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Hyukjae was woken up by the knock of his door and he pouted, trying to reach some warmth from Kyuhyun’s body and gasping when he noticed the taller wasn’t there. “Kyuhyun?” he called, sitting up abruptly and looking around, standing up with the sheets wrapped around his body, wincing in pain when it struck on his lower part. “Kyu?” he knocked on the bathroom, opening the door after a few seconds of no answer.

Hyukjae started panicking and he looked around for his clothes, putting them on quickly.

The door was knocked again and Hyukjae looked up. “Kyuhyun?” he called again, putting on his shirt to open the door. “Kyu-”

It wasn’t Kyuhyun. The male in front of him was young and handsome, but it was definitely not Kyuhyun. “Lee Hyukjae?” the tall male asked and Hyukjae felt his hands trembling in fear.

“Y-Yes…,” Hyukjae answered, looking behind the male to see if he could see something.

“Ah, hello, I’m Changmin,” the tall make offered his hand.

Hyukjae looked at the other and nodded, slowly offering his hand and shaking it weakly. “You know my name already…”

“I’m Kyuhyun’s friend,” Changmin said and that made Hyukjae pay his entire attention to the tall man.

“Do you know where he went?” Hyukjae asked.

Changmin laughed softly and nodded. “He came back,” he said. “He had an emergency and he didn’t want to disturb you.”

Hyukjae frowned deeply. “I’ll call him right now,” he said, turning around to grab his cell phone and realizing Kyuhyun’s was there. He bit his lower lip as he felt his chest hurt. “He didn’t even take his cell phone…,” he whispered before holding both phones and turning towards Changmin. “Tell me where he is before I call the police.”

Changmin saw how Hyukjae’s color was going away from his face and he sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Ok, calm down,” he said. “I know it looks suspicious but you’ll have to trust me,” he said before taking out his wallet, making Hyukjae jump in fear at the slight movement. “No, wait, it’s just my wallet, I want to show you something,” he said and took out a few pictures. “Look, these are Kyuhyun’s pictures with me, ever since we were kids up to a few months ago…”

Hyukjae looked at the offered pictures before taking them hesitantly and look at the careful. It was Kyuhyun and Changmin together and Kyuhyun was wearing a hospital’s robe in the most recent one. “What’s this?” he asked as he showed Changmin the picture.

“Ah,” Changmin laughed nervously, taking the pictures back. “Appendicitis…”

Hyukjae frowned deeply. “I hope you know how awful that lie sounded.”

Changmin sighed deeply. “Anyway, he sent me here to take you back safely and he’ll kill me if I something happens to you so grab your things and let’s go back.”

“No,” Hyukjae sat down on the bed, feeling his heartbeat increasing dangerously and his chest start to tighten painfully. “I’ll wait for him, right here.”

“Yeah well,” Changmin chuckled, starting to stick everything he found on the floor of the small room into what he knew, was Kyuhyun’s suitcase. “I can’t allow that to happen, so let’s get going before I have to force you.”

Hyukjae frowned deeply. “You could try.”

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Hyukjae glared at Changmin as the latter drove Kyuhyun’s car. He underestimated Changmin’s strength.

“Eat this,” Changmin said as he handed him a small box to Hyukjae.

“No, thanks,” Hyukjae said, turning around and ignoring as Changmin offered him the food he just bought.

“You have to eat,” Changmin said. “And hey, stop it, I’m just doing what the brat told me to, I’m not at fault here, of anything, I’m the victim.”

Hyukjae felt the pain increase every second. “Do you have pain killers?” he asked, pressing his hand over his chest to try to calm down. He was starting to hyperventilate and it couldn’t be good, not at all.

Changmin opened his eyes widely and glanced at Hyukjae. “What?” he shook his head. “Why would I? Does something hurt? Yah- You can’t! I’m supposed to take you back in a whole piece!”

Hyukjae closed his eyes and took one of his hands to his forehead, panting heavily as he curled his body in the seat. “I-,” he breathed in and out deeply. “I need an ambulance…”

Changmin started to panic. “WHAT?! Wait!” He pulled off on the highway, not caring about anything else as he took out his cell phone, looking how Hyukjae was starting to whine in pain. “I need an ambulance!” he almost shouted as the emergency line went on. “Quick! On the highway!”

As soon as he gave all the information and got a confirmation, he threw his phone to the back seat and looked at Hyukjae, who was panting heavily and shakily.

“Y-Yah… are you alright?” Changmin asked as he tried to touch Hyukjae, gasping when he noticed the later had a high fever. “Jesus! Why is everyone like this! What the hell?!” he almost screamed. “Breathe!”

Hyukjae couldn’t hear anything anymore. He hugged himself tightly as he felt his chest burn with the need of oxygen and his head spin. He was screaming loudly in pain and he could feel his heart demanding for room that his lungs weren’t giving. It was as if his organs decided to fight against each other inside his body and the pain extended from his chest towards the rest of his body.

Hyukjae now knew why in Africa, it was called, a state of suffering.

The ambulance came almost in an instant. The paramedics pulled Hyukjae up to the bed and into the car, quickly injecting something into Hyukjae’s arms that Changmin had no idea what it was. The tall male was left only being able to follow the ambulance in Kyuhyun’s car.

