Amidst those colourful flowers scattered whole across the garden, there sat Jongin beside the little pond, taking in the sight of those vigorous and swift fishes swimming inside of it. This was Jongin's favourite place. Nature, peace and isolation was everything Jongin loved. From the mesmerising fragrance of those flowers to the soothing cool breeze tenderly caressing his skin, from the birds chirping on the trees to the fishes swiftly moving their tails and fins, Jongin could take in the beauty of all of that forever and still wouldn't get enough. This was the place he grew up in, that huge house which was spacious enough for Jongin to not feel constricted but yet homey enough for him to feel cozy, also this beautiful backyard was a blessing. This was Jongin's world, and he never wanted to get out of there. Why would he? This little world of his was perfect, he had everything he ever needed to survive there with him, the house, the garden and of course...Kyungsoo.

Jongin could feel the urge to smile as Kyungsoo's thought crossed his mind out of nowhere. He hugged his bent knees even tighter as he slightly blushed. Before he could dwell into his own daydreams again, a distinctive sound immediately took his attention. It was a puppy's whine, and there was no way a dog lover like Jongin couldn't recognise that. He quickly got up and started looking around the garden to find where the sound came from. It didn't take him too long to finally spot a tiny little brown puppy hiding under the shade of a low but dense maple tree. Jongin went towards the puppy and carefully picked him up. The puppy was shivering, it looked really frail too. Jongin figured out that probably it was a new born who got separated from his mother, and took shelter there in the backyard of Jongin's house. He really felt bad for the little pup, but sadly didn't have enough courage to go outside and help him reunite with him mother. But obviously Jongin still wanted to help him. He decided to let it stay in his garden, but in a way more comfortable shelter because the little dog was already shivering from the cold. Jongin's creative mind readily came up with an idea. He decided to build a small tent in the garden itself, where the puppy could have its comfortable stay. He knew that he would find a suitable fabric for the purpose from the garage, but before doing that, Jongin went in the kitchen instead to grab some light food and then fed it to that little puppy. He giggled as he saw the puppy excitedly eating that food while happily wagging his tail around. While the tiny guest was munching on his food, Jongin grabbed an old car cover along with some carefully selected long wooden sticks from the garden. He figured out that he would need a pair of scissors to cut the fabric, and nails and hammer to build the tent. So he went inside the house, grabbed the scissors from his room, but he didn't know where Kyungsoo kept the tools. After staying up all night and doing his work, Kyungsoo had finally gone to sleep after submitting his work on that Sunday. Jongin stared at the peacefully sleeping figure of Kyungsoo on the bed of the blue room, and decided to not disturb him. Also, he already had a clue that Kyungsoo might have kept the tools in his own room, just like all the other things he wanted to keep away from Jongin's reach. So why even bother to have a conversation when it can be done without that? Hence, Jongin went to Kyungsoo's room, the least visited part of the house by him; it was because back in time Jongin was so into his own world that he never even wanted to face any human without it being necessary, and later when he started to get better, Kyungsoo himself had almost entirely abandoned that gloomy room of his. So it was a strange feeling for Jongin, but he had a mission to accomplish, so without wasting much time he began exploring the shelves and drawers of the cabinet in the room. But to his disappointment, all he came across was stacks and stacks of work documents, and a weird heavy book which had a beautiful hard cover with intricate details on it. With his will and energy to go through the rest of the room almost entirely lost, Jongin decided to pass his time by looking through that appealing book he had just found. Anything artistic or creative never failed to pull his attention, Jongin was so mesmerised with the gold pattern on the cover of that book. He ran his soft and delicate fingers along the lines of that emobossed work. When he had appreciated the beauty of that cover to his heart's content, he flipped the book open to reveal the first page. His eyes glimmered as he read those handwritten words on the top right corner of the otherwise blank page-

"Jongin's fourth birthday"

