You startled Chan and Minho when you teleported straight into the hospital room.

It was, unfortunately, a force of habit. You spent most of your visits to Chan, which wasn't many, but he didn't need to know that, in the form of sneaking in and out of the hospital and the city. Being extra cautious that you wouldn't leave any magical traces behind made most of your visits brief. Not that there was much for you to do back then anyway; Chan was in a coma, and you were talking to a sleeping log. Supposedly, now that he was awake, you would no longer be in the vulnerable position you once were, and you should be able to walk the city freely. But, again, habitually, you have chosen to do a quick teleportation spell unannounced.

You raised a brow at how Minho immediately retreated his hand from Chan's. He jumped to stand away from the edge of the bed, looking nervous before he recognized you. Then he scoffed. You ignored him. "Was I interrupting something?"

"No."

"A little bit, yeah."

"You didn't interrupt anything. Don't listen to him," Minho reassured with a glare directed at Chan's boastful smile. He turned to approach you. Having deduced what happened after receiving information from his parents on the implication of Chan's awakening, there was much he needed you to fill him in on, but mostly he wanted to know if you were feeling fine. When he was within reach, he pulled you into an embrace. "How are you doing?"

You gasped inwardly. You hadn't anticipated this reaction from Minho, and it took you a quiet moment to feel his solid chest. His arms were grown and confident with strength, unlike Seungmin's, which were frail and comforting. With Seungmin, hugging him was like standing on common ground. Hugging Minho was being embraced and shielded by someone who knew more and better than you. They both felt safe, but for once, it was relieving to have an adult around to think for you.

"I'm fine. My friends are all fine, too," you replied.

"Your friends were involved?"

"They're all human, right?"

Minho released you to face Chan. "Technically, we all are."

"You know what I mean," Chan retorted before fixating his eyes on you. "Were your friends involved in what happened?"

You fiddled with your fingers. You wanted to be able to greet your uncle in a much lighter circumstance, but the timing was unfortunate. "They were," you said. "But they already know I can use magic! They won't say anything."

"It's more complicated than that. A councilman died–got murdered if we want to be specific." Minho hummed as he shook his head. "You did it. That was you?"

You shrugged, feeling accused. "Yeah."

Minho nodded with acknowledgment. There was no other display of emotions. But if he could, he would have been thankful that you killed the old man because that directly woke Chan up. His death broke the coma curse; it was his idiotic mistake for linking it directly to himself and not a vessel. "This is going to be investigated unless we intervene, and one little slip-up from any of your friends who saw what happened–"

"Nobody saw! I sent them all away to the hospital!" you exclaimed as you waved your hands. "Hyunjin was injured after a convenience store collapsed on us, so I sent him and everyone to the hospital! Nobody saw anything. Felix didn't see anything. I told Seungmin I–" you dropped your voice to a whisper–"killed someone, but he wasn't there to see it happen."

Minho nodded. "And Jisung?"

You look at him incredulously. You didn't think it was possible that Minho was talking about the same boy you saw at the hospital, but it seemed everyone had asked about him. "Why is everyone asking me about him?" you asked with a grimace. "I don't know him."

"What are you talking about?"

Chan watched as Minho's face gradually descended into a mixture of confusion and, increasingly so, pitiful despair. He shifted his gaze between you and him, unclear why Minho was having such a severe reaction. Following closely as Minho swiped two fingers across his neck, revealing a burning hieroglyphic mark once concealed, he moved his head about to keep his view from being blocked by Minho's back after the man grabbed your hand in his.

"What?" you tried to snatch your hand away, but Minho kept a firm grip. "Minho, I don't know who Jisung is. I met him for the first time today!"

He should have been more suspicious of what happened since he knew nothing. There were a million possibilities of how the councilman could have died, many of which did not involve you using magic that could hurt you, but also a lot where you would have to. He should have questioned how you could arrive unscathed; there was no injury on your body. You could have healed yourself, but that potential was eliminated when you told him you didn't know who Jisung was. The boy you almost fought him for, your soulmate, your lover—gone in a trace.

Chan raised his brows in realization when Minho discreetly pinched your pinky finger. The red string was gone. Your soulmate must have broken it. Judging by the event that preceded it and how Minho reacted to it, your soulmate had broken it unwillingly. Chan's shoulders slumped. He knew the implications of severing a soulmate string. But, seeing your clueless face, he was glad that the one suffering from its impact wasn't you but a boy he's never met before.

"Oh, [Name]..." Minho dropped your arm and sat beside Chan on the bed. He chuckled then, recalling the meek-looking boy pushing himself to your defense the first time they met. "Well, I'm not surprised he has the guts to do it."

"Oh? He's that kind of boy?" Chan muttered.

"I don't know. I didn't meet him for long." Minho shook his head before turning to smile at Chan. "But I know he overestimates his abilities to stand up for [Name]."

"Or he knows he's not qualified, he just doesn't care." Chan hummed with approval. "I like him either way."

