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26

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Kris stood in the observation room high above the operation with a couple of doctors standing by. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her, quite unconscious with an incision in the front of her shoulder. They fished for the bullet for what seemed like forever and Kris was getting impatient.

“She’s going to be pissed,” he commented to himself before one of the other doctors butted in.

“Why do you say that? I think she’ll be happy that the bullet is out,” one of the female doctors said.

Kris just scoffed, “It’s another scar nonetheless, her self-consciousness is sure to skyrocket, again,” he retorted. “Besides, what the hell is taking them so long? I thought they knew exactly where it was?” he asked, looking over to the doctor that had just butted in. She didn’t really have much to say, but agreed in the back of her mind that the bullet should have been out… twenty minutes ago, she concluded after looking at her watch.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” she responded quietly.

“Well, instead of just standing there, why don’t you ask them?” Kris replied fiercely, his eyes boring into hers, practically controlling her to ask what was going on.

“H-hey, what’s taking so long? You should have it by now?” she asked over the loudspeaker in the operating room.

“We thought we had a read on it, but it doesn’t seem to be in the same spot we thought it was in. We’re going to do another scan to look for it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kris responded and gently pushed the female doctor out of the way. “You guys are supposed to be trained professionals, you all agreed this thing should have been out a week ago, and now you’re telling me you can’t find it?” Kris was angry, he was beyond angry; he was pissed to the nth degree.

“We’re doing the best we can right now, we just need your patience,” the same doctor replied as he continued to operate on the young girl. Kris took a few steps back, not believing his ears. Was this all really happening? All he could do was waiting, but he couldn’t stand to watch them dig into her anymore. He closed his eyes as his back banged against the wall and waited.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been, how much time had passed before it was finally over. They had finally completed the operation on Yi Hyun, and it was about damn time. Kris looked at his watch; another thirty minutes had passed since he last checked in.

2—6

Many days had passed since then and Yi Hyun did not seem to be improving. Though her condition had changed—the bullet finally being removed by cooperation of Suho—the result wasn’t what anyone had expected. Her condition was still unstable, she couldn’t be on her own for more than a couple of hours before something started going wrong and the two men had to suffer the inevitable: maybe Yi Hyun really was going to die. But, they would know it wasn’t solely because if this; it would be partly due to her past. Her body had accumulated so much damage over the years; the doctor explained that a stressor—being shot—could have easily caused this onset of illness.

The two boys prepared their grieving silently and separately—the past few days had not been kind to Yi Hyun who had lost a lot of weight, her eyes had sunken slightly into her skull and she looked on the brink of death, as though if the I.V. were removed, she would pass right there.

Yi Hyun threw up everything she ate and was no longer eating solid foods. It was pointless; her body would just push it back out. Hell, she could barely even keep water down.

Kris had spent every waking moment he could afford with her, his hands holding tightly on to her right, trying to will life back into her, but it seemed fruitless. He often cried in front of her now, not feeling ashamed of what was going on with him. “I’m so sorry,” he would whisper, “This is all my fault.” Yi Hyun only tried to stop him from blaming himself for a few days before she could barely even speak anymore. Her voiced was intensely rasped by now and he could tell it hurt for her to speak. “If you make it through this… I can’t be here anymore. I put you in way too much danger!”

His eyes shot open when she reached out to grab his arm, struggling for air in her lungs as she clawed at his skin. She was holding his arm so tightly—strength Kris didn’t know she had—that her nails were digging into his flesh. “If you leave me,” she paused for a gasp for air, inhaling as much as she could; he could hear every last bit enter her lungs, “I will never forgive you.” Kris swallowed the extremely large lump in his throat; what could he say to her right now? “I’ve already been shot,” and another pause came, “what worse can they do?”

“They can kill you!” Kris exclaimed and ignored the pain she was causing him with her nails. “I’d feel better off knowing you lived without me, than die with me.”

“That’s where,” and another deep inhale, “your selfishness needs to… shut the hell up.” He just looked at her skeptically, blood dripping from his arm now, but he could care less. “Stay with me… I love you.” Tears welled in Kris’s eyes—he didn’t even have the voice to tell her that he loved her too.

