“—must stay in, until he’s stable.”

Minho often liked to describe himself – when asked, of course – as a very friendly guy, someone people could rely on if they needed to. He’d say he’s brave and strong, yet sensible to the pain and struggles of others. That’s how he’d describe himself.

His close friends though, they would describe him as someone courageous, and fearless, and extremely daring.

But there’s different perspectives for those adjectives. A person can be fearless when taking a new job in a country that it’s far away from home, a person can be courageous when they must put up a front to comfort someone that is in pain, a person can be daring when it’s time to defend a victim in the face of injustice. While Minho’s personality applied for all these perspectives, he is also the type of courageous, the type of fearless, the type of daring that physically felt no urge to run away from imminent danger. He was a freak of thrill. He enjoyed extreme sports way too much, and it’s not that he felt no fear when faced with these kinds of things, it’s just that he is so in control of himself, that his answer to that dread is a green light, it is a ‘let’s ing do it’.

And the day he and Taemin became an item (after so freaking long) made it, if that’s even possible, way worse (or better?) because the man was as fearless, as courageous and as daring as him.

Think of something that makes you weak to the knees in panic, Minho has done it. Sky diving, bungee jumping, going on a sling shot, scuba diving, canyoning – you name it, he has done it and is possibly planning the next time he will do it again. It’s no help that his body is so athletic and healthy, that it allows him to be able to do these activities with the minimal fatigue possible. And the fact that Taemin is 110% into it and is often the one that comes up with the wildest ideas, makes their life even more thrilling.

Their friends do struggle, because they’re not danger freaks even though they do enjoy the thrill every now and then – but never like those two, never like Minho. It’s crazy to be invited to a squad date to base jump. A squad date. To go base jumping.

(Jonghyun: get the outta here with your extreme dude!)

They might not join him all the time to his hair-raising activities, but they are happy that he has found that person that would jump off a cliff with him. Literally. They’ve probably already done it… five times. And it may or may not have been Taemin’s idea.

All in all, Minho is fearless as . And yet, he cannot set foot into a hospital.

A hospital.

And it pisses him off.

It was something he didn’t notice before, he couldn’t have, because he spent his childhood in good health therefore there was no need to reach for one in the first place. But in his teens, and now in his late twenties he has been quite a few times to a hospital – not being the ill one, but as a visitor and even the companion.

The first time it happened, he was around 16 or 17 years old. His brother caught a virus that was supposedly small, but it got out of control and he was hospitalized for a few days. When Minho went to visit him along with his parents, he almost passed out. Everyone, even himself, thought that he skipped dinner and that’s why he felt faint – no biggie – but it kept happening.

His grandmother fell ill, he went to visit – same thing. Visiting a cousin that recently gave birth – same thing. A friend got injured in a soccer match and he wants to visit – the same thing happens.

Minho just couldn’t be in a hospital. He remembers the last time it happened about a year ago. Jonghyun and Kibum had been in a car accident, and Jonghyun was the most injured out of the two, resulting in a hospitalization. He is his best friend; how could Minho not visit?

But once he set foot into the darned building, his body just started feeling off. His head started to hurt and for some strange reason he felt like he couldn’t breathe. The lights became too bright, everything looked fuzzy and a bit distorted. Thank god Taemin was with him and just when they got off the elevator forced him to sit down, because he would’ve passed out if he didn’t. He’s sure of it.

Taemin had enough of it, and honestly Minho did too, but Taemin was the one to do something about it. They were already in a hospital, and Taemin had no problem with asking for a doctor to check on Minho. Because, really, this wasn’t normal.

The doctor who checked on him had two answers: you may have a phobia of hospitals, which is the worst-case scenario – or you have anxiety, and what you are experiencing are small anxiety attacks.

Having a possible name for what he was having eased his worry, his thoughts of a deadly disease vanishing, but it still left him feeling strangely upset. How could he – someone that has literally jumped of off cliffs with nothing else but an elastic cord attached to his feet – be anxious of a building? It was just upsetting.

Even more now, that Taemin is the one hospitalized and what is he supposed to do? Wait outside?

“Min, call my mom. You don’t have to stay.” Taemin said, his hand moving to lay on his chest for the pain of just talking was strong.

Taemin has been fighting what seemed a ‘common cough’ for the past week and no cough medicine did the trick. He only got worse, and when it started becoming painful to just breathe, Minho said enough is enough and drove him to the place he hated the most. The ‘common cough’ ended up being pneumonia, and now Taemin wasn’t allowed to leave until it disappeared.

Yes, Minho feels like his soul is going to leave his body in any second, but