He had no idea what was happening but he was going to make sure Kyuhyun would pay for it.

If he ever woke up again.

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“I thought you were with Kyuhyun,” Kangin said.

It had been three days since Hyukjae had an attack and Kangin was worried because he had two already in only two months. “Me too…,” Hyukjae said, looking down at his elbows connected to machines. “He just… disappeared…”

Hyukjae closed his eyes and felt the tears stink already in his eyes. He breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm down but failing miserably because he didn’t know what happened to Kyuhyun and he was starting to panic. Did he leave Hyukjae? Did he decide Hyukjae was too much work to keep up?

“He didn’t even take his phone with him…,” Hyukjae mumbled, the tears already sliding down his cheeks. “Dad… where is he? What happened?”

Kangin frowned, taking Hyukjae’s hand tightly. “Did he know about your disease?”

Hyukjae opened his eyes widely and looked at his father, shaking his head. “Of course not,” he said. “Why would I tell him about that…”

“Because it’s important, Hyukjae. Maybe he’s looking for you and he has no idea where you are because you never told him.” Kangin said. “Did he say something before leaving?”

Hyukjae shook his head, biting his lower lip harshly. “Dad, I just- This is how it feels like?”

Kangin sighed and hugged Hyukjae tightly. “No, Hyukjae… Just sleep a little, I’ll try to contact him, I promise.”

Hyukjae nodded, trying to not cry against Kangin’s chest. “Don’t tell him I’m like this, dad…”

“I won’t,” Kangin promised. “Now sleep.”

Hyukjae nodded again, biting his lower lip as he rested back. His eyes were swollen and he still had Kyuhyun’s cell phone with him. Just in case the taller decided to come by and pick it up. At least.

Hyukjae saw his father leave the room and he held Kyuhyun’s cell phone, gasping softly as he realized there were numbers he could use in there. He unlocked the phone and went through the contacts, finding Changmin quick enough. He bit his lip for a second before deciding to dial the number.

“Who are you?” Changmin asked dangerously as soon as he answered. “This isn’t funny you ing idiot, I’ll ing find you and-”

“Ch-Changmin…,” Hyukjae mumbled lowly. “It’s Hyukjae…”

“Oh…,” there were a few seconds of silence. “How have you been, Hyukjae? I’m sorry for umm… that… I thought someone was using Kyuhyun’s phone…”

“It’s okay… I’m good…,” Hyukjae said softly. “Do you know where Kyuhyun is? I can’t find him…”

Changmin stood silent for a few seconds before replying. “I’ll let him know you want to see him, I have to hung up, I’m sorry.”

The line went dead and Hyukjae looked at the screen indicating the call had ended. He bit his lower lip as he tried to contain the pain he was feeling. It was different from before. It wasn’t physically painful and he closed his eyes tightly, curling his body.

Hyukjae didn’t care if he was in the intensive care unit anymore. He cried loudly, screamed in frustration, pulled his hair gently. He wanted to see Kyuhyun. He wanted to know how he was, what he was doing. He wanted Kyuhyun to come back to him and tell him they would do something and that it would be a ‘surprise’. Why wasn’t it happening?

He let go of his tears freely, not caring anymore as the nurses came in alarmed because the machines were going crazy.

They had to give Hyukjae even more sedatives for the latter to sleep for a few more hours.

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“Stupid slave,” Hyukjae mumbled as he looked at his phone, frowning deeply because there were no calls or texts and Changmin wasn’t answering his cell phone anymore. He sighed deeply and looked through the window. Kyuhyun no longer was in his apartment and he was told he didn’t come back in the last two weeks.

Hyukjae looked through the window of his own room and felt his chest heavy. “Bad slave,” he mumbled lowly, sighing deeply. There was nothing to do for himself and he wasn’t bored, he was mad and angry. The depression of not knowing anything about Kyuhyun went through and became madness to the other. He couldn’t believe Kyuhyun would leave just like that.

Throwing his cell phone to the carpeted floor of his room, Hyukjae frowned and pressed his lips together, sighing deeply when he saw Duck jumping up scared. “I’m sorry, baby,” he cooed, sitting down and patting his lap as the dog went to him, resting his head against Hyukjae’s lap.

Hyukjae looked at the sight of the city from his room’s window and then looked down. “You promised you would show me every single angle of it…,” he mumbled, feeling his chest heavy once again and shaking his head to stop thinking about it. He couldn’t stand it anymore.

He stood up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. Truth was, that every time he went in there, he hoped seeing Kyuhyun coming into his apartment or finding him already watching TV. But it never happened in the last week and it was killing him slowly.

Hyukjae went out from the shower fully dressed, grinning widely as he saw Kyuhyun waiting for him already with a soft smile. “Kyu-”

He stopped himself. It’s a dream. He said and closed his eyes, opening them again to realize that in fact, he was right and that he hated being right if it was like that.

Hyukjae pressed his lips together and took out the book Kyuhyun had gotten for him to paste all the pictures. He had done the last ones already, when they were on the beach and he sighed deeply as he held a pen up, writing in the last empty page a silent ‘I miss you’.

He knew he wouldn’t get an answer, but he wanted Kyuhyun to know how much he wanted to be with him that he was running out of ideas.

At the end, Hyukjae simply went to bed without anything more.

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