Epilogue

Darkness. A very long darkness. I didn't know how long, but it was definitely too long for it to be just sleep. It was thick darkness for who knows how long. And then, suddenly...

“Look, I told you he moved!” That voice. It was weirdly distorted, like I was underwater, but-

“Get the patient out of this room, too much commotion is not good.” Not that one.

“No, I want to stay to-” Yes, that one. It sounds like sunshine. It sounds like-

“Mister Lee, this way please. You must understand that you can't stay or Mister Chae could get a shock from the sudden noise.”

“But he is waking up, right? He is?” It can't be.

“Yes, let me explain you how this works over a cup of coffee and-” The voice disappeared and the sound of a door could be heard.

Weird beeps came from everywhere at once, flooding my ears now that the voices were gone and I tried to open my eyes but they were so heavy. “Yoo, stop crying and get out, you can't handle this. Get me Byun instead, will you?”

“I-I...Y-yes”, came the choked response, the voice sounding familiar though distorted as well. It wasn't the same kind of familiar as before.

Again the door opened and closed, the harsh voice that had spoken second now softer and closer. “Mister Chae? Chae Hyungwon? Please give me a sign that you can hear me. Can you open your eyes?” I wanted to shake my head but it didn't move and I wanted to laugh at myself but nothing happened. It took me several tries lasting a couple of minutes but the voice didn't lose patience, especially not after one of the machines started beeping louder and louder. Was this a hospital?

I managed to breathe in and let my vocal cords vibrate, a hum shaking my whole body.

“Chae Hyungwon, you can hear me, right?”, the voice asked again, full of hope this time.

Another hum.

“Gather your strength and try to open your eyes. I am here and I have plenty of time, so don't rush things.” I have to rush things. He didn't understand. I had so many questions. Why was I here? Where was I even? What had happened? That familiar voice I had heard earlier belonged to whom? I thought about possible answers while waiting for my power to return. Mister Lee...Mister Lee... White hair flashed in my mind and I wanted to rip my eyes open but it was just a small twitch in reality.

Minhyuk.

He had been there. It had to be him. There was no mistaking it, it was my little snowflake. It was my sunshine. It was Minhyuk. I started breathing with more force, found the will to gather more and more strength until I could open my eyes just a little, squinting into the bright white light of the room. “Min-” Was that my voice?

“Chae Hyungwon!”, the previous voice shouted again and some dark silhouette covered the light, making it easier for me to open my eyes. “You are doing good, just a little bit more. Welcome back, you-”

“Min-” I repeated, followed by a sigh to simulate an 'h' sound but it didn't work well, so I changed the position of the heavy tongue in my mouth. “Lee.”

“Mister Lee is outside waiting for you to recover.” Minutes of gathering strength to open my eyes. To open my mouth. To speak.

“Want to...see...Lee.”

“Mister Chae, you should focus on recovering first. You should know that-”

“No”, I groaned with twitching fingers, slightly furrowing my brows in annoyance. “Now.”

The doctor sighed, contemplating his choices for a while before finally giving in. “I'll go get him. Try to stay awake.”

Endless minutes of beeping and breathing later, the door opened again and I took a deep breath to turn my head only to blink in confusion. Where was the white hair? There was just a dark blotch in my field of vision and I squinted to regain my focus, the person quickly stepping closer and falling to his knees beside the bed. “Hyungwon! You're Hyungwon, right?”

Sunshine. His features were just like I remembered them but the white hair had been replaced by strands of a dark brown. It made him look thinner. Or had he lost weight? How long had I been knocked out anyway? “Minhyuk”, I whispered, feeling like crying. “I missed you.”

“Oh, so you do remember me!”, he shouted out with joy, turning back to glance at the doctor who was standing not too far away. “He said he remembers me!” The doctor watched with an uncertain expression but instead of replying he just nodded sending me a careful glance when Minhyuk already turned around again. “But...what exactly do you remember?”

I closed my eyes for a moment to think but opened them again to keep looking at my little sunshine. I remembered him carrying me. Remembered him screaming at me but keeping my eyes open had been so hard back then. Too hard. I remembered everything before that though. How we had gone back to get Changkyun. How we had gone to the offensive force to help Wonho. How we had revisited the house of Monsta X. How we had kissed. How he broke down when he had stopped taking drugs. Everything was still there. Not a single memory wasted.

“I remember all the days we spent together. The good. The bad. The day I told you about me. The day I went to the radio tower. The day Yi-en was shot by-” I trailed off and closed my eyes again unable to look at him. Yi-en. After all we had gone through I was still thinking about that guy. I couldn't help it, I was just-

“Who is Yi-en?”

...What? I looked at him who was staring back at me with the same confusion. “Who is- are you serious?”

Minhyuk's eyes started shaking a little and his happy smile received a crack turning dark when the doctor interfered. “That's enough for now, Mister Lee. Go talk to Mister Shin for a while, will you? I'm sure he'll want to talk to you, he came all the way here again.” The now dark-haired guy didn't have much of a choice when he was dragged out of the room in silence and the doctor came back with a nurse while clenching his teeth. “Mister Chae, you know, there is a slight problem with Mister Lee's memories. I wanted to tell you before but I thought, well, you know-”

“He doesn't remember Yi-en”, I interrupted in disbelief. “How can he not remember him?”

The doctor his lips and scratched the back of his neck. “After Lee Minhyuk woke up, he didn't know what was going on or where-”

“Woke up? From what? How long was I gone? What day of the week is it and-”

The doctor listened to all of my questions and answered them as patiently as possible.

How Yoo had found us in a broken house. I found out Yoo was no other than Kihyun