It didn't take Minho all that long to catch up with Onew, especially more so since he knew exactly where the leader was going. Standing guard the door that led to the waiting halls of the Intensive Care Units, Minho disallowed Onew from moving forwards once again.

"Seriously? Hyung?" Minho rolled his eyes. "Did you really think I was stupid enough to fall for that?" Minho held up the cup, revealing the debris of coffee powder and an abnormal lump that was the exact shape of Onew's painkiller pill.

"Minho, please. Can we talk about this later? You've already taken away most of my precious visiting time," Onew pleaded with frustration seeping through his voice.

"You even had to cheat and lie to me about this? What do you think you are? A robot?! Does it make you happy to suffer the pain like this?!" Minho scolded, completely ignoring Onew's pleas.

"Look, we can talk about this later; but now, I'm running out of time! If you can just move aside and let me take one small look at Taemin before we leave, that would make me happy," Onew begged urgently, watching the clock hung behind Minho just tick by.

"That wouldn't make me happy. If I let you see Taemin now, you'll never take your stupid painkillers," Minho reasoned.

"I wouldn't take them either way! I'll take them only if Kibum takes them, okay?! Stop wasting your time trying to get me to cave in, just go and convince Kibum instead and that will make both of us take those damn painkillers!" Onew screamed in anxiety.

"I'm not taking them," a familiar calm voice joined them.

"Kibum...? What... What are you doing here?" Onew stuttered, his brain moving faster than he would like. His tears quickly welled up as he looked between Jonghyun, Key and the manager. If they are here, that would mean...

"No... Nonononono! Get out of my way, Choi Minho!" Onew screamed.

"Forget it, Jinki, we are leaving," the manager placed a hand gently on Onew's shoulder. "And they would have thrown us out sooner or later if the both of you continued arguing here anyway."

“I don’t give a damn! Just for one minute! Just one minute will be enough, please!” His tears spilled over in desperation.

“Another day, Jinki. He’s just resting now, it really doesn’t matter even  if you see him since he wouldn’t even know,” the manager tried to put it across nicely.

“It matters to me, please! It... It was because of me... I just want to... the least I could do is to visit him... and... and apologize... and... just, please! Take it that I’m begging you,” Onew sobbed pitifully.

“Stop it, Jinki-ah, people are watching - your fans are watching. You’re disturbing the other patients,” the manager wrapped his arm around Onew’s waist, taking all his weight, and pulled him further away from the ICU; Onew just stumbled along weakly as he tried and failed miserably to pull back. The other members followed behind in a solemn mood.

“I don’t care!” Onew choked out. “That’s the last damn thing on my mind right now. I just... just wanted to see him for a moment... I- I worked so hard for it... I really did...”

“Shh, I know, I know. You always work hard but we’ll come back another day, alright? You can see him when he is a little better, okay?” the manager hushed.

“This is not fair... I worked so hard...” Onew leaned entirely on the manager now, not even using the crutches as he let himself get dragged away.

“I know, I know you did,” the manager just hushed. They entered the elevator and just for a second, Onew locked gazes with Minho. That gaze quickly turned into a glare.

“ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!” Onew clenched his uninjured hand over Minho’s collar, letting his crutch fall as he awkwardly brought the taller man closer. Key quickly reached down for the crutch as the manager tried to pull Onew away from Minho. Thank god there wasn’t anyone else sharing the lift.

“Choi Minho,” he hissed menacingly. “Have you any idea - even just a tiny bit - of how damn hard I worked just to earn those few minutes to see him?!” His low hiss blew into loud shouting by the end of the sentence, making everyone else cringe. Minho froze under both the leader’s tears and heart wrenching screams.

“I hope you are happy now,” Onew growled, throwing the crumpled collar away from him as he grabbed the abandoned crutch from Key and nodded his head slightly in acknowledgement of the other’s help.

Minho stared at the leader, who let silent tears fall as he stared out the window, and felt his heart squeeze yet another time. He had not intended to make Onew so miserable; all he wanted was to make him start taking his painkillers. Onew let out a weak cough, clearing his throat from all the crying and Minho winced as he watched the leader bow over his chest breathlessly. Not only had he not been able to reduce the pain, he made the elder hurt himself even more. Jonghyun tapped Minho’s shoulder, passing him a phone with a message typed out. Obviously, he too felt stifled by the heavy atmosphere.

What happened?

Minho gave a soft sigh and quickly typed into the phone before passing it back

M: I tried to force him to start taking his painkillers.

J: Force? Why did he get so upset? He wasn’t even angry at me when I tried to get him to take them too.

M: Yes, force - that’s why he is angry with me. I didn’t let him through to visit Tae until he agreed to take his painkillers.

Jonghyun frowned upon reading the note and gave a sigh.

J: No wonder he’s angry... That probably hurt him more than his wounds does.

M: Thanks, I’m feeling sooo much better about this -.-

J: Sorry, but I just needed to tell you. He just blames himself a lot for all that has happened - what with Taemin saving him and all. I understand your intentions and I wished he would stop hurting himself like this too; until he cried and told me that he was hurting not physically but internally. I was powerless against him after that.

M: But he was the second most injured one among all of us! We can’t just leave him like that...

J: For starters, don’t start doing what those idiots are doing. He’ll get even more hurt from that. For now, we just have to convince Key to take them instead. Kibum is stubborn, but Onew can be just as stubborn as well. Just try and help take over some of his responsibilities but don’t make it too obvious. He was unhappy when he found out that I helped him plot the formations; he thinks he is being a bad leader and a bad hyung -.- Don’t know where he got that stupid idea from.

M: Seriously? Sometimes he can be such a clueless idiot, why can’t he give himself some credit? He has been the one to help us through everything since the accident, especially with Kibum breaking down yesterday and this morning. And then there was me who didn’t even realize that he was in pain until Key told me - and to think that I even shouted at him this morning... Seriously, hyung, I really admire you for being able to help Jinki hyung.

J: It was really just coincidence. I had my moments too. I just happened to be still awake when I heard him sobbing; and when I tried to comfort him, he turned around and said : “Taemin?” I don’t even know if he realized that he said that aloud because he quickly wiped away his tears after seeing me. It was only then that I realized how much he was holding back in front of us. Realizing it is a start, I’m sure you will find ways to help hyung as well.

M: I can’t even imagine how many times he has been working behind the scenes if he just called out Taemin’s name like this. Taemin must have been the only one to support him during his low times all this while. God, I feel horrible.

J: Don’t; that’s just how hyung is, he didn’t want us to worry that’s why he hid it from all of us on purpose. Taemin was just the first to realize it. Now with everything that has happened, especially when Taemin is not around to comfort him, he accidentally let his true self show - and he doesn’t like that because he feels that taking everything into his hands makes him "a better hyung, a better leader.” -.- Just try to make sure that he doesn’t exert himself any more than he already is. Between the 3 of us, we can serve as a very big help to him. Fighting!

M: Neh, let’s do our best. Fighting!

Sorry if this chapter was boring T_T I just kind of went with the flow. 

I tried so hard not to add any vulgarities in there cause that's just not me, and then I was just idling around with google translate, translating the entire chapter into korean and back to english again, and the vulgarities just came out anyway T_T. The translated version didn't make any sense though :X. Like they translated 'force' into 'Strength' and 'the power' xP

@Joycechanxo: Aww, thank you so much >w< 

@Sweetboo: Mommy Minho actually kind of fits him pretty well LOL, just in a different way from Key's