The rain fell against the windows of his car and he could hear the faint sound as they fell upon his roof. The traffic post in front of them glowed red. Himchan turned his head to the side to see her sitting beside him.

He could hear the thumping of his heart ringing in his ear. It was so loud he wondered how Jieun didn't even ask what it was; she was just sitting there and Himchan noticed her face wet from tears. Did he make her cry again? He tried reaching for her hand that was on her lap, but his arms felt too heavy to be even able to lift them.

He watched her bring her hands to her face and cry in them. He tried calling out to her, to console her, but as he opened his mouth, no voice came out. Even when it felt like he was screaming, all he could hear was the rain pouring outside and his heart thumping at a very fast pace.

A second later, he found himself tumbling in his car, his eyes became unfocused and he started to get dizzy so he closed his eyes waiting for the nightmare to end. Right at that moment, he heard something. It was his name. Someone was calling his name. It felt like the car made its final spin and when he opened his eyes, he was back at the hospital.

"Himchan!" someone called out and shook his body.

He felt a little woozy and he could feel that the pillow was wet, drenched from his sweat. The last thing he remembered when he was still wide awake, was him having dinner that Zelo had brought over. His stomach was churning, and he believed it was from the nightmare when his car started to spin.

He was still a little bit phased out to hear Yongguk's voice calling for him, but when Yongguk gave him light slaps on the cheek, it finally woke him up for real.

"Himchan!"

Yongguk had an expression on his face that wasn't really easy to read. Yongguk was pale white, as if he had seen a ghost, but then again, he had a small noticeable smile on his face. Yongguk was holding Himchan by the arms and slightly shook him again.

"What?" Himchan said and rubbed his eyes, rather annoyed that he had to be waken up in this type of manner.

"It's Jieun. She's awake" Yongguk said and it left a very long silence for Himchan to understand what Yongguk was really saying.

Although he was still weak, Himchan found himself stumbling out of the bed and darting out of the room. He ignored Yongguk who was calling him from behind, and with his bare feet, he made it to her room and unintentionally nearly slamming the door open.

Jieun's parents were there, and so was Zelo standing right next to her lying figure. They all looked up to the sudden loud of intrusion and found Himchan red faced, and panting right in front of the doorway.

Himchan noticed that there was also another person there, wearing a white coat. Himchan presumed it was the doctor he was looking at since he was holding down a stethoscope against Jieun's chest to check her heartbeat

"Himchan hyung!" Zelo said in a hushed voice and stared wide eyed at Himchan who was approaching slowly towards them. From Zelo, he brought he gaze to Jieun, who was still lying in her bed with her eyes closed.

Himchan became confused. He thought he had heard clearly what Yongguk had just told him. But how come Jieun was still like in this condition? He looked up and examined everyone’s expressions. Jieun's father was gripping really tight onto the railing of bed and Himchan noticed that his knuckles were turning white. His wife, standing beside him had her hands cover nearly half of her face.

Himchan then looked up at Zelo and grabbed onto his hand. Zelo exchanged looks with Himchan, and his frown flattened out with a smile slowly creeping at the side of his mouth. Himchan could see the younger's eyes glistening with hope.

"She woke up hyung" Zelo spoke up, which actually came out as a squeak. "But it was just for a brief second" Himchan's eyes grew larger. So it was true, Yongguk wasn't lying. And right at that moment, Yongguk had come through the door and made his way towards the bed beside Zelo.

"How is she doctor?" All three boys looked up at Jieun's mother who spoke, her voice was hoarse from the tears of joy, and then they turned their heads to the doctor who cleared his throat before starting to speak.

"She's reacting well to stimuli around her. Since we disconnected the ventilator, she might have some difficulty breathing but other than that, she has no other complications" the doctor explained and everyone nodded in response except for Zelo, who seemed to not understand what the doctor explained.

"But doctor, why isn't she awake now? What happened?" Himchan asked, still confused by the situation.

"Right now, she's simply sleeping" the doctor said and let out a small grin as he watched everyone exchanging looks with each other.

"So you're saying Jieun nuna is sleeping? The good type of sleep or the bad type of sleep? Because if it's the bad type, for all I know, she's been sleeping for three years now and I don't think I can wait any longer for her" Zelo said really fast, almost like a rap. Yongguk chuckled from behind Zelo. He lifted his hand and ruffled the boy’s hair who was still waiting for an answer from the doctor.

