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Beep… Beep… Beep…

There was this sound somewhere in the distance; silent at first, but it slowly got louder.

What was this?

It sounded familiar and he could've sworn that he had heard it before. Many times, just so many times that the rhythm was burnt into his head. But where had he heard that noise before? Where? His mind was hazy, everything seemed so far away. But that sound… He thought he could remember it clearly now. Yes, he knew that sound, he knew the rhythm – but it was faster than he remembered it to be. Why was it faster?

Wait a minute.

He remembered it being faster before. That's right, one time it had been faster. He couldn’t recall the situation, but he knew that the reason had not been a good one. There was this uneasiness creeping up inside of him suddenly without him knowing why; the sound became louder, faster. It had never been this fast. No, not that fast. What was this, why was it suddenly so hard to breathe?

-right… rry, you… ything… ay…

What was that, a voice? Who was this, why did it sound so strange? This wasn’t somebody he knew, no. He didn’t recognize the voice at all. So who was this, why was he or she here? And where was he to begin with? He couldn’t see anything, it was pitch-black around him. Where was this voice coming from? Was it… in his head?

…ax… ard, but… no… nic…

He wanted to move, this was scaring him. But his body – he couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel anything at all. He wanted to say something at least, open his eyes. But nothing worked. Maybe his eyes already were open, he couldn’t tell. Couldn’t he see anymore? What the hell was this? Was he… dead?

…too… ly… him… sleep… ick!

The voice was getting louder. Was this another one? It sounded nervous. Why, was there a need to be nervous? Wasn’t he already nervous enough? And what was this pounding in his ears? Was this… his heartbeat? It was so fast, just like this other annoying sound. So he wasn’t dead? But where was he, why did everything feel so weird? He wanted to leave this place, it was awful.

…is here… okay…

Who was there? And no, nothing was okay. Why couldn’t whoever this was speak properly?

He coughed – and immediately it felt like his body was being ripped apart. He wanted to scream because it hurt so much, wanted to squirm to at least try to lessen the pain he felt. But his body still didn’t react. Was this a nightmare? Impossible, nightmares didn’t hurt that much.

No! Stay… hae. Don’t… ppening!

What? Donghae? Was he there? But that wasn’t his voice, that couldn’t be his voice. Where was he? Why did the voices sound so panicked? Was he in danger, was that the reason? The beeping, it made him go crazy. But there was another sound and both of them were just so loud that it made his head ache. Everything hurt and he wished it all would just stop. Why did he feel so hot?

Hyukkie.

Donghae?

Hyukkie, everything's alright.

Yes, that was him. He was here. But why did his voice echo in his head and why could he understand it so well?

It will stop hurting now.

He was right; the pain lessened and the sounds got lower. So low that he almost couldn’t hear them anymore. And Donghae's voice – he could hear him say something, but he couldn’t understand what he was saying anymore. It was like he was pulled away from him.

No.

No!

He didn’t want to… leave him. And… this… this was… really…

***

The first thing Eunhyuk recognized after gaining consciousness again was the same beeping sound he had heard before. But he thought it was closer now, better to hear and much slower. Because his mind was clearer now, he thought he knew what it was – or at least where he had heard it before. The hospital – that was where he was at. The panic he had previously felt didn’t come back again as he thought about it; everything was so much more relaxed. And as he tried moving his body a moment later, he was kind of surprised that it actually worked.

He moved the pointer of his right hand, wiggled a bit with his fingers after that and eventually clenched them to a fist. His movements were clumsy and slow, but it slowly got better. After clenching his fingers a few times, Eunhyuk tried to do the same thing with his left hand – but this time he couldn’t move it at all. It felt like it was pushed down by something heavy or held by something. He furrowed his brows and tilted his head to the left side a bit before attempting to open his eyes.

White.

Everything he could see was white and he clenched his eyes shut immediately as he was blended. It took a couple of seconds before he dared to open them again and he blinked countless times before the blending was bearable and he could see something else. There was a wall opposite from him, blank and bright. Letting his eyes dart around a bit he could see windows to his right, a machine with colorful lines to his left. He noticed that he was lying in a bed as he looked down – and also saw the reason why he couldn’t move his hand.

A small smile flashed over his lips as he saw a mob of brown hair, a head rested on top of a pair of arms and slender fingers, slightly curled and intertwined with his own. The face he saw was calm, even though he only saw half of it; the other's eyes were closed and lips slightly parted. Donghae was sleeping peacefully – and Eunhyuk had no intention in waking him up. It was out of pure affection that he carefully freed one of his fingers from the younger's hold to softly let it over his cheek; Donghae stirred just a tiny bit in his sleep and that was enough to make his lips curl a bit more.

