Time can never mend the careless whispers of a good friend. To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind. There’s no comfort in the truth. Pain is all you’ll find.
     
    “What the hell happened to you?” Leeteuk exclaimed, ushering Hankyung and his duffle bag into his apartment. The Chinaman had definitely seen better days. His clothes were disheveled, hair was everywhere, and most importantly, there was a nasty looking bruise forming around his right eye.
 

    “Well, Heechul kicked me out and Siwon punched me. That’s about it.” Hankyung groaned, flopping face first into Leeteuk’s coach cushions. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a car!”
 

   “Wait back up,” Leeteuk began, taking a seat in a near by armchair. “Heechul kicked you out and Siwon did what?”
 

   “Heechul and I got into an argument about…, well you know what about, and he practically told me to go to hell for all he cared and Siwon over heard us…,”
 

   “So, now he’s privy to this messy situation.”
 

   “Yeah,” Hankyung moaned into the purple velour coach cushions. “So, he punched me. He wasn’t upset in an ’I broke his heart way’ because that was so not the case. He was mad because, how did he put it? ‘A: I lied to him, B: I hurt Heechul, and most of all I’ve put the band at risk.’”
 

    “Wow,” Was all that Leeteuk  managed as a response. “This situation is turning out to be worse than I originally expected.”
 

   “What clued you in?” Hankyung cried, setting up. “My tear filled break down the other night or this stylish black eye I’m now sporting?” He finished, poking at his bruised face with a painful wince.
 

   “Let’s think things through.” Leeteuk began, heading towards the kitchen. “Siwon’s probably going to get over his anger fit in a few days. Just give him a chance to cool down. He’s just upset about being lied to. Heechul on the other hand…,”
 

   “Will never forgive me as long as he lives and I’m going to have to find another career choice.” Hankyung finished, taking a package of frozen peas from Leeteuk and holding it to his face.
 

   “Don’t jump to conclusions so fast. You just need to let him know how hard this has been for you and that your intentions were never to hurt him and you care about him and you care about the band and don’t want this to get in the way of your friendship or our career, while simultaneously avoiding his love induced fury!”
 

    “That was a lot of ands…,”  
 

   “There’s a lot to apologize for.”
 

   “He’ll never listen to me….,” Hankyung’s sentence was cut off by the sudden burst of music that was blasting loudly from Leeteuk’s pocket.  
 

   “That’s Siwon,” Leeteuk sighed, removing the phone from his pants. “Maybe he wants to apologize for hitting you?”
 

    “Then why didn’t he call my phone?”
 

   “Hello,” Leetuek answered, accompanied by a deafening silence. Leeteuk’s face turned from a cheery, welcoming expression to one of alarm. “When….? Which one….? He’s right here. No…? Ok, I’ll be right there…,” After a few more moments of silence he flipped his phone shut and headed for the door.
 

    “What’s going on?” Hankyung questioned, shooting up from the sofa still clinching the pack of frozen vegetables to his face.
 

   “We have to get to the hospital. There’s been an accident.”
 

   “Who..?” Hankyung screeched.
 

   “Heechul..,”
 

I’m never going to dance again the way I danced with you….,

***********************************************************************************************************************************************************


     “I don’t understand.” Hankyung practically yelled as he and Leeteuk entered through the automatic doors of the local hospital. “What happened to Heechul?”
 

   “I don’t know.” Leeteuk answered, punching numbers on his phone. “Siwon said he got a call from the hospital. They said Heechul had had an accident. Then he called us and headed here.”
 

   “They didn’t say what happened to him, if he was ok?”
 

   “No. Now, be quite I have to call Siwon and see where we need to be going.” Leeteuk continued, stepping into the elevator and putting his phone to his ear.
 

    As Leeteuk began speaking franticly into his phone, Hankyung stared blankly at his reflection in the elevator’s metallic walls. The bruise around his right eye was turning a sickening shade of purple. There wasn’t a bit of make-up left upon his face and his cloths were full of wrinkles and tear stains. He was falling apart and now everyone could see it.
 

