"Hyung!" Dongwoon was about to rush to Yoseob but Hyunseung hurriedly stood in his path and shook his head while using his eyes to communicate to the Dongwoon and Doojoon to head to the opposite direction.
They were confused and absolutely anxious to gather more information regarding Junhyung's condition but they figured that Hyunseung had a reason and so, they complied and walked towards the direction where they came from.

After Hyunseung had made sure that they were not within a hearing distance from Yoseob, he turned to them and sighed heavily.
"What do you all know?" 

"Hara told us that Junhyung got shot, her father was arrested and Jaesoon is now being treated for light injuries. That's all. 
You don't know how anxious we were because we had to go to work as usual to not stir up any suspicions! 
So when we received her call, we sped down here as fast as we can!
How did Junhyung got shot? What was he even doing at the study room? Is he going to be alright? What did the doctor say?"
Dongwoon rambled on, clearly bothered and frightened, there were so many thoughts and questions running through his head and he wanted to know the answers to all of them.

Doojoon patted Dongwoon on the shoulder to calm him down and also because Hyunseung's frown was etched even deeper since they met him just now.
He had seen how Yoseob was staring listlessly at the side of the operation theatre's door with Hara silently weeping beside him. 
It was an image that he would have expected knowing how worried Yoseob would be knowing that Junhyung was still in danger. 
However, it was the sight of Hyunseung looking so visibly disoriented that had startled Doojoon the most. 
He might not have met Hyunseung often but his impression of this man was that of a composed person even in times of great distress.

"Are you okay?" He asked kindly, raising his other hand to pat Hyunseung on the shoulders.

Wincing as if the touch of Doojoon's hand was poisonous, Hyunseung nodded and crossed his arms together, hugging himself. 
"We don't know what exactly happened as Jaesoon is still not out yet too. All we know was that Mr Goo wanted to kill Jaesoon and Junhyung ran out of our hideout to the study room so that Jaesoon could be saved. When the police came, we were all running to the room and that's when we heard the gunshot. 
We ran even faster to the room and Junhyung was lying there in the middle of the room, bleeding. 
Mr Goo was arrested on the spot, the evidence that Jaesoon collected was also given to the police. 
The ambulances came and both the brothers were sent to the hospital within a matter of minutes. 
Hara probably called you while we were waiting for the ambulance cause we only just reached here minutes before you all."

Doojoon furrowed his brows and placed his arm against Hyunseung once again, who did not recoil from the touch this time.
"So what's bothering you? Mr Goo will get his due punishment. Although Junhyung's safety is still a concern, but from what Yoseob tells me about you, you're not one to care about the life and death of someone not close to you. So care to share what's affecting you?" 

His lips trembled and as he looked up to meet the eyes of Doojoon and Dongwoon, both of them froze at the sight of the glossy eyes. 
Slowly, he crouched to the ground and hugged his knees to himself, "It's true. I never care if someone who isn't close to me dies or lives. I have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon. It's not Junhyung I care about. It's Yoseob."

Dongwoon stepped forward and knelt down, "Yoseob hyung is injured too?!" 

Shaking his head sadly, Hyunseung focused his gaze to the ground as tears that he had held back since they entered the study room started flowing rapidly.
"You know, I've attended a fair share of funerals and have seen a good amount of people crying for their loved ones.
But nothing, nothing could ever compare to seeing how Yoseob reacted to seeing Junhyung lying so lifelessly in the room. 

He shouted so loudly, the anguish and pain was so intense that I could not move at all. 
I wanted to hold him and comfort him but it was impossible to move.
I was frozen to ground, trying to move an arm or a leg but I just couldn't.

I watched with my very own eyes as he crawled to Junhyung. He couldn't stand, he couldn't walk.
He was being eaten up by grief and desperation. Hara and I could only watch him helplessly.
Not a single soul in the room dared to move, not even Mr Goo. Everyone stood still and silent as he made his way to Junhyung.

That wasn't the worst part.

Every pull of his body to be closer to Junhyung's, Yoseob was shouting Junhyung's name hysterically.
He kept shouting 'You promised!,

Yong Jun hyung!,

You promised!'" 

Hyunseung let out a huge sob, unable to continue, his hands clasping his knees so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.
Dongwoon had sat on the ground, tears falling from his eyes as he waited for Hyunseung to continue while Doojoon bit on his lips, willing himself to stay strong and hold his tears. 
Breathing deeply, Hyunseung continued...

"And when he finally reached Junhyung, he held on to Junhyung so tightly that I saw his fingers leaving imprints on Junhyung's suit.
If Yoseob was a mess before he reached Junhyung, I don't even have any word to describe him when Junhyung was in his arms.

He continued screaming, begging for Junhyung to open his eyes and to respond to him.
Even then, still no one in the room could move. Yoseob's breakdown was too overwhelming, too intense.
Even me, I didn't even dare to comfort Yoseob.

How could I?! How could I?? 

When his lover was lying in his arms completely still, bloody all over. 
There were no words that could ever comfort Yoseob and everybody knew. 

Yoseob's cries, it wasn't the volume or the magnitude of it that made the world stop momemtarily for him.
It was the acute agony that was dripping from it that made us all felt like a thousand cold knives were stabbing us mercilessly.
What was happening within seconds, a few minutes at most, felt like an hour long." 

Sniffing hardly as he swallowed the lump on his throat, Hyunseung gazed sadly to the ground.

"You all know what's the worst thing?

The worst thing was that whenever Yoseob talked about how he feared seeing Junhyung dying in his arms from the car accident, I realised that none of us ever truly understood what he meant by it.
I knew he was traumatized by that incident but I had never... Never in my life would I have thought that the pain would be this intense.
It was something I always thought I knew, and I always thought I understood.

But watching it with my very own eyes. 
It felt like I was the one who was losing my loved one.

At that point of time, I really wished I was God. I wished I could make everything alright for the broken man that was wailing so painfully on the ground.

Getting Yoseob to accept that he has to stop saying that he would leave Junhyung, to accept that we should all plan together and do this mission together...
I remembered I wondered a few times why Yoseob was so dumb to even think he could leave Junhyung and why he was so cowardly to not fight for his love.
Even when Yoseob agreed after Jaesoon and I finally managed to convince him, I remembered feeling relieved that Yoseob finally started using his brain and started having the guts to fight back against Mr Goo.

Then I realised---"

"That I was a terrible friend." Doojoon whispered hoarsely because he knew what Hyunseung was trying to convey. 
He himself remembered the many times where he fought with Yoseob when Junhyung was still recuperating from the car accident. 
He remembered how he had called Yoseob dumb and nonsensical for not reminding Junhyung when his memory was lost.
He remembered how he had seen how broken Yoseob was when they drank and Yoseob told him about how the car accident happened.
He thought he had understood Yoseob's pain but he still disagreed with why Yoseob should leave Junhyung. 

Because as Yoseob's friends, they had all thought they would have understood Yoseob's sadness and fear in losing Junhyung.
But now, they knew that the pain was something they would never understand and