Jimin was the first one to arrive at the hospital lobby followed by Ningning. She clutched her chest from running, catching her heavy breath as she turned her head towards the three cops right behind her. "What is her room number?" she demands with trembling eyes.

"Fourth floor, ward 401," one of the cops answered before Jimin wasted no time running towards the elevator, almost punching the button. Seeing how her close friend became as pale as a ghost, Ningning reached her hand to stroke Jimin on her back to provide some comfort and assurance despite her not knowing the truth behind Minjeong's condition.

"Come on... hurry up..." Jimin chants since waiting for the elevator feels like hell. She knew she couldn't wait any more when her heart kept drumming, almost feeling like Jimin might puke at any moment from the anxiety. She shifted her step towards the stairs, startling Ningning and the cops to follow after her worriedly.

"Jimin, wait!" Ningning stumbled with her steps as Jimin moved faster than ever.

When Jimin arrived at the fourth floor, sliding the door to the specific room open, her legs gave up as she finally knelt down on the floor right next to Minjeong's bed. This time, with another presence of a person.

She knew this person.

"R-Ryujin? What are you doing here?" Jimin's voice came out weak.

Ryujin and Ningning got extremely panicked that they rushed towards the older girl to help her stand on her two feet. "Gosh, Jimin. Are you alright? What are you doing here?" Ryujin's brows furrow as she leads Jimin towards the seat right next to the bed.

"What are you doing here?" Ningning was the one who asked this time.

The three look into each other in confusion (to be exact, Jimin and Ningning looking at Ryujin in confusion) confused with each other's presence inside the ward with unconscious Minjeong on the bed.

"I mean— I know that Jimin and Minjeong were family related... But, Jimin. Are you okay?" Ryujin asked again as the sorrowful expression on Jimin's face started to become more visible in everyone's eyes. Jimin's eyes got so teary that a drop of tear finally came down her cheek, only to make Ryujin even more confused.

Jimin eyes were stuck on Minjeong's unconscious face. Her hands start to linger onto Minjeong's, while her eyes waver at the sight of her wife.

"Let Jimin be," Ningning tried to shift off the topic. "Now, what are you doing here?" she asked one more time.

"I'm the one who found her by the road. What actually happened here?"

"Where did you found her?" Jimin's sudden question startled the two younger girls, but her eyes still stuck on Minjeong's figure. "Where did you found her, Ryujin?"

"I just came back from a convenience store not far away from my house, and then I saw someone lying unconscious on the road nearby. I was shocked as well when I saw that it was Minjeong," Ryujin explained to them.

"Her leg was bleeding pretty bad and her face looked as pale as a dead person. I was so shocked that I immediately called for help," she continued.

Hearing all those explanations from Ryujin, Jimin realized that Minjeong definitely going through a hard time when she went missing. Looking back at her unconscious wife stuck with wires and a bandaged stomach, Jimin couldn't help herself from crying even more.

Flabbergasted by the view, Ryujin gave Ningning a pat on her shoulder, permitting herself to leave the room and talk to Ningning.

When the two were outside the room, leaving Jimin alone with Minjeong, Ryujin started to stare at Ningning and the Chinese were flustered to look back at her friend. "Uhm... Why are you looking at me like that?" Ningning questions Ryujin who slowly starts to squint her eyes.

"Are Jimin and Minjeong... you know — A thing?"

Ningning started to pull her head away in defence. "Wow-wow. What thing?"

"Are they in a relationship? It's just that— look how worried Jimin is to Minjeong. She even held her hands just now. That's practically a rare sight to me, Ning," Ryujin continued.

Hearing Ryujin's questions, Ningning starts to get nervous. She tries so hard to hide it, gulping down her own saliva a few times, nervously looking left and right and avoiding any direct eye contact with her friend. Jimin would be so mad if she told Ryujin about their marriage, Ningning knew that much.

"Well... they are like siblings. You know already how close they are since they were young," Ningning answered, half true half lying.

Sceptical, but didn't pay attention much to it, Ryujin simply nodded her head as her features softened. "Right? No way that they are in a romantic relationship."

*****

Jimin kept staring at her wife's peaceful slumber as she pulled one hand on her cheek just enough to feel the back of Minjeong's hand on her skin. A sad pout with a few light sobs came out from her. "You need to wake up, Minjeong. I missed you..."

There are a lot of questions inside Jimin's head that she wants to ask her wife. Why did the culprit stabbed Minjeong? Why there are rope marks on Minjeong's wrist and legs? Why her body is full of bruises?

