A/N: Let's play with your heart strings~

HakYeon woke to something pulling on his arm.

He first had to remember he had fallen asleep in a chair at the hospital, awkwardly hunched over the side of TaekWoon’s bed. Lifting his head after sleeping for – he doesn’t know – how long was a bit of a task until he saw what roused him from his sleep.

TaekWoon’s hand, a bit too weak to maintain a good grip, pulled at HakYeon’s wrist. HakYeon snapped his gaze up and saw sleepy eyes staring back at him.

“TaekWoon!” TaekWoon kept insistently pulling at HakYeon’s arm, so HakYeon jumped to his feet to hover over him. “What… What is it? Is something wrong?”

But TaekWoon just blinked slowly and remained silent. At some point during HakYeon’s slumber, someone had taken off the air mask. TaekWoon’s breaths were still short as he curled his fingers around HakYeon’s hand. HakYeon dragged the chair closer to the bed so he could halfway settle back into it, nestling his cheek against TaekWoon’s knuckles.

TaekWoon slipped his hand from HakYeon and poked at HakYeon’s forehead. Slightly disconcerted, HakYeon let out a nervous laugh. “What was that for?”

He didn’t respond again, choosing instead to run his fingertips lightly along HakYeon’s face. He passed over the worry between HakYeon’s brows until it smoothed out, traced the dark circles beneath his eyes. Finally, TaekWoon slowly in a breath, seeming like he was trying to prepare an epic speech.

“Sorry…” It came out as a feeble whisper, so TaekWoon tried again, his voice somewhat stronger. “I’m sorry…”

“Yah… What are you saying?” HakYeon reclaimed TaekWoon’s hand again. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“You saw it… didn’t you?”

He knew it without TaekWoon explaining. The chilling memory of the angry streaks and globs of black bubbled up in his mind, his hand involuntarily closing a little bit tighter around TaekWoon’s.

TaekWoon knew that HakYeon knew. “I saw it… that time. Your accident… I’m sorry…”

Just from that, TaekWoon seemed to be winded. He screwed his eyes shut, the effort of speaking causing his brow to furrow a bit. His breaths became even shallower, and the colors in HakYeon’s eyes started to swim, blurring in and out.

“Stop that.” HakYeon’s words were hardly scolding, more of a plea. “You don’t have to apologize. Just relax, okay? Don’t talk anymore. You need to rest.”

TaekWoon lightly squeezed HakYeon’s hands in response. As he fought to normalize his breathing, he opened his eyes again to stare down at HakYeon, but then they swiftly shot to the direction of the door. HakYeon looked over his shoulder to see all three of TaekWoon’s sisters quietly tiptoeing into the room.

“Ah!” SeJung squeaked. “You’re both awake! So we don’t have to be quiet.”

“You still have to be quiet,” HyeJung, the eldest, replied flatly.

The second, YouJung, waved brightly at HakYeon from behind the two. “Hi, HakYeon-ah! Long time no see!”

“Aren’t you two being a bit too loud and cheery?”

SeJung frowned at her apparent dark void of an eldest sister. “But it needs to be cheery!”

Ignoring the flower fairy of a youngest sister, HyeJung locked her cold eyes onto HakYeon’s, and he tensed up in fear. “You can go down to eat. We’ll be here.”

“Er…” That was nothing short of him being booted out. “Right. Okay.”

He made to leave – making a hasty escape lest he desired the icy wrath that was HyeJung – but he was held back. TaekWoon was still holding his hand, and HakYeon saw as resentment flew through TaekWoon’s eyes. Really, HakYeon wasn’t too keen on leaving, either.

“I’m just going downstairs,” he reassured TaekWoon. “I’ll come back, okay?”

He slipped his hand from TaekWoon’s and awkwardly shuffled his way past the sisters, glancing back in time to see TaekWoon shoot a glare aimed at HyeJung. He hadn’t even reached the elevator when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Digging it out, he made note of the starving battery indicator.

A text from SeJung. < Sorry ^^; I guess unnie is still sour that you stole our baby brother ㅋㅋ >

Well, there’s always at least one person in the family who doesn’t approve.

Thunk.

HakYeon didn’t even step away from the vending machine on the bottom floor before he started chugging from the bottle of water he bought. When was the last time he drank something? More than that, when was the last time he ate something? At least he wasn’t feeling sick yet. But he should maybe try at some point.

