“What are you smiling at?”

Jonghyun, who had peacefully been stacking the key-cards in neat little piles behind the reception desk of the hotel he worked in, jumped and spun around to come face to face with his co-worker, Kibum.

“I’m not smiling,” he said and frowned at the black-haired, younger man.

“No, you’re right,” Kibum agreed with a small laugh. “You were outright grinning like a dufus.”

Jonghyun chuckled sheepishly.

“I was?”

“Yeah.” Kibum smiled and leaned against the counter beside him, crossing his arms. “Care to share?”

“Well...” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, putting one last card into the pile. “I was just thinking about yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“I met this guy who looked really heartbroken at the hospital and somehow ended up talking to him after giving him my hot cocoa,” Jonghyun explained, glancing at his co-worker. “He seemed to feel a little better afterwards, so I was just glad I did something good.”

Kibum looked amused.

“And he was apparently good looking.”

Jonghyun laughed embarrassedly.

“How’d you know?”

“I told you, you were grinning.” He pinched Jonghyun's cheek. “You’re lucky you were able to meet a handsome guy in a hospital of all places. How else would you ever have a chance at romance, with you practically living there?”

He grimaced at Kibum.

“I’ll have you know, there are very pretty nurses there. And also some handsome doctors.”

Kibum snorted.

“Sure, like you'd ever have a chance with them. They’re too smart for you.”

“Hey,” Jonghyun said in mock hurt, lightly punching his shoulder in retaliation. Kibum laughed, sticking out his tongue before sauntering away to help a guest.

Jonghyun shook his head with a small smile and decided to check through the week’s bookings and conferences. It fell a little though, as he thought about what Kibum had said while he clicked on the calendar on the reception desk’s computer.

Sure, the stranger had been good-looking but if Jonghyun used the opportunities when they met – which probably were going to come by often in the hospital if the stranger had someone to visit – to flirt wasn’t he just going to take advantage of the stranger's weakened state? Because there was no denying he found him interesting. However, he had to have lost someone very important for him to look as lost as he had that night, maybe even his lover, and Jonghyun wasn’t so sure he liked the idea of being a distraction or rebound.

Well, he thought as he moved over to allow Kibum to get a key-card ready for the guest he had been helping, he’d just have to talk to the stranger again and get to know him – that is, if he even came back to the hospital at all.

~*~

Minho sat down heavily in a chair by the kitchen island in his apartment, staring at the plates of food laid out for him disinterestedly. He had not been able to sleep at all last night, his head spinning with regret and his heart heavy with sorrow.  When he actually managed to doze off, his dreams were filled with either having to watch Taemin getting hit by a car or being in the hospital after they had been forced to stop his life support. And now he was feeling like absolute because of it, not really in the mood for anything besides lying in bed and crying his eyes out.

“So, what do you want to drink?” Jinki asked as he took out a mug for his tea from the cupboard above the sink. He had stayed over at the apartment Minho and Taemin shared since he was reluctant to leave Minho alone. Which was the only reason Minho had bothered to get up at all. He didn’t want to worry Jinki more than he already had. “Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?”

Minho frowned and gave Jinki a weird look. He never drank hot chocolate. He hated the stuff.

“Hot chocolate?”

“Yeah…” Jinki said hesitantly. “You drank it yesterday… in the car, remember? I just assumed…”

His voce died out uncertainly and Minho didn’t really like the hesitant look on his face – like he was unsure of how to talk to him.

“Oh…” he said slowly.

He hadn’t really thought about it. When he had taken the cup from the stranger yesterday, his mind had been so occupied by trying to keep himself together he hadn’t bothered to remember he hated hot chocolate. Although he had to give it to the stranger, the beverage actually made him feel warmer inside.

“Thank you, but coffee’s fine,” he mumbled to Jinki who nodded and put his now finished tea on the island counter to quickly make a cup of coffee for Minho.

“So,” he said tentatively when he sat down as well, pushing the cup of coffee to Minho's side of the countertop. He took it between his hands and stared at the black liquid unseeingly, hearing Jinki speak as if he was far away. “Have you told your parents?”