It was the beautiful and elegant calligraphy that those words were written in, that vibrated the creative braincells in Jongin, not the context of it, obviously, because Jongin didn't care about his birthday at all, probably not even enough to be able to remember the birth date itself. To him, the significance of his birthday was limited to the day when Kyungsoo brings delicious chocolate cake for him. Jongin flipped that first page to reveal the original first page of that book, which in fact, as it turned out, was a photo album. And the first page held a picture of baby Jongin sitting behind a table which had a three tier traditional birthday cake placed on top of it. Dressed in fresh, new and bright coloured clothes, Jongin's tiny face was partially hidden by that huge cake, and not to mention, Jongin's eyes were definitely centred at the cake and not the camera. The only thing in that photo that intrigued Jongin was the fact that the cake was not chocolate flavoured, he didn't care about the rest at all. After frowning at that little crime of serving him a non-chocolate cake Jongin flipped to the next page. He tried hard, but he just couldn't contain that little smile which emerged on his pink plump lips after seeing the second picture. In that picture, tiny Kyungsoo was feeding even tinier Jongin that awful cake with a spoon. Jongin had little to no memory of his childhood, but he still was sure that the pure and innocent smile pasted on those heart lips was unmistakably Kyungsoo's. Jongin felt so so happy to see his favourite person in that old picture. It was a pity that in everyday life, his condition made him unable to stare at Kyungsoo for long, but through that picture, Jongin could look at Kyungsoo's beauty as much as he wanted, his artistic self could take its fullest pleasure by beholding god's most beautiful creation, and his heart could satisfy its longing to look at his lover and compensate all those times that Jongin missed to see his Kyungsoo's captivating smile. But that bliss didn't last too long. Eventually out of nowhere, Jongin was engulfed by a wave of emotions like guilt and remorse. That utter sadness was extremely rare to Jongin, who only knew how to stay happy. His brain was trained to keep him away from all sorts of negativity, but this was a drawback to normalising bit by bit, that Jongin was realising the things he had never paid attention to before.

He now knew that Kyungsoo had sacrificed his whole life just for him. He knew that he wasn't normal even when he didn't know what its like to be 'normal' because he was born this way, but the society had told him and he now knew that he was nothing more than a liability on Kyungsoo. He knew that Kyungsoo loved him more than he loved even himself. He sure didn't know what exactly was the relationship between them, but he knew that he loved Kyungsoo just as much. He needed Kyungsoo more than Kyungsoo needed him, but he knew that he would never be able to express this need, want and love. He sadly now knew that Kyungsoo had given him everything he had, yet Jongin was not able to give him anything in return except stress, sufferings and loneliness. Jongin knew, he knew it all. But its not like he doesn't try, he does. His condition doesn't allow him to speak too much, to express his love in words, to shower care and affection on Kyungsoo, but he does the most he can. Jongin is selfish, whenever he doesn't feel like being in the real world he switches into his own, the one where there is just happiness, the one where there is nature, calm music, puzzles, science, maths and painting, where Jongin can find the most joy, pleasure and serenity, the world which is in his head. Jongin daydreams about his own world and leaves behind all the meaningless talks, monotonous tasks and uninteresting things in the real world...including Kyungsoo. But now that his consciousness was improving, he realised that it hurts Kyungsoo, and the least he can do for him is just pay attention to him. So he tries, he tries his best to respond to Kyungsoo everytime, to not make him feel neglected or ignored. Even though its hard, very hard but he tries his best to stay in reality. Usually because of this, Jongin misses out on stuff in real life, but it gets effortlessly easy for him to enjoy life when he gets even more happiness in this weird real world. And it happens everytime Kyungsoo wraps him up in his strong but loving arms, everytime he brushes his pretty fingers through his hair, everytime he runs his healing hands over his skin, and everytime he whispers sweet nothings into his ears in that husky-attractive voice. All that love and care makes Jongin crave for more and hence stay for longer, which brings immense happiness for both of them. The last few thoughts brought Jongin's everlasting happiness back to him. He hoped that Kyungsoo's love would continue to bring his own hidden love out and thus bring in joy for both of them, and with that he gazed at Kyungsoo's cute little picture one last time before flipping onto the next page of that album, which took him by surprise. In that photo, besides Jongin and Kyungsoo there were two other people as well, two adults- a man and a woman, and Jongin didn't know either of them. The lady was a gorgeous young woman who had long black hair, she was having baby Jongin sitting on her lap as she smiled at the camera in that picture. Even though Jongin didn't know her, she looked extremely familiar to him, especially after he noticed that her facial features and even complexion was just like his own. The man on the other hand looked like a rude and tough person, almost opposite of the woman he was sitting beside. Jongin didn't have the ability to judge people's expressions, he couldn't make out someone's behaviour just based off a certain lines on their face, hell, he wasn't even habitual of looking people at their faces, but there was still something about the face of that man that just didn't feel right. In the whole world the only person whose behaviour or mood that Jongin could somewhat identify was just Kyungsoo, who didn't look too happy sitting beside that tall and sturdy man. Jongin could easily have ignored that picture, not caring who those familiar looking strangers were, but his curiosity was just not settling down. For once he could've assumed that the man was their father, but then who was that lady? She certainly wasn't Dr. Doh, who Jongin knew was their both's mom. He had to figure out who she was. So he took that picture out of the cover of that page, making a mental note to ask Kyungsoo about it later. Just for the sake of curiosity, Jongin quickly went through the rest of the album, and found pictures of mostly himself alone with either that lady or Kyungsoo, never the three of them together in a picture, and nor a single other picture of that man. The memory of shivering puppy in the backyard had completely left his brain, with a goal to have his queries answered, Jongin went to his own room holding that mysterious picture in his hand.

