Hearing Yun's confessions, Jongin feels he can understand her a little more. Yes, she has caused him pain, but regardless of all her faults, Jongin finds he still wants to be with her. "Let me help you, Yun," Jongin holds back the tears in his eyes. He wants the girl he loves to be happy, and he wants the future which he has imagined countless times with her to become a tangible reality. 

"But..." the girl's hand slips lifelessly from Jongin's hold, "I really don't want you to give up anything for me. This is not the first time I've suffered, Jongin. The last time I had Baekhyun there with me, but while I was recovering, he was being drained. In order to help the sick, you will sacrifice more than a little, and I don't want that for you."

"You don't need to worry about me or anyone else," Jongin insists, "I will do whatever I can to make you healthy and happy. Just trust me and rely on me."

"I do, I trust you," Yun explains, "but the price of my trust and love is pain and sacrifice. When I hurt myself, I also hurt those around me. When I am confused and negative, you will be affected by my emotions." Yun closes her eyes, letting the stinging pain warm to a tear drop down her face. "Jongin...you are EXO's Kai. You can't let the people who work with you be disappointed. You can't let those who love you be broken due to a moment of kindness and irresponsibility."

"None of that is important to me when compared to your health," the dancer extends a hand to caress Yun's wet cheek, "even if I don't perform on a stage; even if I don't have cameras facing me or thousands of fans watching me, I will survive."

"You can also survive without me."

"No."

Yun shakes her head sadly, "Jongin, don't be stubborn. There is no one you cannot survive without in this world other than yourself. Don't give up your future for anyone - especially not someone like me."

"What even is 'someone like you'? You always use that as an excuse but in reality, you're just a normal person like the rest of us!"

"You know what I mean!" Yun cries out, "You know that you and I aren't on the same social level and that with my body, I could never appear as someone worthy of standing by your side. Just imagine the two of us walking hand in hand! Doesn't the picture seem odd to you?"

"No," Jongin persists stubbornly, "No it's not weird to me at all."

"What about your own life?" Yun grows increasingly frustrated, "What about ten years...twenty years from now, when you can no longer dance? What happens when you are suffocated by poverty and unable to provide for me or yourself? Are we going to cuddle in the freezing wintery wind and whisper our wedding vows before dying on the streets of Seoul?"

"Yun," Jongin's steady voice calms the agitated girl, "why did you tell me you love me?"

Yun stops, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open with sudden speechlessness despite her earlier fervor.

"If you knew that you are mentally and physically unstable, why would you tell the boy who loves you that you love him back?" Jongin reasons, "Are you trying to make him pity you? Are you trying to leave a good impression before you die and disappear from his life?"

"No that's not--"

"Or do you actually want him to love you back, and help you?"

The room falls into absolute silence, the only sounds being the slow drops of Yun's IV drip and the beeps from her heart rate monitor.

After a few moments, an impatient Baekhyun who had been listening in on the conversation suddenly bursts through the door. "Stop lying to yourself, Yun!" he exclaims heatedly, "To hell with all your excuses and considerations! If you like the guy, then hurry up and recover so you can go and do all the stupid things couples do with him! Who cares if he's a celebrity!"

"Baek..." Yun's eyes well up at the sight of her special friend, "I don't know..."

Baekhyun walks up to the girl's bed, and leans in to touch his forehead against her's, "But you do know."

Yun breathes deeply, inhaling the unique scent of Baekhyun which used to always make her blush. It was hard for the girl to believe that she no longer liked Baekhyun - that the boy she had watched from afar and loved with her heart for almost a decade had suddenly become family.

Did she really like Jongin? Could she trust herself to not attach herself to Baekhyun romantically ever again? What if she hurts Jongin once more?

Another moment of silence passes between the three young people. When Yun confirms that the heart rate monitor remains evenly paced instead of speeding up, she smiles at Baekhyun and agrees, "I know now; I've always known."

Just like that, Jongin became the most important factor in helping Yun's recovery. For an entire week, the boy refused to return to SM entertainment, and stayed by Yun's side while she slept, threw up, and cried. Jongin was the one who helped her eat, helped her exercise, and wiped away her tears while needles and pills were injected and swallowed.

He held her hand the first time she slipped out from the hospital bed's sheets, and allowed her to use his shoulders as support when her feet landed on the soft slippers he had laid out for her.

