BOSS | NCT

o47

The massive events in Fortrent were bulldozing my senses.

The world around me seemed like a block of ice. Everything around me was freezing - in this barrier, in this deep chamber of thoughts which was my brain. At the same time, it's also melting. Not like how a candlelight melted the wax of a candle, but how a block of ice was left under the heat of summer. Slowly dissolving into a pool of liquid, that's how I felt right now. As I said - a block of ice. I was melting and freezing at the same time, carried on by the pressure of the world around me.

My memories, my broken past, my ruptured heart and him, most of all - they were the heat. The heat that will slowly vanish me. Into nothing but a puddle of water.

"The VS is slowly
damaging her organs,"
someone's voice said.

I thought I recognized who it was. But my brain was too occupied to guess. So I decided to listen instead.

"She's just tired,
that's why
she's asleep."

This time, the voice that was speaking was so easy to determine. This, without doubt, was him.

Lucas.

"You know that's not the deal here, Yukhei. She's not just tired."

Slowly, I sensed the talking person taking the space beside me. That's when I realized that I was lying on a bed. Then I thought to myself, Better, better, better than any place in this world. Then I thought again as I smelled the sheets, oh.

It's his scent. Lucas' scent. He always smelled of gardenias. Not to mention, he also looked like one. His hair, possessing a yellowish color like the flower had. And his eyes, green like tropical trees and strong as shrubs.

But this man sitting next to my bed was a contradiction. He wasn't anything like gardenias, nor did he smell like one.

He was a phoenix. He burned himself to death and then was borned again from its ashes. Like from the frail boy he was to the king he is now.

I felt him shift and said, "When are you planning to tell her everything, Yukhei?"

"Someday," the voice that replied was so weak I could hardly hear him.

"Someday," the other man repeated, snorting.

Another warmth occupied my previously vacant side. Now both men were beside me, shielding me by their everlasting tepidity.

Large hand enveloped around my right hand. It was Lucas'. "Back then at the Fortrent, she found out... About us. Yuta told her little."

Then the man at my left spoke, "I figured that out when she called me 'Yong'. What was her reaction?"

"She," a slight pause. "She forgave me. Without even knowing the whole truth. I-" another pause, then the hand that was holding mine squeezed a fraction tighter "I don't know what to do anymore, Taeyong. I don't know what to do with her once she wakes up. I am terrified when she finds out the truth."

"She should."

"But I don't think I can-"

"You should, Yukhei. She's running out of time, isn't she? How many days are left?"

"A day and a half."

"And she's sleeping. A lot. Once she wakes up, you won't know. Maybe she'd only have a very few hours left. Fifteen. Five. Or worse, one. Or even less than an hour. Or maybe Jeena won't wake up at all - "

"Taeyong," the voice was stiff and hard. "Jeena will wake up."

"Death," Taeyong paused. "comes at the most unexpected time. Death," the space beside me slowly shifted, the doer seemingly leaving the bed "It takes away the people you love, without a proper farewell."