There weren't many things Youngwoon cared more about than ice hockey.

No, actually, besides ice hockey, the only thing even remotely important to the 18- year old happened to be his family, maybe his dog. His best friends were quite high up on the list too, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the sport just might have happened to be his most favorite thing out of- well, everything.

Why?

Youngwoon had been playing hockey since he was a kid. It was definitely more than a hobby. There was no question that it would sooner or later become his choice of career as well. His parents supported this decicion fully, being very proud of their son. No matter how bad he did in school, no matter how dumb his best friends claimed him to be, there was one thing he was amazing at, and that was ice hockey. 

He belonged on ice.

You couldn't say he was graceful while on skates, not really. He wasn't smooth either. But he was strong, he was precise and he knew how to handle the puck. He wasn't afraid of getting himself bloodied up, he was tough. He scored goals with such force that the goalie of the opposing team felt intimitated to be between Youngwoon and the goal. He was big and bulky, he was scary, he was the perfect hockey player.

Youngwoon's team was the perfect hockey team as well. Some of them had been together since they were tiny juniors. They played together with practiced teamwork. There wasn't a single star in there, because in hockey, you didn't play like that. If you wanted to win, you played together, and that they did. No matter what, Youngwoon knew the guys would have his back, and likewise, he'd always be there for them. On ice, at least.

He was also well liked in school. Boys who played sports always were. Girls always liked boys who played sports. Many girls liked Youngwoon, and Youngwoon knew this. Sometimes, maybe even too well. He knew he should feel bad for all the girls he had played with, for all the broken hearts and mascaras running down their soft cheeks. But he didn't have time for that, for relationships, really. It was horrible, telling a girl who had done nothing but good for you, that you literally couldn't choose them over hockey. As cruel as it sounded, Youngwoon was too devoted to hockey to let another person to steal time from his precious sport. 

Yeah, there weren't many things Youngwoon cared more about than ice hockey.

On the morning it happened, Youngwoon woke up like he usually did. He slammed his alarm shut and groaned as he rolled out of bed. It was saturday. If it would've been a monday, maybe a tuesday, and the alarm would ring him to wake up for school, there was a high chance that after slamming it shut, he would have gone back to sleep. But it was saturday, and saturday meant practice and a game. A very important game, at that.

As he walked down the hallway towards the bathroom, he could still hear his father snoring. No surprise, it was merely 5 a.m.

After the necessities, a quick breakfast and a cup of coffee, Youngwoon headed back to his room to pull on sweatpants and their team's jersey, quickly gathered his stuff and went back to the kitchen to pick up his water bottle. He'd fill it later, so he just stuffed it into his bag. Brief check-up, skates, helmet, uniform, yeah, everything was there. His trusted hockey stick was waiting by the door, he put it there last night on purpose. The game today was extremely important, it would decide the faith of their team this season. They had to win.

On the morning it happened, Youngwoon took the same bus he always took to the ice rink, he saw the same faces he always saw, he did the things he did on every saturday morning he had a game. He did the same warm-ups with the same teammates, he put on the same uniform and listened to the same motivation speech by their coach as he always did.

On the morning it happened, Youngwoon couldn't possibly know what was going to happen. It was a pure coincidence. It could've happened to anyone, in his team at least. It was bad luck, bad karma, something along the lines of that.

The game started well, the team was in perfect kick. So was the opposing team, but Youngwoon knew they were better. They had so much more to offer than they did. Their teamwork was perfect, it was clear the other team lacked in that. They didn't know each other well enough to know how to work together as well as Youngwoon's team did.

Youngwoon scored the first goal. The youngest of his team, Henry, the second one. Youngwoon was going to score the third one, he had the perfect spot, he had the puck and the goal was basically open for him. As he prepared to make his strike, it happened.

The guy was big, even bigger than Youngwoon. He came out of nowhere, or maybe he had been following Youngwoon for a while already, but he was too focused on scoring the third goal to notice him. He took the desperate route to stop the goal from happening. Youngwoon only noticed him briefly from the corner of his eye, and then he was tackled onto the ice. Because of the extreme speed to both of them were sporting, Youngwoon crashed down with full force. Face first. The pain was unbelieavable, not only on his face and head, but the other player crushing onto his leg as well.

He could hear the referee's whistle blowing, everything went black and white and he could see stars in his blurry vision. Someone screamed something, actually, quite many people screamed. Youngwoon tried to push himself up from the ice, only to realize he couldn't do that, he couldn't focus his vision but he did make up the disgusting amount of his own blood on the white ice. He couldn't hear the sound of skates anymore, no cheering, it was suddenly very quiet, like everything was fading away.

On the morning it happened, Youngwoon fainted on the ice from blood loss, shock and extreme pain.

