What if... - Chapter six
Title: What if...
Chapter: Six
Author: Shiro
Rating: PG
Length: 3867 words
Pairing/Focus: Jongyu
Warnings: None for this chapter
Jonghyun’s day started like any other. He woke up to the annoying sound of his alarm, took a quick shower, got dressed in his uniform, then walked down the stairs to have some breakfast. He walked to school, met Kibum, Minho and Taeminnie on the way, sat at his classes, trying his best not to text a certain someone out of boredom. Exactly how did he end up here, in Jinki’s house, feeling tears well up in his eyes before they fell onto an old-looking photograph...?
It all started during lunch break...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Hey, do any of you know when Jinki hyung is getting discharged?”
Four heads turned to look at Key, who was busying himself by poking at his food as if he expected it to suddenly jump and try to eat his face.
“It should be soon, right? I mean, he already seems pretty fine...”
“Well, he just got out of a coma... Wouldn’t they want him to stay for a little longer just to be sure he’s okay?”
“Let’s just stop thinking about it.”
Now Minho had become the center of attention, and they all watched as he sipped his drink, as if he hadn’t just implied they should stop caring about when their hyung would be able to return to a normal life.
“Excuse me?” Kibum almost squeaked, putting his fork down on his tray so strongly he almost tipped the glass over.
“I don’t mean we shouldn’t care. But worrying about it won’t make it change anyways. If you want to know, just ask later when we stop by the hospital.”
Jonghyun munched at his food as Minho and Kibum broke into an argument, wondering when was the last time he had heard the alien-like teen say so many words in a row, let alone while raising his voice above Kibum’s.
A vibration in his pocket stole his attention away; he flipped his cellphone open to see a text from someone he definitely didn’t expect. His eyes flew through the words, taking in what he was being asked. Taemin looked curiously at him, but as he was about to peek over his shoulder, the older flipped his phone shut, standing up from their table and throwing his half-finished lunch into the trash can, before leaving the school’s cafeteria.
The other two had even forgotten they had been arguing, as they stared at the door Jonghyun had just left through.
“You think he’s leaving school again?”
“Nah. His parents scolded him really hard last time, and even threatened to not let him go to the hospital anymore, so I doubt he’d do something so stupid again.”
Taemin nodded, one should trust Key when it was something about Jonghyun. The two of them were really close, even best friends, when the umma wasn’t trying to kill the other.
“...I think he was smiling.”
Kibum raised an eyebrow at Minho, who was still staring at the cafeteria’s double doors, still swinging slightly from when Jonghyun had pushed them open.
“...We can just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jonghyun didn’t leave school, but he went through it in a complete daze. Whenever they tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t notice until they yanked his shoulder, and then he would just answer whatever came to him mind, then leave again for his next class. They were all starting to get slightly worried, even though Kibum mentioned he seemed happy rather than worried or depressed over something.
The worst came when school ended though, when they were all exiting the school gates, about to head towards the bus stop that would take them to the hospital.
“Oh, uhm, I’m not going to go to the hospital today.”
They all stopped dead in their tracks, and Jonghyun noticed how it almost seemed as if someone had paused a movie, if it wasn’t for the background in which the cars and other students were still moving.
“What?!”
Taemin gaped at his hyung as Key felt his forehead, muttering something about Jjong having been brainwashed by aliens.
“I just have something urgent to do today, so...”
“Something more important than seeing your friend who was in a coma for a while freaking year?!”
Jonghyun visibly winced when Kibum yelled at him, but he didn’t seem taken aback.
“Listen, just tell hyung I’m really sorry for not being able to go with you guys, okay?”
And with that, he was gone, before Kibum could yell at him again, running off into the streets, mixing within the crowd of students that were heading home or somewhere to spend the afternoon together.
Key almost yelled in frustration, but in the end he just stomped away, sulking through the one-hour bus ride, making Taemin wonder if Minho’s quietness had finally rubbed off on him a little, or if he was really just that pissed. It was true that Jonghyun was being selfish by just not going without a proper reason, but he really cared about their hyung, so the maknae just assumed it was something really, really urgent.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jinki was reading a novel Leeteuk had brought him last night to pass the time, and he had become so engrossed in the story he almost didn’t notice the stomping steps that were apparently headed for his room. Almost.
