It was almost an hour later that he received a text from Sunggyu telling him that they were almost there. Sungjong hoped his eyes weren’t too red from the crying. He didn’t want more pity than he was likely to get already.

“I will not cry. I will greet them cheerfully. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry….” He started the mantra at a whisper and slowly increased volume until it was nearly a shout. No one came running to this shout though.

He heard them coming long before they jumped through the doorway. The boys were talking excitedly in the hallway about the comeback performance, not caring that they were in a hospital. Sungyeol and Myungsoo were the first through the doors. One went to each side of the bed and before Sungjong could say anything he was enveloped in their arms. The other members spread out around his bed.

“Guys! Let go of the injured person before you hurt him more!” Sunggyu said with a laugh.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo had been hugging him really gently but still released Sungjong to stand up.

Sungjong didn’t know what to say, “I…you guys….You guys were really awesome today!”

“We could have been more awesome of course, but yeah pretty awesome,” Woohyun said with a smirk which resulted in Sunggyu smacking him on the shoulder.

“What he means is it would have been more awesome with you there of course!”

Sungjong smiled, “And Yeollie-hyung you sang my part pretty good. But you can’t make me look bad by being so quiet! Move the mic closer to your face or sing louder! How many times have we told you this?”

Sungyeol looked taken aback but quickly was able to recover for a comeback, “And I’ve told you that they don’t turn my mic up enough. It was the mic again!”

“Yeah, the mic again…how can it always be the mic?” Sungjong joked.

“Anyway, I hope you know we were all really worried about you.” Hoya put in after the laughter died down.

Dongwoo couldn’t keep quiet after Hoya’s comment, “Yeah, it just isn’t ever quite right when someone isn’t there on stage with us. We missed you….”

Sungjong’s eyes started to feel as if they were going to tear up again at any moment, “Come on guys! Don’t get all sappy! It isn’t like I died or anything!”

The talk turned to the comeback performance with everyone trying to talk at once to outdo each other. Sungyeol was telling a story about how he pranked Dongwoo into eating a piece of soap by saying it was a chocolate given to him by a girl group member. Dongwoo was sputtering about how it really looked like chocolate and because of his solid belief that it was chocolate was the only reason he swallowed it.

Sungjong smiled, this was his group, his friends, and his family. He never wanted to be without them. He listened quietly to their stories for a few more minutes before finally taking a chance to speak during a lull in the conversations.

“So….can you guys tell me what happened to me?”

The silence after his question was terrifying but Sunggyu quickly stepped up, “Well, you fell….”

Woohyun mock punched Sunggyu on the shoulder, “I think he knows he fell!”

Sunggyu rubbed his arm and narrowed his small eyes at Woohyun, “If you had let me continue…”

Hoya shook his head at the two boys bickering, “There was a broken mirror on the ground where you fell. We are not sure how it broke or when it did but a piece of the glass stabbed you in the back.”

Sungjong winced, “Stabbed by a mirror! I wonder if I had broken it in my fall…and that was part of my bad luck?”

“Don’t say that!” Myungsoo finally spoke up, he had been sitting quietly with a hand on Sungjong’s shoulder the whole time, “You’re not cursed from breaking a mirror that lasts seven years, and we don’t want that.”

Sungjong smiled at Myungsoo, “Yeah, I don’t wanna be cursed either but it certainly feels like it. The doctor said….”

“Doctors are jerks!” Sungyeol cut him off, “Don’t believe everything they say! One time a doctor told me that I wouldn’t grow any taller. And you know what happened?”

“You grew?” everyone said at once.

“What!? No! Of course not! I got shorter!” Sungyeol said indignantly, “The doctor totally lied to me and got my hopes up for nothing.”

It was Dongwoo’s turn to mock punch and he smacked Sungyeol on the arm, “Oh please shut up you light pole.”

Sungjong realized they were all stalling, not wanting to hear what the doctor really head to say. Or not wanting to say the horrible truth. They knew, he knew they knew, but they were all trying hard to not know.