Onew strains his eyes open gingerly against the blindingly white lights above him and instinctively, he rolls over to his side and pulls the blankets over his head. “Jjong,” he groans, “switch the lights off,” he requests in a bare murmur. He tries to reason why he was getting such a strong throbbing against his head and struggles to fall back asleep against the pain and bright light glaring at him. “Yah, Jjong,” he calls out in annoyance once more, flipping in bed again.

“Jinki-yah,” a familiar voice called to him just as a gentle hand tangles in his hair soothingly. Onew stirs, letting out a soft sigh before he emerges out of the sheets.

“Nng,” Onew stretches his aching muscles as he opens his eyes to fight the glaring light. “Hyung,” he greets in a slur. “Do we have a schedule this morning?” he asked sleepily. Onew clearly remembered they had the morning to sleep in that day.

“Jinki-yah,” his manager intonated a voice of worry. “Schedules are cancelled for today. You’re in the hospital, Jinki-yah.”

“Hospital?” Onew asked, frowning in puzzlement, the words not completely registering in his mind. The manager holds his gaze and nods gently, the worry still etched in his features despite the small comforting smile he puts on. “Did… Did something happen?” Onew struggles to sit up, now both confused and alarmed, but his manger quickly eases him right back into bed.

“Stay still for a moment. Let me call the doctor in to make sure everything is alright with you before you accidentally hurt yourself again.” The elder of the two then moved to press a small button by the Onew’s bed. “You fell down the stairs at the dormitories yesterday night, Jinki-yah. It really gave us quite the scare when the hospital called me this morning after they got you in.”

“Me…? I… fell down the stairs…?” Onew repeated after the manager, not believing the words he heard. The manager nods again. “But I remembered going to bed yesterday night,” Onew squints his eyes in recount. “Why would I have-” Onew started to formulate the question but the door pulled open for the doctor and the nurses to enter the room and his manager stood to greet the crew with a polite bow.

“I’ll explain everything later, Jinki. I’ll go get the other members back here, okay?” the manager smiles gently and pats Onew’s hand in parting; the singer could only nod in agreement. The manager then turned to the doctor to report dutifully while he headed towards the exit. “He just woke up about 3 minutes ago, songsaengnim.”

“I understand,” the doctor smiled at the manager and gave a slight bow. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him. Please wait for a few moments outside the room,” the doctor instructed politely. The manager thanked the doctor before stepping out the room and sliding the door close behind him.

The doctor lays a hand on Onew’s forearm as she dug into her pocket for her apparatus. “I’m Doctor Sim, I’ll be taking care of you during your stay this time,” the doctor introduced herself and for some reason, just that small gesture seemed to ease a little of Onew’s worries. He nods his head in a slight bow in return, muttering a small ‘please take care of me’ in response.

“Well, first things first, how are you feeling, Jinki-sshi?” the doctor pulls out a small torch from her pocket, but waits for a reply before doing anything.

“Um… really confused… a little disorientated, I guess?” Onew answers with uncertainty but the doctor simply nods along, as if expecting such an answer.

“Don’t worry too much about that. You had a bad concussion and feeling a little disorientated after is common,” the Dr Sim assured. “Can you look forward for me, Jinki-sshi? I’m going to shine the light in your eyes, so bear with me for a little.” Onew does as he is told and the doctor shines a soft light at his eyes.

“Is it normal to lose part of your memory due to it as well?” Onew asks worriedly. “I can’t remember the incident that landed me here,” he explains. Dr Sim hums an affirmative, snapping the switch of the torch off.

“It is not unusual for that to happen to concussion patients, but from the looks of it, you should be just fine. Don’t worry too much about that. Lots of rest and you should recover nicely in no time at all,” Dr Sim offers an assuring smile. “I spoke to your orthopedic doctor, Dr Cho, about your injuries and he will continue to care for you in regards to all your fractures and realignments. He will be coming down to see you in a while to explain you everything about the implications of the fall on your bones. Just a little gist of it, your arm got fractured during the fall and your injured shin bone from before had to be realigned so recovery on those points is going to take slightly longer than was anticipated before.”

“I broke my arm?” Onew barely breathed out in surprise. His doctor only nodded sternly.

“Dr Cho will tell you more about it later, but yes, there is a fracture in your forearm,” she explains patiently. Onew fiddles his fingers around the cast put around his now broken arm nervously.

“I have also heard from Dr Cho that you seem to be quite the workaholic, so I’m going to inform you now that you would be required to stay right here for a few more nights. You lost a lot of blood from the fall and it would be dangerous for you to go around in your current condition. It would do you good to rest up and just let your body catch up on healing all the wounds it has incurred,” Dr Sim instructed firmly and Onew could only sigh in resignation with the doctor’s words leaving no space for any arguments.

“Now that that is clear, I’ll let your friends back in. I’ll adjust your bed up for you. If there is anything you need, or any discomfort at all, let any of the staff know and we’ll take care of you,” the doctor instructed as he pressed on a button on the remote attached to the bed, allowing the mechanisms to shift the bed to a more comfortable sitting position.

“I understand. Thank you for your help songsaengnim,” Onew thanked gratefully. After the doctor and nurses left with a parting ‘rest well’, it did not take much longer for his band members to push through the door, rushing into the room. 

