Despite his promise to Yixing and Tao, Sehun hadn’t apologized to Junmyeon yet. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Part of him really wanted to do it, he could sense that the tension in the air, whenever he and Junmyeon were in the hospital room, was unbearable to everybody and no one would stay there too long, opting to leave and occupy themselves eating or bringing unnecessary presents to a comatose Baekhyun. It was really draining and he felt bad for making everyone, indirectly, felling this way, however, he looked at Junmyeon and he felt disgusted; the man was a wreck, that he could see, consumed with guilt, but no matter how guilty the other felt, Sehun couldn’t simply forgive and forget, that was not how he worked out. If he did ever apologized he would prefer to do so meaning it, honestly apologizing as he explained to Tao when the older had questioned him about not having apologized yet.

He had also discussed the matter with Jongin and Chanyeol, as understanding as the couple was, he could see the disappointment in Jongin’s eyes. Nonetheless, the couple had asked him to be, at least, polite in order to not aggravate anyone and he had agreed on that. It was a sort of compromise.

It was still weird that they spent most of their free time in the hospital room, leaving only to sleep a couple of hours at the dorm and shower. The doctors had yet to wake Baekhyun up and the petite singer remained sleeping, neck completely hid in white bandages. Sehun had been there when a nurse had changed the bandages and the sight hadn’t been pretty: the once smooth, white neck, had a jagged cut that went from below Baekhyun’s ear lobe and stopped three or four inches down, in an almost diagonal line. It was red, raised with stiches holding up skin together tightly; it was going to leave a pretty awful scar but, as the doctor had told them, it was a lucky fact that Baekhyun was alive, so the scar had been a small to pay.

Much to everyone surprise, Kris was a regular presence at the hospital, as soon as he heard the news that his little dongsaeng was in the hospital, the taller man had flew to Korea as soon as he could to support his friends and see the injured one. He hadn’t left yet and, when Minseok asked him about it, the taller had calmly responded that he wasn’t leaving until he was assured that little Baekhyun was perfectly okay. Tao had asked him if that wouldn’t affect his schedules to which Kris answered that no schedule in the world was more important than his friend. That had left everyone in a better mood.

Tao had confided in Sehun that he felt more assured with Kris’ presence in there.

“I’m not sure that it’s because his presence makes me feel like he finally have someone to guide us, even if for a little bit, or if it is just because I missed him.”

However, as happy as they were to have Kris next to them, the presence of the once EXO-M leader had them all on edge; when the everything had happened, the members had all agreed to come up with a viable story that would not bring any problems to Junmeyon, stating to their manager that Baekhyun had been assaulted near home by a drunk, unknown person, which had only been half a lie, and that had also been the news that the media had spread around and Kris represented a threat to their well-conceived lie; despite being a at the best of times, on the most trivial things, Kris knew every single one of his friends like the palm of his hand and it wouldn’t take him much long to realize they were hiding something. He could see the suspicion in Kris’ eyes when they had told him how Baekhyun had been injured. It only seemed to increase by the hints dropped by some of the less subtle members, himself included, since he couldn’t even speak to Junmeyon. So, when Kris discovered the truth, Sehun was surprised at all.

It was the third day since Kris’ arrival and the sixth since Baekhyun had been put in an induced coma. The doctors where very pleased with Baekhyun’s improvement, as the results of his exams had returned normal, his cut hadn’t developed an infection and ever since the surgery, Baekhyun’s heart had beaten away happily and strongly, much to everybody’s relief. The doctor had tell them that the trauma and blood loss had been the cause for the cardiac arrest but still, the continuous beeping sound coming from the machine, had been the best sound they all have heard in a while, it was assuring and comforting.

The daylight was starting to fade; giving place to nighttime to come, and some of the members had gone back to the dorms to rest and eat. Yixing had took Junmyeon with him, the leader had been reluctant to go away, wanting to be near Baekhyun, but he was too tired and his Chinese friend had convinced him, with his gentle nature and logical arguments, to rest a bit before returning.

Right now, Minseok, Sehun, Chanyeol and Kris were the only ones standing in Baekhyun’s hospital room, watching the smaller man breathe away peacefully, until Kris’ voice broke the silence.

“Anyone cared to tell me what did, in fact, happen?”

“What are you talking about hyung?” asked Chanyeol calmly not being able to hide the nervous twitch in his eye.

