Sandeul, Baro, and CNU were waiting in the hospital room when they returned. "What happened?" CNU asked when Jinyoung and Tori entered the room.

"It's okay, she just needs some water." Jinyoung said, helping her to the bed.

Sandeul and Baro looked at each other, both with the same question in mind, "is he... touching her?"

CNU poured a glass of water for Jinyoung, who handed it to Tori. She hesitantly took the cup from his hands after receiving a reassuring nod from him.

Ana peeked out the door and saw WooRi walking by, "WooRi-ssi," she called for the nurse. "Could you ask the doctor to come take a look at Tori for me? We found her outside and she fainted on our way here." The nurse nodded and went to fetch the doctor.

Due to the heat and the frantic running around, the guys all took off their hats and face covers to cool off. Upon hearing the door open, they quickly put their hats back on or turned to the face the wall.

Doctor Jang laughed at their panic stated and reassured them, "don't worry, it's just me."

They relaxed and turned to greet the doctor only to be shocked by the sight of WooRi.

Ana felt herself hold her breath, wondering what would happen if this nosy nurse went around telling everyone B1A4 visited Tori frequently.

However, to their surprise, she did not act in her usual snoopy way. Instead, she giggled, "Appa (dad). I think they're worried I'm going to go around gossiping about them."

"Appa?!?!" they all said at once.

Doctor Jang nodded as he walked passed them toward Tori's bedside, "yes. yes. Nurse Jang is my eldest daughter," he said almost like a sigh. He leaned toward Tori, wanting to check her eyes but she backed away, "don't worry about her gossiping. She's trustworthy." He tried again to hold Tori's eyes open while he tested her but she avoided him again.

"Hehe. It's true. I gossip about all the little things in the hospital as a sort of defense mechanism. I don't want people snooping around me being the doc's daughter and I want my patients to feel close enough to share with me. Even though I'm nosy and gossip, the things we nurses gossip about aren't important. Things like who likes whom and... hallyu gossip and stuff." Realizing the last part sort of included kpop and B1A4, she quickly added, "But you won't have to worry, I won't say anything that'll make my baby cousin's work harder. And I'm not dumb enough to cause any jeopardy to your careers."

"Ana-ssi" Doctor Jang called from the bedside, "in order for me to do a check up on Tori-ssi, I will need to touch her body. Since you're her dong-seng, do you think you can help her bear with it a bit?" He has given up checking her eyes and wanted her to open for him to check her tongue, which she refused to be even close enough to do.

"Um..." Ana looked up at Gongchan, who was beside her, with an unsure look and then back at the doctor, "But unnie won't even let me touch her."

Doctor Jang straightened up and looked at Ana, "well then, if she can't do the check-up voluntarily, I will need to have her held down."

"Hyung can do it" Gongchan blurted.

They all turned to look at Gongchan, who was standing behind Jinyoung next to the bed.

"What do you mean?" Baro asked.

"Jinyoungie hyung" Gongchan grabbed him by the arm and presented him to the rest of them, "Nuna listens to hyung well."

Jinyoung wiped Gongchan's hand off his arm, "mwo.. not really.." he tried to deny it.

"That's right. you were just supporting her when you came back to the room" Sandeul added to Gongchan's case while Jinyoung continued to wave his hands in denial.

"Just try it." CNU, who was next to the doctor, suggested, "It'll be better than having her held down for a simple check up."

Jinyoung grimaced in uncertainty while Gongchan pushed him closer to Tori's side.

She was curled up in a ball against the head of the bed, looking around at the people in the room. Jinyoung rubbed the back of his head, "well, what should I do?" he asked the doctor.

"Just assure her that I won't hurt her." the doctor suggested.

CNU saw Tori frantically looking around and he noticed her expression was no longer blank like usual but filled with fear, "just help her calm her nerves" he blurted, not being able to bear seeing her so scared.

Jinyoung looked down at her frightened state and called out to her, "Tori-ssi?"

She didn't respond, solely focused on all the people in the room.

He gently sat down beside her, "Tori-ssi?" In attempted to gain her attention, he lightly tugged part of her sleeve. She immediately turned to him, her eyes searched his, overflowing with thoughts: "Too many people. I'm scared. Why are they all here? Why are they standing so close? What do they want from me? What's going on?"

Jinyoung read her eyes, as if skimming through a book and he became overwhelmed with all that was going through her mind. He held her face in his hands to get her to focus on him, "Tori-ssi... look at me." Even though she was looking at him, her thoughts were wandering elsewhere, deeper into her fears.

"Tori-ssi. LOOK" he said a little louder, which broke her chain of thoughts.

"Good," he said, "it's okay." Her long black hair was silky to the touch as he her head with his right hand, "it's okay. They're all your friends. They're here because they're worried about you."

"Friends....?" she didn't seem to understand the concept.

"Yes. It's okay. Doctor Jang is here because we called him." He continued to her head, like a parent would to comfort a crying child. "You just fainted when we were upstairs. We just want to make sure your body is all right, neh?"

She looked up at him, peering through her bangs that have begun to grow, "but... touch..." he saw the thought cross her mind.

"He won't hurt you. See? I'm patting your head right now and it doesn't hurt does it?"

She looked at his hands that she didn't even notice were on her head. How could she not notice it? If it were anyone else, should would have boiled up inside.

She looked back up at him and he noticed her confusion, "It's okay, "he repeated, pushing the bangs to the side so it wouldn't get in her eyes, "Let's let the doctor take a look, neh?"

She bit her lip and furrowed her brow in response.

