Seohyun’s back rested slightly against the cream colored walls, her head shaking from side to side as she sighed knowing that her soft-hearted father had given her secret away already. Oh well.

She had an intuition that Yonghwa already figured some of the mystery out, though she would very much rather have everything concealed in the dark. She supposed that the truth would reveal itself sooner or later though, and she could’ve done nothing to stop it, through her father or herself.

She watched Yonghwa’s startled face as his gaze sought after hers, his mind an obvious whirlpool of mêlée.

Should she be angry?

Should she be glad?

Should she be relieved?

Currently all three emotions were swirling within her conflicted mind, fighting for dominance. Man, aual reproduction for the win. No need for boys and the drama they carry, the drama that becomes infectious like a deadly disease.

“Welcome home!” Her father chirpy greeted her, as if nothing wrong had happened, patting to the couch beside him. Yonghwa still regarded her with his solemn and searching eyes.

“Hi.” She remained where she was. “So, Yonghwa…”

She didn’t know what to say.

She didn’t know how much he knew or how much he remembered, if he remembered anything at all.

His mouth opened hesitatingly as if he was wishing to speak when all of a sudden he clutched his head, curled up into a ball on the couch, and his body jerked occasionally with pain.

Seohyun rushed to his side- it was an instinct- and placed her arms around him, her eyes never leaving his face, her eyes that were filled with worry. “Yah, Yonggie! Yah! Appa!” In her moment of panic, her old habit and nickname for Yonghwa slipped through.

“This happened a moment ago, don’t worry. He’ll be fine,” her father reassured her with a knowing smile, though slight pain and worry hid behind his eyes. To him, this attack seemed worse than the last one.

With the seconds stretched into minutes, Mr. Park rose from his seat with alarm. “This isn’t right.”

Seohyun moved to the side to allow room for her father to kneel beside the now thrashing young man. Mr. Park placed an anxious hand on Yonghwa, asked a few questions that were left unanswered to, and slid his hands under the younger, lifting him up and carrying him into the guest room where as a doctor, he would examine Yonghwa more thoroughly.

“What’s wrong Appa?” Seohyun’s frantic movement around the guest room reminded her father of a hummingbird and he smiled briefly at the thought. The smile quickly faded as he returned his attention to his patient.

“He’ll be fine. Just give him some time,” Her father announced at long last, giving the sleeping young man a final check over before leaving the room. “He’ll wake up tomorrow.”

Seohyun didn’t want to leave Yonghwa’s side. She sank to the floor beside him and watched him sleep fitfully as he tossed, turned, and shook. Occasionally he would break out into fits of sweat and Seohyun grabbed a clean face towel from the bathroom and gently wiped the sweat away.

She didn’t leave his side the whole night, despite the next day being a school day.

As she sat there watching him writhe with pain, her mind, against her will, reminisced back to their younger days.

Yonghwa had been such a good kid back then- in front of adults that is. In the eyes of the older people, he was well behaved, talented, handsome, athletic, courteous, and everything one would want in their future son-in-law.

Yet Seohyun had to smile.

During their many adventures together, quite a few that were imaginary, she had seen his other sides. His gentleness when he cared for the rabbit with a broken foot. His fearlessness when they trekked through the forest together as warriors exploring a new land. His carefree manner when he dealt with frivolous matters. His grumpiness that emerged now and then when he encountered something he found vexing.

And his eyes that sparkled with mirth, reflecting the stars in the sky, his laughter that lightened up any atmosphere instantly, two things of which were rarely seen in their true form by others.

She missed him so much, even to the point of insomnia. Everything- his hugs, his smiles, his laughter, his not-really-funny jokes, his bravery, his imagination, his compassion, his vivid- almost lifelike- emotions, the fact that he was always ready to defend her- she missed it all.

She missed him and here he was, lying in front of her.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Yonghwa stirred slightly as he slowly woke up. He could feel the sunlight dancing, as he perceived a faint reddish glow across his closed eyelids. His hands twitched, his fingers running along the edge of a blanket before resting upon something soft. Something warm. Something… human.

