Afflicted --]

V.

Taeil’s heart nearly broke as he held the weeping Minhyuk well until after his crying fit had subsided. He waved off the curious and worried glances of that handful of passing pedestrians all the while. He hated nosy people, but he supposed it was always an alarming sight to see a grown man crying and his friend consoling him in the middle of the sidewalk.

When Minhyuk finally managed to pull himself back together, the two didn’t speak a word as they returned to the dorm. Minhyuk suddenly found himself feeling exhausted and was craving a nap in his own bed, which had been neglected ever since Yukwon was admitted to the hospital. He bitterly figured one more hour (or two) away from Yukwon’s bedside wouldn’t hurt. And Taeil whole-heartedly supported his decision, kicking Zico out of the room so Minhyuk could go completely undisturbed.

“You two sure know how to disappear,” Zico mumbled as he established himself on the living room couch, behind Kyung who was now playing videos games solo.

“Sorry,” said Taeil. “We just went on a walk. Had a little talk. Minhyuk had a lot to get off his chest.”

“I’ll say,” Kyung piped up, not bothering to take his eyes off of the TV screen. “Hyung is a wreck. I’m glad he’s sleeping here and not at the hospital for once. It’ll do him some good.”

Zico and Taeil nodded, their conversation lapsing into comfortable silence besides the sounds of gunfire and war coming from the game Kyung was playing. Zico fidgeted with his phone while Taeil sprawled out on the couch, arms and legs spread wide, as he only vaguely paid attention to the game. He honestly debated taking a nap himself.

He was physically and emotionally taxed.

Kyung’s eye sight grew extremely blurry. Four hours of video games had certainly been a poor life decision on his part, but he was addicted. He couldn’t stop. Plus it was a much welcome distraction from his group’s problems that had been dragging him down.

Not that he wasn’t worried about Yukwon, he just didn’t like to dwell on all of the negativity. He knew he was powerless and decided to just sit back and wait to see it all play out.

Zico and Taeil were snuggled up on the couch behind him, having passed out for naps much like the rest of his group mates. Except Jaehyo. He had no idea where Jaehyo was but didn’t really care as long as, wherever the older boy was, he was minding his manners…

“Mental breaker… Mental breaker…”

Kyung’s ears perked up as the sudden, intruding sound of one of their songs filled his ears. It was someone’s ring tone. He turned around, trying to figure out who it belonged to but instantly let out a scream of frustration. All it took was two seconds of his diverted attention for his character to end up shot to death, ending the level he was currently playing.

Zico sat up instantly after hearing his friend scream. Groggy and disoriented, he couldn’t even manage to make a coherent inquiry as to what was going on. In his head he said ‘What’s wrong?’, but the syllables that actually came out of his mouth sounded more like a gruff, scratching “Bwha hung?”

“Your phone, I think?” Kyung shrugged, eyes glued back to the TV that had simply gone to a gray screen with the word ‘restart’ printed across in white.

Zico dug around in his pocket and pulled out the phone that had just stopped ringing. It was a missed call from Jaehyo. Zico cleared his throat a little before calling the vocalist back.

“Yo! Who told you not to answer my call?” Jaehyo huffed, indignantly on the other line.

Zico straightened himself up some more on the couch. “I didn’t mean to. I was napping. What’s up?”

“Oh, well okay,” Jaehyo’s voice softened a bit. “I need you and everyone else down at the hospital as soon as you can.”

Zico’s eyes widened. “Why? Is everything okay?”

He could practically hear an enormous grin in Jaehyo’s voice. “He woke up.”

“You jerk! I’m on crutches here!”

Minhyuk didn’t even apologize for nearly knocking a middle-aged man sporting an enormous black knee brace to the ground as he dashed through the hospital, the rest of Block B hot on his heels. Their manager got the van ready in record time and they made it to the hospital in an extreme short amount of time, but not short enough for Minhyuk.

He was mentally cursing himself. He didn’t need that two hour nap. Yukwon had been awake and he wasn’t there which had been the one thing he had been worrying about almost more than the other dancer’s injuries. Sleep is one of the few things people regret, but Minhyuk regretted it immensely at the moment.

“There you are!” Jaehyo called, his half his body poking out of Yukwon’s room. He waved to the group of boys rushing at him, as if a pack of running people was typical for the hospital setting, while nurses and other patients passing by glared.

“Is he still awake?” Minhyuk asked, desperately. “What’s going on in there?” It took all of his willpower not to push Jaehyo aside because he certainly didn’t want to hear the boy ranting about being disrespected for hours on end, like he typically would.

“Well… sort of, kind of,” Jaehyo replied. “I think he wants to go back to sleep. But Dr. Kim and a nurse are in there with him so all of their poking and prodding is kind of keeping him awake.”

“Let me see him.”

Jaehyo didn’t waste time stepping aside, Minhyuk hastily entering the room. The rest of the members opted to stand a bit further back and observe.

Dr. Kim held Yukwon’s hand while the nurse was feverishly scribbling down notes into the dancer’s medical chart. Despite apparently being awake, Yukwon’s eyes were shut tight as he laid in bed. His eyebrows were furrowed, showing he was upset or frustrated about what was going on. Jaehyo was probably right – the boy probably just wanted to go back to sleep. He was groggy on medication and was probably already so used to oversleeping that being awake was quite a chore.

