- -:- -

Closing the door behind him, Yeonjun takes a deep breath and leans against it. He swallows hard, shutting his eyes to prevent any more tears from coming. 

He used to think that this was going to be easier. Nothing could be worse than finding out that she would never wake up. He was wrong.

It's harder to walk away from someone you love, especially if you thought you'd never get them back. Yeonjun thought he would never hear "I love you" from her again. He probably won't, now. But it was nice to pretend for a while like they could've been happy together.

Kai got what he wanted. Yeonjun's out of Kiera's life for good. Soobin's debt's been paid for a while, and Yeonjun owes Kai nothing. He's free. But why does he feel so miserable?

Because you put yourself over the girl you love, he thinks to himself. Pinching his lips together, Yeonjun takes another deep breath. 

Somehow, he finds the strength to step away from the door, placing one foot in front of the other. Yeonjun's not sure how he did it, but he's outside now, his back to the hospital. Running on autopilot, he doesn't even realize he's bumped into someone until they say something.

"Hey, are you good?" 

Yeonjun looks up slowly, unwillingly dragging his gaze from the ground to the person in front of him. It's a boy, somewhere around his age. Yeonjun's sure he's never seen him before, and as he bows apologetically, Yeonjun is already mentally unavailable.

He nods once and turns, ready to sleep and pretend today never happened. But the stranger is intent on not letting that happen.

"You have family here or something?" Yeonjun sighs, not at all in the mood to idly chat with a stranger. He nods once and shrugs, trying to silently communicate to him that his social battery is completely drained.

"That's nice. I'm here to visit a friend. The same one that you're here for, actually."

Yeonjun had zoned out for a moment, but immediately started paying attention when he said that.

"I don't think so," Yeonjun says, the first words he's said in the conversation. "I've never seen you. Or heard your name."

"I'm Beomgyu," the boy says, giving Yeonjun a small, but self-satisfied, smile. "I'm the one who's been sending you the texts."