"Anything for you."

Daehyun silently her hair, smoothing out the knotted tangles amidst her dark curls. Her tears had reduced to mere sparkles hanging at the corner of her eyes and her sniffles to simple gasps. She breathed deeply, clutching tightly onto the back of the young prosecutor's blazer. "Help me," she begged him; her voice was just above a whisper, too hoarse to fully express her pending grief. She indulged herself momentarily in his warmth, before pulling away, her picturesque visage streaked with salted tears and red blushes. "Help me."

"I will," Daehyun promised, brushing away a strand of hair with his calloused hand, "I will." He blinked, leaning in closer to futher examined her current presence. "Yonghee," he whispered.
She voluntarily glanced up at him with innocent eyes, clouded and blanketed with utmost fear and panic. Apprehension waltzed onto her profile as a mysterious twinge of pain ran through her temple.
"Where does it hurt?" Daehyun inquired gently, palming her cheek.

Her face contorted bitterly, before her lips pulled downwards into a tight frown. "Everywhere," she sniffled. "It hurts everywhere."
"How much longer?" Daehyun inquired seriously, his eyebrows knitting together scornfully.
"Anytime now," Yonghee replied, "she could come out anytime now --"
"So be strong for me, okay?" Daehyun pleaded tenderly. "Your brother is out right now, speaking with your doctor to fetch your prescription. Can you stay with me for fifteen minutes?"

"I can try --"
"Try hard."

"I start to feel dizzy," Yonghee explained, clutching the warm hug in between her clammy palms. "Then things go black, and I know I'm awake, but it's still dark," she whispered. "It hurts in my head, like two metal plates are pressing my head together tightly. And it gets worse and worse the longer she's overtaking me," Yonghee elucidated as clearly as she could. Daehyun nodded, his thumb caressing the skin covering her fingertips.
"And how do you feel now?" Daehyun catechized carefully.

"Tired."

Yongguk pushed himself off the wall, interjecting in between the pair's seated positions; gently, he crouched before Yonghee, surreptitiously stealing a glimpse at Daehyun from the corner of his eye, before focusing entirely on Yonghee. "Is it okay if I leave you with Daehyun tonight?"

"Huh?" The two blinked at Yongguk incredulously before turning to face each other briefly. Their attention was back on Yongguk, curious and puzzled beyond compare. 
Yongguk chuckled lowly, shaking his head humorously. "You're not in any state to be alone," he explained, turning his eyes to Yonghee.
"Who said I'd be alone? Aren't you going to be with me?" 
Yongguk shook his head.

Daehyun sighed, "That's right. Our dean assigned another case to Yongguk earlier this week. Sunbaenim, you haven't started the investigations, yet?"
Yongguk shook his head. "I thought maybe I could start tonight before sajangnim figures out about my delay. So I'm going to have to leave her with you, is that alright?" Daehyun nodded briefly, holding Yonghee up as he rose to his feet. "The doctor has released her," Yongguk said monotonously, handing his younger sister a paper bag. "Inside our newly prescribed pills."

"Take them three times a day, now, Yonghee-ah," Yongguk muttered, kissing the crown of her head. "Your car's outside, right? I'll just get going now. Finish up first, at least."

Daehyun nodded silently, bowing respectively to Yongguk before turning back to Yonghee, once the click of the door resonated across the barren room. The white walls were stoic, prosaic in appearance; however, the bright colour brought out the pallor in Yonghee's features. Her sunken cheeks and dead eyes brought a favorable frown to Daehyun's ponderous lips.

"You ready?"

Yonghee nodded. "Sorry for the trouble," she apologized timidly.

Daehyun chuckled, wrapping a gentlemanly arm around her waist, in order to help stabilize her footing. "Don't worry about it."

"Hey, dinner's rea -- A-ah!"

Daehyun recoiled tautly, wincing at the hot, boiled water contacting his skin. Yonghee gasped, placing the dripping pot onto the table. "Ah, sorry! I didn't know you were coming out at that time! I was just going to ask if you wanted any help and --"
Daehyun's manly, deep chuckle brought her out of her reverie, snapping her incredulous eyes back up to the elder. He simply grinned down at her, matting down his scorched skin with a wet paper towel. Routinely, he cleaned up the spill on the floor, looking back up at Yonghee with a friendly beam. "I'm just fine, so don't worry.. and you? Did you get hurt?"

