Woo Chul’s POV

Tony.

She’s right, in a way.

“But you still should have called me instead of Tony,” I told her stubbornly. “Then we wouldn’t have to blame him for this.”

She closed her eyes and I knew she was counting to ten. That’s what she always do whenever she’s trying to calm down, so she doesn’t slap me or anything. Then she opened her eyes and they flashed dangerously at me. “Lee Woo Chul, will you listen to yourself?” she said in a low, quivering voice, which shook with anger. I saw her balling up her fist. “Do you have any idea just how childish you’re being right now? You keep going back to the same argument when people have already shot it to the ground so many times!”

“Annie —” I started to say.

“Shut up!” she yelled and I took a couple of steps back, stunned. “Just shut up! Don’t talk to me! I never ever want to have anything to do with you anymore. I don’t give a if you’re in the same school, let alone same class with me! I don’t want you in my life anymore! out and leave me alone. I’ve had it with you. I just need peace!”

My eyes went wide. This was the first time I had ever seen Annie truly blow up. Sure, she gets mad and all, but she hardly ever yell. She’s not one to start things up and was usually the peacemaker.

I guess I crossed the line.

“I’m sorry,” I backpedaled. “I’m really sorry. I did not mean to —”

“Shut — up,” she growled.

I opened my mouth to say something, to apologize for being an , to try to make things right again when suddenly her phone went off.

She sighed, trying to calm down before answering the call. “Yeobosaeyo?”

I watched her facial expression as it changed from fury to confusion to shock. dropped opened and her phone slid out from her hands. I watched as it fell to the ground in slow motion. Once it reached the floor, it made a loud crack.

I looked back up to her and saw something flickered across her face. Pain. “Umma . . .” she said in a staged whisper, color draining from her face, her voice almost inaudible.

Umma?

My eyebrows ceased in confusion.

Yuri’s POV

My body reacted before my mind and I was out of the door in no time, ignoring Woo Chul’s cries, calling me back. My vision blurred with tears and everything I ran passed became hazy. I ran, not having anywhere in particular to run.

I just needed to get the voices out of my head.

“Yuri-yah,” my dad said through the other end of the receiver. He sounded tired and frustrated, and upset at the same time. He sounded as if he had been crying.

I gripped on my phone harder, suddenly having a sharp sense that it has to do with my mother. It was the only time my father would break down. I was too scared to ask him, too scared to speak, too scared to even open my mouth.

Please don’t tell me she’s dead.

“Yuri-yah . . . she’s coughing up blood again. She is growing weak. Her condition has worsened. Yuri ah . . .” my dad trailed off, choking on his words. I knew he did not want to believe whatever he was going to say. “Your mother — she only h – has a a few days left to live.”

I was frozen on the spot.

“I’ll see you at the hospital if you feel like it.”

That was when I dropped my phone.

Then I ran.

I ran blindly out of the apartment, to the stairs, down the stairs, out of the building and into the city surrounded in dusk as the sun began to set. I ran out to the streets, crowded with people, pushing my way blindly past them.

I ran passed the red light of the traffic, ignoring the people’s protest as I accidentally bump into them in my despair.

“She only has a days left to live.”

“Anniyo,” I sobbed out loud.

Suddenly I tripped over a crack on the pavement of the street, lost my footing and stumbled forward. People around me tried to help me, but I crawled over to the side, away from the middle, refusing their hand. I did not want help.

I want to be alone.

I brought my knees to my chest and buried my head in, shutting everyone out. But I couldn’t shut the noise. I could hear the buzzing voices of people passing by, the whispers they were whispering about me, wondering if I was okay, if they should call the police or something. The sounds of cars zooming by on the street, honking at other cars occasionally. The footsteps, sometimes soft and sometimes loud, sometimes rushed and at times they were gentle. The rustling of the wind breezing by. Anything and everything. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to shut them all out.

But suddenly I felt a pair of strong arms wrapping themselves around me. I looked up but I couldn’t see very clearly through my downpour of tears but I felt so afraid, I felt really scared.

Did Woo Chul managed to catch up with me?

“Yuri-yah, what’s the matter?” a familiar voice asked, hugging me tight.

“Key,” I sobbed.

He lifted me up and carried me as I sobbed in his arms, relieved it wasn’t Woo Chul. As I continued to sob while he kept murmuring reassuring words into my ear, I was suddenly aware that the passersby’s voices had faded away.

Through my fuzzy vision, I saw patches of brown and green and realized we were at the park.

Key had taken me to the park to get privacy, away from the talking crowd, the busy street, where he knew I needed the quiet now. He set me down gently on a bench and hugged me, waiting for my tears to calm down, my hair, occasionally murmuring, kissing my forehead.

Finally, after a while, I choked back on my sobs and I looked up to see his warm, worried and concerned eyes looking at me.

“Why were you at the neighborhood?” I asked. "You don't live around here."

He shrugged. “I was on my way to take a stroll at the park when I found you crouched by the coffee shop. I saw how distressed you were and that people were all talking. I knew you needed comfort so I carried you all the way here.”

I didn’t say anything, overwhelmed with grief about Umma.

