"How could you!" An angry shout echoed in the empty corridor. Several of the nurses and orderlies looked up from their work.

In the waiting area by the operating theater, three boys were holding back the shortest of the group all who was trying to lunge at the man being shielded by another boy.

"Changhyun, calm down, now." CAP ordered sternly. Instead, the teen shot him a quailing glare. His head was pounding with suppressed rage and he was so angry he felt he was going to burst.

"Don't tell me what to do! This guy left Byunghun hyung to his own devices, knowing that he was sick and not capable to take care of himself." He then turned to the manager and snarled. Blood was roaring furiously in his ears and he wanted nothing more but to punch the manager's face. "How could you have left him like that? He could've died; he almost did!"

The manager stepped past CAP and walked up to the livid boy, drawing himself to full height. "Boy, I will not be spoken to like that. Now calm yourself and stop making such a scene."

Ricky opened his mouth to protest, but was stopped by Chunji, who was shaking his head fervently and a sharp tug from the members restraining him.

Finally, with a huff, he shook his friends off and fixed his ruffled clothing, throwing the manager another glare.

Suddenly, the operating light clicked off.  They all turned just as the doors open, admitting a petite woman in a white doctor's coat into the waiting area.

"Doctor..." CAP acknowledged the woman with a low greeting as she walked towards them, a grim expression on her face.

"Park. And you are...?" She held out a hand.

"Minsoo. This is Daniel, Chanhee, Jonghyun and Changhyun." He pointed to each one of the members in turn. Ricky noted that he left out the manager.

Well, then hello, nice to meet all of you." She shook the leader's hand and their manager's, "may I suggest we move away for a bit? They need space to bring Byunghun-shii up to the room."

Reluctantly, the boys let the doctor lead them away.

"H-how is he? What's wrong with him?" Ricky asked as they arrived at the visitor's sitting room, the anger suddenly draining out of him.

The doctor sighed and pulled out a clipboard, flipping it open.

"Byunghun-shii is sick with an acute bacterial infection in his lungs, also known as pneumonia. He has some minor contusions on his arm and head from his fall. Internally, one of his lungs collapsed due the presence of liquid in the pleural cavity, which explains why you said he couldn't breathe."

"We've drained and re-inflated that lung and put him on a course of antibiotics. He's also on a respirator, because his chest muscles are severely fatigued from trying to force open his lungs. The fever and cough were brought on by the infection, which is now being treated with the previously mentioned antibiotics." She lifted up the page and scanned the rest of the report critically.

"He'll probably make a full recovery and is fairly stable, for now. We're still trying to deal with the infection which is proving to be rather difficult because we discovered after reading his records that he's allergic to a few of the standard antibiotics. But he'll be fine in about a week or so, and can be discharged to rest at home."

The doctor closed the clipboard and eyed them all thoughtfully, "You said he collapsed. Were you all with him when it happened?"

Some of them shook their heads slowly. Guilt filled Ricky again and made his stomach sink.

Niel shifted from one foot to another and finally replied, looking down at his feet. "We were all out of the apartment, and he didn't call."

The woman looked momentarily shocked. She turned to the manager, "So you mean to say that you left an unwell, defenseless 18-year-old all alone in an apartment to fend for himself?"

The manager hurried to explain, "His fever went down and he was sleeping peacefully so I thought--"

Now, Doctor Park looked angry. "Pardon me, sir, but if I must say, that I highly irresponsible of you. What if he took a turn for the worse when no one was around? What if he went into respiratory distress when he woke and suffocated? You're lucky these boys," she gestured towards them, "had gone back to check on him, or I can't imagine what would've become of him."

There was a pregnant pause in which the doctor glared blatantly at the embarrassed manager. Ricky looked on, feeling strangely satisfied.

Finally, Changjo broke the silence by asking, in a soft, cautious voice.

"Can we see him?"

"Yes." Doctor Park replied him, eyes still riveted to the manager. "Yes, you can. It's a bacterial infection, but it’s not contagious, so it’s completely okay. Wait a moment-- Heerim? Heerim-shii, can you come here, just for a bit."

A friendly looking, motherly nurse came bustling over, a swift smile on her slightly plump face. Doctor Park introduced her briefly and passed her the clipboard, telling her to bring them up to the room while she spoke to the managers about the logistics of L.Joe's hospitalization.

The journey up to the room was unbearable. The lift stopped on every floor to let in visitors, doctors and nurses. Chunji wrinkled his nose and pressed himself against the wall of the elevator; they all smelt of porridge, hand sanitizer and medicine.

"He's on light anesthesia," explained Heerim as she led her out of the elevator and down the hall, "so he should be awake soon. Ah, there we go."

They halted in front a nondescript door. The nurse pulled open the door and held it while they filed in.

"Try not to stay too long, visiting hours are ending soon." He heard her mutter to CAP, who nodded.

There was only one bed in the room, and a small, thin figure occupied it. L.Joe had been positioned flat on his back, a standard hospital blanket pulled up to his mid-torso.

The respirator was the white boxy machine which stood on the left side of the bed, humming mechanically. It was connected a nasal cannula which had been fitted under the boy's nose.

A gray tag connected to the EKG had been clipped onto L.Joe’s index finger. The machine beeped softly, filling the silent room. His chest rose up and sank down rhythmically, and he looked pale, but seemed to be in peaceful slumber. The bruise on his cheek had been covered in a piece of gauze and there were several purplish bruises on his left arm.

Ricky sank down into the chair by the right side of the bed and once again took L.Joe's hand. It was cold and small and felt breakable in his own. He pressed it to his cheek, trying to keep a straight face.

