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40. Questionable Condition

It had been a few weeks since Taeyong was promised his release. They had been spending their time quietly, planning and waiting for their final farewell, which was quickly approaching.

Yuna had recovered for the most part. Her bruises had disappeared, and the marks on her legs had faded. The scars on her back and arm were still fresh and pink, though they had healed well. She had become extremely self conscious of her body by the idea of the prominent, ugly gashes being permanently etched on her skin, but Taeyong spent every possible moment he could reminding her that she was beautiful no matter what.

To everyone else, it may have seemed excessive, but he latched on to her whenever they were near one another. As she had told him, she was slowly erasing the memories of the terrifying incident with every touch and things were nearly back to normal. He gave her all the comfort and assurance she needed while reassuring himself that she was with him and safe.

There were other reasons for his excessive contact, though. It was true that her injuries had healed, but she was still unwell. She was tired all the time, pale and often complained that her body ached relentlessly. She had several nose bleeds, felt dizzy and had even fainted a couple times.

When it happened, Taeyong panicked and made the doctor come to her immediately. The doctor examined her, gave some vague explanation about it being due to stress on her body and asked her to see him at his office soon to follow up. Since then, she had been back two more times, but insisted to Taeyong that she would rather go alone. Her reasoning was that she didn't want him to waste his time since there was nothing wrong with her and she was just going for a checkup.

Taeyong didn't really understand what was happening, why she seemed to brush it off and why she tried so hard to convince him that it was something she could handle on her own. He was frustrated and they argued, until he realized that was probably causing more stress on her. He gave up and complied with her wishes, still always anxiously watching for changes in her condition.

"Stop looking at me like that, I said I'm fine." Though her eyes were closed, she could feel his static form in front of her by the way his shadow cast across the backs of her eyelids. "I'm good, I promise. It's just getting late, that's all." She mumbled, curled up at the corner of one side of the couch with her head resting on her arm not bothering to open her eyes.

"It's 7:30." She heard Da Reum from across the room.

Her eyes shot open at the realization that though it felt like the middle of the night it was still only early evening.

"Oh." She mumbled before pushing herself to sit upright.

Taeyong sighed and sat next to her. He pulled her toward him, tucked her under his arm and pressed her head to his shoulder.

"It's ok. If you're tired then you should rest."

"I'm sorry I'm like this." She said quietly.

"You didn't ask to not feel well. Don't ever be sorry for that."

She nuzzled against him, appreciative of his warmth in body and heart.

"Taeyong-" she started before being cut off by the muffled ring in his pocket.

He pulled out his phone and let out an irritated groan after seeing the screen. Yuna peeked over.

"Isn't that Mark's number?"

"How do you know his number?" He furrowed his eyebrows at her question.

"He's only called you about ten thousand times in the last few weeks, how could I not recognize it? Maybe you should just answer it. I don't think he's going to stop."