Each minute seemed like an hour as Myungsoo sat silently in the hospital waiting room, under the sharp and watchful eye of his cousin. Jiyeon sat by his side, refusing to leave even after being told off and fired by her boss. Myungsoo was clearly in an unstable state, and leaving him alone didn’t seem like the wisest option.

Every once in a while, the phone in Myungsoo’s pocket would ring, interrupting the tense silence that filled the room. He never bothered to pull the device out, not caring at all who was calling. It was probably his father, and he was not in the mood to deal with him at the moment.

“You should probably answer it,” Jiyeon urged softly as his phone rang for the tenth time. “What if it’s something important?”

Myungsoo sighed. He knew his cousin was right. The longer he waited, the angrier his dad was going to get. Even if he was still on the verge of tears, it would be better to face him earlier rather than later. Two hours had already passed by. Taking a deep breath, he dialed his home phone number. As the call went through and he waited for someone to pick up, he prayed in his head that his father wouldn’t be the one to answer the phone. Maybe his mother would be home and would reach it first…

“Hello?” A husky voice came through from the other end of the line. It’s him, he thought, gulping nervously.

“Father?” He whispered into the phone, his voice barely audible.

“You…” the man growled viciously. “Where are you?! Moonsoo said you were visiting a friend. I did not give you permission to do that. And why didn’t you pick up my calls?”

“He might die,” said Myungsoo. His teeth were clenched together as he tried to control his unsteady breathing. “M-my friend, I mean. I’m sorry, father, but I have to stay.”

Silence filled the other end of the call. Myungsoo thought his father must have hung up, until he started to speak again. “I don’t believe you,” he snarled.

“You don’t have to believe me,” Myungsoo shot back, his voice rising. “I don’t care!” Without waiting for an answer, he slammed his phone shut and shoved it back into his pocket.

At that moment, a loud crash was heard outside the door to the waiting room. Seconds later, a very distraught looking man stumbled in, breathing heavily. He looked around wildly with the same look in his eyes that Myungsoo had possessed hours earlier. Unsteady, he stumbled over to the check-in counter. “I need to see my son,” he demanded. “His name is Lee Sungjong. Please take me to him.”

Jiyeon’s replacement shot him a concerned look before silently entering the name into her computer. After a few moments, she looked back up. “I’m sorry, sir,” she said, “but your son is in the middle of a surgery right now. You can’t see him.”

“I have to see him,” he begged, hands tightly gripping the edge of the counter. “Please.”

“I’m sorry,” the woman repeated. “There’s nothing I can do right now.”

Sungjong’s father nodded in defeat. Slowly, he made his way over to the nearest set of chairs against the opposite wall, where Myungsoo and Jiyeon were sitting. He collapsed into the chair next to Myungsoo with a loud thud and stared blankly at the ceiling.

“Um…sir?” Myungsoo whispered, tapping Mr. Lee on the shoulder. He was afraid of disturbing the man, but he felt that talking to him was necessary.

Mr. Lee turned his head, wiping a tear from his eye as he did so. “Yes?”

“I’m Myungsoo, a friend of your son. I—”

“I know who you are.” He smiled weakly at Myungsoo, who looked confused. “He’d be happy to know you’re here.”

Unsure of how to respond, Myungsoo nodded. The pair sat in silence for what seemed like forever, until Jiyeon finally broke the silence.

“Myungsoo, now that Mr. Lee is here, is it okay if I go home?” she asked, eyeing both of them questioningly. “If you need me here, I can stay.”

“It’s fine, Jiyeon,” said Myungsoo, cracking a smile. “I’ll be okay.”

Jiyeon patted Myungsoo’s hand comfortingly before standing up to leave. “All right. Call me if you need me.” With that, she waved goodbye and left, leaving Myungsoo alone with Sungjong’s father.

“You can go home too, if you like,” Mr. Lee said. “I’m sure you have things to do.”

Myungsoo shook his head. “No, I want to stay. I am not leaving here until I know Sungjong is okay,” he stated, clenching his fist in determination and turning to look the man straight in the eye. “I’ll stay here all night if I have to.”

Mr. Lee responded by placing his hand lightly on Myungsoo’s shoulder. The boy flinched at first, almost instinctively expecting some sort of lecture to follow. Last time his father touched him, it was to drag him into another room to yell at him. However, this pat was different. It was comforting, something he wasn’t used to.

“Thank you,” said Mr. Lee, his voice tired but genuine. “I don’t think I could bear to be here on my own.”

“Neither could I,” Myungsoo admitted.

The pair sat in silence for another half an hour or so, occasionally looking up to check the clock on the wall across from them or to stare at the door to the emergency wing. Tension filled the room with every minute that passed, until both of them felt like they were going to explode. Myungsoo picked at his fingernails until they bled, while Mr. Lee tried desperately to distract himself by playing a few hundred games of Angry Birds. Nothing worked, though, and before long both of them had resorted to staring at the blank white walls of the room.

Finally, the unchanging silence of the room was broken by the sound of a door opening. A calm-looking doctor with a poker face stepped out of the emergency wing and walked over to where Myungsoo and Sungjong’s father were waiting. Both of them jumped to their feet to meet him.

“Are you Lee Sungjong’s family?” the doctor asked, his expression unchanging.

“Yes,” Mr. Lee answered without hesitation. “I’m his father, and…this is my son,” he said, pointing to Myungsoo, who quickly nodded in confirmation.