Gladly enough, the door to the room was already open and Kyungsoo was awake. Standing beside the windowsill, Kyungsoo was talking over the phone in a not so calm voice, and Jongin couldn't help but stand in his place and overhear the conversation.

"...but Baekhyun you need to understand, you can't come over here with him."

"What do you mean why? After all that happened in the past, I certainly don't want your boyfriend to meet Jongin. Yes, I've forgiven him but I just...I don't think that its a good idea to let Jongin see him."

Jongin was attentively listening to Kyungsoo's conversation, but he didn't really care about any of the stuff he was talking about. Even though it involved him as well, it just really didn't matter to him at all.

"I know...I know that you want us to get along. And believe me, I do too. But you got to understand, he can't come here."

"Yeah, right. Do you really think that I would leave Jongin alone in the house just to grab a stupid coffee with you."

".... you're... you're right. I haven't really left the house since so long. But I just can't leave Jongin alone."

Now this was something that interested Jongin.

"It was different before, now everything is changed. Jongin hasn't stayed alone since a long time. I don't know if he will be okay. Please don't push it any further, its just not gonna happen."

Jongin stopped listening that very moment, but not because he switched to his daydreams, but because all those thoughts that he was having not so long ago came rushing back in. Kyungsoo was doing it again, sacrificing and compromising just for the sake of Jongin. But Jongin certainly didn't want it to happen, he didn't want Kyungsoo to stay back and not hangout with his friends just because of him. So Jongin promised himself that he would definitely make Kyungsoo go out for the coffee.

"...are you listening to me, sweetie? Jongin? When did you get here baby?"Jongin snapped out of his thoughts the moment Kyungsoo gently put a hand on his arm, and was greeted with these words. He didn't respond, but not because he couldn't, because he had something in his mind.

The first thing he did was to close his hand into a fist, crushing the picture he was holding into a ball, and then sneekily putting it in his pocket. He hoped that Kyungsoo didn't notice it, and even if he did there were solid chances that he would not question Jongin. Next thing he did was to move to his desk and sit on his chair. He pulled out a few books, a notebook and a pen and then started doing random problems. Jongin knew what he was doing, and just as he had expected, Kyungsoo came back towards him. Slowly and carefully wrapping his protective arms around Jongin, Kyungsoo embraced Jongin in a loose but warm and loving hug from behind. He rested his chin gently on Jongin's shoulder, and then didn't even hesitate to plant an ever so gentle kiss right under his earlobe. Trying as hard as possible, Jongin didn't let his pen stop writing. But god was testing him real bad, Kyungsoo started to whisper in his still sleepy and y voice right in his ear.

