Chapter 136

"You have not been sleeping, have you?"

Lips touched the top of his head. Jin felt a shuddering breath fanning relentlessly against the strands of his hair. Its warmth against his numbing scalp soothed his teeming worry.

Hiro was trembling again.

The man intertwined their hands and fingers, but he knew this trick quite too well. Perhaps his memory had grown fond and familiar with Hiro's personality that he could read him like an open book now.

A slight smile plants his lips as he observes his paleness against Hiro's a bit more tanned skin. The thinness of his wrist in contrast to the man's strapping arms, rather appears like a child's. Hiro was twice or maybe thrice his size. His workout routine. . .he needs to know this man's workout routine. It is beyond crazy.

He tips his head to the side. The colors of his veins were visible under his paleness, while Hiro's looked more uptight.

They were violently popping out from his skin. 

"How could I possibly do so, my love?" Hiro's whispering voice sounded hurt.

Kai clenches his jaw. Sleep? He would tie anyone who would dare to do so.

"Enlighten me," Jin replies. "Make me understand, Hiro." He made sure his voice was the softest with utmost understanding.

He pouts. Although he is a bit upset that he knows Hiro will find his way to soften his heart and get himself out of trouble again, he is more upset with himself about why he could never be too hard or even stay upset with this man.

Sleep? "I do not want to."

Because whatever is there to be mad of aside his stubbornness?

"You do not want to tell me?" Jin frowns.

Hiro is soft-spoken, the kindest man he has ever met, and well-mannered. Well, most of the time. But he has never seen him upset or heard him raise his voice. He grumbles, and his face . . . oh his incredible face. Daebak (wow). It is unreal.

He is bound to be doomed in this lifetime when he is this pathetically weak to handsome faces, to Hiro specifically. 

If it were not for his injuries, he would have turned his head and seen the sulking reaction he could sense from the man, and even with a bothered heart, he would still admire Hiro's appealing attractiveness. 

He heard Hiro gulp heavily. "No, darling, I believe you have mistaken me."

"Then what is it? What has kept you from sleeping peacefully? Because I would be enraged if you tell me it is about my matter of being bedridden considering your endeavors at that lake."

He heard a sharp intake of breath from the top of his head, followed by the man's shaking voice, "No, you cannot hate me, Jin-ah, please."

His mouth fell open, and his subconscious shook his head at him with an 'i-told-you-so' expression on his face.

Carefully, he scoots forward and separates himself from Hiro, and with extra care, he spins to face the man, placing both of his hands above Hiro's bent knees on the bed. Jin's sharp eyes bore into Hiro's face, and he frowned upon seeing the tiredness wash from the man's eyes replaced by anxiety? Fear?

Oh, Hiro.

At the count of three, Jin lifted himself using Hiro's knees as his support. He got up and steadied himself above the too-soft mattress. The tube attached to his hand sagged in front of him. 

Woah. 

His head never felt this heavy.

Doubtful that he could keep himself steady and not impair himself further, he still moved a step closer to the man. As anticipated, he lost balance, but Hiro caught him by the waist. His fingers tightly gripped him by his waist and wordlessly led him to sit on his lap.

If his mother was here, he might have already received her deathliest gaze when the thought of getting out of this bed even crossed his mind.

His eyes examined Hiro's face. The man's lips were thinned to a straight line with his dimples greeting him from the corners of his mouth. He carefully lifts his hand and allows the tube to move over Hiro's head. They dangle at his back as he sows his fingers into the man's hair.

From then on, his midnight eyes had been darting away from his gaze with flashing guilt.

Oh, dear. Jin is unaware that a person can exist to be so patient and affectionate enough to just silently observe and let him do anything he wanted in his helpless state but was only waiting for a moment of misstep and harm to reach out a helping hand.

To have security amidst freedom and independence. What heroic act did he do to the world for him to deserve such luck and fortune?

"Why did you not tell me?" Hiro's soft voice pierced his heart, "Why did you not tell me, Jin-ah?" His shaking arms embrace his body, pulling him dearly close to him, "The doctor found a deep cut at the back of your head."

His voice was breaking.

A timid frown caresses Jin's lips. His hand moves up the man's face. He holds Hiro's mopping face, and his thumb traces his cheek, brushing the warm tears. Hiro meets his eyes. They were torn.

He looks crestfallen.

Good Lord, protect this man.

"You do not know how surprised I was to find the waters with your blood when you passed out."

"I thought. . ." His lips were trembling. "It is unfair, you cannot scare me like that."

A deep sigh left Jin's lips, his thumb touched Hiro's swollen lids and he shut them close. His heart turned heavy.

He cannot bear to see him breaking.

"I woke up, and I had no clue where I was." Jin breathes, "It was dark, quiet. I was alone." And he feared his life could end in those four unfamiliar corners of a room.

"I saw a man. His hair was red." He was tall, foreign, and his eyes. . ."His eyes were blue." Cold and distant.

"He did not hurt me and had no clue who I am." He resumes.

"A nice ahjussi helped me escape. I did not know what was happening, but I had to trust the man with red hair and the ahjussi he sent to help me." They were his last hope of getting out of that place, his last hope of seeing his mother. . .of seeing Hiro.

"Hiro, I made it out of the house through a tree. But I lost my grip on it and fell." Jin pressed his lips together. He dared not mention the house and the tree was near the end of the world.

Knowing fairly well that cliff could be the death of him.

He did feel lightweight and a bit dizzy after.

"I thought I made it out." He smiles sadly, "But it did not end there."

He had never run in that light of speed in his life until that moment. His PE instructor could have been so proud of him if he had seen him on that night . . . that night when he was trying to survive on his own in that deep and murky forest.

"They were after me but did not want me. I felt like they needed me for something."

He releases his thumb from Hiro's closed lids and lets the man open them to meet his eyes.

"A vault." He whispers. "And you."