A/N: THERE'S A POLL IN THE NEXT CHAPTER ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF THE STORY, BASED ON THIS CHAPTER. PLEASE TAKE SOME TIME TO ANSWER IT <3 

In a weird turn of events, it was Chanhee that was the most calm. Woohyun had completely lost all sense of sanity; he had stormed out of the room to follow the doctor, and his shouts for an explanation could be heard even through the closed door. Niel and Jonghyun were sputtering nonsense, telling themselves not to get their hopes up, but at the same time, pleading out loud for Byunghun to wake up. Changhyun was crying--through his tears, he was crying out for Byunghun. Chanhee, from his place beside the bed, tried to get Changhyun to calm down, to stop crying, but it was to little use.

Chanhee still had a firm hold of Byunghun's hand, the top with his thumbs. 

He looked intently at Byunghun's sleeping face. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he seemed more…or rather, less pale than before. 

The doctor came rushing back into the room, followed by a man in a surgical outfit and three nurses. "We need all of you to leave this room. Byunghun-ssi may be ready to awaken from his coma. This is a critical stage, and many things can go wrong, so to prevent that we'll need to watch him cautiously. If you could just step outside--we'll let you know of any further details of his condition." 

Chanhee frowned, gripping onto Byunghun's hand tighter. He thought he felt Byunghun's finger's twitch slightly. "I don't want to leave him…please…" 

The doctor gave Chanhee a sympathetic look, putting on a smile. "Chanhee-ssi, he's in good hands. You can trust us; we'll do whatever we can to bring him back safely." 

Woohyun and the other boys were already reluctantly leaving, taking glances back to Byunghun before disappearing through the door. Quiet forms of protest were heard, but the doctor, the surgeon and the nurses either couldn't hear them, or ignored them. 

The medical staff were just waiting for Chanhee. Chanhee didn't want to leave Byunghun. He was always anxious and tense when he wasn't around Byunghun. He needed to know what was happening to him, and he wanted to be there. Being apart from him was the worst kind of request the staff could ask of him. Pressing his lips together to suppress too much of a frown, Chanhee Byunghun's cheek with his index finger, mentally saying an 'I love you' before slowly making his way out of the room. 

*****

Half an hour passed. That half hour turned into an hour. That hour turned into two. 

The boys were getting more and more restless with each minute that passed. 

"Does it usually take this long?" Changhyun broke the silence. All the boys sat outside Byunghun's hospital room, on the floor. They were all silent. Even Niel and Jonghyun, who were usually the mood makers, kept quiet. The minutes felt so elongated it was driving Chanhee to insanity. He tried not to cry, and tried not to panic. The first half hour was an okay bear-through--everything after that was just agonizing. 

"I don't know…I don't know. I'm sure he's fine." Woohyun assured, but even his voice was shaking. 

Coincidentally, the door to Byunghun's door opened. All the boys jumped onto their feet, they eyes wide with anticipation. Chanhee sighed in relief, and had stepped forward to enter the room, when a nurse abruptly slipped out, shutting the door behind her. She looked stressed, and incredibly worrisome. She looked as if she was rushing off somewhere, when Woohyun stopped her. "What's going on? Is there something wrong?" 

The nurse cowered away, looking off to the side. It looked as if she was shrinking away from his meeting gaze. 

Chanhee's heart dropped. 

"I-I'm not allowed to say, t-the doctor just s-sent me to get some m-more he-elp…" The nurse whispered, her voice breaking. 

Woohyun groaned, grabbing her shoulders. "That's my friend in there, you here me?! My friend! He's in there, and I need to know if he's okay!" He screamed, trembling. His face was terrifying--there was so much anger and distraught warped into his expression that the nurse started tearing up. 

"H-he…h-his heart stopped, a-and the-they r-revived it…w-we need m-more help, he i-isn't awaking a-and h-his condition j-just g-got worse…" 

"What? His heart stopped? Oh God--Please, let me go to him. Please!" Chanhee begged. 

"Yeah, you left us out here for two hours wondering what the hell was going on, and you said you would tell us updates on his condition." Niel snapped. 

The nurse looked at all the boys in shock. She didn't need to say it for the boys to know that she was terrified, and unsure of what to do. "I'm u-under strict orders I…I c-can't l-let anyone e-else in…" 

Woohyun completely ignored the nurse, marching inside the room. 

Jonghyun rushed over to Woohyun's side, trying to obey the nurse's authority and trying to prevent him from getting inside. But Woohyun already made it inside the room, followed by Niel and a bawling Changhyun. Chanhee was the last one to enter the room. He almost didn't want to see Byunghun on the verge of death--he didn't know if he could stand seeing him like that. 

