𝔹𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕐𝕠𝕦//_[𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧]

44: ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀᴍᴀᴛʜ

Een:Ain't

Chan grunts as Camila sprays disinfectant on his cut.

Althea already went to her room and as much as Chan wanted to follow her, he was still in his feelings a bit about her actions tonight. 

"Mijo que tal?" Camila asks while dabbing his wound. 

Chan purses his lips and rubs his arm. "I...kinda don't wanna talk about it Ms. Santiago."

"You're entitled to your secrets Chan. I can't force you to talk pero yo se getting it off your chest will help you feel better," she says while sticking a bandage over his nose before treating his knuckles. "There. Did you break his nose?"

"I punched him when he hurt Changbin."

"Tell him to come here so I can treat him. You're free to go."

"Gracias," he says bowing his head. 

The woman nods with a smile before Chan sets off to find his phone. He's in a bit of a vlogging mood.

He looks around at his members present and a frown appears on his face. All of them were respectively worried about Althea's actions and each of them still look visibly worried about her. Minho and Seungmin not so much but he can tell they're concerned. 

Chan just doesn't understand how Althea could do that. He thought they were making progress. Sure it's only been a few months since she's allowed him to bypass her defenses, but they've had multiple breakthroughs. Her refusing Leon's calls, her telling her family and Lorraine what happened, and best of all, her proposing and going through her breakup with Leon. He just thought that they were starting to get past the point where she thought she only had herself to rely on. 

Above all else, of course Chan is undeniably proud of what she managed to accomplish. If he weren't so upset, he'd be showering her with hugs and kisses right now. The fact she called him an upgrade made him feel all types of fluffy things. 

But he just wishes that she would've trusted him from the get-go to be by her side as opposed to willfully putting herself in danger. So many things could've gone wrong tonight and she escaped a lot less unscathed than she would've if he weren't there.

When he first heard Changbin say that she went off by herself, he was overcome with worry. His first action had been to drag them to the car so that he could possibly beat Althea to the meeting point and talk her out of it. But his mind was running a mile a minute with "what-ifs".

What if she's hurt?

What if he's beating her right now?

What if she's scared?

He had no problem with getting hurt tonight. He'd do it a thousand more times over to protect the people he cared about. That punch was warranted when Leon decided to lay a finger on Changbin--anyone who hurts his is automatically on his shit list--but a lot of that was also fueled by what he saw when he first got there. When he saw Leon about to attack Althea. Once his eyes registered the sight, his heart stopped and it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. All he could do was force his body to move and protect. 

And as relieved as he felt that she managed to get away just fine, that feeling evaporated at her revelation in the car. At her saying she purposely wanted to get hurt. And now he's a mixture of angry, disappointed, worried, relieved; everything. 

With a sigh, Chan picks up the phone and presses record. 

"Hey STAY! It's been awhile since I filmed my last vlog," he starts with a smile that he hopes doesn't look forced. "A lot's been happening but we're surviving just fine! I know I've said it already but our caretakers are so nice and accommodating. We wouldn't have survived the way we've been doing without them." Chan chuckles to himself as he remembers the first time speaking with Camila. "I think they like feeding us a bit too much though. Changbin and Jisung won't wanna leave at this rate." He should probably talk about his bandage since that's definitely the first thing STAY would notice. They've always been rather observant of his injuries. "Now I know some of you might be worried about this," he says while pointing to his nose. "And you shouldn't be. It's just a little scratch I got trying to help someone. It'll heal in no time."