WARNING: Pretty long and draggy chapter ahead. I'm sorry. ><

After checking that his eyes were no longer red, Ryeowook silently walked to Kyuhyun’s ward. As expected, Joohyun was sitting beside his bed on a chair, fast asleep. Joohyun ah… Ryeowook carefully made his way towards the couple.

He took off his leather jacket and put it over Joohyun’s body to keep her warm. Slowly, he diverted his gaze to his dear friend. It took him a lot of strength to stop the tears from flowing. I must stay strong and stay by his side the way I did back then. He repeated to himself mentally several times. But every time he did that, more tears threaten to flow out of his black orbs. He gently brushed Kyuhyun’s bangs before speeding out of the ward. When he opened the door, he almost screamed. Kyuhyun’s older sister, Ara, appeared at the door panting heavily.

“My bro..brother… how is.. how is he?” She said between breaths. Ryeowook swallowed.

“Kyuhyunnie… he’s… can I talk to you outside?” Ryeowook gently pushed her by her shoulders, leaving the couple alone. Ara looked at him with eyes that practically defined worry. They walked in silence to the cafeteria in the hospital. There he explained everything to her, and she ended up having to force her tears down and comfort the little boy before her. She poured some of her sisterly love to Ryeowook and painfully listened to his explanation of Kyuhyun’s current situation. He even mentioned Joohyun and her heart wrenched even more. Kyuhyun had introduced the fine lady to his family before, back when he seemed all healthy. Everyone loved her; she was sincere, adorable and well-mannered. No one in the Cho family disliked her; in fact they loved her to bits.

“Seohyun… she’s like part of our family now. What… what can I do for her now?” Ara’s mind was in complete chaos. She was at loss of words to say. She has to consider for herself, Kyuhyun, her family, Ryeowook and of course Joohyun. Her responsibility was so great, yet she had to handle them alone. It was the responsibility she was given since Kyuhyun’s birth.

“Noona,” Ryeowook said, wiping his tears with the napkin. “Dr. Kim told me to either tell Joohyun or wait. I really can’t bear to tell her, nor can I be patient enough to wait for some miracle.” Seeing the fragile man before her, she could only do so much not to cry.

“Wait a while more. Just a while. Please help me to monitor him as much as you can. I don’t want to tell Mother and Father… yet.” Ryeowook bobbed his head and Ara sent him home.

3 days later, Kyuhyun was discharged. He had requested to leave early, just so that Joohyun would suspect nothing. “I’m telling you, Dr. Kim is a friend of Father’s, and Father told him to monitor me more, that’s why I stayed so long in the hospital. It’s really due to the lack of sleep.” He repeated to Joohyun for the nth time. It was a wonder how he managed to stay this strong after the conversation with Dr. Kim.

“Kyuhyun-sshi. You, how could you stop your medication!” Dr. Kim almost burst with anger when he was seeing Kyuhyun privately. Kyuhyun’s face was still pale, but at least he was no longer experiencing any physical pain.

“I… I stopped for about 2 months, but I continued taking it.” Kyuhyun was flustered and extremely bewildred. “How can it grow in size when I’ve been taking it daily?” Dr. Kim’s jaw dropped, there was no logic behind this.

“You swear you take it every day?” He asked, to which Kyuhyun replied a firm ‘yes’.

“Take it every single day but still only left with a year to live, I-” Upon realizing his gravest mistake, he immediately paled. How could he let that slip his mouth? Kyuhyun was in absolute shock. He thought he heard wrongly, but it was as clear as daylight to him.

“One year? No… NO! YOU’RE LYING! I HAVE FOREVER TO LIVE! NO!” He screamed. There was no way he could be only left with a mere year to live. He refused to believe it, until reality sank in.

Fate. It’s really harsh, but there’s no avoiding it.

Kyuhyun forced himself to remain as calm as he could. Joohyun was like an innocent child, it pains - no, aches -  to lie to her, and still smile like nothing happened. When Joohyun saw Kyuhyun home personally, he stopped her at the door. “Nah, not when my house is that messy.” She shrugged, knowing that he needed his rest. She gave him a peck on the lips before seeing Kyuhyun disappear into his tiny apartment. Behind the door, Kyuhyun finally let the tears flow uncontrollably, until he fell asleep at the door.

The following week, Kyuhyun met with Joohyun at the Han River and proceeded with their usual weekend dates. He was apologetic that their previous date was a complete disaster, so he treated her to dinner at a restaurant. After that, they walked hand in hand down the river just before midnight. All seemed well, much to Kyuhyun’s relief.

However, fate was never on his side since that day. Kyuhyun knelt onto the ground grabbing onto his head. Joohyun was completely horrified at the scene before her. Kyuhyun became completely unaware of his surroundings due to the immense pain he was feeling. A second felt like an hour, or maybe even a year, he didn’t know. All he knew was that the pain was consuming him. It wasn’t so insane last time, what happened? He was too focused on himself, he completely forgot about Joohyun.

“Kyu ah! Are you alright?!” She screamed, tears rushing out of her eyes like waterfalls. She grabbed onto Kyuhyun’s arm desperately, as if the Kyuhyun she knew would come back and stop scaring her. Unfortunately, he was too concentrated on his affliction. Kyuhyun swung her away and she fell backwards, twisting her ankle slightly and onto the grass patch. To make matters worse, she hit her head against a lamp post. Joohyun was completely stunned by Kyuhyun’s action. He never did this to her, he had always treated her like some fragile kid. As much as she hated it, she never imagined him to push her away like this. She watched him shout and punch the floor with his other hand, and her heart bled like his knuckles.

“GAAH!” He screamed. Slowly the pain subsided, and he was able to gain consciousness of his surroundings again. This time, he noticed a crowd. He felt embarrassed, but it was soon covered by guilt when he saw Joohyun sitting in pure fear at the lamp post. Joohyun mouth was agape, and she was trembling. Not because of the cold night, but the fear of those pair of eyes she could not recognize. It was as if someone had taken away her Kyuhyun, replacing it with some sort of monster. The way he stared at her, it was terrifying. She felt like her soul had left her body and she was to fend for herself. Even swallowing felt difficult.

Kyuhyun’s mind was in a complete mess, like the scene after a war has ended. The only thing that was clear to him on his mind was to run away. After what had happened, there was no way that he was able to face her. Without any words, he bolted away from the scene, leaving her stranded there. Joohyun watched him leave, and a few strangers helped her up. Her ankle was swollen now and a young man helped her to a bench. With shaky hands, she called her friend to pick her up. Her entire being was a mess, from her soul, to her heart, to her mind, to her body.

“Who’s- Oh my god Cho Kyuhyun!” Ryeowook screamed. He pushed the door wider and carried Kyuhyun to the living room. Without hesitation, he took a packet of pills from Kyuhyun’s bag and quickly fetched some water from the kitchen. After 15 minutes, Kyuhyun finally calmed down completely and drifted to sleep. “Thanks… what would I be without you…”

Early update this week, but it may not be a good thing. I might not be able to update on time next week since exams are in a fortnight :O

This chapter was supposed to be MUCH longer but I cut off all the other not-so-important parts.