“Kris,” another voice called; it was Suho. “What the hell is going on here, why isn’t she getting better?” He demanded an answer. Why wasn’t she getting better?

“How the hell should I know that? It’s probably because you let that tainted metal sit inside her for too long!” he yelled back at the younger male. Kris stood away from Yi Hyun, pulling her claws down his arm before they dropped off at his hand. He towered over Suho but the shorter male was less than intimidated.

“Oh, my God, you’re bleeding!” the nurse called, rushing over to Kris to inspect his wounds—they were to be cleaned and bandaged immediately. Kris just glared Suho down, letting the nurse do whatever she needed to fix Kris up.  A low growl rumbled in Kris’ throat—Suho just turned his chin up.

2—6

It only took what seemed like forever, but a little over a month later, Yi Hyun was cleared from the hospital albeit she wasn’t at a hundred percent—not even close. She had enough in her to return to life at home, but work was spotty at the moment. She barely ever saw Kris or Suho or the boys, though Kris would try to visit her as much as he could.

She thought everything was going to return to normal until one day when she went in to visit the boys; there was one absent, the one she probably cared about the most. “Yi Hyun! It’s great to see you up and out of bed! How are you feeling?” Luhan asked, approaching the girl. She smiled weakly at him.

“I’m doing alright, thanks for asking, Luhan,” she replied, “How are you doing?”

“I’m quite fine myself, practice is kicking my though,” he said, wiping some beads of sweat away from his brow. She just smiled and nodded.

“Have any of you seen Kris?”

“Nobody has seen him almost all of practice,” Xiumin piped in. This worried Yi Hyun, where could he have gone? He wasn’t outside the building, she had come in that way and didn’t see anyone. Suho came into the scene with his two cents.

“Didn’t you hear? He’s going back to China,” he commented.

Yi Hyun opened to say something, but nothing came out. The words came as a huge shock to her. Kris just left, didn’t say a word to her, and apparently didn’t say a word to anyone else about his departure.

“What? Are you serious?”

“So he finally left, huh?”

“Poor Yi Hyun,” Lay commented, approaching the female who looked like she was about to break into tears. He hugged her tenderly as the tears silently fell down her cheeks. She covered with her hand before turning into Lay’s chest, hiding her face from the rest there.

There was silence, the only sound were Yi Hyun’s silent sobs. “How could he just leave and not say anything?” Yi Hyun asked. She hadn’t remembered him saying anything about it, much less even acting funny. When could he have possibly slipped out under her nose? She knew she wasn’t a hundred percent, but she thought for sure she would catch something like that.

Lay just rubbed her back tenderly until she turned to Suho, and with all of the sound her tiny voice-box could manage, screamed at Suho with all of her might. “You did this! You did it, didn’t you? Just admit it, Suho; you drove him away for your own selfish gains! He didn’t even tell me goodbye!”

“That’s because I didn’t leave,” Kris commented, turning a bunch of heads to watch him lean against the door frame with his arms crossed. “I leave for two days, two days and this is what happens?” Yi Hyun wanted to faint as she collapsed against Lay. What the hell was even going on here? “The gall, Suho; the audacity to sit here and lie stone-faced to someone you love. If you want to take her away from me, you’d have to do a better job than that,” Kris said, giving him the best ‘what the hell were you thinking’ face possible.

He almost laughed, though; he had to. What Suho had just done was ridiculously low and pathetic. “You may have fooled her for half a second, but the moment she got home she would have called me up, and you know what would have happened? The trust between you two would have shattered, just like it has here; I could practically pick up the pieces.”

Suho gritted his teeth as he stared at Kris. Even if Yi Hyun had walked away believing Kris was gone—which was the extent that Suho had thought about it—Suho would have been caught red handed; guess he didn’t think about it too hard.

Kris stepped towards Lay who was holding onto Yi Hyun. Her eyes were barely open as she looked at him, wrinkle lines covering her forehead even has he held his hand out to her. He lifted her back to her feet and against his chest. “I’m not leaving, and even if I was, I would never not say goodbye,” he commented, tilting her chin up to slant his mouth over hers in a soft and reassuring kiss, right smack dab in front of Suho.