It was late one night that Kibum was laying on Heechul’s bed, enjoying the coolness of the room. The window was wide open, letting in the chilly night air to be blown around the room by the ceiling fan, and it felt really good. For some reason, a side effect of his medication made him feel really hot all the time (not to mention tired) and since his bedroom didn’t have a fan Kibum had taken to sleeping in Heechul’s room. So there he was, content to just lay sprawled out, listening to the sound of Heechul typing away on his computer.  But a moment later Heechul shut his laptop and set it aside, fixing the blankets and pillows before patting the space next to him for Kibum to come lay down, and turned off the lamp.

They lay together quietly, listening to crickets chirp and cicadas buzz from out in the trees. Kibum sighed contently and moved into his favorite sleeping position – using Heechul’s stomach as a pillow and his arm as a teddy bear.

The past few days had been pretty good and he felt that things were under control again. Although he hated taking the anti-depressants Kibum had to admit they definitely helped clear his mind and lowered his level of anxiety. But also, talking to Donghae had really helped put his mind at ease as well. And although his body was still trying to adjust to the stronger dose, his mind had adapted greatly, which Heechul had been very pleased to hear.

“What grade will you be starting, Key?” Heechul asked curiously.

“Tenth! What about you guys?” Key replied, glancing over at his friends. But they paid him no attention, their focus directed upon the game and trying to knock each other’s controllers out of their hands. Heechul rolled his eyes and answered for them.

“Kibum is going to be in eleventh, but he’s homeschooled. Donghae dropped out but gets tutored by Mir’s father twice a week,” He explained. He did the calculations in his head; he’d made Donghae start tutoring about two years ago, so he was probably at a ninth grade level by now. Of course, he kept that information private, knowing that Donghae was embarrassed by the fact that he still struggled so much with school work.

“Wait, aren’t you Mir’s dad?” Key asked bemused. Donghae and Kibum both snickered at this and waited for Heechul’s always amusing answer.

“Of course not, I’m his mother,” Heechul replied, as if it were obvious. Key frowned slightly for a moment, thinking about that answer, before smiling thoughtfully.

“I miss you too, Bummie. I’ll try to come over later, but I already have homework and appa won’t let me do anything until it’s done,” Mir said on the other end. Since Kibum knew that he would be awake and getting ready for school he’d opted to call him to keep him company in the early hours of the morning.

“Well, maybe I could come over and help you? I have school stuff too and we could have a homework part or something…I don’t know. I just really miss you, it’s been over a week,” Kibum told his brother unhappily. He pushed himself back into a normal sitting position, hearing a noise coming from down the hall. He listened carefully to see if Donghae had woken up, but nothing happened.

“Oh! How about you forget about homeschooling and transfer to my school!? That way we would see each other every day and neither of us would miss each other and then I’d have a friend here! Please? It would be really fun,” Mir said; excitement crystal clear in his voice.

“Mir,” Kibum sighed, knowing he was about crush Mir’s hopes and make him go to school unhappy. “I can’t do that.”

There was a pause and Kibum could hear Mir moving, sending static through the phone. A door closed on the other end and Mir sniffed softly before answering.

“Why not?” He asked quietly, in a wavering voice which made Kibum know that he’d made his brother cry.

“Because, I’m just not…Look, Mir, you know I love you and would do anything for you,” Kibum began to explain himself.

“Then why won’t you come to school with me?” Mir asked again. Kibum frowned slightly when he thought about the reasons why he didn’t want to go back. He was scared, for the most part. Scared that things would be just the same as before, where rumors would spread and everything would come crashing back to him after he’d worked so hard to move on from the trauma. But at the same time, he felt foolish because that’s exactly how Mir felt; scared to be bullied and picked on by the other kids. So, he quickly improvised a new excuse that he knew Mir would buy.

“Because, Jia made me start taking double dose of my medication and my body is still adjusting to it since it’s only been a week and it makes me feel pretty crappy right now, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to go to school if I end up fainting or puking all over the place,” Kibum informed him. It wasn’t a lie either, much to his dismay. Part of why he’d woken up so early was because his stomach was bothering him.

