Awakening

Agonizing pain wracked his entire body. There wasn't a single spot from head to toe that didn't hurt, as if countless steel needles were burrowing through his flesh.

Lin Yuan struggled to force open his heavy eyelids, his blurred vision gradually coming into focus...

The white walls reflected a cold blue hue beneath the dim lighting. Transparent IV bags hung nearby, steadily dripping medicine, while the heart monitor emitted regular, monotonous beeps. Mixed with the scent of disinfectant lingering in his nostrils, it formed the hospital's uniquely frigid atmosphere.

A faint glimmer of light filtered in through the window, indicating that it was the dead of night.

By that weak light, Lin Yuan's gaze fell toward the foot of the bed:

A small figure was curled up there, her head deeply buried in her arms. Only her messy hair and the snow-white bandages wrapped around her stood out.

Kim Taeyeon?

He instinctively tried to raise an arm, only to trigger a tearing pain.

That tiny movement immediately startled the lightly sleeping girl. She abruptly lifted her head, revealing a pair of reddened eyes beneath the bandages. The instant she saw Lin Yuan awake, an astonishing light burst from them.

Her body instinctively leaned forward as if she wanted to throw herself at him, but she forcibly stopped halfway, afraid of worsening Lin Yuan's injuries.

"Taeyeon? Why are you here? How are your injuries?" Lin Yuan's voice was hoarse as though scraped raw by sandpaper, yet he still insisted on finishing his questions.

Seeing that Lin Yuan's first words after waking were not to ask about himself, but to worry about her condition, Kim Taeyeon's eyelashes trembled violently. Moisture rapidly welled up in her eyes.

She bit down hard on her lower lip, only releasing it after clear teeth marks had