Get ready for a 10K information drama overload! (lol)

He stands at the edge of the cliff, staring at the black horizon. He can feel the wind blow carelessly on him like it’s trying to soothe him.

“Chanyeol…”

He turns around and sees her standing just a few meters away, but still audible in his place. He tries to step forward but he can’t move his feet. He tries to open his mouth and protest that he is not Chanyeol but his lips won’t open. It’s a complete struggle to try to move. He was relieved when she steps near him, hugging him close as if she had been looking for him.

“Sooyoung…!”

Both of them look at a struggling ‘Kris’who’s panting from running. His eyes widened from the sight of seeing himself right in front of him.

“I love you, please, it’s me you love and not him,” the said ‘Kris’ reaches to hold her but she flinches and cowers like she is so scared to even let him near her personal space.

The ground beneath them crumbles and he felt himself falling. He tries to scream for help as the pull of gravity increases. He looks up and has his eyes widen when he sees her cradled in Chanyeol’s arms, looking relieved to see him falling down.

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Kris woke up in a jolt, sweat running down the sides of his head from the said dream. It’s so surreal and he almost felt like he is really to die from the fall. He breathes hard, trying to regain himself from the nightmare.

A moment elapsed and what happened last night came to him like a bucket of cold water poured down on him. He panics as he moves to get out the bed. He needs to see her, to get to her and make sure she is safe. Just as he is about to land his feet on the floor, his door opens as his mother comes in.

Upon seeing her son awake and looking so panic stricken, she rushes to his side, stopping him from moving furthermore.

“No baby! You have to stop now, please,” Stella pleads, her eyes watering.

“Mother I need to save her. You promised that we will leave right away last night. I have to find her; our papers are ready already and we cannot just cancel the flight. This is the only chance we have … “Kris rambles on but it all the more made Stella cry.

“No baby; it is over. You cannot anymore leave. It’s impossible already,” Stella soon sobs but Kris seems undeterred from his mother’s words. He tries to move away from his mother’s grip but Stella held him firmly finally shouting.

“STOP IT! THEY HAVE HER ALREADY! THEY FOUND THE TWO OF YOU AND THERE’S NO WAY YOU CAN HAVE HER AGAIN!”

Kris froze in his place, eyes wide from her mother’s outburst.

“Someone told her father about your location and even your father joined in retrieving you. I am so sorry I was not able to stop them. I am so sorry baby…” then she pulls the still frozen Kris in a hug.

It’s suddenly hard to breathe for him; his air passage slowly tightening in seconds as the cruel reality settles in bit by bit.

“But she already said yes…” he faintly whispered, his eyes soon shedding tears.

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Sooyoung woke up in a jolt as well. Her breathing already labored as she slowly pulls herself up. It’s like last night had just been a dream, a beautiful dream turned nightmare; but it’s too real to be a dream. The very moment she had sat up on her bed, Jisun’s piercing cold eyes met hers.

He is standing by the foot of the bed, his arms crossed with that air of anger still present around him. Her mother, Yoonsoo is sitting at the bed, her eyes swollen probably form crying.

“You both disappoint me,” Jisun coldly stated and left the two on the room.

Yoonsoo inched closer to Sooyoung, reaching to hold her hand, “I am so sorry baby. I did my best but it’s just not the right time for the two of you,” then she continues sobbing.

The pain of reality starts to settle in as Sooyoung bit her lips to stop the tears but it’s too much to hold back.

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The fist that landed on his face sends Xiumin on the floor by the hallway.

“DAMN YOU TRAITOR!” Luhan bellows and if not for Tao and Baekhyun, he would have straddled him and gave him much more beating.

Fei shrieks and bends down with Kyungsoo to help Xiumin.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Baekhyun releases Luhan, shoving him by the chest on Tao.

“Ask that bastard!” then he removes their grip on him, storming past them.

The spotlight hits Xiumin as he wipes his bloodied lips with the back of his hand.

“I just did the two of them a favor,” Xiumin replied.

If it’s already vague since Luhan just punched him then all the more when Xiumin said that and stood up to leave the four gaping at each other, totally clueless of everything.

Then a passing by couple of students whispering had caught their attention. It’s not the students per se but what they are whispering and looks like the school is feasting on it already; except them. They were able to catch some phrases.

“I heard that Kris and Sooyoung tried to elope…”

“…they were caught at a secluded rest house…”

“…their fathers were rumored to be enemies…”

“I heard their mothers helped the two…”

“…Their story is so sad…”

And countless more rumors which is all about Kris and Sooyoung’s disappearance filled them as more students pass by them.

“Are we the last to be informed of this issue?” Fei places her hands on her hips, her anger meter rising up little by little.

