A/N: Hi, everyone! Here’s the next update! Enjoy! :3

Yesung spent the weekend after Kyuhyun’s revelations locked in his apartment, letting himself be plagued and tortured by his gloomy thoughts and hurt feelings. This wasn’t exactly healthy behavior, and it also wasn’t very productive, but Yesung was too overwhelmed by everything that he couldn’t do much during this weekend other than to lay on his bed, stare up at his bedroom’s ceiling, and let all the negative thoughts and emotions overpower him.

Yesung didn’t take well the fact that people from the life of his heart’s previous owner had come and entered his life as well just because he had the heart.

But then again, who on earth could handle such a situation so well?

After the incident at the park with Kyuhyun, Yesung began to question and doubt everything and everyone he knew. The worst blow had, of course, been the revelation that Siwon was only using him as a substitute for his dead boyfriend. Due to the romantic and intimate nature of their relationship, the betrayal and manipulation from Siwon had hurt him the most. It was painful as well as embarrassing to believe that someone was truly in love you, only for you to find out that you were just being used since your boyfriend couldn’t get over his previous relationship. 

However, while his experience with Siwon was the worst blow, the involvement of Kyuhyun and Kibum had also hurt him a lot. 

While he and Kyuhyun weren’t exactly very close to each other, Yesung had gotten to know him well enough over the past year… Or so he thought. It turned out that he didn’t really know Kyuhyun at all. How could he have truly known Kyuhyun if Kyuhyun had kept very important things from him? Such as the fact that Kyuhyun had apparently been best friends with the previous owner of Yesung’s heart? Or the fact that Kyuhyun, just like Siwon, had practically stalked the heart and Yesung? Yesung had come to consider Kyuhyun as a friend, but how true was their “friendship,” really? Kyuhyun only entered his life because of the heart. Would Kyuhyun still have become friends with Yesung even if Yesung didn’t have the heart of his deceased best friend?

Then, there was also Kibum. Among Siwon, Kyuhyun, and Kibum, Kibum was the one with whom Yesung’s relationship was most distant. It was mainly just a professional/formal relationship between Yesung and Kibum. But it was still a blow to find out that the student had also been following the heart. It was the teacher side of Yesung who was mostly hurt when it came to Kibum’s involvement. While he had always found Kibum a bit odd, Yesung had been impressed with the student’s skills and hard work, and Yesung had been pleased and proud that such a good student seemed to really like and respect him as a teacher. But now, Yesung was questioning even Kibum’s perception of him as a teacher. Would Kibum still like and respect Yesung as a teacher even if Yesung hadn’t received his brother’s heart?

With all the revelations, Yesung couldn’t help but question his own value. It’s not that he was so opposed to meeting and getting to know the people from Ryeowook’s past life. But how could Yesung know for sure if these people liked him for who he was and not just for Ryeowook’s heart? Siwon, for instance, certainly just thought of Yesung as a substitute for Ryeowook. While Yesung believed that Kyuhyun and Kibum weren’t as deluded and insane as Siwon, what if the doctor and the dance student didn’t really like Yesung himself? Even just thinking about this possibility hurt Yesung a lot.

Yesung already had difficulty with forging strong relationships in the past due to his sickness. It had been hard for him to become close to people when he spent most of time in hospitals, sometimes on the verge of death and only kept alive by machines. And now, some of his new relationships were apparently just because of his transplanted heart. This, of course, kind of traumatized and tormented him.

It was a very long and torturous weekend for Yesung.

The following week, Yesung was, of course, still not himself as he went back to work at the academy. In fact, he was now even more distracted and out of it than after his breakup with Siwon.

It didn’t help matters that at the very start of the week, early Monday morning, to be precise, he ran right into Kim Kibum in a corridor as they were both on their way to their classes.

“Good morning, seonsaengnim,” Kibum immediately greeted with a small smile and a respectful bow of his head toward Yesung. 

