Ryeowook

            Taemin and I stayed by their side the entire time. Kyuhyun had woken up and immediately asked for Minho. Taemin bowed his head. “Hyung’s still in surgery.” Kyuhyun tried to sit up, his face falling, filling with regret.

            I quickly placed him down against the pillow. “The doctor says that he should be fine. But there may be something wrong with his leg.”

            Taemin let out a loud sob and Key hugged the maknae close to him. Kyuhyun’s face was miserable. “Hyung,” he croaked, his voice thick with tears.

            I put out a hand. “Stop. I know. I’m sorry, Kyuhyun. Our war shouldn’t have gone on so long. I’m sorry.” I leaned down to hug him and Taemin sobbed.

            “If he will only be okay, I’m going to go and tell him how much I admire him. I can’t believe that something like this would happen.”

            All of us were silent until the doctor walked in. “Ah, you’re awake. Good. You’re going to need plenty of rest. Make sure you don’t overstrain yourself. You weren’t hurt so badly this time, but you still need to be careful of any extraneous movement.”

            Kyuhyun asked, “How’s Minho?”

            There was a pause. “Wait, doctor, please tell me he’s alright,” I pleaded.

            “He just came out from surgery. So far, as far as we can tell, he’s healing. We haven’t seen signs of dead nervous pathways, but we need him to be conscious in order to do some physical checkup.”

            Kyuhyun choked. “Nerves? He could be paralyzed?”

            Hearing this all over again made Taemin sob louder. The doctor looked grim. “We are praying that won’t be the case.”

Kyuhyun

            Hearing Minho’s condition struck me. All the war, all the fighting was for naught. And now that I thought about it, it wasn’t even that important anyway. We were each our individual person, we should be able to have our own differences and we’re all popular, no matter what.

            Each day, we waited for news of Minho’s recovery. He was currently in stable condition for which we were super grateful. One day, the doctor walked in on the two groups who have gathered.

            “Minho is well on his way to recovery. He woke up today, so if you want to talk to him, feel free.”

            I wanted to see him and Ryeowook immediately ran over with a wheelchair. “Here, I’ll push you. Bring your IV drip though, I don’t want you collapsing.”

            I gave him my very best maknae aegyo even though I was deeply tired. He patted my head and for the first time, I felt that we can truly be close. I observed the way Taemin hurried to see Minho and knew that although he had been on my side during the war, he always had Minho in his heart.

            We crowded into the room and the charismatic rapper smiled. “Hey guys.”

            Taemin rushed next to him faster than Key could. “I’m so sorry, Hyung,” he sobbed.

            “What? I’m no longer a hyung-? You no longer think I’m a wannabe, a pathetic loser?” The maknae sobbed. Minho grinned and took Taemin’s hand. “Hey, I was joking around. Cheer up a bit, kid.”

            I looked up at Ryeowook and he gripped my hand. “Ouch,” I pretended to complain and he immediately started to soothe my hand. “I’m joking. I love you too, hyungie.” At this, it was the eternal maknae’s turn to burst into tears.

Minho

            I recovered quickly. I learned to appreciate Taemin and his youth. I was no longer deathly jealous of him. Yes, he could still be irritating, but he was still my little brother. He took care of me throughout the entire time I was in the hospital. If he had a schedule, he still made sure that he came to see me.

            Kyuhyun told me that he was also getting special treatment from Ryeowook. I grinned, happy that we were able to put all the silly stuff behind us. We went ahead and took selcas together. As a joke, Kyuhyun whispered to me loud enough for the other to hear, “Hey, how about us two invalids create our own group of the Charismatics? We can defeat that team of bums.”

            “How can you turn on me so quickly!” Taemin complained.

            We laughed. It was good to joke around again.