“Looks like it,” Baekhyun replies, sighing.

“Then that two better have a good recount of the event or I will surely strangle them.”

Then another rumor rolled on the hallway just as the four is about to disperse for their classes.

“Kris is dropped out of school and is told to be home-schooled according to his father’s strict order because of what he and Sooyoung did.”

If Fei had her anger meter rising up little by little a while ago, now the meter’s broken for she finally bursts, grabbing the nearest student on the collar, glaring and seething her words.

“Who the hell told you that rumor?” she menacingly seethed which shook the student in fear.

“I-it’s it’s already… *gulp* posted … uhm … on the principal’s … announcement board…” the student replied, too shaken from Fei’s glaring eyes.

Fei let’s go of the student’s collar, grabs her phone and dials Kris number but it directs to his voice inbox. She tried a couple of times but the result is still the same. She turns to Tao and Baekhyun, “You two, wring out everything from Xiumin, we’ll do the same form Luhan,” then she drags Kyungsoo to where Luhan headed moments ago.

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Sooyoung had been lying in her bed since morning. Her mother had asked her to stay at home for the day and go back to school tomorrow if she is fine already. Her mind reels back to the time they are at the resort like some newly married couple on their honeymoon. The painful sweet memories they had together ever since they started to get intimate brought tears into her eyes. She will give everything just to have those back.

She’s also frustrated from the fact that her parents haven’t enlightened her about the reason why they despise the Wu family. It’s so heart breaking just to think of the possible reasons why for none crosses her mind. All she feels is the selfishness of her parents and not their insistent of protecting her and not letting her feel hurt, but what they are doing is really hurting her.

For the whole day, she stayed in her room, not even touching the food they give her. Her parents have gone back to the hospital and even if she leaves her room, she will never get past the very tight security her father set up.

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Luhan stared up at the clouds fleeting in the clear blue sky. It’s quite frustrating to know that one of your closest friends decided to ruin your other closest friend’s happiness. Didn’t they agree in the first place to help Kris have his princess? Didn’t they all agree to find ways to help him end up with Sooyoung? But why did he decide to go against all of them? And what’seven worst, he did it secretly!

He suddenly felt like doubting every Xiumin’s action even before. Thoughts about why he is with them comes into his already confused mind, like he is a spy sent by either of the two’s parents, or Kris’s parents specifically. It is really mind wrenching to think of those things.

Now, he pities the two lovers. It’s so cliché, almost Romeo and Juliet alike.

Other stories will be like one of the two are poor and the other’s parents doesn’t want them together.

Other version will be like, their families are long-time enemies and they are victim of the so-called forbidden love.

Other version will be about them being tied on arranged marriage with other and that their parents cannot withdraw the marriage for some reasons at all.

Some more absurd versions crossed the pretty boy’s mind but still he can’t pinpoint which one is the real reason.

“Hey.”

He looks sideways and sees Fei and Kyungsoo walking to where he is. They settled beside him and allowed a moment of silence.

“What’s with you and Xiumin calling each other traitor?” Fei asks.

He sighs, finally allowing himself to tell what he had done for the two.

“I actually helped them get away,” he started.

And throughout his narration, Kyungsoo and Fei just had their mouth hanging wide open. When he is done, that’s when Fei finally found her voice.

“You mean Xiumin is there when the men in black barged in your resort house to get Sooyoung and Kris?”

“Yeah; what I don’t get is him saying he had done a favor for the two,” Luhan runs a hand on his hair, frustrated.

“We will never understand the real reason not unless we learn why their parents despise each other that much,” Kyungsoo pats the pretty boy’s shoulder.

“Let’s get Xiumin side, shall we?” Fei laid out her hand and Luhan accepts it. After all, if he stays away from them, he will never understand Xiumin.

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Xiumin had just finished telling his side which had Baekhyun and Tao totally floored. They found him by the field, sitting on the goal post.

“Wow, that is so …” Baekhyun left his statement hanging for he can’t find any words to describe it.

“How did your mother know that?” Tao asks.

“She’s a friend of both but not that close enough. But then, everyone during their time knows the story. It’s just that the time elapsed made it look like no one really knows. Anyway, I speak on my mother’s account not on both parties account. There might be lapses and mistakes on what she told me so it is better to know it first hand on the involved parties,” he sighs.

“Victim of the cruelty of Fate eh?” Baekhyun chuckles, trying to absorb just what Xiumin had relayed.

“Come, you better tell them that to enlighten them and for you to fix your relationship with the pretty boy. We don’t want any of us fighting and you know that,” Tao stands up, smiling at the said guy.

With a sigh, he finally stood up and followed the two to meet up with the rest.

