It only takes a matter of seconds for everything to change.

“Hyung, Hyung! Please wake up! Help is on the way!”

Donghae obediently opened his eyes, slowly, squinting at the flashing lights that were surrounding him. The first thing that hit him was a wave of pain to his entire body as if it was in flames. He closed his eyes and groaned at the pain, alerting the closest person near him that he’s awake.

“Hyung!” the voice said again. It took Donghae awhile to identify the speaker. It was Ryeowook. “Hyung! Don’t worry! Just focus on breathing!”

Donghae opened his eyes and didn’t see Ryeowook anywhere in his sights. There was no one near him at all, causing him to wonder whether he was hallucinating Ryeowook’s voice. All he saw in front of him an empty driver and the front passenger seat. The front window of the company car was smashed open, causing him to shiver a bit from the wind that was entering the car. He could see from the corner of his eye that the right side of the car was pushed inwards, possibly by a pole. Same on the left side but by something much more bigger. He could see orange flames near his side.  He couldn’t turn his body to undo the seat belt that is pushing him down into his seat due to the pain that he’s experiencing for the slightest movement that he’s making. He closed his eyes to ignore the pain, trying to remember the events of that day.

He remembered waking up around 8 or 9in the evening to get ready for a tv show that he and the other members of Super Junior were invited as guests. He came back late the night before from filming his drama, therefore he was already in a bad mood at the start of the next day by waking up early. After just catching about 2 hours of sleep after filming the drama, he went to multiple photoshoots and interviews scheduled for the day. Once he got back to the dorms, he immediately headed straight for his room to sleep. When he plopped on his bed for a small nap, Teukie hyung walked into his room.

“Donghae-ya!” Teukie hyung exclaimed, holding onto a toast he was eating, “Don’t fall back asleep! We still have one more schedule to go to! I don’t think you ate yet! Hurry and eat!” Teukie hyung continued to chew on his toast, walking out of the room to the kitchen where some of the members are snacking on food.

Feeling slightly annoyed that he didn’t get to rest a bit, Donghae followed the leader out of the room into the dining room where he slumped into a nearby chair. Kangin hyung and Siwon, who were sitting at the table at the time, looked up from their phones to greet him. Donghae returned the greetings and buried his head into his hands, closing his eyes just for a little bit.

He lifted his head to see Ryeowook put a sandwich in front of him. “Eat up Hyung! You will have more energy if you eat this!” Donghae wordlessly nodded his head and picked up the sandwich as Ryeowook walked away into the kitchen to make more food. He didn’t have much of an appetite therefore he was just playing around with the food on the plate, causing Kangin hyung to scold him. Before he was scolded even more, the manager walked in to tell everyone to get ready. Donghae quickly got up from his seat, leaving his uneaten sandwich on the table and headed straight for his room to change. He took a long time, staring at his closet, trying to decide whether he should change out of his current clothes. A knock on his door made him snap out of his stupor.

“Hyung!” Kyuhyun knocked, “Are you done yet? You are the last one!”

Donghae opened the door, saying “Mianhe.” He was about to walk past Kyuhyun before Kyuhyun grabbed his arm.

“Hyung, are you ok?” Kyuhyun asked with a worried look on his face.

Donghae sighed and nodded, “Just tired. Let’s get this over with.” Kyuhyun nodded and followed his hyung to elevator with a still worried look on his face. They reached the company car where the other members were waiting in the company cars. Kyuhyun climbed into the back of the seat where Teukie hyung and Eunhyuk where sitting whereas Donghae sat in the middle row on the left side. The manager took a count in their car and walked over to the other car to make sure everything is in order. Donghae rested his head to the window, closing his eyes to catch a small nap to the studio. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t block out the whispering that was going on in the back row.

“What?!” Donghae shouted angrily, turning to face his hyungs and dongsaeng. He didn’t care if he was being rude at all anymore.”What are you talking about that you can’t say out loud?”

All three of them mirrored blank looks.”Nothing,” Eunhyuk replied, “Nothing that concerns you.”

Donghae was getting more irritated. It is hurt him that they, especially Eunhyuk, wouldn’t tell him things anymore. It’s probably due to his absence in the dorm from filming his drama at night that caused a small distance from some members. “Fine!” he shouted, “I don’t need to know anything at all! I don’t care!”

He turned back without taking a second look at their faces to see if they would tell him and plugged in his headphones to drown out the surrounding sounds around him. He looked at the rear mirror to see three guilty faces, and it angered him more to see that they were continuously whispering to each other instead of telling him. He once again rested his head on the window and closed his eyes when the car started moving. Within a couple minutes, he was asleep.

Unfortunately his nap was painfully interrupted. All Donghae remembered was a loud screeching and crunching noise to his side of the car. He felt his body thrown back and his head hitting the window that he was just resting on. There was a lot of shouting and yelling all around. He felt pain all over his body. He looked down to see a bar of some sort embedded into his leg and his arm that was once leaning against the side of the car was trapped in between the broken side door. He tried to keep his eyes open but with the loss of blood from smacking his head on the window, he wasn’t able to put up much of a fight.

Donghae continued to have his eyes closed, concentrating on his breathing and ignoring the pain. “Donghae,” someone said, “Donghae, please keep your eyes open.” Donghae opened his eyes to see Eunhyuk leaning against the open window, holding onto his arm.

Donghae opened his mouth to ask how did Eunhyuk managed to get out of the car, but no sound came out. Obviously being his best friend for a long time, Eunhyuk knew what the question was. “Teukie hyung, Kyuhyun, and I got out from the back. The car behind us managed to open the trunk easily since the back wasn’t as damaged. Manager hyung and the driver got out through the right side of the car since it wasn’t damaged. As for you….” Eunhyuk stopped, trying to figure out what to say.

Donghae nodded his head slowly understanding that the opposing car had directly hit the middle row, therefore crushing both doors, making it impossible for him to get out without machine help. He sighed and looked at Eunhyuk again, using his eyes to direct to Eunhyuk’s arm that he was gripping earlier. Eunhyuk looked back, shrugging his shoulder. “I’m not hurt that badly,” he replied, “Just twisted it a little bit while trying to get out. Everyone else is fine. Just small bumps and bruises. Don’t worry about us, just worry about yourself.”

Donghae nodded slowly again, closing his eyes. “Don’t close your eyes Hae!” Eunhyuk pleaded, “Please just wait a little bit longer for help. How about I tell you what we were talking about in the back?” Donghae blinked in response to keep himself awake. He caught only fragments of what Eunhyuk was saying. “We were just….. how tired you were….thought that you like…. Donghae? Donghae?”

The pain was unbearable, and he could feel himself slipping away very slowly. The grip on his arm was tighter, shaking a little. He could hear his name being repeated multiple times and more shouting around him. He was drifting off somewhere. The sounds that were once loud were becoming quieter and quieter. He didn’t feel much pain anymore. Just relaxed and stress-relieved. The sounds around him suddenly stopped and he knew no more.