Minho winced and grimaced.

“No.” He glanced up at him. “They’re on their anniversary trip and I don’t want to spoil it for them. They’ll be here in a week anyway.”

Jinki looked like he disagreed but let it be.

“Are you going to tell her?”

Minho bit his lip in thought for a moment, turning the cup in his hands before taking a sip, stalling.

Taemin's mother hadn’t shown much interest in her son even before he ran away, even less when he finally did. It had broken Taemin's heart but he had said that somewhere deep down he had always known she would jave an easier life without him. He reminded her too much of his dad. Minho's heart had ached for his best friend and he had decided he never wanted to let him feel unwanted ever again. His parents hadn’t put up much of an objection when he’d told them about Taemin staying with them for a while and it wasn’t long before Taemin permanently moved into their guestroom. He had worked hard to go to both school and a part-time job in order to pay back what he could to Minho's parents, who at first refused the money but accepted it on Taemin's insistence – if only to use it on the boy themselves. Taemin never knew that, though.

“Yes,” he answered softly. “I think I’ll find her and tell her. His mother should at least know even if she doesn’t want to visit him.”

Jinki nodded and reached over to pat his arm before he started to eat, a small frown on his forehead. Minho picked at his food absentmindedly, not really having much of an appetite and trying not to mind the emptiness and quietness without Taemin at the table. He swallowed around the lump in his throat, which seemed to have taken up permanent residence there ever since yesterday.

“Did you tell him?”

He froze when Jinki decided to break the silence with his question. Then he let out a harsh breath, not at all prepared to get into this topic, especially now.

“No,” he croaked and cleared his throat. “I-I couldn’t find the time and place and–”

“Minho, you’ve had feelings that are not brotherly for him for years,” Jinki muttered. “And you might’ve just lost your chance.” Minho gave him a burning look and he flinched. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. But you see my point, right?”

“Hyung, I refuse to believe Taemin won’t wake up,” he growled. “And I won’t let you say otherwise.”

“Minho,” Jinki sighed. “I don’t want to believe he won’t wake up either, but you have to be realistic. It is a real possibility until the doctors know more about his situation and what to do about it. Right now we can’t know if he will wake up for sure.”

“Hyung,” Minho rumbled warningly, the lump in his throat growing bigger. “He will come back.”

Jinki watched him silently for a moment, a pained expression on his face. Minho bit his lip, trying to hold back the tears that were now pressing behind his eyes and he could see tears gathering in Jinki's eyes as well.

“I really hope he does,” Jinki said unsteadily before giving a shaky smile, blinking to get his tears away. “Who’d want to be stuck alone with your sorry anyway?”

A small, trembling smile managed to make its way onto Minho's lips too and he threw his napkin at him.

“Anyway,” Jinki said as he caught it, clearing his throat so it wouldn’t sound choked with tears. “How come you drank hot chocolate yesterday? I thought you really hated that stuff.”

“Oh, well…” he said hoarsely. “A stranger gave it to me.”

Jinki raised his eyebrows sceptically.

“A stranger. In the hospital.”

He nodded.

“And you just accepted without questioning it? Are you sure it was just hot chocolate?”

Minho gave him a disbelieving look.

“He seemed nice enough,” he tried to defend. “It didn’t taste funny or anything.”

“Sure,” Jinki said unconvinced.

“Hyung, I really don’t need this right now,” Minho groaned. “It’s hard to keep it together as it is! I wish he’d actually put something in it! It would have made it easier to handle this !”

Jinki's face fell.

“Don’t say that.”

Minho looked down at his food guiltily, starting to pick at it again.

“Sorry,” he rasped out, a tear silently gliding down his cheek without his permission.

“Minho,” Jinki sighed. “I know this must be really hard for you. You’ve spent almost your entire life with Taemin. But please, don’t ever do drugs or drink or anything of the sort to get away from the pain.”

