Mrs. Lu just barely gets home and for the first time in her marriage, she’s not surprised to see that her husband is home, casually sitting in the living room, reading something off of his laptop while sipping tea. “How could you do such a thing to a young child?”

“What thing?” He asks, eyes completely glued to the screen.

“You think no one knows what you did two nights ago?”

“What did I do two nights ago?”

“You—”

The unlocked door violently swings open and in pops an infuriated Luhan with Kris behind, trying to calm Luhan down. “You caused the accident?”

This obtains Mr. Lu’s attention and he glances up at the three family members standing nearby the door. He puts his tea down and lightly closes his laptop. He’ll do his studying later. “What accident?”

“You!” Luhan comes forward with a tape in his hand and tosses it straight to his father’s chest, “It’s all caught on there, and you are acting innocent? That’s disgusting!”

Kris pulls Luhan to the side but his younger brother doesn’t budge. Instead, he stands by Luhan and calmly says, “Dad, we know that you are the person Hana went to see on that day, and you are also the last person she saw before it happened. Why did you do that to her, and to a child?”

“I am the last person she saw that day, but I am not the person she was going to see,” Mr. Lu finally confesses, knowing that he’s been caught red-handed and doesn’t need to go into the hassle of lying. “The person you’re referring to is your mother. I’m assuming she’s the one who came to you after the accident.”

Luhan confusingly stares back at his brother, “What does Dad mean? What does Mom got to do with any of this?”

His mother, from the side, utters, “I’m the one who gave Taeyang the necklace. And the person she wanted to meet.”

“Mom?”

Kris clarifies the situation, “Luhan, Mom told me about how she was supposed to meet up with Hana at the café but Hana never showed up, so when the accident happened, she had a feeling something went wrong and after she overheard that you are a prime suspect of intentional murder, she came to me after she found that.” He pointed to the mini tape that is lying on the seat after getting knocked off from his father’s chest.

“Remember when the Head Lady from the Day Care Center had called to ask if Hana was there with you?” His mother begins, which Luhan nods, “I went there after waiting for almost three hours passed the appointed time and she never showed up. After I came home, I was surprised to see your father home, too, but he was too busy conversing with someone on the phone. When I eavesdropped, I heard him say something about being a witness and I didn’t make the connection until Kris came back and started reading off of his old law books and slipped that you were accused of intentional murder.”

“I didn’t think that calling in as a fake witness would rat me out, but I guess it did.” Mr. Lu dares to comment, thinking lightly of this. He locked eyes with his youngest son. “I had firmly believed that it’d bring you back on your knees, making you realized that your elopement was a mistake.”

Luhan can’t believe what he is hearing. Hana’s father and his own father keep thinking that their marriage is wrong, or stupid, or dumb, or anything but happy and fun. Why? Is it because they are both still young? Is it because they don’t think that teenagers can live off well together without the support of any adult supervision? True, Kris has been behind their back the entire time, but he and Hana are a great team together.

Having had heard enough insult from both sides regarding his “marriage,” he breaks it to his father, “Yeah, marrying her was wrong.”

Kris and his mother beam their eyes at Luhan, not understanding why he even said that while Mr. Lu finds this interesting.

“Running off to live with her was wrong. Having no adult supervision was wrong.” Luhan slips a smile and adds, “But you know what? Every single moment of my marriage with her…felt right—is right. Everything around me was noisy to live with and it was a handful to deal with, but we dealt with it together, something you don’t know of because you’ve always done everything yourself, even in your marriage with Mom.” He points to his mom, but doesn’t look back.

“When I lived alone—without you, without mom, or without hyung—it was peaceful, quiet. But I did everything by myself. She showed—no—she gave me what a family is supposed to be like, to feel like, to live like. You work in that field, you should know. Or has focusing on life become a job and is no longer something you wish you were a part of, because frankly, I don’t have any memories of us four as a family. Back then, I yearned for that like crazy.”

He scoffs and laughs it off, “But I no longer need to silently wish for it; I have a family where I can feel and be a part of. I had it every day—with an awesome, mature, responsible, fun, and loving girl named Hana and a cute, dorky, mischievous, and headache-prone little boy named Taeyang. But it seems that it’s also impossible to be with them because you really like messing with life. Well, you know what, Dad? You can’t jump back into my life when you never played a part in it from the beginning and you won’t ever. And harming my family definitely won’t win me over.

"Let me say this right now to clear things up with you—our ‘marriage’ isn’t even a real marriage at all. Taeyang? As much as I love that brat, he’s not our kid—he’s a random stranger’s whose name happened to be like mine and coincidently was dropped off here. Hyung’s working on the case, trying to find the son of a gun who left Taeyang. As for Hana, she is a friend who is kind enough to lie to everyone, including her own family, that she’s the biological mother.”

Not knowing of this truth at all, Mrs. Lu gasps and covers . Up until this moment, she had believed that Hana was the real mother and instead, her son was covering it up for a random stranger who is also named Luhan. She never thought it’d be the complete opposite of what she had imagined. On the contrary, her husband has no reaction in regards to the truth that Luhan blurts out.