He smiled and looked up at the doctor, "I think... she's okay now." The doctor, just like everyone else in the room, was dumbfounded by what just happened. After regaining his stature, he continued on to give Tori a check up. He checked her tongue color, which seemed to be okay since he didn't have to touch her for that. Then, he checked her pupil responsiveness which made her clench her fists into the bed beneath her. Jinyoung noticed her hands and he pat it, reassuring her that everything would be okay. When the doctor attempted to check her heartbeat, she leaned further away, causing her to slide off the back post of the bed into Jinyoung's shoulder.

He held her gently on the shoulders and reassured her again, "it's alright. it's almost over."

She begrudgingly allowed the doctor to listen to her heartbeat. "She must be struggling, "he said after taking to stethoscope off his hears, "I could hear her heart beating rapidly from adrenaline."

He looked over at WooRi who responded by handing over a dish with a needle and tube, "she might not be happy with it, but I'm going to have to take a blood sample too. Just to make sure her sugar levels are okay."

Seeing the needles, Tori looked at Jinyoung, pleading with him to let her go, "Don't let me be tortured like this," she said to him.

"After this, that's all?" he asked. The doctor nodded in response.

Jinyoung pat her on the shoulder, "last one. I promise."

The doctor prepared to draw her blood and Tori could feel her head hurting from the stress this examination was giving her. Looking at the needle that was going to be stuck into her skin made it worse.

Jinyoung covered her eyes and laid her head on his chest as the needle went in. He her head and softly assured her that it was almost over.

Ana stood on the side, dumbfounded at how well Tori obeyed Jinyoung. Even after spending all this time with her in the hospital back home and here, Tori only allowed Ana to push her on a wheelchair.

"Ana" Sandeul came to stand on her right as Baro stood on her left. "Can you see that? Tor-ssi can let people touch her!"

"Only Jinyoung-ssi" she mumbled, not sure if she should be happy at her progress or concerned of a temporary fix.

"Yeah, but at least she listens. She wouldn't even look at anyone in the past. At least now we can get through to her." Baro said, "That means, she may recover soon."

Ana liked the sound of that, "you think so?" she looked up at the two older guys and they smiled at her, "no matter how busy we get, we will definitely make sure to help her get better soon" Sandeul promised.

"Ah. That's right" Gongchan was eavesdropping into their conversation, "Ana, what's your contact information?" He handed her his phone.

Ana looked down at the cell phone and back at Gongchan in confusion.

He looked at her innocently, "Mwo... we didn't have a way of contacting you when we found nuna and if I wasn't standing next to you at that time, we would have spent more time looking for you than getting nuna back to her room. And also, in the future, if anything happens with nuna, you could always contact us." He extended his arm further, "plus, we're going to the countryside next week. I'm going to want to keep in touch with nuna."

Ana hesitantly took the phone and entered her phone number.

"Tori-ssi has a phone too, no?" CNU remembered the phone she used to play music.

Gongchan nodded in excitement, "Yeah! since Ana's going to be working, can we get her number too? Maybe she'll let us call and talk to her!"

She nodded and entered the number.

"Ja~ All done." Doctor Jang said, standing up. "You did really well, Tori-ssi." He commended her as he stuck on her bandage.

As soon as he let go, her arm retracted like a rubber band that has been stretched out.

He gave her an amused chuckle and turned to Ana, "Ana-ssi, I am really impressed with her progress today." He shook the little tube of blood in his hands, "I'll get back to you on the test results." He turned to bid farewell to the boys, "Well, boys, I guys I'll see you when you come back from the countryside?"

"Neh~" they all said and bowed as the doctor and nurse exited the room.

"Tori-ya~" Sandeul sang as he skipped over to the bedside, "that's not fair~"

She stared at him with her big, round eyes as he took a seat on the bed in front of her; she was leaning against Jinyoung as support due to her fatigue. Sandeul pointed at his leader and continued, "you're nice to Jinyoungie hyung but ignore all of us." He pretended to whine like a child.

Tori turned to look at Jinyoung, who was calmly sitting beside her, seeming undisturbed to be her support post, and sat up straight.

Jinyoung slapped Sandeul's hand down, "Ya. Don't ."

Baro appeared over Sandeul's shoulders, "Wow~~ hyung is being protective!" He turned to Tori, "Tori-ya, you must be happy to have an oppa to take care of you now~"

"What are you guys talking about" Jinyoung mumbled, while pretending to slap them.

"Tori-ssi" CNU put his arm on Jinyoung's shoulder, "No need to worry, you have us oppas to take care of you now."

"What do you mean 'Tori-ssi'?" Baro said, "we've already begun calling her Tori-ya and we're the same age as her! While you hyungs keep calling her 'Tori-ssi' 'Tori-ssi'" Sandeul nodded his head in agreement.

"Of course," CNU tried to sound nonchalant. "As oppas, we should be able to speak to you informally." He turned to Ana, "That's okay, right Ana?"

She was watching them silently from the side; she didn't even realize that she has become comfortable with them talking and hanging out in the room with Tori. "Huh?" CNU's sudden address to her woke her from her trance, "Oh, of course."

Tori's heart was still beating heavily while the boys continued to bicker around the bed; she not used to having so many people surround her and making so much noise. She stared at the wall in across from her, trying to calm her nerves, not particularly listening to the conversations that was going on around her.

Jinyoung leaned forward to smack Sandeul again, causing his shoulder to brush against hers, which brought her attention back to him.

He seemed to notice as well, since he looked at her after finishing his attack. He had a smile on his face from the joke Sandeul told, which did not fade, despite clearly knowing how uncomfortable she was at that moment. His brow raised slightly as if to tell her, "you're doing great."

"I'm okay, I'm okay. This... isn't that bad," she told herself, "Though my heart is beating heavily, at least I can breathe. I'm okay."

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sorry for the long hiatus. i went on vacation and then just got soo busy settling in again :P Hope there are still people out there to enjoy my story~ :)

Will try to get into writing mode again and update more often ^^