    It didn’t matter what he looked like really. All that mattered at the moment was Heechul. What had happened to him? Was he ok?  Of course he wasn’t ok. He’s in the hospital. What if the last words he ever said to Heechul were in anger? The last time he saw him had been terrible. The look in Heechul’s eyes as he left the room was heart breaking. That might be the last look Hankyung ever saw.
 

    “They’re on the 3rd floor.” Leeteuk began, shutting his phone. “Siwon’s meeting us outside the elevators.”
 

   “What happened?” Hankyung questioned punching the 3 button on the elevator panel. “Is he ok?”
 

   “Well…,” Leeteuk began slowly. “Apparently he crashed his car into a light post.”   
 

  “Oh my God!” Hankyung squeaked. “Is he…?”
 

  “Siwon says he’s in stable condition. He’s got a couple broken bones and some bad bruises…,”
 

  “Thank God,” Hankyung sighed.
 

   “But, he hasn’t woken up yet. The doctor said it was a result of the impact and he should wake- up soon. At the moment, they’re just waiting.”
 

     Slowly the elevator doors slid open to reveal a frantic looking Siwon and a confused Eunhyuk, holding four cups of stale waiting room coffee.
 

    “I figured we’d need this. We could be hear for a while.” Siwon, sighed handing Hankyung and Leeteuk a cup. Siwon’s eyes lingered a moment on Hankyung’s bruised face before he turned and headed down the hall towards the waiting room.
 

   “Hey,” Eunhyuk whispered, falling into step next to Hankyung. “What happened to your face?”
 

   “It’s a long story.” Hankyung answered. “Ask Siwon.”

    Eunhyuk shrugged and stopped in front of the waiting room. “Heechul’s in room 308, but they’re only letting one person go in at a time.”
 

   “It was so strange.” Siwon began, ushering everyone into the vacant waiting area where the rest of the band sat in a quiet shock. “Witnesses said he just ran right into the pole. He didn’t even look up. Luckily, he was in town and not driving very fast. If he had been going any faster….,” Siwon’s words trailed off as he slumped down into one the uncomfortable plastic hospital chairs.
 

    “It sounds like something had him distracted.” Shindong began. “I mean, it’s not like Heechul hyung to not pay attention to where’s he’s going. Yeah, he can be a major klutz sometimes…,”
 

    “Why don’t you ask Hankyung why he was so distracted?” Siwon yelled. “He might as well have crashed him into the pole himself!”
 

   “Siwon…,” Leeteuk stated, placing a hand on Siwon’s shoulder. “It’s no one’s fault this happened. Just because Hankyung and Heechul had a fight before he left doesn’t mean…,”
 

    “Oh, so you know about all this?” Siwon answered, rising from his chair. “How long have you known, Hyung?”
 

    “Well, I…,”
 

   “This has nothing to do with Leeteuk hyung.” Hankyung interrupted. “It’s my mess, not his. It doesn’t matter how long he knew about it.”
 

    “It does if he was keeping secrets from everyone. Were you two in on this together; playing and laughing behind our backs like a couple of teenagers?”
 

   “Siwon calm down.” Eunhyuk exclaimed. “I don’t know what all of this is about, but Heechul wouldn’t want us squabbling right now.”
 

   “You’re right,” Siwon agreed, once again taking a seat. “He always hated it when we fought. When he wasn't the casue of it, that is.”
 

   “Don’t refer to him like he’s not around anymore,” Hankyung whispered, hot tears filling his eyes. “I’m going to the restroom.”
 

    But, Hankyung didn’t go to the restroom. Instead he found himself standing outside of room 308. The only sounds that could be heard in the long sterile looking hallway were the steady beeps of heart monitors and light chatter at the nurse’s station. Hankyung stood utterly alone in front of Heechul’s door, listening to the mechanical rhythms of the monitors.
 

    Suddenly, the steady rhythm of one of the nearby monitors changed. It franticly increased in speed before bottoming out into a single ominous beep. Hankyung’s heart sank as the nurses from the station up the hall came running towards him.