"I assure you that it's the good type" the doctor smiled down at the boy, "If you let her rest, she'll wake up soon enough" he said. He turned to her parents and led them out to discuss more about Jieun's condition and when she will be able to check out.

"I can finally see her smile again" Zelo said, at the verge of tears. "I missed nuna so much" and since he couldn't handle it anymore, he broke into tears and covered his face with his arms.

Yongguk chuckled at his dongsaeng who was acting ridiculously emotional and brought him into a hug and patted his head this time.

Despite the emotional commotion around him, Himchan could only stare at Jieun's calm face. His hands reached for hers and tangled his fingers with hers. He was glad that she was finally awake, and soon enough, they would be able to see her eyes once again.

But yet, a part of him didn't want her to wake up. He was afraid of his judgement. What would happen if she finally met eyes with him? What if she didn't remember him and had amnesia like what happened to him after he woke up from his coma? And even if she did remember him, would she forgive him? Would she still want him the way he still wanted her?

Himchan felt a hand land on his shoulder and he saw Yongguk smiling down at him.

"I'll just stay here. I want to be here when she wakes up" Himchan said and squeezed her hand that he was holding; somehow hoping that she could feel him.

Yongguk nodded and flung his arm around Zelo, who was now drying his tears with his sleeve and they both left the room leaving Himchan alone with Jieun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+*+*+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sound of an obnoxious, repeating beeping sound accompanied the sound of her deep breathing. She blinked her eyes a few times before trying to get up but her body was exhausted and she felt that her arms were too weak or heavy to even lift up.

She was still waiting for Zelo to come back from the grocery store with the cherry tomatoes. Coincidentally, she heard someone going through the door followed by footsteps and rustling sounds.

Assuming that Zelo had already returned she called out for him. The words that barely came out from tasted like they were covered in clouds and nearly suffocated her when she only came out with breathless chokes. Her eyes widened, panicked. She didn't understand why she could barely talk or move and the sudden feeling of fear overwhelmed her bringing her to tears.

Through her silent sobbing, she heard a familiar sound. She couldn't make it out so she stopped crying and blinked the tears away to listen to the sound. The distinct sound became louder and louder in her ears as if it was right next to her.

She immediately calmed down when a warm feeling came from her hands and that sound suddenly became a voice. Someone was saying her name.

With tears still blurring her eyes, she watched as a figure hovered above her own. The person brought his hands up to cup her face and felt a drop of water fall on her cheeks. The person was crying and when he said her name again, she instantly figured out who it was

"Ji--ji-eun ah" Himchan could barely speak her name.

She had finally woken up from the longest sleep ever and just being able to see her open her eyes again brought him to tears.

Himchan buried his face in the crook of her neck and for the first time, he burst out in tears repeating her name over and over again.

"Him--chan--ah" she croaked. Every word felt like a dagger stabbed into , but she was more surprised to see the image of Himchan like this.

Jieun felt relieved when she could finally lift her arms up and she cupped his face that he hid in her hair. She held him a just few inches away from her own face and stared at him. His face looked dreadful with the tears running down his cheek and his nose.

Hmichan sniffed and pursed his lips tasting his own salty tears. His eyes were unfocused, he wanted to look into her eyes but the guilt kept on reminding him that Jieun turned out like this because of him. It was fair enough that he didn't deserve to look into her eyes.

Since this was the first time seeing him cry, she smiled at how ridiculously cute he looked. Although she felt the pain in every single muscle of her arm she used, she pulled his face closer to hers letting their lips meet. Himchan stiffened at the contact but soon relaxed and closed his eyes, returning her kiss.

The only thing he hoped now was that they would stay that way forever.

++++++++++*+*+*++++++++++

heyy. I neglected this story for Jongup's story. I'm a bad person. But then again, this week was a busy week especially with No Mercy still ringing in my brain 24/7 haha I hope this chapter was ok and while writing this chapter I realised that this was the first kiss and only kiss through out the whole 12 chapters haha ^_^ I wanted the kiss to have a deeper meaning but I just didn't know how to do it and you know it feels weird trying to write a kiss scene or a scene even more intense than this o_0 ok I'll shut up now.
RaspberriCloud from  — aphrodite's garden | graphic studio did a redo on my poster. Have a nice night everyone!