“You just won’t believe what that stupid idiot did this time!!!” Jinki jumped a little as Kibum barged into his room, making a loud noise with both his screams and the banging sound of the door smashing against the wall. He peeked behind him to see a frowning Minho and an apologizing Taemin, which was probably the only reason the nurses hadn’t kicked them out yet.
“Uh... Key? Where’s Jonghyu-”
“EXACTLY!!! WHERE THE HELL IS HE THAT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS!!!!!!!”
The angry umma continued to rant and rant as Minho closed the door, to try and reduce the sound coming out into the hospital hallways, as Taemin tried to calm him down. Jinki looked questioningly at the large-eyed teen, who just shrugged before helping Taemin calm Kibum down a little.
When he had finally quieted down, he dropped onto the chair while crossing his arms, continuing to sulk and to mutter words against Jonghyun that Jinki would’ve preferred Taemin not to hear, and some he didn’t even recognize himself.
“Now that he’s calmed down, can any of you explain me what’s going on?”
“Well, Jonghyun hyung got a text message at lunch break, and ever since then he started acting weird.”
“And then when we were going to head towards the bus stop, hyung just left, saying to tell you he was sorry for not being able to come.”
“That fu-”
Jinki gave Kibum a warning look that clearly said he shouldn’t use that language no matter how angry he was, and he just had to shit his mouth already, not wanting to stress the older one out.
“He didn’t even give a proper explanation!”
“Well, I’m sure Jjong had some kind of reason. Now, can you calm down already? I thought you had come to visit me, not to complain about Jonghyun’s attitude.”
“...Sorry.”
Jinki nodded and smiled at Key, and then the mood lightened considerably. Soon enough, they were all laughing again, even Minho was smiling, but Jinki couldn’t help but wonder why the only person missing was precisely the one that wouldn’t leave the back of his head. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on Kibum’s ramble about this new shop that was going to be inaugurated, or on Taemin’s story about these dancing classes he was taking, or on Minho and his football tournament which his team had won recently, Jonghyun was always at the back of his head. And the worst thing was that, he didn’t even know how or when had the younger one taken that special part in his heart where he was more important than the others, and that scared him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jonghyun found himself grinning like an idiot as he stood in front of the familiar door, his hand raised in the air from having just knocked on the wooden surface. He didn’t even have time to finish lowering when the door burst open, and an arm was shot out to drag him in, taking him all the way through the entrance and into the living room. Heck, he didn’t even have time to take off his shoes.
“Lee-”
“I’ve been waiting for you!! Hurry up, we’ve got loads of work!!!”
“Bu-”
“Less talking more working!! Here, put all of these into those boxes, and come tell me when you’re done!!”
Jonghyun gaped as a mountain of stuff was forced upon him, and then he was left alone with the belongings that were once property of Jinki’s parents, and a pile of boxes to put them in. He sighed and started his task, organizing the objects in differently labeled boxed, as he heard the sound of Leeteuk cleaning the rest of the house. It had gotten quite a layer of dust in one year, apparently.
He spent about half an hour putting things into boxes, and the mountain was hardly half of its initial size. He could see why they had to be stored before Jinki got discharged and came back home, but really, why couldn’t they get more help?
“Jjong, do you have much left?!”
He raised his head in the direction of the bedrooms, where Leeteuk’s voice had come from.
“About half of it!”
A moment after he answered, the older one came walking through the hallway, wiping his hands with a clean cloth, and with a smile painted across his face.
“I’ll give you a hand, since I’m done with all the cleaning.”
They both sat on the floor, revising the items before they were sorted out in the different boxes. Leeteuk had stored away all the clothing beforehand, so now it was mostly souvenirs from different trips, books, notebooks, a few ornaments. It was all okay, until the picture frames started showing up.
“...Are you sure you want to put this away too...?”
They both looked at the picture of a happy family, standing in front of a beautiful beach. Jonghyun put it down, refusing to look at it for any longer. Leeteuk slowly shook his head, picking the small frame up, and carefully placing it inside a box.
“We’re already feeling bad enough when we see this, so imagine how much Jinki would suffer.”
Jonghyun nodded, picking up more books, and going to put them into a box that was already about to be taped and moved, when one of them fell from his hands, releasing a small cloud of dust as its pages were spread open, revealing a small paper covering some of the words in the page it had been marking.
