Ha-jun had fallen asleep after his third chemo session.

Min-kyu sat beside the bed, holding Ha-jun’s pale hand in both of his.

He had been smiling all day. Joking. Laughing. Acting like things were getting better.

But now, in the quiet hum of machines, he couldn’t breathe.

His eyes burned. He bit his sleeve to muffle the sob that broke out of him.

“Please… don’t go.” he whispered into the dark. “Please, not him.”

He rested his forehead against Ha-jun’s hand, tears slipping down silently.

He remembered how they first met—Ha-jun's loud laugh in the school hallway, the way he’d tugged on Min-kyu’s backpack and said “You dropped this, crybaby.”

 

Min-kyu laughed now, just a breath of a laugh, before the sob caught in his throat again.

“You always protected me,” he murmured, voice cracking. “Even when I didn’t deserve it.”

He looked up at Ha-jun’s sleeping face—thin, fragile, but still beautiful. Always beautiful.

“I can’t lose you. I can’t…” he said, barely audible.

Later, he went to the hospital bathroom. The mirror showed someone he barely recognized—red eyes, pale lips, trembling hands.

He splashed cold water on his face. “You have to be strong,” he told his reflection. “For him.”

But his shoulders shook, and he gripped the sink, chest tightening like he couldn’t find enough air.

That night, he crawled into Ha-jun’s bed and wrapped his arms around him gently.

“If I could take it instead, I would.”

Ha-jun stirred a little in his sleep, muttered, “Stop crying, dummy…”

Min-kyu let out a soft, broken laugh. “Even now, you're trying to protect me.”

He fell asleep like that—wrapped around the boy he loved, afraid of waking up alone.

End of Episode 3