It had been a couple of days since Ellie stopped visiting Chen. It wasn’t like she purposefully stopped visiting him, but Kris had advised her not to. In her opinion, Kris had been getting more and more protective of her for some reason. She wasn’t entirely sure why, but she knew that it had to be something about what happened in the hospital room. However, she didn’t understand why he was so nervous for her, it wasn’t like anything was going to happen. But then again, it wasn’t like anything would not happen either. Anything could happen in life, it was the way life worked.

            “Ugh, I’m bored,” she groaned as she sprawled out on the couch. Slowly, Ellie started drifting off to sleep to take a nap, but the doorbell rang, chasing her sleep away. “Who could that be?” she wondered to herself.

            Before he left, Kris had advised Ellie to be cautious about everything, but Ellie thought that he was just being overprotective like always. Ellie figured that he wasn’t home, he was almost never home nowadays and Ellie never knew why. She just knew that he went out in the morning and didn’t return until night, it was like had gotten a job, but what kind of job, it wasn’t Ellie’s place to know.

            Slowly, Ellie looked at the screen that was placed by the door to see who was there, and her eyes widened at who she realized it was. “Minhyuk?” she asked as she opened the door. Hesitantly Minhyuk looked at Ellie as tears began to form in his eyes. “Ah, Minhyuk, don’t cry,” Ellie said as she reached out for the younger child, but as she did, his cries became even louder. “Minhyuk-ah, let’s go get some snacks. Do you want some yogurt?” she asked as she opened the door wider. Still hesitantly, Minhyuk entered the house as slowly looked around. “Minhyuk, you’ll be alright. C’mon, remember me? I visited you when you were with Chen?”

            Minhyuk cocked his head a little bit as he attempted to remember when he saw Ellie before. He could remember the event at the hotel, but he didn’t remember much about it.

            After making sure that Minhyuk was good on the couch, Ellie hurriedly went to the kitchen to get yogurt before returning and handing it over to Minhyuk. Silently, the two sat next to each other. Ellie knew that Minhyuk was young and he probably didn’t understand anything that happened to him, but Ellie had a lot of questions. She wanted to know where Minhyuk came from and why he just suddenly disappeared. Figuring that she had to call someone, Ellie took out her phone to call Kris.

            “Hello?” Kris asked as he picked up after a couple of rings.

            “Kris,” Ellie quickly said as her eyes never left Minhyuk who continued to enjoy his yogurt. “Minhyuk is here.”

            “What are you talking about?” Kris asked.

            “Minhyuk…the little boy that was with Chen, he’s here. He’s sitting on our couch right now eating yogurt.”

            “Really?” Kris asked in surprise.

            “Yes, what should I do?”

            “Stay there, stay right there,” Kris said. “I’ll be back right now. I’m leaving right now to go back.”

            “Okay, okay,” Ellie said. She didn’t understand why Kris seemed so urgent to go to the house and so urgent that she didn’t go anywhere. She wondered if something happened, but she wasn’t entirely sure. It wasn’t like Kris would tell her anyway.

            It wasn’t any more than five minutes before Kris walked into the front door with Lay following right behind him. “Where’s Minhyuk?” Lay immediately asked as he saw him sitting there on the couch.

            “You,” Ellie said recognizing Lay from the hospital. “What are you doing here?”

            “He’s my…friend,” Kris said as he looked from Lay to Ellie. He didn’t know how else to describe it, he only knew that he should just call Lay a friend and all questions would be pushed aside.

            “Oh,” Ellie quietly said as she stayed in the background as Lay went right up to Minhyuk to see if he was hurt anywhere. Upon seeing Lay and Kris go up to him, Minhyuk was suddenly frightened. “Ah, you’re scaring him,” Ellie spoke up as she went over to help try to soothe him. As soon as Minhyuk saw Ellie coming his way, he grabbed onto her and wrapped his small arms around her.

            “Looks like he’s taken a liking to you,” Lay said with a small chuckle.

            “I…I guess,” Ellie said shocked. Little children normally weren’t so comfortable with her.

            After a long while, Minhyuk became a bit more comfortable around the other guys and while Kris and Minhyuk were watching television, Lay asked to speak with Ellie in another room.

            “So…” Lay awkwardly began as he and Ellie were sitting in the back room. “I’m sorry for the way that I acted at the hospital. I understand that I probably scared you a little bit back then, but everything that I was doing was for your own good.”

            “Yeah, I understand,” Ellie said as she folded her hands together. “You only wanted what was good for everyone, right?”

            “That was true, but your friend there, he changed my mind.”

            “Who, Kris?” Ellie curiously asked. “He changed your mind?”

            “You could say that we’re going beyond friends.”

            “Are you guys like dating?”

            “No, no, no. We are definitely not dating,” Lay quickly said to keep the thought away from Ellie’s mind. “We’re more in a…partnership you would say.”

            “Well if that’s what people want to call it these days,” Ellie muttered.

            “I’m serious when I say this,” Lay said. “I’m serious when I say that he and I are helping one another, and I think you could help us, too.”

            “Help…you…” Ellie slowly said. She didn’t know how she would be able to help him when he suddenly told her before to stay away. If they wanted her to help, then why would he have made up the lie about her being his girlfriend and staying away?

            “Lay, your phone is ringing,” Kris said as he came into the backroom and threw Lay’s phone to him.

            “Hello?” Lay asked answering his phone before he suddenly stood up from the couch. “What?”

            “What? What’s wrong?” Ellie quickly asked. She didn’t know if something good or bad was happening at the moment.

            “Um…thank you,” Lay said before he hung up and looked at the now shocked Ellie and Kris. “Chen, he woke up.”

