On my neck, I wrapped the axis around it;
You're mistaken, this ain't no scarf.
The ability that appears here and there,
We accomplish it in the end!

"What are you doing here?" asked Donghyuck, who was the first one to break out of the trance.

"I could ask the same," retorted Seohyun, who was not very excited to meet the 'rude' boy from the alley again.

"I asked first, so you answer first," said Donghyuck shrugging as he raised an eyebrow, waiting for her reply.

"Well, if it isn't visible, I have a wound on my neck and Renjun here treated it. Now, he isn't allowing me to go home," said the last part glancing towards Renjun.
"Now your turn," she said reverting her full attention back to Donghyuck.

"Well, if it isn't visible," he copied her words and mimicked her voice, "You are in my home and Renjun here...," he was at a loss for words at the importance of Renjun's presence.
"Well, he's here for I don't know what.

Renjun was silent throughout the conversation but decided to intervene only when curiosity got the best of him.

"Do you two know each other?" He questioned, referring to each with a point of finger.

"Yes," said Seohyun.
"No," said Donghyuck.

This response left the young medic even more puzzled than he was before.

"So," he stretched the word, eyes jumping from Donghyuck to Seohyun back and forth, "Yes or no?" He tried again.

"No," said Seohyun.
"Yes," said Donghyuck.

"Settle on one answer, will you?" Renjun burst out, whose patience was slowly running out at the child-like behaviour of the two fully grown adults before him.

"Don't worry about that," Seohyun waved off the topic with a shake of her head and winced again. Renjun glared at her for the carelessness and the girl only sheepishly smiled as she made a quick apology.

Donghyuck had opened his mouth to speak something when the door creaked open. The person peeped inside to find the two patients already awake as he walked in.

"Jaemin!" Seohyun exclaimed, excited to meet her newly made friend after almost a month.

"How are you feeling?" asked Jaemin as he advanced towards the injured people, taking his position in between both their beds after pushing away an agitated Renjun who was complaining about it being past visitor hours and that they needed to rest.

"I'm fine, just-"

"Not you," Jaemin shushed Donghyuck who had begun replying to the question.
"I'm talking to Seohyun," he said turning to the girl.

"Oh- I'm fine Jaemin," she replied smiling at the concern, "Just a little scratch, it'll heal in a few days."

"So-"

Jaemin had begun his sentence but was interrupted by the door opening again. All of them turned to face it. Seohyun winced and Renjun gave her a non-verbal, final warning.

"Ah Jeno, you're here," said Jaemin.

Jaemin had called Jeno to tag along when he went to meet Donghyuck and Seohyun but he had been a bit busy at that moment so Jaemin had to come alone.

Jeno walked over to where Jaemin was but instead of remaining on foot, he opted to take a seat on Donghyuck's 'not-big-enough-for-me' (it had been his complaint since the day it came in) bed.

However, instead of facing Donghyuck, the boy faced Seohyun, who was sitting cross-legged on the opposite bed, not having permission to move much.

"Jeno," she remarked, "It's been so long. How are you?"

"Yeah, 3 weeks is indeed a very long time," Jeno joked along.
"And I am fine since I don't have a habit of playing with danger unlike.....," he didn't finish the sentence, only pointed to the injured man behind him, who noticed this action and smacked the culprit on his back. Jeno replied to this with a rather hard hit on his right leg.

"Next time, it would be the other leg," he turned around to warn Donghyuck with a point of finger, while the latter only groaned in response.

"You can try," said Donghyuck, challenging his brother. "What are you even doing here? Don't you have any work to do?"
Donghyuck was agitated by the mere presence of his brother in the same room.

"Not until tonight," answered Jeno with a simple shrug and turning back to face the girl again.
"You alright?" he questioned Seohyun this time, who replied with a nod of her head and a smile.

"How-" 

Jaemin had begun his sentence but was interrupted by the door, again. This time Seohyun was seated facing the door, so she didn't have to 'snap' her neck toward it. The newcomers did not knock nor gave a prior warning as barged into the room like they owned it.

"Seohyun!" was the first thing that Chenle said upon entering the room, scrutinizing it to locate his friend in the crowd (which consisted of only 4 people).

Once in view, Chenle rushed to her bedside, pushing an annoyed Renjun even further out of the way as he sat down on the space of her bed, beside her. It was then did he notice the bandage wrapped around her neck which made him gasp loudly and quite dramatically. 

"How did this happen?" He inquired, completely disregarding the fact that Donghyuck had survived an even worse wound and lay in the very next bed, bickering with Jeno. Chenle's full attention was directed to Seohyun.