"Jongin..."

Just that one word made him weak to his knees, as if it wasn't enough of a distraction, the warm and soothing breath that he felt on his skin sent shivers down his spine.

"...are you angry with me sweetie? Did I sleep for too long? Did I make you wait?" An old habit of Kyungsoo, if Jongin didn't reply to him but didn't protest either, he would just not stop talking. "...well I'm awake now. I'm yours baby. Tell me, what can I do for you?", followed by yet another kiss, more of a sensual one, this time on his neck.

It was almost impossible to concentrate after that, but today in his usually calm and collected brain, Jongin had a mission to accomplish. Unwillingly, he brought his hands up to remove Kyungsoo's arms from his chest. Kyungsoo immediately retreated as he came to know that Jongin didn't approve of his actions.

"What happened Jonginnie? Are you busy?"

"G-Go away...go away."

Jongin didn't look back at Kyungsoo's face, but he could tell by that momentary silence that Kyungsoo was hurt to hear that.

"Alright...I'll leave you alone baby."

But Jongin didn't want Kyungsoo to just leave him alone, he wanted him to leave the house. It required a lot of courage but he eventually did speak up.

"Go out-outside. Go to B-Baekhyun hyung. Go."

Another few moments of silence, but they were eventually followed by an adorable chuckle.

"Jongin...you heard my conversation with Bakehyun. Didn't you? You little spy." Kyungsoo didn't shy away from hugging Jongin back like before, he not only shamelessly hugged him against his will but also dared to kiss him again, and that too on his cheek. "I love you so much."

Why is he so cute today?

"...but I'm not going outside. I'm not going to leave you alone."

All of the lovey-dovey feels went away in a second. And this time Jongin really was enraged, he angrily shoved Kyungsoo's arms away and almost yelled out loud, still avoiding the eye contact.

"Go...go...I said go."

"But Jong-"

"Go...go...go go go."

The endless cycle of Jongin's repeating words had started and there was no way that Kyungsoo could escape that. "Jongin I can't-"

"Go...go...go."

"Okay okay fine. Calm down. I will go. Okay?"

That smile of victory was unavoidable. Jongin looked extremely adorable with that.

"But Jongin...will you be fine?"

"Y-Yes...just go."

Kyungsoo heaved a sad long sigh before dropping his body weight on Jongin's chair again, attempting to hug him properly for the third time, still resting his chin on the younger's shoulder. He said with a cute pout, which was obviously not visible to Jongin-

"Okay I'll go then. But only after you kiss me goodbye."

A cute giggle, a little snuggle and a naughty little peck on nosetip, and Kyungsoo was good to go.

*************************

Surrounded by the snow covered hills, beside a calm and cold river in which the water was glimmering by the light of green-blue aurora of night sky, there sat Jongin. He was having the time of his life, simply breathing in that fresh air as he heard the voice of crickets from the woods behind him. Life seemed so perfect with that melodious singing of cuckoo, and the gorgeous reflection of full moon in the clear water of that divine river. Jongin just couldn't stop staring at that, peaceful and calm environment adding to his experience, he just wanted to stay there forever. But all of a sudden, a high-pitched annoying noise pierced through that much longed serenity. The sight in front of Jongin started blurring from that. That unpleasant noise buzzed again...and again, and with each buzz, the beautiful imagery started to fade away bit by bit. Helpless, Jongin kicked his legs aimlessly in the air, waving his hands trying to stop his dream from slipping away from his hands. But sadly, the continuous buzz didn't stop and hence resulted in mercilessly waking him up from his sleep. Jongin woke up to his bed, no river, no aurora, no moon, no cuckoo...nothing, just his sad old bed and that awful noise still buzzing non-stop. He immediately put his hands to cover his ears, almost wanting to cry he prayed for that noise to stop. He finally realised that it was the doorbell, which was strange because he had never had to deal with it buzzing for so long before. Kyungsoo wasn't home to answer the door, and the person outside could definitely not be him, because he could have unlocked the door merely through his phone...not having to bother Jongin by ringing that bell and that too ceaselessly, especially knowing that such continuous sounds would trigger Jongin's sensory issues. Jongin didn't have the courage to go himself and answer the door, he had never had to do this. So hoping for the sound to die down soon by itself, he just simply covered both his ears by two pillows and hid himslef in the blanket as he mewled because of his growing anxiety. He waited and waited...until it got out of his limits to take, the torture of that sound just wasn't stopping. To him, it felt like no less than a slow and torturous death. But he was a fighter, finally he mustered up all his courage and throwing all the sheets and pillows on the floor, he marched towards the door, just to tell the devil outside to spare his life. 

