It was a few days after the sudden confession of his best friend. After that day Ryeowook has not mentioned once about the incident and has gone about him as usual as if nothing happened. Apparently he was keeping his promise to Kyuhyun by giving younger the necessary time.

Ryeowook wasn’t an idiot. He knew how the younger felt about Sungmin and he knew it won’t be easy to forget. So he promised to himself to keep his word and give Kyuhyun the much needed time.

Kyuhyun was standing beside Ryeowook as the later ordered the coffee and their breakfast. Ryeowook has insisted that Kyuhyun needed to relax a bit and has dragged him to the nearby café for the breakfast.

Kyuhyun waited in line with Ryeowook as they waited for their order. Ryeowook hasn’t asked for a reply from Kyuhyun after his confession. He hasn’t even mentioned a word about their conversation. As promised he was waiting for Kyuhyun. Kyuhyun loved Ryeowook, he cared for his best friend but his love for Sungmin stood tall and proud shadowing his feelings for Ryeowook. He watched his best friend change his weight from one foot to other, muttering things about how slow the service is at the café. He felt guilty towards Ryeowook as he watched the slight frown on the smaller man’s face. He knew he was giving hope as he delayed giving the answer.

He knew he has to get over Sungmin. And his best friend has offered a way. The man he believed to be the soul mate, belonged to another. He has no right to interfere. He knew he has to move on with his life and the best option was to accept Ryeowook’s offer. But his heart wasn’t listening to his reasoning as another wave of pain ran through him at the memory of Sungmin.

“Kyuhyun-ah, what are you still doing over there? I got the coffee!” Ryeowook’s voice from the entrance woke him out of his reverie.

“Yeah, coming!” With that he turned to take a step to follow his friend but was harshly bumped into another person who was standing behind him.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you-” Kyuhyun broke off his apology as something about the stranger looked familiar. He stared at the obviously annoyed stranger for few seconds before his memory triggered.

“You’re Heechul.” He stated before he could stop himself.

“Oh, thanks for reminding me.” Heechul said sarcastically and turned to walk away from Kyuhyun. But he hastily turned back and looked sharply at Kyuhyun, “How do you even know me?”

“Sungmin hyung told-”

Wide smile appeared on Heechul’s face as he cut in, saying, “Ah, so you’re Sungmin’s friends?” to Kyuhyun as Ryeowook walked over to them.

“Yeah, I’m Kyuhyun and this is Ryeowook.” Then he turned to Ryeowook as he still hasn’t grasped the situation. “Ryeowook-ah, this is Heechul-ssi, Sungmin hyung’s-”

“Ah, yeah.” Ryeowook exclaimed as he recalled the bitter conversation with Kyuhyun.

 “Nice to meet you.” Heechul said shaking their hands. “Sungmin told me a lot about you all, especially you, Kyuhyun.” Heechul added playfully rising his eyebrow.

Kyuhyun looked at Heechul utterly puzzled when a heavily accented voice called for Heechul.

“Heechul-ah? Aren’t we leaving?” A tall man walked over to Heechul and put a hand over his shoulder as he pulled Heechul closer to him. “Friends of yours?”

Kyuhyun and Ryeowook gaped at the gesture but averted their attention back to Heechul as he started to speak.

“Oh Hannie.” Heechul acknowledged the man and looked back to Kyuhyun. “This is Kyuhyun. The one Sungmin told us about. And this is his friend.” Heechul added pointing to Ryeowook. “And this is Hangeng. My boyfriend.” Said Heechul introducing the accented man.

“What? Boyfriend?” This time Kyuhyun openly gaped as Ryeowook blurted, “I thought you were Sungmin’s boyfriend.”

Heechul let out a hearty laugh which earned an annoyed scoff from Kyuhyun.

“You’re cheating on him and now you’re laughing?” He asked, irritation evident in his voice.

“I’m sorry but that’s funny.” Heechul said, still laughing. He controlled himself before he started to speak again. “Calm down. I’m not cheating on him since he wasn’t my boyfriend on the first place. We’re just friends and there’s no way I’m gonna date him. I love this Chinese guy, not Sungmin.”

“But he said you and him are-” Kyuhyun trailed off as he tried to understand the puzzle.

“I don’t know what that brat told you. We’re just friends. I was working in USA when I met him. I treated him for three years. But I had to come back to Korea because of my work. So he also decided to come here since he didn’t want to change his physician. Three of us are friends.”

“Hold on, wait….treat him? Physician? What are you talking about?”

“Huh?” Heechul stared at Kyuhyun for few seconds before realization dawned on him. “Oh god, I’m so sorry. You don’t know? I should have known that he won’t tell you.” Heechul murmured more to himself.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kyuhyun snapped, now reaching his limits.

However, Heechul was still mumbling to himself. “Now I understand.” Said Heechul snapping his attention back to Kyuhyun. “So this was his story.”

“What story?” Ryeowook asked, completely lost.

“Sungmin hasn’t told them about his condition?” This time it was Hangeng who spoke.

“Yeah, it seems so.” Heechul replied looking at his boyfriend. “What should I do? It’s not my place to tell them.”

