"Eunmi!" A familiar voice broke through the silent night air. I looked up to see a figure that also seemed familiar. 

"Yifan?" The figure crept closer until the monitor light shined on his gorgeous face.

"Eunmi, why are you still here?" He sat himself down next to me.

"Tao needs me, he has nobody right now." Kris slowly nodded then moved closer to me.

"Has he woken up yet?" I shook my head and he nodded again. "When it's day time, will I be frightened by what I see?" I wondered if he was afraid to see Tao in a different state than normal.

"Gege, are you afraid?" I searched his eyes hopelessly in the dark. His eyes wouldn't meet mine. "It's okay Fanfan, I'm scared too." My brother finally looked up. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I basically signed myself up as his caretaker and I can hardly take care of myself. I caused this though..." My clear words became just mumbles once I reached the end. Kris opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off. "I had suggested he go to surprise you for your birthday and this happened." A warm tear slipped down my face.

"It's not your fault, Eunmi, not unless you pushed him in front of that car." Yifan's eyes were serious and unchanged and I knew he was sincere. "You should go home meimei. Please rest in your own bed and come back tomorrow." His eyes were pleading now but I wouldn't budge.

"Fanfan, I won't go anywhere. I can't, I need to be here for him so he knows that he truly has someone to take care of him." He sighed with anxiety.

"I thought you would say that. Eunmi, I am very close to him, can't I just be with him? What if he isn't how you remember? You are younger and more likely to scare him by freaking out about how different he is." I folded my arms.

"And you are saying you wouldn't do that?! I know you know him very well, so even more reason to want to ask him why he is being so different." He stuck out his tongue at me and I stuck mine right back at him. We then just broke out into giggles. "Shh be quiet, stupid! We are in a hospital!" I and he only whacked me on the arm.

We chatted like this for most of the night before falling asleep. Morning came like a slap to the face. Tao's reality finally really sank in for both of us. It was now that we really realized that Tao wasn't going to wake up, not for some time, if ever. The nurse came in frequently and would take his stats down on a piece of paper. Every time she came in, she would smile warmly at us but the warmth in her smile always seemed to freeze halfway because I never really got the warm feeling. Dr. Jung came in once at five in the afternoon to see how things were and politely talk to us. After a while, I didn't really want to see anyone and I just wanted to curl into a ball on the carpet of my own bedroom floor. Nothing was helping and all that Kris was providing was food. He didn't really seem to be with it and always was smiling when I talked to him. But those smiles were false and never really meant much to me just the same as they didn't mean much to him. 

......

Days passed and nothing really seemed to be truly moving. My body was numb and I was starting to fall into a huge depression. Kris had to go back up to his college to finish his studying and to take the exam. Yooyoung, Ming, Hana, and Yongah came frequently but I couldn't fight the feeling that they didn't care about Tao. I grew feverish and irritable. 

"Eunmi, I think you need to take a break from this hospital stuff." Yongah gently touched my shoulder and looked down at me carefully. 

"Stuff?! You don't understand what it's like to have someone you care about unresponsive!" Yongah retreated and all of them looked at me wide eyed.

"Eunmi, we do understand! Someone who we care about is unresponsive right now!" Ming tried to reason with me but I only saw their words as lies.

"You don't care about him!" Angry tears fell from my swollen eyes. 

"Look at yourself! Have you looked in a mirror lately?! You are a wreck! You stopped eating, stopped sleeping, and stopped cleaning yourself! This isn't healthy!" Hana stepped forward. 

"What does it matter to you?!" I spat in her face making her jolt a little but she didn't back down.

"Do you want him to wake up to a monster in place of his friend?!" We all froze from the new brave soul's words. Yooyoung was more soft spoken and never really went against your feelings. But right now was an example of a time where she felt the need to speak up. Her words were probably always going to be the most wise over us all. She was smart, calm, quiet, and sweet, but get on her bad side and she would set you straight. "You just need to look at yourself. When was the last time you saw yourself? You wouldn't recognize yourself. Please, we just want you to get back to the normal you." Yooyooung stood there calmly while everyone else set their eyes on her. A single tear drifted down her fare skin and she looked me right in the eye.

"Eunmi, you're our friend and so is Tao, so please try to see where we are coming from on this. Tao needs to wake up to his friend, not a disaster. You need to be with it because he won't be." Ming crouched down a little to look at my face.

"Yeah, he needs someone to know what's going on and if you stay like this, he will feel completely lost." Hana crouched down as well, followed by Yongah.

