20 | It's You
Taehee walks back from the police station, pouring herself a cup of tea and sighs.
It's been a whole week and she hasn't seen Wonwoo at all.
"He moved on...", she mumbles, sitting at the table and flips through her papers. She reviews her notes that she wrote, wondering when it's a good time to ask Taehyung to turn himself in again.
"Hello?", she fishes out her phone from her pocket, answering it.
"Taehee, this is Mingyu— Wonwoo is in the hospital"
"What happened?", Taehee asks quickly, her grip on her mug tightening.
"He's been overworking himself all week. His stress and tiredness finally caught up to him. He passed out while he was at his company and right now I'm at Seoul Hospital"
She bites her lower lip, shaking her head. "And why should I care, Mingyu?"
"Because you love him, Taehee"
Taehee scoffs through the phone, rolling her eyes. "Please, I hate him. Just send Minyoung there, he'd rather see her than me", she responds, trying to sound annoyed.
"Don't be like this, he'd want to see you. Now stop being stubborn"
Taehee sighs and hangs up, running her hand through her hair and tugs it slightly.
"You don't care about him"
After thirty minutes, Taehee sits next to Wonwoo's bed, looking at him and sighs.
"You idiot, why are you doing this?", she mutters, closing her eyes. "You are so stupid"
She stares at him, taking out the small jewelry box he gave her for Christmas and places it at his bedside table. Taehee purses her lips together, trying to shake off her guilt as she stands up, walking towards the door.
"...Taehee...", Wonwoo's voice floats through the air. She turns around, looking at him, his eyes still close.
"What is it?", she asks, walking to his side again.
"...Taehee...", he murmurs again, shifting in his bed.
He's sleep talking.
"...It's hurts so much", he mumbles. She purses her lips again, touching his shoulder and tries to calm him down.
"Go back to sleep, Wonwoo. You'll get better"
"It hurts so much...it hurts so much. I miss you...I miss you", Wonwoo mumbles. "I...I thought that everything would get better but it isn't, nothing feels right. I feel so alone without you, so alone and broken", he opens his eyes slightly, but clearly still in his dream state. Wonwoo brings the back of his hand to Taehee's cheek, caressing it slightly.
"It's you...the reason my heart is breaking...don't you hear my heart?", he asks, a tear slipping from his eye. "Every time I want to get over you, you always find your way back to my heart, Taehee...you're my answer", he brings her hand to his chest, nodding back into his sleep. "You're the only person who runs through my head, no matter what. You...you are the reason why I smile now and you'll always be the reason that I cry. My heart...it's only beating for you."
"I want to hug you...I never want to let go. I want to tell you so much...But you hate me...you moved on from me. I hate myself so much for hurting you, for bringing you pain. I hate myself so much...", he murmurs, falling back to sleep.
Taehee gulps, looking down at the tiled floors and sighs. She pulls out her phone, pressing it to her ear as she feels her heart break at his words.
"Minyoung, please come here to Seoul Hospital. Stay by Wonwoo's side, okay? And if he asks what the pink box is doing on the table, tell him it's from me and that he should have it back. I'm going to work", she hangs up, shoving her phone in her pocket and sighs.
"Wonwoo...you're making everything harder for me"
☼☽
Wonwoo opens his eyes slowly, noticing that he's not at his company anymore.
What happened?
Pain rushes to his head, a memory slowly flooding back into his head as he remembers when he was partially asleep.
Every time I want to get over you, you always find your way back to my heart. Taehee, you're my answer.
"Wonwoo! You're awake!", someone rushes to his side.
"Taehee? Is that you?", he asks weakly, his eyes not yet adjusting. The girl hesitates on answering but quickly shakes her head.
"Nope, this is Minyoung. Are you okay?", she asks.
Once his eyes adjust, his heart falls flat as he looks at her. He nods slowly. "What happened?"
"You passed out, oppa. Why were you over-working yourself? You know that it isn't healthy"
Wonwoo purses lips together, knowing that she wouldn't like his response.
It was because I was trying to distract myself from thinking about Taehee.
"I had to get work done", he lies, looking around the room. "Where's Taehee?"
"She's at work. I didn't know she worked at EJS! She's competition", Minyoung giggles. "I'm joking, Wonwoo", her smile falters, seeing the face Wonwoo's making towards her.
So everything that I confessed, she didn't hear it...she wasn't here to hear it.
His eyes suddenly grow wide, looking at Minyoung. "Did you hear everything I said when I was asleep?", he asks quickly. Minyoung slowly shakes her head, confused.
