Name

Checkmate

"What happened?" Taemin asks, as he and Jonghyun quickly get down on the floor to check on Jinki. The older man turns Jinki so that he is flat on his back and checks to see if he is breathing.

"Nothing! H-he insisted on walking here," Kibum says in a panic, struggling to get out of the way. 

Taemin whips his head around and glares at Kibum with wide eyes. He knew that Jinki wasn't the most pleasant person to deal with but he was still a patient. He could not believe that Key would let this happen. "Are you telling me you walked here all the way from your place?"

"Taemin! LBP," Jonghyun says, loosening the buttons on Jinki's shirt. "Onew! Can you hear me? You gotta answer me, buddy."

Taemin runs to the garage to retrieve some equipment from the bus and runs back immediately. He wraps a blood pressure cuff around Jinki's arm and works to find out exactly why Jinki has passed out on their hallway floor.

"Wh-what does that mean? What's happening?" 

"We're checking to see if he has low blood pressure. Sorry Key, you're gonna have to give us a bit of space, will that be alright?" Taemin asks. Kibum takes a few steps back and finds himself at the end of the hallway, clutching his hands to his chest. He feels absolutely helpless but he figures he should let the professionals take care of Jinki.

"What's going on," Minho says, running towards the commotion.

"Fainted," Jonghyun says, tapping Jinki's cheek briskly. "Onew! Hey! Are you okay?" The eldest man groans and takes a sharp breath. A loud sigh of relief comes from Kibum's direction and Jonghyun smiles. "That's it, buddy. It's gonna be alright," the experienced paramedic says as he continues to check Jinki's breathing for any abnormalities.

"Does he have diabetes?" Minho asks. 

"N-No, he doesn't," a shaken Kibum responds.

"When was the last time that he ate?" Minho asks again. He runs towards one of the small cabinets, pulls out some smelling salts and hands them to Jonghyun. 

"We had a light breakfast, and that's it," he says. 

"90/60!" Taemin says as removes the cuff from Jinki's arm. He runs to get some pillows from the couch and slips them under Jinki's feet to elevate them. 

"He'll be alright," Minho says to a very worried Kibum. "He just needs to eat and get some rest. We'll let him breathe for a bit and move him to the beds soon. Welcome to the station. I'm Choi Minho."

"Thank you... I'm Key," he says, adjusting his jacket tighter around his body. Kibum suddenly realizes that he and Jinki are completely vulnerable being in a strange place with people he didn't know.

"Ah... You're the boyfriend, right?" Minho says, smiling and trying to make Kibum feel more at ease.

"I-I guess you could say that," he says. 

"Well, I guess if Onew was going to faint, he chose the best place to do it. We're really good at this," Minho says. He slowly lifts his hand up, gesturing for Kibum to wait. Minho walks briskly to the kitchen and gets a couple of juice boxes from the fridge. Walking back as fast as he can, he hands them to Kibum. "When he's a bit more alert, ask him to drink this. It'll make him feel better. The other one's for you. Make yourself comfortable." 

Taemin watches the interactions from the corner his eye. He thinks it's strange for Minho to be so kind to Kibum, considering that he had been so upset about them coming here just moments ago. 

"Did I pass out?" Jinki croaks. He could feel a bit of pain on his hip and figures that he must have fallen on it. His stitches were throbbing and he felt a bit dizzy, but what made him feel better was the sight of Taemin by his side. 

"Yeah, you did. Good thing you guys made it here first," Jonghyun says, picking up the slight mess around them.

Jinki puts his weight on his elbow and tries to lift himself to stand up. "Woah, there. Not yet. Stay here for a while, okay? We'll move when you don't feel light-headed anymore. You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" Taemin says, gently pressing on Jinki's chest to keep him from moving around. 

Jonghyun stands up to return the blood pressure apparatus, and Taemin continued to talk to Jinki to help him become alert. "Did you really insist on walking here?" Taemin asks.

