TOUGH ROMANCE || scoups || BOOK ONE

30

Seungcheol

"You look like shit." Jeonghan rasped.

The lights were on low in the room. My brother was propped up in his hospital bed, chest bare to reveal bandages and gauze over his left shoulder.

Machines beeped, screens glowed.

He looked pale. Vulnerable.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides.

"I could say the same about you." I said, rounding the bed slowly to sink into the chair by the dark window.

"Looks worse than it is." His voice was barely a whisper.

I rested my elbows on my knees and tried to look relaxed. But inside, a rage simmered in my gut. Someone had tried to end Jeonghan's life. You don't mess with one of my people and get away with it.

"Some asshole tried to kill you tonight."

"Are you mad that someone almost beat you to it?"

"Do they know who did it?" I asked.

The corner of his mouth lifted as if it were too much effort to smile. "Why? Are you gonna get him back?"

"You almost died, Jeonghan. Chan said you came this close to bleeding out before the ambulance got there." The truth of it had bile rising in my throat.

"It's gonna take more than a couple of bullets and a wrestling match to end me." He assured me.

I ran my palms over my knees. Back and forth, trying to tamp down the anger. The need to break something.

"Hani was here." Even as I said it, I didn't know why. Maybe just saying her name out loud made everything feel a little more bearable.

"Of course she was. She thinks I'm hot."

"I don't care how many bullet holes you've got in you. I'm moving on that." I told him.

Jeonghan's sigh was closer to a wheeze. "About damn time. The quicker you screw it up, the quicker I can swoop in and be the good guy."

"Fuck off."

"Hey, who's the one in the hospital bed, asshole? I'm a damn hero. Women can't resist a hero with bullet holes."

The hero in question winced when he shifted in the bed, his hand reached for the tray then falling back to the mattress.

I rose and poured the water bottle into the waiting cup. "Yeah, well, maybe you should stay in here out of my way for a couple of days. Give me a shot at fucking it all up."

I pushed the cup and straw to the edge of the tray and watched him reach for it with his good arm. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his hand shook as his fingers closed around the plastic.

I'd never seen him like this. I'd seen him every other way. Hungover, wrung out from the flu bug, exhausted after pouring his heart out in a basketball came during high school. But I'd never seen him look weak.

Another nurse pulled back the curtain with an apologetic smile. "Just checking the fluids." He said.

Jeonghan gave him a thumbs up, and we lapsed into silence while the nurse busied himself with IVs. My brother was hooked to a half dozen machines in the ICU. And I'd gone years with barely speaking to him.

"How's your pain?" The nurse asked.

"Fine. Practically non existent."

His answer was too quick. His mouth too tight. My brother had played the second half of that basketball game with a broken wrist. Because he might be the nice brother, the good brother. But he didn't like showing weakness any more than I did.