"We want you to be healthy again and come out to have fun with us like you used to." Yongah rested her hand on my knee.

"Tao will want to know that you are enjoying yourself and not ruining your life because of his accident. He cares about you just as much as we all care about you, so please, take a break from this constant waiting." Yooyoung crouched down behind me and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Yeah, haven't you heard that a watch on the pot never boils?" We all laughed at Ming for using a saying to convince someone, like she always does.

"I guess you guys are right, I will go take a shower and then how about we all go out to eat something?" Yooyoung helped me stand as they all nodded with grins on their relieved faces.

I entered the bathroom and then I saw my reflection. If I hadn't known that I was the only one in the bathroom, I wouldn't have thought it was me. I looked so thin, worn out, and just bad in general. They were right, I had really needed to start taking care of myself.

......

Once I had finished showering, we went to the mall, shopped, and ate at a buffet. I felt so much better. Hana dropped me off a the hospital and I hurried to Tao's dark room by myself. I pulled the chair by the bed closer and sat down to look at Tao's peaceful features. On a normal day, guys would be jealous of him and his beautiful face. But for the whole time he has been in bed, he has made those ugly guys look perfect. His life looked so drained from his complexion and his bags under his panda eyes looked heavier than normal. 

"Tao oppa, what have you done to yourself?" Gently I whispered as I swept some of his bangs out of his puffy face. "You're going to come back soon, right? You're going to come help me at the book store, right?" My hand slid from his face to his hand. It was so warm yet so empty feeling. The usual happiness that I would get from his hand just wasn't there. "Come back quickly and prove everyone wrong, okay? I miss you Tao." A tear rolled down my cheek and rolled off my chin and on to Tao's hand. That I how I fell asleep that night, with Tao's hand tightly clasped in mine and my cheek squished up on my own hand.

......

"Eunmi." Someone gently shook me awake. "Eunmi, wake up." I peeled open my tear matted, eyelashes. "Eunmi, come on, we are leaving." I was able to finally register my brother's figure in front of me.

"Wha-what?" I asked sleepily.

"I'm taking you with me for a while." Without letting me process what he was saying, he dragged me by the wrist all the way to his car until I finally realized what was happening.

"Wait! Why are you here? Where are we going? I can't leave Tao! What if he wakes up while I'm gone?! What if he asks for me and nobody knows where I am?!" Yifan chuckled softly at my franticness. 

"Chill, will you? Tao will be just fine without you. He isn't supposed to wake up this month. He can get ahold of you by phone if he really needs to, the nurses know I am taking you for a month a-" My eyes sprang open wide when he mentioned being away for a month.

"A month!? A whole month!? Where am I going for a whole month?! I need to be here for Tao and the book store!" I shifted around in panic mode with my palms splayed up at me as I stared down at them in disbelief.

"Calm down, you are just coming with me up to my college since you seriously need to take a break from that hospital. I have been feeling way better ever since I left that hospital! And about the book store, I closed it during the week and am having Hana, Yooyoung, Yongah, and MIng run it over the weekends." He was so calm that I wanted to strangle him.

"But they don't know how to-" Still feeling antsy, I tried to ask more but he stopped me.

"I showed them how to do everything they need to. I also left them my dorm phone number just incase they really need me." With all of my questions answered, I just crossed my arms in discontent. "Relax a little bit, okay? I want you to try to have a little fun with me at college. My roommate is super nice and maybe you'll like him." 

"Eew are you saying I'll fall in love with your roommate?!" Kris only smirked at my reaction. "Gege, do you have a girlfriend yet? If you don't I am going to find you one while I'm there." 

"Haha okay, okay, now get in the damn car!" I stuck my tongue out at him and slipped into the passenger's seat. 

The ride to his college was pretty fun; we sang and danced to Kpop songs. Yifan bought me some food from a drive through and then we continued on our way. As we ate, we talked instead of singing and dancing because it's kind of hard to dance and sing while chewing. He told me about the difficulty level of his exams and the stress he suffered through to study for them. Then he told me about the time I accidentally got into the wrong car when I was little and he chased after the car yelling 'Let my sister out! Let my sister out!' until they finally stopped and realized we had their kid and they had me.

"Yifan, why do so many bad things happen to us?" He stopped chewing and struggled to gulp his food down.

"What do you mean, Eunmi? So many good things have happened to us too! Why do you concentrate on the bad things?" I just shrugged as I waited, hoping to here more on what he thought was good stuff. "We were able to live together. Imagine if our parents died and we had never met!" I nodded, appreciating his point of view. "Do you think I would be able to stay around if you weren't here?" I looked at him, slightly alarmed by his odd words.

