There were no screws tight enough to hold me together. Pieces crumbled inside with each step taken over the marble floor.

I had no idea why my feet carried me back to the hospital.

Guesses were my best choices and the only one tickling the back of my head was formed of Daniel and me, Henry and him. Those days, it was common to use my name in third person when reporting my relationship to him. The blond became a scared kitty every time I came into his view. I didn't know how funny it actually was. It intensified my dreams, and from mere touches, they twisted and confronted me with a serious issue: am I that desperate?

Was I just or had something exiled any other thought from my imaginary box locked somewhere in my heart?

My mornings started with a tiny hope that I could see him and ended up with disappointed evenings. Another turmoil wrecked the bed before I hit the shower. Every single weekend, Daniel disappeared for a longer period. A car engine always drummed outside, waiting to take its prince somewhere in a magical land. I waited for his return every single time. With my back facing the wall splitting our rooms, I heard his breath as he undressed and went to sleep. I stood longer to make sure the rhythm of his lungs hadn’t been tainted and that the only soul on the other side was his.

Whoever he left with never came inside our haven.

After one month of pretend Tom and Jerry, there was something I had to know. It bothered me more than Daniel’s ghostly appearances and it tormented me long before I had known the blond would come into my life. He would be leaving soon anyway if my intuition served right. Settling that matter was my best chance to condone any fears I had.

Before I could reach anywhere, Jae Rim stopped me. The doctor soon to become my brother-in-law was beaten up with worry.

“He still didn’t wake up?” dark eyes labeled me as 'an insensitive prick' before he answered.

“No,” his calculated self went against my rebellious one. “Are you here to see him?”

“Yeah...,” I trailed off and placed another lie to my collection. My interest lay in the person that kept visiting said patient. Jae Rim checked his pager and sighed with crescent eyebrows expressing surprise.

“I have to go,” he mumbled as he threw the device in his pockets and hurried in my opposite direction. I wondered what kind of person he had to meet that day, one that could give him such an unrefined edge.

My older sister - my brother’s twin sister - met the handsome doctor a few years ago. I couldn’t call it a set up, though I do believe my brother had something to do with it. They were a perfect match from the start – she a stubborn ice princess and him a hardworking future medic. If their careers ever entwined, they’d make the most powerful couple. Recently, they announced their engagement and plans for a beautiful family but none could let go of their paved roads – she couldn’t give up skating, he couldn’t give up medicine. So as anything that is no longer working, they had to fix it, throw it away, donate it, replace it or exchange it for a cheaper price.

She gave up, he continued his practice. They were happy and that was all that mattered.

I just wish Jae Rim was only that, the potential brother-in-law with high studies and a superb candidate for my family’s greedy list. Instead, he had to also have a sibling, a younger one attached to the bed I was staring at. Instead, he also had to be another thread entangled with many others.

Is there absolutely nothing purely coincidental?

I took a seat and watched his comatose figure. Most of his bruises faded. Who could have attacked a seemingly inoffensive boy without a serious reason behind? Well, I would when it came to him. Not physically but verbally.

I chuckled.

“What are you doing here?”

That voice electrified and numbed me at the same time. I came specifically for it. No reason to occupy the chair, I freed it and set my eyes as far from him as possible.

“What, I can’t visit an old friend?”

He darted to my side, carelessly hugged the chair's back with his coat and touched my head to face him. Why had he done that? I didn’t mean to make any contact with him. I grabbed his hand and removed it before it could do more damage.

“He’s not your friend,” he spat out the venom hiding under his tongue. “You’re here for me. I told you we are over.”

“Do you think you’re so important?” I retorted in order to earn a low growl from the now redhead. I hate that color on him. It made it look like he had bled too much from his skull and could no longer think.

“No, I think that I know you and you’re not here for him.”

“We’re going to be family soon,” the windows were fascinatingly clean. “Shouldn’t I be a good brother-in-law and check on Donghae?”

“You never liked him because he’s always been your love rival,” Jinyoung snapped.

I had to keep my hands busy before I’d slap him. He deserved it more than anybody else in that entire hospital.

“Shhh,” I glared “people are trying to get better, don’t sicken them with your foul mouth.”

Instead, he applied that palm over my cheek. I wish it had been a fist.

“ off!” I couldn’t move. “What part of it don’t you get?!”

He hit me.

He actually hit me.

My expression fractured into a smile.

He ing hit me like the he became.

I grabbed a hold of myself and exited the room, exited the building and took a deep breath. I couldn’t scream in public, I couldn’t cry in public, I couldn’t do a ing thing in public.

I could swear I saw Daniel passing by with the same phantom allure, his hair waving from the strong wind.

Couldn't I get at least a minute without imagining him?

I rubbed my cheek and returned home.

There was no point in dwelling in the past. I was sure of it after that altercation.

---

The ticking clock was unbearable. I wish I could throw it in a fire and stop time. A subjective thing like time can be manipulated though... so why should I bother?

There was a ruckus outside because of, probably, another drunken couple that argued on their way home. They came and went pretty often, so I wasn’t shocked if there was another fighting for whatever petty reason. I was tired of those.

The voice that exploded was too clear to be associated with a tipsy bar.

I rushed to the front door and opened it.

Daniel then dropped his keys at my feet. I watched him lower his head and stumble upon his feet as he tried to get inside the garage. The stench of smoke, absent of alcohol, turned red lights. The other guy, who had been staring the whole time at us, picked Daniel’s keys and handed them to me.

“Take care of him, alright? He had a rough night.” His hurtful eyes pleaded me. I curled my fingers around the keys and nodded. He looked sideways before ruffling his hair and slowly returning to the car parked in front. He constantly peeked behind to see if I was going to slam the door shut or wait for more answers.

Out of jealousy, I chose the first.

How could I have been so dumb to believe Daniel was single? I followed the blond with rage consuming me. I was angry that I was a fool, angry that Daniel could hang around people of such status, angry that he wasn’t the one I’d imagined.

“What happened? Are you alright? Who was that?”

I was also disappointed with myself that I didn’t want to know him better, didn’t want to follow the truth and instead chose those vain fantasies as my guidance. Most importantly, worried about him, worried that I would lose him, worried that we hadn’t even started to meet each other better and I already had to say my goodbyes.

When I tried to help him stand, he shoved me away and gave me a half-assed lie.

“I’m... fine.”

I was the one with the lies in that house, not him.

Daniel locked the bathroom door behind him and as my fist rose in air to knock at it and demand more, I stopped and slowly unclenched it. My fingers touched the bathroom door’s surface with my forehead joining in afterwards.

I heard the shower working.

“Hey Daniel...,” but he couldn’t possibly hear me whisper, “...let me in.”

A/N: Because Song Jae Rim .-. and here’s how Shrouded and Freesia/Azalea are connected through Jinyoung~ kekeke. I still don’t know who Henry’s brother should be /sighs. Yey, Donghae xD ...does it look like I’m preparing for that sequel? Because I totally am.