It’s already 11 in the morning and we’re all in Soojin’s hospital room. It took five hours to make her condition stable. Eli’s sitting on a chair beside her bed, holding her hand. I nudge him slightly. “Eli, you should get some rest.”

“No, hyung. I’m staying.” He turns to look at me. “Don’t even try to force me, because I’m not going. I wasn’t there for Soojin last time, and I’m going to make it up to her this time. I’m sorry if it’s not what you want, but I—”

“I know.”

“What?”

I lean over and kiss Soojin’s forehead gently. “You can stay.”

“...thank you, hyung.”

∞

It’s early in the morning and Kiseop is pacing by the window in the practice room. There are a lot of reporters outside, and they’re dying to get their hands on any of the members to get a statement. The news about Soojin broke out the morning she was hospitalized, and we’ve been running from interview to interview from then. Everyone was following us everywhere, so our manager decided to cancel all schedules for three days.

“Hyung, what are we going to do?” Hoonmin asks.

“Soojin’s coming home today,” I answer. My voice sounds hollow. I feel so weary. There’s a vague notion in my head that I didn’t answer his question properly, but I can’t think straight.

The doorbell rings for the millionth time today. “We don’t have anything to say, so stop bothering us!” Jaeseop yells, even though he knows they won’t hear him from here. He closes his eyes and sighs.

There’s murmuring outside and someone says loudly, “It’s Eli!”

We all jump up and press our noses to the window. Sure enough, Eli’s car is parked in the driveway and he’s holding Soojin’s hand as they’re being crowded by the reporters.

“Oh, that guy—!” Dongho yells and points outside.

Before I could blink twice, Eli’s already holding a reporter by the neck and pushing him against his car door. Soojin, on the other hand, looks scared. She tugs at Eli’s jacket, probably telling him to stop. He pushes the man harder and as I catch a glimpse of him, I see that his expression is enraged. “If you do that again, you will have to answer to me,” he screams angrily at the crowd. They fall silent and Eli takes Soojin’s hand again and leads her to the door.

As they’re out of sight, Kiseop runs to the door, tripping on his feet on the way. “I’ll be back, I just have to ask Eli something!”

∞

I think I’m going to go deaf. Members of our staff have been calling me day and night to yell reprimands in my ear. I can’t even sleep properly at night, thinking that they might barge in the dorm and scold the others too.

Eli’s been sleeping for a day now. He hasn’t woken up once, so I decide to wake him up and make him suffer. He’s the reason why I’m getting all of this, don’t blame me.

I go to Eli’s room and on the way there, I notice that Soojin’s bedroom door is open. I pay no heed to it and continue, getting in the rapper’s room and glaring at his sleeping form.

“You’re an ,” I murmur to myself. I feel a sudden surge of anger and frustration, and before my mind could catch up with what I was doing, I hear a scream.

“Oppa!”

I look at where the voice came from and I see Soojin standing at the door, her brow furrowed. “W...what are you doing?” She points shakily at my raised fist and I put it down.

“I didn’t mean to hit him. I... I was just so frustrated with everything that’s happening that I—”

To my surprise, she comes closer and wraps her arms around my waist. “I’m sorry, oppa. It’s my fault why you’re going through all this.”

I pat her back and kiss her temple. “No, it’s not your fault, baby.”

“Please don’t blame yourself on this. You didn’t do anything wrong. The best we can do is to just wait this out.”

“You’re right.” She lets me go and folds her arms across her chest. “Also, I want to clarify some things with the press.”

I shake my head vigorously. “No, you’re not doing that.”

“Why not? It’s your reputation that’s at stake here and mine too!”

“I don’t care. I’m not letting you anywhere near a crowd of reporters alone.”

“Then maybe you could come with me.”

“What? No!”

“But why? I can’t let those people spread false rumors about U-Kiss!”

“It’s okay, as long as you won’t be in harm’s way.”

“No, it’s not okay!”

Eli stirred in his sleep and I put my finger to her lips to shush her. “It is, trust me.”

“No. Have you considered the risk of losing fans? When’s the last time you checked the number of fans on the fancafe?”

“Last week...”

“Also, you guys will be branded as the idols who pick fights. Idols that are bad influences. Do you want that to happen?”

“Of course not.”

“That’s why you should let me do this. I’m just going to give out a statement, nothing more.”

I sigh. There’s no use. “Fine. When do you plan on doing that, anyway?”

“Tomorrow.”

“You can’t possibly schedule a press conference on such short notice!”

Soojin scoffs at me. “Oh, I can. I just did.”

I don’t even want to know how she did that. I turn around and glare at Eli again, then kick his foot. It hit the corner of the bed and when Eli winced in his sleep, Soojin punched my arm. “Why are you doing this?” She gently puts Eli’s foot back on the bed. “If you try to harm him one more time, I will kill you.”

“I’m your brother!”

“Isn’t he your groupmate?”

“You can’t choose him over me!”

“I’m not! I’m just telling you not to hurt him!” She sits beside him and takes his hand in hers. To our surprise, Eli sighs and puts his arm around her waist unconsciously. “Anyway... please?”

I scowl at them. “Whatever.”

-

A/N: The reason why I titled this chapter as such is because Soohyun takes advantage of the fact that Eli is asleep; thus exploiting his weakness since the younger one doesn't know what's going on, and he won't know until he wakes up. Also, Eli didn't sleep all throughout Soojin's stay in the hospital, right? The title implies that Eli's willing to do /almost/ anything for Soojin. ^^