The person that Jongin saw outside did not even look any lesser than a devil. Wearing his white hair up, dressed in his intimidating suit, the wrinkles of his forehead aligned into a deep frown, the tall and significantly older man looked terrifying to him by just his aura. Jongin was able to take a quick glance of that man before eventually looking away and walking inside the house just as soon as the person at his doorstep stopped the incessant ringing. His bright brain didn't fail him and just by that short glimpse, he was immediately able to recognise the man as the same one in his birthday picture he saw that very evening. Ignoring everything, Jongin walked right to the lobby and sat on the sofa. He moved his torso back and forth, tapping his bare feet on the ground with the same rhythm in order to calm himself down.

"You must be Jongin, right?"

The voice of that man was very heavy and hoarse, not a bit less unpleasant than that doorbell itself. Jongin didn't reply. After a few seconds he heard a long sigh along with the sound of footsteps coming nearer and nearer from behind.

"I'm Kyungsoo's father. Is he not home?" 

Jongin who was slowly trying to unhear the man and escape the whole situation by slowly zoning out, suddenly became all ears as he heard that the man was Kyungsoo's father...which meant that he was his own father as well, right? But he was still too afraid to answer that man's queries. The father walked around the sofa and sat on the couch right in front of Jongin. There was a low decorating table situated in between them, and a relatively less anxious Jongin's eyes were fixed on the beautiful vase sitting on top of it.

Another sigh, the only emotion that Jongin was able to identify was happiness, and the overall tone of the sounds the man produced didn't seem so happy.

"I suppose he's not...which is good by the way. Because I, in fact had to talk to you."

It caught Jongin off-guard. He still had his eyes fixed on the vase, but got scared when a unintentional and unintelligible syllable left his mouth. He earned an irksome laugh in return from the man sitting in front of him, staring right at his soul.

"Glad that you're listening at least." another similar laugh followed, "Anyways... I'll just get to the point." 

The man cleared his throat and when he spoke up again, his voice was even croakier than ever.

"Kyungsoo's mother told me that you've been trying to lure our son. Now I don't care about it...nor do I care about him. But it has already been spread in the streets, and it is spoiling my name."

The talks had started to go above Jongin's head now, he simply listened carefully as the man rambled on and on.

"Even though I would never want a swine like you to be associated with my blood, but you both are still brothers in the world's eyes. So you two ing is definitely not great for my reputation."

Jongin didn't understand where the man was coming from, he didn't understand a bit of what he was talking about, except that he was called a 'swine', which obviously didn't sound much of a praise.

"But I'm here to take care of it. I'm here to end the problem once and for all. I'll do what I should have done years ago. So pack your bags, you're coming to the States with me."

"NO" 

Jongin didn't know where all of that bravery came from, but he knew for sure that he would never leave that house, nor Kyungsoo.

"Oh so you can speak, huh?", another repellant laughter, "I didn't ask you, I'm telling you, and there's no way you can disobey me."

"No, no, no!" 

Jongin didn't waste a single second to stand up and sprint, he headed to his own room so he could shut the door from inside and hence prevent that man to take him away with him. But unfortunately, the route had the man within, who simply pulled his leg out which resulted Jongin to trip. He knocked over and fell flat to his face. Scared, Jongin turned around while still lying on the floor with a freshly forming bruise on his jaw. The huge man was hovering right above him, Jongin gulped his fears down his throat and tried to crawl backwards from under that man. But he was caught before he could move even a few steps away, the man held him by the collar of his t-shirt and pulled him upwards by the means of that strong grip. He then dragged Jongin backwards until he was standing against the nearby wall, and then hissed through his gritted teeth-

"I won't let you ruin my son's life. After all, he's the heir of my business empire. I won't let you taint his name before its even made. Right now, I'm being considerate enough that I'm taking you to America with me. I'll give you a house, a maid and more money than you can ever imagine. You should be thankful to me. Because I could do much worse to you."

