C H A P T E R 2 0: Reality-check.

The evening on the 22nd September, was a painful evening for Jonghyun.

It wasn’t because his knee ached that much after the surgery, because – actually it didn’t ach at all. He was just a little bit sore, and needed some rest. What pained him in reality, was that he actually soon was fit to leave, and as the big coward he was, he still hadn’t get to tell Kibum about his feelings.

His time was seriously running out.

That sentence was pretty much confirmed, when his door suddenly burst opened and a high, demanding voice filled the room: “Kim Jonghyun!”

“Huh?!” Taemin rose up from his sleeping form and let out a small gasp as he looked around, obviously startled by the sudden racket.

“It’s okay Taemin, just go back to sleep if you want to,” Jonghyun told the younger before turning his gaze towards the tall, thin man in the doorway. The man he least had wanted to see in recent times, and the exact same man he knew was here for one reason only: to bring him back to reality.

“Hyung, it might be you are used to be loud speaking but you are at a hospital; you will have to keep your voice down if you don’t want to be kicked out from here,” he stated – and for a short moment he really wished that someone would come and threw him out for real.

“Now that you’re bringing it up by yourself, don’t you think that you have wasted enough time here, already?” The man asked firmly.

Jonghyun bit down in his lower lips and let his eyes land at Taemin, who still was sitting up and now wearing a perplexed expression on his face as he first looked at the stranger man – who wasn’t even sparing him one single glance – and then at himself.

Just as Jonghyun was about to open his mouth, to at least try to say something, though he had no idea what, the door went open again and Jinki stepped inside, wearing a way to seriously look, compared to which person he was, and in one of his hands he was tightly holding onto a cell phone. Jonghyun could even see how his fist turned white by the pressure he laid into it – and it kind of scared him.

“Jinki is anything wrong?” He asked and tried to form a worst-case-scenario in his head, just to be at the safe side.

The man turned around and faced Jinki as he spoke up: “Jonghyun, can we just talk for a second?”

“Sure, what is it?” Jonghyun asked and got out of his bed, motioning for Jinki to leave the room so they would get some privacy.

“I was just talking with my fiancée just now,” he explained at the way out of the door.

“Oh? And what about that?” Jonghyun inquired, as he got out on the hallway and closed the door behind him.

“Well, as you might know it is Kibum birthday tomorrow—” Jonghyun raised an eyebrow by this. “—and I really wanted to stay, but my fiancée just seems too eager to get her baby out as soon as possible.”

“Wait, so what you saying are… that… it is Kibum birthday tomorrow?” Jonghyun asked hesitating, eyes wide of surprise.

Why didn’t Kibum tell him?

“Huh? You didn’t know?” This time it was Jinki’s turn to sound surprised.

Jonghyun shook his head no, uttering a small: “Nu-uh,” in between. “But if I understand this correctly, you will have to leave, right?”

Jinki nodded.

“And you want me to make tomorrow an amazing day for Kibum?”

Jinki nodded again, smiling a bit.

“No problem. I will gladly do it,” Jonghyun stated without any seconds thoughts and smiled widely – forgetting all about the man, who was waiting at him at the other side of the door.

“Thank you Jonghyun, I knew I could count with you,” Jinki declared and clapped him at the shoulder, as a true friend would do with another friend. “But who was the guy inside your room just now?”

Jonghyun frowned by this. “Oh, it’s my manager. Seems like he wants me to get my out of here and come back to business.”

“Manager?” Jinki questioned curious.

He shrugged lightly. “It is nothing seriously, I will figure out of it. Don’t you have a birth to get to?”

Jinki’s eyes widened. “Right! I am sorry I have to leave like this. Hopefully we can get to see each other another time?”

Jonghyun pouted his lips out thoughtfully and nodded slightly, as they shook their hands as a goodbye.

Standing a little bit, Jonghyun watched how Jinki disappeared down the hallway. He really wanted to ditch his manager right now and go to Kibum immediate as a way better alternative, if it stood to him.

He turned around and opened the door to his and Taemin’s room.

Taemin was sitting on his bed – still, and his manager was had taken a seat on a chair in the other chair of the room, which was filled by an awfully awkward silence as the two just was sitting and looking at each other.

His manager stood up and approached him as soon as he had entered, and before he got a chance to say anything Jonghyun lifted his hand to stop him. “I know what you are going to say – Don’t – I will come by, by the studio tomorrow evening, okay?”

“Um, okay?” The manager lifted an eyebrow in disbelieve.   

“So, you can just go now and I will see you tomorrow, fair?” Jonghyun asked and eagerly started to push his manager towards the door. “Okay then, thank you for your visit, and goodbye,” he opened the door and pushed his manager though it, shutting the door shut as a final.

Silence.

He turned around, facing Taemin.

“What was that all about?”

“Better don’t ask, please, but I just had a reality-check.”