"You are kidding."

"I am not."

Sunggyu stared at Alina and let out a hollow laugh. He had fallen asleep the night before, and when he woke up, her best friend was back with all his daily necessities and his favourite variety of fruits. She was even carrying his laptop and charger. Everything he needed but the tea set. 

Which she claims, is now broken. 

"Sunggyu, I already said. I am very sorry for the mistake, and I'm going to buy another one for you. I really didn't mean for it to happen okay? It just fell out of the bag when the taxi has a sharp brak-"

"Alina, that cup cannot be broken with a simple force." Sunggyu smiled lightly. The girl would need a better excuse than to say his cup was broken. He knew the secret behind it, and his friend didn't. A tea cup cannot just be broken simply like that. Alina frowned. 

"Okay, I know it's bad for me to say this but of course it can. It's made of china Sunggyu, it is very fragile. I brought my own flask if you want. You can still make some hot non-caffeinated tea with it I guess. Just make sure the doctor doesn't find out." Aline placed her flask and helped prop Sunggyu up against his pillow so that he was now sitting on the bed. He asked to examine the shards. Sunggyu's expression was almost smug when he asked - he knew this joke was too lame to be true. This was just her way of stopping him from drinking tea. 

Yet Alina's reaction was not what he expected. She showed her pinky to Sunggyu, and Sunggyu saw a distinctive Winnie the Pooh bandaid wrapped around it, something that she grabbed from his home. "Sunggyu, you are not making sense. Nobody brings broken pieces of a tea set around after breaking it. They usually throw it away. While clearing the pieces, I cut my finger. All I have is a photo of a few pieces because I thought about texting you about this." 

The photographic evidence made Sunggyu uneasy. The pieces were scattered randomly, but the distinct shape of the cup's ear was visible. The author shook off the doubt that was now creeping into his mind - no, this is a magical cup. Unless Woohyun is dead, this cup cannot break. How could Woohyun die when he was not summoned at all?

"I'm sorry I tried drinking from it, alright? I mean I thought it was ridiculous that you got hospitalised from drinking too much tea, so I decided to try it for myself. Like what kind of guy gets addicted to the tea set as much as the tea?" Alina's feeble attempt at a joke was obviously not helping with lightening the mood. In fact, Sunggyu's heart sank at those words. He was summoned after all, and Woohyun could have chosen the furthest possible distance from Alina so that she did not detect him. The conjecture was possible. It's possible...that Woohyun is...

Sunggyu thought that nothing else Alina said could have been worse, or rather h