By the time the other members arrived, Hyesung had already finished playing with the controls on his bed before finding the one that helped to sit him up, and using all of his AniPang hearts.  It didn’t take long before the door to Hyesung’s hospital room burst open to reveal the agitated faces of the other four Shinhwa members.  Eric gave Minwoo a scowl of disapproval, knowing full well that they had been speeding in order to get here.

              “Hyung,” Junjin rushed forward and shoved Eric aside in order to make room for himself.  Eric yelped and glared daggers at the back of Junjin’s head.

              “How are you feeling hyung?” Junjin gripped Hyesung’s hands in the same way that Eric had been holding them, but Hyesung could feel that there was a difference.  How odd.  Hyesung thought to himself.

              “I’m okay Jinnie,” Hyesung attempted a grin that turned into a grimace.  Junjin immediately became worried.

              “Is something the matter hyung?” The younger member began panicking and accidently pulled Hyesung forward.  The action jerked Hyesung’s back and caused him to scream.  Tears began to form immediately in his eyes due to the intense pain.

              “Hyung!” All the members jumped forward at his cry.

              “Ya!  Jinnie he just had back surgery!  Be careful!” Eric reprimanded the young man and moved to the other side of the bed.  Hyesung was slightly slouched forward, still in the same position that Junjin had pulled him into.  Eric gently placed one hand on Hyesung’s shoulder and the other on his upper back.

              “I’m going to move you okay?” Eric warned his injured friend.  Eric applied some pressure and began to slowly push Hyesung back against his pillows.  Hyesung shut his eyes tightly and bit into his lower lip to block out the pain.  It felt like his back was on fire.  As Eric continued pushing him back he wanted nothing more than for the leader to stop.  Eric tried to go as slow as possible seeing Hyesung’s face contorted in such intense pain.  Everyone remained silent until Hyesung was resting against the pillows again.  Hyesung let out a loud breath but kept his eyes closed.

              “I’ll get the doctor to check up on him,” Minwoo exited the room.  While this was going on, Junjin had moved to a seat by the window and watched with guilt filled eyes.  He felt so bad for putting his beloved hyung in such a state.  Eric went to the bathroom and returned with a tissue.  He began wiping Hyesung’s brow as a light sheen of sweat had formed on the younger man’s face.  Eric then used the tissue to wipe Hyesung’s bloody bottom lip where he had bit so hard that he broke the skin.  After a few moments rest, Hyesung opened his eyes and immediately fixed them on Junjin, whimpering in the corner.

              “Jinnie,” He lightly called his friend over.  Junjin lifted his head and revealed tear-filled eyes.  Hyesung nodded his head and smiled reassuringly.  Junjin sniffled and stood up, walking towards Hyesung’s bed.

              “Hyung…I’m so so-“ Junjin began but Hyesung quickly cut him off.

              “It’s okay.  Don’t cry, I’m fine,” Hyesung reached up a shaky arm and gripped Junjin’s hand.

              “I’m fine,” Hyesung repeated again so that the others could hear and so that he himself could hear it.  He would be fine, he would.  No matter what, he had to get through this.  For s, for his family, for his fans…everyone wanted him to be okay.  So he would be.

              Junjin stared at his hyung’s hand in his and squeezed it.  When Junjin had heard the news that Hyesung had been in an accident, he feared the worst.  His best friend, the man that had supported him for nearly fifteen years, was in the hospital in serious condition.  It all felt so surreal.  Junjin knew that as he got older the day that someone dear to him would die drew ever closer.  But Junjin had never thought that he would lose someone so precious to him so soon.  All of the members were more like brothers to him.  Just the thought of one of them dying was unfathomable.  But last night Junjin had come so close to losing one of his precious brothers and that had been the scariest moment of his life.