Heechul swore he'd never drink again. He did say that on every morning he woke up with a throbbing hangover and the taste of vomit in his own mouth, sometimes next to a stranger he'd never met.

This time he meant it.

He meant it because this time, he almost lost his life to alcohol. It was a car accident, fortunately the only thing that happened was a broken leg, but it was sheer luck that he only walked out of the crash with something so minor. The others were even more fortunate, and Heechul ended up being the only one who required medical treatment.

It was saturday noon, he had barely woken up. Actually, he probably would have slept until late afternoon at least, if it wasn't for the sudden noise that interrupted his beauty sleep. He was tired and still hungover and he wanted more of those pills the doctors gave him earlier because they made him feel good and now he definitely did not feel good. If he would have been home, and if it would have been his roommate making this noise, he'd shout at them to shut up and go back to sleep, but upon realizing that the noise was coming from another bed being transported into the room, with another patient, who - jugding from all the wires and the oxygen mask - seemed to be in a lot worse shape than Heechul himself was.

Heechul tried to peek at the newcomer. He was a curious person, he wanted to know.  As soon as the doctor moved away and Heechul had a clear face of the other patient, he turned his head away. 

It felt disrespectful to stare at someone's bruised and broken face. And it was nothing more than a boy, a boy who'd probably be intimidating if he'd be looming over Heechul, but right now he was just a boy whose state made Heechul's stomach churn. 

He looked liked he was beaten up. Horribly, at that. Or maybe it was an accident. Whatever it was, Heechul felt so sorry for him, something he hardly ever did for anyone. 

When Youngwoon woke up, it took him a couple minutes to register he was in a hospital. He was wearing a hospital gown and his face was stitched up, he knew that instantly, because he knew exactly how it felt like, having been stitched quite a few times already. He felt dizzy and groggy and something hurt all over his body, throbbing in his head and burning in his leg. He squeezed his eyes shut when the pain got overbearing, groaning a bit. Someone cleared their throat just besides his bed, and he opened his eyes to greet a man dressed in a white lab coat. A doctor.

A nurse was on the other side of his bed. "Nice to see you awake," she smiled, but her smile faded when the doctor looked at her with a stern expression. Youngwoon's heart jumped up to his throat. A look like that couldn't mean anything but bad. All the worst possible scenarios ran through his mind. He was going to die, wasn't he? Or worse-

"I have bad news for you," the doctor announced. Youngwoon couldn't even look at him anymore. The doctor started talking and Youngwoon didn't catch half of the medical terms he was using, but when he got the the point where he actually delivered the bad news, the words "- it might be impossible for you to go on ice again -" carved themselves into Youngwoon's brain, it felt like the doctor could've stabbed him in the face with a knife repeatedly, and it would've hurt less.

"I know this might be hard to chew for a young, athletic man, like you...," the doctor sighed. Youngwoon swallowed and nodded, unable to say anything more. The words of the doctor were slowly sinking in. The doctor nodded as well, before taking his clipboard from the stand next to Youngwoon's bed and left the room. The nurse adjusted the IV needle on Youngwoon's arm and fluffed his pillow for extra measure. She straigthened up and smiled at Youngwoon.

"Do you want me to inform your parents that you're awake now? Some of your teammates came as well, but unfortunately we couldn't give them access to see you," she frowned, Youngwoon wasn't sure whether she was faking it or not. He didn't answer, just continued to stare blankly at her and the wall behind her. "... Should I give you some time first?"

Youngwoon nodded. The nurse answered his nod and left the room with another one of her sweet smiles.

Heechul had pretended to sleep when the doctor had came in. He didn't like the doctor, he wasn't too old but he was annoying and would soon be asking questions about Heechul's leg and Heechul's leg's rehabilitation. Heechul didn't want that yet, he kind of only wanted to lie there and sleep and pretend he wasn't well enough to even stand yet, since the hospital bed was comfortable and they brought him food directly into his bed.

Heechul didn't know anything about the boy, but now he knew that he couldn't continue playing hockey anymore. So the boy was... had been, a hockey player. Now that Heechul thought about it, he did look like a hockey player. Big and bulky. Although, the boy didn't look so big and bulky lying on the bed on the opposite wall from Heechul, staring at nothing with such a desperate and empty look in his eyes. 

The boy's parents visited, his mother was crying and father fighting back tears as well. Heechul couldn't look, he tried to stare at his touchscreen and ignore them, but the woman's loud wailing and the sight of her arms wrapped around her son's neck, his black hair made it hard for him. He swallowed a strange lump that had appeared into his throat.

The boy still didn't say anything, just laid there and stared at the wall. His parents spent a good few hours there, until it got too late and they decided to head home. Heechul was left alone with the boy.

