Jimin had decided to ignore the doorbell but it kept ringing and he thought the only way he could make it stop was by answering it so he got up and went to open the door.

His head was still a banging mess and he was not only seeing double but hearing double as well now and the first thing he wanted to do was open the door and dislodge the bell button and shove it down the throat of whoever was ringing it so persistently.

He yanked the knob open with force ready to let the visitor have it but his movements were slow courtesy of the hangover and before he could open his mouth he found himself pulled up by the collar, a snarling and fuming face staring at him with fireballs for eyes.

"Are you Jimin Park?" Taehyung demanded shaking him a little to let him know his answer would determine his fate.

Jimin tried to pull himself free by grabbing Taehyung's hands and pulling them away from his shirt before he could answer and when Taehyung saw the slightly shorter and hungover man showing signs of fear, he loosened his grip and let him go with a push.

"Yes?" Jimin answered steadying himself. He grabbed the door and took a step back to have the upper hand in case he had to close the door shut in the face of the stranger.

"Yes? Well, then Jimin we have some talking to do. Move aside!" Taehyung ordered pushing past Jimin with force to walk inside.

"That's trespassing!" Jimin exclaimed, his answer and his steps still too slow to register the threat, and Taehyung was already at the kitchen table.

"Is this your house?" Taehyung asked looking around at the interior of a beautiful cozy-looking living area before his eyes landed on the sofa in the living room.

We fooled around a bit and then I fell asleep on the couch. Alone! What the hell Tae, don't give me that look, I wasn't that drunk.

"Yes, it is. Who are you again?" Jimin asked trying to impose his presence but he was too slow still to process his surroundings.

"Taehyung," Taehyung answered curtly walking around the kitchen now, inspecting the house more. He was amazed at the simple decor and setting of the house which screamed warmth and every reason why he was there was starting to escape him.

A little light bulb clicked in Jimin's head at hearing Taehyung and he understood what was going on.

"Just so you know, she said she hates you a million times last night. Well, that's as far as I can remember before I got drunk and forgot the rest of the night." Jimin lied coming to sit at the chair he was sitting at before the doorbell rang. He put his head down on the cool surface and ignored the intruder.

It took him a minute to add two and two together while Taehyung walked into the living room and started giving himself a tour of the house.

So far all Jimin could conclude was that Taehyung was maybe the significant other by the way he had his collar pulled and that Kazimir Lee was in trouble for getting drunk.

He raised his head to see Taehyung at the foot of the stairs and that's where Jimin's all senses came together and started working in sync as he opened his mouth and stretched his arm and shouted, "Stop!"

Taehyung's steps halted and he looked at Jimin startled at the shout and he understood the stairs were not part of the grand tour. He traced his steps back to the kitchen where Jimin was seated and Jimin started explaining.

"The upper floor is off-limits," Jimin said, "And I am pretty sure I fell asleep alone and woke up alone so trust your girlfriend's words on that."

"Are you still drunk?" Taehyung asked looking at the swaying man barely keeping himself upright on the chair.

"Just hungover. Can you please leave now?"

"She doesn't remember what happened so I came to ask you," Taehyung lied as well. Later he was planning to tell Kazimir that since the douche didn't remember the night, she should erase it from her memory and move on like it never happened.

"Tough luck man but I don't remember either. We fooled around a little, she said she hated you a million times and then as far as I remember, we fell asleep in different places and woke up alone. That's about it. The beer was free though." Jimin said.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't dislodge your head right now?" Taehyung asked because he was angry at the fact that Jimin didn't remember what happened. He really had to get the story out of Kazimir now.

"I will report you for trespassing and assault?" Jimin mused putting his head in his hands and moaning in pain.

Taehyung looked at the man and remembered how Kazimir was her healthiest self ever hungover and a smile tugged at his lips.

"Okay, listen, I don't know you but yesterday's meeting was my set up because I thought you wanted a writing collaboration and by the looks of how you two messed it up, I suppose writers are only smart on paper and never in real life. So anyway, are you still interested?"

Jimin looked at Taehyung and Taehyung thought he was about to say no when in reality Jimin's mind was still processing his words one by one.

"Am I delusional or did you just barge into my house and are casually offering me another chance with your girlfriend?"

"There's a catch," Taehyung added.

"I am listening."

"There was a sign on your door about available rooms in your house. So if I convince Kazimir to go through with the collaboration, will you let me rent a room with less cash? I like the house but I can't afford that much rent."

Taehyung was sure he had let out too much information and he still didn't trust the guy but he had a strange type of appeal for writers. He downright lived with one and he was sure they couldn't be too much harm.

