KIM TAEHYUNG

My features scrunch together as the smell of medicine and sedatives cloud my mind, and I instinctively step back out the door.

"Taehyung?"

Sian's confused voice echoes in front of me as she looks back, eyes questioning. "What's wrong?"

"I-I'll stay out here." I say, not wanting to leave her alone for a second but not being able to bear the suffocating smell. "Come back quick, okay?"

"Don't go anywhere." She says sternly, pausing with half her body out the glass door. "Not even a step. Stay right here— I'll be just a minute."

Then I watch her figure disappear through the doors, and breathe carefully as I lean against the pharmacy's brick walls.

My eyes wander aimlessly over the bustling people, the sparkling lights of the stores.

Was I really sick?

Sick enough to kill me?

My expression goes sullen when I imagine leaving all this behind— leaving Sian behind. I wanted to be with her forever.

But I'd read enough books to know that kind of thing never happened in reality.

Carefully, I slit my eyes as I memorize the surroundings in front of me. I take care to burn the smallest things into my mind— that rainbow shop in the corner, that person with a bright blue streak in her hair.

Wait.

Bright blue streak?

When the woman turns her face towards me, I don't even think about what could happen next.

I just run.

Even though my heart immediately starts pounding and my head feels dizzy, adrenaline pours through my blood.

And I somehow know she's seen me. I know for sure she's following me right now, pushing past people in her way.

How far had she been?

"Taehyung-ah!"

I silently curse in my head as I turn right into a thickly hedged garden in front of some random house. She wasn't that far— she could be right behind me.

My legs drive faster.

"Taehyung! Stop!"

Is it just me or is it that she seems closer?

Not even taking the time to spare a glance behind me, I rush into the garden.

The grass crunches underneath my feet until I run into a dead end.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Then I turn to see a small kind of hole carved into the side of the thick vines, and somehow manage to place myself in there just before I hear her turn the corner panting.

I bite on my tongue to stop breathing, to stop doing anything as she looks confusedly at the empty end.

My lungs feel like they're about to explode, and I wrap my hands over my mouth and nose as I hear her come closer.

Please.

I can see her silhouette right through the plants as she looks around, her eyes scanning right past me as she finally sighs and turns, running back out of the corner.

And only then does relief awash my body, and so does my adrenaline.

My heart starts hurting like crazy.

Breathing in short, tiny gasps in worry that she was still near, I press my back against the vines and shiver from the tight, suffocating pressure in my chest.

My head spins, and I bite my lip harder as the pain claws at my entire body, trying my hardest to stay awake. If I went unconscious now, Sian...

Sian would be so worried. Her little crinkle between her brows would appear, and I didn't want to have her worry about me.

I don't want my mind to go dark, my figure to go slack against the ivy and green.

But my body can't take it.

_________________________

KANG SIAN

Three hours.

For three long hours I'd desperately searched and asked around for a certain alien named Kim Taehyung, and for three long hours I'd worried until my face looked more like ash than like skin.

And now I find him taking a damn nap nestled inside a grass hedge.

The tears that'd been blurring my eyes erupt into furious sobs as relief makes my legs give out, and I sit sprawled on the grass.

This idiot.

"Sian-ah!"

The sound of my rapid hiccups must've woken him up.

Good.

"You freaking idiot! Do you have any idea how much you worried me? Do you know what damn time it is? I should just leave you here forever— you seriously went to take a nap—"

I'm still crying and yelling when I suddenly feel his arms wrap tightly around my shoulders.

I should probably pull away, except that I realize he's trembling too.

"I'm sorry." He whispers as he presses me tighter against his shivering body. "I had to run, Sian. She was going to take me back."

His voice crumbles.

"I don't want to go back."

"What are you talking about?" I say shockingly, brushing out all the leaves on his dark hair. "Who? Who came to take you back?!"

"I-I don't..." He suddenly breaks into a series of coughs, pulling away from me as he stumbles confusedly towards the exit.

"Tae! Come back here!"

The urgency grows on my face when he suddenly bends, gripping his knees with white hands. His breaths are short, and I feel my throat clogging as I throw his arm around my shoulder.

"Let's go—"

"No hospital." He says roughly, trying to break away again. "No hospital. Please."

"Fine— no hospital." I say quickly, pulling him back. "Let's just go home, okay? I promise I'm not going to take you to a hospital."

His fingers tighten over mine.

"Okay."

________________________

KANG SIAN

My face pales.

"What do you mean someone's coming to take you back?" I exclaim, quickly pouring some medicine into a cup as he coughs.

"Already here." He says, tipping the contents down his throat before his features twist into a grimace. "This tastes so bad."

"It'll help you."

"Nothing's going to help me." He whispers, and I shoot him a glance.

"If you're going to think like that it won't." I murmur back, brushing his dark strands behind his ear. "Repeat after me."

"This is going to help me get better."

"Sian, no." He mumbles as he pulls the blankets over his head, sliding deeper into the bed. I can hear him say something, but can't understand what.

"Hey! You can't just leave me hanging like that." I say, forcing the blankets away from his face as he peeks out ruefully at me.

"I can't even do what I want." He says quietly, and I purse my lips as I let go of the blankets.

"Fine— you can do whatever you want."

"Really?"

There's a hint of doubt in his voice, and I nod at him firmly. When I do, his face falls and the shadows are back along the sides of his face.

"Is it because I'm going to die soon? I think I'm going to die soon— do you think that way, too?"

"I just told you you're actually going to die if you think that way." I say, feeling my heart burn when he coughs again. "Just do whatever you want. Just this one time."

I wink, thinking that he was going to pull the blankets back over himself for sure.

"Whatever I want?"

"Anything." I say, my fingers loosening over the pastel covers so he can make a cocoon out of himself. "Here you—"

Then my body goes as stiff as a stick when he presses his lips to mine.

What.

The.

Heck?

When he pulls away with an embarrassed flush, I'm still as straight and tense as a dead twig. Then the same red decorating his face shades mine.

"Taehyung." I say seriously, and he looks like a nervous wreck as he quickly glances up at my stormy face. "That was my first kiss you just took. You know that?"

"I-I-I.... what?"

"That was my first." I say slowly, and he fidgets furiously with his fingers. "And I didn't move at all, did I?"

"W-What are you sayi—"

"I want a second."