chapter twenty one; 
               loyalty

The air was too tensed that it was actually suffocating the youngest, Sanghyuk.

It's been exactly thirty minutes since the doctor went in Jinae's room. Hongbin had called Leo an hour and a half lately, which was when Jinae was in the emergency room. Hakyeon accompanied the worried guy along and Sanghyuk wasn't exactly surprised to see the tanned older there. He wasn't surprised neither when Leo appeared all worried and in a sort of panic-state. A bad case of panic, to be exact.

"Leo, it'll be fine. Jinae will be fine." Sanghyuk heard Hongbin's assuring words shot to Leo. He was doing that for the past thirty minutes too, but it seems that Leo was too clouded by anxiety and worry to even listen to the dimpled latter. Sanghyuk frowned as he noticed Leo's hands trembling. He's been trembling for quite some time now. He must be really worried for Jinae.

Hongbin wasn't getting tired in assuring the silent male though. Being Jinae's ex-boyfriend, he somewhat knows a few things about Jinae, and one's the fact that she won't easily give up on a foe. Mayb it be cancer, or ebola or whatever.

Soon enough, the sound of the doors opening made the four jump in alert state. The doctor and his trusted nurse went out, scanning on a few informations scribbled on the cliboard papers. Leo was first to react but was quickly cut off by the doctor himself. "Miss Seo is now resting but visiting her one by one would be acceptable. She's okay... for now."

"Doc, will she be fine?" Hakyeon, unsuspectedly being the one to ask first, cried out in worry noticeable in those eyes.  "Is she gonna be okay?"

"For now." the doctor repeated. "I'm afraid... I'll be a bearer of bad news again."

Everyone felt the world crash on  their shoulders. It felt heavy. A few words made it feel as if they were shot by a hundred bullets straight to the heart. It was heart-wrenching and nerve-wreacking. "W-what is it?" Hongbin questioned in behalf of the trembling Leo. Sanghyuk worriedly eyed the older. "What's the b-bad news?"

"I'm afraid despite her continuous chemotherapy sessions, Miss Seo isn't able to hold up. She won't be able to hold up any longer. her body is beginning to deny the medicines and the therapy sessions as well. She's growing more fragile and fragile every minute passing and I'm afraid, her days are cut down more."

"What?" Leo's eyes grew wider. "N-no. Please tell me you're joking."

"I hope I am, but I'm not." the doctor frowned before he eyes Jinae's room once more. "Visit her as much as you must now. We never know... when she'll go. Again, I'm so sorry. We tried our best." with that, the doctor and his assistant nurse headed off to another room. Probably another regular check-up or what so ever. It was none of their concern anymore. 

"You should visit her first, hyung." Sanghyuk says as he tapped Leo's shoulder. At that slight touch, he felt the older tremble greatly. It was more heart-wrenching. To see Leo suffering like that. Trembling like that. Worried and panicking like that. "Me and Hongbin-hyung'll just... go somewhere." he says, dragging the astonished dimpled older suddenly. Just a few exchange of glances, Hongbin gave in and let Sanghyuk drag him like that. 

Leo was about to go in Jinae's room when he noticed Hakyeon stop in his tracks. Turnign around to perfectly see his best friend, he raised a brow. "Not coming?" he asks in soft, shaky voice. He saw how Hakyeon smile faintly before he shook his head slightly, making Leo frown a bit. "Why?" he asks. "Are you still... angry at Jinae?"

"Of course not." Hakyeon smiled. "I just think you alone visiting her is better. I'll do something instead. I'll go find more 'miracles' that might help Jinae get better, yeah? Who knows what books hide?" he says before he turns around his heel and walks away, waving a casual goodbye to Leo. The silent male simply watched Hakyeon walk off before he enters Jinae's room.

He saw the fair lady there.

Laying silently on her white bed, wrapped in white bed sheets and wearing that comfortable-looking hospital gown. He frowned at her helpelss sight and it made his heart wrench more. Jinae seemed to notice his presence and with that, she turned her head at her, smiling weakly. "Hey." she greeted softly. Leo simply smiled as she walked towards her side, holding her small, cold hands upon standing beside her. "I'm sorry. I got you worried again, didn't I?" she giggled sadly. It was painful.