"What actually you have gone through, Minjeong? You need to wake up and tell me..." another tear escaped Jimin's eyes before she immediately wiped it away with her free hand. Hell, she can't look at Minjeong in this deadly state.

Thankfully, the doctor said Minjeong would be fine. But maybe she should use the wheelchair for a few weeks. Maybe about a month, just to make sure the stitches won't fall apart, resulting in more bleeding on the stabbing wound.

*****

Night came and Jimin persistently be by her wife's side. Ningning and Ryujin are long gone, leaving Jimin alone with two cops on guard at the door. She has no more tears for now as her attention is only on providing her unconscious wife the comfort she deserves.

Jimin wipes Minjeong's face using a wet towel she brought from home, before she moves lower, slowly wiping gently through Minjeong's neck, chest, waist and hands. She button back the hospital gown that Minjeong's wearing, put the towel down on the nightstand before she gazed back at her wife's innocent face with a small smile.

"At least it looks less pale than before."

Walking towards the washroom to wash the towel, Jimin didn't realize that Minjeong slowly opening her eyes. Looking at her surroundings, Minjeong could predict where she was at the moment and who is she with inside the room, thanks to Jimin's humming from the washroom.

A small smile flashed on her face knowing that her wife was there with her. When she is about to move, Minjeong grunts silently from the enormous pain in her body. It feels like she just got hit by a truck, dang it. So, she tried to stay still without trying to move (despite being uncomfortable with it).

Minjeong starts to get panic when she hears Jimins shutting off the tap from the washroom. The doorknob to the washroom twisted open, and so Minjeong wasted no time pretending to sleep, trying not to get caught.

Jimin came in seconds beside the bed, hanging the towel on an empty chair nearby and finally organizing things that was messy before at the bed stand.

Satisfied enough, she moved her hands on Minjeong, trying to fix Minjeong's robe and blankets. A small smile flashed on her face as she fixed Minjeong's hair, tucking the strands behind the younger girl's ears. Minjeong swear to god that Jimin couldn't see how her cheek started to blush from the way Jimin's fingers touched her skin.

"Hold it— HOLD IT!"

The tiny whine that came out from Jimin makes everything worse. "Poor you. I wish I wouldn't see this beautiful face in pain again. I don't know it would be this heartbreaking to see you like this, Kim Minjeong," Jimin smiled sadly as she ended her words with a heavy sigh.

God. Minjeong heard everything.

God, please help me. She prays.

Done fixing her hair, the last thing that Jimin did was leave a soft peck on Minjeong's forehead. Too startled and flattered at how those soft lips on her forehead feels like, Minjeong's eyes shot open. Cheeks flushed so badly. Eyes fluttering in embarrassment.

Jimin finally realized it as she pulled away.

"Y-You—"

"W-What are you doing?" Minjeong asked out of the blue. That was the first word she spoke after her almost 12-hour disappearance.

"W-When did you... wake up?" Jimin asked in confusion, but couldn't help from blushing on her cheek after remembering what she had done just now. Caught in the act, she told herself.

"Did you just say I'm beautiful, Jimin?"

Hearing Minjeong's statement makes Jimin try to pull her face even further from Minjeong's teasing eyes, but Minjeong is fast enough to hold Jimin by her collar that the older girl is too stunned to speak out even a single word. "Why aren't you answering?"

Jimin keeps her silence, eyes wavering towards somewhere else despite how close their face is to one another. Minjeong starts to click her tongue once before flashing that playful smirk on her face, "You silly. Come here..."

Minjeong pulled her wife closer, closing the gap between their face as she kissed Jimin softly on the lips. Their lip movements were slow and sweet, nothing sensual. Jimin didn't hesitate to kiss back as she cupped both Minjeong's cheeks with her hands, while one Minjeong hand was at the back of Jimin's neck, pulling her closer, not breaking off the kiss.

Jimin was the first one to pull away with their face still inches apart. Both looked at each other's eyes dearly and worriedly.

"Your stomach. Is it still hurt?"

Minjeong chuckled lightly at the sudden question. Her eyes never leave Jimin's. "It's hurt. It is. He stabbed me, and tortured me with a view that I don't want to watch," Minjeong replied.

"W-Watch?" Jimin is clueless. "Is it... hurt... to watch that?"

"It's hurt as hell. But I'm proud enough that I could endure all of this," a small smile flashed on Minjeong's face that Jimin didn't even realize she smiled back like an auto manoeuvre.

"Thanks to you, tho. I could endure it because of you," Minjeong's whisper-like voice felt like a song of siren to Jimin. Soft yet alluring, Jimin couldn't move her eyes away from looking at Minjeong's lips with trembling eyes.

