The moment I put my hand on the doorknob, all I could feel was the pounding of my own heart, the sound of blood rushing through my veins and buzzing noisily in my ears, making me disoriented and sick to my stomach. The unpleasant, terrifying images of what was awaiting me on the other side of the door kept appearing before my eyes, scaring me even more. I didn't want to enter the room Sehun was in. Not because of the regret consuming me since the day of the accident, or the fear I felt paralyzing my every muscle. I didn't want to go in because, no matter how much the voice in my head protested, it was going to be my last time with him. As my future self had said, it was safer to keep my distance from Sehun, to burn the memories and any shreds of hope he still had. It was for his own good, and I knew it very well.

Still, I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye.

But I knew well enough that it didn’t matter if I was ready or not. Time would inevitably run on, regardless of whether I worked up my courage. It was slipping through my fingers, shoving me aside when I begged it to stop for a moment and let me catch my breath, relive the short moments and simply think. I wasn't getting smarter, still struggling to break free from the endless cycle of mistakes I was constantly making. The only thing I could do was toughen up by facing the mess of uncertainties and heartaches head on, and so I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the tight squeezing of my stomach, and pushed the door open.

The first thing that hit my senses when I walked in was the intense mint odor ading the room. I couldn't tell the source of it exactly, but I suspected that the nurse had applied some ointment to Sehun's skin to speed up the healing process of the small scratches and bruises all over his body. My eyes immediately landed on my friend lying on the hospital bed, covered by a white blanket.

Sehun was asleep, his chest rising and falling with slow, peaceful breaths, his head resting on the pillow in my direction. As I slowly walked closer, I noticed more wounds covering his entire body, as well as the bloody cut on his lower lip. There was still some dried blood caked into a few strands of his hair that the nurses hadn't been able to wash off properly. Needles stuck out of his arms, tangled in the mess of wires connected with the machines next to his bed, the constant beeping sound making me want to cry.

Never in my life had I seen him so lifeless.

I covered my mouth, trying to hold back the tears stinging my eyes at the sight before me. My mind screamed that it was my fault Sehun had ended up in the car accident, my conscience constantly scolding me for involving him in the first place. All of this because I’d been too scared to face my unknown future alone. All because of my stupid fears. Sinking quietly down onto the edge of his bed, I promised myself to never let the people around me get hurt again. No matter what, I was going to fight and win against the cruel future awaiting us - this time, alone.

As I reached for Sehun's hand and took it in mine, his eyelids fluttered open slowly, and he looked at me, his eyes glazed over with sleep and medication. Yet he recognized me immediately, and lifted one corner of his mouth slightly in delight.

"Su Jin..." he murmured, his voice barely audible, and I swallowed hard as the tears blocked my throat. He closed his eyes again, the faint smile still on his lips. "You're okay. Thank God. I was so scared..."

I looked up at the ceiling, blinking back the stubborn tears threatening to fall at any moment, and a short, shaky breath escaped my lips as I tried to calm down and pull myself together. I couldn't believe that this guy had been so worried about me the entire time when he was the only one in danger. And now I couldn't even relieve his suffering, coming here as I had to deliver the final punch and sever the ties keeping us together. Once and for all.

"Sehun," I said finally, squeezing his hand as if doing so would make my next words less painful. He hummed sleepily in response, not bothering to open his eyes; the medicine was probably making it hard for him to focus. I bit my bottom lip, holding back the urge to shed any tears, and prayed my voice wouldn't break. "I'm so sorry for what happened... I shouldn't have dragged you into this..."

"Hey..." He interrupted me suddenly, and when I looked at him, he was gazing at me through half-lidded eyes. "Stop it, Su Jin. You don't need to say that."

The look on his face had changed dramatically, the small smile I'd seen before suddenly gone, leaving Sehun with his lips pressed together tightly. He swallowed hard, looking away.

"Stop what?" I asked, almost in a whisper, filled with a fear of something I wasn’t even sure of.

"I know why you’re here," he said, his gaze boring into the ceiling. A short, humorless chuckle escaped his mouth. "I can see the future too, remember?"

"Sehun, I..."

"Just tell me one thing," he interjected again, turning his face towards me. His eyes, suddenly clear and alert, pierced me, leaving room for nothing but the truth. "Has she told you everything already? Only if you know the whole truth will I agree to whatever you have in mind."

"Sehun..." I whispered, not liking how weak my voice sounded.

"You know we can't change the future, right?" he said, his voice soft but firm. "Didn’t she tell you that?"

He's lying, my mind protested almost immediately. The conversation with my future self flooded my mind again, her words cruelly ringing in my mind, messing with my judgment of what was true and what was lies. Sehun was supposed to keep the truth from me to keep me safe. From the beginning, he was supposed to meddle and make me change my mind, to push me away from time-travelling because it was too dangerous for both of us. I had known that he would use every argument imaginable to scare me out of it; yet I hadn't expected that being deceived by the one person I thought I could trust would feel this terrible.

"I know everything," I lied, gripping th