Day 9. 
 

     Chanyeol stayed inside the room for the past 48 hours. He felt so sleepy, his eyes almost shutting down, his stomach grumbling, his head aching. 
 

     He rested his head on the bedside, his eyes trying to close. Lately, he's gotten the illusions because of Seojin moving her fingers. Maybe because of hunger, but he endured it for her. Seojin's mom, together with Hyeyoung, went back to their house to get something. He was left there to watch over her. Well, a normal heart surgery patient would wake up after a week, and today was already the ninth day so he was waiting for any signs. 

 

     Chanyeol was staring at her fingers again to avoid himself from sleeping, when he saw it moved again. 

 

     Illusions. 

 

     But it moved again for the second time. Chanyeol carefully observe Seojin's eyeballs moving from inside its lids. Until, her eyes opened slowly, she stared on what was above her. She's awake. 

 

     Seojin's eyes twitched. The surgery had still left her pain on the chest. When she looked beside her, she saw the delighted face of Chanyeol. It was kind of strange. Why isn’t her heart beating like the way before? Yes. Her brain remembers everything about him, but the feeling? It was absent. 

 

     She whispered something through the mask; she wanted to tell him that she wants to embrace him, so that he could feel her; but she failed. 
 

**

     "How about this pink crane?" Seojin asked, curiously, opening the folded paper. 
 

     "That's my apology and greeting letter." He laughed. 

 

     "I'm sorry?" Seojin's excitement faded. 

 

     "You didn’t make my request.." she said softly. 

 

     "That's what you think." Chanyeol replied as he took his bag. He took out the paper cranes, one by one. 

 

     "Cute." Seojin complimented, amazed with the cranes. She took one. 

 

     "Aigoo.." Chanyeol muttered as he flushed. For sure, Seojin would when she starts reading them. 

 

     "I think.. I." 

 

     "No. Stay Chanyeol." Seojin requested, her eyes pleading, but her smile was somewhat showing otherwise, like teasing him. 

 

     "But.." 

 

     "Hmm.. Please read them for me." 

 

      He cleared his throat, trying to cover the fact that he's feeling uneasy. Why would be shy anyways? She's his girlfriend. He snorted as he took the paper crane, he glanced at Seojin, who was waiting for him to do her request. 

 

     "Day 1. My dear Seojin, you were moved into another room. You look so exhausted. Wires are still connected on several parts of your body. Your..." 

 

     "My what?" 

 

     "Your pale face makes my heart sink." He mumbled, but was audible enough for her to hear. Chanyeol felt his cheeks blush so he kept his face and stared at the tip of his shoes so at least he won’t think too much. He wanted to just leave the room and feel all necessary feelings without Seojin knowing. 

 

     "Chanyeol-ah, do I look that pale right now?" When he looked up, he created a small laugh when he saw Seojin pout. 

     She's so cute. 

     "You're beautiful." 

 

     She mocked. "Can you just.. read the second one please?" Seojin did the least she could do, searching for the second crane. 

 

     This is just too crazy for Chanyeol. Now the second one is more challenging. 

 

     "Can I just show it to you and you will read it silently?" 

 

     "Or can we just skip this one?" 

 

     "No." 

 

     "Seojin-ah.." he has really no plan on reading this one. This is too heartbreaking. "Please?" He stared at her intently with those pleading, cute eyes. 

 

     "You look stupid." She snorted. 

 

     She's really hard to please. 
 

     Chanyeol proceeds to read the statement. "I was staring at you for a long time today. But it broke my heart again seeing you in that state. Because of that I went out from your room and cried myself out." No pauses. He spoke as fast as he could to avoid the tears. L 

 

      When he shifted his eyes to her, he caught her stare. This is something serious. 

 

     "I'm sorry." 

 

     It was almost like a whisper. 

 

     "No.. There's no one to blame. I'm just.. I'm just feeling lonely that time." 

 

     "I'm sorry." She mumbled again. Chanyeol tried to brighten the atmosphere but it only resulted to a dry laugh. 

 

     This time around, Seojin felt her heart twist because of the situation. The feelings are too strong right now. 

 

     Chanyeol continued reading the third, fourth, and so on. Everytime he stops and sees Seojin's reactions, all he could feel was the guilt. Well, that's what Seojin felt too. They hurt each other and they didn’t expect this to happen. 

 

     Indeed, 'sorry' was the word of the day. 
 

**

     "You look so dreadful today. You should be glad now that Seojin's awake, right?" Chanyeol's mom asked, looking at his almost-zombie son. "Heol. You cried while you were on your way home?" His mom couldn’t believe if it's true. 

 

     Chanyeol's Mom is supportive for both of them, and she believes Seojin's brave enough to survive her sickness and get well. 

   

     "I didn’t Mom! Just.." 

 

     It was awkward to tell it to her this time. But Chanyeol trust his mother a lot. Good thing his father and sister weren’t there or else he'd feel so uneasy. 

 

     "Just what?" 

 

     "Just in the elevator." with that his Mom cried out loud. "Why would you cry, uh?" 

 

     "Tears of joy I think." She poked him. "Tears of joy? You aren’t even smiling." 

 

     Chanyeol grinned. "I'm just happy, Mom; now that she's awake. Days from now, life would be back to normal." 

 

     His mother admired him for being loyal, strong, and positive. He never failed to make her proud. 

 

     They were disturbed by continuous knocks on their main door and when his mother rushed to open it, she was surprised to see Kyungsoo, Lay and Chen, his bandmates, entering their house. 

 

     "Hey!" They all cheered after greeting her. Chanyeol must have kind of missed the band. 

 

     "Is Seojin in good condition already?" Kyungsoo asked. Yes, they knew about her and her condition. Chanyeol nodded and smiled a little wider. 

 

     "Ah! Where's the noisy Chanyeol? The happy virus?" Chen exclaimed, putting his arm on his shoulders. 

 

     "Man, you know we aren’t used to you behaving like this. Now that she’s fine perhaps you would feel fine too?" Lay asked. 

 

     Chanyeol was sure he won’t go back to the usual him anymore. The prankster, the all-time joker of the group, the easy-go-lucky guy.. some of his qualities had changed, for the better. The reason behind all of these? No other than Seojin. She changed him. He didn’t expect he would be transformed like this because of love. 

 

     "I think I will never be the same old man anymore." Chanyeol muttered, and everyone glanced at him in disbelief. He laughed, "Man, still your bandmate here, just becoming a little bit more serious." The three of them broke out in dry laughter. 

 

     They spent the night chitchatting, planning for a comeback performance sooner, and their individual classes. Lay and Chanyeol were supposed to be classmates but Chanyeol haven’t attended classes yet, even once.

---

I'm sorry if I updated so late T.T Well here are two chapters for you. <3

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By the way it's D-3. Chanyeol's birthday is coming up~ ;)