the words are faint, and if jeno had been a centimeter further away, he wouldn't have heard them. but he does hear them, because he's a centimeter closer than he would like to be to her and all he wishes is that they had never seen each other again.

"what did you just say?" 

"i said, i hate you!" serena spits, eyes red with fury and hurt. jeno's heart breaks with every syllable she utters, unable to control the tear currently ripping through his heart.

"you're such a bitch, you know that? you were the one who showed up at my house saying that your brother was dying. the son of the man your mother literally cheated on my father with. you were the one who broke down our entire team to 'rebuild' because apparently the americans gave you the ego of an nba player! and you were the fucking one who roped my best friend into getting me to meet your mother with absolutely zero concern for what i wanted! so tell me; can you hate me? do you have the right to hate me as much as i hate you?"

jeno chest is heaving at the end of his rant, serena looking at him in shock, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. 

"you fucking asshole. you absolute son of a bitch. you know what? fuck what dad thinks. i don't care. i'm leaving. i'm going to go live with my brother, okay?" serena says, sprinting into her room to stuff some clothes into the nearest container (her school bag). 

"wait, serena - "

"oh, by the way. my brother isn't the one dying. it's our - my mom. we moved here because she wanted to reconcile with her son before dying. she was going to tell you that day, you know. because she thought you might care more if you found out it was her, not her bastard son who was going to die," she says viciously, slamming the door behind her. 

jeno almost runs after her. but he doesn't. he falls to his knees and calls the only two people he knows to call.

"jeno, are you shitting me right now?" jaemin's voice is dangerously low, almost imperceptible shakes of anger lacing his tone. jisoo sighs and hangs her head, rubbing her face as she tries to process the situation.

she looks up to look jeno in the face and she doesn't see the big bad captain of the basketball team. she doesn't see the man with the responsibility of upholding the world on his shoulders. she doesn't see the man who strived for perfection in every single aspect of his life.

she just sees a seven year old boy who's confused, hurt, but as stubborn as a mule, sticking to whatever he thought was morally correct.

"you know it was not okay to lash out at her like that, right?" jisoo asks, wrapping her arms tightly around the boy. jeno doesn't say anything but if the fresh tears seeping into her school uniform were any indication, he did know. 

jaemin is silent throughout the exchange, mind muddled. on the one hand, serena had never mentioned anything about the mother being sick - not even to jeno, when they had initially  reconciled over basketball, so expecting jeno to understand the importance of having him talk to her mother without knowing anything was unfair. on the other hand, if serena had told jeno that her brother was dying, which is why they came to korea in the first place, then jeno was a real asshole. 

why was this so complicated? why couldn't serena and jeno just reconcile? why couldn't her mom just speak to jeno? why couldn't jeno just understand? why couldn't jisoo and jeno just get together? why couldn't serena and jaemin - 

"who's phone is that?" jisoo asks at the sudden sound of someone's phone going off. jaemin checks his. jisoo checks hers. jeno checks his. 

"i-it's mine," jaemin says, picking up the phone. 

"hey dad. yeah, i'm at jeno's. coach lee is what?" jaemin's eyes grow large, tears forming as jisoo and jeno look on in panic.

"what happened? WHERE'S MY DAD?" jeno cries hysterically, launching himself at jaemin's phone. jaemin twists away, ending the call and throwing the phone in jisoo's general direction. given by the lack of crashing metal, he assumes that jisoo's somehow caught it. but he can't confirm for sure because jeno's sobbing into his chest and it's taking all jaemin has to keep from doing the same. 

"your dad's in the hospital," jaemin begins slowly. jeno's head raises and he's about to frantically rush out the door when jaemin calls after him.

"he's fine! your dad's fine! he's just...it's your mom. he's visiting your mom. she's in the hospital right now. they say...they say she's almost gone, jeno."

no sooner do the words leave his mouth does jeno sprint out the door, jisoo and jaemin hot on his heels. 

it doesn't even occur to any of them that they don't have shoes on.

the hospital in their town is located barely two blocks away from their apartment, so they're inside the hospital, panting and sweating in just under six minutes. 

"we're...looking for mrs. park....he's her son," jisoo says, pointing her thumb at jeno as she tries to catch her breath. the nurse sizes up the three teenagers, looking at their school uniforms with dried tears on them, scratches and cuts lined on their feet from running barefoot. the nurse almost calls security, thinking they had escaped a mental ward or something when dr. na comes rushing, ushering them into the building. 

"thank you nurse soo, but these are my kids," he throws over his shoulder before guiding them to mrs. park's room. dr. na pauses for a moment, before allowing jeno to enter the room. 

"jeno, before you go in, you need to know something. and i'm telling you this, not as a doctor, but as the father of your best friend," dr. na says slowly, bending down slightly from his tall stature to look jeno in the eyes. "your mother is about three minutes away from passing. for her to pass happily and for you to live with closure, whatever happened between the two of you needs to be forgiven, alright?"

jeno nods numbly, inching closer and closer to the door before dr. na finally opens it, allowing him to burst into the room. there are multiple familiar and unfamiliar people in the room: his father, jaemin's father, a young boy he doesn't recognize, a handsome man he doesn't recognize, and serena. serena is grasping her mother's hand, hoping that if she holds on tight enough, maybe she wouldn't leave. maybe she could beat the odds. maybe...maybe she could stay.

when mrs. park's eyes lay on jeno, they soften immediately. she lifts up her unoccupied hand with great difficulty, jeno practically leaping over the hospital to take it up on the other side.

"i'm so sorry, mom, i love you so much, please don't go. stay here, stay with us. we'll go on so many picnics, okay?" jeno cries, sobbing into his mother's hand. serena just cries harder on the other side, extending one of her hands to hold onto jeno and her mother's intertwined hands. jisoo looks away, burying her face into jaemin's chest. 

even the young boy, too young to quite understand why everyone was so upset but definitely old enough to understand what was going on, says nothing but clings to his father, looking up at him with big eyes and wet eyelashes.

"i love you so much, my beautiful boy. i love your father. i love my husband. i love my son's best friend. i love you, my beautiful daughter. and i love...i love you, my youngest son. you all made live worth living. i..love...you...all. thank....you....for.....forgiving......me."

the heart monitor emits a long, continuous beep and serena and jeno are clutching to each other as if they might be taken with their mother, sobbing as they whispered words of sorry's and thank you's into each other. 

jaemin just closes his eyes, and lets the familiar noise of death fill his mind.

+++

a/n: so...this chapter was a rollercoaster ride. when i originally had this chapter in the works, i wasn't going to let jeno get closure. i was going to make it so that he never gets closure for being such an asshole because i'm a sucker for angst. but i just couldn't. jeno is all of us. jeno is us when we stick to our own decisions firmly, even stubbornly, because we can't bear the damage against our ego. and we deserve a happy ending.

so does jeno.

what y'all think of this chapter? things in previous chapters are finally starting to make sense! was this a good or bad chapter? let me know!