The rest shuffled around; Chunji sat at the foot of the bed, CAP leaned against the wall, face hidden in shadows, Niel and Changjo dropped themselves on the sofa under the window. Soft late afternoon sunlight streamed through the blinds, mingling with the dimmed glowing lamps of the room.

For a while, no one spoke. Then.

"How could we've been so stupid? Why didn't we bring him to the doctor earlier?" Changjo questioned lowly, shoulders slumped in exhaustion. Chunji cast his eyes down, trying to distract himself by toying with a frayed corner of the woolen blanket. CAP grunted while Niel placed a comforting hand on the maknae's lap.

"It's no one's fault," everyone looked at Ricky, who's eyes were on L.Joe, "we couldn't have known that hyung's condition was that bad--"

"But we should've done something about it!" Changjo smashed his fist into the seat of the sofa, brow furrowed in frustration. No one said a thing and silence descended upon them. The youngest seethed silently, crossing his arms tightly over his chest.

Just as the lack of conversation was starting grind on the atmosphere of the room, movement came from the figure on the bed. Ricky shot up immediately and the rest got up too and walked over as L.Joe opened his eyes.

The boy inhaled sharply, wincing. He shut his eyes again, a pained expression on his pale face.

"Byunghun!" Chunji said hurriedly, "Byung, c'mon don't scare us, don't pass out again."

"Not..." L.Joe's voice was raspy and rough, "not passing out... Chest... Painful...."

"It’s ok, Byung. You're tired, let the machines do their work..."

Ricky saw Changjo's knuckles turn white from gripping the handrails of the bed as they watched L.Joe struggle to catch his breath without hurting himself.

At last, he seemed to be able to regain his composure and the whole group fell into tense silence again.

L.Joe blinked several times and cast a short glance at his and Ricky's intertwined hands, before glancing strangely at the latter. "Changhyun..."

"Sorry!" He let go immediately, feeling his cheeks burn.

"You okay?" Niel asked concernedly, as the bed whirred and supported the teenager into a semi-sitting arrangement. L.Joe nodded mutely and coughed several times, holding back a flinch when his tired muscles protested. He looked up and met with 5 worried stares.

"Just... Just a small cough. Where are we?" He inquired, voice hoarse.

"Hospital, and it’s not just any small cough anymore, Byunghun." CAP replied seriously, "you have bacterial pneumonia. One of your lungs collapsed and you very nearly died of suffocation."

"..." L.Joe rubbed his forearm uncomfortably and let his hand to drop to fiddle with the IV drip that had been inserted into the back of his hand.

"Sorry." He finally uttered, looking a little abashed. He looked at them and asked in a would-be offhanded tone, "so... how long?"

Everyone seemed a little confused by his question. Ricky couldn't hold it in and asked, "How long what?"

The boy rolled his eyes and his lips curled up into his familiar smirk. The younger blushed for no reason and the others seemed to relax a little too. "How long was I out, silly. And did you tell my parents?"

"Oh, um, about half an hour. And no." Ricky eyed him uncertainly, "do you want us too?"

The older teen shook his head and shifted against the pillows, looking a little embarrassed, "Nah, it’s best if I tell them on my own. Besides, there's nothing much they can do, and I don't want them to worry too much so I’ll probably tell them when I'm a little better. There'll be a scolding, but I'm fine with it."

Ricky found himself admiring L.Joe's easy manner with keeping his illness from his parents, but the older ones seemed less than impressed.

"How can you talk like that? Don't you know how serious this is?" Chunji looked angry, which was a little weird because he was rarely ever angry.

"I do, I do, it’s just that I don't want my parents to worry and do something dumb like fly all the way here--"

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Manager hyung stuck his head in.

"It's time already?" CAP intoned, looking slightly annoyed.

"You still have schedules. Now come." Came a curt reply.

"Then--" Changjo started, then cast a glance at L.Joe. They could see that the boy was already tired from their short talk, but seemed as disappointed as they were that his friends had to leave.

"We'll come back tomorrow. Come along now, we're already late. The car's waiting." Sudden hatred surged through Ricky at that statement. He remembered the manager saying the very same statement two mornings ago to them, and from what he recalled that situation didn't play out very well at all.

"Hey--"Ricky started, angrily. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his arm and it squeezed, as if asking him to stop. He whipped around, wanting to lash out but halted when the person who stopped him turned out to be L.Joe, who shook his head for emphasis as the others started to shift. 

His touch lingered for a moment before it was gone and he was being ushered out, feeling L.Joe's resigned gaze on his back as the door clicked shut behind all of them.

~

ASDFGHJKL RICKJOE

mean managers ftw

Thank you KPopChikk for being such and awesome person and subscribing!! I'm glad you joined us before this story ended:)

I've nothing else to say today, so I'll just reply you all^^

@RLteentopRickJoe21

L.Joe's gonna be just fine... now all we need to do is resolve this L.Joe-Ricky thing!!!!

Yeah I was so peeved when AFF crashed, deleted my story and all OTL

Thank you for your compliment:D It means a lot to me~

@j_n_y_f

Hopefully!! Keep your fingers crossed><

Sigh... me too!! I'm supposed to be studying wth, but I'm here writing fics. I hate exams

@waniesz

He's gonna be, with a little TLC from everyone~ RICKY ESPECIALLY. I agree, that boy needs to hurry it up, seriously.

I like hurting L.Joe /shotdead

Thank you:D and thank you for reading and commenting~

@badvolkan91

TT-TT RickJoe moment /sobs

Hi-five! Sad stories make me sad, but I like them>< Yeah this will have a happy ending? Maybe?

@OnlyForYa

I wish Ricky would do that too... that boy is honestly too stubborn and indecisive for his own good._.

The next chapter is the last chapter and it's going up on Thursday, so watch out everybody:D There may or may not be an epilogue, I'm still working on it, but thanks for staying with this story and reading:D