Taemin's POV:

I didn’t waste a second getting off that stage.

I doubled over, half-pretending to feel sick and half-actually feeling that way.  I rushed, tripping down the small backstage stairs, grabbing the phone out of my makeup noona’s hand.  She gasped in surprise, but I dialed 911 immediately all the while running to the winged-barrier section.

The operator picked up and I quickly explained, making sure to tell them to hurry.  I hung up just as I reached the side curtain, barely hesitating to burst through into the crowd.  Or, the sidelines where the guards hung out.  Should’ve been hanging out.

Instead they were crowded around Laura, one already bringing over a defibrillator and another performing mouth-to-mouth.  I knew that wasn’t going to help, not if her heart wasn’t working, but I was too struck to do anything.

I stood and stared, unnoticed in the shadows and masked by the commotion.  Some were looking curious as to where I was, but the fans who’d noticed Laura were focused on her.  I didn’t know what to do, where to go, who to ask where I could wait to ride with her to the hospital.

The sirens of an ambulance sounded faintly, and I whipped around the look at the far doors as medics came running in.  I couldn’t breathe until they reached her, the guards already ing her shirt to reveal her bra.

I felt a ping of protest before shoving it away, hugging myself as I watched her being dragged closer to the side by the professionals.   They prepared the machine, hooked her up to a mobile drip, and soon were shocking her heart with a volt I could feel in my chest.

With each zap, I took a step away; with each shout to keep the crowd back, I wrapped arms around myself tighter.  Just seeing it all made my eyes fill with tears.

My makeup noona finally found me, noticed her phone on the bench before taking it.  Her worried face found mine, but I wasn’t looking, I was staring at Laura; what else could I do?  Being out there would expose everything, and what could I do besides get in the way.

What if she dies with strangers, and not me?

I was struck with that thought and felt so suddenly terrible I surged forward, wanting so desperately to be there and not where I was.  But as I prepared myself to break the promise we’d made about never revealing anything about our relationship without the other’s consent, she was loaded onto a stretcher and hurried out.

I felt a hand on my arm and could see from the corner of my eye my noona, looking worried and nervous.  She knew Laura; she’d seen her picture enough on my phone, seen her enough times backstage to know what was going on between us.  But I trusted her with most things, always relying on her to make me look nice and to never let me leave with a hair out of place, so I trusted her with just a little more than usual.

My emotions.

I turned and hugged her, feeling comforted by her shushing noises as I began to cry and her rubbing motions up and down my back.  I sniffled and felt vulnerable, my eyes no doubt puffy, but I never stopped watching Laura; not as she was hustled down the aisle, not as her arm fell off and I wanted to hold her hand.

Not as she disappeared out the doors, leaving me to cry without anyone but Noona to hear.

Laura’s POV:

Cold.

Chilly.

Crisp.

It felt so… crinkly?

What that the word?

The world around me was crinkling; it was cracking and chipping off, but more so bending than anything else.  It fluctuated around me, curled around me, cocooned around me.

I felt like a spool of thread, wound ‘round and ‘round ‘til I was bundled so tight I had no loose ends.

Then I was hot.

Burning.

Crisping in a different way.

Melting.

I was web, spread out and sprawling across acres and acres of nothing.  There was nothing to catch in my sticky trap but myself, and I soon was folding and filling in my faultless spaces.

I was a ball, tangled and choking.

And through it all was a sharp, harsh sound ringing in my ears and in my heart, and it bothered me because it didn’t stop.  Not for the longest time.  Not until I started to feel cold again.

My arms, though I couldn’t move them or see them or even sense them, were somehow flowing over something soft.  I didn’t even know how I knew; I just did.  Similarly, I knew my head was moving, and my eyes were opening, even though I had no control over that.  A deep glow began to radiate from somewhere in front of me and I reached for it, reaching for anything besides the continuous beeping that plagued me.

I could feel again, suddenly, and the sensation overwhelmed me.  My hair was rough against my face; my silly bracelet from Taemin was rubbing my wrist uncomfortably; my heart was thumping in my chest, normal for the first time in what to me felt like a month.

I opened my mouth and could barely move, achy and creaky and gasping for water.  My tongue was dry and stung when I moved it.  My fingers were like blocks of wood, my feet bricks, and my joints seemed to pop with every move.

Looking around, I saw white: white sheets and white walls and a white-clothed doctor who approached me in a rush.  I tried to form words, but not only could I not, I didn’t know what to say.  The last thing I remembered was fainting at the concert, Taemin looking worried as hell and the lights blending together into one great, big collage of confusion.

My doctor smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.  Just that made me cringe, my arms so sore I didn’t even want to move anymore.  He spoke, slowly, and I didn’t understand at first but gradually came to full cognizance.

“How are you feeling?”

I barely got out a choked squeak when he gave me new instructions: to blink once for good and twice for bad.  I blinked once.  He smiled.

“That’s good.  My name is Dr. Park and I’ve been taking care of you while you’ve been here.  You’re probably feeling stiff, achy, and that’s how you’re supposed to feel.  Don’t worry, though, Laura, you’re okay.  You’ve pulled through this quite well.  Do you remember what happened?  Blink once for ‘yes’ and twice for ‘no.’

