The haunting wail of the ambulance siren still rang loudly through his ears, the piercing sound looping endlessly as his legs stammered anxiously against the cold hospital floor boards. Leansei's clasped hands trembled violently, a sharp, suffocating chest pain tightening his throat as the horrific visual layout of Felean's messy bedroom replayed over and over behind his lenses. His ash-gray hair was completely messy, his clothes untidy, and his face completely pale.
A few meters away near the hallway benches, he glanced up frantically the exact microsecond the door swung open and the lead doctor stepped out from Felean's private room. Through the clear glass panel, Mrs. Ferech was weeping bitterly into Mr. Ferech's shoulder, while Felean still lay entirely motionless and unconscious in the hospital bed.
Leansei immediately rushed straight toward the medical executive, his fingers desperately gripping the edge of his own wrinkled shirt. "Why exactly is he not waking up yet?" he demanded, his voice cracking painfully on the final word. "It has officially been a full day already. Why isn't he waking up??"
The doctor quietly set his charting folder down against his arm, letting out a long, weary sigh. "When your younger brother arrived at our emergency wing, his biological system was completely, overwhelmingly saturated by the drug overdose. The heavy load of toxins aggressively suppressed his CNS, which severely slowed down his respiratory metrics. Because of that sequence, his brain went through a highly critical period of severe oxygen deprivation before our paramedics could successfully stabilize his vitals."
(A/N: CNS means Central nervous system)
"But... but the drugs themselves should be completely out of his metabolism by now, right??" Leansei pressed fiercely, his chest tightening as panic threatened to paralyze his breathing. "Why on earth is he still entirely unconscious??"
"The chemical overdose itself caused a massive, profound trauma to his physical body," the doctor explained gently, choosing every single word with absolute care. "Right now, his brain is essentially trying to execute a protective mechanism to heal its own pathways, which is explicitly why he is remaining inside this deep, unresponsive state. Additionally, the heavy sedatives we manually administered to manage his violent seizures and stabilize his baseline vitals are still clearing out of his system."
Leansei frantically put his hand flat over his face, his heart rate skyrocketing into a frantic rhythm as the doctor continued. "But clinically speaking, there is something far more complex we are currently considering for his diagnosis. Sometimes, a prolonged state of unconsciousness isn't strictly born out of physical damage. The human mind notoriously retreats into itself when it becomes entirely overwhelmed by a severe past trauma incident. The brain can sometimes deploy an unyielding psychological defense mechanism—this deep psychological trauma essentially factors straight into his physical inability to wake up, his mind actively refusing to face the harsh reality of the world."
Leansei slowly, delicately lowered his hand from his face, freezing dead in his tracks as the air turned ice-cold around his frame. His ears began to echo with a high-pitched static, his brain completely unable to hear a single trace of his surroundings after the doctor uttered the words severe past trauma incident.
' Past trauma incident?? When on earth did it happen?? How? Is that the explicit reason why Felean was always so frantic, so incredibly scared, and filled with terror when he was backed into a corner?? What exactly happened to him in the past, Kean? '
"A—Abuse? I... When—" Leansei stammered out in total, pure disbelief, a sudden wave of defensive guilt crashing through his ribs.
The doctor merely gave a quiet, deeply sympathetic nod of agreement, choosing not to press the high-society student for any further legal details. "Right now, his mind is actively fighting two separate battles at the exact same time. The physical damage of the overdose, and the internal trauma."
Leansei dropped down his head, feeling the crushing physical weight of the situation sink deeply into his chest. "So....what happens now? What's the worst-case scenario? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to him? How long will it take for him to finally wake up?"
"In several medical cases like this, the outcome is entirely unpredictable," the doctor said honestly, his tone flat and unshielded. "It could take anywhere from two to three weeks for his system to fully emerge from this comatose state." The doctor's expression turned even more serious, his eyes locking onto Leansei's pale face. "You need to prepare yourself for what happens after he wakes up. Being right here for his recovery and looking after his well-being will help him feel he is not alone in this fight."
Leansei looked back through the clear glass window at Felean's room, watching the steady rise and fall of his twin's chest against the hospital sheets. "Please do absolutely everything you can to make him well."