“Well, you have no choice. We are his friends so we have the right to know. So tell us what the hell you’re talking about.”

Heechul looked at Hangeng as if for asking for an answer. The taller man shrugged before saying, “They should know. Especially him.” He said pointing to Kyuhyun. “Besides Sungmin can’t hide this forever.”

“That little idiot.” Heechul mumbled to himself before looking back at Kyuhyun and Ryeowook. “Can we please sit? It’s a bit of a long story.”

The small group walked over to a table near the window and Kyuhyun and Ryeowook sat across the other two.

“He will kill me for saying this to you. But you need to know. I’ll tell you everything I know.” Heechul started his story, “As I said before I met him three years ago. He was admitted to the hospital because of a pain in his heart and later he was diagnosed to have a terminal heart condition. Heart transplant was an option at first but we soon lost that hope since the surgery would involve nerves which would directly affect the brain. So he had to take treatments monthly and do physiological exercises to keep himself alive.”

Heechul paused to look at Kyuhyun and Ryeowook. Ryeowook was half covering his mouth out of shock as Kyuhyun sat rooted on his spot looking white as paper. Heechul decided it’s better to reveal the truth in one go and continued with his story.

“Few months ago I had to come back to Korea as I got transfered. So Sungmin also decided to move here. After few weeks his condition got worse. He had accepted his fate. But that was before he met you, Kyuhyun.” Heechul said, this time addressing Kyuhyun directly.

Kyuhyun refused to make any movement as he absorbed everything Heechul was saying. His heart was sinking by each word that entered his ear.

“After few weeks he came here he looked happier than I’ve ever seen him. Every time we met all he talked about was you. How good you look. How you sing. Basically how you do everything.” Heechul chuckled as he remembered the mystified expression on Sungmin’s face whenever he talked about the younger. “I was getting sick of hearing about you. All he talked about is how much he loved you.”

A silent tear streaked down Kyuhyun’s cheek at the last words. “But why didn’t he say anything about his condition? Why didn’t he say that he l-love me?” He asked slowly, trying not to break down in front of a stranger.

“He loves you.” Heechul replied simply with a small shrug. “That is the reason he hasn’t said anything about his condition. And by the look of it he has used me to stop you from falling for him.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“If I know him as well as I think, he is the type to think about others before himself. And this is definite especially if ‘others’ meant ‘you’. He doesn’t want you to get hurt because of him. So apparently he has told you that he and I are together so that you’ll give up on him.” Heechul explained patiently as another tear escaped Kyuhyun’s eye.

“But he failed. I still love him.” Kyuhyun replied firmly brushing off his tears as he stood up from his seat.

Ryeowook’s last hopes broke to pieces at Kyuhyun’s words. But somehow he understood. He understood both Kyuhyun and Sungmin.

“Where are you going?” Ryeowook asked, also standing up.

“To find Sungmin hyung.” Kyuhyun stated simply and turned to walk out the café. But Heechul’s voice stopped him.

“Sungmin is at the hospital now. I have a check-up scheduled for him.”

“Then take me there.”

“I- I don’t think that’s good idea.” Heechul replied slowly.

“I don’t care what you think. Just take me there.” Kyuhyun snapped not caring about anything. His sole objective was to find Sungmin.

“Yeah, he can’t hide forever. He will have to meet us. And when we do, we’re not going to pretend we don’t know anything.” It was Ryeowook. He was also worried for Sungmin. Sungmin might be a rival for him at love but Sungmin is also a friend he admired.

“Heechul-ah, I think it’ll be alright.” Hangeng approved as he also got up from his seat.

“Fine then. I’ll drive you.” Heechul finally agreed.

“Alright then. You guys go ahead. I have to go too. Business matters.” Hangeng said and left the café after giving an encouraging pat on Heechul’s shoulder.

Heechul led the other two to his car and Kyuhyun could swore that Heechul mumbled something about Sungmin using nunchaku on Heechul to murder him.

The car ride to the hospital was silent. Three of them were in their own worlds.

After a tense half an hour they reached the hospital. Kyuhyun and Ryeowook followed Heechul without a word. The nurse at the front of Heechul’s room greeted them with a smile, “Good morning doctor Kim, Sungmin-ssi is already here. Since you two are friends I already let him in.”

“Oh, thanks Sunny.”

The nurse turned to walk away when Heechul spoke again. “Is he in the office or check-up room?”

“In the check-up room.”

“Okay thanks, you can leave now.”

The nurse bowed and left. Heechul turned to Ryeowook and Kyuhyun, “You guys can wait in my office until I finish my check-up. You can talk to him after that.”

Heechul led the other two inside his office and asked them to sit and make themselves comfortable. Then he grabbed his stethoscope and disappeared into an adjoining room.

“Hey Heechul.” Kyuhyun visibly stiffened at the sound of Sungmin’s voice.

A/N:

Alright, first off so sorry for the late update! \^_^/

But I came back with the slightly longer chapter for you guys. Hope you enjoyed! Comments are very much loved! *_*