THE8;

[Xu Minghao]

One person’s distinct cry was echoing throughout the cold and gloomy waiting room. The heart wrenching sobs due to a fallen member tore through Minghao’s ears and he could do nothing more than simply sit in his spot in-between the current two eldest members in the room. Joshua, on his right, had both his hands clasped tightly together with his eyes clenched shut, silently praying to the Lord up above, turning towards his religion to seek comfort. On his left, Jeonghan sat still and stoned face as they waited for the surgery to conclude. However, despite his calm demeanor, the endless tapping of his fingers on the armrest of the chair he was sitting on gave away his worried anticipation.

Further down the row of seats, Vernon sat with his face in his hands, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Beside him, Seungkwan sat, and Minghao couldn’t help but think of how odd it was to see the usually talkative diva now silent and brooding, lost in his own thoughts. Suddenly, they all heard a small intake of breath before Vernon’s shoulders began to shake and quiet sobs racked his frame. The motion seemed to have broken Seungkwan out of whatever trance he was in and he turned his gaze towards Vernon sadly. Placing a hand on his back and softly rubbing it back and forth, Seungkwan could do nothing more than to offer this small comfort to his boyfriend.

Next to the two, Chan sat quietly. His body tense and his foot continued to bob incessantly in an effort to release the tension inside of him. Junhui, who had positioned himself next to him, took it as his duty to wrap his arm loosely around Chan’s shoulders in the hopes of keeping him calm.

Meanwhile, at the end of the row of chairs lined along the waiting room wall was Seokmin and Soonyoung, whose cries and loud sobs continued to fill the silence of the room. In between his sobbing, Minghao could slightly make out the whispers from Seokmin trying to calm him down. However, Seokmin’s comfort only seemed to be contributing to Soonyoung’s distraught state.

“It’s all my fault...it’s all my fault...I should have caught him...it’s all my fault.”

The mantra went on endlessly and it was as if a dark cloud was hovering over the room and had overtaken the members’ thoughts and feelings. The only break of silence aside from Soonyoung’s frenzied whispers and Seokmin’s comforting words was the constant pacing of the manager in front of them.

Back and forth, back and forth.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

It was as if he was going the same pace as the clock that dreadly hung in the room. It felt as if the clock was taunting him and the seconds began to feel like minutes and the minutes began to feel like hours, prolonging the time before they would be able to know of Seungcheol’s condition. It irritated Minghao; the atmosphere, the aura from the members, and the confusion of how they all landed in this situation.

Suddenly, as if a miracle occurred, a nurse burst from the surgery room, her scrubs dirtied and her face sweaty from exhaustion. Minghao gulped as he eyed the soiled scrubs and he paled at the thought of whose blood it belonged to. The manager halted his pacing at the sight of a medical professional and began to approach her, however, she barely spared any of them a glance before she disappeared down the hall, effectively filling the room with more apprehension and causing tension levels to rise even higher.

“!”, screamed the manager, his own agony and frustration due to being left in the unknown leaking out.

New footsteps surrounded the tense group and all of the members and the manager turned their gaze towards the direction it was coming from only to see that it was Mingyu and Wonwoo. Mingyu now sported a brace around his left wrist and he cradled it to his chest as Wonwoo supported him into the room. Mingyu’s lips were set in a deep frown as his eyes rapidly scanned the waiting room before locking onto Jihoon, who was seated in the front next to Joshua, his head down and still praying. Contrary to Joshua’s state, Jihoon was silent and his face didn’t reveal any of his inner thoughts as he eyed the dried blood on his hands and sweater. That same blood was also on the manager and several of the other members’ clothing as a result of their contact with the bloodied Seungcheol at the scene of the accident.

Seeing Wonwoo direct Mingyu to an empty seat beside Junhui, Minghao continued to eye the wrist that Mingyu was now cradling in his lap and chewed the bottom of his lip in worry.

“Is your arm okay?”, Jeonghan asked, eying the injured wrist as well.

Instead of Mingyu replying, (He didn’t even seem to register Jeonghan’s words) Wonwoo replied instead, “Yeah, it’s just a sprain.”

Minghao felt a slight sense of relief knowing that it wasn’t a severe injury. Before he could revel in that small relief, however, Mingyu’s quiet question reached his ears.

“What about Seungcheol hyung?”

Lowering his head in despair, Minghao saw Jeonghan shake his head as an answer to Mingyu’s question. Minghao saw the dejected expression fly across Mingyu’s face before anger overtook it and he slammed his uninjured hand down on the armrest of the chair, “How the hell did this happen?!”, he shouted, the hidden rage spilling out.

