The whirring of the fan...the tiles on the floor...Drip...Drip...the shower leaking...

Yun felt warm. She felt so at peace lying there, colours fading in and then out of her vision.

"Yun!" she hears a distant voice call, "Yun, are you alright?"

Jongin... she thinks to herself, mentally smiling at the familiar voice of the boy, I wonder why he sounds so worried? I hope nothing bad has happened...I would go check to see if he's feeling okay...but I'm just...so...tired...

Footsteps and sirens and shouts of medical terms later, Yun feels herself surely slipping under, a numbing blanket of darkness enveloping her senses as machines beep and liquids drip into her arm.

This sure feels nostalgic, Yun catches her last thoughts sluggishly, Hospital...the place of unhappy memories...

A burning dryness in awakens Yun, and before her eyes open completely, she croaks out: "Water..."

Footsteps hurry and stumble, before whispered bickering reaches her ears.

"Let me do it!" the gentle voice insists.

"I got here first!" the husky tone argues.

"Yun's thirsty, stop being so childish!"

"You're the one being childish!"

Yun slowly cracks open an eye with effort, squinting at the unfamiliar light that contrasts the drowsy darkness she had been lying in for the past few hours. 

Jongin had his left hand on the cold water jar while Baekhyun held a paper cup in his right hand. The bickering pair's voices gradually rises in volume, not taking notice of the girl on the bed who had eventually opened both eyes and was staring intently at them.

"You know," Yun weakly calls out, amused by the way both boys' ears almost perked up like puppies' upon hearing their owner's voice, "I would actually be drinking water right now if you could cooperate and one of you pours the water while the other holds the cup."

Baekhyun immediately abandons the mug he had been holding, shoving it into Jongin's hands before bounding towards Yun and wrapping her in a bear hug. He didn't say anything - just holds the girl quietly and buries his face into her shoulder.

Jongin's heart squeezes uncomfortably at the way Yun smiled a little and patted Baekhyun's hair. He thought it may be appropriate to comment something along the lines of 'we were worried about you' or 'are you feeling better', even if just for the sake of dividing Yun's attention from Baekhyun. But words seemed inadequate in expressing how he felt at the moment. 'Worry' wasn't strong enough as a word to describe the sickening fear that enveloped him since the moment he had seen Yun collapsed on her bathroom floor.

Without a sound, he simply pours water into the cup and walks towards the bed, where Baekhyun is still clinging onto Yun. "Here," Jongin gives the liquid to Yun promptly.

Regardless of whether she currently had Baekhyun in her arms or not, Yun was Yun, and Jongin doesn't want her to be uncomfortable for even one second. Physically, water is the best relief for her needs; emotionally, Baekhyun is the one she wants. Jongin decided he could live with that - even if it may be painful.

He turns to walk out the door once the cup transfers into Yun's hands. However, Yun tugs on his shirt corner, stopping his movements.

Yun startles herself, realising that her eyes had been following Jongin the entire time despite having Baekhyun in her arms. Her heart still jumped at Baekhyun's touch and her pulse still increased feeling his breath in her hair. However, Yun notices that she saw Jongin's subtle movements and miniscule changes in facial expression; and right now, Jongin's eyes leaked too much sadness for her to simply ignore.

In fact, my eyes have been on Jongin for a long time. Yun admits to herself, Although my feelings for Baekhyun haven't disappeared, Baekhyun's rejection has awaken me to the growing feelings for Jongin I had always kept buried inside of me. He is a charismatic collection of various charms, and has helped me through so many crucial moments during my weight loss journey. He has played the role of a friend, a mentor, a prince, and a knight for me since long ago. I was simply too obsessed with Baekhyun to admit it to myself: I like Kim Jongin.

"Jongin," Yun's croaky voice hints an unnerving seriousness Jongin had never encountered before, "I want to speak with you alone."

The dancer does a double take, what could she be planning to say without Baekhyun? "Okay," he agrees while turning towards the door again, "but I was just going to go and tell the doctor you're awake - let's get your vitals checked before talking."

A few minutes later, Jongin walks back into the room with the doctor in charge of Yun walking behind him. Baekhyun and Yun has their heads together, whispering about something which they promptly stopped discussing the moment they saw Jongin.

"Lee Yun, female, born 20th July 1992,” the doctor checks his records, "you have a very serious case of malnutrition and hormone imbalances. I suggest you stay in the hospital for a few weeks to recover from your previous lifestyle."

Yun nods, "I know what is wrong with my own body."

She knows? Jongin raises an eyebrow, did Baekhyun tell her?

"As I am sure your friends have already told you, you currently suffer from heart failure and are at risk of seizures due to extreme dieting. Your hormonal complications could also lead to infer--"

"I know!" Yun suddenly bursts out, "please, doctor, let me be alone for now."

The doctor hurriedly pockets his pen and nods, "Very well, I understand your emotions may not be very stable under current conditions."