He got up and made his way around the kitchen island to put an arm around Minho's shoulders and pull him to his chest, patting his head softly with the other.

“Besides, when Taemin wakes up and finds out you did something like that he’d kick your ,” he chuckled weakly.

Minho was thankful Jinki had used the word ‘when’ instead of ‘if’, once again putting a small smile on his lips.

“He’d kick yours too for not keeping me away from it,” he retorted, drying away the stray tear.

Jinki pulled back to give him a mock hurt expression.

“Hey, I tried. I just gave you the speech.”

Minho's smile widened a little.

“Thank you Hyung,” he mumbled.

Jinki gave him a satisfied nod before looking at the clock and sighing.

“I need to get to work,” he muttered. “They wouldn’t let me take the day off. I already called your boss and explained the situation and he gave you three days to recover.”

Minho nodded.

“Okay.”

“Try to eat a little at least,” Jinki said with a pointed look at his untouched food before putting his dishes in the sink and heading for the hallway. “And I’ll probably see you at the hospital tonight, right?”

He nodded again. Jinki gave him a small smile and wave before disappearing behind the corner to the kitchen. There was a rustle as he put on his jacket and shoes before he called ‘bye!’, the door opening and closing, leaving Minho alone in the apartment.

He let out a heavy sigh and grimaced. It was difficult to breathe, as if a heavy stone was resting on his chest. He eyed the food on the table tiredly, wrinkling his nose as his stomach roll unpleasantly. He was sure that if he tried to eat he would just throw it up. He stood up heavily, leaving the plates where they were since he didn’t have any energy to clean it up, and made his way back to his room. He flopped down on the bed again to collect himself for a few minutes before he needed to get dressed and leave for the hospital.

~*~

“Is there a reason you keep twisting your neck in impossible angles?”

Jonghyun snapped his head back towards his grandmother who smiled at him warmly. She shook her head and put down her knitting tools in her lap to take a sip from the glass of lemonade in front of her.

“I… don’t…” his voice died out as her eyebrows rose and he picked at the napkin on the table in front of him.

They were sitting outside, enjoying the late spring sun with a glass of lemonade and some cookies Jonghyun had bought on his way to the hospital after his shift at the hotel three blocks down.

“Is there someone you’re looking for?” she asked, sounding very amused.

“Well…” Jonghyun rubbed the side of his neck with an awkward laugh. “I was just looking for a guy I bumped into yesterday… he was really down and I was wondering if he would come back.”

His grandmother’s smile fell.

“He must have visited someone very dear to him.”

Jonghyun's hand dropped to his lap and he stared at the condensation on his glass, a small frown on his forehead.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I hope he is all right. He seemed very out of it.”

His grandmother reached over the table and patted his cheek.

“You really are a busy-body, boy.”

“Hey!” Jonghyun laughed. “If I wasn’t such a busy-body you’d be left all by yourself!”

His grandmother rolled her eyes.

“Jonghyun, dear, I know you don’t want to make me feel lonely and I know your mother told you to keep me company, but I don’t need constant supervision.”

Jonghyun pouted, trying to look cute.

“So, no ‘thank you for your effort’?”

“That look won’t work on me, boy,” she laughed and pinched his cheek. “I was the one both you and your mother inherited it form after all.”

He grimaced at her before laughing.

“I feel sorry for dad. He can never refuse any of us.”

His grandmother chuckled, picking up her knitting tools again, and they settled into a comfortable silence. Jonghyun bit his lip and glanced around one last time before deciding he was being too desperate for someone he had barely even talked to. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the backrest of the chair, letting the sun warm him up. However much he tried, he couldn't help his thoughts drifitng to the stranger and he wondered if he would be okay. He had seemed so heartbroken it looked like it was eating him up from inside out.

He dozed off with a small frown on his forehead.

