CHAPTER 78: CHAPTER 78

~Anning~

After the ambulance left, the place didn’t collapse into chaos like I thought it would. No screaming. No dramatic crying. No one chasing after anyone else like this was some bad movie scene where emotions had to be loud to count. Instead, everything went quiet in the worst way possible, like someone had sucked the sound out of the room and forgot to give it back.

Everyone just stood there.

I stood there too, waiting. Waiting for someone to laugh nervously and say, well that went to shit, or for Junho to say something stupid and inappropriate that would somehow make everything feel less serious, or for Woo Min to roll his eyes and tell me I went too far but that he understood why. I didn’t even need full support. I just needed one person to soften it. One person to say, it wasn’t that bad.

Nobody did.

Junho was the first one to actually look at me, really look at me, and I knew before he even opened his mouth that I wasn’t going to like what came next. He didn’t look angry. He looked tired. Disappointed. Like I had finally managed to do something even he couldn’t joke away.

"You crossed a line," he said.

That was it. No shouting. No dramatic buildup. Just that sentence, dropped between us like something heavy.

I scoffed immediately , "Oh come on. Since when does anyone here care about lines? This whole group survives on crossing them."

Junho shook his head slowly. "Not that one. That one doesn’t come with a punchline."

I rolled my eyes so hard it almost hurt. "So now we’re all pretending to be morally correct? He lied to me. He hid a pregnancy. He stood there and told me he never loved me like it was a joke."

"That still doesn’t give you the right to put your hands on him," Junho said.

I turned to Hana because she always backed me up. Always. Even when I was being unreasonable. Especially when I was being unreasonable.

"Well?" I snapped. "You’re quiet."

She didn’t answer right away, which already made my stomach drop. When she finally looked up, her face wasn’t angry or judgmental. It was worse. She looked exhausted.

"I’m not defending you this time," she said.

That hurt more than Junho’s words.

I laughed, sharp and ugly. "Wow. Look at you. Growth."

"You pushed a pregnant person," she said. "Say whatever else you want. That’s what it comes down to."

"I shoved him," I shot back. "People shove people all the time."

Junho exhaled slowly. "Listen to yourself."

That pissed me off instantly. Being told to listen to myself like I was a child throwing a tantrum.

"So what was I supposed to do?" I said, my voice getting louder despite myself. "Smile? Thank him? Congratulate them? He told me to my face that he never loved me and you all expect me to react calmly?"

"You’re allowed to be mad," Woo Min said. "You’re not allowed to be violent."

I opened my mouth to keep fighting, but all that wanted to come out were excuses, and I hated how they already sounded weak in my head. So I grabbed my bag and walked away before anyone else could look at me like that again.

The ride to the hospital felt too long. My leg bounced the whole time. My thoughts wouldn’t shut up. I kept replaying the shove over and over, trying to edit it in my head. It wasn’t that hard. He fell wrong. That was it. Bad angle. Bad timing. Bodies are dramatic. People bleed.

No one was there to agree with me.

Fan Xiao was at the front desk arguing with a nurse.

The nurse looked like she wanted to evaporate.

I stood there watching him, and something twisted in my chest in a way I didn’t like. I had never seen him like that. No boredom. No sarcasm. No distance. Just focus. Fear hiding under it.

He turned and saw me.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

. No insult. Just that.

"I came because ...."

"Because you felt guilty?" he cut in. "Or because you wanted to see how bad it got?"

"That’s not fair," I said.

He stepped closer. "Nothing about tonight was fair."

His voice dropped lower. "You don’t get to act confused. You don’t get to cry about being hurt. You lost that privilege the moment you touched him."

I swallowed. "I didn’t mean for this to happen."

"That doesn’t matter," he said. "Intent doesn’t clean blood off the floor, you better pray for my wife even if my baby doesn’t make it."

We sat down eventually. The waiting room chairs were uncomfortable in that very specific way hospitals like. Time passed strangely. Minutes dragged. Seconds felt loud.

I kept replaying it. The shove. The sound he made. The blood. The way Fan Xiao carried him without hesitation, like his body had already decided where his loyalty lived.