The doctor placed a comforting hand firmly on his shoulder. "We will do the absolute best that we can. Please stay stronger for your brother's sake." He offered a final nod before walking down the corridor, leaving Leansei completely alone.
Lean glanced inside the private suite. He had not stepped a single foot inside the room ever since they arrived last night. The truth was, he possessed absolutely zero courage to do so. A suffocating layer of defensive guilt tore at his mind; he felt as if his presence in this timeline was the exact reason why Felean was lying in that condition, carrying a massive weight of blame for an unknown reason.
' I have to find out the absolute root cause of this tragedy, ' Leansei vowed fiercely behind his teeth, his gray pupils narrowing with an unyielding focus. ' I don't care up to what dangerous lengths I have to go to secure the answers. He may not be my blooded brother biologically, but living inside Kean's body, technically he is still my sibling. I will help find put about this. '
It had already been a full day. He had completely skipped his university classes, ignored every single text log and incoming call, and entirely abandoned his student council vice-president duties. He simply was not in the right state of mind to return to campus while Felean's life hung in the balance. He clenched his fists deep inside his pockets, the biting echo of his brother's blame replaying behind his lenses.
"This is entirely your fault."
' What on earth actually happened between them in the past?? How do I find this data? Wait... he has a close friend, right? The protective guy named Sean who aggressively took him away from the grand ball parking loop days ago... '
His train of thought was violently cut short as a sudden presence materialized directly beside his shoulder. He glanced up, his brow furrowing into a hard scowl when he recognized Tyvan standing there in his sleek blazer jacket. Leansei's muscles went entirely rigid; as far as his memory could recall, he had explicitly told this man never to show his face near him again.
"You and my family have been deeply acquainted for years, Kean," Tyvan said smoothly, his eyes trained on the glass window. "I heard what happened to your twin, so I came down to the emergency wing as soon as I could."
"You don't have to bother," Leansei stated flatly, his voice dropping into a freezing, ice-cold register. "It's not like you're close with Felean at all. You may leave the premises right now." Leansei turned on his heel to walk straight past his shoulder, but Tyvan's fingers snapped out firmly, tightly catching his arm to violently halt his feet against the floorboards.
"I have been entirely too lenient with your behavior lately, playing along with your ridiculous tantrums just because you claim to have amnesia," Tyvan hissed, his voice dropping into a dangerous, low frequency as his jaw clenched. "But my patience is officially getting impatient especially screwing with that asshole—"
Leansei violently, harshly yanked his arm out of the grip, breaking the contact completely as he whirled around to glare directly into his face with zero remorse. "I am absolutely not playing a game with you, Tyvan. I explicitly commanded you to stay the hell away from me, didn't I? I do not possess a single shred of time or strength to deal with your nonsensical shits right now."
He prepared to march away for a second time, but Tyvan's voice cut through the quiet hallway, throwing out a sentence that forced his boots to freeze dead in their tracks.
"You're entirely right. I am not close with your brother at all," Tyvan paused, a dark, calculating smirk touching his lips as he glanced back at the comatose boy through the glass. "But I am close with you... and the reality is, I am standing right here by your side tonight, aren't I? While he isn't?"
Tyvan slowly closed the remaining distance between them, "Did you completely forget that Felean explicitly spoke to me right before that horrific accident happened? He desperately begged for my help regarding that past incident."
' Who on earth is he talking about?? And what incident?! How on earth does Tyvan know about Felean's hidden trauma?! ' Leansei wailed internally, his mind short-circuiting.
Tyvan leaned closer, his eyes examining every single shift in Leansei's stunned facial expressions. He reached up, his index finger firmly catching Leansei's chin, tilting his face upward to force their eyes to lock. "You explicitly swore to me that you would do absolutely anything for me as a token of thanks for helping your younger brother. But right now..." Tyvan's handsome features suddenly changed into a dark, venomous mask, his grip tightening aggressively against Lean's jaw. "...you can't remember a single traces of our deal, can you? Not even what we've been through together."
