Onew’s return to consciousness was slow, his eyes only cracking open to begin with, his vision dark and fuzzy to begin with before slowly starting to clear and focus. In front of him, Jinki noticed, vaguely that is, that the front of the car was smoking quite badly, the frame of his driver’s side door bent and crooked, the glass from his window shattered. It appeared he was also upside down, being held quite painfully by the seatbelt that clung to his chest.

Jinki blinked a few times, slowly bringing the heel of his hand up to his aching head. “What the heck…?” He asked himself, flinching a little at how rough and weak his voice sounded. The screaming had definitely not been good for his still recovering vocal chords…wait, screaming?

Onew’s eyes widened in an almost comedic manner, quickly whipping around to look at the passenger side of the car.

The image that greeted him would scar his dreams forever, engrained into his memory for eternity… Taemin lay slumped on the roof of the tiny car; his hair stained a dark red by his temple while a trail of the same substance trickled down by his eyes, dripping from the tip of his nose and gathering into a small puddle that was slowly growing in size. The thick, woollen jumper he’d been wearing, once a cream colour, was torn in places. The fibres holding on to chips and chunks of glass while a dark stain grew. Hanging next to Taemin’s prone body was a long piece of dangling nylon… Taemin’s seatbelt. Onew half remembered something sharp whipping his face during their collision, and it just now struck him what it was. Taemin’s seatbelt had snapped and sent him hurtling through the car.

It had been several minutes now of Onew just staring, confused, at the form of his best friend and lover, lying so still on the ceiling of the car…but now the shock was beginning to wear of the and the panic began to set in. Looking down, Onew began hitting at the contraption that held his seatbelt in place.

“Taemin! Taemin are you alright? Taemin!?” He began to cry out, struggling to get himself free while hitting blindly at the button in his panic. Somewhere in the back of his clouded, panic filled mind, he registered that the bones of his knuckles shouldn’t be showing. The amount of blood covering his right hand isn’t normal at all and he should definitely be feeling some sort of pain from it… but at that particular moment, Jinki chose to ignore that part of his brain. Taemin was much more important.

Especially since the maknae hadn’t even flinched at Onew’s calls.

Finally, his destroyed hand hit the release mechanism, the seatbelt becoming free and sending Onew painfully, head first, to the ceiling of the car. But the leader didn’t even feel the pain as he instantly began scrambling to his hands and knees, rushing to Taemin’s side.

“Taemin? Taemin can you hear me? Taemin wake up!” Shaking madly, Onew rested his hands on either side of Taemin’s face, his ruined knuckles leaving a smear of dark blood on the younger’s already stained face. “Taemin please! Please you’re scaring me… I’m sorry for getting angry at you, really, I am! We’re just both cranky and stressed out! I didn’t mean it, please, just wake up…” Onew tried to hold back the sob that began to build at the back of his throat, but it was no use as the small hiccup cracked his voice and the tears began to flow. Gently, the older tapped his hands against Taemin’s unresponsive cheeks. “Taemin..? Phone… I have to call for help… phone…” He began muttering to himself, trying to keep a level head while rooting around in his jean pockets for his phone. His heart soared as his fingers closed around the familiar shape. However, as the oldest tried to unlock the cell phone, his heart was almost torn straight back out again as the screen stayed black, signalling the mobile being void of any charge.

Holding back another sob, Jinki slowly leant over Taemin, patting the boy’s jean pockets while trying not to move him too much… he remembered from the amount of medical shows that he used to watch not to move someone who had a head injury, especially if they might have a neck or back injury too… he felt his heart lift again at the hard, rectangular object he felt in the pocket, but after easing it out, the hope shrivelled and died once more.

Once out of its tight confinements of Taemin’s tight jeans, the phone fell apart in his hands, a large crack down the screen, a chunk of the inner workings coming off with the back cover… there was no way Taemin’s phone would turn on to make a phonecall either.

The uncontrollable panic began to rise again as Jinki slowly fell back, threading his fingers through his longer brunette hair, not caring at the streaks of blood his knuckles left behind.

“Taemin… I…I don’t want to leave you but I have to go get help, okay? I have to go find someone to help you…” A small sob escaped the older’s lips again and he cursed himself, tugging slightly on his hair. “Damn it Jinki, get it together… we have to be mature and steady here… you won’t be any help to Taemin if you’re panicking… come on… deep breaths…” He tried to calm himself, mumbling under his breath before leaning down, pressing a gentle peck on Taemin’s bloody temple. “I’ll be right back, just hold on, okay Taemin? Hold on. I won’t be long.”

 Satisfied that Taemin knows what he’s doing, Jinki carefully gets to his feet, trying to ignore the crunching of the glass below his sneakers as he climbs out of the shattered driver’s window, wiping the blood from his forehead with his uninjured hand.

I must have split my forehead open on the steering wheel… He mused before taking one last look in at Taemin in the car, still unmoving, and setting off at a run despite the uncomfortable lurch of his stomach.