Chapter 9: 3405 Words

"Hail Rain or Sunshine": The Script

We open up, we start to wake
Maybe it's gonna be our days
And suddenly we start to smile
The sun is out for a while and you may see this place in final worth
But it's a little piece of heaven here on Earth

We miss the trap
We took the fall
But we left through it all
'Cause we're dreaming of the better days
It's always been a way in, you may see my friends in final worth
But no I'd never change them for the World

By the time Monday came, Wonwoo was sure he was still dreaming and would wake up any minute. His life was coming back, very very slowly. Still, the circumstances were better than he imagined. Less than a week ago, he would have never imagined he would be going into surgery to get his largest tumor removed. A week ago, the tumor, to his knowledge, was still wrapped around his necessary nerves and arteries. Now, it was going to be gone. He still didn't know what to think.

Mingyu came in early on Monday of course. The surgery would be in the morning and Mingyu would only be able to stay until right before Wonwoo went in. He had recently been told that if he skipped anymore school, he could lose his internship. Since Mingyu wouldn't be able to be there when Wonwoo woke up, the crazy intern basically arranged him a babysitter. A babysitter in the form of Jeonghan. He was incredibly qualified and would take great care of Wonwoo. Wonwoo rolled his eyes and put up a fight to being babied, but nevertheless went along with it.

Wonwoo looked around the room and wondered what had happened to his life. When did visitors become a regularity? Even more than that, what happened to the former dread Wonwoo used to gain from said visitors? Today, Wonwoo was joined by Mingyu, of course, his mother, Jihoon, and Minghao and his intern. As previously mentioned, visitors were extremely common in Wonwoo's room at this point, but Minghao was still new, especially considering how early it was. Nevertheless, the young Chinese patient and his model-like intern had joined the party this morning as Wonwoo got prepped for surgery.

Although Wonwoo wasn't so adverse to visitors anymore, he'd still prefer just one or two a day. His introvertedness hadn't retreated with his cancer. Yet, Wonwoo knew the visitors weren't really for him. Rather, they lifted his mother's spirits more than anyone. Although she didn't quite love Jihoon, she had become obsessed with Minghao. It was a common reaction to the smaller cute boy. Wonwoo thought he would react with the same jealousy he felt when Mingyu obsessed over the other boy, but strangely Wonwoo felt no such emotion.

Wonwoo wasn't really given a chance to ponder his confusing reactions and feelings before he was whisked away to surgery. Mingyu stayed by his side the whole time. Right before they knocked him out, Mingyu tightly gripped his hand. Nervously fretting he asked, "Your okay with me leaving right?"

Wonwoo laughed, "That has to be the hundredth time you've asked that. I'm fine, but I don't know about you though, you're sweating like crazy." Mingyu's ears flushed. Wonwoo didn't get the chance to admire his rare accomplishment of making the younger blush because of the sharp tinge that went into his arm. He cringed, the IV now in his arm.

Wonwoo could feel the drugs going into his system and the World around him starting to darken and blur. His eyes started to fall shut. Mingyu gripped his hand tighter and Wonwoo could barely hear him say, "Be okay Wonwoo. Please, please just be okay." Before he went out. He also felt a pair of lips tap forehead, but he assumed that part was probably dreamt up.

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Wonwoo felt the now familiar feeling of coming out of surgery. He wasn't goofy or very strange at all like some, rather he was just extremely foggy and out of it. Everything seemed to be dreamed or fuzzy for the first several hours following any surgery he had, and it often was dreamed or not reality. So Wonwoo wasn't exceptionally strange, but he might say some strange things due to his hallucinations.

After this particular surgery for example, Wonwoo was pretty sure his leg was just entirely gone. He couldn't feel his entire leg, and it had been a possible complication, so the idea wasn't too far fetched. He tried to open his eyes to check and see if his leg was there, but his eyelids felt incredibly heavy. He couldn't seem to get his eyes open, so he decided to try his vocal chords. His throats was very dry so his first several attempts at speaking failed, but he was eventually able to muster a coughing sort of noise.

"Wonwoo? Are you awake, are you alright?" Wonwoo nodded his head in reply.

"Mingyu?" Wonwoo whispered out with a smile.

"No, sorry to disappoint. It's just Jisoo." He laughed, "I'm here with Jeonghan. How are you feeling?" Wonwoo blushed and then shook his head while pointing at his throat, hoping Josh would understand his gestures.

"Oh your throat? Yeah, I get that. Jeonghan is going to go get you some water or ice chips. Are you like really awake yet, can you open your eyes?" Yes, Wonwoo thought to himself, he most likely could open his eyes, but did he want to? No, not really. He was tired and that seemed like a lot of work. Nevertheless, he could practically hear Mingyu's whiny voice in the back of his head, nagging him to give it his best effort, so he did so.

He blinked his eyes shut very forcefully and then convinced them to open slowly. As soon as he had managed to crack his eyes open, he immediately shut them again. It was very bright in his room. Yet he still blinked his eyes open again and slowly let them adjust to the room while his eyes were squinted. He was greeted with the holy face of Jisoo leaning over him, and with further inspection around the room, he saw Jeonghan reentering the room, water in hand. In the corner of the room, there was another surprise, Minghao and his new intern. Wonwoo tried to recall if Mingyu had told him they would be visiting today, or if it was genuinely a surprise. He couldn't remember either way.

Wonwoo waved lazily at the two guest in the corner before turning to Jeonghan to grab the ice chips. Jeonghan and Jisoo were smiling amusedly at him in a way that made him feel slightly self conscious. He assumed he must look amusing. He closed his eyes again tiredly as he on the ice chips. After letting his mind drift for awhile, he was brought back to reality by the feeling of general numbness across half his body. He blinked his eyes slowly and scrunched his eyebrows together trying to get his thoughts together. His mind was still heavily influenced by the anesthesia.

He cleared his throat again, trying to test out if his voice would be working yet. "Hey" He decided to just not address his question to any particular person as he would then have the best results of getting an answer from one of the four people in the room. There could have been more people, but Wonwoo didn't really feel like putting strength into asking or looking around the room. He assumed without opening his eyes again that he must have some people from the room's attention at this point. "How... did it go?"

There was a momentary pause that made Wonwoo scrunch his eyes together. Must have been bad.... I wonder if my leg is gone or if they couldn't get all the cancer. Or both. Wonwoo heard the turn of wheels but no steps. That must mean that Jihoon or Seungkwan were also in the room since they were the only ones who rolled the wheelchairs themselves. Being more awake now, Wonwoo opened his eyes slowly to the side of the bed where he could hear the person rolling up to. It was