met briefly during...but anyway it’s only polite for them to meet one another before the engagement,” Victoria persuaded.

Kyuhyun did not reply to Victoria’s request but only poured for himself more wine into his glass and emptied the contents into his mouth in one gulp.

“Kyuhyun...” Victoria called out gently.

“I heard you. Why don’t you make the arrangements for your parents to come over to Seoul? Once you’ve decided on the dates, I can inform my parents. It shouldn’t be a problem for them,” Kyuhyun acknowledged lazily.

Victoria leaned forward to kiss Kyuhyun on his lips to which he remained passive and did not return the kiss. “Gomawo.”

“You’re welcome,” Kyuhyun said icily as Victoria pulled back from the kiss. Kyuhyun let out a yawn. “It’s late. I want to sleep. You should return to your room to rest too.”  

Kyuhyun got up from the chair and motioned for Victoria to get up and she did. Grabbing him by his waist behind and leaning against his back, she whispered in an inviting and sultry voice, “Kyuhyun, can I sleep here for the night?”

He turned away briefly from Victoria. As such, she was unable to notice the look of displeasure on his face.  

“We’re lovers, and we’re soon to be engaged. It’s okay that I stay here for the night. You know how Donghae-ssi is like. In the first place, you could have save some of the company’s money and booked us into a room together,” Victoria purred.

Kyuhyun gently removed Victoria’s hands from his grasp and he turned his gaze towards her. “I don’t want a scandal to break out which is why I booked two separate rooms for us.

“But news about us dating isn’t a secret,” she pouted and protested sensually. “There were rumours saying that we’re going to get engaged or have gotten engaged.”

Kyuhyun planted a kiss on her forehead and said in a gentle tone, “But we’re not engaged. Not yet. If news of us spending overnight in the same room ever gets out, your career as a model would be over. You wouldn’t want that, would you? After all, you’ve worked so hard to get this far.”

Kyuhyun got behind her and gently shoved Victoria towards the door. He unlocked the door and opened it and motioned her to leave.

“Kyuhyun...”

“I’m tired. I want to get some good rest. Good night, Victoria. Sleep well,” Kyuhyun faked a yawn.

Victoria sighed and left the room. Just as she stepped out, she turned round, forcing a smile, she lamented, “Kyuhyun, you’ve changed after the accident. I don’t know what happened, but you’ve changed. I don’t know why you’ve become so distant towards me at times.”

Victoria halted for a moment to collect her thoughts. Deciding against voicing out any more frustration, she simply wished Kyuhyun “good night”, before turning away and heading back to her room. 

Kyuhyun closed and locked the door and stumbled back into bed.

Why was he being like this? 

As he stared into the ceiling, Kyuhyun could only remember waking up after the accident feeling disoriented and confused.

He could not remember the events leading to his hospitalisation.  

When he opened his eyes, he was only told by his parents that he had an accident without being given many details, and that he had had a heart transplant. A week later, he was discharged from the hospital to convalesce.

As he recuperated from the operation, Victoria visited him frequently just to spend the whole day with him and made meals for him. She even turned down two projects in order for be the good girlfriend, future fiancée/wife. For that, he was really thankful and he promised to get engaged once he made a full recovery.

However strangely enough, he could not feel anything more than gratitude for Victoria. Kyuhyun knew she was his girlfriend and they were about to get engaged when the accident occurred. He could remember their first meeting when he had been the features editor with the magazine. The magazine was throwing an anniversary bash at a club. Instead of partying away, Kyuhyun was at the bar counter having drinks by himself when Victoria approached.

Kyuhyun was quite the awkward dork in social situations, especially around female strangers. As Victoria was waiting for her orders, she turned with curiosity towards Kyuhyun who was just staring down at his drink.

“Are you a staff of Younique?” she asked.

Kyuhyun looked up and was enamoured at what he saw. Perhaps it was due to the influence of alcohol. A petite well dolled girl up with flowing locks and a slender body. She was decked out in a tight fitting jeans and a plain t-shirt. Her eyes were large and sparkling.

“I am,” he stuttered. 

“Then why aren’t you joining the rest of the partying?” she continued.

Kyuhyun just shrugged without a reply.

“You don’t like to party?” she inquired.

Kyuhyun nodded.