The thought that the boy didn't possess any kind of emotion flashed in Heechul's mind when he still showed no reaction when the doctor came in a showed him his X-rays. That thought was cleared from his mind as soon as they were alone again, the lights off as it was time to sleep. Heechul heard a sniff and a sob, and then some more sniffing and sobbing, until it was muffled by hands or a pillow. 

Heechul tried to cough to alarm the boy that he was, in fact, awake. He didn't want to hear it. Not because it was annoying, but it felt so horrible, he had never felt so bad for anyone as he did for the stranger on the other bed.

"!" the boy whispered and apparently punched his pillow and threw the cup of water from the stand to the floor.

"Good morning!" greeted a strange, new and way too cheery voice. Youngwoon blinked his eyes open and saw a man passing his bed and crossing the room to go sit next to the bed on the other side. The patient there was still asleep. Youngwoon hadn't really seen the other patient, or maybe he had, but he wasn't paying attention to anything anymore. He knew that it was a young man, maybe in his mid-late 20s. His leg was in a cast as well, just like Youngwoon's.

"Grhhghrgh," said the man as his friend, apparently, shook his shoulder gently. Youngwoon glanced at them. He kind of regretted throwing off the cup of water he had, because he was very thirsty right now and there was no sign of the nurse, or eve his mother.

"Wake up, Heechul, I don't have all day to be here," the new man frowned, eyebrows knitting together. "I brought you food. Don't worry! I didn't make it myself, it was Ryeowook."

So, the other patient's name was Heechul, Youngwoon noted.

Something the man said made Heechul sit up and grin widely. "Ryeowook, you say?" the other man nodded, smile spreading onto his face.

"He's so worried about you," the man shook his head. "Sungmin says it's getting annoying already. "

Heechul snorted as he shook his head, taking the lunch box his friend offered him. "Can you tell him to stop worrying? I'm more than fine," he opened the box and instantly stuffed something inside his mouth, letting out a blissful moan. "Oh man, I love Wookie, can I marry him," he said with his mouth full of food. His friend laughed. 

"I know someone who wouldn't appreciate it, planning to propose to him soon and all...," the man raised his eyebrows and Heechul's face turned into a wicked smirk.

"What?! Are you serious?!" he screeched, and his friend raised his hand up to signal that Heechul should be more quiet. "When?"

The two men kept on talking about something completely irrelevant and uninteresting to Youngwoon so he zoned out, returning to his new favorite past time; staring at the wall.

He had never felt so ing empty. 

He never realized just how much he cared about the sport until it became clear that he couldn't do it anymore.

What would he do with his life when the only thing that actually mattered was taken away?

"He's creepy, but he has his reasons for that blank look," Heechul commented as Leeteuk's eyes traveled to the boy who was sharing the hospital room with his best friend.

"Oh?" Leeteuk blinked and looked back at Heechul. 

"I don't know if even I'm allowed to know," Heechul made his voice a whisper and made Leeteuk lean towards him. "He's a hockey player, but got hurt so bad he's not allowed to play anymore. I found out his name and googled him, I know, creepy, but he was apparently the one with the best stats in his team, that's what their website says. Or, I don't know, I'm not that into hockey. That's what I gathered."

Leeteuk blinked again. "That's horrible... poor boy," Heechul rolled his eyes as he heard the overly familiar tone. Leeteuk was about to cry. "I wonder if he'd brighten up if I gave him some of these cookies Wookie baked?" Heechul whined as the other box was taken from the stand next to him. "Come on, you're going to get fat if you just eat and lie there."

"Would you still love me when I'm fat?" Heechul pouted.

"No," Leeteuk grinned. He stood up with the box but Heechul pulled him back down.

"Jokes aside, I don't think that's a good idea. Hey, I heard that your life got completely ed up, have a cookie!" Heechul imitated Leeteuk's well-known, overly happy tone. Leeteuk slapped his forehead.

"I'm not that stupid, I'm not going to say anything about it," Leeteuk stood up once more and crossed the distance between him and the boy. He boldly sat down next to him, but the boy's eyes were still fixed on the wall.

Leeteuk cleared his throat. "Hi," he tried. The boy turned his eyes slowly towards Leeteuk's nervously smiling face. "I, um, brought a bit too much of these for Heech- my friend! And I was just wondering if you'd like to share some of them with us?" Leeteuk could feel Heechul's glare from the white lie he told in the back of his head.

"Thank you," the boy said quietly and took the offered box, opening it carefully. He took one. "It's still warm," he smiled a bit and Leeteuk felt  relieved.

"I'm Leeteuk, by the way," Leeteuk almost offered his hand but decided against it.

"Kangin," the boy answered.