              Hyesung squeezed Junjin’s hand again; seemingly knowing what track his mind had taken.  I’m here.  Junjin felt the reassurance and smiled while crying tears of relief.  Andy and Dongwan watched the silent exchange and couldn't help but feel emotional themselves.  The past few hours had been like a living hell for the members of Shinhwa.  Like when Junjin had hurt his head, they didn’t know whether Hyesung would’ve pulled through or not.  Being able to talk and touch Hyesung had felt like a blessing from God.  Eric had returned to his blank expression, but the other members noticed that he made sure that he was always touching Hyesung.  The leader gained relief that Hyesung was right here with him.  Minwoo finally returned with the doctor from this morning hot on his heels.

              “Are you okay?  Please be careful with your back.  We operated just last night,” The doctor furrowed his brows in worry as he began to remove Hyesung’s sheet.  He paused for a second and rubbed his chin.  He fixed his gaze onto Eric and Junjin.

              “Can you two help me turn him onto his stomach?” The two men were hesitant, but nodded.  The doctor instructed the men on how to move Hyesung and positioned them.

              “Okay, slowly now,” The doctor directed as the three men lifted Hyesung.  Hyesung squeezed his eyes shut as the pain in his back came back.  Eric, who was positioned by his head looked on with a worried expression.  The process was painfully slow for Hyesung and the odd feeling of having deadweight from his waste down scared him.  When Hyesung was finally on his stomach the two Shinhwa members stepped back.  Eric and Junjin were sweating a bit from the effort of moving Hyesung’s body slowly and gently.  The doctor lifted Hyesung’s shirt to reveal his still scrapped and bruised back.  Hyesung’s abdomen was wrapped in bandages, so the doctor began to unwrap them.  After many feet of gauze, a long gash was revealed on Hyesung’s lower back.  The doctor took out his glasses to closer examine the surgical area.

              “Hmmm.  Well it doesn’t seem like any of the stitches ripped,” He continued to poke around the wound much to the discomfort of his patient.  All the Shinhwa members looked at Hyesung’s back, apprehensive on how to approach the topic.  The doctor began mumbling medical nonsense to himself and Eric squatted down so that he was eyelevel with the main vocalist.  Hyesung’s eyes remained closed and Eric observed the man with worry.  The doctor finally finished his examination and redressed Hyesung’s wound.  Eric and Junjin then repeated the painful and slow process of turning Hyesung back over.  The doctor increased the amount of morphine and then left.  Now that it was finally over, Hyesung was feeling extremely exhausted.  He had been through nothing but emotionally and physically painful experiences since he had opened his eyes and he wanted nothing more than to sleep and forget.  Eric noticed the younger man’s dangerously drooping eyelids.  He leaned in and positioned his mouth by Hyesung’s ear.

              “Sleep.  I'll keep the guys occupied,” He whispered.  Hyesung was too tired to even complain about Eric’s proximity and easily complied with the leader’s orders.  The other members were deeply involved in their own conversation and didn’t notice the two men’s tender exchange.  Hyesung quickly fell asleep.  Eric ran his hands gently up and down Hyesung’s arm as he watched the steady rise and fall of his chest.

              “Don't say that!” Junjin yelled all of a sudden.  Eric became irritated by his fellow member’s inconsiderate action.  He turned his head to glare at the group of men.

              “What’s a matter with you guys?  Hyesung’s sleeping,” Junjin was standing up with clenched fists shooting Minwoo a threatening glare.

              “All I said was that we probably have to push back our concert and album release,” Minwoo was exasperated with the younger man’s behavior.

              “So what!  It’s not hyung’s fault!” Minwoo looked at Junjin incredulously.

              “I never even said it was!  I was just stating a fact!  You’re so sensitive Choong Jae!” Minwoo raised his voice.  Eric was fed up with the men’s childish behavior and stormed over to them.

              “What is going on?” He hissed.

              “That’s not all!  Tell Eric-hyung what else you said!” Junjin refused to back down.  Eric turned to stare at Minwoo angrily.  Minwoo crossed his arms over his chest and refused to tear his gaze away from Junjin.

              “I said that Hyesung will have a hard time performing with us.  Him be paralyzed and all…” Minwoo’s voice grew softer and eyes sadder.  Minwoo was a realist.  He knew that what he was saying was cruel, but it was true.  There was no way that Hyesung could dance any of the Shinhwa songs anymore.  Unless a cure for paralysis was found soon, Hyesung would have a hard time performing with Shinhwa.  The mood of all the Shinhwa members noticeable darkened after what Minwoo said.  They all had realized it too.  What would become of Shinhwa now that Hyesung was paralyzed?