Umma . . .

I looked down at my fumbling fingers, trying to hold back my tears but Key grasped my chin and lifted my face up to his so I had to look into his eyes. “Has this got to do with Woo Chul? Did he hurt you?” he asked me in a gentle tone.

I frowned. "How did you know about Woo Chul?"

He looked guilty. "All right, fine. I lied. Mir called me, asking me to check up on you because he told me your ex-boyfriend is with you," he replied a little shamefully.

I gave a sad smile. "Looks like Mir finally learned to trust you."

He shrugged. "Seems like it." He looked back at me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "What's the matter, if it's not Woo Chul?"

I shook my head. “My mom,” I whispered.

He looked pale, and I knew he knew that it wasn’t a good news. “What happened?”

“She only has a few days left to live!” I wailed and started to cry all over again. “How is this possible? The doctors said two months! She barely lived one month! That’s not fair!”

He hugged me, burying my face at the nape of his neck. I cried, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and he held me tightly. “I’m sorry,” he murmured sympathetically.

“Key Oppa . . .” I said in a small voice. “I’m scared.”

He nodded once. “I know you are,” he replied softly.

“I don’t want her to die.”

“Nobody does.”

“I want to see her.”

“No.” He shook his head firmly.

“She’s my mother!”

“Yuri, you can’t see her now. Not when you’re still in this state! You’re still in a state of hysterics.”

“I have to! What if she dies now?!” I shrieked.

He held me down. “Yuri, I promise you, she’s not going to die now, not without saying goodbye to all of you. Trust me, I have a feeling it’s not tonight,” he said, covering my mouth to stop me from screaming. He was lucky no one was near otherwise they would think he’s me or something. “If the doctors said a few days, then it will be few days. But it definitely won’t be tonight!” he hollered.

“That’s what they said about two month and now she is going to die soon!”

“Yuri, don’t be dramatic!”

“You can’t do this to me!”

“Yes, I can, and I will. Now stop moving. You’re going to get us both injured!”

I stopped moving, only because i had exhausted myself. I collapsed against him and sobbed once more. He held me tightly. Slowly everything surrounding me became disorientated before I shut my eyes and didn’t open them again.

When I opened my eyes, I felt something warm next to me. I turned, my vision becoming focused. Then I saw it was Mir. I frowned and checked the time. It was two in the morning.

I’d fallen asleep in Key's arms earlier. He must have carried me back to the house and had tucked me in until they came back home to explain to them about my situation.

Mir must have sensed me because he stirred and he was looking at me a few seconds later. “Hey,” he said groggily. He propped his elbow up and kissed me softly on the lips. “Are you okay?” he asked me worriedly.

“What happened?”

He hugged me. “Key brought you home from the park. When we came back, he was waiting for us. He explained to us that you were upset about something. He didn’t say what. He said to ask you later. Then he also said for someone to keep an eye on you tonight and I volunteered for that job. It’s my job anyway.”

I smiled sadly. I opened my mouth to tell him why I was so upset, to tell him about the call from my dad but I remembered what Key had said to me at the park a few hours earlier.

“Yuri, I promise you, she’s not going to die now, not without saying goodbye to all of you. Trust me, I have a feeling it’s not tonight.”

I was tired, anyways, so I decided to wait until the next morning. “I’ll tell you later, with the others, all at breakfast,” I replied.

He nodded understandingly. “What happened to you and Woo Chul?” he asked. “I mean, when we came back, Key was attending to you and Woo Chul was . . . well, he was sulking. Not that I'm complaining,” he added in a low voice but I heard him anyway.

I sighed. “He and I got into an argument about the, you know.”

He sighed as well, kissing my hair. “So, you still choose me over him?”

I kissed him on the lips. “For sure,” I replied. “You are the one I choose.”

“I also heard that Sohyun is back and that you two are now chums.”

I grimaced. “I wouldn’t say we’re that close, but we are on good terms. She’s not going to hurt me or kill me anymore.”

“Good,” he whispered tiredly. “Let’s sleep.”

I nodded and we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Not tonight. She's not going to die tonight.

The next morning, during breakfast, the others all waited for me to say something, to tell them what had happened the night before. I looked at them. Mir gave me an encouraging smile. “Guys,” I started to say and all heads whipped to me. “There’s something —”

Joon’s phone went off and he answered it. He got out of his chair and walked out of the dining room.

I sighed. Now I have to wait for him.

Seungho smiled at me sympathetically while G.O kissed my cheeks. Cheon Doong squeezed my hand in a gentle way and Mir hugged me.

Joon came back, the horrorstruck expression on his face a bad sign. He looked at all of us. “Bi-sunbae gave us a day off,” he said. “He said that Umma wants to see us one last time in the hospital now. Before she dies.”

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Double update for I won't be able to update tomorrow. Sports Day. Hurrr~ T.T

Hope you enoy the two chapters! :D don't mind my cliffy D: I'll be back, either on Sunday or Monday. Monday I'll give another double update, cos I won't have school. Aahhh, the beauty of Sports Day on Saturday every year. No school on Monday :P