' The old Kean actually executed a deal with him?! But why? If Tyvan holds the key to the past, he can tell me exactly what happened to Felean. '
Leansei harshly, violently shook his head away to break the physical touch, his fists clenching so hard his knuckles turned white. He despised this man's presence and refused to talk to him any further, but reality dictated that Tyvan was currently the single available source who possessed the information regarding Felean's situation. "Then... tell me exactly what—"
Leansei's words were cut violently short as the heavy wooden door of the private suite swung open, exposing Mr. Kevin Ferech. The patriarch maintained his characteristically firm, commanding high-society stance, but his face was clearly stressed, pale, and thoroughly devastated by the ongoing crisis.
Mr. Ferech's light brown eyes darted back and forth between the two boys, analyzing the heavy tension stretching between them. Tyvan smoothly stepped back, his dark mask evaporating in a single fraction of a second as he offered the older man a highly polite, respectful bow, his expression pitch-perfectly reassembling into a sympathetic mask.
"Mr. Devon, I didn't expect to run into you out here in the hall," Mr. Ferech said.
"I came down here the exact second I heard the news about Felean." Tyvan said smoothly, his tone thick with manufactured grief. He glanced down at Leansei, who stood with his head lowered, his fists still tightly clenched inside his pockets as he stared blankly at the floor panels to hide his anger.
"Thank you for bothering to visit, Mr. Devon, but you don't have to stay," Mr. Ferech said, his voice heavy as he placed a broad hand over Tyvan's shoulder to guide him out. "Kean," he called out flatly.
The subtle baritone frequency of his father's voice sent a sudden, involuntary shiver down Leansei's spine. He flinched, the slight movement almost imperceptible, but he adamantly refused to lift his head and meet the man's intimidating gaze.
"Yes, Father..." Leansei murmured, his voice barely carrying over the heavy tension in the air.
"Come straight inside the room and comfort your mother for a second," Mr. Ferech commanded quietly, his tone leaving absolutely no room for argument or hesitation.
Leansei kept his eyes fixed firmly on the floor, his heart hammering against his ribs. He felt incredibly small trapped between the two powerful men standing before him.
Mr. Ferech shifted his focus, his sharp eyes narrowing as he turned to face to Tyvan in the corridor. "Do you have anything to discuss with.....my son?" he asked Tyvan, his tone strictly professional but laced with an underlying edge of suspicion.
Tyvan didn't flinch. Instead, a slow, mocking smirk formed on his lips. He kept his gaze locked onto Leansei, completely not looking at Mr. Ferech beside him. "He will surely find me when the time comes for certain matters," Tyvan replied smoothly, his voice dripping with an insufferable, arrogant confidence. "But I believe you are the one who wanted to speak with me, Mr. Ferech. Didn't you have something incredibly important to discuss?"
Standing just steps away, Leansei clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his fingernails biting painfully into his palms.
' Why on earth would I ever go looking for you? ' he thought fiercely, a bitter wave of resentment washing over his anxiety. ' You absolute cad. '
"I do. Come along, Mr. Devon. Let me walk you to the elevators." Mr. Ferech guided the elite heir away down the long corridor rows, leaving the threshold clear. Leansei stood solitary in front of the door, his fingers wrapping around the brass handle bar tightly. He let out one long, deep, and trembling exhale to stabilize his pulse, before turning the lock and pushing the heavy door open to face the heartbreak inside.
The click of the lock felt incredibly loud in the suffocating silence of the suite. As the door swung inward, the heavy scent of clinical detachment and expensive floral arrangements washed over him. The room was softly lit, the drawn curtains blocking out the harsh dark skies.
The antiseptic smell of the room unit did absolutely nothing to dull the sharp edge of Leansei's Worried. He stepped fully into the quiet space of Kean's twin brother's bed, the steady, rhythmic beep of the heart monitor still echoing loudly in his ears as his eyes spotted Mrs. Ferech. She was carefully, delicately fixing the heavy comforter quilt over Felean's chest, her fingers holding his cold hand with an absolute, desperate motherly gentleness.
