“So this is her,” Hayoung said as she leaned down to stare at Jinri’s sleeping figure while Sehun sat on his usual seat beside Jinri’s bed. “Choi Jinri.”

   They had gone inside when Sehun was able to calm himself down after finding out what happened from Minho. He just nodded his head, his gaze also on Jinri. Is she going to be alright? I hope so.. He thought, praying that nothing bad will happen to her when she wakes up.

   “Is she nice?”

   “Yeah,” Sehun answered again as Hayoung looked at him. “As nice as your brother.”

   Hayoung just hummed sadly as she returned her gaze on the sleeping girl. “If she has Yongha-oppa’s heart, is she going to be my unnie?”

   “She’s older than you nonetheless,” Sehun stood from his seat and went beside Hayoung, offering her the chair while he sat on the side of Jinri’s bed.

   “Don’t worry,” Hayoung let out a small smile whilst her eyes started to get teary again. “We can still think that oppa is alive as long as Jinri-unnie is here.”

   “Hayoung-ah,” Sehun frowned and the girl started to sob.

   “I miss him,” she whispered.

   “We all do..” Sehun reached and placed a hand over Hayoung’s head. “But everything is going to be okay.”

   Hayoung just nodded and wiped her tears away. “But did something happen to her? You looked very sad when I saw you earlier outside.”

   “She saw the letter I wrote for her and she must’ve thought I’m dead and the heart inside her body is mine. She panicked so she was given anesthesia,” Sehun sighed and facepalmed himself. “Ugh, idiot. Why did this have to happen now?”

   “Why would she think that you’re dead?”

   “Well.. I planned to donate my heart for her,” Sehun mumbled.

   “You are an idiot,” Hayoung frowned. “Yongha-oppa left me already and you wanted to come after him?”

   “I’m sorry.” Sehun just apologized and sighed. He didn’t want to argue with Hayoung anymore. Things have been hard for the both of them and he didn’t want to add up to it anymore. “But I’m here, Hayoung. I’m not going anywhere.”

   “You better not,” Hayoung pursed her lips together, trying hard not to cry again.

   Sehun gave her a soft smile before averting his gaze to Jinri when he saw her stir. “Jinri?”

   The girl slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Sehun. She was immediately reminded of the time when she saw Suji and her dad and she suddenly thought she and Sehun were both dead for real. “Sehun!” She quickly sat up and wrapped both her hands around his neck, hugging him really tight. Tears immediately spilled from her eyes. “Sehun..!” She sobbed and as she did so, she wondered why she could clearly hear the beating of her heart inside her ribcage. Not only that, she can also hear the sounds coming from the cardiograph.

   “Sssh, Jinri. I’m here,” Sehun said as he hugged her back, wrapping his arms around her waist and rubbing a hand over her back to sooth her. “I’m here, don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

   “Are you dead?” Jinri asked while sobbing. “Are we dead?”

   Sehun let out a light chuckle before pulling away with a smile, shaking his head. “We’re not, Jinri. I’m not.” He took both Jinri’s hands in his. He placed one of her hands over her own chest while the other one over his, right above his beating heart. “We’re both alive.”

   Jinri kept sobbing as she felt the beating of their hearts against her palms. Sehun was right and it helped her sobs slowly come to a halt.

   “Have you calmed down?” Sehun asked, peering at her eyes.

   Jinri slowly nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.

   The boy smiled and placed Jinri’s hands down on her lap before cupping her cheeks and wiping her tears away.

   “How long was I out?” Jinri asked.

   “Almost four hours,” Sehun answered.

   “I see.. B-But what was that letter all about? Why would you write something like that?” Jinri furrowed her eyebrows, frowning.

   Hayoung who stayed quiet on her seat cleared to get both of their attention.

   Jinri looked at her and blinked in confusion at the unfamiliar face of the girl, her head tilting to the side. “Nugu..?”

   “She’s—” Sehun was about to introduce her when the girl beat her to it.

   “I’m Oh Hayoung,” she said. “I’m the younger sister of the person who donated his heart to you and Sehun-oppa’s future wife. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Hayoung bowed.

   “Hayoung!” Sehun casted a glare at her before looking back at Jinri. “She’s the sister of my childhood friend who recently passed away and donated his heart to you.”

   Jinri just blinked and Sehun could see how she was obviously lost. So he decided to tell her everything, from the talk he had with Minho to his childhood friend who had brain aneurysm, to that rainy night they were together in Jinri's hospital room, to his sudden absence, and the reason why he kept all these things to himself. He really told Jinri everything, not leaving anything unsaid and while Sehun avoided the girl’s gaze, Jinri could only listen with silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

   After the boy explained himself, Jinri took his hand with both hers and held it tight. “I’m sorry for being selfish, Jinri.” Sehun said, looking down on their hands together. “I knew you were worried about me but I didn’t say anything. I just didn’t want to burden you or anyone else because of the things you’ve been going through. Everyone’s worried about you and I didn’t want to add up to that.”

