"Let's skip," Sehun says as he walks out of his classroom. He gives Sehun a look but the other ignores it. There's a darker look on his face and Jongin wants to ask why, but chooses not to. 

     "Why?" he asks, pulling his backpack strap over his shoulder. Sehun shrugs. 

     "I'm bored and don't want to go to my next class." 

     Jongin looks around, already feeling tired from getting a lecture from his teacher about his grades decreasing since the beginning of the year. He knows skipping would be dumb, but he isn't too sure he wants to get any more lectures from any more teachers who say their worried when in reality, they just don't want to have a bad grade on their report. Besides, it was the last period of the day. Who was going to miss them?

     Jongin nods and they walk off to the school's back door to sneak out of the building. Jongin was sure that no one saw them, but he just didn't look hard enough.

     Kyungsoo saw.

     Minutes turn to hours and their last stop of the day is at a shopping center that looks abandoned from its lack of customers. They're laughing about something Sehun said back at their last stop and Jongin stops when he sees Yifan.

     "Yifan!" he calls out, strolling over to his best friend's boyfriend. "Hey man, never thought I'd see you here."

     Yifan looks surprised and nods a little too quickly. "Yeah, uh, same," he replies. Jongin doesn't bother to look into the hesitation and nervousness in his voice, only looking behind Yifan to see Yi......it's not Yixing. It's a student at their school who had graduated the year earlier.

     "Joonmyeon hyung, I didn't expect to see you here either," Jongin says, giving a small wave. The senior returns it, giving another nervous smile like Yifan's. "So what are you guys doing here together? I thought you and Xing were hanging out tonight," Jongin says.

     "He had dance practice," Yifan replies quickly. "So we had to cancel. Then I just called up Joonmyeon and we decided to hang out."

     Jongin nods. "Well it's nice to see you guys. Tell Yixing that we'll hang out over the weekend, all right?" 

     "Yeah, sure."

     And they're off again, walking from shop to shop and laughing more about something that Jongin said. Jongin doesn't think about Yifan, or Yixing, or anyone. He just enjoys himself before he can realize how far into this he really is.

     It's a few days before Jongin gets Kyungsoo to start talking to him again. He tries to bring up the subject of what happened a few nights ago, but Kyungsoo continues to dodge it and the passive aggressive conversation usually ends with Kyungsoo hanging up or walking away.

     He's able to bring it up over milkshakes a few days later on the weekend. He knows it's hardly the place to talk about relationship problems, but he can't help it. Everything is slowly falling down around him and he wants to at least try and save one thing.

     "About the other night-"

     "Can we not talk about this? It's nothing, I was just upset," Kyungsoo responds, stuffing his straw into the milkshake.

     "Kyungsoo, if it was nothing, then why do you keep avoiding the conversation? We have to talk about it."

     "We don't have to do anything."

     Jongin lets out a sigh and runs his fingers through his hair. "Kyung-"

     "I don't want to talk about it, Jongin. Let's just enjoy the night, all right?"

     "You don't have to, you just have to listen." Kyungsoo doesn't say anything else so Jongin continues. "Look, I'm really sorry. I know there's nothing that I can do that will make up for what I did, but I'm trying, and I know that it was still arrogant of me and rude and how you're acting is any sane person's reaction, but Sehun, he just...I need to help him, Kyungsoo. He needs me."

     "I need you, too, Jongin."

     "I know you do, but you have Yixing, and Jongdae, and Baekhyun, and so many others, too. He has no one."

     Kyungsoo mixes the milkshake absentmindedly with his straw. 

     "He has no one but he needs someone."

     Sehun's condition worsens over Christmas break. He says it's the common cold, but Jongin doesn't believe it, and it isn't until he collapses in the snow while he and Jongin walking that the older drags him to the ER.

     They're in the emergency room when Sehun's grandmother comes in to meet them, worry spread over her face and actions and Jongin almost feels bad for having the hospital call her to inform her. She's the only person he could think of with Sehun's parents in China and what not.

     He expects the doctors to work faster in getting Sehun checked out, but finds that an elderly woman made it here faster by bus than one doctor did in a hospital filled with them. Jongin almost wishes he had called an ambulance rather than riding the bus. A dumb decision, he admits, but he was too disoriented to think properly. 

     It's close to a half hour before a doctor finally enters, thick glasses on his face and graying hairs. 

     "Oh Sehun?" he asks and Jongin is ready to slap someone. Sehun nods and the doctor walks into the small makeshift room. He closes the curtain behind him and peers down at his chart.

     The doctor starts talking, but Jongin stops listening. He's more focused on waiting for him to actually start doing his job rather than asking dumb questions like Do you still live at this address? Birthday? Are you still on this medication?

     "He's dying, all right?" Jongin finally blurts out. The room goes silent with the exception of the overhead speaker going on and various voices from around the wing.

     The doctor looks down at his chart again after collecting himself. "He doesn't have any known-"

     "How about instead of looking at your goddamn chart, you talk to him. I'm sure he's a hell of a lot more useful than a paper with a couple scribbles."

     "Jongin," Sehun says clearly and said boy looks at him, "go sit in the waiting room."

     Jongin gets up with hesitation and leaves after Sehun gives him a firm look. He finds himself back in the bland room with a few televisions playing various shows and news broadcasts. His foot taps impatiently on the ground as he watches one of the televisions talk about a recent theft in the downtown area. He pays no mind to it, instead just finding the moving words and pictures an escape from his current situation.

     "Jongin?" A nurse stands at the door between he and Sehun and Jongin stands. For what he knows was an hour or two felt like years. She gives him a smile and motions for him to smile. 

     He's standing back in Sehun's room and he gives Sehun a worried look. 

     "So?" he asks. "What's the news?"

     "They ran a few xrays, some blood, stuff like that."

     "And?"

     "And now we wait."

****

I AM SO SORRY. my computer had a virus on it, so then i tried to fix it but then my computer got angry at me because it had a relationship with that virus so it stopped working so then my dad had to fix it and i lost everything on it and Orz i'm so sad and so sorry.