“Hyung!” they each greeted in overlapping voices of panicked worry. “Hyung, how are you feeling?” “ Hyung, does it hurt?” “Hyung, are you alright?” they each asked.

“Shhh,” Onew soothed the frantic members. “I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m fine.”

“How can we not worry, hyung?” Key cried in frustration, angry tears staining his cheeks. “We were all so scared that something bad had happened to you!”

“Why didn’t you wake me up, hyung?” Jonghyun continued. “I told you to wake me up if you were going somewhere!” Jonghyun reprimanded the elder between wiping away his tears.

“I-… I’m really sorry, Jjong. I… I really don’t remember what I was thinking at that time, leaving the house alone. What… What happened? I can’t remember… I know I went to bed to sleep last night, but anything else that happened after… I can’t recall a thing. The next thing I knew from there was just waking up here,” Onew explains himself.

“Ah… right,” the lyricist agreed, taking in deep breaths to calm himself down. “The doctor did mention something along those lines.”

“It doesn’t matter now, hyung,” the tall rapper comforted. “All that matters is that you are alright.”

“Well… Yeah…” Onew agreed only half-heartedly. “Songsaengnim said I’ll have to stay for a bit though,” the leader turns to direct those words to the manager, so that the management could be informed there forth. “The recovery for my bones was also delayed, so I’m worried about the concert and the other schedules we have,” he clarified with a dejected sigh.

“Don’t think about that for now, Jinki-yah. I’ll talk to the management and see what we can do. We’ll handle everything, you just focus on getting yourself back into good health for now, okay?” their manager assured.

“Yes, hyung. I’m sorry for causing all the trouble and worry,” Onew graced a tiny embarrassed smile at the elder. When the manager responded with a gentle smile and a shake of his head, Jinki recalls the promise he was made before Dr Sim came in to check up on him. With curiosity biting at him, he couldn’t help but ask once more. “But hyung, what… what time did I leave the dormitories yesterday? And where was I heading? What… What actually happened?” Onew questioned. He watched s glanced nervously amongst themselves and silence coveted the room for a good moment.

“We… we aren’t exactly clear on that either, hyung.” Key started. “You got a phone call from Taeminnie’s Umma around 4A.M. from what we gathered from your call log,” he explained carefully. Onew furrowed his brows at that statement, already conjuring possibilities of the weight of that call.

“We don’t know what she told you but we think you left the dorms immediately after that call. We have not called Taeminnie’s Umma to ask just yet,” Jonghyun added.

“I got a call soon after,” the manager piped in and Onew shifted his focus to the elder attentively. “The ahjussi living above all of you was going out for a jog when he found you unconscious in the stairway. He called the ambulance immediately and when they got you to the hospital and figured out your emergency contacts, they call me. When I called back to the dorms, all of them were still asleep,” the manager gestured to the rest of the members present in the room. “They didn’t even realize that you went out.”

“That’s… That’s strange…” Onew knitted his bows together in deep thought. “And Taemin? Did something happen to him…? Was that why…? Was I possibly heading for the hospital…?” Onew asked nervously, taking in a deep gulp as he watched the members carefully for he knows their expression would betray their worry should the youngest member have met and mishap. As he watched, he could see the worry they had for the dancer, but somehow it didn’t seem like they were especially anxious about Taemin.

“He’s alright now, hyung, so you don’t have to worry too much,” Minho stated first to hopefully calm the leader’s nerves. “We were talking to him earlier before manager hyung came to get us. Taemin’s… he’s still a little weak. The doctors said he had a sort of an episode yesterday. They found him sobbing and clutching on to his chest when his meters went crazy. They aren’t sure if the reason for his crying was because of the pain, or if his initial crying was what set off the pain from his wound reopening. Apparently there was a tear in the stitches in his lungs and the blood started to accumulate in his lungs so he had difficulty breathing properly. The doctor had to drain the blood from his airways and stitch the wound back up. Everything went well and he just needs to take things easy for now,” Minho recounted with as much details as he could remember.

“Ah… I see… That’s good…” Onew murmured more to himself than his audience.

“Well, the doctors say they don’t know if he was crying from the pain or the crying started the pain, but when we were talking to him earlier, I’d guess it was the latter,” Jonghyun continued. Onew shot him a confused expression and the composer squeezes out a strained smile for the leader. “He was feeling bad for the happenings yesterday. He did mention that he gave it a lot of thought and reflected on what he said to us; he even apologized earlier.”

“Are you sure you guys did not force it out of him?” Onew teased jokingly with a stout laugh.

“Of course not!” the members protested. It was only after a short pause did rolls of laughter follow.

“Taeminnie was being very brave, and I think he would only get stronger from here forth,” Minho commented idly. “So hyung, don’t worry too much about us. Just worry about yourself. We’re all going to be fine as long as you get yourself back up on your feet again.”

I know that this is a /meh/ chapter especially after a whole year's wait for me to update, and I truely apologize for that but I really want to get back on this story and start updating again and this was what my brain could conjure up at this moment. I am working on the next chapter right now, and hopefully I can finish that soon. Once again, sorry for the wait and thanks for sticking with me <3