Chapter 5
The Parking Lot

“What happened? Who shot you?”

You bit your lip as soon as you asked it.

You saw Sehun’s face darken slightly, his smile kind of disappeared.

“I… I’m s-sorry, Sehun, I… I shouldn’t have asked that. You… you don’t have to answer that. I’ll go n-now.” You stuttered, already starting to turn around.

“NO! ___, wait. I’ll tell you. I want to tell you. You have the right to know what happened, that wasn’t a weird question.”

You turned back around and looked at his face, frowning.

“Are you sure?” you asked before biting your lip nervously again.

“Of course. You’re my life savior, remember?” he said, his smile slightly finding its way back on his face.

You nodded and smiled, too.

“It’s a bit of an unbelievable story… like, how I came to end up with such severe blood loss and stuff. I didn’t do anything, I need you to know that. I will be completely honest about how everything went, because I trust you, okay? I trust you not to use this for wrong purposes, alright?”

He looked right into your eyes.

He didn’t look as friendly anymore.

The look in his eyes was serious, unsure and intimidating. As if he was asking for something to get a grip on, on which he could build.

He had to know if he could trust you.

And he can.

You nodded determinately and stared into his eyes before giving him the most reassuring smile you could.

“Alright. I had this appointment with a few business men in that big building… things about promoting their products and modelling for their new campaign, you know… that kind of stuff. When I was done there, I wanted to leave through the back door, since the front door was crowded because of some party going on, I don’t know… the man that led me out warned me not to, because you have to go through the parking lot to get to the back door, and, apparently, there was this gang of drugs dealers and dangerous people down there.

He offered to me out and even get security, but I didn’t want him to… so I went alone. But I didn’t even have a car there, so I looked suspicious. I thought it would be clever to pretend as if I was on the phone, but as soon as I got out of the elevator down there, they were staring at me like I was a piece of fresh meat, and I couldn’t speak anymore, I-I faltered… so my plan failed… and then I held my phone in my hand next to my body, without saying bye to the imaginary person on the phone… which was weird, obviously… and I tried to leave as quickly as possible… but…”

Sehun seemed to space out a bit, his eyes shooting through the room, not focusing on one point, as if he was trying to find the line of the story and the right words to explain it.

“but they’d seen every move I made and I wasn’t acting quite like they wanted to… I-I felt their eyes in my back and I was scared… I wanted to get out of there… I had to… so I started running… and then I got shot in the shoulder… which made me drop my phone…”

His eyes grew bigger and drops of sweat started forming on his forehead, showing the stress he got from even just telling the story.

You laid your hand on his shoulder and slightly massaged it to calm him down. He breathed in deeply and sighed out.

“I ran further, up to the street, but they shot again, in my arm… that’s when I fell down. They ran towards me and started kicking and punching me… and then these strangers came to look at what was happening… so the scary guys quickly went off… at least, after they shot once more, here, by my collarbone… quickly after that, I lost consciousness… I hadn’t eaten for 7 hours and I was still feeling the jet lag so my body couldn’t handle the blood loss… the strangers called an ambulance and that’s where you came in, basically.”

He sighed at the end of the story.

Your throat was dry, your eyes big.

You didn’t know what to say, how to comfort him.

This was possibly the most horrible story you’d ever heard.

Why in the name of the lord would people shoot others because they look ‘suspicious’?! That’s mental! People like that should be in jail! If they know that there’s drug dealers in their car park, why don’t those ing business men do something?! Why don’t they call the police?!

“I don’t know, I don’t know why either…” Sehun said softly.

You sent him a confused look.

“What you just said… I don’t know either, why anyone would do that.”

You raised an eyebrow at him; you were pretty sure you hadn’t said anything after he finished his story.

He laughed.

“You said that out loud.”

“Wait, what? What did I say?” you asked, still confused.

“That little rant, you thought you were just thinking, but you said it out loud.” He continued laughing.

“Oh… sorry.” You mumbled, embarrassed.

You just swore in front of your biggest crush. Your angry side wasn’t quite the one you wanted to show him.

“It’s okay, I agree with you. The police are on it anyway, since those strangers called them.”

You nodded, Sehun sighed.

“___, I know you don’t want me to repay you, but you should know that I’m extremely grateful and if there’s anything I can help you with, ever, you can let me know, okay?”

His smile was back.

The one that made your heart flutter.

You smiled and nodded again.

Miranda came in.

“Sehun, it’s dinner time! ___, visiting time is over. Go get some food and a place to sleep, okay? Sehun needs to rest, too.”

You nodded once again and turned to Sehun to smile and wave at him.

He looked kind of sad, like he didn’t want you to go.

Or was that just an illusion? Why would he care whether you’re here or not?

You shrugged it off and turned to walk out of his hospital room, though your heart felt a little heavy.

Just before you reached the door, Sehun’s voice filled your ears.

“___, tonight, between 8 and 9pm is another visitor’s hour. Can you come back then? Please?”

You grinned widely and answered him an unqualified 'yes' before leaving the hospital with a dreamy smile on your face.