So before I start, thanks for the positive feedback guys. It means a lot, especially since I don't like my writing very much, haha.

I wanted to go a little longer with this chapter, but instead of keeping you guys waiting, I decided to post it anyway. ^^;

Comments/reviews are apprectiated~

     Shakily, Hyunseung crept up the front steps, swallowing hard on the lump that had decided to suddenly take up residency in his throat; attempting all the while to ignore the body. Part of him prayed—no make that begged— for it to be just some harmless homeless man who just happened to have chosen his porch to sleep on. That if he got inside silently, and just left the body be, when he checked the porch later, the man would be gone. Cautiously, he sidestepped around the motionless form of the man, practically pressing himself flat against his front door as he fumbled for the key, struggling to remove it from his pocket and jam it into the keyhole.

     He had only just managed to unlock the door and begun to twist the knob when he felt something snake around his ankle and grab it firmly. Whatever it was, it cold—far too cold to be anything touched by the summer heat—and it sent a wave of shivers coursing up and down his spine. And, Hyunseung noted with a pang of terror, the icy patches felt almost like fingers.

     ‘Oh God...’ he thought with a swelling sense of panic, ‘Don’t tell me he’s awake!’

     He didn’t have to wait for some heaven sent sign though. For within a matter of seconds, there came a pitiful groan from just behind him, followed by something that sounded vaguely to Hyunseung, like a muffled “Help.” But it couldn’t have been, right? It was probably just his paranoia setting in again, and he was probably just imagining that the sleeping man was grabbing his ankle… right? He had had a stressful day after all…

     But perhaps it would be best if he checked.

     in a harsh breath, he slowly tilted his chin downwards, millimeter by millimeter, until he caught a glimpse of his feet. And, much to his dismay, there was a hand wrapped about his ankle— or rather, now that he actually looked at it, his shin, he fingers so pale they were almost white and tipped in something red— was that blood?

     In that moment, half of his mind began screaming at him to run. To shake the hand off, rush inside the safety of his home, and then slam the door shut. Yet there was another part of him, and damn it, it was the larger part of him, was telling him to turn around and at least do something about the man sprawled across his front porch.

     The man had asked for help, hadn’t he? What if he really was injured.

     In that case, it wouldn’t do any good to just leave him out on his doorstop. If the man died, it would end up being his fault, wouldn’t it? And a dead man was not something Hyunseung wanted to have hanging over his conscience; no sir, it was not. So, the brunette carefully reached down, albeit reluctantly, and began the task of unlatching the chilled fingers from his person.

     It took a little time, and quite frankly, way more effort than he would ever be willing to admit, but he eventually managed to pry the fingers lose, gently dropping the hand onto the ground when he was finished. From there, he slowly his heel to face the mass of tattered black cloth that was the body on his porch.

     When he did, he found that the man was staring back at him through barely open eyes.  There was a look of confusing swimming in the stranger’s dark irises, something that seemed to say “Oh, so you did hear me?”and that made Hyunseung more than just a little bit uncomfortable. With the stranger awake, he wasn’t sure what he could do. He was never very good at making decisions like that anyway.

     Should he ignore the man’s dark eyes and check him over? Or perhaps he should strike up a conversation, try to keep the stranger attentive like they always said to in first aid classes.  

     But before he could make up his mind, the man’s eyelids began to flutter, slowly working their way closed. And, just like that, he was out cold again.

     At least this made the task of looking the stranger over a little less awkward…

     Now that he looked closer, he could see that the man was covered in what Hyunseung took to be blood (despite how much he hoped he was wrong). The sticky fluid was seeping from various places across his torso, in particular a rather large, jagged wound just below his left collar-bone. God, Hyunseung thought, was that a stab wound?  But the man’s injuries were, naturally, not limited to that. There were bruises beginning to darken on his chin and right cheek. All in all, the brunette decided, it looked as though the stranger had just managed to escape a fight— a rather bad one at that.

     Hyunseung grimaced, his nose scrunching up in disgust at the sight.

     Well, this was slightly more complicated than he had originally anticipated, wasn’t it. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

     He couldn’t just leave the man outside to bleed to death— or at least, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did. But at the same time, he didn’t really want to worry about getting him to a hospital— or the bills that would follow shortly afterwards, for that matter. Besides, he didn’t exactly have a car to drive the stranger there, and an ambulance might arrive later than was necessary.

     So, that left Hyunseung but one option.

     He would just have to look after the man for a bit. At least until the next morning, he thought.

     Sure, he was no doctor— in fact he was quite far from even being close to such a standing— but he could at least try to stop the man’s bleeding. He was confident enough in his medical skills that he could handle such a task. Yes, as long as the stranger didn’t need stitches, and hadn’t lost too much blood, Hyunseung was certain he could manage to keep the man out of danger.

     So, gritting his teeth, Hyunseung took hold of one of the man’s arms and threw it rather ungracefully over his shoulder before hoisting him up to his feet none too gently; the motion earning him a weak groan in response. But he paid it no heed. The man was just going to have to deal with it. It wasn’t Hyunseung’s fault that he was so heavy!

      When he was sure he had a good grip on the stranger, Hyuseung slowly turned to face the door and began the painstakingly long process of bringing the man inside.