Jonghyun frowned before picking the paper up, only then noticing it was an old photo. He could see Jinki when he was small, flashing his toothy smile that hadn’t changed over the years. His parents were smiling behind him, their hands linked together, while his mother’s free hand was placed lovingly on his shoulder. The photograph slipped from his fingers, landing on the opposite side, where now an elegant handwriting could be seen. Jonghyun could only stare wide-eyed as his brain processed the words, tears starting to well inside his eyes.
‘The most precious gift the world could ever give us, has now been with us for five years. No matter how long have to spend apart, or how long we have to be together, have for granted that we’ll always look out for you, no matter where we are.’
Jonghyun only reacted when he saw the salty drops of water that were falling onto the photograph, quickly rubbing at his eyes in fear that his tears would ruin the words written with so much affection. He picked it up and put it in his pocket before standing up and walking towards the boxes, pretending he was arranging the books inside the box the moment he heard steps, which then were replaced by the sound of a voice.
“Are you okay? I thought I heard something falling.”
“Oh, I just dropped a book. Nothing to worry about.”
“Huh. Okay then.”
Jonghyun only turned back around to look if Leeteuk was really gone when the steps had faded into the living room. He sighed and rubbed again at his eyes, deciding he would need to wash his face before they stopped being al red and puffy. If Leeteuk saw that photo, he’d want to put it away too. He was too over-protective at times; he wouldn’t want Jinki to have to face the loss of something like that. But he knew after all the crying and the wailing, Jinki would [i]need[/i] that photo. Just to know that, in fact, not everything was lost. That there would always be something he could hang onto.
After another half an hour, they both finished packing and moving the boxes into Leeteuk’s car, after which they finished some final touches of the new decoration.
“So, that was everything.”
“Is it really okay for us to be preparing this right now? Shouldn’t we wait until we actually know when he’s getting discharged?”
Both males stood in front of the living room, watching the colorful ornaments and arrangements placed around the house.
“Oh, I got a call from the hospital earlier. They said everything was arranged for his discharge. So I talked with that adoption lady, and she said everything was okay, so he’s getting discharged tonight. I’ll go pick him up tomorrow morning, and-”
“Wait wait wait wait wait. You’re... you’re saying he’s...”
“He’ll be home tomorrow morning, and I’m already making arranges for him to go to school on Monday.”
Jonghyun was, once again, stuck with gaping while being wide-eyed, as he tried to believe what was happening. Everything was finally going back to normal. Everything...
“Calm down, Jjong. Everything will be okay. You’ve waited a long time for this, right? But I didn’t want to tell the others so they could have a happy surprise too.”
He could only nod, as he felt, for the second time in the day, tears slowly welling up, soon overwhelming him and streaming down his face. Leeteuk smiled and put his arms reassuringly around him, and Jonghyun couldn’t deny he needed it right now. He had dreamt of that moment for so, so long, and now it was finally real... The emotions were too much for him to handle, and he could only cry into the older one, until he had calmed down enough to get a grip on his own feelings.
“Feeling better now?”
He nodded, rubbing at his eyes as Leeteuk pushed him slowly towards the bathroom. He washed his face and calmed down for a moment, before smiling and thanking the older one.
“Well, it’s already lunch time, so you should go home and eat something. I’ll go buy some things and finish preparing things here for tomorrow.”
Jonghyun nodded, before heading out home, resisting the urge to tell everyone the news. Leeteuk was right that they all deserved the happy surprise, and he had already arranged for the hospital not to tell Jinki he was going home already. He smiled as he thought of the older one’s expression when he found out, and he discovered he couldn’t concentrate on anything but how bad he wanted it to be tomorrow already.
And it was then he noticed how Jinki had always been in his thoughts. He had thought it was normal when the other was in a coma, since he was just worried and hoping that he would wake up already. Lately, he had just been attributing it to the fact that he was so excited to be able to finally spend some time with him that he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He could still blame it on that, but deep inside, he knew he would just be lying to himself. Lately, the time he had been spending with Jinki had acquired a while new different meaning. And the thought of it made his heartbeat resound at a faster pace.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Hyung, you’re spacing out again!”
Jinki blinked at Kibum, who was waving his hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention back to reality rather than the random thoughts he was having at that moment. What Kibum didn’t know though, was that his thoughts weren’t so random. They were centered around a particular person who wasn’t there at the moment, and Jinki was glad none of the four boys that were in his room had noticed about this yet.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry.”
