This was the last straw. He was not going to put up with it any longer.

TOP pulled Ji Yong off the bed and he woke up in surprise. “Hey!”

Lia sat up, her eyes going wide. “Oppa!”

“I thought you told me nothing was going on?” TOP yelled, throwing Ji Yong on the floor. “You lied to me!”

Ji Yong groaned. Lia jumped off to run to his aid but TOP pushed her back on the bed. “You lied!”

“I didn’t! I never lied to you! I swear!” she screamed, struggling to break free from his grip. “Let me go, Oppa!”

“Then why are you sleeping with him?” Then it hit him. “You’ve been sleeping with him for the past few days, haven’t you?”

That would explain why he was never able to catch her: she was never sleeping in her own room to begin with!

“We didn’t do anything, hyung,” Ji Yong said weakly, still on the floor. He clutched his sides. “All we did —”

“Shut up,” he snarled. He turned back to Lia and shook her head. “I trusted you but you lied to me. I TRUSTED YOU, JUN MEI!”

Lia flinched, tears pouring down her face. “We didn’t do anything!” she insisted. “We just slept together but we didn’t have !”

Ji Yong managed to stand up. He tried to take TOP’s hands off her. “Let her go.”

TOP swung around to face him, outraged. He punched him in the face and he fell over again. He grabbed him up from the floor by the shirt and punched him again. “Don’t ever touch my baby sister again,” he spat in his face. He gave another punch.

“Oppa, leave him! He didn’t do anything!” Lia’s voice was shrill as she ran to them, trying to loosen his grip on him. She started to throw punches on his back. “Stop it! You’re hurting him! Stop it, Oppa!”

TOP pushed her away and kneed Ji Yong in the stomach. Ji Yong gasped in pain. He then punched him again and again until he was bleeding but he just kept on punching. Some-times he would kick him in the stomach. Whatever it takes to hurt him.

By then everyone else had woke up and rushed to the room to see what the commotion was all about. They froze at the sight but quickly snapped out of it. Dae Sung and Tae Yang tried to hold TOP back while Seung Ri held a kicking and screaming Lia in his arms. Ji Yong tried to fight back but he was already too weak to even move.

Tae Yang and Dae Sung finally managed to get TOP off him in a blink of an eye; he slipped from their grip and raised his hand to deliver a blow on Ji Yong with his full strength.

Ji Yong closed his eyes, waiting for the blow. Instead, he heard Lia cry out in pain and a second later he felt her falling into his arms. His eyes flew opened and he looked up to the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. He looked down at Lia, who was crying, clutching her stomach. She was gasping for breath.

TOP had punched her instead.

“Lia!” he said, hugging her, panic rising in his heart. “Are you okay?”

“It . . .  hurts . . .” she complained. Then she let out a scream of pure agony. “I can’t . . . breathe . . .”

The others crowded around her but TOP just stood there, unable to move. His eyes were wide. He couldn’t believe he hurt her, that he punched her.

And it was with his full strength.

“Mianhae,” he whispered before running out of the room, ashamed.

“We need to get her to the hospital,” Tae Yang spoke up. “Who knows what internal damage hyung gave her. Ji, you need to go for a checkup on those punches he gave you.”

“I’m fine,” Ji Yong said dismissively. He cradled Lia gently in his arms. He kissed her. “Baby, it’ll be all right. I’m here. It’s okay.”

“Ji Oppa . . .”

Ji Yong tried to stand up while carrying her but Seung Ri took her in his arms instead. “You have no strength to carry her,” he told him as he started to protest. “Hyungs will help you, but I will carry her.”

“But —” he tried again and fell over.

Dae Sung caught him by his arm. “Let’s go,” he said firmly.

“No arguments,” Tae Yang added, taking his other side. “Just listen to us, please.”

The three of them took the two injured people to the hospital (TOP was nowhere to be seen) and got them a private room. They didn’t tell what happened but requested for it to keep it private and confidential. They sat outside worriedly as they waited for the results.

Finally the doctor came out from the room and they stood up from their seats anxiously.

“Doctor, how —?” Tae Yang began.

The doctor sighed. “Ji Yong is fine, but as for Lia . . .”

“What’s wrong with her?” Seung Ri asked.

He shook his head and looked at all of them sternly. “Whatever hit her stomach did quite a lot of damage to her lungs. I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with her, but I have a pretty good guess that it has to do with air blockage. Right now, she is having some difficulty in breathing properly.”

“Is it that bad?” Seung Ri wanted to know, although he hoped that she would be fine.

The doctor didn’t say anything for awhile. He took his glasses off and sighed, rubbing his forehead. “If Jun Mei can’t breathe properly, she might die.”

The words hung up in the cold atmosphere as the three of them stared at the doctor, stunned. If she can’t breathe properly, she might die. SHE MIGHT DIE.

“I need to know,” the doctor went on, “if she had any breathing problems when she was a child?”