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Kris had gone bored inside his room and decided to roam around the house. It’s already past four in the afternoon. He skipped classes for the day since he is too weak to even face his friends. He ventured on each room upstairs like it’s the only time he will have to do it.

He had already planned of touring Sooyoung inside their mansion once they had officially declared their relationship; but with the turn of the events, looks like it will be just a plan.

He met his mother as he is heading to the east wing of the house.

“Kris baby, can you get the red box atop your father’s cabinet? The one in his study room,” she smiles at him.

With a weak nod, he starts to get there. Before he could walk past her, she stopped her son.

“Are you okay now?” Stella asks.

“I am trying Mom,” then with a sad smile, he proceeds.

There’s no particular memory on this part of the house, only those times when his father will give him assignments. The furnishing is sparse; just the large mahogany table, the computer atop it and the large cabinet behind the table with files and books. There’s no other more, not even a picture frame.

With a sigh, he looks up and sees the red box below a purple one. He stretches his arm to get the box. In the process, the purple one fell first as he cradles the red one.

He carefully placed the red box on the table as he bends down to pick the spilled contents of the said purple box.

There’s a stethoscope, a doctor’s coat and a pin.

He stares at the pin and the embroidered name on the doctor’s coat.

Dr. Yin Jao ‘Gregory’ Li

Neurological Surgeon

The pin has the seal of the prestigious medical school in Korea with the label graduate. He stared at the piece of clothing and the pin, trying to think how his father had such coat and pin when he is a businessman. With questions ringing on his head, he decided to fold it neatly and bring it with him back to his mother. As he is about to close the box, he caught the sight of an old photo from afar.

It’s turned upside down so he sees the message written at the back. It’s a cursive penmanship which added more questions on his already filled mind. The note goes this way:

Wish you all the best. I miss you; please return safely.

It’s signed with the name Hye Young.

When he flipped it, he recognized his father on the left side; after all, he looks just like his father when Gregory was still young. Beside him is another lady who looks so familiar. There’s another man and woman in the picture with them. Although it’s already yellow and almost faded, he knows who owns such face standing too close to his father.

‘She really looks like-,’ his thought is automatically interrupted when his mother’s ear-piercing scream shattered the house silence.

Without even looking back at the things on the floor, he rushes to where the scream came from.

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“Baby, are you ready to go to school tomorrow?” Yoonsoo asks as she helps Sooyoung on her dinner.

She gives a weak nod, trying to swallow the food that despite how tasty and appetizing it looks, her taste buds just don’t taste it. Just for the sake of her mother’s wish, she tries eating even a few spoonfuls.

“Baby, I am so sorry,” Yoonsoo started as Sooyoung starts to play with her food.

“You don’t have to say sorry Mom. It’s a bit childish in our part to try our luck when it’s clearly obvious that we just cannot be together. What I really don’t get is the reason why Dad is so adamant in parting us,” she replied, still toying with her food not bothering to look up at her mother.

“I really wish to tell you; but I am not in the real position to do so. It will be very best if he tell you himself. He is the one directly affected so he knows the story well; but I’ll try to supplement in case he tells you and he gets biased again,” Yoonsoo sits beside Sooyoung, pulling her to herself to let her lean on her. It saddens her to realize that Sooyoung didn’t even bothered to hug her which she always do so.

“Mom, how does my mother look like?” Sooyoung asks after a moment of silence.

“She’s very much like you; I can attest that you look like her reincarnation,” Yoonsoo smiles at the fond memory of Sooyoung’s mother.

“Does she want to be a doctor like Dad?”

Yoonsoo nods, “She wants to be a neurologist. She is so fascinated by the human brain. At first, he wants her to take up psychology but she insists to be a neurologist instead.”

“I want to take up cardiology. I want to learn more about the human’s heart,” Sooyoung said, trying to fend off the rising pain in her head.

“Is it really about the human’s heart?” Yoonsoo pushes, trying to let her open up again.

“I don’t want to deal with the human emotions. All I want is how to save the most precious organ a human can have; if I fail on the medical examination, I might take up administration instead,” Sooyoung replies.

“Administration? You want to venture on business?” she looks down at her daughter.

“I can have Siwon Oppa or Seunghyun Oppa to help me. After all, they are business tycoons in the country,” she sighs, closing her eyes tightly; doing her best not to alarm Yoonsoo of the ache in her head.

“How’s your recurring headache?”

Sooyoung sighs deeply, “It’s already gone,” she lies.

“Just don’t hesitate on telling me if it occurs again okay? I will have you checked up,” then she slowly parts to give her daughter a kiss before grabbing the tray. With one last look on her, she closes Sooyoung’s door.

