Untouched [minsung]

Chapter 9

"I couldn't bring him to the hospital," he whispered. "No, I handled it myself. No, he doesn't know. Neither does Changbin."

A pause.

"I'll stay closer."

The man dropped something, and it fell to the chair with a thud. He then moved closer. Each step was like a yell in my head for me to open my eyes, but I was terrified of seeing one of the guys from last night.

But the steps stopped, and I felt a hand run through my hair gently. "I'm so sorry," he repeated. His voice was low and close, and I felt a kiss on my forehead.

My eyes fluttered open to see Lee Know's. He greeted me with a sad smile and tear-stained cheeks.

"Hello, pretty boy," he whispered.

"Hi," I croaked out. My mouth was ridiculously dry. Lee Know seemed to have noticed and handed me a glass from a nearby table. I took a few sips of water and handed it back to him.

"Hi, "I tried again. "Where am I?" I asked. The room was baby blue with white furniture. I was lying on a blanket that covered a white sofa. It almost looked like a baby nursery, but there was no bed and no baby.

"My house," Lee Know responded.

My eyes widened as I tried to sit up to look around more, but Lee Know held my shoulder down gently. "Han, you're really hurt. You need to take it easy."

At that moment, I felt the pain that I had been ignoring. My entire chest ached, and my jaw hurt like hell. I reached up and felt stitches. I felt around more of my face and could feel how tender my cheek was, too.

"Stitches?" I asked.

"I put them in when we got back but you seemed pretty out of it," Lee Know replied. I was surprised that I couldn't remember that. Even more surprised that he knew how to give stitches to someone.

Lee Know looked as if he wanted to cry or was preparing to comfort me if I cried. "Do you remember what happened?" he asked.

I thought back to the evening and nodded. "I was sitting outside and some guys invited me to smoke. They ate my brownies. Then they said something about not liking Changbin but not being able to hurt Changbin and then..." I motioned towards my body.

"Do you remember what stopped them?"

I shook my head no. The only thing I remembered was a loud noise, but my ears were ringing. It could have been anything.

Lee Know exhaled and looked relieved.

My ears were ringing, and I was on the ground. Gross. The ground. I looked at my hands in disgust and back to Lee Know.

"Can I shower?" I asked.

Lee Know looked amused. "You just had the shit beat out of you and you are worried about showering?"