3 years later; June 2012

“Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly pronounce you the graduates of Class 2012!”

Himchan and Daehyun continue to holler Jongup's name, Yongguk holds the recording camera steady in his hands, and I clap. Yay Jongup. I honestly have to say: I hate graduations, and especially hate coming back to this hell-like school. But, since it's Jongup's last day and I will probably never come here again –I'll just keep my bad thoughts to myself and instead be happy that Jongup has finally graduated high school.

“Congrats on graduating, Jongup!” Somi and Eunhae give some flowers and puts a money lace around his neck.

“Thank you Somi and Eunhae noona,” Jongup smiles brightly.

“I can't believe your graduation is already over. It seemed as if Daehyun and Saehee's graduation was yesterday,” Himchan tears.

It seems like yesterday when Zelo died.

I shake away my thoughts, thinking about the past will only make things worse. I've just recently gotten over that night, I don't want it to come back and haunt me again.

I hope he is doing alright.

The seven of us gather up with our proud graduate in the middle and take a group picture. I stand next to Jongup, and after finishing taking many pictures, Jongup nudges me and asks, “Saehee-noona, can we go visit Zelo?”

“You're not going to the after party?”

He shakes his head, “Today's Zelo's anniversary, I'd be a bad friend if I don't see him today.”

Oh, death anniversary.

I manage to make the corners of my lips go up, “Alright then, let's do that.”

++

Jongup and I head first while the rest of the guys linger and take their time coming from behind. Each step I take brings me back to that day, that night where I just had to be so stupid and let Zelo die right in front of my eyes. I want to shake and scream whenever it comes back into my mind, but my body manages to keep it in –especially for Jongup in this particular case. Even though his closest friend passed away, he never fails to give up on his sweet smiles. He makes the best out of things and never complains even if he went through a really bad day.

If I deeply think about though, Jongup grew up so fast without me even realizing.

I stand back a few inches from Zelo's grave, because I know that Jongup likes to spend time privately with himself and his friend. He bends down and places the flowers he got for graduation down on Zelo's shiny and polished template.

“Remember the time I said that you're so stupid and that I'd think I'd graduate before you? Well, it actually happened, Zelo. I graduated before you did –but now I wish we graduated together.”

I take a deep silent breath as each of Jongup's words hits me right in the chest. I'm sorry Jongup, you guys would be graduating together if it weren't for me.

“Moon Jongup! Eunhae and Somi got you those flowers, but you're going to throw them away like that?” Himchan nags from behind.

Jongup's faces his back and replies to Himchan, but it seemed as if he was also talking to Zelo, “I'm not throwing them away. I'm giving it to Zelo because they belong right here, with him.”

“Awww,” Somi and Eunhae both loudly coo and scurry next to Jongup, embracing him. “I don't mind if you give the flowers to your friend.” Eunhae's eyes tear.

“You're so sweet, Jongup. I just want to fold you and keep you in my pocket,” Somi squeals.

“Excuse me, but your boyfriend is right here,” Daehyun directs to Somi.

“Would you please let go of Jongup?” Himchan hisses to Eunhae.

“Oppa! Do you not understand that Jongup is in the need of a big hug?” Eunhae rubs her cheek against Jongup's as he tries not to show that he's disturbed by the two noona's gigantic cuddle.

“These girls are twenty but they still act like they're sixteen,” Daehyun grumbles.

Himchan rubs his temples, “Never mind that, since Jongup isn't attending his class' party, let's make one just for Jongup!”

“Sounds great!”

“I'm in!”

Just then a loud bang occurs from afar further into the woods. Everyone stayed silent and observant of the noise.

“Is it just me, or did I just hear a gunshot?” I ask.

“I don't think it was just you,” Yongguk whispers, “Let's hurry up and get out of here.”

The rest of the guys start walking back, but my feet were planted onto the ground.

“Saehee, what are you doing? We should leave.”

“Why would a gunshot just randomly fire like that?” I ask myself, “There has to be something.”

My feet leads me towards the wood until Yongguk's hand stops me.

“Are you crazy? A gunshot just fired, do you think that leads to something good?”

I release his grip on my wrists and continue walking, “No, but there's something. I don't know what it is, but I need to go to it.”

I don't know what's happening or who's in the woods, but my heart is urging myself to go forward. It feels as if an angel was controlling my footsteps and leading me towards a miracle. Usually I'd shrug it off and walk the other way, but there's something there –or someone's there.