“Oh…well, I guess you should stay home then. But you really should think about transferring back to public school. You’re socially withdrawn, Bummie, and you’re never going to get a boyfriend if you don’t interact with anyone,” Mir replied.

“First off, I am not ‘socially withdrawn’. Secondly, of course I’ll never get a boyfriend, because for the millionth time I’m not gay,” Kibum said, rolling his eyes disdainfully.

“What? But umma told me that you changed your mind! He said that you were done with girls and wanted a boyfriend! All week I’ve been keep an eye out for good looking guys that had potential for you! Now what am I supposed to do in class?” Mir cried forlornly.

Kibum opened his mouth to answer, but out of nowhere Donghae suddenly stomped into the room and marched right over to him. He grabbed Kibum’s cell phone and pressed the end button, glaring fiercely at his brother.

As he walked towards the entrance of the park, where the sidewalk met the trees, Mir noticed that there was someone walking in the same direction as him; Key.

“Key! Hi~i!” Mir called loudly, waving his hands in the air wildly with a grin etched on his face. The latter looked up and smiled slightly when he found Mir running towards him, waving half-heartedly.

“Hey, what’s up?” Key asked, coming to a halt as they met up halfway.

“I’m going to do homework with Kibum! Are you coming over? Let’s go together!” Mir said excitedly, latching their arms together and leading the way.

It didn’t take long before they arrived and when the house came into sight Mir let go of Key and ran forward quickly, bounding through the front door noisily.

“Umma! I’m home!” He yelled, kicking off his shoes in the doorway and dropping his backpack on the ground. Key walked in behind him, rolling his eyes with a smile at Mir’s entrance.

“What are you two doing here?” Heechul asked with a delighted smile, walking over to them. He pulled his baby in for a hug and held him tightly; he wasn’t expecting Mir to come home until next week.

“Key came to hang out I guess, but me and Kibum are going to do homework this morning! ‘Cause he called me at like four this morning and said he missed me so yeah; I came over,” Mir informed his mother, and Key nodded along. He’d pretty much come over for the same reason; homework. Since his friends were all busy he didn’t want to go to their houses alone, and if he went home there would be no hopes of studying, so he came here.

“Well, you’re going to have to do your homework without him, because Kibum’s been feeling lightheaded all day and I told him to rest in bed,” Heechul told the two.

“Is he sick?” Key asked curiously, but Heechul shook his head.

“No, it’s just his medication. He’s fine, but if you two are going to go up then you need to be quiet. Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go finish the laundry,” Heechul said, turning to walk back to the basement.

Mir frowned and sighed unhappily; he’d been counting on Kibum to help him with his math homework, but now that wasn’t going to happen.

“So, Key. Are you good at math?” He asked hopefully, wriggling his brows suggestively.

“Yes, but I won’t help you,” Key replied haughtily before going to search for Donghae. As he left, Mir sighed once again. He glanced towards the staircase and contemplated whether or not he should go up to see Kibum. With a shrug, he headed up.

Knocking on the door softly, Mir pushed through, where the lights were turned off and the curtains pulled together, making the room completely dark. He could make out Kibum’s figure lying curled up in bed, and when he drew closer he couldn’t help but smile when he saw his brother cuddling with one of his stuffed animals.

“Mir?” Kibum asked softly, keeping his eyes closed. The lightheadedness, as Heechul had put it, had escalated further; now he felt dizzy and woozy whenever he even opened his eyes.

“Mhmm. I came over to do homework, but I guess we can’t do that. But at least I’m here, right? Now you don’t have to miss me,” Mir replied with a soft smile. Kibum slowly moved onto his back and cracked open his eyes; the dark certainly helped take the edge off things, but he still felt his head swim.

“I’m sorry, we were going to work together and have fun, but now I can’t,” He said unhappily. Ever since Mir had texted him at lunch that he would come over, Kibum had been so looking forward to it.

“It’s okay! I didn’t really want to do homework anyways, so it’s all good,” Mir told him brightly, although he knew that if he went home without having his work done then his father was going to ground him. It didn’t matter to him though, as long as Kibum was happy to see him.