"What... did he show you?" Jimin's voice was the one that came out like a whisper this time. Before Minjeong gives her the answer she wants, her eyes linger back on Jimin's lips before she pulls Jimin's neck closer to her again, giving a soft kiss on her wife's lips and quickly pulls away.

"Did you really want to know?" Minjeong asked with that low voice, lips brushing onto Jimin's tips. "I guess it's better for you to not know about it..." Minjeong answered before she pulled Jimin in, hugging her gently. "Yeah. You better don't know about it," Minjeong sighed.

"I want to know, Minjeong. Tell me."

Minjeong was fighting her mind about whether she should tell Jimin the truth or not. But, Minjeong told herself once that she swore she wouldn't hide things anymore from her wife. With a heavy sigh, Minjeong started as she stroked the back of Jimin's head.

"He freaking fucking a whore in front of me, and he offered me to do the same—"

"He did what?" Jimin cuts her words when the older girl pulls away from the hug forcefully. "He did that?" Jimin repeats, dumbfounded by the facts, knowing how easily Minjeong could be swayed by that kind of torture.

But, Jimin guessed, this time, Minjeong really really cared for her.

Minjeong pulled Jimin in, hugging her again. "Yeah. The woman is so ugly! I guaranteed—"

Jimin pulled away from the hug once more and snapped back at her wife, "I didn't ask you if she was pretty or not. I didn't even wanna know the details either!"

"Can you— not pulling away from me like that? I just want to hug you, Jimin," Minjeong pouts lightly, pretty disappointed that Jimin ruined their sweet moment. "Are you angry?"

"N-No," Jimin shakes her head aggressively.

"Then, are you jealous?"

"No!"

"Then, what are you doing, Yu Jimin?" Minjeong starts to laugh, staring at how her wife obviously became jealous, it is so obvious that Minjeong could read her face so well.

"Don't mind me," Jimin tried to push away the topic as Minjeong pulled her in again for the third time, hugging her gently inside her embrace. They keep hugging silently like that for a few seconds.

It was a comfortable silence.

"I promise I will take care of you better," Minjeong's sudden heartfelt words make Jimin pull herself away from the hug for the third time, resulting in another version of pouting Minjeong. "What do you mean? I mean... I'm the one who should take care of you better, Minjeong. You're the one who is hurting right now," Jimin's brows starts to furrow.

"I'm hurting because I'm trying to protect you. I think it is true that he is after you, just maybe..." Minjeong paused her words as she smiled. "Just, maybe... he thought that I liked you and that he was angry at me. Well, it wasn't entirely wrong. We are lawfully married. He just doesn't know about it," Minjeong pulled Jimin again into the hug, this time, tighter just enough to never let Jimin pull away for the fourth time (for god's sake!).

"So, it wasn't entirely wrong?" Jimin asked, finally giving in from pulling away. Minjeong answered her with a soft humm, "Yeah."

"So, you like me...?"

Jimin's question was like a thunderbolt to Minjeong's head, heart, and mind, that this time, she was the one who pushed Jimin away from the hug. "E-excuse me?"

"You said he wasn't entirely wrong," Jimin's cheeks start rosing as her eyes stare deep into her wife. "You wanna say something?"

"Say what?"

"Say it. I..."

"I-I—?"

"Come on, say it. I..."

"H-Huh? What 'I'...?"

Jimin suddenly snapped her body away from Minjeong, "N-Never mind—" before she walked away, suddenly leaving the room in a flash. Minjeong who was still confused by Jimin's action stared at the door with wide-open eyes and unexplainable confusion.

"Jimin! What kind of I are you talking about? Come back here!"

*****

Jimin took her seat outside the ward. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to calm down her racing heart. That was so embarrassing. But, still, "Why the heck did she... was so slow on catching things up!" Jimin gets frustrated, messing up with her own hair.

"Okay, maybe I can't blame her. It's not like I've ever told her that I like her, or maybe love her already," Jimin groans. "But she is the one who flirted with me first! She did it the most, god!" Jimin keeps mumbling by herself, catching the attention of some nurses nearby.

"Ahh— Then, maybe... because she used to live a scandalous life, so it was hard for her to tell me that? Or maybe she didn't figure it out yet?"

"But she's the one who keeps asking me for sex! She's the one who keeps kissing me out of the blue! She is also the one who keeps wanting my body! So shouldn't she be the one who needs to say that first—"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry to disturb you but this is a hospital. There's also kids walking around her, and I'm afraid with that kind of details—"

"Why are my wife's brain so slow!", Jimin stomped her legs to the ground.