The rest of the night passed by in a chopped up, slightly unmemorable haze.

By the force of extreme physical and emotional exhaustion, I had dozed off before we had even gotten to Grandma’s. All I remembered was Bad Company by Bad Company suddenly cutting off somewhere in the real world and the click of a door opening. I only became fully conscious when I heard my grandma’s voice.

“What happened?” I couldn’t remember the last or even first time I had ever heard her speak with such a frantic tone.

When I was finally capable of realizing that Sehun was carrying me inside the house without a word, I pretended to still be asleep. I didn’t feel like being awake just yet, not so soon.

“You’d better clarify that you’re not responsible for this, son,” Grandma said, the sound of the door closing cutting through her words.

Sehun shifted me before tightening his hold under my knees. “No, ma’am.” I heard the hesitance in his voice and wondered if she did. I had a feeling he was still hearing the words of me blaming him in his head and did feel responsible for everything. But speaking literally, or technically, he hadn’t done this to me.

“Take her to the guest room,” were the instructions he got and I started to pretend to be waking up when she told him to come back and explain what happened. I wanted to hear, so I stayed limp in his arms.

It was a bit hard to stay entirely limp as he placed me gently on the bed in the guest room. I tried to keep my breathing deep and heavy and my eyelids from fluttering too much as I listened for his exit. The flinch I gave when I felt a blanket fall over me could’ve been my muscles relaxing or an actual flinch of uneasiness as I vaguely recalled fingers brushing against my forehead. Feeling drowsy, I only remember hearing the door close behind Sehun and after that, just a murmuring sound in the distance.

It only felt like a few minutes before I was aware of the door reopening and I heard Grandma’s voice, asking me to wake up.

“Hui dear, come get cleaned up.”

Then I was in the shower with something plastic over my cast and steam from the blistering hot water surrounding me in a big cloud. I think I was crying. I just remember scrubbing at the dirt under my pinky nail, wanting it gone, before turning off the shower.

Grandma had left some clothes on the sink along with a fresh towel. I changed into them with great difficulty and towel-dried my hair. Now I was more awake, my hand was beginning to hurt a lot more, it seemed. Or I was just more aware of how much stress I had put it through. Looking down at the cast, it looked like there might’ve been a small crack in it.

I wanted to get to some pain pills and a comfortable place to sit more than anything, but before leaving the bathroom, I cracked the door open and listened for anything. Not even a television could be heard. Where was Grandma? Had Sehun left?

Stepping barefoot into the hallway, I turned out the bathroom light and went in the direction of the living room, pulling the long sleeves of my shirt over my hands as I did. When I made it to the doorway, I paused, eyeing landing on Sehun, who was sitting in one of the armchairs, leaning over his knees with his hands clasped in front of him and head bent low. I stared at him for a moment before looking at Grandma, who sat on the couch, a cup of tea in hand. There was a cup of tea on the coffee table in front of Sehun, but it looked untouched.

I walked further into the room and Grandma was the first realize my presence.

“Oh, Hui.” She placed her tea down as Sehun’s head snapped up. “Come, sit down.” Patting a spot next to her, she scooted down the length of the couch a bit. I hesitated a moment, glancing at Sehun, before slowly planting myself on the cushion beside her.

“Do you want some tea?” she asked. Then she noticed me cradling my hand and reached for it. “Is it hurting?”

I nodded, watching her take off the plastic covering that kept me from ruining it in the shower. There was still dirt on it and I looked away, taking a deep breath. Taking it back, I hid it under a pillow, not wanting to worry about it any longer.

“I’ll be back in a moment.” I saw Grandma’s slipper-clad feet move out of view and I remained staring at the floor.

A few moments passed and I finally leaned back into the couch, sinking low into the cushion, and closed my eyes. I just wanted to stay like that. To rest. The kind of tired I felt was just tired, not sleepy. I had a feeling, not matter how I tried, I wasn’t going to fall back asleep now. But I didn’t have the energy to be up and moving about. Drained: that was how I felt.

The noise of Grandma fixing tea in the kitchen reached my ears the second I felt the couch dip beside me. My eyes shot open to stare at Sehun sitting cautiously on the edge of the cushion. He faltered a bit when he noticed my eyes open.

He gulped and cleared his throat. I stared, waiting. What happened?

“What happened to your hand?” he asked.

I blinked. That wasn’t the question I was expecting but it was better than the other one. And a lot easier to answer.

“I pissed Taeyeon off—again,” I replied, hiding my hand further under the pillow.

He sighed deeply, clearly an