Time seemed to stop for Jeno seeing the mess Jaemin is in. Tears pooled in his eyes as he eyed Jaemin’s figure on the floor and the state of the latter’s room. His chest tightened upon realization of what he had caused the younger, of how much pain he’d inflicted upon the younger, of how stupid he is for letting Jaemin ran away when they met Yeri at the amusement park.

He slowly approached Jaemin, thinking the other might be awake and suddenly go into some kind of fit. However, anxiety filled him as he received no response from the younger even when he knocked over a table on the way. Seeing the non-responsiveness of the younger, Jeno rushed over to Jaemin and nearly fainted seeing the blood that is mixed on the latter’s vomit. Sirens rang inside his head and he took the limp body into his arms. His whole world crashed seeing that Jaemin is indeed in danger.

“Hyung! Mark Hyung! Donghyuck! Anybody! Help! Nana vomited blood and is unconscious!” Jeno kept on screaming as he clutched the younger’s limp body. Unconsciously, tears streamed down his face in anxiety, guilt, grief, and alarm; had he known that Jaemin will be like this, he would’ve never taken Johnny’s advice of giving Nana some space (and to think that he paid quite the sum for those nonsensical lessons).

“Nana, please don’t you dare give up, please.” He kept on pleading while rocking Jaemin’s body until it was harshly pulled from his grasp by none other than Hansol.

“Nana?!” The newcomer shook his baby cousin’s body, which lay limp despite the disturbance. “Doyoung! Mark! C’mere! Nana’s vomited blood!” He called for the two to help him carry his unconscious cousin.

Hansol tried to remain rational, but he can’t help but despise the younger male beside him. He knows that Jeno doesn’t really have any direct fault regarding his cousin’s near demise, but he’s still a regular person, a loving hyung towards his dongsaeng, and he doesn’t want Jaemin to repeat their family’s history, so nobody can blame him if he hates the stimulus that pushed Jaemin to a wreckage.

Mark, Donghyuck, Doyoung, and Jaehyun rushed inside the room as they heard Hansol’s scream and felt their stomachs churning at the wreck Jaemin had become. Doyoung gasped and stuck closer to Jaehyun whereas Mark almost collapsed at the sight if not for Donghyuck whom pulled him closer.

Jeno sobbed quietly as he kept his eyes locked on Jaemin’s unconscious body. He can’t blame Hansol for acting hostile towards him; it was his fault in the first place anyway, it was his goddamn fault for not being brave enough.

Everything passed by in a blur; Hansol screamed at the four newcomers to help him carry Jaemin to the car; Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Mark followed Hansol and they head towards the nearest hospital, leaving Donghyuck to usher Jeno outside of Jaemin’s bedroom.

After hearing Hansol’s car leaving, Donghyuck looked at Jeno whom is still sobbing quietly while seating on the living room. Donghyuck sighed as he took a seat beside the other male, “Stop crying Jeno-yah, Nana will be alright. You know how strong that maniac is, he’s been here before.”

Jeno looked at Donghyuck and the latter suddenly felt guilty for ousting Nana’s tendencies. “Well yeah. Nana has never been normal anyway, I might get killed after this, but I just want to let you know that not everything is your fault; I don’t even know if you actually had anything to do with this.” Donghyuck leaned back and stared at the ceiling before continuing his documenta- statement. “Nana has always been special, he laughs the hardest even when everything is harsh, he will hide all his pain in fear of getting judged; he has always been complicated, it bothered us at first, but I guess that’s how you learn to love him.”

“I know what happened; the cause of this whole madness. I just did not say anything in fear of hurting Renjun as well. What happened anyway? Why is Renjun suddenly in the picture? It was already pain in the trying to get you and Nana together, so why the hell is Renjun suddenly a wall that pushed Nana?” Donghyuck stared at Jeno straight in the eye, hoping to squeeze anything which might help him in solving this one great labyrinth everyone has been ed into.