"Baekhyun, you leave too," Yun pushes him lightly towards the direction of the door, "let me be with Jongin for a while."

"Let me stay with you," the singer frowns, "what if he doesn't want to?"

"Doesn't want to what?" Jongin looks back and forth between Yun and Baekhyun, "what are you guys talking about?"

"I want to do this, Baek," Yun smiles sadly at her old friend, "trust me! I'm strong enough, and I believe Jongin would never do anything to hurt me."

The singer hesitates for a moment, but ultimately steps outside after a meaningful stare from Yun.

Silence falls upon the remaining pair, as Jongin waits for Yun to speak.

It'll be alright, Yun mentally prepares herself, Kim Jongin will help you. He's trustworthy. He was your teacher and friend, and you can trust he was being honest when he said he loved you.

Jongin lets out a soft cough, indicating to Yun he is waiting for her.

"...I..." Yun breathes in and out, "What I want to say might take a long time, so please hear me out before you give me your reply."

The dancer tilts his head in confusion, but nods to indicate his agreement.

"In my last text, I thanked you for your feelings, but at the same time, I apologised," Yun plays with her fingers, unable to looking at Jongin's face as she speaks. "The reason for that was because I didn't have the confidence to return your feelings...I'm not sure how to say this...but..."

"I understand," Jongin nods a little sadly, making Yun's chest tighten unnaturally.

"Wait! You don't understand!" Yun bursts out before she could process her thoughts, "I like you! I just..."

Jongin's eyes widen, "You...like me?"

"I..." Yun hesitates, "I think I have held special feelings for you since that day at the gym, when you asked me to sing for you while sitting on a treadmill machine. Ever since then...I have grown more comfortable, yet also more nervous when you're around."

"S-Same!" Jongin shouts out of excitement, causing Yun to smile in spite of herself, "That was the time I realised I really like you too!"

"I wasn't sure what I felt towards you until Baekhyun rejected me, and told me the whole truth," Yun runs a hand across her eyes in exhaustion, "We've been playing push and pull games for a very long time, and I was always under the delusion that Baekhyun was meant for me - that he would play around with pretty girls, have his heart broken one day, and then come back to me. I always believed that he and I had something special." The girl pauses, swallowing past the bitter lump forming in . "But the moment I admitted to myself that I like you as much as Baekhyun, if not even more than him...I couldn't forgive myself for these emotions. Afterall, my weight has been my biggest insecurity for the entirety of my life so far. I couldn't see how someone like me could ever be with someone like you."

Jongin feels a wet warmth on his cheek, and reaches up to touch his face, finding tears on his fingers. He opens his mouth as if wanting to say something, but the words he wanted didn't come.

Seeing Jongin's reaction, Yun reaches up with needles and tubes stuck in her arm to hold Jongin's hand as a sign of reassurance. "I'm sorry Jongin, I am really sorry for hurting you, and for souring your relationship with Baekhyun. If I had stopped myself sooner, I would have saved everyone from so much trouble."

"What do you want me to do then?" Jongin closes his eyes, preparing for the worst, "stop liking you, because you still can't forget Baekhyun and can't deal with commitment?" Inside his mind, however, Jongin was screaming in protest, No! That's not what I wanted to say!

Yun freezes, worrying Jongin he had said the wrong thing again and hurt her. But after a moment of silence, Yun continues, "I know you like me too! I believe your feelings for me are true, and that is why I have decided to tell you all of this: I have problems. Not only with my appearance, but also with my mentality. I have trouble sincerely believing that I am worthy of anyone's love, and I feel guilty whenever I experience happiness. Baekhyun was my safest option - I think I clung onto him all these years because deep inside, I knew he could never be mine. I knew he didn't love me, and I knew I would be safe loving him, because he was a prince, and princes would never marry the 'fat nobody'. I would have been the happiest girl on earth if he could just stay as my best friend; but reality was too painful to accept, and I convinced myself that the boy who helped me through some of my toughest moments in life was surely my destiny. However," she takes a deep breath, "I'm ready to let go now. I am ready to accept that Baekhyun doesn't love me; that you do, and that I love you."

The boy lets out a choked sob, and quickly covers his mouth with the back of his hand, biting back the sounds he knows will hurt Yun.

"But Jongin, my extreme diets have ruined my body," Yun squeezes Jongin's hand in her's, "Three weeks ago, I came to the doctor for my annual body test, and they told me that I am deficient in iron, and show signs of both heart and kidney failure due to malnutrition. My diets have often been under 1000 calories a day, and combined with the large amount of exercise I had done, my body can no longer keep up."

"I can help you recover!" Jongin bursts out, "I don't care what I have to do, I just want to be with you."

Yun smiles sadly, "It's not going to be an easy task...my problems are not only physical. You can cure an illness of the body with a book, but an illness of the heart takes much more."

A/N: Happy New Year! Hope everyone will grow and learn more in 2016, achieving new heights and finding new things/people to love. Let all the good and bad teach us lessons about life, and let us cherish those who love us.