Taken • Choi San •

Learning Again

It had taken a total of two days for her to believe them.

Two days in which she refused to speak to anyone, waiting desperately to be woken from what had started as a dream and turned into a nightmare.

A strange thing to consider being safe a nightmare, but every passing moment felt like it teetered on the edge, ready to plunge her out of her tentative hope that it could be real and down into the depths of despair and danger again.

The boys understood, gave her the time to process as per the doctor's instructions, but there was always at least one of them in her hospital room with her.

The companionable silence of their presence was what finally convinced her that this couldn't be a dream.

The first question that burned her tongue as she turned to the silently waiting Yeosang on the late afternoon of the third day was dashed away as a torrential fall of tears and broken sobs left her.

He was at her side instantly, knowing well from the last year of their friendship that what she would need right now wasn't in sweetly veiled words but in physical contact.

He slipped on top of the hospital bed, thin arms wrapping around her even thinner frame with surprising strength.

"I believe you." She heard the words leave her mouth as if they came from someone else's mouth and she felt Yeosang go limp in relief against her. He was silent for a few moments before lifting his head to look at her.

"I'm glad. I've missed you." He said it like she'd been completely absent even in the days she'd been right here in the same room with him. But in a way she had been, too withdrawn to smile at him through her tears like she was now.

She'd put it off for long enough, asking about San.

Mostly because she didn't want to see the looks of pity in their eyes, didn't want to bring the hopeless pit inside her to light.

She was scared of the answer but she couldn't go without knowing.

As if sensing what she was about to ask Yeosang sat up carefully, already avoiding her following gaze as he shifted into a more comfortable, and yet more uncomfortable, position.

She could tell already by the sad glitter in his eyes what his answer was.

"Where is he, Yeo?" She asked, hearing but not caring for the crack in her voice. He grimaced at the question, like it was a physical blow.

It felt like someone had punched a hole through her insides.

"Yeo, please." She whispered. Maybe if she heard him say it out loud, she could move on.

Maybe knowing it wasn't just her imagination would mean that she would be forced to face it as a reality.

He breathed in deeply and looked back up, his dark irises flickering with uncertainty.

"He's actually in here too." She blinked slowly, trying to process Yeosang's words.

Here as in the room?

Even knowing it wasn't possible he was there, she twisted violently, looking hard into every corner of the room.

But there was no dimpled grin to meet her desperate search.

So what else could he mean?

"I don't..." She shook her head, looking back at Yeosang who was watching her sadly, jaw clenched tightly as if around a million apologies.

She didn't understand.

"They found him before you. That's how they even knew they should be looking for you."

She swallowed thickly, trying to force out anything but what he was saying to her.

"He was... he's..." Yeosang choked, tears finally spilling down and wetting his cheeks. In the past few days she'd never seen her closest friend cry, even when she'd first woken up. She dreaded what he was going to say, whatever it was couldn't be much better than she'd imagined. "Yuna he's in a coma."

No, it wasn't as bad as she'd imagined.

It was worse.

So much worse.

"I want to see him." She knew before she'd even finished talking that even if Yeosang wanted her to, she couldn't.

She was still weak, her body was still severely malnutritioned and her mental state even more broken than it had ever been.

He shook his head, predictably.

"You know you can't. Not yet." He sighed heavily, swiping tears from his cheeks though tiny drops still sparkled in his long eyelashes. "Besides, there's not much to see Yuna. He just lays there, the quietest he's ever been."

The joke fell flatly from his lips, he was trying to make her smile, but all he was succeeding in was making them both feel sadder.

Now she understood why Wooyoung had looked such a mess the day she woke up here, why he was barely in here.

He was San's closest friend.

No doubt he was breaking apart as much as she was.

She suddenly ached to be with Wooyoung, to hold him and be held, to be with someone who understood.

Not that Yeosang, or the others, didn't.

But it was different in a way she couldn't explain with words.

As if on cue, the door to her little room opened with a quiet squeak and the dark haired boy, followed by Hongjoong slipped into the room.

She blinked a little in surprise at Hongjoong who last time she had seen him just half a day ago had been sporting a much longer hairstyle. It was now cut much shorter, giving him an almost more grown up look to accompany the dark circles below his eyes.

They moved to the edge of the bed, Wooyoung barely lifting his head to say hello to her.

Yeosang shifted once again on the bed, swinging his legs over the edge and facing his friends.

"She believes us now." Both boy's heads jerked up, eyes wide with disbelief and a mixture of emotions.

Wooyoung stared hard at her, his lips trembling and without thought she reached across Yeosang for him.

Like a damn of water bursting, his face crumpled in grief and the same kind of relief she felt.

They had someone to share it with now.

He clutched onto her, dragging himself close and shoving his face into the bed beside her leg, ragged sobs leaving him.

The mattress and blankets barely muffled the sound and Hongjoong rubbed his shoulder, the sorrow in his eyes as bright as Yeosangs but not as deep as Wooyoungs.

She knew that he shouldered much more of what was going on than outwardly appeared, she knew because he always had.

With her other hand she reached for the strong leader, watching his walls crumble brick by brick the closer it got to his face.

A silent tear slid down his face, splashing onto the back of her hand and he closed his eyes tightly, allowing her to cup his cheek with all the love she could.

Yeosang leaned back against her, silent and small.

That's how they stayed for a long time.