Jumping in his seat due to being startled by Mingyu’s sudden shout, Chan briefly glanced his way before pulling his legs up onto the chair and burying his face into his arms. Junhui who was comforting Chan the whole time shot Mingyu a disapproving glare before returning to his task. He looked up when he noticed Minghao staring at him and silently mouthed in Mandarin, “Are you okay?”

Nodding his head slightly in response, Junhui seemed satisfied with his answer and focused back on Chan. Minghao softly smiled seeing Junhui’s caring nature and felt a sense of comfort watching him.

However, that comfort soon ended when Soonyoung’s sobs grew in intensity and his frenzied  whispers were gradually evolving into wails, “It’s all my fault!”, he sobbed, tears cascading down his face. Soonyoung was a wreck and Minghao couldn’t help but pity him. Soonyoung was the one who was closest to Seungcheol at the time of the accident but he failed to prevent his fall. Minghao could only imagine how traumatising that experience could be for Soonyoung to deal with, especially with his role as the performance team leader. It was his job to be aware of the stage at all times but with this accident, it meant that he had failed.

“Soonyoung, calm do—”, Seokmin tried to soothe.

“No! Stop telling me that!”

“But it’s not-”

“Yes, it is! It’s my fault this happened!”

“Hyung, can you please SHUT UP!” Vernon shouted, his irritation clear in his voice. He had stopped crying a while ago but that sadness seemed to have steered its way into annoyance at Soonyoung’s growing hysteria.

Hearing Vernon shout at him, Soonyoung’s face crumpled and he erupted into more pitiful sobs. Groaning in irritation when he saw that his reprimand only made Soonyoung worse, Vernon shot up from his seat and began strolling in his direction, raking his hand through his hair aggressively. Noticing Vernon’s advancing steps and his dark expression, Seokmin rose from his seat and stood protectively over Soonyoung with determination on his face.

“Don’t be reckless, Vernon,” Jeonghan called out in warning, rising from his seat as well, but Vernon ignored him and continued his advance. Stopping in front of Seokmin, Vernon glared into his eyes.

“Vernon, turn back now.”

“No.”

“Please, Vernon. He’s going through a tough time right now. He’s not in his right mind,” Seokmin whispered pleadingly.

Rolling his eyes, Vernon scoffed, “And we’re not? Look at Jihoon Hyung! If there’s anyone who deserves to go into hysterics right now, it’s him! But is he? No! So all Soonyoung hyung’s crying right now isn’t helping!”

“It’s all my fault...my fault...I knew…” Soonyoung trailed off, choking up.

“Knew what?” Mingyu asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, the dark aura around him intensifying. However, Soonyoung continued to mumble to himself as if he did not register Mingyu’s question.

“What is he talking about?” Vernon asked, directing his question to Seokmin only to find him avoiding his eyes.

“Yah! Soonyoung hyung, what do you mean you knew?!” Vernon fiercely asks Soonyoung but he remained in his trance like state. Overcome with anger, Vernon tried to break through Seokmin’s barrier only to feel a hand tugging on the back of his blazer, stopping him.

“Hansol, that’s enough…” Vernon froze and turned his head to find Seungkwan behind him, exhaustion and disapproval painted on his face. Minghao observed as Vernon’s anger deflated and he allowed himself to be dragged back to his seat, “Don’t make this situation even worse than it needs to be.” Seungkwan mumbled, a tinge of anger lacing his tone once he caught sight of Joshua, who had begun to pray harder and tears were beginning to leak out from his closed eyes.

As everyone settled back into their seats, the cold and gloomy silence crept back, only to be disturbed once again by the resounding of footsteps.

Turning his gaze towards the sounds of the echoing footsteps, Minghao was confused to see the familiar face of one of the broadcast station’s staff member striding in, his face solemn and yet determined. Seeing the staff member pass by in front of them, Minghao tiled his head warily when he saw Soonyoung staring in awe before he slumped further into his seat.

Stopping in front of their manager, Minghao saw the staff member give a deep bow, “I am terribly sorry for this horrible incident. Due to my carelessness, a member became severely injured. Please accept my deepest apologies.”

Heaving a distressed sigh, the manager responded sternly, “Apologies are meaningless now. I’d just like to know how this happened.”

“Yes...of course an explanation will be given. I owe you all that much. But first, I’m not the only one here to apologize”, the staff member said before indicating with his fingers for someone else to come in, “I’ve also bought the intern responsible to formally apologize to everyone. He was in charge of the stage set up and had not properly followed instructions. I gave him the task of fixing his mistake before the start of rehearsal but without my knowledge, he was called away by another staff member, leaving the stage in the condition that it was in and resulting in this accident.”