The last sentence was spoken in such a disturbing way that Jongin just could not stand being in that devil's hold anymore. In a swift move, Jongin turned his head to the side as he bit hard on that man's hand with his front teeth and canines. It was almost hard enough to draw blood on that man's wrinkly skin, so the man instantly let go of the collar as he groaned loudly in pain. As Jongin was about to escape, sadly, he was caught again. And this time he was stopped when the man caught hold of a handful of his hair and pulled so hard on them that it dragged him backwards and almost made him fall again. Jongin tried to protest, but just right after a small scuffle the man got his dominance again on that poor little guy who was way weaker than his tall body made him look like. The person who still was legal father of Jongin, didn't even hesitate to bring a tight slap on his autistic 'son's' face.

Jongin was way too sensitive to bear such a treatment, he started crying as he fell on the floor with that sudden harsh blow right on his cheek. He was now lying down against the back of the sofa as he hugged his bent knees and hid his face in between them, while silently shedding tears out of terror. Seeing that the boy had already given up, the man took a sigh and then shook his hand which was still stinging because of that bite.

"ing bastard."

As if the pain was not enough, those mean and awful words were even more of a pain for Jongin. He started shivering when he felt the man approaching him one more time and then kneeling in front of him.

"Listen here you little , I'm here with a purpose and I will not go back until I fulfill it. I will eliminate your existence from this whole country, and if you act up, then you'll be eliminated from this whole world." 

Jongin didn't have any more strength left, so he just sat there and silently listened for the sake of his safety. The old man snarled once again before speaking up further, this time in a rather amused tone (which still did not seem pleasant at all).

"I should've killed you with your mother."

Jongin was shaken to his very core. He looked up and stared at the man in disbelief. The sentence he just said was way beyond Jongin's ability to comprehend, but yet something in it made his heart shatter in a million pieces. To add salt on his wounds, the man laughed his signature laughter and then said-

"What? Surprised?" one more scoff later, he began speaking again with another one of his scary expressions,

"Yes. You heard it right. I killed your mother, I ing killed that ."

He didn't know why, but whenever the man mentioned 'his mom', the image of that beautiful woman from that picture popped up in his head. And the thought of her getting killed was making Jongin's head spin.

"I just wanted to get the property and business of your richass father, which was all named after your stupid mother after he died of cancer. It was not tough for me to entice her with my love, especially when she had a dumb toddler like you. With the business she had, I could get double the power and even expand it in overseas, but for that...I had to kill your mother along with you. The plan was to kill both of you by running a truck over your car, and it wasn't a fail at all...except that you were not there in the car with her, because your nasty was still clinging to my Kyungsoo back at home. Good for me that you were born a retard, and all that will couldn't be transferred to you and hence I succeeded in my plan. But you little are no less than your mother...you attacked my son. What do you think? You would go around seducing my son and..."

The words started to sound distant to Jongin. With that whole bunch of hurtful information he had gotten in those last few seconds, his heart and brain just couldn't take any more. Breathing was starting to get more and more difficult...to the point that his chest was aching. It got to a point that the distantly sounding words were getting abstruse. His vision was blurring with time and his breathing...oh lord his chest was literally heaving because he had to fight to get just a little bit of air. His face and body all drenching in sweat. The mental and physical pain seemed like never-ending...only until everything out. Darkness all around, dark silence surrounding him from all directions, this kind of silence was certainly not the one that Jongin enjoyed, it was far from that, it was a scary one. But eventually he was put to sleep by that same silence. He felt his body easing, as if he was able to peacefully float in the same water he was previously drowning in. He closed his eyes and went back to the same dream with the aurora, the river and the cuckoo, but this time there was someone else sitting beside him as well, accompanying him to watch the glimmering reflection of the full moon was this beautiful angel, that dark long haired happy woman, who had Jongin's sleepy head resting on her lap, and she patted it gently with her beautiful slender fingers, that angel was no one else but Jongin's mother...his real mother.

