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Three hours later

The agonizing wait was torture and neither one of them were mentally ready to hear what the doctor had to say when he came out. Chanyeol quickly decided that he should be the one to hear the verdict, as Laina was distressed and the other wasn't even related to him.

He walked over to the doctor and led them a few feet further away so that no one else could hear their conversation.

"So, as you know, he was shot twice in the chest. Both of the bullets fortunately missed his heart, but became lodged in his rib and shoulder. The surgery was... mostly successful, but he lost a lot of blood." The doctor cleared his throat. "Because of that, it was hard to wake him from the anestesia. We gave him a blood tranfusion and attempted to wake him... but the combination of shock and excessive blood loss took a toll on him." The man cleared his throat once more, the next sentence clearly stuck in his throat.

"He's in a coma. And it's hard to tell if he'll ever be out."

A sharp chill ran down the boy's spine and his lips hung open in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, kid. He's stabalized and can have visitors, but he isn't responsive and I truly can't tell you when he will be. If you and your friends would like to see him, he's in room 456. Again, I'm sorry." The man bowed 90 degrees and it surprised the taller completely, but nevertheless, he bowed back.

The information was so unsettling that he felt naseous. His brother wasn't dead, but... he wasn't alive either. And relaying this information to the one second closest to him would be difficult as she was already distraught enough.

But, it was something he had to do and take responsibility for. And he knew Kai would want it that way as well.

Chanyeol shakily walked over to Laina and Luhan and scowled at Lu.

"First of all, get your arm off of my sister." The bold statement slipped from the elder's lips before he had a chance to stop himself, but some part of him liked it that way. Luhan's eyes widened in shock but did what he said.

Chan placed himself in front of the sitting girl and kneeled down so that he was at her eye-level. He gently took hold of her hands in each of his own and looked into her eyes, not speaking until she looked back.

"Lay-ah," the affectionate tone he used seeped right into her heart and caught her attention.

"I need to tell you something, but you have to promise to stay calm, arraseo?" He squeezed her hands lightly and smiled softly.

Instantly did her heart stop beating.

A statement like that could only mean bad news.

"JongIn survived the gunshot wounds," her eyes widened, hoping there wasn't a 'but' coming, "but... he... he's in a coma."

Luhan watched the scene in front of him play out in what seemed to be slow motion.

When the last word left his mouth, he knew his previous request of a promise would be voided and a violent reaction would come next. So, he shot forward and wrapped his arms around her. His right hand held her head snugly against his chest and his left arm tightly wrapped around her shoulders, embracing her against his strong frame. It had all happened so fast, but to Luhan, every milisecond felt like an hour.

He truly envied the close relationship they had.

Chanyeol could see the girl wasn't ready for this, so he held her in his embrace for as long as he needed to. Admiration radiated from his body and soft brushes of fingers against her back soon created such a soothing melody that she fell asleep in his arms.

- - - 

Hours passed and none of them knew what time it was when they decided to head to JongIn's room. Laina was still asleep so Chanyeol carried her bridal style and gently placed her on a chair nearest Kai. He himself took the other chair on the opposite side of his bed and Luhan awkwardly stood  around before finding a spare chair and sitting on that about a foot away from the girl. He could feel eyes burning into his skull but paid no attention as this whole treatment by the taller was starting to get particularly irritating.

Around 30 minutes passed before Laina's swollen eyes began to open. She had calmed down significantly and smiled when she saw her boyfriend. Although it was disturbing to hear that he may not wake up soon, the simple fact that he was alive relaxed her a little. She didn't hesitate to reach her head over and kiss him lightly on the lips. A form in her periferal vision caused her to look right and find that the deer-like boy was still there. Just as she looked at him, a ringtone disrupted the air.

Luhan pulled out his phone; a few seconds into listening to the person on the other side, he had to inch the phone away from his ear because of the amount of yelling from the other line. It was so loud the other two could hear blatant buzzing spewing from the speaker. Luhan winced and at the end of the call replied with a simple 'Yes sir." A second later Laina had rushed over to Luhan and hugged him, words of thanks flowing from nonstop.

"Thank you so much, Luhan. You saved his life by getting us here. I don't even know how to pay you back or even a way that could live up to this and- wait, shouldn't you go back to work now? You did leave all of a sudden. They're probably wondering where you are." Laina backed up and observed the peculiar expression on his face.

He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "I... I umm... I actually just got fired." An embarassed grin was plastered on his face and the girl couldn't help but feel guilty- she was the one that had caused it. 

Little did she know, he had no regrets. He didn't even need the job in the first place. And the fact that he would have more free time now, he would definitely use that to his advantage, regardless of what her brother had to say about it.

"Ahem." Chanyeol cleared his throat and the others looked at him confusedly.

"Laina, could you please go get us something to drink? They probably have coffee made up." He requested. 

"Huh- oh umm yeah. I'll be back in a few then..." She was interested in what had brought this sudden craving up but just ignored it and did as he said. As soon as she left the room, tension grew tenfold.

Chanyeol got up from his seat and stared down at the boy a few feet away from him.

"Look, I don't know you or how you know my sister, but I suggest you don't get too close to her. She's in love with Kai and don't you dare think otherwise." His words were dominant and fierce and pierced the air between the two.

Before Luhan got the chance to reply, the taller spoke up once more. "Don't even attempt to become anything more than friends with her. That means your whole little sweet act, your skinship- knock it the off. I'd hate for you to find out what it's like to be on my bad side." His words were harsh, almost murderous.

Luhan rose his eyebrow. One, the way Chanyeol was talking to him, his elder, was more than disrespectful, and two, how dare he go to the lengths of a violent threat to get him to stay away.

"Was that a threat?" Luhan challenged, and Chanyeol took one large step towards him until he towered over Lu.

"Yes."