I wake up to a soft touch.

I'm left drowsy at first, as someone's fingertips caress my cheek. The painkillers weigh down the pace of my thoughts.

It just feels nice— that's all.

I lean into the sensation.

Then I hear a hushed laugh.

My eyes open almost instantly to the familiar sound. And then I'm staring up at V, the side of my face cupped in his hand. His voice is so warm and intimate that it sends a wave of sparks running up my back.

"Did you sleep well?"

He leans closer.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up."

"I-It doesn't matter," I mumble, pulling away a little too quickly. "I was about to wake up anyways. I slept too much already."

"And your back?"

I blink. It takes me a second, to register what he's talking about.

"Feels fine," I say, almost like a robot.

This isn't how it's supposed to go.

I'd fallen asleep thinking of all the things that I was going to tell him when I saw him. But now that he was in front of me, I couldn't get a single rehearsed line out of my mouth.

"That's good," He says, with a pleased look on his face. "The doctor let me know that you'd be ready for discharge in a week or two."

I nod, only half-listening to what he was saying.

My attention is more on the shadows under his eyes.

And his voice. Was it just me that he looked more exhausted than usual? It looked like the weight on his shoulders had grown tenth its original size.

"Is something wrong?"

He glances up in surprise.

"No."

"Liar." I accuse. "Something happened, didn't it? Where were you last night, V? I heard you left somewhere in a hurry. It—"

He laughs again. It cuts me off, but this time his laugh is more defeated.

"I can never hide anything from you, can I?"

"Forgive me that I can't say too much. Time isn't on our side, Aeri."

But he ends up telling me. About the relationship between him and his father. How Jungkook had been nearly killed last night.

Then he asks for the records.

"I need to know where your brother kept them," He pleads. "They need to be destroyed. Please."

"I can tell you where."

"But you'll need to take me," I murmur. "You'll never find it on your own. And I don't even know how to describe the way to you."

What would I tell him? Follow a path up a mountain— turn a bunch of lefts and rights until he reached a huge oak tree? He probably wouldn't even know where to start in the first place, with the Underground's mazelike structure.

His gaze falls.

"Your back."

"It's fine enough." I say, my fingers wrapping around his wrist. My voice turns coaxing.

"I can move. I can't run, but I can probably walk."

This could finally be a chance to return some of all that he'd done for me.

A lot to go, but it'd be a start.

But he slowly shakes his head.

"No," He whispers. "It's barely been a few days, Aeri. You can't be moving around at all."

No, no.

He doesn't get it.

"It's for everything I did." I confess, my voice desperate.

And the words come pouring out, after that.

"It's for nearly killing you back in the Ring. It's for treating you like shit and hurting you so many times, okay? It's for using you for your money and my own...my own..."

My hands clench into fists. I can't look into his eyes right now.

All those nights.

All those nights I'd imagined him in my bed. All those times I'd tried to kiss him and touch him— pretending that it was only the anger and the alcohol when I'd really wanted him to kiss me and touch me back.

But he'd always pushed me away.

Because he would never think of me more than as that little, defenseless girl that he needed to protect. He would never think of me otherwise.

He'd never love me, in the way that I loved him.

"Aeri."

I look up, face red from trying not to cry. Not helping myself at all, as usual.

"...what?"

He's just staring at me. And I'm about to turn my head away from the humiliation slowly clawing up my spine when he quietly says.

"Your hand."

"What?"

"Give me your hand." He repeats, and I blink confusedly as I stick out my hand in his direction. I don't understand what he's trying to do.

He adjusts my hand, on top of his. His hand is so large that it nearly swallows up mine, although my hand isn't small in the slightest.

A second passes. Then five, then ten.

And the corners of my lips fall even further down, at the feeling of platonic warmth— of his hand against mine. It's what it had always been.

Why was I disappointed?

He was just letting me know, that it was never going to hap—

"I knew."