Jimin flipped Taehyung's words in his head and was slowly coming to terms with the fact that he was having hangover hallucinations so he slapped himself in the face.

Taehyung's eyes shot open at the writer and another smile tugged at his lips.

"You're still here." Jimin acknowledged after recovering from his own slap and sat up straighter and tried to look his normal owner self trying to sell the rooms to a possible customer.

"The thing is, the upper floor is already rented out but since your offer is one I can't pass on, how about another deal?"

Taehyung nodded for him to continue so Jimin stood up and gestured to his bedroom.

"That's my room and I almost always just live there. Those two rooms at the back are always unoccupied anyway. One is my office but I rarely work from there and the other is just a guest bedroom. I can rent that one out but then you have to share everything else like the living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen. Though the guestroom has an ensuite bathroom it has some troubles. I never looked into it because I never had to but if it troubles you then I'll get the pipes fixed. Deal?"

Taehyung gave it some thought but another idea started to take form in his head, one that would possibly end all his troubles and he sat down at the table and gestured for Jimin to sit down as well.

"First off, she's not my girlfriend. Second, I have another deal for you, but it stays between us whether you say yes or no. I'll take the room and in return, I will convince Kazimir to work with you but the rent becomes half because it's just one room. But there's a huge favor I want from you and if you say no, you lose both the chance to collaborate and the extra rent so it's up to you."

"I am listening," Jimin said.

The next morning Kazimir found herself staring intently at the waitress serving a table a few feet away from her, her mind a buzz of unanswered questions.

The waitress looked like a high school graduate with black big frame glasses taking up most of her face. Her hair was what Kazimir would call straw curls as the strands looked like they were twisted on a straw over and over and over till they reached the curliest they could get and her face was a honey-colored heart-shaped candy, her eyes burrowed deep enough to pass as deep-set. Although her shoulders and overall posture screamed low confidence, Kazimir was in awe about something else.

Are you telling me this person feels nothing at all right now? Kazimir asked herself, her fingers stirring sugar with a tiny spoon into her tea.

Not even the slightest bit of pain? Not even a little tingling in the pinkie toes? She wondered staring her up and down. The waitress turned and their eyes met, making the younger's cheeks flame up. Uncomfortable under the scrutinized stare being directed at her, she looked away but Kazimir kept staring.

How does it feel like owning a precious gift like that? To be able to walk around with ease and comfort? Does she have any idea how lucky she is?

She lifted up her teacup to take a sip and almost moaned at the fine liquid and the fact that for the first time in a while, it was still warm. Her eyes shifted from the waitress to a woman seated at a distance dressed in a business suit with a laptop parched in front of her on the table and Kazimir's stare burned holes in her skull in an attempt to get to her thoughts.

Do you feel anything in your toes? Or is it just me?

Kazimir shifted in her seat and slipped one of her shoes off with her other foot and then repeated the act to remove the second shoe. She placed her feet on the red converse sneakers and peered down to look at her pinky toes.

They looked fine like always but they prevented Kazimir from placing her feet flat on the ground without a silent wince. The left more so than the right.

A tired sigh escaped her lips at the unfair war and she gave up fighting and crossed her feet at the ankles to let her aching small toes take a breather from the ache they seemed to be drowning in since she woke up because who would have thought even pinkie toes have joints.

She sipped on her warm tea and kept staring at people with no intention of actually getting back to her classes at the campus. It was still nine in the morning but the outdoor cafe she was seated at was packed tight with morning life. The innumerable tables and chairs were lined as far as the eyes could see and most were occupied with not only tourists but locals as well.

The morning was as beautiful as the word itself. The grey, tall buildings around her seemed less grey and tall. The unhappy faces looked brighter and happier.

College students had all seemingly discarded their classes and decided to call off their schedules for the day and were seen enjoying themselves sitting in groups and chatting away in the remains of the morning.

Shop owners stood at the doors of their empty shops watching as the world went by. Couples walked by hand in hand with smiles so wide, their faces barely contained them. The sound of laughter filled the air, everyone was full of smiles. There was a bounce in their step.

Kazimir looked up and saw a lush blue sky dotted with white cotton-candy clouds making the whole scene picture perfect and she had the sudden urge to paint it all with words to make it last forever. Days like this didn't come often and Kazimir wished they did. Even though that part of the city was always busy, it seemed strangely calm as though even time had decided to walk by slowly to catch a glimpse of the atmosphere.

Though the weather was vibrant and energetic Kazimir was already drained for the day after only one class. Her eyes were starting to droop over her eyes and lifting up the teacup made her feel like she was lifting up a brick.

