CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

(Yoona’s POV)

I woke up inside Kris’s private hospital room. I was lying on the couch with my head resting on Hyoyeon’s lap. Minseok and Luhan stood at the corner of the room near the door. Chanyeol stood at the foot of Kris’s bed, while Joohyun was seated on it. She was looking only at Kris, both her hands holding Kris’s right hand. Kris was looking at me. I sat up when I saw him.

“You’re awake.” I smiled at him.

“You’re here.” He said as if he can’t believe it.

“I guess we had to go now.” Luhan said.

Without another word, he opened the door. Minseok and Hyoyeon nodded at each other and went out. Luhan was still holding the door open, waiting for Chanyeol and Joohyun. Joohyun hadn’t moved. She sat there staring at her cousin. Kris stared back at her. Chanyeol went over to Joohyun. He whispered something to her and gently pulled her off the bed. Joohyun hesitantly moved away from Kris and went out of the door. Luhan, who was still holding the door open, gave me a long glance before closing the door behind him.

For a moment, I just sat there on the couch, knees together; hands clamped together; head bowed.

“Mianhaeyo, Kris-ah.” I said.

“There’s no need for that.” He said weakly. “I don’t want to see you pitying me just because I’m dying.”

“You’re not dying!” I blurted out, looking up at him.

“You can’t say that.”

“Well you can’t say that, either!” I exploded, standing up from the couch. “You’ve already broken my heart, Kris Wu! You can’t just give up and leave me and break my heart again. I haven’t even felt being your wife. I don’t even remember being loved by you. You have to stay.”

My voice broke and I just sat back down and cried on my palms.

“Yoona,” I heard Kris say.

I looked up to him, still sobbing.

“I have to tell you something. You have to listen carefully and promise me you’ll understand. All I did was for your sake. What I did to you recently, I did it because I wanted to protect you. I wanted you to be happy. I don’t want to drag you into my misfortune. I’m sorry, Yoona…”

[FLASHBACK]

(Kris’s POV)

Yoona had been more persistent these past few days. I’m still confused how that happened.

I was sure I did my best to push her away. I treated her coldly. I acted as if she doesn’t matter and that I give no importance to her at all. I acted as if I didn’t care about her, as if I didn’t love her. It wasn’t easy pretending. Yes, I was just pretending.

All my life, I had been careful enough not to fall for someone so as not to hurt myself. And then Yoona came into my life. At first, it was just a simple crush. Fate was at work. We were married because of family business matters.  I didn’t expect that someday, I will fall in love with her. When I did, I knew I had to stop; not because I didn’t want to hurt myself, but because I didn’t want to break her heart.

I have a heart disease. It was getting worse; and even if my family refused to talk about it, I was aware that my life won’t take long. Yoona had strong feelings for me. She had loved me for a long time already and she was not about to give that up. If I died and left her, it would break her heart. She would be sad and lonely. And I didn’t want that to happen.

That’s why I kept trying my best to push her away even if it broke my heart. I thought she was going to