"Of all the people why it has to be Park Chanyeol?!" 

Jisoo flinched as she heard Yixing snapped outside. She moved uneasily on the bed while listening to her husband's berating over his cousin's confrontation early in the morning. Xiaotong had been attacking their room's bell for two hours and since she seemed to be unwilling to leave, Yixing finally let her in just to hear a ridiculous request (as Yixing said) to have her marrying Jisoo's one and only friend, Park Chanyeol. And Yixing definitely wasn't happy with this.

"Why can't it be him?!" Xiaotong snapped back at him. "He's a good man. He's handsome, smart and definitely rich!"

She heard Yixing snorted. Jisoo leaned her head at the headboard at watched up to the ceiling. She was totally aware of Xiaotong and Chanyeol's interaction during their wedding party. She caught them conversed a couple of times, saw her laughed at his jokes and even saw them dance together. She thought it was just a small fling because Chanyeol was naturally a kind person, but she didn't think it would really be this big. Xiaotong even mentioned that Chanyeol was being a very good company when she visited the US a week ago, something that Jisoo was surprised to hear. She hadn't heard anything from Chanyeol quite for a while, and it's hard to believe that he let this information be left unknown by her knowledge.

"Oh, so this is how you're going to live your life now? Are you that desperate to clung over the rich?" Yixing asked sarcastically.

"Yes, I am! Now that you've stopped giving us your precious money, don't you think I deserve someone like Park Chanyeol?" she snapped again. "Look, I'm not here to ask for your permission to marry him. I don't care if you like it or not, but I'll be marrying Park Chanyeol, period. And you'll tell grandpa to bless us because you owe me that the very least."

"No. I owe you nothing. And I'm not going to mention to grandpa anything. If you're really that desperate to get married, just find someone else, not Chanyeol. He won't love you, or marry you, so don't waste your time to play around with him."

"What do you know about us? You don't know anything! I love him, and he loves me. We're going to get married, Ge!"

Jisoo flinched for the second time when she heard someone just kicked the table. She slid down from the bed, thinking of bursting into their argument in fear that somebody would hurt the other, but she stopped right behind the door as she heard Yixing chuckled.

"You're the one who doesn't know anything about exactly anything. My word is final, Xiaotong. You're not marrying Park Chanyeol, and you know clearly that grandpa will just say the same. Can you leave now? It's too early to ruin my mood."

It was silent after that. Jisoo heard no one said anything until some moments later she heard Xiaotong started to sob. She leaned her forehead at the door, her heart hurt for her. She had no idea about what happened between her and Chanyeol, but she knew exactly why Yixing behaved like this. He would never let Chanyeol marry her, she knew it best. And she couldn't help to feel sad and upset at the same time.

What had Chanyeol done this time? She knew what kind of person he was. He said clearly that he would never settle down. Chanyeol probably would be the best boyfriend material that a girl would have ever wanted, but he's not a family guy. But why all of sudden? What did he say to her that she was this eager to marry him? She failed to understand.

"Why do you treat me like this? You defended your wife as if you're ready to fight the world, but you've never once been on my side. What makes us different? I'm a woman too, and we're the same age, for God's sake."

"You try to live all the hardships that she's been through, then we can talk about what makes you different." Yixing's words were sharp as a butcher's cleaver, that Jisoo even felt it also pierced right through her chest. When she heard a loud thud came from the door, she guessed Xiaotong had left him alone. She unlatched her forehead from the door and opened it to find Yixing resting his head on the couch facing the ceiling on, eyes closed.

She walked up and sat right next to him. He opened his eyes as he seemed to feel the weight on the couch, and then he sighed in defeat.

"Honey," Jisoo put her hand on his arm, it lightly as a comfort.

"Why does it have to be Chanyeol, of all the people?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, Yixing," she said softly. She really was sorry for him. She was sorry that her past had made it complicated for the situation, and she regretted it a lot.

"No, not that. But I just..." Yixing didn't finish his words, he shut his eyes again and rubbed his face with his two hands sluggishly. "Can you talk to Chanyeol for me? He's your friend, but I don't want him near my cousin. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"I know, I know. I understand, you don't have to say it." she nodded, "I'll talk to him, you don't have to be sorry, okay?"

Yixing then nodded and leaned forward to give her a kiss on her cheek. He then rose to tell her that he's going to take another nap for a couple more hours before they leave for the hospital again to see his mother. 

