There isn’t a lot of things Kyungsoo likes to remember from his college years, but Kim Jongin is one of them. They were college roommates that hit it off their first year and roomed together ever since. To Jongin, Kyungsoo was a close friend that he liked to bang whenever he couldn’t find Sehun or some girl to feed his hunger. To Kyungsoo, however, Jongin was everything. He fell hard for his stupid laugh and stupid smile and stupid things he would say. He fell hard for the way he’d get so into the music be it at home in the kitchen or up on the stage dancing to Tchaikovsky or Adam. He still fell hard for Jongin when they graduated and never spoke again.

It wasn’t until years later that Kyungsoo’s friend, Baekhyun, took him to see a rather famous ballet group perform. Critics said that they had a strong male lead and Kyungsoo couldn’t help but think that Jongin would have been better. Coincidentally enough, the strong male lead was Jongin and as soon as the lights hit his tanned face, Kyungsoo fell hard again. He fell for the way he twisted and jumped and lifted thin women into the air.

He doesn’t see Jongin again until a car crash victim lands into Kyungsoo’s section in the ICU. He hesitates walking into the room when he see’s Jongin’s dumb smile as he talks on the phone to someone and is about to turn straight around and ask the charge nurse for another patient, but Jongin’s eyes meet his and his smile falters. He says something to the person on the phone and quickly hangs up. It’s too late now and Kyungsoo clicks his pen a few times before gaining the courage to walk into the room.

“In all of Korea,” Jongin says, “who’d think you’d be my nurse.” He lets out his dumb laugh and Kyungsoo’s heart skips a beat. He’s still as perfect as he remembers if not slightly more. “Long time no see, Dyo.”

“You’ve still remember that dumb nickname,” Kyungsoo tries to say coolly as he walks to the computer next to Jongin’s bed. He presses some buttons on the keyboard and pulls up Jongin’s medicine chart to start getting his pills ready.

“Of course,” Jongin says, following Kyungsoo with his eyes. “Seven years isn’t nearly long enough to forget it.”

“Five,” Kyungsoo corrects quickly. “Five years.” He pulls out a pill cup from the counter and walks over to Jongin’s bedside table. Jongin looks confused as he watched Kyungsoo scan the barcodes on the pouces and open them up into the small cup. “I went to see you perform a couple years ago. Five years.”

Jongin’s face relaxes and the soft hum of the television takes up the sound in the room. “Why didn’t come see me?” Jongin asks quietly when Kyungsoo is finished scanning all the pills.

Kyungsoo shrugs. “I was going to, but you looked busy. You had a lot of people surrounding you, so I figured one more person would suffocate you.”

Jongin looks sad as Kyungsoo grabs a glass of water for him to down the pills with. “I didn’t know you came to see me dance,” Jongin mumbles, taking the pill cup and looking down at them.

Kyungsoo smiles softly at him. “I always come to your shows,” he says and pats Jongin’s shoulder. He leaves out the fact that he went to see the show because Baekhyun dragged him to it and he was totally oblivious to the fact that Jongin was even in it. Jongin downs the pills all at once and quickly drinks water with it. It’s silent as Kyungsoo finishes up his work on Jongin and as he’s leaving, Jongin calls to him.

“You should have come up to me.”

Kyungsoo smiles with his back turned to Jongin. “I should have done a lot of things.”

“Do you understand me?” Minho asks, waving his hand in front of Kyungsoo’s face. “Kyungsoo,” he says and snaps his fingers.

Kyungsoo is too busy taking it in that the words that are racing through his head like a hurricane can’t pick out a comprehensible sentence. “Wh-what do you mean?” he finally asks and Minho lets out a frustrated breath.

“I mean the kids leg got shattered. It’s unlikely he’ll be able to do anything more than walk with a limp.” Minho pushes the glasses up on his nose and looks down at his clipboard. “I’m going to head in and tell him the bad news,” Minho says.

He’s about to walk away when Kyungsoo grabs his arm back and Minho looks pissed off. “Wait-”

“Kyungsoo, I have a lot of people to see and pile of paper the size of the Eiffel tower to sign. What do you want?”

“I’ll-” Kyungsoo stops and it just seems to irk Minho more. “I’ll tell him.”

Minho stops and blinks a few times at Kyungsoo. “I don’t think you’re allowed?” Minho says in a questioning voice.

“I know him, I think he’ll react better if it comes from me,” Kyungsoo tries. “Please?”

Minho looks down at his clipboard and lets out a sigh. “It’ll help me out a lot and I hate giving bad news. If you think you can handle it, go for it. But if anyone asks-”

“You told him.” Minho nods and Kyungsoo gives him a small bow in thanks before walking into Jongin’s room.

“You know daytime television is ,” Jongin states, flipping through the channels as he chews on a roll from lunch. The little cuts and bruises on his face are starting to heal and Kyungsoo is glad he has at least something going right for him. Jongin lets out a sigh, flips off the TV and pats the spot on the bed next to him. “Talk to me, Dyo, I’m bored.”

Kyungsoo hesitates but nods, walking over and pulling over a chair that visitors can sit on. He opens his mouth to begin to tell Jongin that his lifelong dream and love for dancing has to be crushed because some drunk guy didn’t know how to call a cab. He’s trying to figure how he wants to word it and his eyebrows keep furrowing in the process.

“Dyo?” Jongin asks, raising one of his eyebrows. “Is something wrong?”

Kyungsoo looks at Jongin with his deep brown eyes and the light that’s about to be smothered. “Jongin,” Kyungsoo starts and can see the worry start to show in Jongin’s eyes. “Are you going to eat that sweet potato?” . He knew he couldn’t do it. Jongin is exactly where he wants to be in life. He’s finally dancing and all those late nights talking about the stress and worry of being a famous dancer are in the past. Or at least were until now.

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin says sternly, making Kyungsoo look Jongin back in the eye. “What’s wrong?”

    Kyungsoo lets out a big breath and takes Jongin’s hand in his. “When you got hit, your femur was shattered and you had multiple fractures in your tibia. They did a reconstructive surgery on your femur but it was too far gone to make it perfect.”

    Jongin’s face starts to fall and he starts shaking his head. “No,” he whispers. “No, I’m fine, I’ll be fine. My leg is fine, it’s not broken-”

    “Jongin, please,” Kyungsoo whispers in a hoarse voice. “Please don’t make this harder.”

    “Kyungsoo, stop. Please. Please don’t say it because then it isn’t true.” Tears are starting to slip down his tan cheeks.

    “Jongin,” Kyungsoo says quietly, “you’ll be able to walk again with a limp but that’s it.”

    “Nononononono,” Jongin is whispering to himself, tears falling faster. His hand slips out from Kyungsoo’s and is running his hands through his hair. “No I need to dance. Dancing is my life. Without dancing I’m just….just… Please, Kyungsoo. There has to be something they can do.” He’s looking so hopelessly at Kyungsoo, begging him for some kind of hope and all Kyungsoo can offer is soft kiss to his forehead and leaves him alone to go through the bad news.