Chen looked around his room and all he saw was white, and the grey-ish ceiling. Other than that, it was all boring, there was nothing exciting about it. Everywhere ached. His arms ached, his shoulders ached, his legs ached, and especially his head. He figured that he was probably having a migraine figuring his injuries that he had. He was thankful that he didn’t lose his memory; he was still able to remember everything, and everyone.

            “Now, Chen,” the doctor said as the bed slowly began to rise. Some nurses helped Chen adjust himself so he was more comfortable while sitting up. “We’re going to go through a series of examinations to see if anything is wrong, okay?” silently, Chen nodded his head and went with the procedures.

            Thankfully, everything went smoothly for Chen. There seemed to be nothing immediately wrong with him and as soon as the doctor left the room, Lay, Ellie, and Kris went into the room. “Chen,” Ellie exclaimed when she saw Chen was sitting up and staring right at them.

            “Um…hi,” Chen awkwardly said. He would’ve waved, but it pained him to move his hand. He was going to have to wait a little while longer before his wounds healed or at least for the bandage to be changed so he could comfortably move. “Hello Kris,” he politely greeted him before his eyes moved to the last guy, someone that he didn’t recognize. “Um…who are you?”

            “He’s—,” Ellie began before Lay cut her off.

            “I’m Ellie’s boyfriend, Lay,” he said with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”

            At the word boyfriend, Chen’s eyes widened and Ellie immediately turned to look at Lay. He couldn’t be serious, there was no way, but the expression that was on Lay wasn’t changing. He was serious, absolutely serious.

            “Um…that’s good, I guess,” Chen said shrugging his shoulders. “How long was I out for this time?”

            “A…a couple of days,” Ellie awkwardly said. “It wasn’t anything major, and the doctor already said that your wounds are healing up nicely, you know.”

            “Hmm…I bet, they always do,” he said as he stared down at his arms before looking back up at the group.

            “Chen…what happened to you?” Ellie cautiously asked after silence filled the room. She figured that that was what was on everyone’s mind, only they wouldn’t say it.

            “I’m fine, nothing happened to me, alright?” he asked putting on a smile.

            “Those wounds say otherwise,” Lay chimed in.

            “I’m alright, really. I’ve dealt with this before.”

            “Um…okay,” Ellie awkwardly said attempting to ease what felt like the ever-growing tension in the room.

            “Hey, Ellie…could I talk to you…alone possibly?” Chen asked.

            “S-sure,” Ellie stuttered a bit as she looked at Kris and Lay in a way that meant for them to leave. Quietly, Ellie positioned herself at the side of Chen’s bed on a seat that was there. The two of them sat in silence for a little while before Chen began to speak.

            “Listen, Ellie, what happened back in the hotel before I left…” Chen slowly began.

            “It’s alright, it was only a spur of the moment, right? I mean, you were leaving for good. Who knows when I would’ve ever seen you again.”

            “But you…you didn’t push me away,” Chen said as he attempted to make sense of it all. Somehow the thought of Ellie having a boyfriend didn’t sit well with him. “You accepted the kiss.”

            “I guess you could say that I was caught up in the moment, too,” Ellie said with a bitter chuckle. “Chen, let’s just put that all aside, alright? Let’s be friends, okay? Whatever happened that day, let’s put it in our memories for a good day and let’s create more memories as friends, alright?”

            “Okay,” Chen said nodding his head. There was no way that he was going to argue with that one.

Later that night, after everyone left, Chen sat alone in his hospital room watching television. He was already used to being in hospitals so he already knew the times that shows were on and the hospital television channels that they were located. While watching his favorite show, there was movement out of the corner of his eye that caught his attention. Quickly turning his head out the doorway, he saw a figure standing there.

            “Chen, my baby brother, my dongsaeng,” the figure said as he was leaning against the frame.

            Immediately, Chen dropped the remote and his mouth went agape. He couldn’t believe what he was looking at. It had to be his imagination, it had to be his mind playing tricks on him. He was dead. His older brother was dead, yet there he was standing right in his doorway as if he’d always been alive. “H-h-hyung,” Chen finally whispered.

            “Ah, so you do remember me,” Xiumin said with a chuckle as he walked into the room and stood next to Chen’s bed. “You know I was wondering whether I should make an appearance or not.”

            “What?” Chen asked in disbelief. “Appearance? So you mean you aren’t dead?”

            “Chen, look…I—,” Xiumin began, but Chen interrupted him as his emotions started boiling.

            “You aren’t dead? Xiumin-hyung, you aren’t dead? Did you lie about the entire thing? Do you know how much noona cried over you? Do you know how much Minhyuk doesn’t understand about not having a father? Do you know how much I missed you? Do you know how much torture I had to get from mom because you weren’t there? Do you?”

            “Chen…I understand all of those things, but I had my reasons,” Xiumin said as he attempted to explain.

            “What reasons could be good enough to runaway from your family? Your own child? Me? I made a promise with you and I broke that promise to protect Minhyuk. I dropped out of school, and a very good school at that, but who knows, they probably only took me in because of the pity they had on the boy whose mother is an alcoholic who always hits him.”

            “Chen, I think the drugs are getting to your head,” Xiumin told him. “But listen, I had a really good reason for running away during that time.”

            “And what good reason could you possibly have?” Chen asked staring at his older brother.

            “Kim Jongdae,” Xiumin began. Hearing his full name come from his brother’s mouth, Chen could feel that the air between them changed already. “I think it’s time you heard about our father.”

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So, what does Chen's father really do? Will he attempt to do anything? Will Chen find out about Lay also being his brother? What will Ellie say about Lay saying that he's her boyfriend?

Here's Chapter 27. Hope you enjoyed :D

And so sorry that it took me almost a month to update. In about a week starts my summer vacation and I'll be able to update more frequently, and the end of the story is coming soon!

Have a good morning, good afternoon, or goodnight!

See you soon! :)