“Okay, if you’re sure. How about I come over tomorrow? I heard you needed help with math; me too. And since Hae has his tutoring session with your dad, maybe all of us could do it together, you know?” Kibum suggested, thinking of a way they all could spend time together. He’d forgotten how boring it could get when Mir was away at school, especially when he wasn’t staying with them.

“Yeah! And since tomorrow is Friday maybe you guys could sleep over and we could – “

But Mir was cut off when the door flung open and the lights suddenly , causing Kibum to whimper softly and clench his eyes shut.

“Where is Donghae? I can’t find him,” Key said, striding over to the bed and hopping onto it.

“He’s in the basement helping hyung with the laundry,” Kibum answered. He leaned back against his pillows, feeling the room sway dangerously.

“Hey, where did you put all my other stuffed animals? I want to take some back home,” Mir said, glancing around the room. Kibum pointed to the closet, smiling sheepishly when Mir gave him a skeptic look. The younger walked over and pulled open the door, kneeling on the floor to grab up his children.

“Sheesh, think you have enough? You’re such a kid!” Key laughed, mentally counting how many animals he saw. Mir laughed and dumped an armload onto the bed.

“You can never be too old to have stuffed animals! You were just deprived, Key,” He said, not realizing the harsh truth of his words. Key frowned slightly but said nothing. He’d never had a single stuffed animal or toy, or anything growing up.

“Why don’t you give him one, Mir?” Kibum suggested, trying to remedy the situation before it got any worse. He knew how blunt and hurtful Mir’s words could be, having had the shorter end of the stick since the day he’d met him.

“Okay! Pick any of them, Key!” Mir said happily, and Kibum quickly snatched away the elephant he’d been sleeping with for the past week.

Key slowly looked at each animal, trying to decide which one was the perfect one to take home. Although he didn’t show his enthusiasm, on the inside he was really excited to get one. Despite being sixteen already, he still wanted to experience what it felt like to sleep cuddled up with something and to give it love. Even if it was a fluffy, inanimate object.

However, before chose on, his eyes stopped when they came across something pink hiding under one of Kibum’s pillow. Before the elder could stop him, Key snatched up what looked like a little girl’s blanket.

“What’s this? Do you sleep with a blankey still?” He teased playfully, waving the blanket around. Kibum’s eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat; that was Dayeun’s blanket, the one that she used to sleep with every night. He didn’t question how, but Heechul had brought it along with all the pictures and some old toys of hers a few months ago, and he’d slept with it every single night.

“D-Don’t, please,” He stuttered nervously, reaching out to take it back. But before he could get his hands on it, Mir grabbed it away from him with a wide grin on his face.

“Bummie! Donghae’s right, you really are a baby,” He giggled delightedly.

“Please, give me it!” Kibum said, his heart racing wildly, he leaned forward to grab it but epically failed when the room started swaying again and he missed. Key and Mir seemed to think that it was really funny, because they both started laughing.

“Come and get it!” Key declared, grabbing Mir’s arm and pulling him off the bed. They quickly ran from the room and disappeared from sight. Despite how much his body protested movement, Kibum hurriedly got out of bed, nearly falling straight to the floor. Ignoring the dizziness and black spots that danced around his eyes, he ran after them as fast as his legs could take him. The two troublemakers flew down the stairs and into the living room, giggling at the fun they were having.

However, Kibum did not think that it was so fun. As he reached the stairs, the black spots took over and his head felt like lead as everything started spinning, causing him to fall forward and topple painfully down the stairs until he crumpled at the bottom.

At that exact moment, Donghae had just walked up the stairs with a basket of laundry in his hands. He watched in utter horror as his brother crash down the stairs. Dropping the basket, he ran to his brother.

“Oh God – Kibum, you – Oh no, your wrist! Hyung! Hyung come quick! Kibum’s hurt!” Donghae yelled loudly, as Kibum wailed loudly. He looked down at his crying brother in panic, unsure whether to touch him or not.