In this commotion, Chenle had even forgotten that he had dragged an uninterested Jisung along, behind him. Now, the poor boy stood at the far end of the room, by the window, beside Renjun. No words were uttered by him, which let his presence pass by, unnoticed.

"I- uh- we kind of got into a small fight and then it may have escalated a little and then this happened," Seohyun pointed to the wound on her neck as she summarised the previous night's whole ordeal in just a few words. She left out the part where Wonjae almost choked her to death.

"Yeah, that small fight of yours resulted in me getting shot in the leg," snarled Donghyuck from the other side.

"Hey," snapped Seohyun, "We both know that you got shot because you weren't quick enough to move."

"Yeah, and you bolted like a flash when that man held the knife to your throat?" Donghyuck retorted with a raise of an eyebrow.

"You should be thankful to me for saving your ass back there," he accused with a dead-in-the-eye stare which Seohyun mirrored.

Everyone in the room had grown quiet as the duo began bickering or rather, arguing. None of them were filled in about the details of the preceding night and were now all ears for the tea that was going to be spilt. Nobody dared to utter a single word in between.

"Thankful, my foot," scoffed Seohyun as she moved closer to the edge of the bed, almost ready to throw hands but was stopped by Chenle, who placed his palm on her knee. Donghyuck's eyes flickered to Chenle's hand for a split second, however, he paid no heed to it and fixated his blazing eyes on Seohyun again.

"You should be the one to thank me," she continued with the same rage, "Wonjae would've escaped if I hadn't thrown my shoe at him just in time."

"I had spotted him trying to escape much before you did," countered Donghyuck, "I was just waiting for him to reach the gate so that I could finish him off when he thought he was free."

Seohyun drew in a deep breath at this statement. The fury of being accused even when you tried to help was slowly growing with each word that left Donghyuck's mouth. The only thing that restricted her from not punching him square in the face then and there, was Chenle's hand.

"How was I supposed to know that?" She questioned with an outrageous expression, "I'm not a telepathic person who would know everything that goes on in that tiny brain of yours. You were meant to speak, you know, communicate with me, or at least a signal would've been helpful, for that matter," she heaved out a breath and carried on. "You did not even share your plan with me in the first place. How was I going to figure out your strategy for the night?"

"I did-"

"No wait," Seohyun interjected without hearing his point, "Do not start on that one. You did nothing to share your thoughts with me. I tried to begin the small conversation first, which you waved off with a 'we are on a mission' shit and then when I asked for the plan, you said you'd rather do it alone. And when I tried doing something in my way, even then you stopped me. How exactly did you expect me to know what plan you had in mind to kill Wonjae?"

Donghyuck didn't hesitate to fire back either. Both of them were equally pumped up with their views of each other and their mistakes from the events of the last night.

"I did let you go and talk to those men for Wonjae's whereabouts though," he said in a tone that was comparatively calmer than the hyped girl's, in front of him.

"Talk to who?" A new voice interjected the heated argument.

Everyone's attention shifted to the interrupting voice as all of their heads swivelled to the door, almost in sync, except for Seohyun who sat facing it. She was the first one to notice Hyerin's entrance in the treatment chamber. She carried a tray with two bowls and two plates.

"I searched the whole house twice for every one of you and here you are! Didn't I ask you to inform me when you came upstairs?" She scolded like an angry mom rebuking her kids- which was, in fact, true here.
"Even you, Jisung? I thought you would come to call me," Hyerin asked looking at him, where he stood at the far back. He had tried to hide behind Renjun when Seohyun and Donghyuck had begun raising their voices. Nevertheless, he failed miserably considering the height difference between him and the medic boy.

At the mention of Jisung's name, everybody's focus shifted to the poor giant, who stood there unmoving, with his eyes dancing from the ceiling to the floor and one member to the other as he subtly tried to avoid contact with any of them for too long. Nobody had seen him enter after a loud Chenle had made his extravagant appearance. He rubbed the nape of his neck when his eyes finally settled on Hyerin, who stood there with an expectant gaze.

"I- uhm- I...." he stammered, "I did want to come but- uh Chenle dragged me here."

Jisung met Chenle's stare and attempted to glare at the older-by-3-months boy but his expression looked more of disappointed rather than angry, so he just gave up. He averted his eyes back to the older woman who was now making her way towards the patients.

Jaemin got out of her path, giving Hyerin space to put down the tray on the bedside table that separated the two beds.