“Don’t try to make a fool out of me Chanyeol! I know very well that what happened isn’t what you are telling to everyone. The crazy story you cooked up, although is a good one, I’ll give you that, isn’t really enough to convince me, and I know you better than that. First of all, we all know that Baekhyun isn’t really the one to go out alone; he would annoy the heck out of any of you to go with him because he is just a tiny, adorable leech that can convince anyone to give into him. Also, we all know that all the building that belong to SM are heavily guarded so the chances of him running into something like this is unlikely and, if by chance, it did happen, why would anyone assault him and just leave him in there without doing something to him or robbing something? So yeah, I really don’t buy it.”

They all looked at their friend and, internally, admitted that there were somethings that didn’t add up to the story, luckily for them, everyone so far had believed them but Kris wasn’t just anybody, he had been their leader for a reason. He looked at them expectantly.

“Are you going to spill or what?”

Out of anyone in there, Sehun would guess that Chanyeol was, most likely, the one to reveal the truth since his goofy hyung was not good at keeping secrets when pressured like this so, naturally, when Minseok opened up his mouth, he was taken aback, not expecting it at all.

“It was an accident, just not the one people expect!” he muttered in a low voice.

“What do you mean?”

“It was an accident.” repeated Minseok.

“I understood that part, what are you not telling me though?”

“I think it is better just to tell him!” interjected Jongin, rubbing his face tiredly “Partially because he will ask until he has no air in his lungs and mainly because it’s Kris. We can trust Kris. It’s better that he knows from us than to hear it from someone else if someone learns the truth.”

Chanyeol looked like he was about to say something but Jongin didn’t give him time.

“Look, I know the reason why we agree to do this but seriously, if we think about it, Kris might be able to help us with this situation; as much as I want to fix things, and I do, I am much too drained at the moment.”

When Minseok and Chanyeol continued to stare at him in apprehension, clearly torn about what to do, Sehun decided that enough was enough.

“Junmyeon got drunk and did that to Baekhyun.”

“Sehun!” chided Minseok “Why do you say things like that, it will give Kris the wrong impression!”

At Minseok’s outburst, Sehun felt himself getting angry; how did his young dared to diminish the gravity of the situation.

“I am giving him the exact picture of what happened Minseok, don’t you dare to say the contrary. Junmeyon did get drunk and he gave that scar to Baekhyun, so don’t try to make him sound innocent.”

“ENOUGH!” roared Kris making both of his friends shut up. “Since you too are too busy passing blame around, like little kids, I’ll ask someone else: Jongin tell me what happened.” He asked with a gentle tone, coaxing the younger to tell him the story.

“Since you and Luhan left, I think Junmyeon just crumble down.” started Jongin softly “I think he believes that he isn’t being a good leader and he couldn’t keep you happy, that being the reason you left. When you left he changed a bit, he grew more serious and dotting at the same time, however when Luhan left, his attitude just did a one eighty; it went from an extreme to the other. He just started drinking heavily and partying all night. He showed up completely drunk at a variety show filming, Kris! To add up to it, he started to be rude to everyone and blatantly mistreating some of us; Kyungsoo was pushed around a few times, He locked Baekhyun in a room! And then, one day, I was skyping with Minseok hyung and he just burst into the room, drunk out of his mind, with a bottle on his hands, cursing Baekhyun to the seventh pit of hell. He broke the bottle at some point and we tried to convinced him to put it down, Baekhyun tried to make him put it down, but he just grew more and more annoying and when Baekhyun tried to make him sleep it off, he just swung his arm at him and cut Baekhyun’s neck with the jagged ends of the broken bottle. And there was blood…so much…”

Kris stood up from his chair, sensing the younger’s distress and laid a comforting arm around Jongin’s shoulder, pushing the younger to him, thanking him in a whisper for telling him what he wanted to know.

Jongin, as mature as he was, was ultimately an innocent man and a young one to booth and whatever he had seen was clearly affecting him too much, since the man was now shaking. He sat the other down gently and Chanyeol immediately moved to embrace Jongin, who hid his face in Chanyeol’s chest, trying to calm his nerves and expel his demons from his mind.

“Kris…” called Minseok uncertainly, noticing the way Kris had just stood there, a multitude of emotions reflecting on his eyes, although too fast for him to pinpoint.

“Not now Minseok. I… I need to digest all of this. What you just said was really far off from what I was expecting. And I need to think it over, so please, give me some space. Talk about whatever you want…just not this.”

Everybody was silent after Kris’ little statement, not daring to say anything to the taller man, afraid that he would explode if ticked off, since he wasn’t exactly a happy camper after finding out the news. The only audible sound in the room, aside from the heart monitor, was Jongin breathing pattern, still very loud as he tried to prevent himself from giving to his emotions and sobbing his heart out.

