Eccedentesiast |NCT MARK LEE| ✔

Ending B: Bittersweet

Blah - A/N

'Blah' - Thought

"Blah" - Dialogue

Blah - Text message

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"Jaemin, I'm begging you right now. Let the doctors remove the flowers and the feelings. I don't want my best friend to leave me."

Would everything go back to normal if he said "yes"? Could they go back to the times where they would stay up late talking on the phone past midnight or stargaze in silence without a piece of Jaemin dying every time? There would be no more flowers, no more pain, no more longing; no more feelings for Minji.

He could be by her side without having to yearn for something more.

"Nana-"

"I'm sorry, I don't want to."

Silence settled over the occupants like a thick blanket of snow.

"W-Why-" Minji said, voice cracking. She was still reigning in her tears and Jaemin wanted to tell her it was okay for her to let her walls down. "Why do you want to keep torturing yourself like this, you idiot?"

She clutched his hands tighter, almost as if she hoped she could make him stay longer if she just held on tightly enough.

Jaemin smiled wryly.

He was a fool. He'd let his love for her drain him of life little by little; day by day. But that's the thing about love, isn't it? You will allow them to get away with murder. Even if it's your own. He was scared to move on because moving on meant accepting their fates as strangers and he preferred being heartbroken to forgetting how she made him feel.

Jeno went over to her and gently extricate her from Jaemin before she could cut off the blood flow to his hands. Having impeccably perfect timing, the doctor entered the room. He looked unfazed by the fact that he had walked in on a private moment. His questioning gaze rested heavily on Jaemin as he drowned out Mark's comforting whispers to a grief-stricken Minji and Jeno.

"Sorry to interrupt but has the patient decided whether or not he agrees to have the surgery?"

"Yes, I have decided. I don't want the surgery," Jaemin said, adamant on sticking with his decision. He averted his gaze from his friends' imploring one.

"Do your parents know about this?" The doctor asked, face set into a perfected neutral expression.

"I'm estranged from them."

"Your paper documents state that you are already of legal age so you are entirely in control of your own treatment. If you don't want to go through the surgery, no one can force you. We can keep you here in this ward and monitor your condition until-" the doctor paused, wondering how to phrase his sentence tactfully and delicately, "-you fully succumb to the disease. Well, that is...as long as you can pay for the fees or else we have no choice but to turn you out. So, who's paying for your treatment?"

"I'm paying for him," Minji interjected quietly.

"Are you his guardian or a relative?"

"No, I'm his friend."

"If you are paying for his bills out of your own free will, then yes, we'll accept your payment."