“By the way hyung, exactly where were you and Jonghyun hyung yesterday? You didn’t come to your room at all...”
Jinki looked questioningly at Taemin, before realizing that, in fact, he hadn’t told them what had happened yesterday. He had sort of assumed Key would have beaten it out of Jonghyun at some point, but apparently, they hadn’t cared that much about what they were doing as compared to how they were just not there.
“Well, there was this huge room with a TV and videogames and books and...”
“There’s something like that in the hospital?”
“Yeah, Jjong took me there. We were so engrossed in playing time just flew by, and... Well, we eventually got hungry, so we ate at the cafeteria, and then we went back to my room and ran into you guys.”
Kibum nodded at the explanation, way more calmed about the whole issue than he had been the day it happened.
“Hey, let’s go there together the next time!”
All three heads turned to look at Taemin, who was just smiling at them.
“You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea!”
“Yeah, we should do that. It’s been a long time since I kicked hyung’s ass in videogames, after all.”
They all started laughing at the memory of Jonghyun almost throwing his control out the window after losing in his football videogame to Minho. He would’ve done it if Key hadn’t snatched it from him, and after ten or so rematches, Jonghyun ended up sulking in his room and not coming out until it was time for dinner.
“Well, if you want to go, you should ask Jonghyun what he did to get that room all to ourselves.”
“Wait. All to yourselves?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you that either? He said he begged the nurses or something so we could have the whole thing just for the two of us.”
“He WHAT?!”
Jinki stared up at Kibum as he screeched and started rambling about something he didn’t quite understand. Taemin and Minho just looked at each other and shrugged, already used to the umma’s rants.
Jinki just looked at the younger one questioningly, before deciding to just ignore him until he was being coherent again.
“You should get going already, shouldn’t you? I think visit time ended a while ago...”
Minho checked his watch, before nodding and pulling on Kibum’s shoulder. “We’ll see you tomorrow, hyung.”
Jinki nodded and waved them all goodbye for the third time since he had woken up. Just this time, he knew he was going to spend the rest of the day alone, since Leeteuk had called him earlier to say he was really sorry, but he wouldn’t be able to make it. Not that he had anything against it, since he didn’t want to become a burden to everyone, but... It was going to be a very long, lonely day.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Jinki...! Jinki...! Wake up...!”
He groaned and rolled over, trying to bury himself further beneath the blankets covering his entire frame.
“Jinki!!”
He finally opened his eyes, seeing a blurry silhouette that, with a little rubbing to his eyes, slowly became Leeteuk.
“Good, you’re finally awake.”
“...Hyung...?” Jinki asked sleepily, suppressing a yawn that wanted to escape his lips, while he sat up and rubbed his eyes some more, just to make sure they wouldn’t fall shut again.
“Come on, get up already!”
“Huh... I... what...?” Jinki could only stutter as his half-asleep brain tried to process that Leeteuk had dragged him out of bed, and pushed him into the bathroom with a change of clothes.
“Get changed and come out so we can leave already!!”
Jinki got dressed almost automatically before realizing what was happening, a frown settling across his brow. Why was Leeteuk telling him to get dressed in normal clothes? What was he doing there so early? And what did he mean by ‘leave’? It all had one explanation, but Jinki didn’t want to jump to conclusions too early.
“Hyung... am I getting discharged?” He asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, looking questioningly at Leeteuk.
“Oh, no. Sorry if you got your hopes up. I just got a special permission to get you out of this boring hospital for a day.”
Leeteuk was dragging Jinki through the hospital as he explained, probably heading towards the exit, wherever that was. Jinki nodded, glad that he hadn’t gotten his hopes up in the first place. A day out of the hospital sounded really nice anyways, and it would surely help with getting distracted.
“I already told your friends, and we’re meeting at a café.”
He didn’t even have time to nod before Leeteuk was signing some papers at the counter at an unbelievable speed, and then he was being pushed into a car, and they were on their way to see Kibum and the others. He almost asked about school, before closing his mouth when he realized it was already Saturday.