The doctor eyed the two men sympathetically. They were watching him with desperate, pleading eyes, and both of them looked ready to burst into tears at any moment. Sighing slightly, he took another look at his clipboard before looking up to meet the eyes of Sungjong’s expectantly waiting father. “Your son is going to be all right,” he said. “The surgery was a success.”

“Oh, thank God.” Mr. Lee bent over and gripped his knees for support, while Myungsoo collapsed onto the ground behind him. “Can we see him?”

“Yes, of course.” The doctor led the two men over to the door, and once it was opened, led them down the hallway to Sungjong’s room. As soon as the door was opened, Sungjong’s father rushed to his bedside, eyes filling with tears as he observed the broken body of his son.

“You call this all right?” he asked incredulously. “He’s clearly not all right.” Carefully, he brushed the hair off of Sungjong’s bruised forehead. The rest of his body was covered by a blanket, but judging by the amount of machines he was still hooked up to, it was clear that his healing was far from over.

The doctor cautiously approached the upset man. “I’m sorry sir, perhaps I should have chosen different words.” He cleared his throat seriously. “He’s going to survive, and has no major damage to his brain or heart. However…there was a problem with his spine.”

“His spine?!” the terrified voice of Myungsoo asked from the doorway. He hadn’t yet fully entered the room, afraid that if he did, he would break down into tears again and embarrass himself.

“Yes. His spine was most damaged by the pillar, and we weren’t able to fully repair it. Though we aren’t sure yet, permanent damage might have been done to his legs. It could be a long time before he is able to walk again.”

Even before the doctor had finished speaking, Mr. Lee had burst into tears. He sat by his son’s bedside, lightly gripping the boy’s fragile hand and using his free arm to muffle his sobs. Myungsoo watched him from the doorway, doing his best to control his own tears. That’s going to crush him, he thought.

“Myungsoo.” The shaky voice of Mr. Lee interrupted his thoughts.

“Yes?”

“I don’t want to send you away, but…could you come back tomorrow? Now that we know Sungjong is going to be okay, I’d like to be able to watch him by myself for a bit. Is that all right with you?”

“Of course.” Myungsoo nodded in understanding. He couldn’t blame the man for wanting to be alone with Sungjong, after waiting and worrying for so long. Besides, Myungsoo couldn’t bear to look at the younger boy while he was in that condition. Each glance at the bruised face of his best friend made him want to curl up on the floor and cry. With a heavy heart, he turned around and left the room.

---

Myungsoo never did end up leaving the hospital that night. It was already dark out when he began heading towards the bus stop, which meant that the streets would be getting dangerous soon. Plus, he knew that once he got home, his father would never let him leave again. He’d be stuck inside doing market research or extra homework for the next few days to make up for what he had done. The mixture of those two things ultimately led him back to the hospital waiting room, where he ended up falling asleep until morning.

When he woke up, he realized that something soft was behind his head. Reaching behind him, he discovered an oddly familiar leather jacket bunched up into a makeshift pillow. Confused, he looked around, hoping to find the owner of the jacket.

“Oh, you’re awake?”

Myungsoo turned his head to see the smiling face of Mr. Lee next to him. “Hello.” He bowed his head slightly, suddenly feeling the need to greet him formally. “Is Sungjong awake?”

He nodded. “He’s been waking up off and on, so I’ve already had the chance to talk to him. We went over the possibility of him not being able to walk again, and he seemed okay with it. I think he’s just happy to be alive,” he laughed halfheartedly. “But we’ll see. Once he wakes up more, he might be more fragile. So be careful with him, okay?” When Myungsoo nodded, he waved his hand in the direction of the hospital wing. “You can visit him now if you’d like.”

Myungsoo jumped at the chance and had to keep himself from sprinting down the hall towards Sungjong’s room. Even if it was difficult to look at Sungjong while he was this fragile and hurt, at least he was awake. If he could talk again, that would be good enough.

He didn’t slow down his pace until he was right in front of his friend’s room. Before entering, he timidly knocked on the door, though he didn’t expect an answer. The younger boy was asleep when he tiptoed into the room, so he quietly pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and sat down in it. For a while, he watched the boy’s peaceful sleeping face, observing that some of the bruises along his forehead and cheek had already begun to fade. He still looked vulnerable, but in a way that was less frightening to Myungsoo. Instead of wanting to run away, he felt the need to stay and wait for the boy to wake up.

An hour later, Myungsoo was still waiting for Sungjong to wake up. Having slept very little the night before, he was getting sleepy, and it was getting difficult for him to keep his eyes open. However, once he heard the creaking sound of someone moving in the hospital bed beside him, his eyes shot open and he raised his head.

Directly in front of him, the innocent eyes of Sungjong stared back at him, filled with a mixture of shock, happiness, and pain. “Myungsoo…” he whispered, turning slightly to face him. “You’re still here?”

“Of course I am,” Myungsoo answered immediately, flashing him a comforting smile. “I would never leave you.”

“Even if I can’t walk?” Sungjong’s eyes filled with tears. “I won’t be able to keep up with you.”

“You could be blind, deaf and mute and I would still stay with you.” He reached out to carefully wipe a tear from Sungjong’s delicate cheek. “No disability could ever make me love you less.”

a/n: Did you guys really think I was going to kill off Sungjong? I'm not that mean. I'm also not too satisfied with this chapter, but it is one in the morning so I might like it better tomorrow xD Be prepared for MAJOR cheesy fluff in the next chapter! :3