My shirt was still soaked through and beside me, Chanyeol was drawing a lot of attention by trying to squeeze the water out of his clothes. One of the ER doctors came through the double doors and headed straight for us. Chanyeol jumped to his feet immediately. "How is he?" he asked.

"His condition is stable," the doctor, who I saw was called "Dr. Park," replied. "He's breathing on his own now, but is still unresponsive. We won't be able to assess the extent of brain damage me might have received from being unable to breathe for so long. He's probably lucky that you got there so quickly. Are you family?"

"Just friends," Chanyeol said coolly, while I squirmed, trying to keep my pants from clinging to my legs.

"Well, if you'd like to visit him, you can come in." Chanyeol took a step forward, but my stomach twisted, images of Sehun's bloated face floating into my mind. I could still feel his waterlogged body, heavy in my arms and I shook my head, trying not to seem too eager to leave.

Chanyeol shrugged. "Suit yourself. If you wait for me outside, I'll give you a ride back to Sehun's apartment."

Right. Sehun's apartment, which was now surrounded with yellow tape as Kris led an investigation into what had happened. I wandered out of the hospital and sat down on a bench right by the entrance. I reached in my pocket for a cigarette, when I spotted the "No Smoking" sign above my head. Instead, I shoved my hands into my pockets and leaned back against the bench. I had nowhere to go and nothing to do and way too much time to spend on thinking.

"An accident," Kris had called it upon arriving at the scene, after Sehun had been whisked away. But I knew that couldn't be the case because there were no other injuries anywhere on Sehun's body. Able-bodied men don't tend to trip and land on their faces in the bathtub without being able to get up again.

"Suicide," Chanyeol had murmured to me out of earshot. And if that were the case, it seemed even stranger. Luhan had been mixing pills with alcohol, which also suggested suicide. What were the chances that he and Sehun would both commit suicide on essentially the same day? I chuckled and shook my head. Ridiculous.

Which left a third option. Murder. But who would want them dead and why?

Well, actually, if I'm being completely honest, a lot of people wanted us dead after that trial. They believed that we were biased against the poor, which seemed ridiculous when you considered the variety of backgrounds that we had come from. But if any of those people were to find out that we had been- to put it politely, tampered with- they would have a good reason for wanting our heads.

I actually arrived late on the first day, with my unfastened tie dangling around my neck as I came running into the courtroom, slamming the doors open with a bang. Everyone had turned to stare and the judge had told me off, then ordered me to take my seat with the other twelve.

I can still see the scene- both lawyers, impeccably dressed and well-rehearsed in their speeches, knowing exactly who to make eye contact with when making certain points. Their arguments were passionate, but pointless. I can still see the defendant sitting there with a slight smile on his face, dressed in a borrowed button-down collared shirt that itched. I remembered the barrage of evidence flung at the jury by the prosecution, the endless stream of witnesses, the multitude of counterpoints made by the defense. After the dust settled, it was clear- the crime was heinous, the murderer deserved to have his head served to the court on a platter, but the man staring straight ahead at the jury box, who was soft-spoken and likable in the jury box- that man was innocent.

The twelve of us walked out to deliberate having all made up our minds already. When we sat down to take the first vote, I felt my foot hit something under my chair. I reached down to see what it was and the others followed my example, each retrieving a brown paper bag that was folded over at the top.

I'd never heard a more deadly silence than that moment when we opened our bags and peered inside. A small note stapled to the bag suggested that we reexamine the evidence a little more carefully. I could read the struggle playing out on their faces, resulting in the inevitable hesitation to put the bag down. Luhan was the first to recover, dropping the bag onto the table as if it had burned him. But even his fingers kept itching towards the bag for one last look at the contents and then I knew that the poor man was doomed.

"Guilty," Kris had announced and the court exploded with outrage. Even the supposedly objective judge looked shocked as he quickly banged his gavel for order, shouting for order. Security guards quickly ushered the twelve of us out of the room, into a floor of flashbulbs and questions. As I left the jury box, I spotted the defendant still seated there, his calm poise a contrast to his lawyer, who threw down his folder in disgust. The young man's eyes followed us all the way out of the courtroom.

He was still smiling.

"Hey. Hey Chen, wake up." 

I woke up mumbling something that was more a string of disjointed sounds than actual words. The man standing in front of me smirked as he swept a hand through his fluffy blond hair. "Sheesh, you're a deep sleeper. Do you always hang out outside of hospitals?"