Inside, the staff were huddled in a circle, discussing. Byunghun was attached to more wires. "Excuse me! Do you not see the boy on the bed?! He's dying and all you can do is stand around there talking, really?!" Woohyun started screaming. Jonghyun and Niel were trying to get him to calm down, saying that his screaming wasn't good for Byunghun. 

Chanhee expected the staff to kick them out right away, because they had initially said that no one but the staff was allowed in the room during this time. But regardless, he still walked over to Byunghun and took a firm grip onto his hand. 

It took a while for the staff to come to the conclusion to leave Byunghun in his current state. "His body is took weak; if we start trying to revive him, there's too good of a chance that we'll lose him. We're thinking of giving him a few more weeks of recovery time and, depending on his condition after that, we'll see what we can do after that." 

In a way, Chanhee was glad. He didn't want to risk Byunghun's life by trying to bring him back, especially when Byunghun was already slipping. At least in this way, Chanhee knew that Byunghun was recovering, and that there was a less chance of him passing. And, in the current state of all the boys, he wasn't sure if they all could wait while Byunghun was trying to be brought back to life--who knew how long it would take, and there was no way anyone would be able to eat or sleep. 

The doctor was saying sympathetic apologies, but Chanhee wasn't listening much. He doubted anyone was really listening--Jonghyun and Niel were trying to coax Woohyun out of his crazed state, and Changhyun was too busy crying the life out of him. 

With a small smile, Chanhee gestured for Changhyun to come to him, ready to comfort him.

*****

Six days passed. The doctor came in regularly, to check on Byunghun's condition, and said that he was improving. Woohyun was doubtful as ever, making snippy remarks about the doctor's credibility. "He said Byunghun was fine before, and he almost killed him! How can we trust a single thing he says?!" 

Not all the boys were in the room at the same time, except Chanhee. Mostly, it was just two boys in there at a time. The boys tried to get Chanhee to come home, to get some rest. But besides going to take showers, Chanhee didn't move much. The boys couldn't even get him to eat enough food. 

"Come on. We have to take Chanhee away from that room, he's depressing himself. Byunghun can't wake up to see Chanhee like that, we need to do something." Niel concluded to the boys one day, while they were having dinner. Chanhee and Changhyun were at the hospital. 

"Take him away where? To the amusement park? The movies? He isn't going to like any of that, he doesn't want to have fun." Woohyun spat. Since the whole situation, Woohyun had gotten significantly more sensitive, snapping at nearly every comment one made. The boys were used to this by now, but it was still weird to see how such a collected person like Woohyun completely cracked. They thought that this was affecting Chanhee the most, emotionally and physically, but Woohyun was a close second. All day, Woohyun spoke of how he was going "to kill the bastards that did that" to Byunghun. What was worse weren't his threats, but his sheer determination, the hatred and revenge in his eyes. Changhyun often prayed at night, hoping for Byunghun to get better not only for the sake of just that, but also because he didn't want Woohyun to go on a killing spree and lose himself. 

"We can just take him out on a walk, for some fresh air, and some food. It'll be good for him; better than being cooped up in that room all day." Niel suggested.

"I agree with Niel. We should help get his mind off of it for a while. Tomorrow, we'll get him outside, dragging him with us if necessary."

As they suspected, the next morning, Chanhee refused to leave Byunghun's side. 

He said he would be too anxious, too nervous and too guilty to go out. "I don't want to leave…I want to be there. I'm only at ease when I know that he's okay…" 

Jonghyun and Niel went up to the boy, who was now frail and vulnerable-looking, getting him up off the chair. "Come on, hyung. Just for a while. You can't let Byunghun see you like this, you know how worried he's going to be. Can't you do this, for him? 

After a few more minutes, Chanhee had finally, and very reluctantly, agreed to leave. They had compromised a time frame of three hours--just enough time for Chanhee to get a good meal and spend some time out. Changhyun and Woohyun were to stay with Byunghun, and Jonghyun made Woohyun promise not to go crazy and start swearing at all the medical staff. 

Chanhee took one final look at Byunghun, before sighing, accompanying Jonghyun and Niel out of the room. 

*****

As promised, three hours later, the trio returned back to the hospital. Jonghyun and Niel had managed to get Chanhee to eat, and walked around with him, talking about anything and everything they could to try to divert Chanhee's thoughts away from Byunghun. And, although Chanhee co-operated and contributed to conversation, it didn't take a genius to tell that Byunghun was all Chanhee could think about. It's like Chanhee was there, but he wasn't. 

Once they arrived in the ICU unit, they say Woohyun standing in front of Byunghun's door. Woohyun didn't say a single word, but the boys knew that something happened, and Woohyun was waiting for them to tell them something.