What’s weird is, HakYeon remembered slowly waking up that morning, getting ready, and setting out to go to the studio.

But he didn’t remember what happened between then and when he slowly woke up in an ambulance.

“HakYeon-goon, can you hear me?”

He didn’t remember much of the ambulance ride, just the voice of the old man from the studio and the sunlight piercing through the windows. There may have been rumbling and rattling, maybe; HakYeon didn’t really remember that part. But at some point, he woke up again surrounded by silence and laying in one of those stiff, hospital beds.

His entire body felt heavy. There was a familiar voice somewhere above him, but he couldn’t move his head to see who it was.

“… think he’s waking up now. I’ll talk to you later.” It was taking a while for it to register whose voice that was. “HakYeon? HakYeon-ah, you need to wake up.”

He rolled his eyes around since his neck wouldn’t move and spotted the person standing on his right. Where did his voice go?

“HakYeon? You can hear me, right?”

His first attempt at talking was just an empty wheeze. Merely breathing was tiring. He tried again. “H… Hyung.”

The eldest brother let out a soft sigh. “Okay, good.”

HakYeon looked around with his eyes again; it finally registered that he was wearing a neck brace. He could see an empty bed across the room. “What are you doing here? … What am I doing here?”

“Apparently, you hit your head really hard. That’s what the teacher said. You have five stitches on the top of your head.”

“Hehh…”

He felt sleepy. Really sleepy. His eyes threatened to close, but his bed jostled as his brother reached out to lightly shake his arm. “Yah, the nurse said you need to stay awake for now. You were drugged up for a while.”

HakYeon grumbled as he fought to keep his eyes open. With great effort, he tried to take in everything in the room. The world outside the window was dark, street lamps and neon signs cutting through the darkness. It didn’t seem like anyone besides the two were in the room. He watched as his brother settled into a chair next to his bed, texting someone on his phone.

“Why are you here?” HakYeon asked again.

His brother raised a brow, finishing the text message before looking up at HakYeon. “Our parents called me saying the old teacher called them saying you were in an accident. I’m the only one here in Seoul. Why wouldn’t I be here?”

“… They told you to come here?”

“They did. I just got off the phone with them when you were waking up. They were asking if you were okay.”

“Hm… Did they.” HakYeon’s inflection didn’t make it a question.

Frowning, the brother flexed his jaw. “They did, HakYeon. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise.”

HakYeon didn’t reply, choosing instead to trail his eyes to the ceiling.

He only spent one night at the hospital, the next day spent busily going through various tests and questions and trying to remember how to move his head after they took off the neck brace; it’s not like he’d had it on for that long, so why was he being such a dunce? After a long list of dos and don’ts – half of which HakYeon spaced out on – he was finally allowed to slump into the passenger seat of his brother’s car, the two departing for HakYeon’s apartment.

“Hm. I figured you’d be a slob, but I guessed wrong.”

“Hah. I’m a respectable human being who knows how to take care of myself. What makes you think my apartment would be a dumpster?”

HakYeon had kicked off his shoes at the door and was dragging his feet to the living room sofa, his brother trailing in behind him. The last time his brother visited had been years ago, back when the youngest had moved up to Seoul from their hometown in Changwon. Said youngest had just collapsed on to the cushions when the eldest piped up again, “HakYeon…”

“Ow.” HakYeon scratched at his wrist. “Stupid hospital shackle. Hyung!” He held out his hand. “I can’t get this stupid bracelet off! How am I supposed to take it off?!”

He didn’t even turn, taking in the various pictures HakYeon had scattered about the space. “Scissors, obviously.”

HakYeon paused for a beat, following with a steady reply, “I don’t have scissors.”

A heavy silence. The look his brother gave HakYeon as he slowly turned around was too dark, too wary, so naturally, HakYeon just gave him his sunshine smile, holding out his hand.

“I’m dumb, so could you take this off for me?”

Relaxing, his brother sighed, crossing the room as he fished out his keys from his pocket. “It’s a wonder how you’ve lived for so long being as dumb as you are.”

“I’m a miracle baby.”

“You’re an idiot.” The bracelet snapped off.

“Ooh, thanks~”

As HakYeon stood to dispose of the plastic bracelet, his brother spoke up again. “Hey… You’re not Mono anymore, are you?”

He looked over his shoulder. “Hm? What makes you think that?”

“Well, it looks like you’ve upgraded from stuff like this – ” He pointed at one of HakYeon’s older paintings. “ – to stuff like this.” He pointed at one of HakYeon’s newest paintings.

Now that he looked at it, there was a stark difference between the two. HakYeon laughed nervously. “Ah… Well… I guess you could say that.”

“I’m pretty sure no one’s been told about this.” His brother crossed his arms.

“Ah, well.”

“HakYeon.”

“Hey, where’s my stuff? Didn’t I bring my stuff to the studio?”

“HakYeon.”

He had no reason to hide the existence of TaekWoon, but HakYeon still dodged his brother’s persistent questions. When his brother finally couldn’t take the youngest’s idiocy anymore, he sternly reminded HakYeon of the doctor’s orders and left.

HakYeon flopped onto his bed, plugging in his phone. It had been left unattended for well over a day, so of course the battery ran out. Just a few seconds after starting up, the notifications jammed his screen.

Eight missed calls. Two missed calls from SeJung, one from his brother, one from his parents, and the other four from TaekWoon. Eh? His four calls started much earlier than the others, seemed to be roughly around the time when HakYeon was at the studio that day.

Five texts. Three from SeJung: < Hey! What’s going on? TaekWoon just called me for some reason. Are you ok? > Ah. HakYeon forgot SeJung was out of town on vacation with her other. < OMG HakYeon I just called the old man!!! What’s going on?!?! > < HakYeon plz answer the phone ㅠㅠ > One from his sister: < HakYeon-ah! Answer the phone! >

One from TaekWoon. < Call me. >

Hopefully his phone wouldn’t die from a phone call. He tapped the icon on his phone, and the call commenced. It was barely a second – hardly enough time for him to flip over on his bed and relax – that the ringing stopped.

“HakYeon?”

He jumped. First of all, who answers their phone that quickly? Second of all, TaekWoon’s voice through the phone. Third of all… HakYeon could’ve been mistaken, but he sounded a bit… apprehensive?

He pushed his thoughts aside. “Oh, TaekWoon-ah! What’s up?” There was a brief silence at first. HakYeon glanced at his phone screen to make sure the phone call was still going. “Hello? TaekWoon?”

“Are you okay?”

Arrhythmia. “W… Why are you asking that?” For some reason, it didn’t seem reasonable to tell TaekWoon about what had happened to him. It made sense to HakYeon, anyway.

Another lapse of silence. “Your phone…”

“A-ah, right! I was just away from my phone. Sorry.”

“You were away from your phone…”

This statement coming from the village idiot who lived for communication via cell phone. TaekWoon couldn’t have been buying into HakYeon’s failure of a lie, but he went along with it. “Yeah. Sorry. Did you need something?”

“… No.”

The call ended just like that.

A/N: Another early release, because I love you all * 3* ~~~

It seems like there was a little confusion as far as what Leo's occupation is x_x He's a cop, and he's in SWAT. SeJung mentioned it in the first chapter, but I don't know how easy it was for everyone to put it together. I apologize for being vague ;A; (But this detail is a good part of the story later on. 지금부터 기억하세요~~~)

And I apologize for HakYeon's brother being nameless ._." I was trying for a long time to come up with a good name, but nothing seemed to work. Sorry, hyung ;A;

In any case, look forward to the next chapter~