He shot up in bed, his eyes flying open with surprise.

First of all, why was he in a stranger’s bed?

Secondly, where was he?

And thirdly…

He was holding Seohyun’s hand.

At first his reflex was to yank his hand away quickly, as if having touched the burning blue flames of fire. But as the seconds ticked by, it was as if his natural instinct was telling him no. Stay here.

His hand stayed on top of hers, gently curling around her delicate fingers. He studied her peacefully sleeping face and realized that she didn’t have a jacket on nor did she have blankets over her. In her other hand was a loosely gripped towel.

… Did she take care of him throughout the entire night?

He remembered seeing her return home, not looking all that joyous. Then her father had greeted her… she returned the greeting with no enthusiasm… and then what?

What happened after that?

Yonghwa couldn’t remember a thing.

After her emotionless greeting… His head had begun throbbing like crazy. And…

That’s right.

His memories.

More came back to him.

Though he couldn’t recall if his memories were now complete, he definitely remembered her and the connection they had, the intense feelings of happiness he had when he was with her, the… love. He remembered everything, or almost everything, that they had gone through together right up until his accident.

Every moment her mother had threatened to abandon her, every moment that old hag had emotionally tortured her, and every moment Seohyun had turned and wept on his shoulder.

Every moment he experienced a victory, whether in sports, school, or personally, she had been there to support him.

The time when he was devastated over the loss of his favorite toy when he was younger- and Seohyun made a replica out of craft materials.

The time when he had forgotten his book at home and the teacher called on him to read aloud in class- and Seohyun secretly passed him the book and got in trouble by the teacher who believed she had left hers at home.

The time when he decided to be a rebel and ran around in the city, eventually getting lost- and Seohyun spent the night hunting him down, finding him huddled in the playground of some random neighborhood bawling his eyes out.

And the time when she had tripped and fallen on the way home- and Yonghwa carried her on his back the rest of the way.

The time when she had some male classmates rudely chasing after her- and Yonghwa had set them straight.

The time when a jealous girl who liked Yonghwa had locked her in the gym’s closet- and Yonghwa searched throughout the school, finding her wailing in the enclosed room, and knocked the door down to save her.

Come to think of it, Yonghwa realized that Seohyun was his first kiss, though it had been completely inadvertent. She had tripped over air and he had reached out to catch her… and they somehow ended up lying on the ground with their lips pressed against each other.

His frayed heart finally felt whole again. 

Yonghwa relaxed back into bed, weariness still lingering over his body. “Seohyun…” He whispered her name over and over, the sound of it ringing like melodious bells drifting over a luscious valley full of life.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

“Ah…” Seohyun groaned as she rubbed her exhausted eyes, blinking them rapidly as she realized that she had fallen asleep in the middle of night after watching over Yonghwa for hours on end. When her eyes finally focused, they stared at the hand that was gently laid on top of hers.

Um…

Initially she wanted slide her hand away, feeling like this contact was a mistake of some sort, a mistake that she didn’t deserve to have.

But what’s the harm?

Yonghwa’s solid breathing indicated that he was sleeping, this time serenely and without pain. His chest rose and fell with a regular pattern and she couldn't help but trace his chest up to his face with her eyes, her eyes that rested on his face.

They were still holding hands.

A slight smile came over her face. The last time they had ever held hands were the Seohyun and Yonghwa of years past, the innocent little kids who couldn’t ever had fathomed the adversity that was to come later in their lives.

The abrupt ringing of her phone disturbed her thoughts. One glance was enough to strip away her giddy mood- leaving her bare with darker feelings of sadness.

Nichkhun.

Sighing, she watched her phone boogie across the desk, the vibrations sending it into a spasm of sorts. Her free hand reached over and cupped the mechanical device.

“Hello?”

“Why are you whispering?”