I just stared until the man stopped smiling and his hand slowly wilted back down to his side. "I-is something wrong?" he ventured.

Slowly, I reached out a hand and then grabbed his wrist tightly. He snatched his hand back, squinting at me as he backed a few steps away. "Geez, what's wrong with you?"

"How are you real?" I asked, more for my benefit than his.

"Is this a trick question?" asked Sehun. "I'm breathing and talking, what do you mean?"

I glanced over at the hospital and then slowly shook my head. "I don't know. What do you want?"

Sehun shrugged. "Hostile, much? I just stopped to say hi. It's a surprise to see you again. Want to grab a bite to eat?"

For a moment, my mind went blank and I forgot what exactly I was doing, sitting outside the hospital. The idea of food was overpowering and eventually, I gave in. "Sure," I said, standing up. How long had I been out here? My clothes had dried off already.

A block down from the hospital were several small restaurants and shops. Sehun headed for the first one we came across, a pizza shop, which I wasn't really going to complain about. We ordered a medium sized pizza with pepperoni and sat stuffing our faces with cheesy goodness in silence.

Sehun spoke up first. "So, I heard about Luhan. I saw it in the paper."

"Yeah, I heard about it, too," I replied.

"Poor guy," he murmured. "He slipped into depression after that trial and got even worse when...well, you know."

"You talked to him?" 

"I didn't like it either. I tried to spend as little of the money as possible, but I also didn't know what to do with it. Just seeing it made me feel...dirty."

I swallowed and lowered my voice. "I don't think we should be talking about this in a public area."

"Right. Smart."

We ate in silence for a while until the sound of my phone buzzing angrily made us both jump. I wiped my mouth and stood up. "Sorry, I just have to take this..." Sehun nodded, too busy trying to catch a drip of grease on his finger to pay much attention.I headed for the bathroom, where there would be fewer people to overhear. "Hello?" 

"Where are you?" Chanyeol asked. "I thought I told you to wait outside."

"I'm getting pizza with..." I hesitated, glancing at the table, where Sehun was still sitting, and shook my head. "How is he?"

"Looks better than when we fished him out of the bathtub," Chanyeol replied. "The doctors all say they can only guess at what happened, and only Sehun can tell us when he wakes up."

I glanced over at the table again. "But-"

"Kris agreed to meet up with us at the hospital. Wherever you're getting pizza, can you meet with us back here?"

"Wait, Chanyeol," I hissed. "He's here. With me."

"Kris?"

"No, Sehun."

"Get off the phone right now," Chanyeol ordered. "Do not let him out of your sight, okay? Bring him over here. We are finally getting some answers."

"Right," I said, turning back around. But this time, when I looked over at the table, it was empty. I ran back and found a note scribbled on my napkin, next to some cash:

"Heading back home for a shower. Like I said, using the money makes me feel dirty."

"Chen? Hey, Chen, are you there?"

"He's gone," I said. I snatched up the note and ran back to the hospital as fast as I could, nearly colliding with a nurse as I raced through the double doors to Sehun's curtained area. Kris and Chanyeol were sitting outside and both got to their feet when they saw me.

"Look at this," I wheezed, grabbing at the stitch in my side. "I told you, I was having dinner with him and he left me this."

Kris snatched it from me and examined it closely. Brushing aside the curtain, he marched to Sehun's bedside, shaking his head grimly as he bit his lip. "If only we could ask him about this. There's no way he was ten minutes away eating pizza with you, he's never left this room."

Just then, Sehun's eyes flew open. Kris held up the napkin, his lips tightly pressed together. "Care to explain this?" he demanded.

"Kris..." Chanyeol warned.

Sehun's eyes widened as he began breathing faster. On the monitor recording his heartbeat, I noticed the jagged waves coming closer and closer together. Kris, however, didn't notice at all as he demanded, "What happened to you earlier? How did you get here?"

Sehun made a squeaking noise, then swatted at Kris with one arm as if trying to push him away. He turned from side to side, his breathing growing more erratic as his heart rate increased further.

"What the is going on?" Kris asked.

"Kris!" yelled Chanyeol. Sehun suddenly went limp and a loud, shrill alarm went off as the monitor flatlined. Doctors and nurses came pouring into the tiny space as I stepped back out of the way, so that I was flat against the wall. And staring Sehun's pale hand, resting lifelessly on the blanket, I knew that it was too late for him.