(From after the accident in Chapter 57)

It was only a few days later that the doctor called the three to the office and sat them down with a grim face. “It seems the surgery wasn’t as much of a success as we had hoped it would be.”

“What do you mean?” Jinki spoke for all of them when neither of the others could, already used to handling the doctors when he wanted nothing more than to cry. “He seemed like he was doing well…”

“We had noted it almost immediately after the surgery, but his body is rejecting the transplant.The treatment was to raise the dosage of immunosuppressive medication.” What they hadn’t known but should have was coming to light now and any other time, the three of them would have felt angry. But with Taemin’s life in the balance, they couldn’t then. “It had been monitored over the last few days, but nothing has improved. In fact, the body’s attack on the transplanted heart has only gotten worse.”

“What can you do?” The leader didn’t even feel like crying then—he felt like punishing the ones that had hidden everything from them. “What are you going to do to fix it?”

“There is nothing we can do now…” Never before had either Minho or Jonghyun seen Jinki so livid as he was when he hit the coffee table with his fist.

The wood splintered and cracked but he didn’t care as he looked at the man in front of him, the man that they all trusted to save their friend. “You lie to us and say all went well and then come back with this, saying there is nothing that can be done?”

“The head of the department-”

“I don’t give a about the head of the department. I want to know why you lied to us and let our friend die without doing anything.”

“I’m sorry we couldn’t save you Taemin. We were bad hyungs after all.” Jinki gave one last kiss to the still boy’s forehead, a final goodbye. The machines were all off and not attached to him anymore, telling them that it was true that the boy wasn’t going to come back again. Already, he seemed so cold.

A tear fell off his nose and landed on the smooth face of the boy, followed by another, and then another. With one last kiss to his forehead, Jinki walked away and left the room, joining the other two in the hall where they went after their own goodbyes.

For the first time, the three of them walked out of the hospital alone.

None of them ever wanted to return. They lost two of their friends there and were never going to get them back.

Never.

But they could make it up to them.

“Minho, fix your tie.” The youngest of the three had barely looked down before Jinki was in front of him, grabbing at it and straightening the cloth. “There. We have to look our best.”

“We aren’t celebrities right now.” That comment was brushed off as the eldest patted his shoulder and walked away, yelling for Jonghyun to hurry up. Minho only sighed and looked up at the white ceiling above his head. “He’s so much like you Kibum. You and Taemin are ready to watch us today, right? We are going to make you proud and make them pay for what they did.”

He could almost see the smirk on the diva’s face. ‘Good luck, frog-face.’

“They won’t hurt anyone again like they hurt you and Minnie. Okay?”

Minho jumped at the hand on his shoulder and turned to be face-to-face with Jonghyun. “You ready for this?”

The former-rapper nodded and together, the three left the apartment they shared, much smaller than their old one. They piled into the same car, Minho in the back and looking anywhere but outside at the snowy roads. The radio was on to a pop station in the background and every now and then they heard a group that they knew and smiled at, but otherwise, the ride was dull and solemn.

The man they had come to know so well in the past months met them outside of the large building and guided them in. The three didn’t even bother hiding their faces from the reporters since everyone in the nation and possibly the world knew about them and what they were doing—it wasn’t going to be a surprise to see the picture front page the next day. The court room had barely anyone in it as they took their seats with the lawyer, facing the table across from them.

No one was there, but that didn’t stop the three from glaring at the places the people that ruined their lives were going to sit. Nothing was going to make it to them, but they could save others from going through what they did at least.

As more people began to file into the room, Minho couldn’t help but look at the seats for anyone to watch. He could almost see Kibum and Taemin sitting front row to cheer them on, but that would have just been his imagination. For the second time that day, he jumped at a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” He nodded to the leader, finally telling the truth to the question after months of lying with the same answer. “I’m just wondering if they are watching this.”

“I’m sure they are.”

The three watched the expert on the stand as their lawyer walked around in front of him, asking questions that did more and more to convince the judge that their claim was correct. “Doctor Han claimed that the rejection set in right after the transplant and that the treatment was to increase the dosage of immunosuppressive medications. Is this the correct treatment for that type of organ rejection?”

And the man on the stand shook his head. “No. Rejection right after transplant is hyperacute rejection. Increasing the dosage of the medications is only treatment for acute rejection.”

There was a mumbled response throughout the crowd watching at that and the three members couldn’t help but feel satisfaction as the fact proved the men across from them wrong. “What would be the treatment then?”

“Immediate removal of the organ.”

“And in the case of the heart transplant, would the original heart have been able to be transplanted back?”

“Not without many complications.”

“No further questions, your honor.”

“Doctor Han.” The man was practically quivering on the witness stand, a fact that almost made Minho laugh. Where’s the big tough guy that hurt Minnie now? “Did you know of the hyperacute rejection before you gave the orders to treat it as acute rejection?”

The man shook his head. “We need a verbal answer for the record.”

“N-no.” His voice wavered as well.

“You didn’t? Then why do the recordings from the operating room show you telling the doctors to end the surgery and to not say anything even after it was mentioned not once, but three times? By different colleagues, as well.” A clicker was pointed at the big projector screen pulled down and a video started. While Jonghyun and Minho looked away from it, not able to stand seeing Taemin so lifeless and cut-open on the operating table, Jinki was staring at the video like few others were. These could have been his last moments instead of pain-filled ones.

“I-I…” The man couldn’t continue, not sure how to respond.

“No further questions, your honor.” As the lawyer walked back to the table with the three, he gave a small smile that told them all what they already knew.

They were going to win the case.

The first thing Minho had done when they walked out of the courthouse victorious was loosen the tie one his neck just enough to pull out a necklace and hold it to the sky. Jinki and Jonghyun stood only a little away, watching him but letting him do as he wanted.

The two names written in the thin wire script on the chain shone in the sun. This is for you, Minnie and Kibum. I hope you are proud.

They had all expected Christmas to be hard with only the three of them to share it with. But early in the morning on the day of, they were all woken in their shared bedroom by the smell of pancakes cooking.

They hadn’t had pancakes since Taemin and Key were gone.

The three of them only looked at each other before creeping out together, Jonghyun with his award in his hand, Minho with his bat, and Jinki with a phone. “Are you really going to try and hit me with those?”

For a few seconds, they could pretend the person standing there in the apron was Key making breakfast for them and the small body on the counter was Taemin waiting with him, but that could only last for so long. Amber turned back to the stove to flip some of the pancakes before they burned and Kai handed out cups of coffee to the three as he helped them sit at the table. “What are you guys doing here?”

Jinki didn’t mean to sound mean in how he asked, but it must have sounded like he did, he realized after. But both only shrugged. “We both got letters a few days ago with only the address and keys in them. I never even knew you guys left the dorms.”

“It was too hard…” Kai understood immediately after Jonghyun said that and rubbed the elder’s shoulders to comfort him a little as he sipped the coffee.

“But I’m guessing it wasn’t you who sent the letters then.” Amber placed the plate of finished food down at the set table and sat herself. “I just found out you guys were the ones living here a few days ago from Jin. And I told Kai in the elevator on the way up.”

The breakfast treat was taken by everyone on plates and no one answered as they started eating. For three, it was because of the memories coming back.

They never would know who sent the letters, but they could guess.

No one would believe them though.