"What do you mean?"

"I would have been alone, I would have figured that there was no point for me to be alive and I would probably be dead now." I shivered from his blunt words.

"Let's not think about it anymore." My hands were shaky and I just wanted to escape the awkward atmosphere. 

......

"Luhan! My sister is here!" There was no response as we slowly entered Kris' dorm. "Luhan?" Kris closed the door and looked at me "Did you hear anything?" 

"No. But oppa, where's the bathroom?" Yifan looked at me, watched me switch legs as I tried not to pee myself and the chuckled while pointing down the hall.

"Down there to your left." Quickly I waddled down the hallway to the right of us. "Luhan?" I could hear my brother calling out to his roommate again as he went down the opposite hallway.

Suddenly I gasped. Laying on the floor in front of me was the limp body of a petite boy. I squatted down next to his body and shook him gently. His features were just so pretty and feminine but he was obviously a boy. "Y-yifan!" I cried out softly. I had tried so hard to get my voice out and a small cry of his name was all I could squeeze out. "H-hey, get up." I shook the boy some more.

"What's wrong, Eunmi?" My brother's slender body appeared in the doorway as I watched him in the mirror. "Luhan!" Kris' eyes went huge as he set them on the boy's body. 

"So it is Luhan? Well what should we do?" Kris gulped and then forced his words out.

"Yes that is Luhan. He sometimes- well he- ah never mind, I'll tell you about it later. Right now, I need to call an ambulance so you continue talking to him and see if he becomes responsive." Once I nodded to him in assurance, he darted down the hall.

"Luhan oppa, get up for me. Can you please open your eyes?" My trembling hands ran over his arms. "Lu-" My sentence cut off as I watched his eyes flutter and then slowly open.

"Where- who are you?" Luhan's eyes met mine. 

"You're in your dorm bathroom and I'm Eunmi, Yifan's sister." His eyes widened slightly. 

"Oh you're Eunmi! I'm sorry I couldn't greet you formally earlier! Well nice to meet you!" His smile brightened my mood.

"Ah no, it's no problem. Are you all right?" He nodded slowly, then grimaced telling an obvious no. 

"I'll be fine soon I guess though." He started to lay his head back down on the tile floor but suddenly his neck lost it's strength and his head slammed down.

"Luhan!" Abruptly he started speaking in quick Chinese to which I closely followed and kept up with replying. "Fanfan! Lulu hit his head and now can't convert Chinese to Korean!" 

"I need him! Where is he?!" Luhan said in a daze (in Chinese though)

"Who? Who do you need? Is it Yifan?" He easily processed my, just as fluent, Chinese.

"No, no. I need Se-" His eyes shut and that made my eyes have the opposite affect.

"Luhan gege!" Finally Yifan came jogging in.

"They're in here." Two EMTs ran in to tend to Luhan so I squeezed my way out of the bathroom.

"Y-yifan?" After sitting on the couch in silence for a couple of minutes, I called to my brother's attention. 

"Yes, Eunmi?" He looked at me.

"Is Luhan gege going to be okay?" Our eyes connected. 

"I'm not sure." He paused and I stayed silent to let him continue. "He passes out sometimes, I'm kind of worried. They said they just wanted to take him to the hospital but I don't know. I think that he either has a heart or brain problem or he is suffering major stress." I took my brother's hand as he pressed out a sigh. 

"Things will be all right. I can't promise but you were able to reassure me with Tao so I believe in Luhan." My eyes were softly looking at his. He was so tense and afraid that I wanted to just fix Luhan myself but unfortunately, I didn't know how.

......

The month went by pretty quickly but sadly, Luhan wasn't able to join us. He had been stuck in the hospital to under go testing when he suddenly went into a coma. Tao hadn't budged, just as the nurses had said.

Kris was driving me back down to the hospital when my phone started ringing. I didn't recognize the number so I answered it cautiously. "Yeboseyo?" 

"Hi! Is this Eunmi?" I nodded while saying yes. "Great! This is Jinhee, from the hospital. I am calling just to tell you that Tao had a slight movement." My heart froze. "Are you still there?" I must have been silent for quite some time when the nurse awkwardly spoke up.

"A-are you serious?"

_____________

Heyo~ So I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sorry for using the same words a lot...it just kind of happened. 

Tell me what you are thinking at this point! ^~^