"Okay. I'll leave you alone."

~

drip.

drop.

The rain was finally coming to an end.

Mina closed the door of the apartment building that she lived in silently so that no one would hear her. She trudged towards the ugly, beaten up staircase while cursing mentally. Since when was my apartment on the 4th floor?

Sighing in defeat as she looked up, she decided it was best not to complain. The pain from getting battered up was already excruciating. There was no need to add anything negative to it.

Sure, she was a hundred percent certain that she looked absolutely horrifying, her eye was black, and that she probably won't be able to speak properly tomorrow from her busted lip, but she was alive, and that matters right?

If only. But I managed to put another son of a bitch where he belongs, so that's good.

During the last few steps, she knew that the only thing that's keeping her going was will-power alone. She then collapsed onto the cold blocks of the floor in front of her door. Motivation to continue to head inside had completely vanished, so she laid down outside. Hey, at least I'm not in anyone's way.

The side that she was laying on had started to become numb from the coldness, a few minutes later. Still, the girl was in no way even thinking about getting up. She appreciated the numbness that came with it since it helped ease the pain. She was actually starting to drift off into a slumber. That was, until she started coughing.

She whimpered as her body shook with every hack. She had already been throbbing everywhere, she didn't need anything else to add to it.

Please stop, she cried out to her body in her mind. With every cough, she would become more and more lightheaded as her head continuously kept hitting the floor. At one point she had practically lost her entire breath. The frog in her throat ceaselessly hopped from one water lilypad to another.

Stop. Mina was now on her scraped knees, holding her throat with one and using the other one to support herself. Is this the end for me? Her vision became blurry but the one thing she could still picture was the boy. They were gonna go after him. He was innocent but they were still gonna go after him.

I can't let that happen, Mina thought, as her coughs settled down. I have to keep an eye on him, I have to warn him, I have to. . .

She dropped back down to the floor, but it was no longer cold like before. Wheezing and trying so hard to get oxygen into her lungs, she continued to fight. I have to.

"Baekhyun." Her eyes then finally gave up.

~

Baekhyun's breath was stuck in his throat as he held Mina's limp body in his arms.

Why is she at my apartment?

"Baekhyun." She had muttered, and then she was completely out.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." It took everything within him to not panic like he did the first time he saw her in this state. "Mina, wake up, please." He tried to shake her a bit. Baekhyun caressed her swollen cheek as he looked down horrified at the condition she was in.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. Get a grip, Baek.

Lowering down his head to her chest, Baekhyun placed his ear where her heart should be placed. I hear a heartbeat. He then placed two fingers under her jaw, on her neck. I can feel one too.

He sighed in relief as he picked her up and went back inside his home. Mina's head was snuggled against lower chest as Baekhyun walked through the living area to his bed room. After he set her down on his bed, he went back to close the door, but failed to notice the blood stains that were now on the pseudo marble floors in front of his door.

The first thing he did when he walked back in again was go to his bathroom to get a first aid kit. He sat down beside her body and began eyeing it. Now that there was proper light, the injuries were much more clear and obvious. And bloody.

Carefully and steadily, Baekhyun began cleaning the blood off her face using a clean swab that was soaked in water. He clenched his jaw when he felt a bump on her forehead that was yellow, slowly turning into an ugly brownish-purple color. As he sealed some tiny cuts with small enough bandaids, he kept wondering, who did this to her?

He then decided that is was best if he just focused on her injuries at the moment. When he protected the last cut on her left cheek with a bandaid, he kept his hand there. His thumb stroked her cheek delicately as he glanced at her much calmer expression with sad and worried eyes.

He slowly took unzipped her hoodie, which reeked of dry blood, to examen her badly scraped elbow. After cleaning and securing it, he moved down to her legs. This is where it looked the worse.

Her stonewashed jeans were bloody and dirty at the knees, and there was a tear that didn't look like it belonged there. It took him a minute, but Baekhyun finally decided that he was just gonna cut through her jeans. So with scissors, he transformed her skinny jeans into shorts that reach to just above her knees.

Minutes later and Baekhyun was finished. When he got up to throw his gloves away and wash his hands, he almost laughed at how disgustingly remindful the situation was to him. It's not the first time, he's patched up a person, but he hopes that it'll be the last.

When he walked back into the room, all the negative thoughts were pushed away by him when he saw her. Because he was so grateful that was able to help in her. She would've been in worse condition if she stayed out any longer.

Grabbing an extra blanket from his closet, he trotted back towards the bed where Mina laid sleeping. He covered her body with the first sheet and then with the extra blanket afterwords. It was cold tonight so he decided that it was best to make sure she stayed warm. His hands moved closer to her shoulder to tuck her in.

