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He fiddled with the last cigarette from the third pack that day, searching for an initiation of emotional support. The air was frigid, but it didn't perturb Sehun in the smallest degree. His tears came as if his pain had at last condensed into a deluge of rain, rendering his barren cheeks as effervescent as spring again. They all had downright been wrung off of his eyes. Cigarette butts were dispersed all over the floor, and the room appeared too sombre to him. 

"Did he do this only to ruin me? Was this his only option with which he could ruin me?" Sehun reminisced about the rotten injunction from their superior, a few days ago.

"I really don't understand why am I eo concerned about Minnie right now? It is not that this is the first time any man wants me so bad. This isn't my first time giving a man fake hopes of attaining me, either. Then..."

Sehun stopped short of his brooding, when precipitously there were loud battering on the door, 

"Eve! Eve, please open the door!! Eve please, it's urgent!!" 

Sehun was rattled, "Huh?" Withal his distended eyes were not ready to be seen just then, "Who's there?"

"Daeseong. Please open the door, please!! I promise I'm not going to inculpate you for anything this time, just please…open the door," Daeseong reacted with swivel-eyes. 

Putting out the finished cigarette in an ashtray of the two, Sehun approached the door, alleviating its knob, "What’s the matter? Why do you look so pale?" Sehun's worry was viable and bona fide.

"We really are running short of time. Just come with me," Daeseong claimed Sehun's exquisite wrist, trailing him behind as if they hadn't had any second to squander. 

"Heyy!!! Heyy…but where are we-" he fumbled while Daeseong, through the staircase kept persistently limping, "Daeseong hyung, why are you stumbling? What happened to your foot?" 

At the riser, a breathless Daeseong pinned down to the other two men being inane, "Look- look there." 

Wooshik essayed to catch breath replicating that of a fish vehemently stolen out of the water and put into a desert. He squirmed and roared, but to no avail. Minhyuk had decided on not to be clement anymore, whether it was his boss, it didn't matter.

"Die you prick!!" He beefed up the ligature strangling Wooshik, "You deserve to die!!" 

Sehun's heart froze before to let him breathe for a while or two, "MINNIE!!" His voice tapered at the end. 

The movement of Minhyuk's arms had normal, turned larghetto, with that leather strap slackening around Wooshik's throat and neck. His inhales became crooked, "Eve…" he was too pusillanimous to dare to look back and meet eyes with the brown barnets. "What…what the hell was I doing?" Minhyuk scanned his quivering grim hands. 

"Can I know what exactly were you trying to do…" Sehun dawdled through the space between riser and Minhyuk, "...With that leather belt?" He arrested the leather and chucked it away. 

Minhyuk could ultimately amass some fortitude to look at Sehun, if not into his eyes, "Eve…it is not what you think. I can expla-"

"Seh…Sehun…" 

Those brown barnets felt a drag at his wrist, noticing it was Wooshik who implored for Sehun's sympathy, the younger sat on his haunches, "Yes, Wooshik hyung?" Warmly he questioned. 

"I…I…Seh…" his grip eased, and plopped when Wooshik closed his eyes in tranquillity. 

"Wooshik hyung? What happened?" Sehun's heart skipped some gruelling beats, "Hey, you were going to say something to me. Tell me. Please tell me," he rubbed Wooshik's badly frostbitten hand, "Wooshik hyung?? Please look at me. Please?? We all will scold Min- uh- sir, we all will punish sir. Please look," his words were despondent, eyes speaking of anguish, "Wooshik hyung won't you look at me?? We still have to find out the informant, you know that right? Heyy!!"

Wooshik did not respond. 

"Okay tell us what you want. You want me and sir to stay apart? Is that all what you want? Then we will stay away from each other, I promise. But please…open your eyes only once, please," Sehun was agitated, dreaded and he couldn't help but give Minhyuk daggers. Minhyuk, on the flip, recoiled at the thought of having done something blood-curdling. 

"Wooshik hyu- oh wait!! Are you not waking up because I'm calling you hyung? Is it that?" Sehun sighed, "Alright, I'm sorry. Captain!! Wake up, please?? See, I'm calling you Captain. Why aren't you getting up even now, huh??" 

There was no response. 

In aggravation, Sehun threw Wooshik's arm as far as the pliability permitted and withdrew, "Great!! Stay like this, none is going to beg you to get up. Fucking stay like this, idiot!!" Albeit he relinquished, Sehun stayed by Wooshik's side. 

Minhyuk perceived, Sehun did not care to spare him a glance. Minhyuk was nauseated at his own actions. He outreached back to the riser, hitting his ankle mildly in the way. His breathing was erroneous, his heart hammering, and sweat outpouring even amid the biting winter approaching, "I…I didn't do it…I didn't…I…" he writhed in agony on the ground, having nowhere else to escape to. He held in a tight grasp Daeseong’s collars, "I really didn't do it, Daeseong."

"Minnie…Minnie please calm down," Daeseong held him rigidly in his arms, when he averted his eyes to the brown barnets, "Eve, check if he's breathing. We need to call the-"

"NO! NO!! DON'T- DON'T C- CALL THE POLICE," Tears burst forth of Minhyuk's eyes with some mucus as its escort

"Huh? Why would we call the police? Eve, please check if he's breathing. We need to call the ambulance, if he is." 

Sehun bobbed about his head, bringing his index and middle near to Wooshik's nostrils, and that was it!! The moment overcast upon Sehun as the moment he dreaded the most, "He- he isn't breathing." 