"You did, but there's nothing to apologize about." Leo smiled as he ran caressed her cheek lightly as he held his hands with his right hand. "I ran here as fast as I could when Hongbin gave me the call of you being sent to the Emergency Room."

"I'm sorry." she smiled faintly once again. 

"Are you.. okay?" he asks with sad eyes as he scanned her weak body. "You look paler."

"Do I?" she asks, still faintly smiling.

"... Stop smiling like that. It pains me." Leo pursed his lips before he hears Jinae. 

"I want to assure you that I'm fine and will be fine, love." she grinned a bit wider before she held Leo's hand back. "Because I will be. You've got nothing to worry about. I will be fine–"

"The doctor said your body isn't accepting the chemotherapy session anymore." Leo frowned, cutting of Jinae's words. With that, he saw Jinae's smile slowly falter before he met his sad eyes, rimmed with tears now. Soon enough, those tears fell from Jinae's eyes, rolling down her flushed pink cheeks. 

"I'm so sorry, but that's true." Jinae sobbed softly before she lets go of Leo's hands to wipe her tears. Soon enough, her hands were doing no help as Leo's hands were the ones to wipe her tears away. "I've... got shorter days to live now. I might die tomorrow, or later. Or an hour later. I don't know and I'm afraid." she sobbed harder as she tried to hide her face. "I'm afraid, Leo."

"There's nothing to be afraid of because I'm not letting you die." Leo assured. "I won't let you slip away from me again. I won't let your life slip away like that again. I'm not letting what happened to Minhwa repeat. I promise that." he smiled as he hugged Jinae, letting the female spill tears on his shirt. 

"I'm still scared." Jinae sobbed, gripping tightly on Leo's shoulders. "I'm scared."

"Look," Leo smiled as he pulled away. "How about I tell you a few stories back then before we met? Being an immortal myself, I've experienced a few interesting events scribbled down in numerous history events." 

Jinae's face lightened up by those words. "Really?" Jinae grinned. 

"Really." Leo nodded as he held his hand before he closes his eyes, only to open them once he got a deep breath. A calming one as he inhaled the room's sweet scent of lavander. "Okay, where do you want to start?"

"Well... you've told me so much story that era Minhwa and you were literally alive together." Jinae says, eyeing the ceiling before she averts her eyes towards Leo, smiling. "What comes after that?"

Leo thought for a second before he curls his lips to a small smile. "Oh, love, the next events were rather lovely. For a hopeless immortal like me."

And there, Leo began narrating his stories, collected throughout the past few years.

Hakyeon paced around here and there, scanning a few words nearly not understandable by the modern era. Well, since those books handed down to him by grandmother was rather old, Hakyeon actually expected that some would be written in ancient or earlier version of Hangul or probably in a different language. Thank goodness he took a bit of Linguistics, so language won't be much of a problem. Plus, he needs to be a bit fluent in a variety of languages for internation meetings. Besides, he's also the nephew of the head CEO of the company so chances of being the representative of the company, along with the genius Leo, is high. Probably around seventy percent to nintey-nine percent.

His eyes skimmed through every page. 

But it wasn't helping.

"This is useless." Hakyeon sighed heavily, and quite loudly. Sanghyuk, curious due to his young age, slowly snuck up behind the tanned older's back, peeking behind him. And being taller than the tanned latter made it easier to peek. 

"What're you looking at?" Sanghyuk asks.

Surprisingly, Hakyeon didn't get surprised. Probably because it was written in a different language, which wouldn't be understood by the younger. "Oh! You're reading Harry Potter spells now?" Sanghyuk giggled playfully. Ah, this eternal optimistic kid.

"No. This is an ancient book, Sanghyuk." Hakyeon explained. "And I'm afraid you wouldn't understand it."