~*~

Minho raised his head from its hanging position, watching the pale and bruised but peaceful face of Taemin. His grip on Taemin's hand tightening and he tried to swallow the lump of tears in his throat, glancing at the heart monitor. He had been sitting there the entire day, trying to talk to the motionless form on the bed since the doctors had told him it might help. He hadn’t gotten many words out because he choked on every other sentence he tried to speak. He had given up on talking after half an hour and had just sat there silently for the rest of the day, barely noticing the sky growing darker while holding Taemin's hand, a stray tear running down his cheek every now and then.

He jumped a little when the door opened and turned to see Jinki in the doorway. Jinki gave a small pained smile at the blank look on his face and Minho tried to look a little livelier than he felt, clearing his throat.

“Hey, Hyung,” he rasped out.

Jinki sighed and made his way over to the bed.

“Have you eaten at all today?”

Minho blinked at him. He had honestly completely forgotten about food or anything of the like. Jinki shook his head.

“Go and get something to drink at least if you don’t want to eat, we can’t have you passing out from dehydration,” he said as he came to a stop beside him. “I’ll stay here, don’t worry,” he added when he saw his unsure look.

“Thank you, Hyung,” Minho mumbled and stood up on stiff legs.

Jinki squeezed his shoulder before he took Minho's seat. He gave Jinki a weak smile and made his way out the door and down the corridor to the vending machines he had seen when he was there last time – where he had met the stranger. He looked at all the available products before sighing and flopping down on the uncomfortable couch, feeling like he would vomit if he ate or drank anything, much like he had felt that morning. He sat staring blankly at the glass of the vending machine to pass some time before going back so he could pretend he had eaten or drank something; he hadn’t decided which lie to tell yet.

He could see his own dishevelled reflection in the glass and scowled at his tousled hair, which he hadn’t bothered to comb this morning, and his rumpled white shirt. He was glad he couldn’t really see his face properly because he was sure he looked like hell. He was certainly feeling like it.

He glanced at the clock and his eyes widened when he noticed it was almost midnight. Letting out a small groan, he sank down on the couch, leaning his head on the backrest. He closed his eyes, listening to the nurses talking to each other in low voices and the elevator ding in the distance. Heart monitors were beeping all around him in the quiet night air and he couldn’t help but think what would happen if Taemin's suddenly stopped.

A small gasp made him open his eyes again and lift his head. His gaze fell upon the blonde stranger he had met yesterday who was now looking at him with wide eyes. He raised his eyebrows at him questioningly and the stranger blushed faintly before abruptly turning to the coffee machine and putting coins in. The corners of Minho's lips twitched the slightest and he let his head fall back again, once more closing his eyes as the sound of the machine filled the quiet air.

His heart jumped when he felt the couch dip next to him and he snapped his eyes open, looking at the stranger in astonishment. The stranger smiled shyly and held out one of the two paper cups in his hands. Minho stared at him for a moment, wondering, just like the night before, what was happening, before accepting it. The stranger’s smile widened and he took a sip of his own cup, looking at him expectantly. Minho watched him blankly for another second before raising his cup to his lips as well and taking a sip.

He really shouldn’t have been surprised when he tasted the hot chocolate, but a small sound escaped him anyway and the stranger chuckled.

“I’m Jonghyun,” he said after a moment of silence.

Minho contemplated whether to tell him his name or not, then thought it couldn’t hurt. The stranger – well, Jonghyun – was probably at the hospital for a reason similar to his own, if he wasn’t working there.

“Minho,” he grunted out and Jonghyun nodded, not saying anything else which left them sitting in comfortable silence, drinking their hot chocolate in peace.

Minho couldn’t help but think that maybe Jonghyun had been right yesterday, because he could feel the warmth of the beverage spread through his stomach and chest, making him feel a little better. He even managed a small smile at Jonghyun when he stood up to go back to Taemin's room. Jonghyun smiled back and waved.

Maybe Minho should drink hot chocolate more often; the stuff was quite effective.

A/N: Haha, yeah... that was that... I'm trying out a different style of structuring this story and I hope it won't be too confusing! Jonghyun's parts were quite short this time, but well I can never really predict the length so... >_<

Anyhoo, I hope you liked it!

Lots of love! <3

Bye~!