“What’s going – Kibum!? Heechul exclaimed, seeing his baby lying at the bottom of the stairs crying. He quickly ran over and knelt down, feeling his heart stop when he saw Kibum desperately clutching his arm, blood trailing out of his busted lip.

“Donghae, got get a wet washcloth and a bag of ice. Hurry!” He demanded, and Donghae quickly got up to do as he was told.

Heechul carefully tried to touch Kibum’s arm, but the boy cried out in pain. There was no doubt; it was broken. He slowly maneuvered Kibum’s head into his lap and began to check him over, trying to decide if he needed to call an ambulance or not. Dark, angry bruises were already forming all over his body, and Heechul was particularly worried about the ones on Kibum’s left side and hip.

“Baby, I need to move you, okay? I’m going to take you to the hospital, your wrist is broken. Where else does it hurt really badly?” He said calmly, even though on the inside he was freaking out. But he knew that he needed to stay calm for Kibum’s sake.

Kibum didn’t answer, unable to speak through the harsh sobs that wracked his pain filled body. Donghae returned with the washcloth and ice, quickly handing them over to Heechul who pressed the cloth on Kibum’s blood lip.

“Donghae, hold it,” He instructed. Trying again, he gently pried Kibum’s good hand off his broken arm, trying to ignore the painful yells, and gently put the bag of ice on his arm to prevent swelling.

“Alright, come on; help me get him to the car.”

They both hoisted Kibum up, trying to avoid touching anywhere that was hurting, and brought him out to the car. Once Heechul got him settled and buckled in, he shut the car door and turned to Donghae.

“Stay here, okay? I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t cry, he’s going to be okay,” Heechul said softly, cupping Donghae’s tear streaked cheek in his hand. He pulled him in for a quick hug and gave him a kiss before getting into the car.

Donghae stood in the driveway, watching as the car disappeared from sight. He wiped his eyes and turned to head back inside the house. Sighing loudly as he shut the door behind him, he tried to think of something productive he could do to make things easier on Kibum when he got back. But when he lifted his head he was met with the sight of Mir and Key standing in the doorway of the living room. Donghae’s eyes hardened and he felt his protective big brother side come out when he saw that they were holding Kibum’s sister’s blanket.

Kibum blinked tiredly, breathing slowly, as he leaned against Heechul’s chest. They sat together in the room waiting for the doctor to come back with the results. They’d already put a cast on his fractured wrist, taped up his ribs, and put three stitches in his lip; now they were waiting to see if he’d hurt his hip as well.

“Are you okay?” Heechul asked, gently running his fingers through Kibum’s hair. Kibum shook his head tiredly and closed his eyes, feeling a migraine coming on from the bright lights shining.

“I don’t feel good,” He whimpered softly, feeling the urge to start crying again.

“Shhh. I know you don’t. We’ll leave soon and you can go to bed,” Heechul replied, rocking him slowly.

There was a single knock on the door and the doctor walked in with a smile on his face.

“Well, the good news is your hip isn’t broken; just bruised. Bad news, you’re going to have to be bedridden for at least a weak. Try not to walk around too much, except for the bathroom, and definitely no stairs,” Dr. Ahn informed them.

“But he’s in a lot of pain, well, after the sedative wears off he will be. What should I do?” Heechul asked worriedly.

“Ice, heat pads; whatever works. A simple pain killer will do fine. Now, I’d say that you’re all set to leave, just go down the hall and sign him out and you can leave,” Dr. Ahn told Heechul, then turned his attention to Kibum. “Kibum, I hope you feel better. Try to stay away from the stairs for awhile, okay? We don’t want another accident to happen,” He said, as if he were talking to a child.

Heechul thanked him before easing Kibum up, wrapping his arm around his waist to help steady him. It was a slow walk before they reached the entrance of the hospital, where there were several nurses waiting behind a desk and filling out documents. After signing Kibum out in the log book, Heechul and one of the nurses started talking about something or another about billing, but Kibum paid them no mind. Instead his attention was focused on the log book where something written there stood out amongst the hundred other names for that day.

Tiffany Hwang.

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