When he finally hit the ground he looked around and realized that he was not prepared for what he was about to see. Heechul was hidden from the waist down underneath the pile of iron rods and piping. She had her eyes closed tightly and was moving with a stream of curses she couldn’t find the breath for. The crying had stopped though she had stains all along her face from where the tears had mixed with the dirt. It was a frightening sight. Leeteuk thought she was being crushed. But the closer he got, the more he realized what had really happened. He froze when he caught full view of the part of her body that was showing. Blood was soaking the ground surrounding the woman and the pool of sickening red liquid was only growing with each labored breath. Heechul had one hand on part of the shelving that had fallen on her where the site of the wound was. The iron rod had gone clear through her hip. Her knuckles were white as she tried to keep it still.

Leeteuk tried his hardest to keep the tears from filling his eyes. Now was not the time for him to break down. But the lump in his throat hurt as he swallowed it and it laid heavy on his stomach. He knelt down behind Heechul and carefully moved her head into his lap as he talked to her.

“Hey Chullie.” He whispered. That was all he could manage was a whisper. He cleared his throat when her eyes shot open. They already held a feverish glaze that scared him. The darkness of them held a stark contrast against her paling skin.

“Hey, Old Man. How’s it going?” Heechul’s voice was strained yet she gave him a trademark smirk. Leeteuk bit his tongue at the sight of the pain that he could tell the woman was trying so hard to suppress. He couldn’t stand seeing her like that. He chuckled and continued the conversation.

“It’s going.” He almost returned the question but then thought better of it. “Hey, you’re going to be alright.” His voice was weak, not even sure of the validity of his own statement. He ran his fingers through her hair and over her face before taking off his jacket and placing it on the wound, pressing down as firmly as he could to try to slow the flow of the blood. His stomach churned from the heat that was escaping the woman’s body with the sticky fluid. His knees were already soaked.

“It hurts, Jungsoo. It hurts so much.” Heechul lost her composure, tears streaming down her face again.

“Come on. You’re a strong girl. You can get through it. I know you.” Leeteuk answered. “You’ve been through worse than this. You know it.” He tried to chuckle and lighten the mood but it only escaped his lips as a sob, his tears falling on her face and mixing with her own. “You’re going to be okay. Hey, tell me about your book. What were you working on this past week?”

“A story about a couple of friends that go into hiding because they found out they were involved in something that was slowly destroying the people around them. They’re betrayed by another friend that the girl supposedly falls in love with. But before that happens, she realizes that she has to make a… choice.” Her breath hitched at the last word and her eyes began to close.  

“Don’t you dare, Heechul! You have to stay with me. Come on; keep talking. What kind of choice?” Leeteuk wanted nothing more than to shake her until she woke up. He bent over her, resting his forehead on hers and cried. He continued speaking through his tears.

“Don’t do this to me! Don’t you dare, Kim Heechul! I thought I lost you once. Don’t leave me this time. You can’t! You’re stronger than this!” He sobbed. The tears mixed with the blood and dirt that had made its way into her hair. If she were awake and uninjured, she’d have a fit over it.

“I can’t do this without you. None of this! You can’t leave me!” he gasped.

“She chooses her best friend when she realizes that he’s the only one she’s ever loved. Everyone that she was ever with meant nothing to her compared to him. He was the only one she thought of; the only one that had always been there. He’s the one that keeps her alive in the end. She survives a violent betrayal and lives happily ever after with the only man for her. I’ve always written about what I know and I have no plans to change.” Heechul looked up into Leeteuk’s eyes. Her own were fever bright. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she spoke.

“That’s right. That’s exactly right.” Leeteuk answered, hope returning to him with her voice, no matter how weak and void of her usual fire it was. He understood the meaning in her words and the thought only brought more tears to his eyes.

It was only a few moments longer before a helicopter landed on the roof of the building next to them and lifted Heechul out from the rubble. She had passed out from the pain while they were removing her from the pile, to which Leeteuk couldn’t help but admit that he was somewhat grateful. Her screams of pain did nothing for his nerves and only made the situation worse in his mind. His fear of losing her only became stronger.

They didn’t allow Leeteuk into the machine from which he had to be dragged away by his brother because of the fight he put up. Once he had calmed down enough to see sense, Kangin drove him to the hospital following the medical copter overhead. Leeteuk didn’t take his eyes off of the flying machine until it landed above them at the large building for fear of something else happening to the woman. The hospital they were taken to was the same one Eunhyuk and Donghae were in. The young woman met them at the door and sat with them in the Emergency waiting room until Heechul was allowed visitors. The doctors told Leeteuk that he might not want to go see her. She was in bad shape in the intensive care unit and currently unconscious. It would be a while before she woke up, if she ever did.

Leeteuk never left the hospital, much less the young woman’s side. He spent days nodding off in the metal chair beside Heechul’s bed in the ICU. Every time a nurse would come in, she would insist that he go home to which he so adamantly declined that no one even suggested it anymore. He was looking as sick as Heechul by the time she was admitted into a private room. It had taken multiple blood transfusions to get her into a state where her skin had some amount of color in it. Leeteuk had to admit that he was grateful for the couch that was now available for him to sit on.

On occasion, Donghae would come into the room, wheeling Eunhyuk in his wheelchair, to come see them. They would sit for an hour or two at a time in which Donghae would do most of the talking in an attempt to get everyone’s mind off of the girl in a coma beside them. And while it would work for a moment, the thought would always come back and ruin the calm time, returning it to its prior tense state.