Jongup and Yongguk followed me as Himchan and Daehyun take Eunhae and Somi to prepare for the barbeque party. I walked a few steps faster and they followed closely from behind. There were no talking, and the only sound that was made in the woods were the rustling of the dead, dried up leaves fallen from the trees along with loudly cracking stems.

--but then I realized I stepped on something squishy, and it wasn't the mud or a flower of some sort.

I stop my tracks and Jongup and Yongguk shortly follow after.

“What's wrong?” Yongguk asks.

I take a step back and remove my feet to just reveal leaves on the ground. --No, there's a bump on the ground. The leaves are covering something. My toes slightly touch the leaves to once again feel what it's like. What can this be?

I bend down and dust off the leaves as it reveals a human hand.

I stand upright and step back, “Am I going crazy or did that hand just twitch?”

“E-Either someone tried to bury someone alive, or did a poor job in hiding a dead person.” Jongup stutters.

I slowly bend down again and tug on the hand – “Wait, If I pull this hand and only an arm pops out with it, I might just scream my ing head off.”

“Here, let me try,” Yongguk steps in my place and I watch from behind him next to Jongup. He pulls on the hand a little harder than I did, but then a huge amount of dirt shifts along with it.

“I think there's a body.”

Yongguk firstly gets rid of all the leaves nearby the hand, and when he goes near to what it seem like the body's head, he reveals a pale left cheek along with blue lips. He gets rid of more leaves, and a pale face was closing its eyes, unconscious.

My breaths become shorter once I realize this familiar white face. His face lacked a lot of protein and fat, but his features still showed that it was Youngjae. I hurry and go next to Yongguk, taking off all the leaves as we pull his body out from the dirt. It was simple to do from his light body weight, and his tattered clothes covered most of his bruises and scars all along his body.

I check his pulse, “He's still got some air left in him. We need to take him to the hospital, now.”

++

“He's still sleeping.”

“What about the party for Jongup?” Himchan asks over the phone. I stay quiet for a while. Jongup graduated from high school today, Saehee. You know what the right things to do is. And besides, why should I even care for a guy who left me without even contacting me once for three years? Why should his presence still have an effect on my life? Surely I should go enjoy my time congratulating Jongup for his accomplishment, but what is this feeling that's holding me back?

Jongup realizes my hesitant state, “Noona,we can always have the barbeque party another time.”

I look at Jongup and mouth my words, “Are you sure?”

He nods and takes the phone out of my hand to talk to Himchan himself, “Hyung, we can just postpone the party. I'm not even that hungry right now.”

“But what about--”

Jongup ends the call before Himchan was able to continue talking.

–just then someone's stomach loudly growls.

Jongup's face flashes with a dash of pink and he rubs his neck embarrassment, “Guess all those graduation rehearsals really took the energy out of me,” he shyly chuckles.

“I'll go buy food, want to come along?” Yongguk asks.

“I will follow you, hyung. I'm actually craving hamburgers,” Jongup replies.

“Alright, let's go. Saehee, are you going to stay here with him? Should I buy you something to eat?”

I shake my head, “I'm fine, I can't eat when I'm nervous.”

--wait, why am I nervous?

Yongguk only nods his head and heads out the door with Jongup. When he closes the door I let out a loud sigh, why are you so selfish, Kim Saehee? And Jongup just has to take that extra leap and make me even feel more guilty –well, I am the reason we're in this situation right now, I should be feeling even guiltier than I am right now.

But what would have happened if I've never found Youngjae lying in the ground? Why was he buried in the first place? Where has he been in these three years? How has he been doing? What is his dad doing?

A sudden chill goes down through my spine. Whenever I get reminded of Yoo Jaewook or even that night, I feel as if I re-live that moment all over again. It's haunted me to the point where I needed Jongup to sleep with me since Daehyun and Himchan were to captivated with their own girlfriends and then there's Yongguk who … –but anyway, it took me all this time to get over that night. Why does he have to re-appear at this moment?

I stare into Youngjae's pale face, When are you going to wake up? Are you even going to wake up?

--It was like God answered my prayers when Youngjae's eyes slowly opened, and took its time blinking as he tried to get an understanding of his situation and his environment. His eyes meet mine, and then looks back down, focusing on trying to stagger his body into sitting upright.

“H-Hey, you shouldn't be sitting up, doesn't it hurt?”