"No...I got here around 20 minutes ago"
Wonwoo sighs in relief, happy that Minyoung didn't know how he feels about another girl. He sits up, noticing something at his bed side table. His heart begins to hurt, seeing a familiar pink box with silver lettering on top.
"W-What's this?", he stutters, grabbing the box and holds it tightly.
"It's from Taehee, she said that you should have it back", Minyoung shrugs.
Wonwoo winces in pain, opening the box slowly and notices the note inside of it.
'Have these back. Sorry that you can't return it. Give it to Minyoung, she'll love it. I can't bear to look at it, knowing that it was from the man who hates me. From the man who I was so stupid to care about'
Wonwoo feels his eyes sting, his heart breaking as he runs his hands over the gold and diamonds. His lips quiver as he remember how happy Taehee was when she received them.
But now it's just some memory in the past.
"Oh my, Wonwoo are you okay? Why are you crying?", Minyoung asks, wiping away his tears with her thumbs, worry in her voice. Wonwoo closes his eyes, closing the box and holds it close to his heart, crying.
"Why am I such an idiot?"
☼☽
Wonwoo signs himself out, calling an Uber and arrives back at the hotel. He walks into his penthouse, closing the door to only be confronted by Seungcheol.
"Hey, hyung", Wonwoo waves, slipping off his shoes. He hears Seungcheol scoff, looking up to only see a scowl on his face.
"You're an idiot, you know that?"
Wonwoo gulps, nodding. Seuncheol sneers, brushing past him and heads out the door, slamming it shut. Wonwoo hears people in the kitchen, turning around to see Woozi, Hoshi and Jeonghan stand there with unreadable expressions.
"I can't believe you wanted revenge on her", Hoshi breaks the toxic silence, looking at his friend. "I never knew you could be like that"
"I can't believe that...that you could be that merciless towards a girl. I thought it was because of Minyoung but no", Woozi spits. Wonwoo clenches his fists, looking at his hyungs.
"How did you find out?", he asks.
"Through Taehee, Mingyu had to tell her", Hoshi says with a disappointed look on his face. "Please apologize to her"
"I can't believe that you would want to hurt Taehee, I seriously can't believe you. You make me feel so disappointed", Woozi clicks his tongue, glaring.
Wonwoo feels anger boil inside of him, growing tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. All of the disappointment, the anger, the hurt everyone feels when they look at him.
But no one understands the guilt, hatred, sadness and rage Wonwoo has towards himself.
"I get it", Wonwoo says through his gritted teeth.
"No, I don't think you do—"
"I GET IT, GUYS!!", he explodes, all of his emotions finally catching up to him.
"Wonwoo, please calm down. Woozi is just upset and Hoshi just wants you to apologize to Taehee", Jeonghan says calmly, trying to soothe his angered friend.
"I understand how people look at me, okay?! I don't need my friends telling me that too because I already feel it! Just let me be!!", Wonwoo screams, his voice so loud that it shakes the glasses on the counters.
"Wonwoo, you're gonna break stuff", Woozi says, calming down. "Look, I didn't mean it that way—"
"Save it", he snaps. "Just leave me alone!! I don't care if I break stuff because everything is already broken already!!"
Wonwoo runs up the stairs, going into the hallway and stops at Taehee's empty room. He sighs in defeat, roaming around her room and looks at all of her little knick-knacks. He roams around her desk, noticing all of the photos that are in little frames. He sees one of them, a family together and smiling happily with a mother, father, brother and sister.
"That's her family", he mumbles, picking up the photo and runs his fingers against the glass.
She was so beautiful.
He puts it down, noticing another photo with just her and her older brother now, taken recently.
"She looks so happy"
Wonwoo continues to look at different photos, seeing ones with Joshua and DK, some with her foster mom and others just scenery. But he notices one frame faced down against the desk. He picks it up, his heart wincing as he looks at the picture.
It's of him and Taehee smiling happily, her laughing while he looks down on her with love written all over his eyes.
He looks at the picture, sighing as he runs his fingers over the photo, smiling sadly.
She's still beautiful.
"It's always you who sticks in my head", he mumbles. Wonwoo puts the frame back to how it was, about to leave her room when he spots a small rose pin on her desk, buried amongst the numerous papers. He tilts his head, inspecting it.
"I've never seen her with this before"
He looks at it on all different angles, running his fingers against the golden rose. His finger brushes against something, triggering it. His eyes grow wide, his heart racing as he plays it again.
I...I can't believe this.