Yixing looked so stressed out since they landed on Beijing yesterday. He was utterly silent for the whole flight, she could see the complete worry over his face and Jisoo could only rub her hand on his arm as a form of comfort. Her father-in-law had been in Europe for a few days, so he asked Yixing to immediately return to his mother while he was on his way home.

Yixing was with the doctor all afternoon while Jisoo chatted to accompany her mother-in-law. She brought her a jade jewelry set that a colleague of hers gave her as a gift when she visited Mongolia last month. Jisoo didn't really like jewelry, and she knew that Yixing's mother loved jade, that's why she brought it for her instead of having it stored in her closet. And as she had expected, she was delighted with the gift.

And Yixing's mother's condition wasn't so good. She saw her weight dropped dramatically since the last time they visited the house during the new year. Her face was a bit gaunt when they made a video call, Jisoo repeatedly said that she had to eat more, but her mother-in-law said that she was just exhausted because of the charity events lining up at the beginning of the year. But Jisoo didn't expect that the situation was that bad.

From the blood test they received, her platelet level was very low while the leukocytes were very high. She experienced swelling in her spleen, and Jisoo could not unnoticed the swollen glands on her neck. She got worried all of sudden because she felt she had seen symptoms like this before. The doctor recommended some things to Yixing, which he immediately agreed, to do a bone marrow biopsy, several blood tests to check for abnormal cells and some other tests for genetic abnormalities.

"I think I'm going to die this time. They have never done this many tests before," her mother-in-law said when the doctor called Yixing again to speak in his office.

"You'll be okay. Maybe this is just a standard procedure seeing you are quite old," she retorted, trying to make a joke just to ease her mind.

"Oh, well, now you dare to say anything about my age." she laughed, "You're lucky that I like you."

At least she managed to melt their tense with more laughter with the stories about his son's behavior. Jisoo was surprised when Yixing's mother suddenly mentioned about her son's uncle's wife. Jisoo had never mentioned it to anyone since Yixing had asked her not to, but of course, apart from his father, she wasn't the only one who knew about this. Yixing's mother wasn't surprised to know that Yixing had stopped financed their lives though she hoped that he would show them more mercy. But they were also aware that it's because they were both women, and they didn't have any way to dictate the men in the family what to do with their money. Apparently Yixing's father was supporting his son's decision, and they're in the midst of negotiating with their uncle to start financing his own family properly before they decided to fire him from the company.

She had no idea that it would be this bad. Yixing usually would talk to her about things, but she hadn't told her about this yet. But again, it's maybe because they just hadn't got the right time to talk about it, especially when the topic itself always upset him. And Yixing looked upset when he got back from the doctor's office. He tried to hide it with a smile, but being with him over a year, she could sense something was off from the way he sighed and the change of his intonation when he spoke.

His father arrived after dinner, and they spoke outside for a while, adding more suspicion that made his mother a bit irritated by their exclusiveness in hiding things from her. Yixing gave his father a long hug when they said goodbye for the night, but he didn't say anything after that, even when they were in the car as going back to the hotel. Jisoo didn't ask, she let him have his own moment because she knew that he would break it down to her when he's ready. It's only later on when they were on the bed, and Yixing was being overindulged for cuddles and hugs when he told her that his mother was on stage III of leukemia. He rested his head on her chest, arms wrapping her waist as he passively repeated what the doctor had told him.

Jisoo wrapped her arms around his head and shoulder, listening to him carefully. It was weird to say that she wasn't surprised to hear it since she had her own conclusion about what his mother would have. Jisoo had seen this before from her deceased friend back in the university, and she had expected this the least though she hadn't said anything.

"We could've detected this earlier. I don't remember anyone in the family who has had cancer, and I never thought to get my mother tested. She always said that it was just exhaustion. I should've not just believed it, I'm so stupid." he said somnolently.

"It's not your fault. No one expected this," she said on his head.

"What do I do? If something bad happens to my mother, what do I do?"

"We need to stay positive, Honey. Let's hope the intensive chemotherapy will do her good. She would be fine." She tapped on his back and rubbed her hand on it.

They spent the night by reading some articles about what to expect when having chemotherapy. The doctor had talked with him about the risks and benefits of chemo, but Yixing felt the need of knowing everything about it given to his mother's age. They read about the specific side effects that people would experience and the best ways to manage and treat them. He started whining after a while seeing how painful it might be, and he didn't have the heart to imagine how his mother would get through this. Jisoo decided to end their reading session and cuddled him more so he would go to sleep instead.

They went