“You look like a skeleton!” a voice shouted nearby.

HakYeon looked up to see who the loud voice belonged to and promptly choked on the water he was in the middle of gulping down. “J… JaeHwan-ah!”

“Excuse you, I am Doctor Lee JaeHwan.” But the idiot in the white coat grinned. “Good to see you, hyung. Minus the fact that you may or may not have been denying yourself nourishment for at least two weeks.”

HakYeon glanced upward, trying to calculate. “I just… don’t have the appetite. I don’t think I’d be able to keep anything down.”

“That’s no-no. How can you watch over your beloved if you don’t wake up due to starvation?” JaeHwan dramatically clasped his hands in front of his chest and gazed up at the bright light shining down on them, courtesy of the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling.

“You’re an idio… Wait, you knew I was here?”

“Well, you’re in a hospital, aren’t you? You’re obviously not here to treat yourself. In any case, I’m assigned to Officer Jung TaekWoon, and thanks to your ugly, sleeping mug being in the way, the nurses and I had a hard time trying to switch the IV bags.”

“Er… Sorry.”

“I was just kidding. We’ve had worse.” JaeHwan bumped HakYeon aside so he could ponder over the vending machine’s wares. “At least I can tell WonShikkie that you two are getting along fine. Here.” JaeHwan shoved a banana milk at HakYeon. “Sustain yourself with this. Doctor’s orders.”

The two migrated from the vending machine in order to not impede business. HakYeon drank the banana milk in measured sips, not quite sure where his limit was just yet.

“I’m curious about one thing,” HakYeon started. “This thing happened… before I found out TaekWoon got in an accident…”

“Describe it,” JaeHwan replied.

“It was really weird. All of a sudden, there were random black things going through my vision, and then they were gone. Is there something wrong with my eyes?”

“Nope. It’s completely normal. I saw it before, too.”

HakYeon’s eyebrows arched up in surprise. “You did?! What happened?!”

“I punched WonShik. It was in the name of science!” JaeHwan quickly added, seeing HakYeon’s incredulous expression. “He was making me mad, anyway. In any case, there’s already been plenty of research on this condition before. While not everyone has this connection with their soul mate, it’s still pretty common.

“There’s still no definite traits regarding what kind of people have this condition. So far, from data collected, no one has found an absolute connection between them. But the hypothesis goes as such: One meets his or her soul mate. If for any reason, the soul mate’s life is physically threatened, that causes the sensory nerves for the significant other to go haywire, commonly in the form of black streaks or dots – just like you said. There are other forms like only seeing one color or colors going completely opposite. Obviously, if one dies, the other loses the colors completely.”

HakYeon felt a shiver run down his spine. “That happened…”

JaeHwan nodded. “And I’m sure you saw the explosions of color, too, when they used the defibrillator to restart TaekWoon’s heart.” HakYeon lost whatever meager appetite he had left. JaeHwan nodded again. “It’s normal. Unpleasant, obviously, but very normal. Were you worried that you were going crazy?”

“Maybe… I still don’t get a lot of this Poly business…”

“It comes with time and experience. And socializing.” JaeHwan jabbed HakYeon in the side. “Call me or WonShik up more often. And don’t forget to eat. Doctor’s orders.”

HakYeon was already stepping out of the elevator when he received another text message. < HyeJung-unnie is gone, so you don’t have to be afraid, but omg plz come back >

He was just around the corner, so he didn’t bother with texting back. His steps quickened as he got closer to the door, and by the time, he passed through the frame, he may or may not have looked a bit harried. Apparently, YouJung left, too.

SeJung jumped up from the chair next to the bed, a childish pout on her face. “HakYeon-ah! It’s about time! Tell this idiot to go to sleep!”

“Eh?”

HakYeon looked to the bed. TaekWoon was still there, in the same state as he was before, but he was blinking heavily, repeatedly, like he was keeping himself from drifting off. HakYeon crossed to where SeJung stood, and TaekWoon, spotting him, immediately reached out his good hand toward him.

HakYeon took it without question. “Why? What happened?”

SeJung huffed. “The nurses came in to give him some medicine, and they said it might make him sleepy, but he may as well because he needs to rest, but he wouldn’t go to sleep unless you were here!”

“Eh?” HakYeon looked down again. Sure enough, TaekWoon’s eyes had already closed, and his shallow breaths had calmed. His hand clutched HakYeon’s as if HakYeon was his lifeline.