Having said what he didn’t think he was ever going to say to anyone, at least not until he and Hana had mutually agreed to say so, he pauses to take in air and to assess the situation. Seeing his father’s blank reaction, he knows that it’s useless to say anything else. But before he leaves, he’s going to stand firm on the one thing he definitely wants to get across to his father, “I’m only at my best when she’s by my side. And I only want to be at my worst with her. If you ever harm her or try to even harm her again, I won’t bother to come after you, but I can promise that the person who will follow her next is me because my life is tied with hers. Let’s see if you dare to kill off your own son.”

*

Kris enters his small apartment and exhaustingly spreads his entire body on the couch. Today has been a very long and tiring day. Too many important and shocking events have happened—Hana and Taeyang’s accidents, choosing one of them to “save” with the possibility that the one who gets surgical attention at a later time has a higher chance of death, the restraining order along with the “witness,” and finally, the last big bomb, their father is the one who started everything.

As he thinks of all of these events, he laughs to himself. His father isn’t the one who started all of this. He did. Indirectly. He didn’t intend for any of this to happen. It was an innocent act of his that had turned badly, involving everyone he didn’t think would be hugely affected by the virtual marriage idea he gave to his brother.

Thinking of the virtual marriage and the virtual family, all of Luhan’s heart-touching confessions to their father repeats in his mind, fresh and clear. He didn’t think that being married would give such power to someone and change someone drastically. He had honestly thought that his brother would be the least affected, but no, he was shown and proved wrong.

He pushes himself up to sit straight on the couch in the dark room and then stares off at the black bag he frequently carries around him. About ten seconds later, he gets up, walks over to it, opens the bag, takes out a big and heavy book—the only heavy item he carries—and skims to the page he has a picture hidden in.

He takes the picture out and has a staring contest with a specific person in the group picture. Among the dead silence, he questions, “I’m weak, aren’t I? Even my childish brother has the guts to say what he wanted to say to everyone.” He drops the picture out of his hands, not seeing where it flies under to, and then falls to the floor, “Don’t…don’t take Taeyang…let him help me redeem myself…”

*

Luhan wakes up to the sounds of footsteps from nearby and sees that it is morning. He quickly glances at Hana on the bed before her surgeon walks over to check up on her. He waits patiently at a corner, making sure that he’s not getting in the way and that good news will be received soon, but after five or so minutes, they leave with a quick exchange of nods. He washes his face and then grabs a quick breakfast on the hospital’s basement, rushing himself while possibly killing himself indirectly because he hardly chew his food. After his quick breakfast, he drops by to see Taeyang and is notified that Taeyang is breathing fine now, as he had problems before. By the time he came back to the room, he is disappointed because he had hoped that Hana would miraculously be awaken if he leaves her.

When he remembers that he has school today and today is a very important day—graduation practice—he doesn’t hesitate to give one of his friends a text regarding school.

Luhan: not going to school today. @ 9:21 a.m.

With his mind made up, he lies on his back and goes back to eyeing his friend. As he looks at her in the silence, a voice echoes in his mind and guilt covers him. He had never thought that his own father would even have the idea of harming his friend simply to get him back. If his father wanted him back, why didn’t he come over and say so? And, since when did his father become a person who uses extreme ways to express himself or become a form of communication? He is always in his lab and is surrounded by both animate and inanimate objects in the smallest forms, never giving a care about his family unless it will have a correlation with his field of work.

As his thoughts ravel around his father, another thought hits Luhan and it brings him to fear.

Hana saw my father, so she knows that he’s the one who set this up!

Everything around him fades into a white background as he stares off blankly into space. He won’t doubt that if his friend wakes up—no, she will—she will despise him forever. Who wouldn’t? Anyone would be angry that they were hurt and almost on the brink of death and even though Luhan isn’t the one who harmed her, he is the only reason for the accident. Because his father wants him back.

He knows this isn’t the same as when he hid about Taeyang’s disease. This is much—extremely— bigger than that. There’s no way will she wake up, hug him, pinch his cheek, and then say that everything’s fine because they’re going to get through this. What is there to get through? She’s the only one who is hurt.

He brings his knees up onto the couch and holds them together. He presses his chin on top of his knees and with his palms together below him, he silently asks for a desperate prayer, “Please…please Hana…forgive me…”

*

“…Han...?” Gayoon has repeated Luhan’s name for almost four times and there has been no reply from him.

In fact, ever since the friends’ arrival to drop by to see Hana and Taeyang’s conditions, he hasn’t spoken a word or any kind of reaction. Even when they told him that Taeyang can be visited more frequently and will not need to have any kinds of penetrating procedures done on him before he is allowed to go back home, Luhan only nods.

Xiumin takes the bread with sweet fillings from Gayoon’s hand and goes over to his buddy. Patting Luhan on the back, he finally gets Luhan’s attention and says, “Yo, here.”

Luhan’s eyes widen and he curiously asks, “W-when did you guys get here?”

Lay frowns from across the gang, peeling an orange by the trash bin for his girlfriend, “A while ago. Don’t you remember?”

