chapter twenty eight: xxviii. hospital, again

“It’s nice to see you again, Jooeun-ssi,” the kind doctor who I’d had last time said to me, smiling.

I gave a little groan, sitting up in the hospital bed. “It is nice to see you but it’s not exactly nice to be back here.”

He laughed. “So can you tell me what happened one more time?”

“I was doing my dance performance and then I tripped on Jinki oppa’s leg and fell, and then got up and kept dancing until I fell and couldn’t get up again,” I simplified, smiling sheepishly.

He shook his head, tutting at me. “And I heard Jongdae-ssi is also at the hospital, getting a checkup because his legs started hurting again?”

I nodded.

He gave a sigh, but I could tell he was amused. “I gave you permission to dance again because it was almost done healing. But it wasn’t completely done healing, you see, and after the x-ray we did it seems that you’ve re-injured it. Although last time, your whole leg had fragments of bone shattered, this time, it appears your knee cap has a crack in it, probably from falling and still continuing to put pressure on it. Part of it cracked last time, because of the accident, and was supposed to leave it alone to heal. It had almost recovered when this incident happened, causing the same crack to widen. Thankfully, the bone is still attached in some places, but because it is slightly out of place, it causes pain. Do you understand?”

I nodded, a bit dazed. I hadn’t really focused on the details of my injury last time, more interested in Jongdae’s.

“I’m going to give you a knee brace to wear, but you also need crutches. You’re lucky you’re finished all of your exams and summatives before all this happened…” The doctor shook his head at me one more time before leaving the room, causing a crowd of boys, and Amber, Seulgi, and Sunyoung, to rush in.

They started asking a million questions, before Jinki shouted to give me space.

“Are you guys even allowed all being in here?” I asked, laughing.

“It’s okay, it’s only a leg injury,” said Baekhyun, grinning at me. “And they don’t have to know…”

“They will, if you guys are so loud,” Sunyoung scolded, rolling her eyes. “So, what did the doc say?”

“Cracked my kneecap, again… more seriously, though. I need to wear the knee brace that he’s bringing, and use my crutches again…”

Chanyeol turned to Amber. “Didn’t you say that you had a knee brace?”

She nodded. “I had it when I was playing basketball… but it’s custom made for me so it probably wouldn’t fit you perfectly, nor would it be the same because it was made for basketball, not for injury. Well, I did have an injury but it wasn’t the same thing.”

There was a knock on the door and a nurse came in, with my knee brace. She was startled to see so many people in the room, although Baekhyun had grabbed Sehun and Jinki and crouched behind the bed, while Seulgi had slipped into the closet.

“Nurse Lee, please? Just let them stay, I’m getting released from the hospital tomorrow, aren’t I?” I asked.

She laughed. “I don’t know why I’m even surprised to see so many people anymore… and Jooeun, you’re getting dismissed today, after I teach you how to put the knee brace on.”

My face lit up. “Today? Really? Blessss!” I nearly jumped up and down in the bed before remembering why I had come here in the first place.

As if right on cue, Luhan and Minseok burst through the door. They were sweating and panting-they had clearly just come from their dance performance.

“Are you okay what happened oh my god?”

We waited outside Jongdae’s room, waiting for him to come out. He had just done some x-rays and we were waiting for the results to come out. He was in the room, and another doctor was telling him about the condition of his legs.

When the doctor went out, we all rushed in (although Seulgi and the others had left, wanting to watch the rest of the performances). Jongdae was sitting in the bed, with a knee brace on his right leg.

When I saw the matching knee brace on his right leg, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“We have matching couple items,” I managed to get out, holding onto Lay with one hand and onto my crutches with the other so that I wouldn’t fall to the floor laughing.

When Jongdae saw my knee brace, he started laughing too. The whole situation was so unreal and odd that it was impossible not to laugh.

After we had finished laughing, Kyungsoo asked him when he was to be released, to which he replied, “today.”

So we both made our way to the reception desk and signed ourselves out, and soon we were back home-that is, at the dorms. We decided to camp out in Jongdae and Lay’s room. Jongdae and I were seated next to each other on his bed, leaning against the wall, with our legs lying straightly beside each other. When I saw our knee braces, I just couldn’t help but start laughing all over again, no matter how exhausted I was from today’s events.