Surprised, Minghao turns his gaze towards the entrance of the waiting room and saw an intern meekly walk in, his steps hesitant and his head lowered. Stopping first in front of Soonyoung who refused to look at him, the intern bowed 90 degrees, a regretful “I’m sorry, please forgive me” tumbling from his lips.

Soonyoung did not care to look up when the intern bowed in front of him but once he passed him to bow to Seokmin, he sharply lifted his gaze up and his face contorted from the despair it was in moments earlier to rage.

“YOU!!”, Soonyoung shouted, jumping to his feet with angry tears rolling down his cheeks. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” he screamed causing several of the members to jerk, startled in their seats, due to the shocking volume that exploded throughout the room. They watched on, completely bewildered by the sudden shift in Soonyoung’s demeanor.

“Soonyoung!”, Seokmin gasps, holding onto Soonyoung’s shoulder to calm him down and prevent him from lunging at the terrified intern, “Take it easy, what’s the—”, cut off by the sudden jerk of Soonyoung’s shoulder, he gawked as Soonyoung’s anger unleashed.

“It’s your fault! If you had set up the stage properly like the senior staff had told you, none of this would have happened! YOU. SHOULD. HAVE. DONE. YOUR. JOB. YOU. STUPID. INTERN!!”

The intern froze, stunned by the harsh words coming from Soonyoung. “I’ve come here—” the intern attempts to speaks up but is yet again harshly cut off.

“NO! Your apology means nothing to me! It’s not going to fix this! Our hyung is in there and we don’t know what’s going on with him! He could be dead! DEAD! And your apology would have done nothing to save him!”

The intern flinched at the use of the word “dead” and started to shake before slowly lowering his head down in defeat. Minghao frowned when he saw the intern’s body begin to heave up and down until finally a choked sob left his lips. The sound of the intern crying only served to rile Soonyoung up more, his eyes widening in disbelief and he scoffed mockingly.

Grabbing onto Soonyoung’s wrist, Seokmin pleaded, “Soonyoung please…”

Turning to look at Seokmin indignantly, he retorted,“No! I won’t calm down!”, whipping back to face the crying intern, Soonyoung pointed a finger at him threateningly, an almost manic look in his eyes, “Yah, you better stop crying right now. YOU DON’T DESERVE TO CRY!”  

In a futile attempt, Seokmin called again, “Please, Soonyoung…stop”, and his eyes began to water from the uselessness he felt, seeing Soonyoung unravel in front of him.

Momentarily stunned at the sight of a teary eyed Seokmin, Soonyoung lowered his face and covered it with his hands as he dropped down into his chair, “Aish!” he yelled into his hands in agitation. Gathering himself together, Seokmin tried to comfort him by laying a hand on his back as Soonyoung broke down into sobs again, reverting back to his earlier state.

“Who am I kidding, in the end, it’s my fault...I should have checked...I could have stopped it...I...”

Collecting himself, the intern slowly turns away from the mumbling Soonyoung and averted eye contact with all of the members, who were now looking on in disdain and disapproval. Despite the cold shoulder that was being given, the intern tried yet again to speak his peace, “I’ve come here to formally apologize to everyone for my grave mistake. I know I don’t deserve to ask this of you but...”, he reluctantly bowed again but no one made an effort to acknowledge it. “...please…” the intern continues shakily, “if you could find it in your heart to forgive me—”

“Please go…”

The members snapped their heads up in surprise at finally hearing Jihoon’s voice for the first time since he fell into a mute like state after arriving at the hospital. Jihoon wasn’t looking at any of them but the intimidating aura surrounding him was enough to feel the chill that entered the air the moment he spoke.

“But….” the intern interjected.

“Just go,” Jihoon continues, his voice rising slightly as his lost eyes remained attached to his still bloodied hands that had begun to shake out of resentment, “I don’t want to ever see you again,” he coldly growled.

The intern opened his mouth, as if he was going to comment again but the staff member stopped him before he could,“We will be taking our leave now. Even if it doesn’t mean much, please allow us to apologize again,”  he said before they both bowed deeply towards the manager and the members of Seventeen and quietly exited the room.

Afterwards, the hours continued to tick on by and everyone slowly grew more restless. Finally, as they neared the fifth hour of their stay, the double doors to the operation room opened with the doctor entering with a nurse following close behind him.