The milieu became grey. The ambience had no contrariety to a scene from a movie where the climax is revealed and all the characters fall wishy-washy.

"Eve, check again!!!" Daeseong’s eyes fluttered, "Please do!!! Minnie- Minnie can never kill someone!! Check again." 

"There's no point in that Daeseong hyung!" A trickle of tear left Sehun's eye, "Captain???" 

"Maybe…maybe he isn't breathing in a regular manner, can you feel his pulse?" Daeseong advised, "Check- check his pulse," Daeseong wrapped his arms around Minhyuk even tighter. 

"Huh? Alright," the youngest's throat was no better than Sahara when he took Wooshik's wrist and tried to feel it pulsating, 

"Wh- what is it, Eve?" Is he…"

"DAESEONG HYUNG!!! HIS PULSE IS THERE!!! TOO FAINT BUT IT IS THERE!!" Sehun's phizog glistened with ecstasy as he now knew Wooshik had not deserted his life, "Call the ambulance!! Call the ambulance, Daeseong hyung."

In the meantime, Sehun knew verbatim what he needed to do— CPR.

Sehun took off Wooshik's linen fabric and dabbed it on the blood sputtering. He opened Wooshik's airway by placing one hand on the forehead and his other hand under Wooshik's chin to tilt the head back. Sehun pinched the soft part of the nose closed with his own thumb and index. Using the same fingers aforementioned but of his non dominant hand, Sehun opened Wooshik's mouth.

Sehun, then took a heaving breath, "I've got this," and he placed his lips over Wooshik's mouth, ensuring a good seal. He blew steadily into Wooshik's mouth for about a some seconds, watching for the chest to rise. Following the breath, he looked for Wooshik's chest to fall. Maintaining the head tilt and chin lift, Sehun persevered their lip lock. He listened closely and felt for signs that the air was being expelled.

Daeseong had walked to their telephone, whereas Minhyuk sat tightly, crossing his fingers only to one orison— reviving his boss's life. 

"Eve…I don't know why- why can't I connect to the ambulance. Did we not pay the telephone bills last month? I think we haven't. What should we do now?" Facets of pessimism were drawn on Daeseong’s face. "I think this is what our fate recalled."

"Don't be upset, Daeseong hyung," Sehun endeavored to lift up spirits through his optimistic approach, "I hold a strong belief that we can save our Capt- Mhmmmm!?" 

Wooshik, unprepared for went with Sehun, into a bone crushing hug, "Sehun…" he heaved. 

"Lweeave…I cwann bweart! (Leave…I can't breathe!)" Obscure, Sehun spoke unaware that the blonde didn't want to let go of whom he gained a touch of after so long a wait. 

"Sehun…" 

Sehun rapped on Wooshik's chest before drawing back, "What’s wrong with you? Why are you chanting my name?" He caught some breath as soon as he could get out of Wooshik's brawny grasp.

Wooshik grinned to himself, an euphoria engulfing him in, "Sehun…call me captain again!!" 

"Oh?? When I kept on calling you Captain but you didn't wake up, what about then?" Sehun frowned, "I'm going to call you hyung. Hyung, hyung, hyung, hy-"

"I didn't know you could be this puerile too," blonde caressed Sehun's tear stained cheeks, "Were you crying for me? Because I wasn't waking up?" 

Sehun repudiated in the first instance, however later on he nodded with a reddening smile. Wooshik couldn't retain his contentment on seeing Sehun blushing and smiling because of him. 

For the first time in all these days, Sehun smiled because of him. For the first time in all these days, Sehun blushed because of him. For the first time in all these days, it was only him and Sehun. For the first time in all these days, there wasn't Minhyuk between him and his Sehun. 

Wooshik scooped Sehun's exquisite waist under his elbow, "Why did you cry?" 

Sehun narrowed his eyes, "What kind of question is that? Of course because I was afraid."

"Afraid for me?" 

"Yes."

Minhyuk, certainly was relieved that he did not perform a homicide, yet he averred to himself if Lee Wooshik had died, and not due to him, he would have no remorse or contriment whatsoever. It would have been better if he could just see Lee Wooshik disappear from the face of earth, and there would be none to come between Minhyuk and his Eve. 

"Sehun…didn't you feel uncomfortable doing it?" Wooshik's smile facilely disappeared, and he seemed more concerned about Sehun's solace. 

"Huh? How did you know what I did if you passed out?" 

Wooshik flailed his neck, "I was subconscious," dodgy, he smiled, "Thank you for worrying about me." 

Yet then, Sehun looked at him with cynical eyes, "You're behaving really weird today? Where has the ruthless captain gone to?" 

"Sehun…can I hug you? Just for a moment?" 

The younger one let him.

Dyed blonde extended his arms towards that younger and wrapped his arms around Sehun's neck, holding him close. Closing his own eyes, Wooshik did not squeeze any part of Sehun, or wanted to do any more than that. He only wanted to hold Sehun. He only wanted to keep Sehun close to him, and be close to Sehun…forever.

"Sehun?" 

"Hm?" 

"You know I'm not feeling very good today. I'm rather sick, so…"

"....."

"So, would you mind if I ask you to stay with me tonight? In that detention room? If you disagree I und-"

Breaking in, Sehun spoke, "Don't worry. I'll stay."

Wooshik opened his eyes, gratified and looked at Minhyuk sitting across him on the last stair— the riser. Burying his head even deeper into Sehun's neck, Wooshik only smirked at Minhyuk.

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