*************************

"Jongin? A-Are you up sweetie?"

That hesitant and timid voice that Kyungsoo said it with, was evident of his wish to not actually wake Jongin up. Because how could he face that sweet boy after god knows what torture he had to face just because of him? How could Kyungsoo face him after once again he had broken his faith, his trust, and that promise of taking care of him forever? How could he face him after breaking the promise of never leaving him alone? Kyungsoo couldn't help his eyes to get wet again after hours of crying non-stop. But he had to be strong, because if he didn't then who would protect Jongin, or take care of him. He had to wake Jongin up to feed him some food, the boy was hungry ever since his lunch in the noon. After waiting for a while when Jongin didn't respond, Kyungsoo helplessly went back into thinking about the events of the evening. He had reached the house just a few seconds before Jongin eventually passed out from a full-blown panic attack. He had no clue what had happened before, but the smug look on his fathers face as he watched Jongin's fainted body was enough for him to put two and two together. He wasted no moment before kicking that man out of the house, claiming that he had no right to even step in there after he had already abandoned his family. He didn't hear a single word from that awful man, nor did he come to know his intentions behind suddenly showing up after all those years, because his primary concern was to look after Jongin. What happened in his absence was now only between that criminal and Jongin, both not so likely to confess what exactly had happened, which was so unfortunate because Kyungsoo was in dire need for an explanation of that severe panic attack, the bruise on Jongin's jaw and the swelling on his right cheek. Ever since the doctor had generously arrived at their home himself and treated Jongin with meds, Kyungsoo had been waiting for him to wake up, which should've happened till now for it was already about midnight. Kyungsoo was getting worried now, the doctor had especially instructed him to feed Jongin as soon as he woke up, for he must be in need of energy. So he then decided to wake Jongin up by himself. As Jongin was facing the other way, so Kyungsoo stepped off the bed and walked towards the other side of the bed. His steps came to a halt, just as he witnessed that equally heartbreaking and horrifying sight.

Jongin was already awake, in fact his eyes were wide open, but they looked as soulless as his entire self, which only god knew since when was lying there without a single motion. With his dead eyes Jongin stared out the window in front of him. Tears threatening to fall out of his eyes, Kyungsoo gulped to collect himself. He slowly walked towards Jongin and sat down on the floor so that their faces were almost in front of each other. Jongin still staring into space.

"Jongin..."

Kyungsoo couldn't...he gave up, Jongin lying there as if paralysed was the last sight Kyungsoo ever wanted to see in the world. Those forever happy lustrous eyes full of hopes and desire for life, were all of a sudden just black dots staring into nowhere, and this loss was something that Kyungsoo couldn't afford to have. As he cried in front of his lover, mourning over that loss, his eyes didn't miss the sight of tears b in Jongin's eyes as well, still not looking at him. That single evidence of life in him was just as painful as it was hopeful for Kyungsoo. And when a teardrop finally escaped Jongin's eyes, Kyungsoo lost it completely. He cried at the top of his lungs while saying "I'm sorry...I'm sorry" to a Jongin who wasn't even paying attention to him. He dared once again, and brought his hand up to wipe that teardrop from Jongin's face, but couldn't, because just by pulling his blanket over his head, Jongin cut Kyungsoo off.

Kyungsoo just sat there, dwelling in his own regrets and sorrow, hoping that he wasn't permanently cut-off from Jongin's life.

___________________________________________________________

Hey everyone!!

So this chapter is written in Jongin's POV (except the last segment). It was necessary and was very much difficult too, I really hope that I didn't disappoint you. This chapter might be a little bit overwhelming, but I want you to buckle up for another rollercoaster ride. Please, please let me know your thoughts on this one, or just at least say "Hi", that would mean a lot.

Hoping that everyone of you is staying happy and safe. Take care!

Thank you so much <3