It felt strange, to Jongin, to know that he was still with Taemin, but not living with him. He'd grown so used to his boyfriend's presence over the past few months that he felt lonely being on his own for even a few days. He hadn't had time to see Taemin since the day he stayed over at the apartment, as when he went back to work, his schedule grew even more packed. Between shifts and on the occasional five-minute break he would try to sneak a text or call in to Taemin, but oftentimes he couldn't even do that. Two more weeks passed this way, and Jongin knew he was nearing a break in his schedule, as the steady rush of patients was finally beginning to slow. He was midway through one of his brief breaks, having stopped to eat something before continuing on for the next few hours, when he got a call from Taemin. He answered, even though he knew he didn't have the time, hoping the call would be quick. But before he could even say hello, Taemin was already speaking, barely even giving Jongin time to process what he was saying. 

"Jongin, thank goodness you answered, I was getting worried, I haven't heard from you in five days, where have you been? Also, I need to ask you something, it's kind of important, a lot's happened since I last talked to you, and oh my gosh I'm just so glad you picked up-"

"-Taemin," Jongin cut him off, pausing for a moment before continuing. "I really don't have a lot of time, I'm sorry..."

"It's okay, I'll only be a minute or so, I just have one question." 

"Okay, shoot."

"Can I come back to the apartment? Like, permanently."

Jongin was silent, shocked that Taemin wanted to move back in so soon. 

"Yeah, yeah, of course. You still have the key, right? That's fine. You didn't even need to ask, honestly."

"Thank you so much, Jongin. You have to go now, right?" There was something in Taemin's voice that seemed off. Jongin couldn't tell exactly what it was, but something wasn't right, he was sure of it. 

"Taemin, are you okay? Everything's fine, right?" 

"Y-yeah. I'm fine. I don't want to keep you too long, though, I'll let you go now. Bye, Jongin." 

"Bye, Taemin." Jongin hung up. He'd caught the way Taemin stuttered before, and he had his answer. Unfortunately, he was stuck at work, and he could only hope that Taemin would make it to the apartment alright. 

*****

Jongin had just finished helping a doctor, content with the fact that he had enough time to grab something to eat before going to his next assignment. He began to make his way to the cafeteria, contemplating what he would get. He stopped short, watching a stretcher get rushed by, surrounded by EMTs. He didn't think anything of it, of course, since he works in a hospital, and emergencies were a normal thing. Just as he was about to continue walking, his coworker, Minseok, called out to him. 

"Jongin," 

He turned to face Minseok.

"Yeah?"

"You've gotta go help with that patient that just came in. Sorry, it looks like you were just about to take a break, but it's Junmyeon's order."

Jongin sighed. 

"Okay, thanks." He turned, heading in the direction the stretcher had gone. Ahead of him, the EMTs were leaving a room just as two nurses went rushing in. Jongin quickened his pace a little, figuring that if everyone was rushing, the patient he was about to tend to was in relatively serious condition. He headed through the doorway, ready to get to work, but as soon as he laid eyes on the patient, he froze. 

No.

*****

For a moment, everything seemed to stop, and Jongin, frozen with horror, was unable to tear his eyes away from the sight before him. This couldn't be happening. His world had suddenly crumbled around him, and the only thing he could hear was the pounding of his own frantic heart. This couldn't be real, and yet, unfortunately, he knew it was. The person lying unconscious before him, battered and broken, was most definitely Taemin, there was no mistaking it. 

"Jongin!" One of the doctors, Yifan, snapped. "What are you doing? Get to work!"

Jongin came back to life, tearing his vision away from Taemin. 

"I-I can't. Yifan, I can't. That's my boyfriend." 

"." Yifan's face darkened. "Did Minseok go home already?" He asked the nurse beside him, who quickly nodded before turning back to Taemin. ", " Yifan muttered again. "Jongin, pull yourself together, I know this is gonna be hard, but we don't have anyone else right now, and this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. We need you. He needs you. But it's still your decision. Can you do this?"  

Jongin gulped, nodding. He had to do this. How would he live with himself if he didn't?

"Okay. Tell me what to do." 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N 

Omg this took so long and it's soooo short I'm so so so sorry :(( But, this fic is approaching its final few chapters, and while I don't want to drag it out, I did have to take some time to decide if I should go with the ending I'd originally planned, or if I should revise that ending and make an entirely new one. In the end, I did end up making up an entire new ending, so that took time, because I like to have everything planned out before I actually write it. So, I will say this, you can probably expect the end of this fic within the next few weeks, possibly before the end of September. But I'm not entirely sure yet, because I go back to school soon and that's going to kill all of my free time :/ 

Anyways, thank you so much to everyone who's stuck with me through all these periods of inactivity, you're the best! <3 Thanks to all my readers and subscribers an upvoters, I'm so grateful to you all...

Thanks for reading!

-H