However, the small smile on his lips didn’t get the chance to widen significantly for the pain he felt slowly started to get registered by his brain. His lower stomach – it burned like fire and with every breath he took it seemed to get worse. And his head; it seemed like the throbbing had never stopped. Moving his eyes too quickly made his vision get blurry and so he didn’t realize at first that the door to his room was opened and that someone entered.

His new visitor was humming a soft melody under his breath as he came closer; Eunhyuk tried to recognize the voice because whoever it was still moved too quickly to let him recognize his face. Concentrating so much also made him notice some of the other noises around him; had this bubbling noise been there the whole time?

The other stopped right behind Donghae and the soft melody faded away. He – Eunhyuk was sure that it was a man by now – pulled the blanket draping the brunet's shoulders a bit higher; Eunhyuk could hear a sigh as the other touched Donghae's forehead and cheek carefully.

"You feel cold again", he whispered. "I should bring you something hot to drink."

Ryeowook. Yes, that was Ryeowook; now that he stood still Eunhyuk could finally see his face. The younger surrounded the bed, tugging on Eunhyuk's sheets a bit and it was only then that he noticed that Eunhyuk was watching him. The eternal maknae's mouth clapped open, but the elder shook his head a tiny bit and stopped him from saying something out loud, eyes darting to Donghae because he didn’t want to wake him up.

"Hyung, you're awake", Ryeowook breathed out and came closer. "How are you feeling?"

"It… It's okay", the raven head whispered, voice too hoarse and throat too sore to speak louder. The pain he felt was still worsening, but he kept his chapped lips shut about that. "How long… How long have I been out?"

"More than two days. You really worried us; the doctors said there were complications because of your high fever." The younger's hands found Eunhyuk's forehead and he frowned. "Seems like it's still there, huh?"

Eunhyuk didn’t reply something to that, only idly his dry lips and blinked his only half opened eyes. "What happened? I mean… after I…"

"After they brought you to the hospital?" Ryeowook asked while sitting down on the edge of his bed and Eunhyuk softly nodded his head. "Well, I only heard it myself, but… It seems like your mother, sister and Jongwoonie-hyung went down to the underground garage after they had heard the sirens. They found Donghae-hyung crying and your mother freaked out because of the blood on his hands and the fact that you weren’t around. Jongwoonie-hyung called us then after driving your family and Donghae-hyung to the hospital. Hyung couldn’t talk about what had happened at first, but as you underwent surgery and your sister helped him to wash off the blood, he told us everything. We were so shocked and… Jungsoo-hyung kept apologizing for not believing him, we all did and… you can't imagine how glad we are that Jongwoonie-hyung understood what was happening… Donghae-hyung said it was okay, but I don’t know if it really is. He didn’t talk that much since then, you know?"

The younger's words didn’t make too much sense in Eunhyuk's head because his mind still seemed so clouded. He knew the reason why he was lying there, but he had no idea why Yesung had been with his mother and sister. He didn’t even understand why Donghae had been outside the dorm, but his head hurt too much to let him think more about that. And so he turned his head slightly to look at Donghae again.

The brunet's grip around his hand tightened shortly as he moved a bit in his sleep, mumbling something incoherent. Eunhyuk frowned and grimaced slightly as the pain increased; he could feel something cold on his face as he moved a bit more, a tube maybe. Taking a shuddered breath, he assumed that it was one of those thin oxygen tubes he had seen Donghae wearing right after waking up from his coma.

He looked down a bit more and noticed the cables leaving the hospital gown he was wearing, a small white devise on the pointer of his left hand and a needle piercing through the skin of the crook of his arm, connecting him with a drip. This was all so familiar to him because he had seen it on Donghae for so long, but seeing himself in this clutter of tubes and cables was so strange. And the needle really was the worst of it all.     
He had always been afraid of needles and seeing them now confirmed that this fear had worsened. There were immediately pictures of Donghae fixing popping up in his head; he had seen him doing it so many times and back then he had thought it hadn't been that bad to see it. But even the thought of it now sent shivers down his spine, maybe because now he knew what happened when the brunet took too much.

The raven head had to avert his eyes because he couldn’t look at the needle any longer. No, he wouldn’t let those memories creep back into his head. Donghae was fine, he was peacefully sleeping right next to him. Everything was fine as long as he was.

"Why is he that tired?" he whispered, eyes glued to the brunet's still small frame. He really looked exhausted and that immediately made him worry.

"He didn’t leave your side since he was allowed to see you", Ryeowook answered with a calm voice, the skin of Eunhyuk's arm slightly. "Well, he did for some short time, but maybe half an hour later your condi