It felt too crowd at the club, nothing different from every night but tonight Taemin couldn’t stand it, he couldn’t find a relief in his heart.

Asking for another drink at the bar he gulped it in one-shot and headed to the dance floor, there were a lot of hot men tonight, it won’t be a problem to hook with one of them, few gathered around him like predators, asking for his attention. He let one of them buy him a drink, can’t even remember how much he had tonight.

“Can we go somewhere privet?” the man asked, leaning close to his ear.

Taemin shook his head and gulped the drink “I want to dance” he called over the loud music and started to move his body away from him.

The man caught his wrist he pulled him back to his side, making him gasp and drop the glass from his hand, it shattered on the floor with a loud thump that nobody heard over the music.

Taemin placed his hands on the man’s ridiculously huge chest and tried to push him away unsuccessfully “what are you doing?!”

The man smiled while one of his hands arched around his waist, the other became greedy and went down to his little , grabbed it hard, squeezed while he lowered his mouth to kiss him.

Taemin whimpered and moved his head away from him so his lips won’t touch him “let go of me!” he called.

The man tightened his grip and tried to force his lips on him once again “come’on… don’t act like you don’t want it” the man called.

“Let go!” Taemin struggled.

“I like it when twinks like you play tough...I bet you’re an animal-”  

His words had been cut off when Taemin raised his hand and slapped him as hard as he could, it tickled the man’s cheek but he looked really angry when he pushed him away from him.

Taemin fell, his body hit the floor hard, few people who danced by his side noticed and hurried to help him back on his feet while that bully man walked out of the club.

“Are you all right?” one asked.

“He’s bleeding!” the other called.

Taemin looked confused, one man helped him to reach a stool by the bar, while he sat he brought him water and offered him to go to the hospital “the cut on your eyebrow doesn't look so good”   

“Dr. Choi” the nurse peeped her head into the treatment room where he examed an old man who complained about a pain in his chest.

“Yes?”

She smiled apologetically at him as she announced about another patient, she gave him his file and he placed it on his desk without even looking, nodding tiredly, it was a busy night, everyone seemed to come to the hospital.  

“Would you please help Mr. Nam on his way out?” he asked as he helped the old man to get to his feet “he’s a little weak”

The nurse nodded and placed her hand around the old man’s waist as she walked him out of the treatment room.

Minho crashed on his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes for a brief moment he allowed himself to rest before the next patient would come in.

He was tired but most of all distracted, Taemin hadn’t answered his calls since he left the apartment, he was worried even though he had been gone for few hours only.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and he had no choice but to open his eyes, he straightened in his chair and took the file the nurse left him before he called “come in”

The sight of Taemin with a bleeding eyebrow made him jump from his seat, he reached him and place his hands on his waist as he looked at him concerned “Taemin, what happened?”

The boy tried to avoid his gaze, to be honest, he wouldn’t have come if the bleeding would have stopped, he still felt humiliated by their kiss.

“Taemin!” Minho raised his voice, urging him to answer.

“I fell at the club” the boy said quietly, he gasped when Minho wrapped his arms around him and hugged him tightly, his wounded eyebrow pressed against his chest making him groan with pain, he pushed him away from him and touched it with trembling fingers.

“Sorry” Minho said and guided him to sit on the treatment bed “I was just...worried about you”

Taemin sat on the bed, his eyes bounced all over the room, when Minho placed two fingers under his chin he had no choice but to look at him.

“How did you fell?” he asked and placed a chair in front of him, waiting for an answer he reached his hand for gloves, cotton balls, bandages, disinfectant, an anesthetic and a medical sewing kit.

“I drank-” the boy said, his words stuck on his tongue when he gave him a bad look.

Minho wore the gloves and opened the little bottle of the disinfectant liquid, he soaked a cotton ball in it and reached Taemin’s eyebrow “it would burn a little”

Taemin gulped and shut his eyes, his whole body shook when Minho sterilized his wound.

Softening, Minho mumbled “I’m sorry”

The boy reached  his hand to hold on something like it would ease the pain, he groaned and inhaled sharply with each tap of the cotton ball on his skin, Minho felt his heart clenching for his pain, he placed his hand on his thigh and soothingly as his other hand cleaned the blood from his eyebrow, the boy reached his hand and held him tightly.

Minho threw the bloody cotton ball to the trash before he rubbed a little of anesthetic cream around the boy’s eyebrow- making him open his eyes.

“I’m going to give you a shot so it would make the area numb” he said and circled the eye with his finger “otherwise it would hurt when I’ll stitch the place”

Taemin looked anxious but nodded, he held on Minho’s scrubs when the elder leaned closer with the syringe, the needle penetrated his skin and made him wince.

“Bear it with me” Minho said quietly before he pulled the needle out, the boy relaxed at the moment he did.

While waiting for the anesthetic to effect Minho arranged the sewing kit, he felt the way Taemin eyed every move he made, he also felt how uncomfortable he was.

Tapping his finger around Taemin’s wound he asked “can you feel it?”  

When the boy shook his head he started to stitch his eyebrow.

Taemin could feel Minho’s warm breath on his face, his fingers tapping on his skin, he was close, his lips only parts away from his, he closed his eyes trying to ignore the lump in his throat when he thought about the way the elder lips felt on his, his sweet taste, too bad their kiss wasn’t real, out of pity for his feelings.

Minho looked at Taemin as he pulled the little needle from his eyebrow one last time and cut the elastic string, he was trembling but guess it was because of his wound, his eyes were closed and he looked so vulnerable, fighting the urge to kiss him he moved away.

“That’s it”  

Taemin opened his eyes to see the elder getting up from his chair, he started to cleaning the treatment room for the next shift as he got off the bed and made his way to the door, mumbling a small ‘thanks’, Minho stopped him though.

“Don’t go, I need to fill a report on your file”

Though he hated the thought of spending another awkward moment in a small room with Minho, he nodded understandingly and sat by his desk, he waited patiently until Minho joined him.

“What happened?” Minho asked as he pulled a pen from his pocket and started to write.

“I drank”  

“And?”

“And fell…”

Minho sighed and raised his gaze at the boy “Taemin, I need to know what happened to make sure you don’t have any other injuries”

For a moment, Taemin looked pissed “I fell because someone pushed me after I tried to avoid his lips and slapped him”

Minho’s heart clenched in his chest and a rush of anger rippled his bones for the idiot who hurt the boy, he also felt anger that someone else had tried to kiss him but he kept sealed expression on his face as he wrote everything “did you hit your head? Do you feel dizzy, nauseous, headaches, tiredness?”

“No”

“Good” Minho mumbled, mostly to himself, he finished the report and closed the file “wait here, I’ll take my things and we could go home”

Taemin hurried to get up from the chair “I’m not coming-”

“Sit” Minho cut him off sharply before he got out of the treatment room, he came back moments later and they went out of the hospital.