"Obviously." the younger replies ebfore he skips back to his seat, sitting down beside Hongbin, bringing out his phone to scan a few things unknown to Hakyeon. With that, he reads a bit more before he closes it, eyeing Hongbin afterwards. 

"Binnie, is your car available?" Hakyeon asks as he eyes the dimpled waiter.

"Unfortunately, no." Hongbin pouted before he shakes his head. "Used by sister."

"She should really get her own car." Hakyeon clicked his tongue before he eyes Sanghyuk. "How about you, Sanghyuk? You just got your driver's license, right? You got a car too, right? Is it free?"

"Yes." the youngest nodded. "In fact, it's outside the hospi–"

"Can you drive me somewhere?" Hakyeon asks, eyeing his with a stern look. "I need to go somewhere." he added.

Sanghyuk thought for a while before he nodded. He grabbed his keys and after a few arguements whether Hongbin should be left, the two eventually let the dimpled latter join in. Besides, Leo wouldn't be coming out of Jinae's room for quite some time now, so what's the use of leaving the poor boy behind. Thus, the three headed off, hurrying downstairs.

The road towards this destination Hakyeon suddenly wanted to go was typical. Sanghyuk blasted a playlist of his favorite idol groups, which had a taste of both hip hop and the typical flavor of pop. Some were ballad, some were light rock, some were mere rap and so on and so forth. Hongbin sat on the back, sleeping since he's been taking overtime for quite some time due to financial reasons. He's supporting his sister, who had been diagnosed with slight flu, and with the family of theirs observing "big kids don't rely on their mommies and daddies anymore", Hongbin decided to lend a helping hand to his beloved older sister.

Hakyeon, on the other side, had his eyes locked on the road. He was on full alert on locating their destination: an exclusive park located in the outskirts of Seoul. But pretty much, it's a tourist spot and the is in the list of Top ten romantic places for first dates. Surely, lots of people were there. 

"Are we near yet?" Sanghyuk began whining.

"I suppose we are."

"Suppose? What kind of answer is that?!" Sanghyuk whined louder.

"Shush! Hongbinnie's sleeping at the back." Hakyeon hissed as he playfully hit Sanghyuk's shoulder, making the younger glare at him in a split second before he averts his eyes back to the road. "But yeah, I suppose we're near. I could remember Leo's directions to it..."

"Leo-hyung? What're you really going to do there, hyung?" Sanghyuk asked in curiosity.

"Something..." Hakyeon breathed out before he jolted in his seat. "Sanghyuk! Sanghyuk! There! There's the place! Park the car!"

"Sheesh, hold up, okay? Driving isn't as easy as you think." Sanghyuk mumbled before he slowed the vehicle down as he tried to look for a proper parking place. Once he did, Hakyeon shot out, surprising the once sleeping Hongbin. Sanghyuk got out of the car too, but had no intentions on following the tanned older. He only got out to buy some snacks. Hongbin, on the other side, was too sleepy to follow Hakyeon so he just went back to sleeping.

Hakyeon hurried in the park. The crowd wasn't as thick as he expected it to be so he was able to hover over the place with ease. 

He took Leo's words like a compass.

Exactly fourteen steps from the tree with an "x" mark.

Keep walking until you see the tree with this peculiar mark. There are spirals somewhat wrapped on its trunk like a sort of necklace.

Five steps to its left. 

Then seven steps to the right.

And there...

"... At the exact  place you're standing, I buried Minhwa's ring." Hakyeon mumbled, somewhat talking along with the voice of Leo in his mind. He knelt down slowly before he slowly plowed the land with a shovel he purposedly brought along.

He dug.

And dug.

And dug.

Clang.

A box?

Hakyeon's careful hand dug more and soon enough, he saw an old-looking metal box. It had no lock so it was pretty easy to open.

And inside was a jade-green jewel on a ring.

"Jackpot." he smiled proudly before he grabbed the small box and slid it in his jacket, standing up and moving on. Of course, covering the hole he had made.

All he needed now was to grab any known medications for Jinae.

Leo would be happy.

Extremely happy.

And that's more than enough.

That's what he needs to do.

Yeah.

That's it.