Se Hun could hear the pain in Lu Han’s voice and the amount effort it took for him to speak every word.

Lu Han... please stop hurting yourself...Se Hun thought desperately, but he didn't say it out loud. He didn't want to interrupt him, and it was best to just let him let it all out, right? But then he started coughing, violently, and Se Hun couldn't help but regret his decision now, he shouldn’t have let him talk...

Not knowing what to do now, he gently patted the older male's back, hoping that it was at least slightly comforting. He was relieved when Lu Han finally stopped coughing, but that relief was replaced with cold fear almost instantly when he saw blood on the older boy's hand. Se Hun pressed Lu Han against him again, trying to keep himself calm, more so than helping Lu Han. His heart was pounding in his ribcage, and he was in a state of panic; was Lu Han going to die?! The older boy's breathing was irregular and he looked he was struggling to stay conscious. Se Hun had no idea what to do, so when Lu Han rejected his only idea, he decided the best, and only, thing left to do was to bring him back to his place.

Se Hun gently laid Lu Han on to his bed and sat down on the edge of the bed before taking a moment to admire the older boy's beautiful face, one of the things that really drew him to Lu Han. He took in the other's soft and graceful features and couldn’t help but feel lucky that he had met him.

Reaching out, he placed a hand upon Lu Han's cheek, and in a deep breath when he made contact with the soft skin; this boy, there was just something about him that made Se Hun lose his mind, and feel like he couldn't control himself. Unconsciously, his hand left Lu Han's cheek before wandering up to his soft and silky hair before wandering down again, across the older boy’s neck, and softly brushing across his collarbones.

He took his hand away suddenly when he heard Lu Han gasp in his sleep, afraid of waking him up, but continued when the other had no other reaction to his touching. As he continued the slow exploring of the older boy’s body, imagining the smooth skin under his clothes. He was snapped out of his trance by the sound of Lu Han coughing again.

Se Hun felt himself blushing furiously, realizing what he had just done; he was more than glad that Lu Han didn't wake up. Looking back at the other boy again, Se Hun noticed that blood was dribbling down his chin. Alarmed, Se Hun ran out of the room and to the bathroom, grabbed a towel, soaked it, and ran back to his room. He tenderly wiped the blood and the sweat off the other's lovely face, while being careful not to wake him still.

As he went to wash the towel again, the younger boy couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the attractive male lying on his bed. He'd obviously been beaten up, but why and by whom? Se Hun sighed before returning to his room again. He wiped the blood off Lu Han's hand, while making a mental note to change the bed sheets later. Setting the towel aside, Se Hun brought the first aid kit out but then wondered if it'd be better for the older male to bathe first...

And then he got his first real look at Lu Han's arms and suppressed a scream while silently cursing himself for not noticing before. There were bruises upon bruises, some were fading, some looked like they were just forming, along with cuts of various lengths and depths; it was clear that they had accumulated over quite a long period of time. Dark purple bruises, shaped like fingers, were clear upon his neck, like someone had been choking him with the intent to kill; Se Hun was now rather terrified of what he would see on the skin that was still covered up. Taking a deep breath, Se Hun tried to prepare himself but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

His chest looked worse than his arms and neck, and just the sight of the bruised skins made Se Hun want to vomit; what had Lu Han done to deserve such treatment? No one deserved this... Se Hun shook his head sadly, trying to keep his tears from falling. Especially not him... The tears came anyways, and he had to resist the urge to pull Lu Han into his arms and never letting him go. Se Hun made a silent promise to himself to protect the other always from now on, before began to rub ointments on him and then bandaging him up.

The younger boy tried to be as gentle as he possibly could; even though Lu Han was asleep he didn't want to hurt him. He rubbed the medicine into the cuts, and then bandaged only the cuts knowing that there wasn't much he could do about the bruises, only time would heal those.

Feeling a little shy and conscious, Se Hun was unsure what to do about the areas he still hadn't seen; that is, below the belt. In the end, he settled for just rolling up the pant legs a little and giving them a quick look over. He was extremely relieved to see that there was barely anything there.

He put the first aid away afterwards and unintentionally caught a glance of a nearby clock; he was surprised to see that it had been almost five hours since he brought Lu Han back... Yawning, Se Hun headed back to his room deciding to get some sleep. He got into the bed with Lu Han, and could feel his face heating up and his heartbeat quicken due to his close proximity to the other male. Carefully, he pulled Lu Han into his arms, not wanting to wake him or hurt him more. Hoping that Lu Han would be all right for the rest of the night at least, Se Hun drifted off into a tentative sleep, his arms tightly around the other.

I will protect you, Lu Han, He thought before falling asleep. Always.

End of chapter 7

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And there it is my wonderful subscribers... to be honest I don't like this chapter... it just feels... awkward, and I'm really bad at describing certain things... but yeah... um... hope you liked it? ^_^;

I'll try to update again probably... Friday? or something? I'm really getting into this story, but I still don't know where it's going, to be honest, but I'm winging it and it's going quite well... so yeah... 

Thank you so much, again, to all my subscribers. When I published my last chapter I wrote that I had almost 60 subscribers and I was happy. Now, I somehow have almost 80. What? Why are you people so wonderful? ; A ; 

Until next time! 

Also, I've been trying to summarize my entire chapter using only one word, the titles reflect that xD