Yonghee shook her head slowly, pouting. She, then, took hold of Daehyun's hand, her irises scanning the red patches covering his skin in blotches. She pursed her lips tightly into a straight line as she examined the emerging blisters. "We should treat this --"
"It's fine," Daehyun persisted stubbornly. He flushed a deep red, feeling Yonghee's cold, smooth hand rub against his palm. 
"It's not," she objected. "Your first aid kit is in the bathroom right?" she inquired casually.

He let out a sigh.

Yonghee flashed him a pretty, amiable smile. "I'll take care of it, so just wait on the couch for me."

"You don't have to do this, you know."

Yonghee was silent, rubbing Daehyun's knuckles with an ointment. "It's the least I could do," she uttered absently, too preoccupied with his wound than his protests. "It was my fault, so I should at least redeem myself for that."
"You don't have --"
"Well, I already am, so stop it already, oppa," Yonghee chirped, giggling playfully. She wrapped the last of the gauze around Daehyuns' burn mark, smiling proudly at her doctoring. "Better!" she tittered happily, plopping herself down onto the spot beside Daehyun.

She kept her gaze straight ahead, her cheeks tinted with a light pinkish hue, invisible to Daehyun's line of sight. The latter simply chuckled at the younger's childish tactics, smiling briefly to himself before he forced himself to look at Yonghee. "So I made dinner," he stated plainly. "I think we should eat --"
"Oppa, when you look at me, what do you feel?"

"H-huh?"

Yonghee turned to look at Daehyun, eyes fluttering innocently as her head tilted naively to the side. A pondering expression crossed her features as a look of curiosity and burning wonder bored itself onto her features. She stammered, clearly flustered, "I was just wondering... Because, the last I remember about the book I was reading... I just remembered, the guy character --"
"My heart pounds," Daehyun whispered. "It feels like my stomach would explode from all the twisting and churning and flopping; I can hardly breathe, and I sometimes have to force myself not to stutter because it's so hard to be so casual around you, when I'm constantly fearing I'd say something stupid. Your opinion matters a lot, and with it, I try to improve myself," Daehyun explained lucidly. Fluidly, a small smile traced his lips as he shied his gaze away to his hands.

He released a deep sigh, hearing Yonghee's mutter of amusement. "That's exactly how it was described in the book," she mused quietly, humming lowly to herself. "Then does that mean --"

"Nan.. naega joh-a," Daehyun whispered slowly, taking his sweet time to enunciate each syllable. "I like you," he clarified, then, smiling proudly. His lips pursed tightly into an awkward smile as a nervous chuckle escaped past his pale lips. "A lot, too."

But.. it's wrong, he wanted to convince himself. A victim shouldn't be a lover, not to someone like you. It's not your nature, not your place to do this, Daehyun! I can't like her! She's not the one. I have to find someone else -

"I told you that I would tell you if I did like you," Daehyun uttered vacantly, letting the words slip carelessly out of his mouth. "And now that I've told you, as I've promised," he whispered slowly, turning taciturnly to face Yonghee's slightly agape visage. "What is your answer?"

- but to hell with it, I guess.

"In the book," Yonghee murmured, dazed. A bemused expression crossed her profile the second she began to fiddle with her thumbs; a red, obvious blush marked her cheeks like its territory, nearly permanent, but fairly clear under the dimmed lights. "In the book.. the girl kissed the boy... right after he confessed."
"And did she like him back?" Daehyun whispered, a playful edge hinting inside his low voice.
Yonghee nodded.

Daehyun smirked, almost cockily, as he straighted his back. "And do you feel the same way as the girl in the book?"

Another nod. "So tell me, Yonghee," Daehyun muttered, inching in at a snail-like pace. "Have you ever kissed anyone before?" Yonghee shook her head, bringing a mirthful grin to Daehyun's twitching lips. "So you don't know how," he stated plainly, earning himself an embarassed nod.

"Then will you let me show you how?"

In return, another nod.