His fingertips suddenly angle against my palm in a way that makes me freeze in surprise. A tingle races up my arm as he traces a line, from the tip of my ring finger to my wrist.

He...knew?

About what? That I wanted him?

But then my focus breaks as the line traces up my bare arm, slightly teasing against the sleeve of my gown. His dark eyes find the pale planes of my skin underneath, before the cloth falls back to cover them again.

A ghost of a smile tints his lips.

"I was just waiting, for you to tell me."

I'm speechless.

No fucking way.

His smile deepens at the shock on my face. And then I feel the warmth of his hand slip under my shirt, circling my back before clasping gently around the bandages there.

"Did you really think I would've done all that if I didn't love you, Shin Aeri?"

He shifts the blankets to the side.

In a second he's on the bed. And I'm on top of his lap, my legs straddled around his waist as he pulls me into a kiss. His right hand runs down the length of my thigh, his left moving my hair over my shoulder.

He's the best kisser I've ever experienced.

"Sh." He hushes when I moan softly, my figure arching under his grip. I barely suppress another as he turns the kiss even deeper.

"The door isn't locked. Do you want me to lock it?"

"Yes."

At my feverish nod, he lifts me off the bed completely. My legs are still wrapped around his body, and his arms keep me firmly against him as he turns the lock on the door with one smooth motion. He never breaks the kiss.

I can't think.

He's so good with me.

"Is this what you wanted?" He asks, lips shifting down to touch the curve of my collarbone. My knuckles are pale as my fingers grip his shoulders, from just how hard I'm holding him.

"Did you really think I didn't care for you?"

"I knew— I knew you cared," I say breathlessly, my words cutting off with every time he leaves a mark. "I just thought..."

He bites down on the soft skin of my throat.

"Thought what?"

"That you felt sorry for me or something." I gasp, my heart crashing so rapidly into my chest that I feel like I might just die. "Or you loved me as someone you just needed to protect. Like a child, I don't—"

He pauses when he sees how breathless I am. His kisses turn gentle, making a path down my chest and stomach.

"I used to."

"You...what?"

"I used to think of you that way." He confesses. "As someone I owed my life to, because my family had ruined yours. At first I did see you as that child I had to protect."

"But then so much changed, and I saw you with that man."

Baekhan.

His breath is hot against my skin. And I touch the tattoos that mark the side of his upper body— seductive twists of ink that climb up his neck and the blades of his shoulders.

He's just so beautiful it hurts.

"You got jealous, huh."

"Jealous?"

His brows furrow as he slips out of his shirt, tossing it carelessly to the floor. Then he rests his head into the crook of my neck, touching his lips to my nape. I wrap my arms around his bare shoulders, wincing in pleasure as I feel his low breath against my skin.

"I would've killed him. If you hadn't cut him off."

He grasps the curves of my waist, a heavy sigh running through his body. I can feel it, with him pressed so closely to me. And when he looks up at me again, his uneven eyes— one slightly larger than the other— is forlorn and almost deerlike.

"I don't want to lose you."

The tone has shifted. He wants me to stay here— not come along with him to find Aemin's records.

"I promise you won't." I say quietly, and he makes a painful sound as he buries his face back into my arms. "Let me come. I won't do anything stupid, I promise. You'll need me."

I look around the hospital room.

"It doesn't feel right here, V."

But when the dark lines of his eyes refuse to soften, I just have to cheat a little.

My arms tighten, latching onto him like a koala. His hands grip my back in surprise, and I look up at him— eyes wide and circular.

"Please."

Uncertainty breaks his hardened expression.

"Aeri, you understand that..."

"I do. I really promise I do." I say, voice enthusiastic. "There's also like fifty trees there. You won't know which one's which."

A small white lie couldn't hurt, either.

He finally sighs, tilting my face towards his. A faint smile glints on his lips.

"Alright."

"Let's pray that I won't regret this, hm?"

"Of course you won't."

I hide a smile, embracing him harder.