"You haven't slept for two days two nights already. Take a rest first alright?" 

"I can't sleep..." 

"Take this. It'll make you feel better..." Seunghyun handed her a sleeping pill and a glass of water. "You need to rest to recover and attend her funeral, Yoona."

Yoona took the medicine obediently and Seunghyun helped her settled down in bed, pulling the duvet over her body. 

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here..." 

Yoona nodded as she closed her eyes, trying to fall asleep. Seunghyun made himself comfortable on the sofa at the foot of the bed and looked at her intently, rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. 

"Thank god you're fine..."

Thank god he rushed over. He could not imagine how lonely and scared she would have felt if she's here all alone to face this devasting news. 

He had planned on asking her out for dinner after her shoot that day but didn't manage to get hold of her for the entire day until he received a text from her, saying that she's on the plane to Europe for some matters and that she would contact him the moment she returned. To be frank, he didn't gave my thoughts to it. With her current popularity, it wasn't surprising if she was in Korea today and Europe on the very next. He thought she had some urgent work to accomplish but when he called her again to inform her that he was in Paris for business and wanted to see if she was in the nearby city, he got a shock. 

Yoona's voice was trembling and sounded lost. After some probing and coaxing, he finally got some faint idea that she wasn't here for business but was here for her mother who left her when she's young. She was in London and without any hesitation, he took his personal plane down to meet her after knowing her location. The moment he arrived, he caught her sitting outside the operating theatre, devastated. 

He didn't need to know what exactly happened. All he needed to know was that she needs someone to be there and he wanted to be that someone. 

"But I guess, the someone that you want here is not me..." 

"Jiyong oppa... oppa..." 

Seunghyun let out a bitter smile as he heard Yoona talking in her sleep. She wasn't sleeping well but yet, even in her sleep, she was calling out to Jiyong. 

✦✦✦✦✦

"Im Yoona, you better pick up the call right now," Jiyong tapped his finger nervously as the call was not picked up. "Yoong!" 

/It's me./ Jiyong's brows furrowed as it wasn't Yoona who picked the call up. /Lee Seunghyun./ 

/Where's Yoona?/ 

/She just took a sleeping pill and had fallen asleep. She hasn't slept for two days already./ 

/Is she alright? What happened?/ Jiyong didn't want to wake her up and to know her situation, he had to ask Seunghyun. 

/I spoke to her stepfather. Apparently, Yoona's mum left her when she's young but had been looking at her from afar all these years. She didn't have the courage to look for her but she contracted cancer half a year ago. Her stepfather wanted to fulfill her mother's dying wish of seeing her daughter for the last time, hence he went to look for her, begging her to come see her mother one last time./ 

So this was why she sounded so lost and uncertain when she asked him to accompany her to Europe... Dammit. He should have ditched the police and went ahead to Europe with her. 

/But it seems like she's late. She didn't get to see her one last time. By the time she gathered enough courage to go in, her mum had a sudden relapse and was gone... She didn't get to even say anything to her. The thing she saw was her body, lying motionlessly in bed. I'd never seen her so... Calm./ 

/That isn't calm. It's devastation. Ever since young, she's always like that. The calmer she looked, the worse she felt./ Jiyong clenched his fist and gave a hard punch on the sofa. 

He's worried. It's true when he said that the calmer she looked, the worse she felt. He remembered that time when she broke up with her very first boyfriend, everyone thought she was fine. She was still smiling, still eating normally and could even make small jokes. However, during the night, when he happened to pass by her room to go downstairs, he saw that she was lying on the cold marble floor, bawling her eyes out and hitting her chest repeatedly, scaring the hell out of him. That was when he found out that if she appeared to be calm and serene, then all the more he needs to pay attention to her. She was like a silent bomb, exploding without anyone knowing. 

/I'll make sure she isn't left alone./ 

/When are you guys coming back? I'm held here, I can't fly anywhere and I don't want to fly there, only to arrive knowing that you all had gone back./ 

/Probably tomorrow we'll return. Her stepfather is still in the state of mourning, doesn't really want to entertain her. I guess he's kind of blaming her for hesitating and lost the chance to fulfill her mum's wish./

/Alrights. I'll see you guys back here then. I'll contact her again tomorrow. Lee Seunghyun.../ 

/Yeah?/

/Take good care of her./ Jiyong muttered under his breath unwillingly. 

/Of course I will, without you saying./ 

"Yoona ah, is that why you like him so much...?" Seunghyun hung up the phone and looked at the asleep figure on the bed, giving a defeated sigh. 

✦✦✦✦✦

"Oppa..." 

Yoona and Seunghyun arrived back in Seoul two days later and Jiyong was waiting for her return in her apartment. The moment she saw him, she got all teary-eyed and Jiyong opened his arms wide, letting her walked into his embrace. 

"Pabo... It's fine now. Everything will be alright..." Jiyong sighed as he hugged her, patting her back gently. 

Yoona started breaking into tears again as she hugged him and Seunghyun had to stand there awkwardly as they hugged. 

"Seunghyun ah, th-thank you so much..." It took Yoona awhile to calm down and when she broke away from the hug, she smiled at Seunghyun. 

"Silly, so long as you're fine," Seunghyun smiled and gave her a forehead kiss. "Take a good rest. You need it. Don't think so much..." 

"I honestly don't know what I'd do if you're not there," Yoona gave him a hug. "Thank you so much..." 

"I'm glad that I'm there," Seunghyun patted her back and handed her luggage to Jiyong. "I'll get going first. Call me after you're feeling better yeah."

"I would. I'm so sorry for taking up these few days. Your company must have a lot of things to handle..." Yoona sniffed and broke away from the hug.

"Nothing is more important than you," Seunghyun ruffled her hair affectionately. "I'll get going first then." 

"I'll call you when I settle down," Yoona bade him farewell as Jiyong stood there, scowling away.