On one occasion Yun couldn't fall asleep due to the burning in her oesophagus after vomiting out her dinner, so Jongin stayed seated in his chair by her bed side past midnight, and told her all sorts of stories about when he had been younger to take her mind off of the tears escaping down her hairline and the sweat covering her temples. He smiled while telling Yun about how his older sister had tied his hair into pigtails and made him wear her skirt, and his eyes lit up when he talked about his experience as a young dancer practicing several genres at the same time.

But when he eventually realised that Yun would tense up every time his voice came to a stop, he sighed and raked his brains for something better to help her relax. Eventually he lifted the blankets on the bed, mumbling a shy 'sorry' to the girl as he squeezed onto the single bed by Yun's side.

"Wha--"

"Don't talk," Jongin wanted to curl into a ball at the sight of Yun's surprised expression, "your throat will hurt."

He slipped his left arm under Yun's head, while his right hand reached over to her hair softly. Yun squirmed uncomfortably at the close proximity between them, and couldn't help but notice how her right arm was pressed right up against Jongin's firm chest.

The dancer began to hum a melody in an attempt to lull Yun to sleep, but the vibrations his voice caused rumbled in his chest, which made Yun blush even harder. She could even feel how his abdomen tensed whenever the pitch in his voice changed - that was how close they were.

Eventually Yun decided that she couldn't fall asleep with Jongin touching her like that, and chose to fake falling asleep, so as to make Jongin leave. But her acting was a moment too late, because the younger had fallen asleep first.

Jongin continued accompanying Yun throughout the days, never seeming to lack energy despite obviously resting very little and eating very little. Late at night Yun would often catch harsh whispers being exchanged by Jongin and someone on the phone. Although the younger made sure to leave the room when he received a call from the company, he did not realise that Yun had in fact pretended to sleep, and listened in on his conversations with his band members, staff and boss.

But every morning, when the sun peeked through the white curtains of the hospital, Yun would always awaken to find her hand tucked warmly inside Jongin's fingers. He never slept too far from her; always either on the chair beside her bed, or on the sofa in her room. Every morning Yun would pray that she was a little healthier today, and a little closer to normality.

Although treatment was painful and took a lot of mental perseverence, not once did Yun feel hopeless or lonely. Jongin was always there; even if Yun would leave the room to use the toilet or shower, he would always be quietly reading a book or using his phone when she returned. He always made sure to greet her with a small smile, and despite the fact that Yun didn't really need physical support after the first few days, Jongin always stuck by her side whenever she moved.

Baekhyun also came by to visit the girl from time to time, but compared to Jongin's intensive and detailed care, Yun began to see why she unconsciously fell for Jongin despite previously persevering with her feelings for Baekhyun.

Baekhyun was fun and smart with words, but he wasn't sure how to take care of others. He doesn't take action as much as he advises others to, and prefers to give ideas rather than carry out the actual plan. Jongin, on the other hand, doesn't speak much; but is forever observing and doing things quietly in his own way. If one didn't pay enough attention, they would easily miss the little things that Jongin did on a daily basis which weren't necessarily very important, but made life just a little more comfortable and easy for those around him.

The more time Yun spent around Jongin, the more she wanted to stay with him.

But eventually the company grew frustrated with the dancer's irresponsibility towards his career. When phone calls weren't successful in negotiation, EXO's manager decided to use the GPS function linked onto Jongin's smart phone to find his location.

It was past midnight when Jongin reluctantly left Yun a note, saying that EXO was scheduled to come back next month with a full album, and that he had to take part in at least filming the music video of 'Wolf'.

Yun texted him the next morning after reading his rushed note, comforting the younger man that he had done more than enough for her, and that she wished for EXO's success in the music industry more than anything else.

After hitting 'send', however, the girl found that she couldn't see her own hands very well anymore, due to the tears which had welled up in her eyes, clouding her vision.

It was on that day, three weeks after her admittance into hospital and the moment when she was truly left alone, when she finally realised how much Jongin meant to her, and how much her feelings had grown for him through the various occasions when he had helped her. It wasn't the familiar feeling of her childhood friend which she craved to surround herself in, but rather the warm and sensitive man who had planted himself firmly in her memories which she yearned to be embraced by.

While she quietly sobbed into her arms, body crouched down into her legs on the bed, she realised how much she missed the boy and the large, empty space in her heart his departure had actually left.

A/N: Yun's growing more and more in love with Jongin...so now will the couple be official? Thanks for reading and hope you anticipate for more!