Do listen to this song while you read :) It’s a beautiful accompaniment.

Sandeul’s POV

My stomach twisted itself into knots as we sat outside the Examination room, waiting for the results of the check-up. My elbows were resting on my knees, and my chin on my fisted hands. Jin Young was pacing around the corridor, occasionally throwing the closed steel doors a searing glare. Gong Chan had his knees brought up to his chest, curling into a tight ball on his seat, a vacant, hollow stare in his eyes. He looked so broken, I wanted to just go over and hug him, but my legs felt like dead weights attached to my body. Baro was seated three chairs away from me, his eyes fixed on the floor, looking as lost as I felt.

A click from the door made all of us jerk up immediately. It flew open weightlessly, and a team of three paramedics rushed the bed holding Dong Woo hyung out of the room, another supporting an IV drip attached to his hand. My eyes followed his pale, motionless figure on the bed for a few moments, before going to the briskly walking doctor that followed them, scribbling away on a clip board.

“What happened to him? What’s wrong?” Jin Young demanded as he walked over, more worried than ever.

“Are you all his fellow band mates?” the doctor didn’t even look up or stop walking, so we had to walk along with him. “Your friend’s been diagnosed with final stage appendicitis.”

A death bell seemed to have been struck.

Though my feet kept moving, my mind was frozen. Appendicitis...?

“What’s going to happen now?” Jin Young asked, barely above a whisper.

“He’s going to have to undergo an operation to remove it,” the doctor was walking faster now. “It’s badly ruptured. You’ll receive the results when the time comes.”

And with that, he entered the operation theatre, leaving us outside, alone with our questions.

There was silence, as I tried to digest what was happening.

Hyung had appendicitis...

I’d heard stories from my own parents, back in my countryside home, about friends and family whose lives had been claimed by appendicitis. It was harmless enough if it was diagnosed and treated early, but now could hardly be counted as even on time.

 “Jin Young!” we all turned to see Manager-hyung walking up to us, a worried look on his face. “What happened?”

“Hyung’s been diagnosed with appendicitis,” Jin Young said in a monotone. He looked completely lost, pulling a hand through his brown hair mechanically, staring into space with his dark eyes.

“What did the doctor say about his condition?”

“He didn’t say anything.”

Manager-hyung was quiet for a while, mulling over the news.

“Right, then you four might as well go back to the dorm first,” he said, after thinking it over. “There’s nothing you can do here now. I’ll get someone to drive you back, and I’ll call you when the operation results come out.”

Baro looked like he was about to protest, but Jin Young held up a hand to make him stop.

“Okay,” he said, in the same dead tone he’d used to speak before. “We’ll wait at the lobby in the meantime.”

He turned around and started walking off in the direction of the elevator, and silently, one by one, we followed him.

*

The dorm was quiet as we entered, except for the rustling of fabric as Gong Chan slumped onto the sofa, the groan of a chair being dragged out as Jin Young took a seat at the dining table, and the creak of the bathroom door as Baro went to wash.

We were all still in our performance outfits, but I had rubbed most of my makeup off. I felt exhausted from the emotion, drained from all the crying, and there was nothing more I wanted to do now than collapse on my bed and sleep. But I knew that worry would keep me from even getting a wink of rest.

I sat on the couch beside Channie, leaning my head against the cushions, staring off into space. It had been almost three hours since Dong Woo had been administered into the operation room. The results of the operation would be coming out any minute now.

The whine of audio feedback made me look up. Gong Chan had the television, to try and distract himself from the current situation. Some stupid, low budget drama was being aired, and though it wasn’t the best show on television, it did a lot to appease the fearful, unanswered questions that hung in the silence.

We were watching television when hyung started showing the symptoms.

And I didn’t do anything about it.

As the too-skinny female lead on the television screen continued to drone on about how absolutely terrible her life had become ever since her boyfriend dumped her, another memory slowly began to surface, through the flickering, gaudy images on the glass screen.

“YAH!” I began spamming the jump button as much as I could, but my avatar still ended up slipping off the glacier, into the deathly cold waters below. “Aigoo...not again...”

“Jung Hwan?” I turned around to see our eldest hyung behind me, holding a half-empty bottle of water. “It’s already eleven, you should go to sleep soon.”

“But umma!” I protested. “Just let me try to get past this level first! It’s really important that I finish the glacier part!”

“You’ve been at it since we got home,” Baro said, emerging from the bathroom with a towel around his neck. “Leader’s going to kick up this giant grandpa fuss about how we have an INTERVIEW tomorrow and everything...”

“Well, we do,” Jin Young said indignantly from his room, behind his laptop. “So I suggest all of you take a leaf out of Chanshik’s book and sleep.”

Baro was grumbling under his breath as he shuffled off to his room, but Shin Woo took a seat beside me on the couch instead.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” I asked, shooting him a sideways glance.

