Abject darkness surrounded him. Glimpses of Donghae's face passed by him, like a fleeting glowing image he couldn't grasp, couldn't hold on to. He wanted to flail his limbs, chase after the fading mirage of the person who had accompanied him throughout these tumultuous rough days, but he was left grasping at thin air.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The faint sounds of the heart monitor pierced his subconscious mind, slowing getting clearer. Each beep drawing him back to reality, back to his true state. He felt a strange lull over him, making it hard for him to open his eyes in a blink. He wanted to jolt awake and see if Donghae was beside him, sitting next to him and staying alert to the looming danger. But the dim lights emanating from the nearby lamp, the beeping heart monitor and the astringent smell of medicines quickly brought him back to his senses.

He was out of the cursed game, back in the real world.

He lifted his hands, feeling weakness in his limbs as he reached towards his face, to rub away the weariness. He was alright! He surmised. Considering the things he had gone through in the game, besides feeling lethargic he didn't felt any grave injuries on his body. Almost relieved, almost.

The door swung open with two nurses talking to each other entering his room for their routine rounds. One exclaimed at finding Kyuhyun awake who was in the midst of propping himself up, the other asking some questions to which Kyuhyun didn't answer.

He was tired. He was exhausted. He didn't want to think anything anymore, not about how he ended up in the hospital, not about how long he was gone. Nothing. So he laid back again, letting his head rest on the thin pillow.

There was just one thing in his mind that he couldn't let go off, what happened to Donghae?

He closed his eyes and turned to lay on his side, ignoring the polite voices which asked another question to him. The nurses apologised noticing he wanted to be alone and left him before informing that a doctor will soon come to see and check up on him.

Kyuhyun had changed into his pair of clothes, thanking the nurse for giving him his stuff. After the silent treatment he gave to his carers he felt it was rude of him to behave like that. They probably had encountered worse cranky patients than him, but even the Doctor who had came for his checkup was very understanding of his reluctance to speak.

Getting some time to rest after spending the past few days in the virtual realm helped him clear his mood. Was any of that even real? He wondered.

"Can I ask you who brought this things for me?" He stopped the nurse who was at the door and had been helping him get ready for his discharge. "Oh, it was your neighbour." Kyuhyun nodded thanks as he swiped his mobile to turn it on.

Of course it was his neighbour. His family barely knew about his existence since neither him nor them bothered to check up on each other. He scrolled through the several notifications and frowned at the familiar number. It was Siwon! 

The doctor had informed him that he was brought here by his neighbour, when the latter received an unknown call asking to checkup on him who had not been to work for two days and was found unconscious in his room. It must have been Siwon who alerted his neighbour, considering the calls that ended on the date he was admitted. Also he wasn't that close with his neighbour to warrant any concern for his absence or abnormal routines.

"I see you are ready to leave", the doctor entered with a smile. "This time no playing games like an addict. Make sure you eat food on time and take enough rest." Kyuhyun quirked his lip up, "Can't make any promises, but I'll take care of myself better."

The doctor patted him after giving him an all clear, "Go home and take rest because you were bed-ridden for a 4 days, unconscious for nearly a week. It will take a while for you to adjust your body and so it would have been better if you could call your family. I could release you under their care with less worry."

Kyuhyun smiled, "It will take days to get through to them and I am not sure they could find time for me. I'll be fine, Doc."

The doctor removed papers from his clipboard, "I have written a letter for leave of absence along with your prescriptions. Take care."

Kyuhyun was grateful for the kind act but he had one place he wanted to go to and it can't wait for tomorrow. He bought the prescribed medicines which were supplements and nutrients that were lacking in his diet. He was told that his body was exhausted from fatigue and poor diet and that caused him to slip into a deep sleep, mild term for comatose.

He laughed in his mind, wondering would he have died if he wasn't saved the several times he was by Donghae in the game. But that must have been all in his head. It wasn't real, right? Kyuhyun shook his head, not letting doubts cloud his intuition. Donghae is very much a real person and he is trapped. He felt it in his gut, the strong feeling of something not being right. Donghae not being out here in the real world felt wrong. Only one man might know the what he could do next. Siwon!

He dialled Siwon's number on his ride to his home but couldn't get through. The mid day traffic led to him being stuck in the taxi for about an hour. He thanked the driver and paid the fare when he was dropped at the gate of his building.

Kyuhyun wanted to rush to his apartment and check up on the game. Was it working? Can he play it again? Maybe check its code? But since he was just discharged from the hospital he took it slow. He tapped his feet restlessly, waiting for the elevator to reach his floor, keys already in his hand.

Putting key in the lock shouldn't be a hard task, but here he was fumbling at it, his fingers clumsily missing the keyhole. He slammed the door open when he finally got the key in and rushed to his bedroom, the pack of medicines tucked under his arms.

His apartment was faintly lit by the light outside that leaked through his blinds. He ignored the state of his living room and the mess in the kitchen that had started to rot and was stinking, placing the pack of medicines on the kitchen counter and rushed inside.

He the lights and then sat heavily in his chair, powering on his PC too. The boxes at the feet of his desk looked the same, nothing seemed amiss or out of place. They were exactly in the same messy state he had left them before. He picked up the black box in which he received the game CD and flipped it, turning and poking at it to see if he missed something the first time.

His attention was drawn to the screen when the PC booted and he checked if the CD was still placed in the driver. He closed his eyes and silently prayed that he could play the game again or atleast check to see if Donghae is in it. All he wanted to know right now was that Donghae was safe, that he didn't leave him behind to die in a collapsing game. He knew it was wishful thinking, but it was all that had him holding up himself, hope.

Kyuhyun waited for a while, waiting for the game to start, but nothing happened. Not the opening screen he saw the first time, nothing. He tapped a few keys, trying to see if he could manually open its code and see what's wrong, even that didn't work.

He felt a sudden surge of guilt, a heaviness in his heart. He desperately tried again and again, removing the CD and reinserted it. But nothing happened. 

"No", he whispered, hands trembling at the keyboard as he stared at the blank screen. Did he loose Donghae for real?

"He was just a game...." he mumbl