You crossed your arms at their whispered conversation. You made a quick trip here to catch up with Chan and discuss what to do now that he has woken up. If he and Minho wanted to have alone time together, they should have arranged for you to show up later, and you could have stayed with your friends longer. But, despite your impatience, it was touching to see them happy.

"You know, I can't wait to have health insurance again," you pointed out as a joke. "Not that I cared for it when I did have it."

Chan laughed as he broke away from Minho, who rolled his eyes at the reminder of all the legal errands he would have to run with Chan after his full recovery. Scooting back on the bed, Chan beckoned you over to him and opened his arms as an invitation for a hug. You moved without another thought, but your face remained hesitant until you touched him with your hands. He patted your head twice for comfort you wouldn't know you needed.

"I'm sorry you've been alone all these years," he said.

"I met good people," you said as you shook your head to dismiss his apology. "I have friends who would fight for me."

Even though you haven't met them for long, the life they have given you thus far has somewhat overshadowed the terrifically lonely experience you've suffered prior. Time fast-forwarded in the mending of your heart; Hyunjin and his motherly instincts, Felix and his soft-hearted nature, Seungmin and his covert loyalty, and—your hands twitched when Jisung's face flashed over your eyes, specifically the way he had looked at you when you met him a while ago. You hummed, wondering how Seungmin has never introduced him to you before considering he has no other friends.

Or maybe he has, he just never told you.

"You should bring them over sometimes," Chan suggested as he pulled away. "It would be nice to give them a proper thanks."

You grimaced judgementally as you stared at him. You didn't think it was necessary. Besides, you have talked about Chan to your friends in such an urgent way (for good reasons) that you felt they would be disappointed seeing what Chan was actually like. Feeling subconscious, Chan returned the same expression but with more vigor. Not even a day had passed since he woke up from a coma, he was still delirious, but he held his mind to greet you anyway, and this was what you give him—teenage attitude. He rolled his eyes into a faint smile after. This was better than a pitch-black doom, at least.

"What do we do now?" you asked.

"You–" Minho touched your shoulder–"don't have to do anything. The legal things are up to him now. You just worry about catching up on your education."

The thought of school haunted you. It has been years since you last stepped foot in an educational setting to learn something new. You have been operating on some foundation of an adult—occupying yourself with jobs and earning money to fill your stomach—and you got trauma relating to being held down forcefully, so you weren't sure if you could adequately cope with being restricted by another systematic authority. Not to mention, people knew who you were! They knew your face and your family!

The only way for your school life to be peaceful is—

"I'm not going to school here."

—to go somewhere where nobody knows you.

"I thought you might say that," Minho pointed out as he slumped on the edge of the hospital bed. He shrugged, ready for a bargain. "You can attend the school your friends are attending–yeah, I know what you're thinking about." He squinted at you. "But unless you test into their current grade level, you won't be graduating at the same time as them."

"I'm being held back?" You would never hear the end of this from Hyunjin.

"No, you're starting alarmingly late," he said. "You can choose. We can give you some time to prepare for the grade assessment, or we can do what I initially planned–"

"I'm not going to school here."

"I was planning to get you homeschooled." Minho got up to flick your forehead. "You can work at your or the teacher's pace–I know someone who could help. That way, school won't keep you from seeing your friends."

Chan tilted his head. That sounded like a solid plan he had no part in concocting, but if Minho thought it was a viable idea, he wouldn't chime in and possibly make things worse. Looking at his soulmate, he gradually relaxed into the bed as he watched you chat with Minho about future plans. A soft sigh left his chest; he hoped Minho wouldn't overwork himself to accommodate your needs. You deserved a regular life from now on, but with the staining guilt that he hasn't been of any help in the past, Minho might overexert himself to make everything perfect from today on.

"Oh, can I get some strings to teleport back?"

Minho looked at the empty cardboard in your hand. He shrugged. "Sure, you can buy them at the store like everybody else," he said. "I know you have money."

"My family owns these strings," you sneered, then you pulled back in shock at the realization that the family business was still running.

"Your family, not you. There's a pharmacy downstairs. They should sell some," he retorted with a grin. "Remember, your friends are probably in school right now. It's the morning! Don't spawn in the middle of a hospital!"

Chan laughed when you bluffed a punching motion at Minho, who stood stoically on his spot. When you slammed the door behind you, Minho held back a scoff of disapproval and rolled his eyes. He turned around to give Chan a tight-lipped smile as he stumbled to the bed and, once again, plopped down on the edge. He could sit on it more comfortably now that you were gone, his back arched as he met eyes with Chan.

"You know I almost snapped our string to save you," Minho mentioned.

Chan raised his brows. "I'm surprised you didn't."

"[Name] talked me out of it," Minho replied softly.

There was a moment of silence. Minho thought about you promising him before that Chan would wake up and when you urged him not to break his soulmate string to save him. He felt he should have been there for you when yours had to meet a tragic fate. He stared at the ceiling light. For some reason, he wondered how Jisung was holding up.