Exhaling in relief, the manager briskly walks towards them and urgently grabbed onto the doctor’s arms, “Tell me doctor, how is Seungcheol’s condition?” he hastily asks, his eyes desperately scanning the doctor’s face for any clue of the current outlook.

Seeing Joshua being pulled up, Minghao glanced up and saw that Jeonghan had gotten out of his seat and was tugging at his arm to get Joshua to go with him to hear what the doctor would say and he was indicating with the tilt of his head for everyone else to gather around the doctor. Minghao began to follow until he caught sight of Jihoon still frozen in his seat, not even glancing at the doctor’s direction. Freezing mid-step, Minghao stopped himself in front of his much smaller hyung and gently tugged on his hand, ignoring the fact that he was making contact with Seungcheol’s hardened blood.

Gently, he spoke, “Jihoon hyung, the doctor’s here. The surgery’s over.”

Instead of getting up to meet the doctor, Jihoon began to shake his head vehemently and Minghao tilted his head to the side in confusion. “You don’t want to hear what the doctor has to say?”

He was answered with another shake of the head and Minghao bit his lip as he tried to understand Jihoon’s current frame of mind. Carefully, he phrased his question, “Are you...scared? Hyung, are you afraid of what the doctor will say?”

Jihoon didn’t respond but the tightening of his hands was all the answer Minghao needed. “It’s okay”, Minghao reassured, crouching down until he was eye leveled with Jihoon, “We can listen from here.”

Turning towards where the doctor and nurse stood surrounded by the members and the manager, Minghao saw the doctor look at everyone solemnly before directing his gaze to the file of charts in his hands, “First off, I’d like to tell everyone that the surgery was a success. Choi Seungcheol-shii suffered severe head trauma. When he fell from the stage, his head had collided with one of the cameras on the ground floor and it caused a crack in his skull. This, unfortunately, led to severe blood loss and intense swelling in his brain. My team worked hard to reduce the swelling and to replenish his blood supply as quickly as we could before significant damage could be done. However, if there are any signs of brain damage we will not know until he wakes up,” the doctor explained as he eyed everyone in the room.

“Then...he’s okay? He’ll make a full recovery?” Joshua asked hopefully, his eyes still shining bright from the tears that he had shed.

Instead of responding in the affirmative towards Joshua’s question, the doctor sighed and shared a forlorn look with the nurse, “While I’m positive Seungcheol-shii will recover from his injuries, I’m sorry to inform you that based on our findings of his brain waves after the surgery, Seungcheol-shii has fallen into a coma.”

A stunned silence descended upon the room as everyone tried to make sense of the doctor’s words. Furrowing his brows in confusion at the unfamiliar term, Minghao hesitated before speaking, “Is a coma...like sleeping?

No one answered and he felt Jihoon tighten his hold on his hand but he too, did not respond.

At that moment, the double doors of the operation room opened again and everyone watched as the bed with Seungcheol’s unconscious body was wheeled by. His head was tightly wrapped with gauze and his skin was deathly pale. His lips that were usually pink and plump were now dull with barely a trace of color. If Minghao wasn’t paying attention to the steady rise of fall of his chest, he could have easily mistaken Seungcheol’s body as a corpse.

Several members gasped and others stood stock still taking in the sight of their usually strong hyung now lying weak and hurt in front of them. Soonyoung in particular was shaking his head, his tears had never stopped falling since he laid eyes on Seungcheol’s body back at the broadcast station, and Minghao wasn’t surprised when Soonyoung finally took off in the other direction, not paying any attention to the calls of his name.

Seokmin’s face was torn between staying with the members and running after his friend. After a moment of indecision, he steeled himself and took a deep breath before dashing after Soonyoung to bring him back and make sure he didn’t do anything reckless in his unstable state.

Feeling his hand being gripped further into a vice like hold, Minghao observed as Jihoon’s body tensed up once Seungcheol’s bed passed by them, and his eyes locked onto Seungcheol’s face with a ferocious intensity, flipping between grief and disbelief. Unshed tears had gathered in his eyes and Minghao waited to see if Jihoon would get up and follow after the staff that was slowly pushing Seungcheol away. However, unlike what Minghao thought, Jihoon remained frozen in his seat, even when the bed disappeared from view.

TBC

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Baefanyline's Notes: Here's the new chapter~ Hope you guys enjoyed! Please comment and subscribe~ we would love to know what you think! Bye for now.

Shanlay's Notes: Hello again readers~ you wanted to know what happened, this is just the tip of the iceberg! Thank you for the subs and comments, please keep tuning in :)