He pulled up a beanbag that he had brought from home, and placed himself on it. His eyes never left her face as he sat, legs crisscrossed. His stare wasn't as intent as it was warm. The fondness in his gaze was enough to melt a heart like butter. So genuine and so benign that a person would start to question whether Mina was actually a stranger to him.

Because that's what she was. A mere stranger.

Not realizing it, Baekhyun's slender hand reached out towards the bed. With his knuckles, he brushed her in-good-shape cheek, his eyes becoming glum once again.

    Why did I let her go, he thought back at yesterday's early afternoon. This, in fact, confused him. His understanding is that when people refuse help, it's because they're stubborn, so his goal is to be even more stubborn but for the opposite reason. That's how it's alway worked. For me at least.

And it was because of that logic that he tended to become glued to people until he felt reassured that they would be in good condition. A flaw to some pupils, sure, but to him, it was worth it.

The guilt started to intensify as his knuckles rested lightly on the base of her jaw. "If I hadn't let you go, you wouldn't be in this situation." What was I thinking? "Why was I different with you?"

In the midst of the silence, Mina's mouth parted, making Baekhyun retract his arm. She took a deep breathe with a sharp wheeze, her chest rising along the way. Baekhyun what was coming and not a second had passed by before she started coughing.

Baekhyun couldn't imagine the pain she must've been feeling as he helped sit her up. Her less hurt arm clung onto him for support, while Baekhyun rubbed her back, not knowing what else to do. When she had calmed down, she kept her head low, and Baekhyun reached for the glass of water he had ready for her.

"Here, drink some water." He bent down to try to meet her gaze, but was unable to.

The girl's hand was shaking as she was brought it up to grab the cup. She brought the glass to her mouth and took a tiny sip. When she liked the way it made her throat feel, she wanted more. But wanting to chug down water at that moment was a mistake for the drink collided with the frog that was coming up the other way.

She tried to control her cough that was about to come and covered her mouth, wanting to keep the water inside her mouth instead of spitting everywhere, but that turned out to be an even worse mistake as it made her start choking.

"Hey, hey spit it out !" Baekhyun exclaimed as her bulged out eyes hinted to him what was going on.

She finally let it all go, including the cup full of water. Her stomach jumped up and down, as the cough continued to satisfy itself by being exposed. Tears started forming in her eyes from the pain, anger, tiredness, and just the slight fear that came with not being able to take a breathe.

She coughed until she grew so tired that the only thing that was holding her up, was Baekhyun. His jaw clenched as his grip around her shoulder tightened. Seeing her suffer like this and being absolutely useless right now was making Baekhyun feel worse than he has ever felt in a long time.

As she finally began settling down, Baekhyun fixed the few pillows behind her to help her sit up while he went to go refill the cup with water. When he came back, he sat beside her, "Hey," he mumbled softly for her to look up. "Can you look at me?"

Mina didn't respond. Her vision started to become blurry and before she knew it, a few drops of tears fell onto her hand. Baekhyun noticed and immediately put the cup down while shifting his position in order to face her properly. Knowing that he now knew that she was crying, she let the salty droplets come down freely.

"I- I'm just s-so tired." She barely made out because of the swollen, numb side of her lip.

This shattered Baekhyun, as he understood every word she muttered. The poor girl was breaking his heart. Cupping her face, this time Baekhyun lifted her face up towards him. "Shh..." he quietly hushed. "Please don't cry." He softly wiped the tears with his delicate hand despite the fact that more kept coming. "You're gonna be just fine, we're gonna make you feel better. Okay?"

"I just wanna sleep," she croaked, a hiccup following after that.

Gently pushing her hair back, he was careful not to touch any of the bandages or bruises on her face. "We can go to sleep too. Just please, don't worry. I'm here for you."

Soon her tears turned into slight sniffles that came from the after effect of crying so hard. She was once again sound asleep on Byun Baekhyun's bed, with clean sheets, a changed shirt that belonged to Baekhyun and a hand (which also belonged to Baekhyun) pushing back her hair repeatedly as a way to soothe her.

Together, they went through some breathing exercises that Baekhyun had learned, and he made sure to help her drink plenty of water, little by little, because it was important that she stay hydrated.

As he was wondering whether or not he had the ingredients to make honey tea for her later, she spoke. "Hey," it was barely audible. "Can I ask you a question?"

Baekhyun saw that her eyes were still closed, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah, of course. Anything."

It took her a while, but she finally put out a sentence that left the young boy in utter confusion.

"Why are you suddenly so nice to me, Jun?"

~ ~ ~

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