Author notes: dear readers, writing after the binjin feast we're served is haaaard. I hope you'll still enjoy this shorter chapter. Take care and stay safe 💚💚💚
Also, this chapter, and this whole fic has been inspired by true stories like this one below.
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In two long steps, he was inside her room, his heart beating erratically as the painful wait abruptly came to an end at the sight of her opened eyes.
She was alive. She didn't leave him. The relief was suffocating.
Slowly, she turned her head toward him and he froze, while the door shut quietly behind him. The silence, only interrupted by the steady machine monitoring her heart, was welcomed, his mind unable to process anything else than the fact that she was here.
She came back to him.
Tears finally freed and ran his cheeks as the restrained sobs wreaked out of his chest.
"Why... Why..."
He swallowed the painful lump obstructing his throat.
"You could have died, why would you..."
The fear, the anger, the joy were fighting for dominance.
She was so weak, her usually rosy lips pale, her eyes red rimmed and full of tears.
"Ri Jeong Hyeok..."
His name, whispered with a cracked voice, sounded like a prayer and the pain that stabbed him almost broke him.
He unconsciously knelt next to the bed, oblivious to the chair, taking her hand in his, and leaning his forehead on it.
" Seri... Don't ever do that again, please... Please..."
Her fingers slipped easily from his grip to slid in his hair in a comforting caress.
"Wouldn't you have done the same?"
Of course he would have, for he couldn't bear the thought of her being hurt. But that was what he did, protect her, and he had failed.
"I'm your bodyguard... That's... That's how you called me..."
He raised his eyes to meet hers, and his breath hitched at how close and real she was.
"What if... What if you actually died, how am I supposed to live then?"
Her fingers had slipped from his hair to his cheek, but she was too weak and she finally let her hand drop, only for it to be gripped again by his warm strong one.
"Coming back... Was hard... I couldn't find you, and I was alone... Stop saying none sense please..."
Her voice became stronger, though hoarse. He rose on his feet and leaned in her embrace, burying his face in her neck, covering her small frame with his larger one while being careful to keep his weight off of her. But he needed this, he needed to feel her warmth, her breath. He closed his eyes as more tears escaped, wetting her pillow.