I had sang a song, danced almost a full song before collapsing and crying for a long time and then going to the hospital and coming back. It had been a long day.

Jongin had taken the place on the other side of me, holding one of my hands in his, although it was covered by a blanket. Jongdae, however, had taken my hand in broad daylight, and some were glaring at it. I yawned, tiredly placing my head on Jongin’s shoulder.

“Jooeun, you can’t fall asleep here! Let’s get you back to your room, okay?” suggested Kris, getting up from his sitting position.

I whined, letting go of Jongdae’s hand to pull the blanket that was covering Jongin over me, before snuggling closer to him. I felt Jongdae taking my hand again, and scooching closer towards me. Jongin replaced the hand holding my own with his right hand, before putting an arm around me and pulling me closer.

“I agree with ge,” came Tao’s voice.

“It’s so comfy… just five minutes more,” I sighed, liking the feel of Jongin’s soft neck against my cheek.

“Are you saying I’m comfy? Excuse me but this is all muscle.” There was a note of disbelief and amusement in his voice.

“Yeah whatever you’re muscular just let me stay here,” I mumbled, letting go of both of their hands to wrap my arms around his torso.

“If you’re talking about comfy people Kyungsoo’s the comfiest. He’s squishy,” Lay said, chuckling.

“Too lazy to move.” I nestled my head into his chest.

“As much as I like this, if you actually fall asleep like this then things might go bad.”

I heard Chanyeol growling in the background. Groaning, I glared my heavily lidded eyes at Jongin, before unattaching myself from him. “Soo oppaaaaa!!” I held my arms out, and Baekhyun snorted.

“Kyungsoo couldn’t lift you if he tried.”

“Yah, do you want to die?!”

Chanyeol chimed in, “Baekhyun speaks the truth.”

They continued bickering, and I sighed. I was not going to sleep anytime soon at this rate.

“Guys, J.E here is tired,” Kris intervened, before coming to crouch in front of me so that I could get onto his back.

I shuffled forward on the bed tiredly, wrapping my arms around his neck and my left leg around his torso. My right leg extended straight out, but it wasn’t like I could bend it.

“Watch her right knee,” Junmyeon warned, getting up to collect my crutches.

“I know, I know,” said Kris, rolling his eyes. He adjusted his arms so that they were looped around my thighs-albeit, the right one with extra care-and we were ready to go.

I yawned, resting the side of my cheek on his shoulder. “Good night everyone,” I let out tiredly, and everyone gave ‘good nights’ in return.

“Don’t fall off the bed!” Jongdae called.

“You too!” I shot back, a smile resting gently on my lips.

Kris started his journey to my room, Junmyeon-no, Sehun following him with my crutches. It seemed that Sehun had intercepted the crutches somewhere during all of this.

“I’m sorry for being such a bother,” I murmured, just loud enough so that both of them could hear me.

“You’re not a bother, Jjoo,” Kris said firmly, turning to face me to see that my eyes were closed, before slightly flinching at our proximity.

“Don’t be a babo…” Sehun practically snarled, before softening. “We love you, why would anything you do be a bother to us?”

I couldn’t gather any energy to say anything else after that, and the only sounds that came from me were my gentle breaths. I heard us arriving, Sehun putting my crutches right next to the bed and then helping Kris and Amber gently put me down onto the bed. Sehun pulled my blankets so that they came up to my chin, before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. His hand lingered there for awhile, and then they were both gone. Amber said something about ‘wish her the best for her heart,’ and then the light went out.

Although I was deadly tired, I couldn’t fall asleep until much later. There was something about his words that made my heart ache with pain. Maybe it was because I knew that I was going to have to leave them soon.

A/N: And... I'm back!! It's been ages since I've updated, right? I don't know, a month or so? I don't even know. Well, exams are over (blessed) and second semester has started for me!! ^^ I'm so glad to be honest...

Anyway I don't know why you're reading this trash fic of mine but thank you for sticking along with me!! Hope you enjoyed this update... lol most of my updates are just angst and tears lately... ahaha but it's all part of the character development and storyline... kind of. Have a great day, y'all!

~Jinny out