Yesung’s negative thoughts about Kibum’s involvement, which had never really left Yesung’s mind since he was at the park with Kyuhyun, were suddenly at their full strength now that he was face-to-face with Kibum. Yesung couldn’t even bring himself to return the student’s greeting. He wasn’t exactly sure what kind of expression was on his face, but whatever it was, it must have been bad enough that it quickly caught Kibum’s attention.

“Seonsaengnim?” Kibum asked, tilting his head thoughtfully and his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he stared at Yesung. “Is everything alright?”

The look of concern on Kibum’s face triggered Yesung. Was the student actually concerned about him or just the heart? Probably just the heart. Why would a student care so much about a teacher, right? Especially when Yesung technically wasn’t even teaching and handling any of Kibum’s dances classes.

“Yesung seonsaengnim?” Kibum prompted when Yesung still didn’t reply after a while.

“…I know all about Kim Ryeowook’s heart,” Yesung flatly told the student. “I also know how you, Siwon, Kyuhyun, and even Sungmin were all connected to Kim Ryeowook.”

The normally cool and calm dance student now looked quite stunned. It took a few moments before he could formulate some kind of response. “Yesung seonsaengnim… How did you know—?”

“Never mind how I knew. I need you to be honest with me for once, Kibum—did enroll in this academy because you’re really interested in dancing or just because your brother’s heart ended up here?!” Yesung demanded.

“I really am interested in dancing,” Kibum mumbled. At Yesung’s furious gaze, though, he sighed and added, “But yes, I admit that I mainly chose to enroll here because of my hyung’s heart… My eldest brother, Heechul, found out where Ryeowook hyung’s heart ended up. With whom Ryeowook’s heart ended up. Heechul hyung couldn’t leave China, so he sent me instead. I just wanted to make sure that Ryeowook hyung’s heart was safe and alright.”

“I knew it,” Yesung spat.

Exactly just as Yesung had suspected—Kibum was only here for the heart! And it was this sentiment about “protecting the heart and keeping it safe” all over again! Just as what Kyuhyun had claimed! Yesung didn’t know why Kyuhyun and Kibum thought that they needed to act as guardians, but the heart and Yesung didn’t need any protection! 

It wasn’t exactly professional, especially since they were currently in the academy’s premises, but the music teacher couldn’t help but really glare at the dance student. “Stay away from me from now on. Do I make myself clear, Kim Kibum?”

“Seonsaengnim, you don’t understand,” Kibum began. “The heart—”

Yesung actually growled in frustration.

The heart, the heart, THE HEART!

That’s all that everyone around him had been talking about! That’s all that everyone around him had ever cared about! The heart!

“Kibum, honestly, if I could just split my chest open and rip out the heart, I’d give you back your brother’s heart right here and now! Just so that you and the others won’t bother me anymore! If you guys have the heart back, you won’t be worried about me anymore, right?! After all, that’s what all of you only ever care about, right?! The ing heart.”

Never mind that Yesung wasn’t usually the type to swear. Especially not in the presence of students. Yesung was so frustrated and out of it and just plain hurt right now.

“Yesung seonsaengnim, it’s really not like that,” Kibum said softly. As Yesung got louder with his ranting, Kibum, on the other hand, got quieter.

“I’m telling you what I told Siwon and Kyuhyun: stay away from me.”

Yesung stomped off toward his class. Kibum, as usual, just stared after him.

The encounter with Kibum greatly strained and took a toll on Yesung’s temper.

And his next class unfortunately became the victim of his temper.

Yesung used to be always so professional at work. He had always been of the opinion that whatever personal problems that a teacher had should never affect and interrupt students’ learning. However, his current circumstance was quite far from the average person’s everyday problems, so he understandably wasn’t able to keep his temper in check during class.

The class immediately knew that something was wrong when Yesung walked into the classroom a few minutes late (since his “talk” with Kibum del