“My friend is asleep.” Her eyes flickered to Yonghwa, making sure he was still sleeping.

“Hey… about yesterday… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Sorry for basically disowning me? What, are you ashamed to have a commoner like me as a friend?” Her words spat venom over the phone line.

“Hyunnie~ Don’t be like that!” He whined, and Seohyun could picture the pleading look he was wearing.

“Don’t call me that.” That was Yonghwa’s nickname for her. “And,” she sighed, “Whatever. I’m used to this already. It’s nothing new.”

“Oh come on Seohyun! I’ll take you out to dinner. Or lunch. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorrrrrrrrrry~ Sorry sorry sorry sorry~”

She couldn’t win against his aegyo. No one could. “Fine. Dinner it is.”

A feminine squeal was emitted from Nichkhun’s side and a giggle escaped Seohyun’s lips.

“Tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at 6:00 sharp!”

“Okay, Oppa. If you back out, I won’t forgive you!” She . After a few more rounds of teasing, they finally hung up and Seohyun’s gaze was directed out the window.

During her depression after leaving Taeyeon and Yonghwa, though Taecyeon had found her first, it had been Nichkhun who lifted her high above the dark clouds with his shining radiance.

“Urrhg…” Yonghwa sat up, shaking his head rapidly.

Seohyun’s head snapped over to him as he looked at her.

“HYUNNIE UNNIE!!” He screeched, his arms wrapping around her, his head buried into her neck as is never wanting to let her go.

So he remembered, after all. Her smile grew wider as she wrapped her arms around him as well, her head resting on his shoulder.

A small tear of joy rolled softly down her cheek.

~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~

Yay for long update ~

I have a super hard project that was assigned recently & is due next monday..

And this friday/weekend I'm busy. 

So I might not be able to update AS fast as I would like.

BUT THERE WILL DEFINITELY BE AN UPDATE WITHIN THE NEXT FEW DAYS. 

I PROMISE.

<3

lingericious [block]  on 11-8-2011 22:07:06 says: x
Whoa... A 90?! YAY! CONGRATS! But its so predictable that you'd score well! You write so splendidly! :D

I love how you did the errr... bed... scene (?) differently from others! I always appreciated story plots that have some parts different from the norm! :)

So I guess it will be Minhyuk for the next scene? :)

For Jungshin... I was just wondering, were you going to reveal who the guy-who-caused-Taeyeon-to-be-"miserable" in chapter 15: Taeyeon's past revealed? And are you going to make him a part of your future chapters? Or you can always put him as someone from another gang who later befriends them, someone from one of Taeyeon's/Jonghyun's/Yonghwa's past, since Seohyun's past is already pretty complicated... Just some ideas to get your inspiration flowing. :) Hopefully it will get you inspired, that is...

Can't wait for your next update!!!

Aww thanks! :D 
We did another timed writing today. This time I felt slightly more confident [: Hopefully it's okay, haha. 

Thanks! [: 

Nope, Minhyuk's coming later. I think. O_o 
He's currently on Hiatus because.. I paid for him to travel to Houston to come visit me, *nodnod. <3 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR IDEAS :D 
I now know what I'm going to do with him. I'm just not sure when to add him in. It'll be soon. THANK YOU AGAINN! :DDDDD

Minhyo98 [block]  on 11-8-2011 19:54:09 says: x
YAY YOUR DONE STUDYING! I really liked the chapter update soon!

I KNOW :D 
Studying = >_<" 
& Thank you ~ 

tthnguyen [block]  on 11-7-2011 23:54:27 says: x
YAY!! Yong remembered a bit!! I wonder what's going to happen next when Hyun finds out that Yong knows about her.....
Keep Updating!! :)

Hopefully I answered your question/what you were wondering, haha ^^ Hope you liked the update! [:

lovethynne [block]  on 11-7-2011 20:57:29 says: x
kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! i love it! i love it! i love it! Thank you!!

Update soon! hwaiting!

Thank youuuuu :D