Chapter 49

Leo was never quick when it came to answering his mother's phone calls. It was not that he detested her or disliked the fact that she worries about him; it was just that she had the tendency to go overboard and invade his privacy at times that it bothered Leo a lot. He understood some of her reasoning, but for others, he simply could not find a solid basis of her concerns – Today, however, was different. Leo's mother was not calling to complain about his lifelong friend again; she was not leaving him dozens of voice mails early in the morning just to remind him to attend his lectures nor was she nagging at him to visit her and his father – she was calling because of her grandchild, Leo's nephew, that he last saw inside an incubator when he and N visited him together.

Leo swiftly peeled his blankets off of him as he spoke to his panic-stricken mother on the phone. His beating heart was practically all that he could hear besides her distressed demands of 'Where are you?', 'Why are you only answering your phone now?' and 'How could this possibly happen?' A lot of thoughts flooded Leo's head but one that plagued his mind the most was his last memory of his nephew –

"Do you really think so?" Leo remembered his lifelong friend asking him when they visited the hospital together. N was gazing at Leo's nephew, cooing at how adorable the baby appeared. He knew that N continued to ask him questions after that – or at least continued to talk to him. What would his lifelong friend be without talking anyway? But, even though that was true, the sound of the heart rate monitor drowned N's voice out as Leo's eyes were set on his nephew's hands where he found no string tied on any of his fingers at all. Leo remained frozen at where he was standing, eyes wide and his mouth slightly open.

The same thoughts bothered Leo all throughout his journey towards the hospital that at some point, he found himself dialing Wonsik's phone number to get the answers that he was seeking from him. The latter was complaining something about 'being too early in the morning' and that 'I was still sleeping, hyung.' However, Leo did not have the time and patience to listen to whatever Wonsik was whining about and got straight to the point when he demanded, "You've met someone stringless before, haven't you? What happened to them? Tell me."

"Why are you asking about that?" Wonsik groaned on the other end of the line, "Where are you right now?"

Leo hissed, "Just answer me, Ravi!" He glanced around him and noticed that some of the bus passengers were giving him displeased looks. Leo bowed his head down a little and did his best to lower his volume. "I don't have the time!"

"What do you mean 'you don't have the time'? Is this about N-hyung –"

"My nephew – M-My nephew... He's not doing well..." Leo swallowed the lump in his throat, suddenly unable to form the correct sentences to explain the situation to Wonsik, "I-I don't know if he'll make it... He's in critical condition and – and... and I saw it – He... He didn't have a string and –"

"Hyung, calm down," Wonsik's tone had changed from that of playful one to a more serious tone, "Are you at the hospital right now or something? Look – I don't know how you came to find some connection between being stringless to being in danger... Actually, I think that I may have been the reason why you might be thinking that way since I told you that people without strings are dangerous, but it isn't because of this." He took a deep breath, "I don't know if you remember when you first started seeing your own string, but I do know that I became aware of my own when I was around 5 or 6...? My little sister was the same. She was not born with a string; I noticed hers around the same years. So don't panic, hyung... We don't know what could possibly happen, but I do hope that it'll be that your nephew will be in good health."

Leo had let out a long withheld sigh after he realised that Wonsik's words were similar to what he remembered about himself from his childhood. He was going to thank the younger for finally shedding light to what he had been wondering about for so long, however, Wonsik continued to speak, "I understand that you're worried about N-hyung too, but the only reason why I said those things about people without strings is because I don't want you to get hurt. You have to know this better than other people, hyung. It is not good to invest your time and feelings for something that will not bear any fruit. And... The N-hyung of now is not the same N-hyung that you've been looking for all this time. I'm sure that he's very thankful towards you because he wouldn't have been able to get out of his family's chains that continued to torment him if it had not been for you. Right now, he seemed to know what he's doing with this life and even cut ties with his family all by himself. He's grown stronger because of you –"

"He told you that?" Leo interrupted him, frowning. He knew that the two were never that close for N to just easily speak to Wonsik about his family matters – Or was this one of the things that Leo was not aware about his lifelong friend? He bit down hard on his lip, brooding over the fact that he was becoming more and more distant from N – "How did you know that he went to see his family, Ravi? Why do you know about that –" Leo stopped talking at once when he received an incoming call from his mother. He pulled his phone away from his ear, deciding to leave the conversation with Wonsik for later and answered his mother's call, "Yes, umma?" Leo also stood up from his seat when the bus halted at the stop for the hospital.

"Where are you, Taekwoon? Your mother needs you right now," his father spoke on the phone instead, taking Leo by surprise.

"I just got off the bus," Leo narrated as he did just that. "I'll be there soon. How is he? Or noona?"

"The last time that we heard from the doctor, they were still taking care of him –" Leo's father paused when his wife abruptly cut him off, weeping about seeing Leo as it would apparently help her to calm down.

"I'm nearly there, umma. Please wait a little more," Leo sighed even though he knew that it was still his father who had the phone. "I'll see you in a bit." He said before ending the call. It was also then when he noticed that Wonsik had already hanged up. Shaking his head, Leo rushed to the hospital with only the thoughts of his ailing nephew.

Hongbin glanced at Sanghyuk, thinking that maybe the latter would look his way too. With the way that N was acting, he thought that Sanghyuk would notice it and speak to him in hushed whispers about what they could do to improve N's mood. Hongbin knew that he disliked it when N would be hyperactive and talkative, but he detested him more when he would pretend that nothing was bothering him. N was trying, Hongbin could infer that too, but it just irked him that his hyung was so terrible at hiding how he was feeling. So when he found that Sanghyuk was acting similarly to how N was, it started to worry Hongbin a whole lot more. From the very moment that they met earlier, the younger was already behaving unusually. Hongbin wanted to discuss about that issue too, but they already agreed on talk over it later – but when exactly is later?

"I'm thinking of just taking this food with me to the hotel and eat it later," N spoke up finally. He was still looking down at his plate, chopsticks in one hand and pushing the food around on the plate with them. Hongbin thought that at least he was not creating scraping noises or he would have already scolded N about it. "How about you, Hyukkie? You haven't eaten much..."

At the