Sungjong was released from the hospital the next day because the doctors said there wasn’t anything they could for him and all he needed was rest which he could do at home. They gave him a lot of pain killers for the ride back to the dorm since the ride would be bumpy and every little movement made his back hurt. Just getting from the bed to the wheelchair to the car was excruciating. He was sent home with the express instructions to not do anything but lay in bed for the next week.

Once the managers got him settled into his bed with an extra pillow to prop himself up, and left the room, Sungjong finally let the tears of pain fall. He looked around desperately for the bottle of pain killers only to see that it was sitting on the table out of reach.

“Who the did that?!” He growled angry to the empty room, and picked up his favorite teddy to punch. The familiar action made him laugh.

 I must be going crazy.  He thought to himself.  Instead of dwelling on the pain and the hopelessness of his current situation he flipped open the laptop computer sitting on his legs. The managers had at least listened to his request to hand him his computer. He needed something to entertain himself with for the next several weeks while he recovered.

Sungjong stared at the computer screen and had absolutely no idea what to do now that he had it on. He clicked listlessly at the different news headlines and read half heartedly about the woes of the world. The news was never all that pleasant.  His mindless clicking brought him to a news article about Infinite. About him specifically.

Infinite’s Youngest Suffers Debilitating Back Injury

Is this the end for Lee Sungjong?

Sungjong didn’t read any more than that and closed the computer lid. He bit his lip, and looked around the room. He would prove them all wrong. They didn’t know anything. They didn’t know how much he had already been through just to become a member of Infinite.  His thoughts were interrupted the door flying open to admit a bounding Sungyeol.

“Sungjong-ah!!!” Sungyeol yelled as he bounced onto the end of the bed, upsetting the laptop and nearly causing it to crash to the floor.

Sungjong caught the laptop and gave the older boy a glare, “Be careful. You break my computer you are buying me a new one. And a better one at that!”

Instead of saying sorry or even looking the least bit apologetic, Sungyeol nabbed the computer from Sungjong’s hands and flipped it open, “Sungjong, why are you reading things like this?”

“Didn’t you ever learn to ask first before touching other people’s things?” Sungjong grumbled and grabbed for the computer, which Sungyeol easily held out of his reach.

“I thought we were friends Sungjong-ah! Friends don’t have to ask for permission!” Sungyeol teased, but suddenly his face was serious, “But you know this article is just hype to get attention.  There is no way Infinite would abandon you!”

“Yeah I know…..”

“No really, do you know? You look like you don’t know this with that mopey look on your face!”

Sungjong reached over and punched Sungyeol on the arm, “YA! I KNOW IT! And I know that article is just crap. I didn’t even read past the title.”

Sungyeol must have decided that was good enough because he next asked Sungjong if he was hungry. Even offered to cook for him, which Sungjong knew was more a curse than a blessing, but he agreed to let Sungyeol make him dinner.  He even let him take the ramen packet from his snack storage drawer. Sungyeol ran off to the kitchen to cook, and Sungjong hoped that is all he would do.  Sungyeol wasn’t known in the dorm to be the best in the kitchen. There may or may not have been incidents with towels on burners and small fires.  The house had always survived his adventures in the kitchen before so Sungjong believed it could survive another. He silently wondered where everyone else was but since getting injured no one told him what the schedules were for the day.

He didn’t need to know anyway. He realized that Sungyeol had been gone for a long while, a lot longer than it takes to heat up some water and make a packet of ramen.

“SUNGYEOL! Did you eat without me?!” he shouted as loudly as he could so it would carry to the kitchen.

The response he got was a “oh !” and the sound of Sungyeol’s feet running towards the kitchen. Then a clang and a pot or a lid hit the floor and more cursing from Sungyeol. He didn’t smell smoke or hear the fire alarms going off so it wasn’t a big disaster. A few minutes later Sungyeol showed up in the room carrying a ramen pot and set it down on the bed next to Sungjong.

“I’m sorry, it is over cooked. I forgot it….” Sungyeol looked sheepishly at Sungjong.

Sungjong looked into the pot at the noodles which were three times normal size from their extended cooking; they looked as appetizing as eating worms, “What were you doing?”

Sungyeol looked amazingly distressed at that, “I umm…I wasn’t doing anything!”

“Right, right….just staring into space I bet…” Sungjong rolled his eyes and looked expectantly at Sungyeol.

“I may have been in Sunggyu-hyung’s room. And maybe I was reading his new magazine.”

Sungjong laughed, “That’s Woohyun-hyung’s mangazine ya know! Sunggyu is always complaining about the low quality magazines Woohyun brings into their room. How have you not heard them bickering about it before?”

Sungyeol laughed, “Well, he’s right! It is low quality!”

Sungjong looked at the noodles again and back up to Sungyeol, “Hyung, don’t you think we should just order some take out?”

“Are you buying?”

“No, you should buy for ME. I’m the sick one here.” Sungjong shot back quickly.

“You’re not sick!”

“Am too!”

“Are not!”

“Quit being so cheap, you’re the hyung here!”

“Fine, but don’t expect this to happen again anytime soon.”

Sungjong grinned, “Alright, but don’t expect your intrusion in Sunggyu and Woohyun’s room to be forgotten either.”