She noticed his quiet presence near the threshold and lifted her face, looking straight at him with teary, heavily puffed eyes that had been swollen from a full day of weeping. Leansei walked slowly towards her. He reached out his arm, gradually, carefully rubbing her back in a rhythmic pattern to comfort her shaking posture. It had been an exceptionally long time since his soul had done something this vulnerable for anyone, especially to the people this world called his "parents."
"It's entirely our fault..." she whispered in a trembling, broken voice, her frame collapsing slightly under his palm. "I am such a terrible, bad parent." She said the words while sobbing bitterly, her tears dropping onto the sheets.
Leansei looked down at her with a face full of profound sadness in his gray eyes, his fuddled mind completely unable to locate a single word of comfort to ease her pain. "I—I don't even know why or how our lives managed to come to this horrific point," she cried out softly, putting their hand flat over her forehead as if she were desperately pleading and apologizing to the empty room. She sharply snapped her head up to check his face. "Kean... do you... do you happen to know anything about why he did this? Do you know any of this?? or what he's going through???"
Leansei slowly, deliberately shook his head to play it cool. Mrs. Ferech let out a defeated nod, leaning down to press a soft kiss against Felean's knuckles, while her other hand reached across the mattress to firmly catch Leansei's fingers. The sudden contact made Lean flinch subtly, his movements halting entirely as her warm palms wrapped around his hand.
"Sweetheart, if there is absolutely anything dangerous happening inside your own life... please, I beg you, tell us," she pleaded, her teary eyes locking into his gray pupils with intense sincerity. "Your father may look entirely unbothered, rigid, and cold on the outside right now... but internally and quietly, his heart is profoundly worried and trying his best to manage the crisis."
Leansei lowered his chin, a sudden layer of guilt darkling his thoughts as he slowly nodded his head. "I know, M—Mom... I know." Mrs. Ferech squeezed his fingers tightly one final time, before turning her head back around to look at Felean's unresponsive, comatose body.
"You should go home."
Leansei glanced at her profile, looking at her with pure, wide-eyed confusion. "No... absolutely not. I should stay right here inside this room and wait for him to finally wake up—"
"You can't afford to be absent from your school any longer, son. You have already been staying inside this medical wing for almost two consecutive days now," she reasoned gently, her tone leaving zero room for an executive argument. "Please don't worry. I am standing right here, and I promise you I won't leave your brother's side for a single second."
"But, M—Mom—" Leansei started to plead, his voice cracking. Mrs. Ferech reached up, softly tapping the back of his hand to break his defense.
"You can come back here to check him the exact second your classes conclude tomorrow afternoon, okay? I know how deeply worried your soul is... but your father and I are here to protect him now." Mrs. Ferech assured him with a warm, steady focus.
Leansei realized he couldn't argue against her logic anymore, and he gradually, reluctantly nodded his head in compliance instead. "Now, go straight home for the night; you have your mandatory morning lecture block tomorrow. Call Mr. Kel's line immediately to fetch your presence from the driveway, okay??"
"Yes, M—Mom..." Leansei stood up on his feet, his boots tracking against the floorboards as he glanced down at Felean's pale, unmoving features for a few quiet seconds.
"Make sure you go home safe, darling. Text or call our private line the exact microsecond something happens on the road, okay, sweetheart??"
"Okay. Please don't stress your own system anymore tonight, and sleep when your body has the chance to. I'll go now," Leansei said softly, backing away toward the heavy double doors.
"Alright. Love you, my son."
Leansei offered her a genuine, beautifully sweet smile through his lenses. "Me too, M-mom." He turned the brass handle and walked out of the room, the heavy door clicking shut behind his heels as he prepared to step straight back into the waiting storm outside.
His mind was entirely preoccupied that he didn't even notice he was already outside the hospital, but he halted his feet when a familiar man leaning against the car took his attention. His heart skipped a beat, and a sudden wave of profound comfort washed inside his mind and soul as soon as those light blue eyes stared back at him with a pure concern and worried look.
Lean's feet gradually walked towards him. As he was walking to him, Xerchin spoke with an intensely worried tone. "You're not answering any of my calls and texts. I couldn't see you at your condo, nor at campus... I was so worried. I heard what happened to your brother, but I was worried I might cause another major problem for you if your parents—" His words were cut violently short when Leansei lunged forward, wrapping his arms around his chest to hug him tightly. Xerchin froze dead in his tracks from the sudden impact, before slowly, securely wrapping his broad arms around Lean's frame to hug him back.