He doesn't reply but looks back into my eyes after successfully propping himself, taking deep, long breaths.

“Kim.. Sae … Hee...”

I see his hand shaking as he reaches out to me. I take small steps closer to him and he lowers his hand, making its way towards mine. He places his hand back to his side after weakly grabbing mine.

“Please …. sit,” he pants.

I quickly make my way and sit down on the corner of his bed, “You really don't look well. Should I call the doctor?”

He droops his head and shakes it, closing his eyes again. Slowly then his body starts leaning towards mine, and he rests his head on my shoulder, breathing heavily against my neck. Not knowing what to do, I take this time to let out a gulp and stare off into space in bits of panic and confusion.

I shake my thoughts away once I feel his hand holding my mine even tighter, and hear him letting out quiet groans of pain.

“Y-Yoo Youngjae, I'm going to call the doctor.”

He puts all his strength on his other arm to wrap it around my waists.

“Please... let's just stay like this … a little longer.. I want to be … next to you.”

“H-Hey, I don't want you to die.”

“I'm not... going to die. Just …. shut up.... for a moment.”

Not knowing what to do in this situation, I decided to do what Youngjae wants and stayed in his embrace for a couple minutes until he slowly lets go of me and lays back down, breathing heavily more than ever.

I shake him a bit, “Youngjae? Hang in there, I-I'm calling for the nurses.”

I push the call button, a little too many times as nurses come barging through our door along with Dr. Park.

I try explaining,“He –Youngjae.. w-woke up, and then he t-old me –no, he's not feeling well –he's--”

“Miss Kim, take a deep breathe and explain the situation after calming yourself.”

I do as he says and repeat my words, “Youngjae woke up but then insisted on not calling for help even though he was clearly in a lot of pain, and now this is happening –what is exactly happening?”

Dr. Park immediately takes the lead and takes out his stethoscope and gives Youngjae a quick checkup.

“He's in the need of surgery, now. Get the gurney, we have to move him.”

The nurses follow his orders and places Youngjae on the gurney as they speed out of the room.

Dr. Park faces me, “It's going to be a small surgery we need to perform. It'll go well and he'll be fine.” He then leans closer and whispers into my ears, “But the results we took before showed that his mental health is a bit weak. He's going through depression, and I suggest you to pay more close attention to what he does and where he goes.”

I gulp, just how badly did his dad mess him up?

“Well, gotta go work some magic,” Dr. Park turns his back and walks pasts Yongguk and Jongup who were standing at the door.

“What happened?” Yongguk asks.

“I'm not too sure myself, but he just went off to go through surgery. Dr. Park said that he'll be fine afterwords though.”

“We heard that part, but what did he whisper in your ear?” Jongup asks.

I ponder if I should tell them or not. There is a reason why Dr. Park whispered it to me instead of saying it out loud, “It's not a big deal.”

They both shrug it off, “Well, we brought the take out food –you know, just in cause you changed your mind about being not hungry.”

It was the perfect timing when my stomach grumbled. I let out a shy chuckle, “You should become the fortune teller of our group, Yongguk. My stomach suddenly become completely empty.”

++

Youngjae came back from his surgery and is fast asleep. His face complex is much better, but he still looks skinny and fragile. Yongguk had to go out on a mission so it was just Jongup and left alone in the room with Youngjae.

Jongup places a cup of warm cup of tea in front of me, “Noona, I think your leg might fall off if you keep shaking it that much. Drink some tea and calm down.”

I never realized my shaking leg until Jongup brought it up and sit straight up on my chair, blowing on the cup of tea before taking a tiny sip, letting the cup warm my cold hands.

“Thank you, Jongup.”

“Are you feeling okay? Must be a little excited now that Youngjae is back, aren't you?”

I sigh, “I think I'm more worried than excited. What exactly has his father done to him that made him like this?”

Jongup doesn't even think about my question, “Seems like Youngjae only brings you worries.”

He has a good point. Ever since that night I've been stressing myself too much because of him. The guy who once gave me peace and comfort is now giving me fear and anxiety.

Jongup takes a deep breathe and looks down at his own cup of tea, “I don't want you to be stressed out because of Youngjae anymore.”

I let out a slight smile, “Thanks for worry--”

“--That's why, I want to protect you from now on. I mean, my job has been to protect you these past years, but I don't want to protect you as your subordinate. I want to protect you a man –as your boyfriend.”