Stay Gold [Moonbyul x Seokjin]

Chapter 28

"Yo, were you outside just now?" Suga asked when I came into the ward. 

I shot him a thin smile, nodding. "Yeah. Someone accidentally bumped into me, but all good." 

My eyes went straight towards Byul. I paused the moment I spotted white sheets of  A4 sized paper in her hands, and also on her blanket. Sandeul was recollecting the papers as he glanced towards me, grinning weakly. 

Byul spoke up. 

"Thanks a lot, Sandeul. I'm counting on you."

"What's going on here?" I croaked. 

"Er..." Sandeul hesitated. "It's about our charity project. She wants us to prepare everything starting tomorrow."

I paused for a while there; my thoughts running wild. 

"You mean, decorate the venue tomorrow?" 

Sandeul nodded, signalling to Byul. As if on cue, Byul cleared her throat. "I think it's better if we speed up our project to next week. We'll have more time to study for our final exams." 

"Excuse me? Byul, you're literally on a sick bed!" 

She didn't look at me. "I know. That's why I'm not coming. Can I be selfish for once, and ask the four of you to decorate it yourselves? I'll do more work on the real sale day." 

My heart dropped at her soft tone. She didn't even have the energy to defend herself and straightaway called herself selfish. 

"It's not about you being selfish!" 

"Then would you do it?" She asked without budging, her gaze glued onto her legs. "I don't want to waste anymore time." 

I sighed. That's not the problem here. The problem is if I leave Byul herself, that bastard might come back anytime and that's already breaking my promise to Hwasa and myself.

"If you're not going, then so am I." I crossed my arms, sighing again. 

Sandeul switched glances with me, raising his brows. I tried to mouth the word 'sorry'. 

It was Byul's time to sigh. Then, she turned towards Sandeul who was still sitting on the chair beside her bed. "Can you all give us a minute?" 

Suga and Jimin immediately understood, while Sandeul got up and headed towards the door together with them.

Once the boys were out of the ward, I waited for Byul to continue. 

"I know it's selfish." She said, and it still broke my heart to hear how weak she sounded. "But I want the event to happen as soon as possible." 

"Why? Why so sudden?" 

She fell silent. 

I gulped, trying to digest everything. Dang it, I don't want to disappoint her at times like this but I don't want to leave her alone too. 

"Byul, if you're doing this to make me go away, I won't-" 

"I just don't want you to go to his photo shoot." 

My arms dropped to the sides slowly, frowning deep. "Is that why you want it to happen next week? So that I can't go to the photo shoot?"

Byul's fists were grasping the sides of her blanket. Droplets started to fall from her eyes onto her blanket, alarming me because of the sudden breakdown. I ran to her side, holding her shoulders and trying to make her look at me. 

But she was sobbing so hard she couldn't lift a thing. 

"Byul, Byul-ah..." I panicked, and I didn't know what to do. The next thing I know, I was hugging her and caressing her back softly to calm her down. "It's okay, I'm here. I'm here. I won't go to that photo shoot. Trust me. I won't."