"I'm so incredibly sorry for what happened to your family, Mooncalf," Xerchin whispered softly against his hair. Leansei's heart softened completely, and he felt a sudden, burning heat running up to his eyes as tears threatened to spill. Xerchin held him gently, anchoring his trembling frame and comforting him in every possible way he could right there under the dim parking lot lights.
Far in the shadows, hidden away from the ambient glow of the streetlamps, Tyvan stood motionless. He watched the two of them from a distance, his eyes burning with quiet fury as he clenched his hand tightly into a rigid fist, the knuckles popping in the silence before turning away.
Leansei eventually broke away from the tight hug, raising his chin to look at Xerchin's face. But he froze dead in his tracks, his gray pupils widening in absolute shock when he saw a fresh, jagged wound sliced across Xerchin's forehead, along with dark, painful bruises swelling from his lower lip and the side of his mouth.
Leansei reached up, his palms gently cradling Xerchin's jaw with a completely confused, panicked expression. "What on earth happened to you??" he demanded, his voice cracking.
Xerchin gently caught his wrist, pulling Leansei's hand down but keeping their fingers tightly intertwined. "It's absolutely nothing. Don't worry about it anymore. Let's go home... I know for a fact your body is entirely tired."
He opened the passenger side door, carefully took him inside the car to protect him from the freezing night breeze, and claimed the driver's seat before driving away smoothly into the dark city traffic lanes.
They came back to his rest house, the isolated villa offering a silent sanctuary from the storm of the city. Xerchin lay directly behind Leansei on the mattress, his broad arms wrapping securely around Lean's frame to hug him tightly without making a single noise.
This was explicitly the exact kind of profound comfort that his soul needed tonight.
The quiet stretched between the bedroom walls for a long time, the cool midnight breeze rustling through the open veranda doors, before Leansei finally broke the silence. "What exactly happened to your face, Erchi?"
Xerchin took a long, heavy pause, his breathing hitching against Leansei's neck before he finally answered. "It's just born out of a heated dispute with my father."
"Does... does that happen a lot to you?"
Xerchin didn't answer with words. Instead, he merely hugged him tighter against his chest, completely burying his handsome face deep into the crook of Lean's back neck to hide his expression. "Yeah."
Leansei grew stone-quiet under the comfort, a sudden, piercing ache tightening behind his ribs as the revelation reawakened the ghosts of his original life. He could vividly remember the brutal layout of his own past with his own father—how his own body had been systematically beaten, taking all the violent hits just to protect his mother from the rage. How his soul had endured that physical trauma for a remarkably long time. That horrific sequence of memories was supposed to be buried down into the deepest grounds along with their graves, yet looking at Xerchin's bruises, the pain felt entirely too real.
"Erchi," Leansei whispered softly into the dark room.
"Mhm?"
"Am I... am I a bad brother to Felean?"
Xerchin paused his fingers against Lean's waist, his baritone voice dropping into an exceptionally soft, grounding frequency. "We all possess our own complex shortcomings, but that doesn't mean it automatically makes you a bad brother. We are only human beings after all. Your soul is actively doing and trying its absolute best right now, and that is more than good enough."
Leansei felt his chest tighten violently at the comfort, tightly closing his eyes to blink away the unshed tears. "I am going to do absolutely everything I can to solve this mystery and make that monstrous person pay for what they did to his life."
Xerchin reached his large hand down beneath the sheets, searching for Leansei's fingers before firmly intertwining their hands together. "And I will happily be the executive to help you fight this war, Mooncalf."
Leansei slowly turned his torso around to face him directly across the pillows. Xerchin looked back into his gray pupils with an intense, unyielding devotion, before leaning his head forward to press a soft, lingering kiss against his forehead. "Now, go straight to sleep." Leansei crooked a faint, genuine smile through the dark, closing his eyes as the sheer physical and mental exhaustion of the past two days finally wrapped his consciousness, pulling his soul into a deep, protected slumber.