Every time he looked at her, Leeteuk’s thoughts would only betray him. While there were fewer tubes coming out of Heechul’s arms, it was still enough to unnerve Leeteuk every time he reached over to touch her. He was afraid he would mess something up and it would hurt her. IVs and monitors for things he had no clue could be monitored covered most of the space on her body. Her face bore an oxygen mask that was the thing providing air to her weakened lungs. Because of all of these things, he refused to leave her side. Sleeping in the hospital was hard. He didn’t want to go to sleep just in case something happened but he hadn’t slept for more than a few hours over the course of the past week. Overall, he was miserable.

Things were at their worst when Heechul’s fever began to rise to a frightening level. She had developed an infection and her body was struggling to fight against it. The doctors ushered Leeteuk out of the room, despite his insistence on staying. He sat just outside of the door, resigning himself to the fact that this could be it, he could be losing her. Donghae saw him sitting there on her way to the cafeteria and asked him what was happening. When he explained, the young girl made up her mind to sit there with him until one of the doctors came out explaining that she had stabilized and he could go back in. Throwing off his preemptive grief, he gratefully took his place once against next to the unconscious body for another restless night.

“Good morning, class.” The teacher walked into the small classroom with a big smile on her face. There was a small girl dragging her feet behind her that followed her into the room. She was staring at the ground, a sultry expression covering her face. Her black hair was in two braided pigtails, each tied off with bright yellow bands. Her jumper was neatly pressed and her shoes were shined to perfection.

“We have a new student joining us today. Everyone, this is Kim Heechul. Let’s give her a warm first grade welcome.” The class clapped enthusiastically, excited just for the opportunity to clap and make noise. Once the noise died down again, the teacher looked at Heechul and pointed to a seat to the left of the room.

“You can sit in that empty seat there.” Heechul nodded.

“Yes ma’am.” She walked over and took her seat after putting her book bag on the hook that had her name taped on bright colored laminated paper just above it. Her desk had the same label on it. When she sat down, she looked around her at her classmates. They ranged from all different kinds of people. There were the brainiacs that were constantly raising their hands. One in particular was a girl named Yunho. There was a boy with spikey black hair that sat behind her that kept pulling on her ponytail anytime she got a question right, teasing her. Heechul chuckled at her frustrated expressions every time he did so. There was a set of twins that sat opposite of the room from her. It would take her time to tell which one was which. The quietest boy in the class sat next to her. He had light brown hair and a dimple on his left cheek when he smiled at her then went back to his seatwork.

Recess couldn’t come fast enough for Heechul. When it did, she found herself climbing on the monkey bars. She had just flipped so that she was hanging upside down when she was surprised by two people standing in front of her.

“Hi!” said one of the boys. “I’m Jaejoong, but everyone calls me Jae.” It was the boy who kept pulling the girl’s hair. Beside him was the boy who sat beside her, the one with the dimple.

“I’m Jungsoo. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Heechul answered.

Leeteuk had dozed off leaning against Heechul’s bed. He woke up to the sound of steady beeping once again only to find that nothing had changed. Heechul was still unconscious and there was no sign that that would change any time soon.

He spent most of the morning not moving from his spot. He ate whatever Donghae brought him from the cafeteria without really tasting it. She had come in just for that moment then left to go take Eunhyuk the hamburger she had snuck in for him.

Just in those couple of days, the youngest member of their unit had changed. She had changed a lot over the past few years of being involved. She was the same age as Heechul was when she had come to work with Leeteuk. She even had that same smirk-like grin that showed just how much time she spent around the older woman over the years. Leeteuk shook his head at the thought. She began as a small timid child that wasn’t sure if she was ready for adventure but was now one of the more daring members with a sense of invulnerability about herself that the older version of herself had not lost. Leeteuk could only pray that these past few days and seeing Heechul in the condition that she was prove otherwise for her. It was that thought that nothing could happen to them that got them in the majority of the trouble they got in during high school.

“Well, I did it! I actually did it this time!” Heechul said as soon as the door opened in front of her. She walked in as if she owned the place and plopped down on the couch.

“Good morning to you too, Heechul.” Jae said, closing the door behind her.

“What did you do this time?” Jungsoo asked. He had been woken up by a text from the young woman insisting that he be at Jae’s within the hour. She showed up and hour and a half later.

“I moved out.” Heechul threw her hands into the air, emphasizing the finality of her action. Her thick bracelets clinked against each other. She looked like she had decided to wear all of her jewelry that day. The guys had to hold back laughter at the observation. Heechul had always been an eccentric woman. It was something they eventually got used to.

“You moved out?” Jungsoo asked. “And where exactly do you plan to go?”

Heechul froze, her triumphant smile falling off her face quicker than she had entered the house.

“You didn’t think about that, did you?” Jungsoo asked.

“Why do you always have to ruin my ideas?” Heechul pouted. He could see the wheels turning in her head, trying to figure out what she was going to do about her current situation.

“Because you never think them through.  That’s going to get you killed one of these days.” Heechul shook her head, shrugging off Jungsoo’s warning.

“Forget about that. Where am I going to live now?!” She gave Jungsoo a hopeful look.

“Sorry, girlie. I’ve got a full house. Plus, I don’t think my parents would appreciate someone just moving in like that.” Heechul’s head automatically turned to Jae.

“I don’t see why not. I’ve got an extra room in the new apartment. You can live there until you can get up enough money for a place of your own.” He answered. He had just moved into his apartment and had more room than he knew what to do with. Heechul jumped up and threw her arms around his neck in thanks.

“THANK YOU!” she squealed.

“No problem.” He rolled his eyes at her when she backed off and sat down in her prior seat.

"Now what's for breakfast?" Heechul insisted.