Jeno closed his eyes before drawing a deep breath, he had never thought that the simple act of befriending one of Jaemin’s friends in order to get closer to the latter would be the main cause of their continuous fallout. “I just tried to befriend Jun because, you know, I wanted to get closer to Nana even more; Jun is aware of this part, but I never thought that my stupid classmates would think that he’s my boyfriend. He’s nothing more than a friend, and he likes Yukhei hyung, for goodness sake!” he sighed, exasperated at how complicated things had taken a turn. If only he knew the consequences of each action he made, if only he was able to break down all the possible outcomes of his decisions, then this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.

Donghyuck sighed at the self-depreciating moment Jeno took after explaining himself; Jeno and Jaemin share so many traits that it made the tan male wonder why the hell they aren’t together; it must be because of Jeno’s natural aloofness, or maybe because of Jaemin’s natural tendency to hide his feelings, either way, they are both hurting and the only cure was for them to sit down for a talk and finally clear out every single misunderstanding known to mankind.

“You know what, get your up and follow them. If you don’t clear up things with Nana the moment he wakes up, you will never have the chance to, trust me.” Donghyuck patted the other’s shoulder before standing to talk with Renjun whom was waiting back in his room.

“Oh, before I forgot, beware of Hansol hyung.”

Silence filled Jaemin’s room and the only thing which could be heard was the beeping of the machine beside his bed. Across the bed stood Hansol who kept on actively glaring at Jeno while being calmed down by Yuta. On the left was Jeno who whimpers every millisecond because of how painful Hansol’s glares are, it felt like somebody is pointing a dagger at him (which was near from reality because Hansol is near on sprinting and pointing that plastic bread knife at the young man).

To have that sight the first thing you see when you open your eyes isn’t exactly appealing, but it is amusing and will not make a misunderstanding that you are already dead because of the extremely white surrounding (which always makes Jaemin wonder why white is the standard, like, can’t people be more creative and have light pink? Or even pastel blue!).

“Seeing you, I guess I am not dead yet.” Jaemin sat up and grinned at Hansol whom was gaping with tears pooling in his eyes, already threatening to stain his cheeks. Jaemin is still not aware of Jeno’s presence in his room and continued to grin at Hansol.

Hansol strode towards his cousin and engulfed the younger into a tight hug, “You psychopath! How dare you pull a stunt like that?! I swear I will live in your dorm until you finish college and make sure you eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks in between!” Jaemin just chuckled at his hyung’s drama and appeased the crying elder by patting his head, “Sure, you can also monitor if I ate my midnight snacks.”

Hansol, though still loathing Jeno, let go of his baby cousin and turned towards him, “I still hate you for causing my cousin’s crazy stunt. However, I would like to give you a chance to reclaim his trust.”

Jaemin whipped his head towards the male in question and widened his eyes. It is obvious how ready he is to sprint away when Yuta walked over and prevented him by placing a hand on his shoulders and shook his head, “nope, not this time buddy. You are staying here and you will be fixing this ed up mess you and Jeno are in.” He smirked before pulling Hansol away from the room.

Jeno tried to stand up and walk towards Jaemin’s bed despite his wobbly legs. Jaemin, on the other hand, tremble against the intensity of the other’s eyes upon him.

“Would you let me explain?”

Jaemin can’t reject, this talk have been prolonged too much already, and is already tired of running away from both his feelings and the truth, so he nodded, he nodded and finally kicked off all of the covers which, although prevented him from pain at first, became the cause of his demise.

This is almost 1 month late, and I am deeply resentful regarding that. It's just that, things became hectic when classes started and I could almost not insert this amidst my commitments. I still hoped you enjoyed this, and the next chapter would finally be the last, well, technically second to the last if I thought I could fit an epilogue somewhere. I do not know when I can post the next chapter, but hopefully, it doesn't reach until August, because dang, first, too many responsibilities, and then college entrance examinations. 

So, 'till then, please bear with Nana being Nana.