From the charity event and the loud noise, they were now at the hospital and in the waiting room haunted by the fact that Seonya’s life was hanging by a loose thread.

To Joon, he thought that his world was crumbling down once again. Having her in his arms, practically dying, made him revisit a part of his past he had locked inside his brain and tossed aside.

The emotional pain he was going through at the moment was killing him, making his mood swings worse by the hour.

Hate wasn’t a strong word enough to describe the situation he was in, but he was mostly afraid. It wasn’t the dangerous life he was living but the fact that he might lose someone he was cherishing; once again losing the one that brought some kind of weird sense into his vengeful existence.

After another dreadful hour of waiting, the doctor finally came out to the waiting room making the boys quickly jump out of their seats as they ran towards the man.

“How is she?”

He glanced at the five young boys until his gaze landed on Ji-Hoon, eyeing him with a hint of a pitiful look in his eyes.

“Poison got in her blood stream… Luckily we were able to identify it and gave her an antidote but… she lost blood in the process. We need a donor.”

“I’ll go.” Six heads turned to the right, seeing Joon with a determined look on his face. “I’ll be the donor.”

“Okay then, come with me.”

“What do we do now?”

With Seonya back into a hospital room, the boys were all in, some of them sitting on a couch by the entrance while others were standing up and leaned their backs against the wall, facing the bed. With G.O sitting by her side, he turned his head to look at his uncle, waiting to see what was the next move.

“To tell you the truth… I have no idea.”

The Boss sighed while running his hand through his hair as he looked at his niece, unconscious with the beeping sound of her heart monitor going steady.

“Byunghee, do you think you can stay here for a while?”

“Yea, sure…”

“Cheondung, Mir; go back to the venue and try to find out what happened exactly. I want a full report. Seungho and Joon, I want you guys to track down Hyunseung and bring him to me. If a bullet isn’t enough to kill him, maybe a drop of his own medicine will.”

With that said, they parted ways, leaving only G.O and Ji-Hoon in the room.

“Hyung… I think we should send her away…”

“No. I promised her father that I would look after her. I’m not sending her away and especially not on her own.”

“It’s better than almost getting her killed under your watch! If we just make her leave the country and make him think that she died, he is going to stop targeting her as his next victim! She is not safe here.”

“Damn it Byunghee! Where do you think we should send her then, huh?”

“London.”

“London? Why?”

“She got an offer from a director of some ballet company. He wants her to sign a contract… Hyung, she wants this; she needs this… I’ll… I’ll stay with her. Move there and stay with her.”

“You’re really willing to do that?” Ji-Hoon looked at his nephew with his arms crossed over his chest while arching an eyebrow at him, surprised by his proposition.

“Yes. Like you said, she can’t be on her own. She needs someone and as far as I know, I’m the only one she can trust… and truth be told… I kinda need a break.”

“Yea, that I knew… Are you one hundred percent sure it’s the right thing to do?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then… How are we going to do this?”

A couple of days have passed since then and Seonya was still at the hospital, awake.

She had learned about G.O’s plan of moving to London including the detail of her ‘death’, which was a proposition she accepted without a second thought.

“Are you going to tell me what happened to you or do I have to guess?”

“What are you talking about?” She looked at the boy with a confused look on her face, not really understanding where he was going with his statement.

“Seonya, you got poisoned and Joon told me what happened. You saved his life, didn’t you? The drink was meant for him, but instead you drank it to spare him. But… why did you drink it?”

“I-I don’t know… I just did; I wasn’t thinking clearly…”

“Well at least you’re okay now.”

“How about Joon… how is he?”

“He’s fine, I guess.”

At that moment, a knock on the door caught both of their attention with Joon coming in, shyly holding onto a small bouquet of flowers. Glancing between his two friends, G.O got up from his seat and walked out of the room, leaving Joon to take his place as he handed over the flowers to Seonya. “They’re beautiful, thank you.”

She smelled them with a smile on her face while he admired her doing so. She placed them on her lap and started lightly playing with the petals as she let her fingers dance over the texture of each flower. He was still looking at her with his head faintly tilted to the side, enjoying the calmness and relaxation she had on her face. Her smile was still there and it warmed his heart.

A great relief washed over him when he found out that she was going to be just fine, but it also made him think.

He was in a complete daze as he kept watching her with her head lightly bent down to look at the flowers on her lap, strands of her hair placed behind her ear giving him a clear view of one side of her face with the other side falling past her shoulder. The moment she turned her face to look at him, the sunlight coming through the window was softly glowing around her. With his breath stuck in his throat, he felt his heart stopped as he stared at her, completely lost in his blanked mind.

She felt heat running in her cheeks and looked away, feeling her heart flutter at his gaze.

He suddenly broke out as the light was almost blinding him and shook his head back to reality. He noticed that she had open as if she wanted to speak out and waited to see as she pondered over her choice of words to use.

“Joon… I realized that I never said this to you but hmm… I just want to thank you… You’ve done a lot for me despite the circumstances and yea… I haven’t properly thanked you so… Thank you.” She turned her head to look at him with a faint smile appearing across her face.

“You don’t have to thank me.” His words were soft and genuine, letting his heart speaking instead.

“Of course I do... I mean, like I said before, you’re forced to protect me and all. It wasn’t your choice to do this but you’re still here, looking after me even though I’ve been nothing but a complete pain in the for always being in trouble.”

He smiled at the end of her sentence as he leaned forward, gently holding onto her hand while her skin. Letting go of the bouquet, she placed her other hand above his and squeezed it for a second before lifting her head back up to him. With a faint shaky and whispering voice, she spoke out to him letting her words take him off guard. “I don’t want to lose you Joon…”

“You’re not. I promise.”

He placed a short kiss on the top of her hand before looking back up at her. “You’re always going to find a friend in me.”

‘Friend.’ That simple word made her heart tear apart.

It wasn’t what she wanted and now that she knows that he wasn’t going to respond to her feelings, she wanted to suppress her own emotions about him. ‘I’ll just have to look at you as a friend then…’

“Friends. That sounds… perfect.”

As weird as it may be, hearing her say this tugged his heart.

He was sure that it was what he wanted.

It was what he needed, but in the back of his mind, he was somehow hoping that she would simply tell him that it wasn’t okay; that being ‘friends’ wasn’t what they were; that there was obviously more to their estrange relationship.

‘I’m sorry for doing this to you, Seonya… But… I’m already taken…’