              “We shouldn’t just give up for Hyesung-hyung,” Andy looked at the older men.

              “I mean, here we are making a decision for him.  Hyung might not want to give up so easily,” Andy fixed his gaze onto the sleeping form of Hyesung.  The other members copied Andy until they were all looking at him.

              “Andy’s right, let’s not make any rash decisions right now.  We’ve gone through hard times before,” Dongwan piped in.

              “But none of us were paralyzed at the time,” Junjin muttered under his breath and the room became quiet again.

              “Either way, we’ll get through somehow… together.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not thinking of breaking up anytime soon,” Eric took on the role of leader in order to break the tense atmosphere.  The other men immediately voiced their agreements, bringing Shinhwa back into harmony once again.

              Hyesung didn’t wake up until the other members had left.  When Hyesung began to stir, Eric quickly rushed to his side.  Eric had decided to stay behind once again.  As the leader, Eric felt that it was his duty to take care of the other members when they were sick or hurt.  But Eric had always felt particularly protective when it came to Hyesung.  Whenever Hyesung was sick, Eric would go out of his way to cook for him and stay over at the younger man’s place.  Eric didn’t mean to favor Hyesung, it just happened.  Even he didn’t know the reason.

              Hyesung’s eyes slowly flickered open.  Eric grinned down at him and Hyesung couldn’t help but smile in return.  Hyesung blinked blearily and searched the room.

              “Where are the others?” He inquired.  Eric sat on the edge of Hyesung’s bed.

              “They went to their schedules,” Eric patted the sheets covering Hyesung’s stomach.  Hyesung didn’t push away Eric’s affections this time.  The older man’s actions comforted him.

              “Oh, and your parents came back while you were sleeping.  They said that they were going to pick up your brother and give him a ride to the hospital,” Hyesung groaned after hearing the leader’s comment.  Eric gave Hyesung a confused look.

              “Now I have to deal with his blubbering,” Hyesung pouted.  Eric knew that Hyesung hated worrying people.  The vocalist got embarrassed easily so Eric figured that the idea of having to comfort his younger brother too wasn’t very appealing to him.

              “So how are you feeling?” Eric let his hand rest on Hyesung’s chest.  Hyesung was about to respond harshly because he was getting irritated with everyone asking the same question.  But he stopped after noticing the older man’s expression.  Eric wasn’t really asking about Hyesung’s physical condition, he wanted to know how Hyesung was taking everything emotionally.  Hyesung sighed and avoided eye contact by fiddling with the sheet between his hands.

              “I don’t know.  It just still feels so surreal.  But I now know that I can’t avoid…this,” Hyesung harshly gestured to his legs.

              “All I can do is move forward and see what happens,” Hyesung continued to play with the sheet as the blush rose to his cheeks.  Eric was surprised by Hyesung conviction.  Hyesung was definitely a worrywart and things easily affected him.  Eric realized that Hyesung had truly grown while separated from the other members for four, long years.  Eric was proud that Hyesung was stepping up to the challenge.

              “Aww, Sungie!” Eric squealed and pounced on Hyesung, gently pulling him into a hug.  Hyesung’s eyes widened in shock and then quickly narrowed after realizing his position.

              “Yah!  Jung Mun Hyuk!  Let GO!!” Hyesung pushed against the other’s chest.

              “But you were so cute just now!!” Eric went in for a second attack and Hyesung held his hand against the leader’s face causing Eric’s head to turn sideways.

              “Just shutup!” Hyesung had turned bright red by this point as Eric’s arms flapped out towards the singer.  Just then, the door slammed open and the two men froze in that awkward position.  Hyesung’s brother, Jin Kyo, was standing in the doorway out of breath and with tears streaming down his face.

              “Jin-“ Hyesung began but was quickly cut off as his younger brother rushed forward.