I'm trying to finish this now. It has taken way too long, I'm sorry. Thank you all for reading. I will write an epilogue trying to tie all the lose ends and hopefully finish satisfactorily ^^.

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Although we are all really exhausted none of us is willing to leave the hospital. After an hour of struggling our parents collectively decide to just leave us alone and we try to make ourselves comfortable in one of the waiting areas that is kindly closed for us exclusively to keep away the press and desperate fans.

I have to think that Kibum would probably by now have posted something on Instagram to calm Shawols down, so I grab my phone to do this in his stead. But what shall I post?

While I’m still thinking about this Taeminnie slips into the waiting room in a bathrobe and slippers.

“I escaped”, he says with a comically proud face.

“You should be in bed and asleep”, Jjong scolds him halfheartedly but I think we all really need to be together right now.

Then a nurse comes in, frowns at Taem but can’t keep the stern face when he gives her his best smile, and tells us: “The doctor says Mr. Kim has probably overcome the worst now. You may see him again now”, and then adds with a smile “all of you.”

We enter the room and there he is, still on his stomach but awake. Minho who hasn’t seen him yet has tears in his eyes. He kneels down next to the bed just like Jjong and I did before and softly Kibum’s hair.

They are close friends but usually not very affectionate towards each other. But right now Minho can’t hide how worried he was and still is to lose someone he loves just as much as his own brother.

Kibum is all smiles and although very pale looks happy to have us around. I wonder how lonely he might feel because his family can’t be there. He probably misses his Halmoni very much right now.

But at least we can be there for him and that’s almost as good as family, isn’t it?

Taemin sits down on the chair that Jonghyun hastily places next to the bed, suddenly very grave. He can’t hold back and touches Kibum’s shoulderblade lightly. I realize that he hasn’t seen the shard that almost killed his Hyung.

Minho, Jjong and I stand back. There is something going on, something important. It seems like Taem tries to grasp the traumatizing severeness of what happened today by looking at his Hyung’s injured body.

He leans down, laying his forehead on Kibum’s shoulder where it isn’t hurt and silently starts crying.

He seldom does, almost never. I probably could count the times he cried out of sadness or desperation on the fingers of one hand so it has a massive impact right now on all of us. I want to hug him but I know this moment is between him and Kibum.

“You didn’t leave”, Taemin almost whispers, still hiding his face. “I was so afraid you’d go. I told you to leave but I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want to die alone. I ...”

“Taem”, Kibum softly says, “I would never have left, not for anything in the world, no matter who had told me to.”

Taemin nods into his Hyung’s shoulder and Kibum struggles to reach out and touch his face.

I guess I was right when I thought that I heard someone say “sarang hae” right before the stadium was blown up and the screen went black.

Suddenly I know what to post on Instagram.

“Let’s all join hands”, I say and after a second of confusion that Taemin uses to wipe his nose on his sleeve like a child we all squat down next to Kibum’s bed and join our left hands with him.

It takes five trials until I manage a satisfactory picture and Jjong has to help me uploading since I can’t remember how to do it myself.

We stay with Kibum for another twenty minutes until the nurse asks us to leave.

Taemin doesn’t really want to let go of his Hyung’s hand that he has been holding for the longest time already until Kibum shushes him away with a smile.

Back in the waiting room I look at my phone again and can’t believe my eyes: our picture has been liked seven million times.