   “I understand,” Jinri whispered with a soft smile. “I know how you feel, Sehun-ah. It’s okay. But I’m totally alright now. I can tell Yongha-ssi’s a very healthy person.” She patted her chest while saying that. “And thank you. If it weren’t for you recommending Yongha-ssi to Minho-oppa, I wouldn’t know where I am and what I’d be doing by now. You’ve been here for me, until the end. You are not selfish at all.”

   Sehun just smiled, “What can I do? I love you, Jinri.”

   “I love you too but only to an extent . . . You know, I appreciate it a lot, Sehun-ah.” Jinri lifted a hand and placed it over Sehun’s cheek, an apologetic smile on her lips. “I really do.”

   Sehun just nodded, casting his gaze down. He knew that no matter what, it’ll always be Jongin and he’s not going to fight it anymore.

   “Sehun-ah, what you’ve been through.. You should tell your friends about it; I think they deserve to know.”

   The boy bit his bottom lip. “Can I keep the part of me wanting to donate my heart a secret? And the letter too.. I’d like to keep it between us..” He mumbled.

   “Of course,” Jinri smiled, nodding. “And Sehun?”

   “Yeah?”

   “Don’t ever think that I don’t need you anymore, okay? You’re very important to me so please stay close, don’t go.”

   Sehun just smiled softly, “I’m not going anywhere.”

▢ ▢ ▢

“So are you done with your confession to her yet?” Hayoung mumbled, her arms crossed. She went outside the room when Sehun started telling Jinri about her brother’s death. She still couldn’t take it and she didn’t want to relive the memory so she just left them alone. When Sehun went out of the room to get her, that was her opening question.

   “Yes, ma’am.” Sehun answered and just shook his head, chuckling.

   “Didn’t she say anything about when I said I’m your future wife? Because I know you like her but she should know her place now, she has a boyfriend!” Hayoung puffed her cheeks, remembering how Sehun had told her before that the girl he likes has a boyfriend now, which was his best friend.

   “You really won’t give it up, will you?” Sehun just sighed in defeat. Hayoung.. She has always loved Sehun ever since they were kids. He thought she’d stop those feelings when they saw each other after all these years but turns out, she held on to them. But of course, he knew how it feels.. To love someone who loves someone else.

   Maybe in time, once he’s healed his broken heart, Sehun will learn to see Hayoung not as his childhood friend’s little sister but as a girl.

“Hayoung,” Jinri mentioned before Sehun opened the door to meet Hayoung outside the room. He turned to look at Jinri. “She’s really cute, I like her.”

   “Jinri, please.” Sehun rolled his eyes but she just giggled.

   “I’m looking forward to seeing the both of you more.”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Okay so first off, I’m back! Kinda. And second, this is gonna be quite a long Author’s Note explaining my disappearance so if you wanna keep reading, thank you so much! I think it has been two years or so since my last update, like in general. I haven’t been here on AFF a lot like I used to— Sometimes, I just drop by and maybe read a little but yeah. A lot of stuff happened the past years or so. I’ve been busy with life and there was a point in time that I didn’t want to continue this story anymore because I completely lost my motivation. Plus, I didn’t have a decent laptop to write my story with. Then one time, I decided to try this again (I think that was around last year) so I borrowed my brother’s computer and wrote like, a lot. I wrote a couple of chapters and when I didn’t know what to write anymore, I saved it, sent the file to my e-mail and left it like that. It was really a good thing though that I sent the word file on my e-mail because some time after, my brother decided to reboot and reformat his computer! Somehow, I even forgot I had the file on my e-mail so I’m like, “Oh my God, what do I do? I wrote a lot of chapters and I don’t remember where I left off or what I even wrote.” A few long months after, I remembered sending the file on my e-mail (but at that time, I still was unmotivated to do anything about it) and alas! I got a new, decent laptop recently and looked for the file yesterday. But before that, I also had another file of this story on my USB and it turns out, it was the unedited one. Thank God, I was able to recover the updated file on my e-mail. Anyways, so there. The reason of my two years plus plus disappearance: Life stuff and unmotivation (if there’s even a word) and other emotional things but even though I came to the point of giving up this story, there was still something in me that still wanted to do this (hence, I’m here now!). I had the story all planned out, some were already written, and the rest up to the ending are still in my head. I could not not write it, you know? And I promised you guys that I am not going to abandon this story. I love writing this and I love this story a lot. If you guys are still out there (or still using AFF), waiting for an update and being patient, I salute and thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart. This story will be ending soon, maybe after a couple more chapters so I’m sorry for making you guys wait. Thank you for being here. I love you all, my precious readers!