It takes a few seconds for Luhan to recall it from his memories, “Oh. Yeah…”

“You okay?” Luna asks, walking over from her boyfriend’s side to sit at the edge of Hana’s electric bed. “You’re not with us today.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He lies with a forced smile.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” His exaggerated pitch proves otherwise and when he sees that his friends aren’t taking his verbal answers at the truth, he sinks back into his seat. “I…I just need to think about something.”

“About what?” Luna’s insensitive tone of voice pierces Luhan’s depression because it hits him that his friends don’t have to worry about getting cut off from Hana’s life because they didn’t cause harm to her in any way.

Unlike him.

Lay hands his girlfriend half of the orange and signs to her to not ask any further questions, which she is about to protest but stops when he sees that Luhan isn’t in the mood to confess anything to them at the moment.

“Guys,” Luhan speaks in a low tone, “…” his mouth opens for a while but words hesitate to come out. He’s not hesitant because he’s already decided on this, but, he’s unsure at his friends’ reactions. “…I want to walk the stage…with Hana.”

The room falls silent except for the hard candy Xiumin is munching on. When all eyes fall on him, even Luhan, he points to himself and naively asks, “Want one?”

Lay and Gayoon laugh at his comment while Luna rolls her eyes in response.

She shifts in her seat, “We’re all walking the stage with her.”

“No.” Luhan instantly follows. “She—she won’t be healed by the time graduation comes.”

“How do you know?”

“I asked.”

Luna stutters to retort, “W-well, you can’t really t-trust what they say. They can be wrong, too.” Despite her confidence, her stammer represents everyone’s inner feeling of doubt.

“Walk with us,” Lay finally says. “I’m sure she’d want that.”

No, she’d want me dead when she wakes up. “I’ve already decided. I’m walking the stage when she’s walking.”

“But you just said that she’s not going to heal by then,” Luna butts in with annoyance, not specifically directed at anyone.

Luhan heaves a sigh and sits up straight. With a light smile, he ends the conversation with, “I want to walk with her. Please.”

*

Another week has passed and Taeyang has been allowed to go home, but because Luhan has been acting differently, Kris unanimously is given the job to be Taeyang’s current caretaker until Hana is completely healed or until Luhan gets his act together. No one says anything to Luhan about his quietness and his delayed reactions because they figured he’s come onto accepting that Hana’s hospitalized. On the other hand, Kris believes that it is more than accepting Hana’s conditions, that his younger brother is contemplating on the fact that their father is the culprit.

With just two days left before graduation, the gang and Kris, along with Taeyang, visit Luhan at home. He has been staying with Hana and coming home every other day for a shower and/or to do some cleaning and house prep so that when she wakes up, she won’t yell at him for lazing off.

“Kris hyung, you’ve gotten good at laying Taeyang down to sleep,” Xiumin says, astonished. “A few days ago, your elbow hit his head.”

Kris puts a finger to his lips and jokingly says, “Don’t let Hana know what happened.”

“Bribe me.”

“I’ll give you a penny.”

“Works for me.” The two laugh and fill the tension in the silence as they all wait for Luhan to come down from after doing laundry.

“What’s so funny?” Luhan asks, stepping down the stairs. When he sees his son fast asleep in the nursery center, he goes over to Taeyang and fixes the blanket over him. “Can this be a fast talk? I want to get to Hana before six.” He sees his friends glance over at Kris and realizes that this talk has been discussed prior this meeting.

Kris shifts in his seat and eyes Luhan, “I heard about graduation.”

“Oh.”

“Not being biased, but I am persuaded to say that you should walk the stage even if Hana can’t.”

“No,” Luhan quickly butts in, “No matter what you say, I’m not going to graduate without her.”

“Okay,” Kris shrugs and then turns his attention to the friends, “That’s all I can do.”

Everyone gives Kris a look because it’s undeniable that Kris didn’t even try his best to persuade his brother to walk the stage. Even Luhan is baffled because he was sure that Kris would be against his decision regarding graduation.

Luna blinks with confusion, “Um, you-you don’t have more to add on?”

Kris shakes his head, “Nope.”

She scoots over and whispers, “What about all that we listed for you to say?”

“Well, Luhan did say that he’s not going to change his mind.”

“And?”

“And?” Kris repeats, not understanding Luna’s “and” comment.

Luna had thought that getting Luhan’s brother on their side will change tides, but apparently, she thought wrong. Resorting to the last option she has in mind, she turns her back to Kris and faces Luhan. “Why don’t you want to walk with us? Don’t you know that doing this will make Hana feel bad?”

Lay senses his girlfriend’s hyped emotions and to ensure that her rage stays in place, he calmly places his hands around her shoulders.

“Hana would want us to walk together, even if it's without her. I want to walk with her, but she can’t, and as a friend, I’m willing to accept that.” She furrows her brows at him, “And I want to walk with you, too.” She feels her boyfriend’s hands squeezing her shoulders, telling her that he agrees with her, and knowing that, she sniffs and then buries her face in his chest to weep.

Luhan interlaces h