-Chapter XVII-

The rest of dinner went well, without any anger lingering. Taemin had confronted Yong Hye, and Yong Hye, he knew, had come clean. They both knew the other well enough to know when the other was lying or telling the truth, and they trusted each other easily. Who else had been there for them their entire lives, after all?

By the time they got back home, the events of the day had been nearly forgotten by either of them; at least until they realized just how worn out they were; Yong Hye from spending the day with her mom and Taecyeon, then having to deal with Taemin’s questions, and Taemin from worrying nearly all day.

They both managed to get through their nightly routines, but when it came time to get in bed, they barely managed to lift the bed sheets, they were so tired. They were both asleep within ten minutes of lying down.

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The next morning, Yong Hye left later than she usually would. She had slept for nearly eleven hours, and when her alarm went off, she allowed herself to revel in fifteen minutes of relaxation before she actually got up, something she usually wouldn’t do.

Taemin had already gotten up, and was making breakfast when she reached the kitchen. “What are you doing today?” he asked.

“I’ve got a class later in the afternoon, then hopefully get some writing done.” Yong Hye didn’t say that the writing she was hoping to do was the article for The Report, figuring that would only bring up things that the two of them would rather forget. “You?” she asked, watching her fiancé walk around the kitchen, grabbing things to add to his breakfast.

“Early class, then lunch with Dad,” Taemin answered. “He wants to discuss how I should go about working at the family hospital.”

“Oh, fun,” Yong Hye said sympathetically, grabbing an apple from the bowl of fruits on the kitchen table and taking a bite. Nearly all of Taemin’s family were doctors, and of those that were, the majority worked at one hospital. There were so many Lees there that they had taken to calling it the “family hospital,” despite the fact that none of them actually ran the place. Yong Hye, forever the contradictor, wondered why they would all want to work in the same place as so many family members for that long. She had been to a few of their family get-togethers, and, though they all were obviously close, Yong Hye continued to wonder how they could all stand working and hanging out together for so long.

Taemin, however, was open to anything. Some part of him wanted to work with his family; it would be a comfort knowing that there would always be someone there for him, but at the same time, he wanted to be different, a feeling he contributed to Yong Hye’s influence.

Taemin shrugged. “I don’t think he’s desperate for me to commit. Yet,” he said, working over the stove.

Yong Hye smiled as she chewed on the bite of apple. “Just wait,” she warned playfully. “He’ll get there.”

Taemin’s laugh was cut off by the phone ringing.

Yong Hye and Taemin looked at each other curiously. It wasn’t very often that their home phone rang. Even their parents called one of their cell phones to talk to them. The home phone had really become a dust collector.

“Hello?” Yong Hye answered the phone. The caller ID was blank, making the call even stranger.

“Is this Chae Yong Hye?” the caller asked. Yong Hye didn’t recognize the voice, but it had a strained sound to it; as though they were trying to do something wit their voice that it didn’t naturally do.

“Yes,” Yong Hye answered slowly. “Who is this?”

“Do you know Ok Taecyeon?” the voice asked, ignoring Yong Hye’s question, which was fine, because as soon as they had mentioned Taecyeon, Yong Hye forgot her questions, instantly knowing that something wasn’t right.

“Yes,” she answered, this time a lot quicker than before.

“He’s in the hospital.”

For a split second, Yong Hye thought she recognized the voice, but then she forgot about it entirely.

“What?” she nearly whispered. She could feel Taemin staring at her curiously. For him, this conversation must seem even weirder, knowing only that someone called their apartment and after a series of affirmative answers, his fiancée was visibly troubled.

Again, the caller didn’t answer her question. He simply rattled off the name of a hospital, the only Yong Hye assumed Taecyeon was at, and hung up.

Yong Hye didn’t move for a second, hoping that the caller would somehow redial her and explain what was going on, but, of course, that didn’t happen.

It wasn’t until Taemin asked what was wrong that Yong Hye even had the piece of mind to hang up the phone.

“Taecyeon’s in the hospital,” Yong Hye said quietly.

“Why?” Taemin asked, sounding genuinely worried. And he was; Yong Hye knew that. That was just Taemin’s state of mind. If she cared about someone, so did Taemin, no matter what may have happened earlier.

“I don’t know,” Yong Hye said, shaking her head. “They didn’t say.”

“Well who was it?” Taemin asked, completely forgetting his now cool breakfast.

Yong Hye shrugged. “I don’t know that either.” She rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache coming on. She felt like there was much more to this story than she knew, but she didn’t know enough to make any sort of conclusion.

“Well, which hotel is he at?” Taemin asked.

Yong Hye almost answered, but stopped herself as she remembered the name of the hotel that had been given to her, thinking even harder. “Your family’s,” she finally answered.

Taemin immediately pulled out his phone. Yong Hye didn’t know who he called, but he managed to end up on the line with Taecyeon. “Here,” he said, handing Yong Hye the phone. “Talk to him. You know him better than I do.” Yong Hye paused, thinking Taemin was testing her to see if she cared about Taecyeon more than him, but when she looked at her fiancé, she knew he wasn’t doing that. He actually wanted to make sure he was okay and that Yong Hye knew that.

Yong Hye cautiously took the phone from Taemin. “Taecyeon?” she asked.

“What happened to calling me ‘Taec’?” the familiar voice asked, exaggerating annoyance.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Yong Hye babbled out, forgetting the nickname altogether.

She heard him laugh. “I’m fine, I’m fine. I probably shouldn’t really be here, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

She heard Taecyeon sigh. “The only reason I’m here is because someone decided to put me here. I’m fine, really.”

“Well, what happened to make them put you in the hospital?” Yong Hye prodded.

“Nothing major,” Taecyeon answered. “I got side-swiped by a car pretty good, ended up falling on my face. Woke up in a hospital bed.”

“Getting hit by a car is major!” Yong Hye cried. Taemin, who had gone back to eating, looked up at her, shocked. He hadn’t been expecting that.

“I’m seriously fine,” Taecyeon chuckled. “The only reason I’m still here is because they wanted me to stay overnight last night so they could make sure I didn’t have a concussion.”

“But you don’t?”

“I’m fine. No concussions, no broken bones. The only things that hurt are my side and face, and that’s just because of bruises I got from the fall. I promise. But how did you find out I was in the hospital?”

“I got a phone call,” Yong Hye answered quickly. There was no reason Taecyeon needed to know about the mysterious phone call tipping her and Taemin off.

“Don’t worry about me,” Taecyeon said. “And tell Taemin that his aunt is a very nice doctor.”

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So I'm almost done with this story! I have a spin-off planned though, that will probably end up being a lot more intense than this one....