“You look like you need a hand with that,” Shin Woo smirked, holding his hand out. Rolling my eyes, I handed it over.

“Go ahead, I’ll be surprised if anyone manages to get past these dumb glaciers.”

“It’s just a simple matter of timing,” he said calmly, twirling the joystick. “Once you start, you can’t stop until you’ve reached the end, because the area is dangerous throughout. The intervals between the times you press the jump button to double jump must be stretched to its capacity, because the objective of your jumping here isn’t height, but distance. So...it would look something like...”

I stared gormlessly at the television screen as my avatar executed a perfect 36-jump combo across the glaciers, landing expertly on the other side of the ice floes.

“You...” I struggled to find the right words. “You , hyung. How did you do that?”

“Weren’t you listening when I was talking?” Shin Woo asked, as the character did a pre-programmed victory jump, having conquered the terrain.

“Well, yeah!” I spluttered. “But what you just did was freaking impossible! Did you play this before or something?!”

“Once, when you first got it,” Shin Woo gave the controller back to me. “But that’s beside the point. Do you get it now?”

I looked back at the screen. What he said did make sense...

Taking a deep breath, I went for it. I tried spacing out my jumps properly, waiting till I was inches from the water before trying to jump again.

“Yeah, you’ve got it,” Shin Woo said approvingly, as my character continued to jump from one iceberg to another.

I stared in disbelief as I landed on the other ice floe.

“See, I told you,” He clapped me on the back, grinning.

“That was inhuman,” I said, pointing to the screen. “How do you know these things, hyung?”

“It comes with age,” Shin Woo shrugged. “So think twice before you make fun of it.”

I let out a giddy laugh at my victory. “You’re the coolest, hyung.”

“I’m glad you know that,” Shin Woo said smugly, before changing his countenance as he glanced at the clock. “Right, if you stay on the game any longer, Jin Young’s going to throw a halbae tantrum, so I suggest you pack up and get to bed now.”

“Yes hyungnim,” I said angelically, saving my game. He smiled at me, reaching over to ruffle my hair, before disappearing into the room he shared with the others.

My fingers tightened into a fist around my clothing, crumpling my dark chequered blazer. His smile vanished along with the memory, and the reality that I might never see that smile again sank its claws slowly into my mind. For a moment, I was lost in the horrible possibility that he would never come back.

The shrill tinkle of a phone slammed me back into the present. Gong Chan and I sprang up immediately, and Baro hurried out of the bathroom, all of us looking expectantly at Jin Young, who, with shaking fingers, extricated his phone from his pocket, and put it to his ear.

“Manager?”

“Jin Young?” The dorm was so quiet, we could hear the crackle of our manager’s voice over the headset. I was sure none of us were even daring to breathe then.

“Well?” Even our leader couldn’t ask the question that was hanging in our minds: is hyung okay?

“Jin Young, I’m so sorry.”

A dry sob escaped Gong Chan’s throat, as he covered his mouth. Baro’s expression was unreadable. Jin Young looked frozen in place. The building could have collapsed in at that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed.

“There was a complication in the surgery.”

None of us could speak, waiting, our throats dry, for the verdict on our hyung’s life.

“His chances of survival now are less than 3%.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note:

They don’t listen to your song, they don’t feel what you write.
They don’t see the glisten of your tears in the night.
When it’s cold, all alone, need somebody to hold,
But nobody’s at home, you don’t need to be told.

When you fall, when you cry,
The world just keeps spinning, girl, they don’t care.
But please just remember
That I’ll be there.

When you’re sick of the people who don’t understand,
When you feel you’ve got nothing left to defend,
Just come to me, come with your fears,
I’m here for you, I’ll dry your tears

When it seems like the darkness has made you unfold,
When the monsters under your bed just won’t let go,
Keep your eyes on your dreams, keep holding on,
Cos it’s always darkest before the dawn.

When the world turns its back on you and runs away,
Come to me with your tears girl, I’m here to stay.

So look to the sun, it brings a new day,
While the world fades away, girl, I’m here to stay.

This is a song I wrote, dedicated to a friend in school :) I could see how much pressure from studies was making all of us unravel...especially her. Though it's a cold world, the important thing to know is that none of us should be alone in our struggles :) No matter what we face.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter too ^^ Subscriptions and comments are appreciated. I loved your comments from the last chapter <3, they were really what motivated me to get this one done :) Thank you! :D

Sincerely
WhiteWings19

P.S. The more I think about it, the more I kind of realise that Shinwoo was showing the symptoms of an eating disorder during the course of the story O.o Energy loss, needing more sleep, pale skin, throwing up (especially), and refusing to eat. 

...I just brought that up wondering if you guys were thinking the same. I can't be the only one thinking this, right? Right???