s i x ;

“Is she alright?”

“How long has she been out?”

“Is she breathing?”

“She’s not dead, right?”

“HYUNG!”

All four pair of eyes turned to their maknae who was fuming, and blinked their eyes innocently. Dong Jun stared back at them angrily.

“Can you please don’t say things like that?”

“Ah, sorry Dong Jun-ah,” Minwoo was the first one to speak up. “We are actually worried about her too, you know.”

He nudged the guy beside him to say something that will appease their dongsaeng. Hyungshik cleared his throat loudly.

“Yeah, he’s right. We didn’t mean to curse her or anything. Besides, we’re partly to be blamed about what happened to her.”

 “Not partly,” Dong Jun corrected him with gritted teeth. “We are to be blamed, period.”

“But...Chang Soon was after you,” Hee Chul pointed out, which immediately earned him a smack on the back of his head from Kwang Hee.

“Did you lose your memory or something? Dong Jun is in this trouble because of you.”

Hee Chul looked away in embarrassment. “Aish, really now...”

“Dong Jun-ah,” Kwang Hee turned his attention to the former now. “Don’t worry okay? I’ve already attend to her wounds accordingly. She should be fine after getting enough rest. And you guys, don’t crowd around her! She needs some space.”

“Neh.”

It was about 5 in the evening, and Dong Jun had just dozed off – when he felt her fingers moving underneath his grasp.

His head immediately shot up in response.

“Tae Eun? Can you hear me?”

At the sound of his voice, her eyes fluttered open slowly. Dong Jun smiled in relief.

He watched her as she turned her head slightly to the right and met his eyes.

“J-Jun?”

“Yeah, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Dead?” she joked and tried to crack a smile, which she instantly failed doing. “But unfortunately, I’m still alive, right?”

He frowned. “Don’t say that. Especially not after I had to run 1000km with you on my back.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

He couldn’t help but to smile again. “Yeah, it’s a bit far-stretched huh?”

Tae Eun shook her head in disbelief as she tried to sit up straight. With Dong Jun’s help, she finally succeeded and rested her back against the pillow provided.

“Where have you brought me to exactly?”

“Um, a friend’s house,” he replied feebly.

She gave him a long, hard stare. “What happened? After I passed out...what about Se Mi?”

Dong Jun was deliberating if he should tell her the truth. “Actually – “

“No more lies, Jun,” she said firmly. “I’m having none of that.”

He let out a small, resigned sigh. “Fine. After you passed out, Se Mi freaked out even more. Seeing how she wasn’t able to calm down, I assured her that I was going to take care of things – that I would take care of you.”

Tae Eun’s brows creased in confusion. “And she actually let you take me away?”

Dong Jun shook his head. “At first, she wasn’t going to. But she told me that she had already called the police and well...I can’t afford to deal with the authorities, Tae Eun. And I can’t leave you behind too. So I – “

“So you had to take me away with you,” she finished it off for him, as the truth dawned upon her. “But there’s more to the story, am I right?”

Dong Jun hung his head low. “I thought by laying low for awhile, they wouldn’t have gone to you.”

“But they still did, whoever they are.”

“What did he ask you?”

Tae Eun shrugged. “He wanted to know where you were. When I told him that I have no idea, he just lost it completely.”

Dong Jun looked up once again and gave her a weak smile. “You could’ve given him a fake tip-off, just to get him off your case. You shouldn’t have been so brave.”

Tae Eun was quiet for a moment.

“Are you – “

“I wanted to protect you,” she spoke up quietly. “I didn’t know what was going on, and I still don’t – but all that I knew at that moment was that, I had to protect you. Even if it meant putting my life on the line.”

Dong Jun could feel his heart swelling up at her honest, sincere confession. He’s never felt so touched, and cared about so much by anyone before.

But this girl who was sitting in front of him, this girl who had taken the beating for him, the girl who defended him nonetheless when he had done her wrong, this beautiful, honest girl who goes by the name of Tae Eun – actually cares about him.

She cares about him enough to still trust him despite the circumstances.

He didn’t deserve her – not even in the slightest bit.

“I’m sorry...” he said, in a voice barely above a whisper. “I really shouldn’t have...”

“What are you talking about?”

He would be lying if he said that he didn’t feel anything for her. He would be lying if he said he didn’t feel anything when he first laid eyes on her. He would be lying if he said that he hadn’t fall for her during those moments they have spent together.

He would be lying if he said that he didn’t love her.

But to love someone, also means to let them go when you know you can’t hold on to them.

When you actually care about them so much to let them get hurt because of you.

That was exactly how Kim Dong Jun felt about Lee Tae Eun.