Chanyeol’s head was cradled in his hands, bent down over the seat on the waiting area where he was directed by the hospital staff. He couldn’t go into the emergency unit where Kyungsoo was rushed to, because he wasn’t family. Apparently, the doctors who treated Kyungsoo were on duty tonight. Given the panicked expressions on their faces, however, it gave Chanyeol inkling that Kyungsoo’s state of unconsciousness wasn’t a good sign...

DO KYUNGSOO, Heart transplant receipient.

That was what he had heard the paramedics report over the radio as they carefully transferred Kyungsoo to the stretcher and advised Chanyeol to follow in his car to the most prestigious medical center in Seoul, where Kyungsoo had apparently been treated for about a year.

Coincidentally, it was the very same hospital where Jiwon had spent the last few months of her life...

.

Kyungsoo’s disability... was that he was living on a new heart.

Was his heart transplant the reason why Kyungsoo didn’t—couldn’t—lift heavy sacks of ingredients in the soup kitchen, so it was either Chanyeol or Youngjin ahjussi who did it? How pale and skinny Kyungsoo remained to be, even with a robust appetite? Why Kyungsoo got tired quite easily that he couldn’t keep his eyes open past midnight?

Had Chanyeol known about Kyungsoo’s health condition, he would have been more careful with him!

Chanyeol sniffed, having brought along Kyungsoo’s soiled backpack with him, noticing that it had specks of mud and grass stuck all over. He reverently dusted it with his hands and set it on the empty seat next to him. Just as he was returning Kyungsoo’s cellphone into the backpack’s pocket, he heard the distressed voice of Kyungsoo’s mother.

Seungsoo, who turned out to be an expert driver, hadn’t been able to avoid the rush hour Saturday night traffic. He and his parents couldn’t get to get to the hospital fast enough…

With her hands icy, the coat she wore hardly thawing her body, Mrs. Do approached the nurses’ station. “Excuse me,” she said breathlessly, “Is Do Kyungsoo admitted here?”

A calmer, although not by much, Mr. Do put an arm around his trembling wife, went on to ask: “H-How is my son? Do you have any news or...?”

“Hyungnim,” Chanyeol called tentatively, rising to his feet as Seungsoo and Kyungsoo’s parents turned to look at him just a couple of meters away.

Mrs. Do’s round eyes widened even more, and this time tinged with what Chanyeol recognized to be rage. “YOU!”

Suddenly, she charged at the taller boy, striking her fists at the arm that Chanyeol reflexively used to shield himself with as Seungsoo rushed to come in between them, futilely preventing his mother from beating the 6-foot-giant Chanyeol to a pulp.

“WHAT DID YOU TO MY SON?!  HE’S BEEN DOING SO WELL!  HE’S HAD NO MEDICAL ISSUES FOR A WHOLE YEAR NOW, AND THEN HE HAD TO MEET YOU!!!” Mrs. Do’s shrill voice blatantly accused, clawing at Chanyeol as Seungsoo forcibly kept his mother and Kyungsoo’s tall friend apart. Mr. Do had to pull his furious wife to him before Chanyeol received further injuries that would also require him to be admitted into the hospital. “WHAT HAPPENED TONIGHT? WHY WERE YOU IN HAN RIVER?! WERE YOU SMOKING?! WERE YOU TEACHING HIM TO SMOKE?!”

“HE’S NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP, SOMETIMES GOES HOME PAST DINNER TIME WHEN HE’S NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!  MY SON DEFENDS YOU AND HE INSISTS ON SPENDING ALL HIS TIME WITH YOU NOW, SAYING YOU’RE HIS BEST FRIEND! BUT WHAT KIND OF A FRIEND ARE YOU, WHEN YOU ALMOST KILL HIM?!”

“Eomonim!” Chanyeol cried, putting his hands together and bowing in apology. “Joseong-hamnida! Joseong-hamnida! I didn’t know! Eomonim, please, I honestly didn’t know!”

He respectfully handed them Kyungsoo’s backpack, only for it to be thrown back to him—hitting him on the face—as Mrs. Do screamed relentlessly, “IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO MY KYUNGSOO, I SWEAR TO GOD, PARK CHANYEOL!”

Seungsoo pleaded to Chanyeol, receiving the constant blows of his mother’s heavy hands to prevent them from landing on the Park heir. “Leave! LEAVE NOW!”

“Hyungnim...” Chanyeol told Seungsoo desperately, picking up Kyungsoo’s backpack again to give to him. “I promise, we weren’t smoking. I would never... I-I-I hadn’t smoked in a whole month... w-we were just climbing up a hill and he started getting breathless and...”

“Get out of our sight, Park Chanyeol-ssi.” Mr. Do’s eyes flashed, warning him quietly, as he pulled his livid wife to his side and turned away from the devastated face of the young man they had warmly welcomed to their home.

Seungsoo sighed, tears running down his own face, putting the sling of his younger brother’s backpack over his shoulder. “Go home, Chanyeol-rah.”

And with that, Kyungsoo’s older brother forlornly walked away, leaving him behind.

Chanyeol buried his face in his hands, sobbing right in the middle of the hospital hallway, insides quivering.

What was going to happen to Kyungsoo?

Would he die?

Chanyeol felt a warm squeeze on his forearm. It was one of the nurses from the reception, who took pity on him an hour ago when he was crying helplessly watching Kyungsoo being wheeled away to the emergency unit.

“Gwaenchanhayo?” The female nurse gently asked, giving him a tissue to wipe his tears.

Chanyeol could hardly see with his swollen eyes, tears still incessantly spilling over them at the thought that he really had endangered Kyungsoo. He swallowed as he gratefully accepted the tissue and the comforting pat on his back. “Is... Is there any news about...?”

The nurse sadly shook her head, handing him a bottle of water. “Would you need help in going home? Do you... want me to call your family?”

Chanyeol gulped and tearfully declined. He thanked the nurse for the water and bowed in farewell to her in a hurry, cringing as he realized that several bystanders had witnessed Kyungsoo’s mother publicly berating him and hitting him, and that they were still st