"You both can continue fighting later on; have some food first," said Hyerin, as she handed Seohyun and Donghyuck a bowl each.

Seohyun's cheeks flushed in embarrassment from the fact that Hyerin had heard her agree with her son.

What would she think of me now?

Was the constant question that now kept gnawing at the back of her head. Although she gladly accepted the bowl from Hyerin, Seohyun kept her gaze fixated on the chopped fruits in the bowl only.

I'm pretty sure she thinks I hate Haechan.
Wait- but that's true.
This guy just pisses me off.

Seohyun snuck a glance at the boy in the next bed. Hyerin was (quite forcefully) feeding Donghyuck the pieces of strawberries and bananas. She stuffed them in his mouth which he had to chew unwillingly. However, only after one bite, Donghyuck snatched the bowl from her hand, muttering the words 'I can do it by myself'.

What's his problem with letting people help him?

Seohyun diverted her attention to Chenle beside her and engaged in a small conversation with him and Jaemin, who was now standing on the other side of her bed, by the giant window. She was forced to fill them in the details from the other night. Chenle gasped at almost every other word while Jaemin had his mouth covered the whole time after Chenle commented that a fly might go inside.

On the other bed, Donghyuck was eager to finish the fruit bowl, so that Hyerin, who insisted on feeding her 'baby', would finally leave him alone. Jeno was now sitting on the stool on the other side of his bed while Renjun stood at the foot. Jisung was....well, he still stood awkwardly at the back, unable to blend in either of the formed groups.

The quiet environment in the room sounded like the quarrel from a few minutes ago had never happened. Only soft murmurs and the sound of deep conversations resonated across the grey-painted walls. Seohyun and Donghyuck had almost forgotten each other's presence in the same room until,

Click!

The door to the chamber opened yet again. Just as if everybody had been expecting the last person in the household to enter, nobody seemed fazed as they carried on with their gossip (used for Seohyun) and discussion (used for Donghyuck).

It was only when Mark verbalized his presence that they all quietened down to let him speak.

"How do you feel?" His question was directed to both of them, but his eyes were locked on Donghyuck, who was contemplating eating the remainder of the fruits in the bowl- kiwi and mango.

Seohyun had noticed this and opted to stay silent, letting his brother answer first. But, Donghyuck had still not looked up, awaiting for Seohyun to reply, instead, he was only greeted with silence in return.

Donghyuck waited for a few moments before finally looking up to find that the pivot of attention had now shifted onto him. Donghyuck popped one tiny piece of kiwi in his mouth to escape from the deafening silence but regretted his choice as he immediately wanted to gag at the taste of the exotic fruit. Nonetheless, his face remained neutral, devoid of any emotion as he gulped it down, without chewing further.

Mark tapped his foot on the floor, scrutinizing Donghyuck's actions. Donghyuck felt naked under his sharp gaze but his facial expressions contrasted his emotions.

"Have survived worse," was the dry reply that Donghyuck gave, putting the bowl back in the tray, beside Seohyun's empty one.

Donghyuck pulled the covers higher over his body as he laid down, under the pretext of going back to sleep. But he knew sleep was the last thing on his list with all the adrenaline pumping in his system. He was still mad at Seohyun and irritated at Hyerin's presence, who he thought was suddenly acting like a mother after being away from his life when he needed her the most.

Donghyuck closed his eyes to rest. Mark was now standing beside Jaemin, wanting to talk to Seohyun about some 'news' that he had for her.

"Seohyun," he announced in his usual stern tone and the girl almost broke under his stare.

"Yes?" She asked timidly, wondering if she had done something wrong.

What if he thinks I'm responsible for Haechan's injury?
Or what if I failed this mission because we caused a scene?
Worse- what if he wants to disqualify me?
Shit- NO! THIS IS BAD.
I can't lose it all now.
I can't-

"Congratulations."

This word broke Seohyun out of her rambling trance. She shook her head (and winced again) to confirm the 15-letter word she had just heard.

"Sorry, what?" She asked.

"Congratulations Seohyun," said Mark, cracking a small smile, "You have officially secured your spot in Azure Blaze."

"WHAT?"

But these were not Seohyun's words; it was Donghyuck who said it. He was now sitting upright again and was gaping at the girl, who was still processing this information.

Here you go, Chapter 17 as promised❤️

Donghyuck hates Kiwi and mango??
Damn, dude I love those fruits😭

Sorry for the unannounced break....but I'm back now!!!

This chapter feels a bit rushed, but I promise the others will be better😘