17

F o u r t y N i n e

Seungcheol gently dropped J down on the floor, right next to where wonwoo's unconscious body lay as he so fearlessly ran to where his long time rival stood. He beat the shit out of jisoo and ended up tying his hands to the same place J had been earlier, making sure he wouldnt move.

J looked down and she noticed she had unconsciously intertwined her fingers with wonwoo's, who's eyes were closed and breaths steady.

'It isn't real. I'm dreaming right now, this isn't really happening' 'no no no' was all she could think. There was so much blood around her, she could swim in it.

She looked down at the unconscious raven haired boy in front of her and she noticed she was still holding his hand, there was blood on both of their hands but they never let go, she thought her heart stopped for a second when she heard sirens and the ambulances. Tears fled down her cheeks but she wasn't crying, she was left emotionless.

She looked around, examining everything but all she could see was red, there were lifeless bodies everywhere. As soon as she tried to move even a little bit, there was a sharp shooting pain in her abdomen, she saw more blood but this time it was hers, she put her free hand on her abdomen and it was bleeding heavily.

"Am I gonna die" was her last thought as she fell unconscious again while feeling someone pull her up from the ground and carry her out in their arms. She felt her hand slowly let go of wonwoo's.

-

"Hey." J heard as she barely opened her eyes, letting them adjust to the light in the room.

She had expected to see a hospital room but she didn't. Instead. She was faced with a room she knew all too well. Wonwoo's.

"What am I doing here?" J weakly questioned.

"We couldn't go to the hospital so we brought you here." The boy, who turned out to be seungcheol smiled reassuringly at her.

"But my-" she let her hand wonder to where she had been stabbed but only felt some kind of thread there, had she been stitched up by one of them?

"One of our friends, he knows how to do that stuff, and don't worry. He's a doctor. Namjoon." Seungcheol spoke so softly

"Where's Wonwoo. He-" J tried to suddenly get up but seungcheol softly patted her shoulder, leaning her back down on the bed.

"He's fine. He woke up before you and he's been asking for you."

"How long have I been out?" J asked expecting hours but no.

"Four days." Seungcheol told her.

"What?" J gulped.

"You-you still care about him." Seungcheol cocked his head to the left, looking at her.

J knew exactly who he was talking about, and that's why she denied it. Because maybe she could convince herself as well in the meantime. "No." "I'm leaving as soon as I can walk."

"But-" seungcheol began but was interrupted when the door opened.

"Sorry cheol, I couldn't stop him." Came in a breathless jeonghan running after Wonwoo.

"Dude, I told you to give it some time." Seungcheol sounded tired and annoyed now. "But since you're here, I'll give you two some time." He got up as the bed became lighter.

"Don't you dare leave me alone with him." J grabbed his arm and whispered. Eyeing the subject of their conversation who was still standing in the middle of the room. Staring at her.

"He'll kill me if I don't." Seungcheol looked at J a little amused.

"I-" Wonwoo started and stopped again as seungcheol closed the door behind him, leaving them with an unbearable silence. "How's your uh-" Wonwoo stopped again.

J looked up at him with a glint of exhaustion in her eyes. "It's fine."

"I'm sorry." Wonwoo sighed as he took a seat next to her on his bed. "I should've protected you."

"Why? We're nothing to each other." Came J's heartbreaking reply.

"That's not true and you know it." Wonwoo leaned in to her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Careful not to hurt her.

"Do I know that? Because the last time I checked you placed a bet on my love for you." J unwrapped his arms around her and gently pushed him back a little. "I hate this game you're playing with me."

"Look, it's not a game ok? We only told you that because Mr wang threatened you and we didn't want him to hurt you." Wonwoo sighed looking at the girl in front of him with genuineness in his eyes. "We thought that if we were able to get you to leave the house and stop caring for us then he would leave you alone and we could still keep an eye on you from afar." "I knew that you wouldn't so easily leave so I needed to do something despicable and make it believable and I did, even though it hurt. It was for your own good." He stopped when J furrowed her eyebrows a little.

"I know you Wonwoo. I know all of you. no one can make you do something you don't want to do yourself."

"So you think we did it because we wanted to?" He looked offended for a second. "That's not true."

"It doesn't matter anymore. It's over, we're not what we used to be and I'm leaving as soon as I'm able."

Wonwoo didn't understand why J was being so cold about everything, he thought he would be able to make things right as fast as he broke them but he was wrong.

"Your stuff is already here." Was all Wonwoo could say in that moment.

J looked over to where Wonwoo looked and sure enough, all her stuff was there. "I don't even wanna know how you got that."

"We're seventeen remember." Wonwoo was trying to lighten the mood but it didn't work.

He looked at J to continue and she did. She finally opened her heart up to him. Again.

"I-It was so hard for me to love again Wonwoo. I know you'll never truly know it but it was super difficult for me to just open up to you after what happened with Juni." She stopped a little. "I've always known how to love but I never knew how to be loved."

Wonwoo reached out to wipe a stray tear from the left side of her cheek.

"But then you came along and you showed me that it was okay to love and be loved even if you've had a bad experience. Finding out that none of that was real made me question why I'm not enough for anyone, why I wasn't enough for you." She stopped for a breath.

"You're more than enough okay? You're everything I've ever wanted in my life and-" Wonwoo looked so frustrated.

"Seeing you guys just give up on me broke my heart more than I'll ever admit again." "I think what you did might've hurt more than getting stabbed." She laughed a little at the end, even through her tears that had now appeared out of nowhere.

"did-did you stop loving me?" wonwoo asked with furowed eyebrows.

J sighed as she chose her words carefully. "i don't think i ever did."

Wonwoo heard his heart crack a little until she continued.

"The person I fell in love with turned out to be just an illusion. He was never real."

"J-" Wonwoo pleaded with his eyes.

"Let's just continue as we were. Pretending like we never existed in each other's lives. Let's go back to being strangers."

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