A doctor finally came out.

"Family of Lee Know?" he asked.

Fan Xiao stood immediately.

"He lost a significant amount of blood," the doctor said. "The pregnancy is still ongoing, but there is risk."

Risky.

The word settled in the room and changed everything.

Fan Xiao nodded once. "What do you need?"

"We may need a transfusion," the doctor said. "His blood type is rare."

Fan Xiao turned to look at me slowly.

"If anything happens to my wife," he said quietly, "I will destroy your life. I’ll just take everything from you slowly."

Then he turned back to the doctor and walked away like I wasn’t even there.

Yu Jin showed up late, breathless, hair a mess. "I can donate."

The nurse checked his info and shook her head. "Your pheromone mix complicates compatibility."

Yu Jin laughed. "Figures. Even my blood is messy."

The doctor hesitated. Silence again.

"I can," I said.

Everyone turned.

Fan Xiao stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

"No," he said flatly.

"I’m a match," I said. "Test me."

"The doctor looked at the chart again, then at me, then at Fan Xiao, like all three of us were part of some annoying puzzle he hadn’t signed up to solve tonight.

"She can’t donate," he said finally, voice professional but tired. "She’s human."

I blinked. "Okay. And?"

"And Lee Know is not," the doctor replied. "He’s ABO. His body won’t accept human blood. It’s not compatible."

Fan Xiao exhaled sharply, like this was obvious and everyone else was stupid for even entertaining the idea. "We’re done here then," he said. "Find another donor."

"There is no other donor available right now," the doctor said. "That’s the problem."

Yu Jin rubbed his face. "I told you I’d donate."

"You can’t," the nurse said again. "Your pheromone mix makes your blood unstable for pregnancy cases."

"Of course it does," Yu Jin muttered. "Because why would anything about my life be simple."

I crossed my arms. "Test me anyway."

Fan Xiao snapped his head toward me. "Stop."

"No," I said. "You don’t get to tell me to stop."

"You are human," he said slowly, like he was explaining something to a child. "You don’t have ABO genetics. You don’t have pheromones. You don’t have compatibility. You’re useless in this situation."

That word hit. Useless. He didn’t say it cruelly. He said it like a fact.

Junho shifted uncomfortably. "Anning, maybe just..."

"Don’t," I said. "Please don’t start talking now."

The doctor cleared his throat. "Even if she insisted, we legally can’t proceed. Human blood in an ABO pregnancy could cause rejection, shock, worse outcomes. It’s not a risk we take."

Fan Xiao nodded once. "Good. Then stop wasting time."

I laughed. It came out wrong. People turned to look.

"Funny how everyone suddenly knows exactly what my body can and can’t do," I said. "Like I’m a brochure."

Fan Xiao’s eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"I’m saying test me," I repeated. "You keep saying I can’t, but nobody’s actually checked."

"We don’t need to," the doctor said patiently. "Your medical records list you as human."

"Yeah," I said. "Because that’s what my parents told everyone."

Silence.

Fan Xiao frowned. "What does that mean."

"It means," I said, my heart starting to pound now, not from fear but from the weight of finally saying it out loud, "that your system might be outdated."

"This is not the time for games," Fan Xiao said.

"You think I’d joke about this?" I snapped. "You think I’d stand here offering my blood for someone who hates me if I wasn’t serious?"

Yu Jin squinted at me. "Anning... what are you saying."

I looked at the doctor. "Run the test."

He hesitated. "Miss.."

"Just run it," I said. "If I’m wrong, I’ll shut up. I’ll sit down. I’ll disappear. But if I’m right, you’ll regret wasting this time and you’ll give me a chance."

Fan Xiao stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time, and not in a good way. "You’re lying," he said quietly.

"I’ve lied about a lot of things," I admitted. "This isn’t one of them."

The doctor exchanged a look with the nurse. Finally, he nodded. "We can do a basic compatibility scan. That’s all."

They took my blood. The wait felt shorter than before but heavier. Like the air was pressing down on my chest.