She looked at the waitress again, now cleaning a table far away and for some reason, the girl looked up and their eyes met again. The younger's eyes diverted away like before and she walked to a different table and Kazimir's eyes felt tired to even follow her so she resorted to staring at the empty space the waitress left behind.

My toes are doing this to me, can you imagine? Kazimir imagined saying to anyone who would someday ask her why she was so tired all the time. Slight pain in my toes and my whole body starts unfolding like I've been running a marathon. And why wouldn't it, it has worked so hard attacking me that it is bound to be tired, don't you think? I feed this skin-covered shell and all it does is take all that energy to destroy me instead of letting me keep it for basic survival acts like keeping my eyes open.

Kazimir put her tea down and picked up her phone to call Taehyung out of habit but just before she hit Call, her finger froze.

What are we now? She wondered when reality finally started to seep into her senses. Maybe casual calls between them were no longer a thing.

As expected, he had spent the night at his friend Joel's after the previous day's happenings with Minho and he had told Kazimir that he would only be back when his parents returned from their trip. She hadn't even seen him on campus that morning for the fear that if she did, it would turn out he wasn't looking for her at all.

She threw her phone away and leaned her head back against the back of her chair, giving in finally to the present situation.

She would graduate soon and then what? Taehyung would be off to NY while her family would move back to Incheon and she would be stuck here in a city of wonders with no home, no family, no friends, and no job. Not to mention no sense of control over her body. Or life.

Part of her still believed she was capable of the things she had dreamt up in her teen years and vowed to herself to work her way to but another part of her, the sick part to be precise, laughed the dreams off like they were dust long collected on abandoned shelves of far fetched fantasies.

'Kazimir Lee, the renowned author of Star Dust takes over the world yet again with her new novel, The universe they left behind, a tribute to the ones stuck in unrequited love. ' She almost laughed at herself thinking about this little introduction that she fantasized about all the time when she was around fifteen and thought she had written two amazing books when they were both just fifty-page long cringe-worthy sappy romances.

But she missed the thrill of staying up late reading and writing and making up impossible scenarios for her poorly written characters to dive into. It was all so great, her dreams as big as the words she thought she would never be able to pronounce but then the inevitable happened.

Early symptoms of a hidden monster started to lurk under her bed, waking her up in the middle of the night by sneakily pulling at a hand or a leg and then disappearing, leaving her wondering if it was a nightmare disguised as reality or the other way around. She never guessed it would one day become a wretched reality that would soon turn to a life long nightmare.

She was fifteen, too drunk on impossible dreams to care enough about small inconveniences until she had her first heart attack a year later and things took a new turn.

They called it by the name pleurisy back then but she still couldn't erase that awful phone call to the ER from her head till the present day, even though now she was well aware that not everything that had the same symptoms as a heart attack was a heart attack. Sometimes it was just a minor inconvenience that people with autoimmune disorders had to go through every now and then.

Are you okay? Yeah, all's good, just having a heart attack that would probably last a few hours or days. Nothing else.

Merely thinking about it made Kazimir think she was about to experience one as a sharp stabbing pain suddenly started up in the left side of her chest, making her heart squeeze in into itself, the muscles around getting pulled inside along with it with so much force she felt her left shoulder and upper arm getting pulled as well. A wince followed by a groan left her mouth as she fisted her left hand around a napkin and waited for the feeling to subside but it kept at it like a black hole, pulling her entire body into the center of the heart.

She closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for her body to get familiar with the sensation, and when it did, she took a sharp breath that made the sensation start over again repeating the agony.

Amidst the pain, a thought struck her, one that always did and she wondered, what if this time it really is a heart attack?

She took another breath and the pain intensified proving that it wasn't in fact a heart attack but a pleuritic attack, one that only happened in the left lung but could just as easily be felt like it was in the blood-pumping organ.

She stilled, letting it devour every last pain receptor for another two seconds before she sat up straighter. She tucked her ebony hair behind her ears and bend down to reach her hand and put her shoes on.

Her phone started ringing and it was Taehyung so she diverted her attention from everything else and answered.

"Hey Mir, you aren't on campus? I was looking for you." He said as a way of hello.

"Were you?"

"Yeah. There was something I wanted to talk to you about. Uh-so I found you a job and place to stay for a while till you get your life together after graduation."

Kazimir wondered why she even ever bothered to think on her own while so many people did it for her all the time and she hummed along to Taehyung's words, not interested in the slightest at what new trouble he was brewing this time.

"You're not listening." He whined.

"I am. What do I get to do this time? Get my ass fired on the first day or the second?" Kazimir mocked a little too bitterly at him because believe it or not, pain sometimes made people impatient and cranky.

"With a face like yours, probably never. Anyways, I will tell you all about it later but guess what?"