Chanyeol and Kyungmi returned to the girl’s room, avoiding waking Kai up. Kyungmi thought of ways how to not reveal what was going on between her and Taehyung.

“Don’t bother making up excuses now Kyungmi,” Chanyeol looked at her, his eyes filled with pain.

“Huh?” Kyungmi gave him a puzzling look.

“Have you forgotten that I’ve known you since we were kids? I can tell whether you’re lying or not,” Kyungmi can’t help but sigh. Chanyeol knew her better than anyone else. “Let’s start by why the hell would you do something like that?” Chanyeol’s eyes darted to her scars hidden under her sleeves.

“I’m not sure if you can understand,” Kyungmi bit her lip.

“Then I’ll try my best. If you don’t want to tell me then I’m gonna have to tell your brother,”

“No! Please don’t!” Kyungmi plead. “I have put them through so much already. They don’t deserve to go through more,”

“Then tell me why? Why would you inflict so much pain to yourself?” Chanyeol took Kyungmi’s hands and caressed her wounds one by one.

“Because… it’s the only way I can,” Kyungmi whispered. “It’s the only way I can…” Her voice started shaking. Sobs started to break out Kyungmi’s throat. Chanyeol put on of his arms around the girl and waited patiently until she decided to say more. “It’s the only way I can cope up with the pain. It’s the only way I can face the pain of losing too much. The physical pain helps me deal with the emotional pain that I’m going through,” Kyungmi unconsciously ran her fingers along her scars.

“That’s what we’re here for Kyungmi,” Chanyeol said softly. “That’s what I, Luhan, Sehun, and even Kai are here for. We’re here to comfort you. We should be able to cheer you up as months passed by and yet you chose to face this alone,”

“I didn’t want you guys to worry,” Kyungmi lowered her head.

“Don’t you think that not talking to us made us more worried than to just lean on us?” Chanyeol pressed. “We would’ve known what to do,”

“Luhan tried so hard,” Kyungmi smiled a bit, thinking about her best friend. “She comforted me every day and every night even if I kept on pushing her away. She even arranged blind dates for me hoping that I would be able to forget Taehyung. But…”

“But it was not what you needed at the time,” Chanyeol continued her sentence. “What do you need Kyungmi?”

“I don’t know,” Kyungmi shook her head. “All I could remember was that it hurts so much. It feels like my heart was about to be ripped out of my chest,” she clutched her chest and uncontrollable tears started to flow out of her eyes. “I can’t breathe most of the time. That was when I started scratching myself with my own hands. The pain in my chest became numb, I can breathe normally again. And then…things became…more unbearable,” Kyungmi remembered the first time she met Joohee. She was in between Jungkook and Taehyung that day. Jungkook introduced Joohee to her and Luhan. Kyungmi lost her self-esteem that day. Joohee was the epitome of beauty. The kind of woman men would ‘bend over backwards for’. And at the same day, Taehyung changed his profile picture in his facebook account, a picture of him and Joohee at the mall near the university. “I saw him with someone else. The scratching was suddenly not enough to make me numb from the pain. The pain in my chest came back and I can’t breathe again. That’s when I started slitting my wrist… and thighs,” she pulled her pullover a little higher, revealing the wounds on her thighs. She felt like she was living those moments again and every memory brings her an urge to wound herself.

“You can stop now. I think I’ve heard enough,” Kyungmi was relieved that she didn’t have to tell Chanyeol everything. Chanyeol would surely flip if he knows everything. “You don’t have to tell me everything right now. I’m sorry if I caused you any more pain,”

“It ing hurts Chanyeol!” Kyungmi broke out in sobs. She turned to Chanyeol, put her arms around him and buried her face on the space between his neck and shoulder as she wept. “How could he leave me so easily?! I’ve given him everything! Why did he leave me? It hurts so much!”

Kyungmi continued to cry some more until finally she felt tired and fell asleep in Chanyeol’s arms. The boy couldn’t do anything but run his hands up and down Kyungmi’s back, hoping to calm the girl down. When Kyungmi finally slept, Chanyeol just sighed. Seeing the girl he loves in pain brings him pain too. He wanted to kiss each of her scars but he knows that he cannot… for now. But he will… soon. Chanyeol carefully placed Kyungmi on her bed and went outside the room. He met Kai at the dining room.

“Just so you know, I didn’t snoop around and listened outside Kyungmi’s room,” Kai teased. Chanyeol just shrugged. “What’s wrong?”

“Kyungmi cried herself to sleep again,” Chanyeol said in a low voice. Kai can’t help but sigh. “Is it always like this?”

“Pretty much,” Kai nodded. “Has she finally said something? Did she open up to you?”

“She did,” Chanyeol frowned, feeling his heart breaking again as he remembered Kyungmi so fragile. “I promised her that I won’t tell anyone,”

“I understand. It’s okay. I’m just glad to know that she finally talked to someone,”

“I’ll be cooking lunch. Will you be joining us?”

Kai shook his head. “No thanks. I’ll be meeting up with my classmates at the school cafeteria. We’ll eat there then study at the library,”

“We’ll be studying too after we eat. We’ll see you tonight then,” Kai nodded then left.

Chanyeol prepared Kyungmi’s favourite food, vegetable soup and samgyupsal. Kyungmi went downstairs just in time for lunch.

“I fell asleep again?” Kyungmi rubbed her eyes sleepily.

Chanyeol couldn’t help but chuckle at Kyungmi’s adorableness. “You do seem to have that habit whenever I’m around,”

“It’s not my fault you’re such a boring company,” Kyungmi laughed silently.

“Keep doing that and I won’t let you eat samgyupsal,”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Kyungmi gasped, feigning to look shocked. Chanyeol just laughed and returned to the task at hand.

Chanyeol and Kyungmi ate lunch while drowning themselves with endless conversation, topics not that interesting but neither of them cared. They didn’t talk about what happened earlier any