CHAPTER FIFTEEN; VICTORY

It has been three days since that day; when Kris had a bullet penetrated through his chest, sending him into a sudden cardiac arrest. Thankfully, the ambulance had arrived at the scene soon after and the next minute had all happened a little too fast for Jieun to remember. For the past three days, Kris was mechanically ventilated and had been given sedatives with daily wake-up trials. To Jieun, it was the longest three days of her life—having had to watch Kris lying on the hospital bed in the Intensive Care Unit—alive, yet barely breathing.

"Jieun ah." Jieun had heard a voice calling out for her and she turned to see a sight of Himchan walking through the door.

"Sunbae." She bowed her head and tried to appear a little less tired. She wasn't physically tired but her mind just couldn't stop worrying about Kris. The doctor told her that it was a miracle how Kris had made a comeback, despite that he had at least fifty seconds of cardiac arrest. If the ambulance had arrived a little later than they did, their chances of saving him would be none.  

"Are you ok?" Himchan asked as he looked at her concernedly.

Jieun pursed her lips and nodded her head. "Any news on Rome?"

Himchan let out a sigh. "Well, nothing good yet. But we're all working on it."

Apparently, Rome had escaped while they were being captured, leaving the injured Yongguk along with the hard drive behind. According to Yongguk, it seemed that Rome knew that there was a tracker being implanted inside the hard drive. Rome didn't care about the hard drive as he only fled because of what he had done to Kris.

Meanwhile, thanks to D.O, the content of the hard drive was successfully revealed. As expected by Himchan, his father was the mastermind behind the investment of illegal weapons and money laundering. Mr Black was charged guilty and was given a sentence of another twenty-five years in the prison. Yongguk was sentence for five years for drug dealing and helping a convict.

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"Sehun oppa, Kai oppa, Diyo oppa—" Rina pointed at Sehun, Kai and D.O, one by one. "—and Chanyeol ahjusshi." She then pointed at Chanyeol as she flashed him an adorable smile.

"Rina yah—" Chanyeol scooted closer towards the little girl. "How about, instead of Chanyeol ahjusshi, you can call me Chanyeol oppa too?" He tilted his head, grinning at Rina.

Rina's expression subtly changed as she looked at Chanyeol in wonder. "But you're tall like appa—you can't be oppa." She shook her head slowly.

Sehun, Kai, D.O and Luhan couldn't help smiling at Rina's witty conclusion. They looked at Chanyeol, who couldn't accept the fact that D.O, who was only two months younger than him got to be called oppa.

"Well, welcome to the club." Luhan said to Chanyeol, a light laughter was lingered in his throat. There were still one or two visible bruises on Luhan's face but other than that, he seemed to be fine again.

"Hyung, you're actually old enough to be an ahjusshi now." Sehun chirped in. "Just accept it."

Chanyeol narrowed his eyes at the younger male. Noticing that Rina was still looking at him, he swiftly changed his expression and smiled at the little girl. "Oh well, because our Rina is so cute," He gently pinched Rina's cheeks. "I guess you can call me ahjusshi." He said with a smile still plastered on his face.

Rina beamed happily and flung her arms around Chanyeol's neck. After a moment, Chanyeol was about to release her off when he realized that she was still holding onto him.

"I want to play with appa." Rina muttered softly.

Luhan crouched in closer to Chanyeol as he caressed Rina's cheek. "Rina...right now, you can't play with your appa, because he's feeling a bit poorly." He told her. "But he will get all better soon—and then you can then play with him again. I promise." He smiled at her. No one had any ideas of when Kris would wake up, but everyone had never stopped believing that he will someday.

She finally untangled her arms from Chanyeol's neck. "Will appa really get better soon?" Her eyes twinkled in a mixed of excitement and wonder as she looked at Luhan.

"Of course! Your appa is really strong! He'll fight the bad sickness and get all better for you!" Luhan told her as he bobbed his head constantly in order to make the girl believed in him. Now that Kris had acknowledged the fact that he had a daughter, Luhan had nothing to hide from his cousin. Maybe, there was one more thing...but whatever happened, he just wished that Kris would wake up again.

Rina's lips instantly curved upward, showing all her little teeth. "Can I give appa all my dwawings so he can look at them and get better faster?" She asked Luhan excitedly.

"Of course you can!" Luhan smiled at her. The others could only look back and forth between the two as Luhan acted his part. After all, he had known Rina better and longer than they all had.

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"Is she asleep?" Luhan asked Jieun as she walked out of Rina's room and sat herself on the sofa.

Jieun nodded her head. "Thank you for visiting her today. She said you told her that her appa would get better if she shows him her drawings—they’re all packed in her bag.” Jieun laughed faint