The silence was interrupted when a doctor entered the room and, very politely, greeted them. The excessive amount of politeness scared them, thinking that bad news were about to come and even Jongin’s breaths had stop, as a matter of fact, it seemed as if the young male was holding his breath.

The doctor seemed to notice the tension in the room and immediately broke into a smile as she realized what everyone was, most likely thinking.

“Don’t worry boys! I am not the bearer of bad news; in fact, I bring excellent news: I just received the latest test results of your friend and we, the medical team assigned to Mr. Byun, agreed that the results exceeded our expectations; he is recovering remarkably well and we all think that it is time for him to wake up.”

“Really?” asked an ecstatic Minseok. “Those are great news!”

“Indeed they are.” smiled the doctor. “We are scheduling the procedure for tomorrow morning; I assume that you all want to be present for that moment.”

“Thank you so much doctor!”

“You are very welcome. And since everything seems to be okay with our patient I will be leaving.” Said the doctor, after a quick check on the numbers displayed on the machine.

“I have one question.” asked Chanyeol suddenly, almost timidly.

“What it is?” asked the doctor, smiling good naturedly.

“Will he remain with that scar?”

The way the doctor’s smile fell was a very great hint at the answer they would get.

“I am afraid that the scar will remain. I will admit that the medical team discussed about it and we came to the conclusion that is better not to do any more surgery to the place where the scar is located: it’s too close to his jugular vein, it was risky enough for us to close the wound without him dying; also, Mr. Byun’s body, as I stated previously had just gone under intensive trauma and a surgery would only stress his body more, so I am afraid that, for now, and for a long period of time, that scar will remain. I am truly sorry but it is for the best. Maybe later we may consider the option.”

Chanyeol nodded at the doctor and she bowed at them before leaving the room.

“Do I want to know why did you ask that question?” Sehun asked Chanyeol, eyebrows risen up on his forehead.

“Because I wanted to know if all of us, especially Baekhyun and Junmyeon, will have something left to remind this episode or not!” replied Chanyeol.

“What do you mean?” asked Minseok curiously.

“Every day; every single day, from now on, each time that one of us looks into Baekhyun’s neck, we’ll have a reminder of that day and it will hurt, it will hurt to know that one of us got injured because of our carelessness, because he failed to fix the problem. Imagine the pain you will feel and then think about Junmyeon, who will have to live everyday knowing that he did that. Then think of Baekhyun and remember that he has to live with it. He will look in the mirror and heavens know what will he see, what memory will be unlocked. Imagine him walking around and have people whispering and commenting all the single time, and he will just smile and pretend that it’s nothing. I don’t want that. I didn’t want any of us to have to feel like that.”

“So you are saying that, if not for the scar, you would forget everything? Swept it under the rug, like it didn’t happen?” enquired Sehun in a hard tone of voice, clearly displeasured at the thought.

“No, I never meant it like that. I don’t want to forget anything I just wished it would be trusted upon our faces like that. If Baekhyun wasn’t hurt you would be able to let things go and forgive Junmeyon any harsh word or shove, however, tell me honestly, will you be able to not resent Junmyeon for what he did having such a reminder?”

Sehun shut up after that, they all did. There was no argument against Chanyeol’s words; he had made a valid point with his words and every one in that room felt suddenly small.

“You know what upsets me the most? Is that I know Baekhyun well enough to say that he will probably more sad about it because of us, because it’s a reminder to us, than because of all he went through, never mind the fact that he almost die, he will bypass that fact without a blink of his eyes.”

“That seems exactly like him.” commented Kris distractedly, while gazing fondly at the man on the bed. “The tiny midget needs to be a little more selfish than he is!”

“But then it wouldn’t be the Baekhyun we all love.” retorted Jongin.

Their thoughts seemed to flutter away from the previous, dark and heavy ones, with a single look at the man on the bed.

“I really can’t wait for him to be away.” whispered Minseok, while the others nodded at the oldest.

The door opening abruptly, doorknob smacking on the wall loudly, made their heads snap in unison to the door.

There, looking at them, completely frazzled and worried, slightly breathless, was the one that, without knowing, was the root of Junmyeon’s problems.

“Luhan!!!”

A/N: I'M SOOOORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I am so, so, sorry! I have been sooo busy lately and I want to apologize for taking so long to update T-T

I really hope you enjoy this new chapter, which really, is just a filler and builds the brigde for what's coming next! Dun, Dun, Duuuuun!

Anyways, like it or not, comment, upvote and subscribe! Let me know about your opinions and, well, everything you want! I'm all ears ^^
Love you all!