"Where did you hear that?" Jinki asks, a bit peeved that his ego had been found out. Taemin wags his eyebrows at Kibum, who knelt down to join them, setting the juice boxes down on the floor.

"I had to tell them... How are you feeling?" Kibum says, bringing his hand to touch Jinki's cheek.

The older man turns his head away at the exact moment of contact. "Annoyed."

He doesn't know why but the sight of Key being so loving to Onew was affecting him. He couldn't stick around to see it. "I'll prepare the things that we'll need to take your stitches out... Excuse me," Taemin gets up and disappears into one of the rooms, leaving the two alone in the hallway.

"Here," Kibum says, taking a juice box and punching a straw into the small round foil at the top. "Drink this." 

Jinki takes big sips, not noticing that he had been thirsty after all.

He could see the worry on Kibum's face. It suddenly dawned on him just how harshly he had been treating Kibum when he was the one who was constantly by his side. He wanted to do something to make him smile. "Great entrance, huh?" Jinki jokes. 

"This is what happens when you overexert yourself. I'm kind of used to it," the younger man smirks. "Remember that time you almost jumped off the roof of that old house? I hated you for even trying."

"I can be stubborn, can't I?" The two chuckle at the funny memories that they shared. "Sorry I've been such an . Thanks for not hating me," Jinki says as he reaches for Kibum's hand. It was true that he couldn't bring himself to feel deeply about Kibum, but there was a fondness and familiarity there. 

Kibum's heart swelled at the gesture. Moments when Jinki was soft like this were few and far between, and he was ashamed to admit that he lived for it. He wanted to badly to say the one thing that was in his heart, but he knew that it would only push Jinki away. He laughs at himself for even being suspicious about Taemin. There was just too much history between him and Jinki. No one could ever come in between that. The two sat there in the quiet, silently appreciating one another. 

A booming voice interrupts.

"Are you ready? Can you stand?" Minho says. He and Taemin come to hold Jinki up and take him to one of the makeshift beds, where everything was ready and waiting for him. 

Jonghyun ushers Kibum to the living room couch with him to watch whatever it was that was on while the other two got to work on Jinki's sutures.

"Do you want to watch anything in particular?" Jonghyun asks, flipping through the channels as Kibum carefully took a seat beside him. 

"It doesn't matter." Kibum could not have meant it any more than he did. All he wanted was for this to be over and to take Jinki home. Being here around all these uniformed people unnerved him. 

"What's your name again?" Jonghyun asks. 

"Call me Key." Kibum was annoyed at having to answer that question again and again.

"Like lock and key? The thing that opens doors? That can't be your real name..." Jonghyun says, a smirk on his face.

"Astute," the younger man says, his eyes glued to the television. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jonghyun becoming more and more amused with him. All he was being was cross and unpolite and this guy was amused? Kibum didn't understand him one bit.

"Why don't you tell me your real name then?" He asks, not even bothering to hide that he was staring at Kibum. The younger man's delicate features captivated him. He had never seen anyone so... Precious.

"I don't have any real reason to," Kibum says. "I'm only here for Jinki."

"Right. Are you two together?" The question shoots a dagger into Kibum's heart. The real answer will always be something that hurts more than he can bear.

"You could say that," he says, shifting in his seat. In his line of work, all he did was lie, but lying in a real conversation somehow didn't sit well with him--no matter how annoying the other party was being.

"Ah, so you're really not together then. There it is. That's why you're so grumpy. I figured you out in... Forty seconds? That's a new record, even for me..." Jonghyun says, leaning back into the sofa with a stupid smile on his face.

Who the heck does this guy think he is?

Kibum rolls his eyes and focuses on the television instead. They're watching some Japanese cartoon that Jonghyun had chosen to stop on.

He couldn't wait to get out of here.

*****

"Aaaah!" Jinki grimaces. He never thought that taking the stitches out would be almost as bad as getting them. 

"We're almost done, hold on." Minho's brows were furrowed and he was focused on what he was doing. His movements were clean and precise. No wonder he was one of the best in the country. 