I blinked once.

“Good.  Then you know you collapsed from a heart attack on June 4^th at a concert.  A SHINee concert if I’m not mistaken.  You were instantly rushed here to be performed on, and you were saved.  Just in time, though, Laura; you could’ve died.  You’re very lucky,” he said, but I didn’t feel very lucky.  I felt alone and eclipsed in a foreign universe.

I wanted to see Taemin and my mom and sister and niece and I wanted to see them now, but I couldn’t without speaking.

“I-” My voice broke and I tried to cough, only hurting myself more.  Dr. Park grabbed a cup of water from a table to my left and helped me to sip at it.  I finished and felt better, abler to move and talk, but still bombarded by throbbing pain from everywhere in my body.

“You should take it easy, you’ve been asleep for a long time Laura.”  With that I felt a jolt of fear in my chest, spiking my heart rate, making the obnoxious pinging noise of my large monitor pick up.  He looked over and frowned, leaning forward again to rest a hand on my shoulder.  “Be careful; your heart is still delicate.”  But I’d heard that my entire life.  “You should relax.”  And I didn’t want to do that.

“Where’s-where’s Taemin,” I said, my voice hoarse and gritty.  He smiled softly and leaned back, reaching for his pen and pad.

“Your boyfriend’s at home right now, very worried.”  Miffed with the knowledge that he wasn’t with me, waiting for me to wake up from my procedure, I frowned.  Dr. Park didn’t seem to notice.  “But I’ll have Nurse Nancy give him a call.  He left his number just for this kind of situation, so I think he’ll be very happy to get this call.  He’s been here so constantly that I told him to take a break and go home; I promised to call when you woke up.”

“How-” I broke off in coughing.  He nodded to himself, seemingly understanding of me as he spoke.

“Miss Lu, when you were brought to us you were on the verge of death.  We saved your life, but you fell into a coma during the recuperating stages.  You’ve been asleep for three months.”  I felt a surge of shock, coupled only by a massive relief.

Years; I could’ve been asleep for years.  Where would that’ve left me?  Three months was nothing, and I breathed out a shaky breath, actually smiling through chapped lips and sticky teeth.  Dr. Park looked happy, and called for Nurse Nancy, who then called for Taemin, who, she relayed, who be there in twenty minutes.

I leaned back, my heart pumping soundly and just right, and laughed.

Death was behind me and I was alive; not even just that, but I was well.  I felt good (besides my stiff limbs), and I was going to see the love of my life.

It was no doubt the beginning of a great day.

Taemin’s POV:

The car wasn’t going fast enough.

I was driving myself to the hospital, rather haphazardly at that, but getting there on my own nonetheless.  I needed to be there; I shouldn’t have gone home in the first place.

Food?  There was a cafeteria at the hospital.  Sleep?  The chairs had really softened up during my time spent in them.  Company?  I was waiting for her to wake up; I didn’t need anyone else.

But then I went and left and this was what I got for it.

I wasn’t the first person she saw and I wasn’t the saving grace that explained to her how worried we’d all been for three months.  I’d have to take second act.

It bothered me extremely, but what could I do?  Nothing.  Nothing but speed to the hospital and hope to get there faster than I’d said.

The traffic was light and I was practically running the moment my feet touched pavement.  I hurried into the lobby and didn’t check in or ask which room.  I already knew, and they already knew me.  So I bolted up to the elevator unhindered, where I bounced and thought about taking the stairs before the doors opened and I rushed to press her floor.

I was jittery and twitched with every number that ticked by until I reached the fifth one.  The doors were taking so long to open I was about to try and open them for myself, but then they squeaked apart and I took off down the hall, taking a sharp turn into the third room on my right.

She was sitting there, looking oddly amused, and my heart leapt out of my chest in a moment of euphoric proportions.  She saw me and Dr. Park grinned before standing up.  He took several steps back as I approached her side, suddenly feeling the wave of guilt that had plagued me for weeks upon weeks.

“I love you,” I blurted out despite my wanting to apologize first; I took her into my arms, trying not to hold her too tightly but unable to resist the desire to hug her more tightly than I’d ever before.

She half-hugged back, slow and shakily, and I barely let go to lean away and look at her.  She was unkempt and frazzled, eyes red and lips dry as the Sahara, but I couldn’t find a single angle from which she wasn’t the beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“I love you too,” she said, tears in her eyes and her words disfigured, but three months must’ve done a number on her and I didn’t want anything more than to embrace her again.  However, there was something I had to do first, something that had been on my mind for months.  From even before she came to visit.  Something I thought until this moment I’d never be allowed the chance to do again.

I got down on one knee, knowing she’d appreciate the western tradition.

I asked her the question I’d been debating for such a long time it’d become part of my everyday mindset; I couldn’t even hear myself ask.  But she did.

And she had an answer.

Laura’s POV:

“Yes.”

I don't know if you guys liked that ending, but I hope you did.  Thanks for reading and comment.  :D

-DeanaeDrakos