Seung Ri remembered something someone said a long time ago. “Yes, she was asthmatic.”

“Ah, I see that. That might be a problem.”

“Why???” all three voices chorused.

“She might get asthma attacks as well as her breathing difficulty right now,” the doctor explained. “If she does, there is a very high risk of her not being able to make it.”

“Is there anything you can do to help her?” Dae Sung begged.

He nodded. “I will do whatever I can to help her.”

“Can’t we see . . .?”

“You can see Ji Yong,” he said gently, “but Lia is still undergoing some tests.”

The three of them hurried to Ji Yong’s room, where they found him sitting up on his bed, his wounds covered up with fabric. There was nothing much the nurse could do about his bruises and swollen eye.

He looked up. “How is Lia?” he asked. “Where is she? Is she okay?”

The three of them exchanged glances, not knowing what to say. Should they tell him the truth or should they lie to their leader?

“Lia is fine,” Dae Sung lied. But his voice cracked a bit, giving it away. He cringed.

“Tell me the truth!” Ji Yong yelled hoarsely.

Tae Yang sat down on the edge of his bed, not wanting to disturb him. “Hyung hit her with his full strength, Ji,” he said, careful with his choice of words. “The doctor said she is having trouble with breathing.”

“Go on,” Ji Yong said bravely.

“Do you remember when hyung’s mom said she used to have asthma attacks when she was a child?” Seung Ri went on. When Ji Yong nodded, he continued, “The doctors said it’s not exactly good if she gets an attack now. If she does —” He stopped, unable to go on. He couldn’t bring himself to say it. He couldn’t bear to think of Lia dead.

“Ji Yong, she might die,” Tae Yang finished quietly.

Ji Yong sunk back in his bed, stunned. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It can’t happen. She can’t die. He began to sob. “No. Not Lia. That can’t be true.”

“Hyung, they’re doing everything they can,” Dae Sung said softly, placing a hand on him. “She’s going to be fine.” He wished he could believe his words.

He began to tear up.

Soon the others were crying too. The four of them couldn’t accept the fact that there is a high possibility of Lia gone.

But Ji Yong cried the hardest. The others knew why: he blamed himself for not taking the blow. The blow was meant for him, yet Lia jumped in front of him and took it instead. It should have been him, not her.

The doctor came in, clearing his throat. “I am bringing Lia in,” he said, opening the door wide.

A nurse came pushing Lia’s bed, with her lying down weakly. She put her in an empty spot next to Ji Yong’s bed. “Please do not make a lot of noise. She is still very weak,” the nurse told them before following the doctor out of the room.

Ji Yong got up and walked to her despite the others’ protests. He sat down next to her. She smiled weakly, a hand reaching up to him. He took his and placed his cheek in her hand, letting his tears flow.

“You okay?” she asked weakly.

He could hear wheezing sounds coming from her. He shook his head. “Lia,” he said, kissing her fingers. “Babo. Why’d you do that for? Why did you jump in front of me? I could take it; I’m stronger than you.”

She could just barely shake her head. “I didn’t . . . want you . . . to . . . be hurt . . .”

He stiffly leaned in to kiss her and she closed her eyes.

Lia turned away. Ji Yong knew she was hurting that her brother had hurt him, had hurt her, and had not believed her. He also knew that she didn’t want him to see her cry. He wiped her tears away, pulling her close. He loved her sweet scent.

She turned back to him and buried her face in his chest and sobbed. The others came to her. Seung Ri sat on her other side and hugged her. Dae Sung and Tae Yang both sat at her feet, placing their hands on her thighs in the brotherly way to let her know they were there for her.

Ji Yong and Seung Ri exchanged glances. Ji Yong knew that Seung Ri likes Lia, but he didn’t say anything because he knew that Seung Ri knew that Lia loved him, not the maknae. And also because Seung Ri respected Ji Yong. He hasn’t given him a reason to punch him yet. But if he makes one wrong move . . .

“Ji Oppa . . .” a faint voice said from in the middle of them. Lia lifted her head up. She smiled at him. She turned to Seung Ri and smiled as well. “Maknae . . . Oppa.”

“Shhh,” Seung Ri told her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He kissed her nose, his forehead against her forehead. “I’m here.”

She hugged him before turning to the other two at the end of her bed. “Dae Sung Oppa. Bae Oppa. . . .”

They came up to her and each kissed her cheeks. “We are here for you. You know that.”

She struggled to speak. “Don’t . . . let Oppa . . . hurt Ji —” She gasped in pain, unable to finish and she collapsed back into Ji Yong’s hands. “Ohhh.”

“Lia, don’t speak,” Ji Yong said anxiously.

Tae Yang stood up. “I think we should go,” he said to the other two. “We should check on hyung.”

“Oh.” They stood up and kissed Lia. “Bye.” They left the two of them alone.