Taemin looked on both in awe and in sympathy. He was in awe of how Minho could easily do these procedures that took him years to study and still can't master. At the same time, he melted in sympathy as Jinki's face contorted every which way in pain. The sight of these two confused him.

"Okay. That's it," Minho says. An audible sigh of relief comes from Jinki and Taemin is surprised to see him covered in sweat. The older man had gone through the whole procedure without an anesthetic, and the strength he showed was quite impressive. "I'll just dispose of these properly and be right back. Taemin will take it from here."

Jinki closes his eyes and breathes deeply as Taemin comes to his side to wipe the sweat off his brow, much like he did the first time the older man was here. "Are you alright?" he asks, soothingly. Taemin's touch is doing its magic again and immediately gives Jinki comfort. "I'll dress your wounds, okay?"

Taemin quietly takes the cleaning solutions and bandages, and works on Jinki one last time. The older man can't help but stare up at him, trying to memorize each feature of his face. He is quite aware that this may be the last time that he'd be seeing Taemin and he intends to make it count.

Jinki gets lost in the young man's amazingly long eyelashes that flutter every time he blinked. He stares at the young man's full lips and wonders what it would feel like to touch it.

"Wh-what? What is it? Do I have something on my face?" Taemin asks, noticing Jinki's intense stare. He brings his hand up to his cheek, flicking it with his fingers, just in case there really was something there.

Jinki never broke his stare. He wanted to tell Taemin how beautiful he was... That he had been lying awake at night thinking about his soft touch... That the only thing that lulled him to sleep was the memory of his voice... But he couldn't. Jinki could never let himself feel this way about someone like Taemin. He just wasn't good enough.

The young man laughs nervously and continues working on Jinki's bandages. "So... Any big plans after you heal up?"

"I'm gonna have to see a guy about a stab wound," Jinki says, finally turning away.

"You don't have to do that, you know... You could just go to the police and--" Taemin is interrupted by a loud chuckle. Jinki's own laughter simultaneously made him cry out in pain.

"You and I are different people, Taemin..." he says firmly.

The young man stops at his declaration. Maybe Jinki was right. His mind was telling him that they could not be more different, and that he should stay away for his own sake. But why was his heart telling him otherwise?

"If I haven't said it before... Thank you." Jinki's voice falls at the last part of the sentence. Taemin got the impression that he didn't say those words a lot. It wasn't lost on him how important it was. 

"Done," he says, as he cuts the last of the bandage tapes and smooths it out on Jinki's stomach. The older man lays there and stares at Taemin one more time, this time with Taemin staring back.

Taemin felt soft, giddy and grounded all at the same time. All the feelings that swirled in his chest looking at the older man like this scared him. But what scared him the most was the look in Jinki's eye... It was as if he knew. 

He slowly gets up and puts on his jacket. Taemin helps him rise to his feet as he gets used to the new kind of pain he would be feeling for a while. He sauntered to the door and looks back at Taemin one last time.

"My name's Lee Jinki. It's nice to meet you."

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Comments

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Dmat17 #1
Chapter 15: This was terrific. Thank you so much.
Minakkot #2
Chapter 15: Loved it ?
Jinki891214
#3
Chapter 15: Lonely :( please!
TamaoHime
#4
Chapter 15: It's an interesting place to end the story (leaves it open for a sequel ;p )
I found it interesting. I feel a little bad for Jong, whom everybody left in the dark ^^'
I'm glad Jinki and Tae worked out. And it looked like things might turn out well for Ming and key :)
fiireproof #5
this was great, can’t wait for new stories.
lacus_clyne
#6
Chapter 14: Wait.... Is this complete??? No continuation???
TamaoHime
#7
Chapter 14: Jinki better make the right choice
And Ming :( don't fall apart, it's hard, but you'll get through it!
Jinkles-nim
#8
Chapter 14: Please Jinki... Dont say Yes to Heechul
shojinryori #9
Chapter 14: What? OMG nooooooo!