She finds Jisun by the dining area with a bottle of wine.

“You’re early; is there something wrong?” Yoonsoo asks, disposing the tray by the sink.

“Did I go overboard on Sooyoung? Will my sister get mad at me for doing this?” he asks, watching the red liquid on the wine glass.

“You are just protecting her; you are just doing what you can do for the best,” Yoonsoo sits opposite him, reaching out to hold his hand.

“But why is she still hurting?” Jisun looks up.

Yoonsoo’s eyes widened upon locking eyes with Jisun’s red-rimmed eyes. He looks like he had been crying for long. 

“Because you never told her the reason why you are doing this. Jisun, she’s old enough to know and understand things. Stop beating the bush and just tell her. It will not do any good for the both of you,” Yoonsoo advises.

“But I am scared; and I just don’t know why,” Jisun retrieves his hand, letting both run on his hair, gripping it with frustration.

“Tell her the unbiased truth; don’t let your emotion interfere,” she finally moves around to hug him.

“I don’t want her to hate me; I don’t know what might happen to me if she started to hate me,” Jisun cries.

Yoonsoo had never seen her husband as vulnerable as this. It hurts her as well to see both the people close to her heart get so broken.

“She will hate you if you will continue hiding the truth; tell her,” she prompts, wiping away the silent tears falling form her eyes.

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“The situation is worst already Mrs. Wu. I would like to ask if he had been continuing his medication?” the doctor asks as they head to his office.

Kris stares at his mother and the doctor getting inside an office, frozen to where he is.

‘Medication?’ he thought, trying to absorb the lone word.

Right after he heard the scream, he finds his mother on his father’s room, trying to revive his father who is on the floor, breathless, probably fainted. If not for his mother’s calling, he would have just stood there, watching his mother get hysterical.

They rushed him to the hospital and immediately moved to the emergency room. It was after an hour did the doctor’s had him moved on a private room for further monitoring.

Right now, he stands in front of the door of the doctor who claims that he is the private doctor his father hired in secrecy.

With trembling hands, he opens the door and tried to listen to what his mother and the doctor had been talking but he just can’t grasp it. After a minute or two, he decided to wait for his mother by the seats outside his father’s room.

After an hour later, a tap on his shoulder woke him up from his nap. Stella sits beside him, leaning on his shoulder. The silence stretched on as both of them tries to settle their minds about the turn of events.

“Mom, what happened? What medication is that doctor talking about?” Kris finally asks.

“Baby, your father is sick,” she pauses, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, “He had been sick for long,” Stella’s broken voice continues.

Those words were like stones thrown to him, knocking down his conscience.

He always sees his father as someone strong, prim, the very epitome of power and authority. He sees him as someone who is invincible; someone who is not easily affected by emotions.

“How-how come … he –he … is …?” Kris tries to articulate his question, but his mother already knows what he wants to ask.

“He had been diagnosed with a weak heart when you are still young. He developed such ailment form too much negative emotions he experienced before and after we got married. He tried his best to cure it by undergoing different medication and emotional therapy to control his emotions. I thought those had been successful; I thought those had worked but it didn’t. His heart starts to get weaker and weaker from every treatment he gets. The doctor advised for a transplant since his weak heart cannot support pumping blood but he declined. He doesn’t want a transplant,” Stella pauses, trying to regain her even breathing.

“Those business trips we are together are not really about business. We are out of the country for his medication and therapy. The real business trip he went to is if he is alone. We both know travel and stress can contribute to the further weakening of his heart but he insists on it; he doesn’t want you to see him weak; he doesn’t want you to pity him; he doesn’t want to let you grow up worrying all the time about him.”

“If he doesn’t agree with a transplant, we might lose him. Baby, he will die if he doesn’t agree with the transplant,” then Stella finally broke down in tears.

Kris suddenly felt breathless; too much information had racked his head and he can’t even grasp a single one of it. He just stared ahead, letting his mother’s sob echo on the silent hallway.

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“Kris, your father wants to talk to you,” Stella taps on her sleeping son by the shoulder. Kris had decided to stay out; scared to even see his father on the hospital bed. He tries to shake off the sleepiness and moves to get inside as Stella leaves to get something to eat.

It’s already 11 in the evening. The doctors had visited his father around nine and he woke up by around ten in the evening.  Once the door closes, he sighs deeply, preparing himself of how to face the man he thought invincible.

As he moves near the hospital bed, he sees another face of his father. He looks so weak; vulnerable; signs of aging and sickness are very relevant in Gregory’s face. He moves near him, taking the seat beside him.

“Father, you called for me,” he said, trying to look at him in the eye, but he feels so weak to do so. He feels thre