6 months; 18 days; 6 hours, give or take.

He'd been keeping count, ever since the day he'd admitted Yoo Youngjae into the hospital.

And every day after school he'd sit there, a lone figure amongst scattered flowers and bright balloons. Despite the well wishes and sympathy from Youngjae's friends and classmates, flowers will wilt and balloons will deflate. Daehyun was the constant. Daehyun was the one who visited him every single day. Daehyun was the one who cleaned up around his room and brushed his hair because he knew how much the younger disliked messiness. Daehyun was the one who read him a bit of his favorite book every night before he was finally shooed home by Youngjae's mother to get some rest.

Jung Daehyun was the one who had stored up all the knowledge of Youngjae's habits and quirks, likes and dislikes, weaknesses and vulnerabilities. And it was Daehyun who was paying for his previous apathy by continuously putting effort into pleasing the comatose boy whose heart he had broken.

And all he wanted now, more than he could remember wanting anything before, was for Yoo Youngjae to wake up so he could feel the warmth of their fingers laced together and press his ear against Daehyun's chest to hear the heartbeat that was finally beating in harmony with his own.

-----

This is a(n optional) sequel to Make Believe.

So uh.. despite the requests I wasn't planning on writing a sequel unless I got some ideas I really liked for it, because I'm kind of picky when it comes to my own writing- but it kind of happened while I was trying to organize all my thoughts for Almost Human, so for those who wanted it.. coming soon. lol.

Daejae fluff, with just a little side of angst. You can take this as an extended or even alternate ending, (or just not read it at all if you liked the ending of Make Believe just the way it was, because I left it open for a reason).

Warnings: probably some (or a lot) of cheesiness. I'll try to keep it minimum, but some things just happen. OTL

And also I got a lot more feedback than I thought I would and it made me really happy sobs. Thanks a lot to all of you, sincerely.

Enjoy. <3