“If you can hear me, Yukwon, squeeze my hand once,” Dr. Kim instructed his voice soft and encouraging.

Yukwon’s eyebrows knitted themselves even closer together. Minhyuk watched breathlessly, biting his lip. He only let out a sigh of relief when Dr. Kim smiled and he noticed that Yukwon’s hand was gripped tightly around the doctor’s.

“Good, Yukwon,” Dr. Kim praised. “Now, if you can still hear me squeeze my hand twice.”

It took a moment but Yukwon obliged. He squeezed the doctor’s hand once, paused briefly, and squeezed it again but dropping his hand back down onto the bed.

Dr. Kim looked at Minhyuk and smiled. “He’s exhausted,” he explained when he saw the worried look on the older boy’s face. He had seen Minhyuk at the hospital constantly and Yukwon’s parents had given permission for the members of Block B and their management to receive updates on their son’s condition, so he figured the two were extremely close. “He’s been awake for about an hour, but I’m pretty sure he had all intentions on just popping up to see what was going on and then going right back to sleep. Could you help me for just a moment?”

“Sure,” said Minhyuk eagerly. “What can I do.”

“I need you stand over here,” Dr. Kim said as he pointed the opposite side of Yukwon’s bed. “And I just need you to say something to him.”

Minhyuk frowned as he sat by Yukwon in his usual plastic chair. He looked up at the doctor, slightly confused as to what exactly he should do.

“Just say anything,” Dr. Kim encouraged. He took Yukwon’s hand in his again.

“Hey… uhm, hey Yukwon,” Minhyuk stammered. “I-I … uh, I was worried about you. I missed you. Are you feeling okay?”

“Squeeze my hand if you recognize this voice,” Dr. Kim said to the younger boy. “Do you know this person?”

It took a moment, but Yukwon gave Dr. Kim’s hand a light squeeze.

Minhyuk could feel tears welling up behind his eyes.

“Good, he remembers his friends,” Dr. Kim whispered to the nurse. “But let’s just make sure.”

He took both of Yukwon’s hands into his, stretching over the bed awkwardly.

“Pay attention to me carefully, Yukwon,” said Dr. Kim. “If you think this friend is Ahn Jaehyo, squeeze my left hand.” He demonstrated the action to Yukwon. “If you think this friend is Lee Minhyuk, squeeze my right hand.”

Jaehyo shuffled slightly further into the room at the mention of his name, his curiosity reaching a peak now that he felt he was involved. He looked at Minhyuk and offered him an assuring smile as they waited for what seemed like a small eternity for Yukwon to make his decision.

Minhyuk couldn’t hold back his frown as Yukwon clenched his fist around the doctor’s left hand.

Dr. Kim nodded a bit, letting go of Yukwon’s hands and standing up.

“Let’s not overwhelm him too much from the start,” He said, dismissing Yukwon’s incorrect answer. “It’s not easy coming out of a coma, especially not when there’s brain injury involved. We’ll continue working with him throughout the day tomorrow so he can get some more rest.”

The nurse finished scribbling her notes as Dr. Kim left. She looked at the boys, whose mood suddenly seemed a little spoiled.

“He’s disoriented,” the nurse said, hoping it would make them all feel better. “I’m sure he remembers you all but he just got confused and he perhaps just wanted Dr. Kim to leave him alone so he just used whichever hand he could get his body to respond with first. He’ll get better. You all just need to spend time with him and he needs to get used to staying up for long periods of time again. It will all get better in time.”

She gently reached out and patted Minhyuk on the shoulder before exiting the room.

The boys all gathered around Yukwon’s bed, quietly and just watched him. Yukwon’s facial expression softened up a bit now that he wasn’t being hounded by numerous commands.

“Is he asleep again?” P.O. asked.

“YAH! KIM YUKWON!” Kyung shouted, earning a slap to the back of his head from Zico.

“What did I tell you about yelling all the time?” Zico snapped.

The dancer didn’t stir.

“I guess he’s out again,” said Taeil. “Well… that was exciting enough… Minhyuk are you okay?”

Minhyuk snapped out of his thoughts of disappointment and despair (how could Yukwon not remember his voice?) and looked at Taeil he nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine. I’m just gonna stay here for a while. Maybe he’ll wake up again in a little while.”

Taeil sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want to go back to the dorm and get some more sleep. I’m sure your back was just starting to feel better after sleeping on an actual mattress.”

Jaehyo snorted in spiteful laughter. “Do you honestly have to ask such a dumb question, Taeil? Minhyuk’s not gonna budge. He already missed him waking up once. He’s never gonna do that again. Bet on it all you want, but he won’t.”

“I might go back later tonight,” Minhyuk offered. “Don’t worry about me. Please stop worrying about me.” He gave a pointed glare at Taeil, clearly trying to impress upon him that their earlier conversation wasn’t going to drastically change anything which meant that it would be in Taeil’s best interest to act like nothing was going on around the other members.

Taeil held up his hands in defeat, but rolled his eyes. He promised not to tell and he wouldn’t. Minhyuk was just being paranoid and overly cautious.

“Stay as long as you want then,” said Taeil.