“You know what? I’m kind of getting of tired of this party. And I’m feeling rather hungry. I know this sounds shameless, but would you like to buy me dinner or something?” she proposed.

Kyuhyun was surprised at her suggestion but he would be even more astonished at his response later when he nodded his head on the spur of a moment.

She smiled brightly, “Deal! Just let me bring these drinks over to my friends, say goodbye to them before we can go off. But is it okay for you to skip the party?”

“It’s fine. I’m just the features editor,” he casually brushed off her concerns. “By the way, I’m Cho Kyuhyun.”

“I’m Victoria Song, a model with TN Entertainment.”

.....

That was four years ago, when he was still a features editor with Younique who would later rise through the ranks quickly to become the editor in chief of the magazine, and when Victoria was still an upcoming and rising star in the modelling industry.

They started off as acquaintances, occasionally exchanging test messages with one another. A working relationship followed. They started to see one another more often as Kyuhyun took over as editor in chief of the magazine and with Victoria working on shoots for the magazine. They spent time together at after work meals and drinks. A more interpersonal relationship between an acerbic tongued writer yielding a sharp and humorous wit and pen became friends with a beautiful elegant model from China who was still struggling with the Korean language, developed as a result. They started to develop feelings more one another and about a year and a half later since their first meeting did Kyuhyun find the courage to take the initiative to ask Victoria to be his girlfriend to which she readily agreed whilst breaking down into a fit of excited giggles.

Kyuhyun loved and cherished Victoria. Although Victoria knew about his life threatening heart disease which would cause his death any moment, she accepted him as her boyfriend and even his marriage proposal.

Kyuhyun had been looking forward to the engagement. However, the accident happened and threw a spanner into his plans.

He felt different after he woke up from the heart transplant. He was told that he was no longer in any danger of death. It was as though he was reborn as another new person. He knew the people around him. He knew he loved them. He still had memories of the time he spent together with them. His head told him that these were the people he loved, but he didn’t feel close to them like before.

And Kyuhyun desperately wanted to find out what happened in the wake of his accident, since neither his parents nor his friends volunteered any information. He felt something was amiss. When he was well enough, he went to the library to flip through the newspapers for news about the accident. He finally came across a small article in one of the dailies. To both his relief and horror, although he did not kill anyone, he discovered that the car he managed to steer clear of crashing into, lost control trying while trying to avoid Kyuhyun’s vehicle, and careened into the path of two pedestrians killing one instantly and injuring the other. The driver himself sustained serious injuries that he fortunately recovered from.

There was a picture of the scene of the accident which left Kyuhyun gasping at the horror of what he had indirectly caused. He could see bloodstains on the road and a body bag. There were two photo insets of the deceased, one a 31 year old male and the other a 45 year old female.

As he scanned through the article, he found out that the female was killed instantly. She was a mother to two teenage children. The male suffered life-threatening injuries in the accident. He was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. His name was Choi Siwon and he was a model.

Kyuhyun was unable to recollect ever working with Choi Siwon before though Kyuhyun felt the name and picture of the male to be familiar. Perhaps he had seen Siwon somewhere before at some fashion shows or some industry gatherings.

Suddenly, Kyuhyun felt a discomfort in his chest. He trembled and tears started streaming down his eyes. He wept in pain, choking a few times as he mourned the loss of the two lives. It struck him that while he had been given a second chance and a new lease of life while others had their lives robbed and their families shattered.

They were someone else’s son, lover, brother, sister spouse and mother.

Kyuhyun did think of paying a visit to the families. He floated the idea to his parents and Victoria but they objected to it.

They argued against his idea. What was he trying to achieve and prove? It wouldn’t offer the victims’ families any sort of comfort, they told him. Instead, it might open more wounds and grief for them instead. 

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Sorry if there are no KyuMin interactions in this chapter. Don't you guys feel a little bad for Victoria? She gets the ice treatment from Kyuhyun.

And I've revealed one secret in this chapter. Yup, you guessed right. Kyuhyun indirectly caused Siwon's death. Do you think this would complicate the KyuMin relationship in the future? If so, how?

Share your thoughts and comments. And don't forget to subsribe to this.

Thanks everyone.

My other fan fics

Heaven's Boys 

KyuMin: Almost a love story

KyuMin: 60 Days 

It's You (너라고) Neorago (a YeWook fan-fic)