They were soon pulling up in front of a nice-looking café, where he spotted Jonghyun, Key, Minho and Taemin sitting at one of the outside tables, talking amongst themselves. Leeteuk came out and waited for Jinki to do the same, before walking over to them. Minho noticed them first, and signaled it to the others, who almost immediately stood up and walked over to them.
“Hyung!”
Jinki smiled at them, hugging Taemin when the maknae all but came running towards him with open arms.
“Wow, now that you actually got out of those hospital pajamas, the idea that you’re back to normal really sinks in...”
“Whatever! We only have one day until who knows when, so let’s start enjoying it already! Besides, Teukie hyung said he’d pay for everything~”
“I what?”
“Let’s go!!”
Kibum dragged all of them along while Leeteuk stood there gaping for a while, before he finally noticed and started chasing after them, yelling at Key that he had never said anything like that.
Jinki just laughed and let himself be dragged, not really caring about anything but having fun. Just for this once, he let everything go and concentrated on the fact that he was out of the hospital, the fresh air felt great in his lungs, the cool weather wasn’t either too hot or too cold, and he was surrounded by his best friends who he knew he could always count on.
And still, his mind ended up wandering to a certain male who was laughing along with Kibum.
A/N: So, I'm writting at Starbucks, and it's extremely relaxing :D
I'm getting a lot of the next chapter done in barely a few minutes, so I decided I might as well post this here for you guys to see! ^-^
The next chapter will be up on Saturday... Oh, and, YAY FOR JONGYU STARTING TO BE OBVIOUS :D
Chapter: Six
Author: Shiro
Rating: PG
Length: 3867 words
Pairing/Focus: Jongyu
Warnings: None for this chapter
Jonghyun’s day started like any other. He woke up to the annoying sound of his alarm, took a quick shower, got dressed in his uniform, then walked down the stairs to have some breakfast. He walked to school, met Kibum, Minho and Taeminnie on the way, sat at his classes, trying his best not to text a certain someone out of boredom. Exactly how did he end up here, in Jinki’s house, feeling tears well up in his eyes before they fell onto an old-looking photograph...?
It all started during lunch break...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Hey, do any of you know when Jinki hyung is getting discharged?”
Four heads turned to look at Key, who was busying himself by poking at his food as if he expected it to suddenly jump and try to eat his face.
“It should be soon, right? I mean, he already seems pretty fine...”
“Well, he just got out of a coma... Wouldn’t they want him to stay for a little longer just to be sure he’s okay?”
“Let’s just stop thinking about it.”
Now Minho had become the center of attention, and they all watched as he sipped his drink, as if he hadn’t just implied they should stop caring about when their hyung would be able to return to a normal life.
“Excuse me?” Kibum almost squeaked, putting his fork down on his tray so strongly he almost tipped the glass over.
“I don’t mean we shouldn’t care. But worrying about it won’t make it change anyways. If you want to know, just ask later when we stop by the hospital.”
Jonghyun munched at his food as Minho and Kibum broke into an argument, wondering when was the last time he had heard the alien-like teen say so many words in a row, let alone while raising his voice above Kibum’s.
A vibration in his pocket stole his attention away; he flipped his cellphone open to see a text from someone he definitely didn’t expect. His eyes flew through the words, taking in what he was being asked. Taemin looked curiously at him, but as he was about to peek over his shoulder, the older flipped his phone shut, standing up from their table and throwing his half-finished lunch into the trash can, before leaving the school’s cafeteria.
The other two had even forgotten they had been arguing, as they stared at the door Jonghyun had just left through.
“You think he’s leaving school again?”
“Nah. His parents scolded him really hard last time, and even threatened to not let him go to the hospital anymore, so I doubt he’d do something so stupid again.”
Taemin nodded, one should trust Key when it was something about Jonghyun. The two of them were really close, even best friends, when the umma wasn’t trying to kill the other.
“...I think he was smiling.”
Kibum raised an eyebrow at Minho, who was still staring at the cafeteria’s double doors, still swinging slightly from when Jonghyun had pushed them open.
“...We can just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jonghyun didn’t leave school, but he went through it in a complete daze. Whenever they tried to talk to him, he wouldn’t notice until they yanked his shoulder, and then he would just answer whatever came to him mind, then leave again for his next class. They were all starting to get slightly worried, even though Kibum mentioned he seemed happy rather than worried or depressed over something.
The worst came when school ended though, when they were all exiting the school gates, about to head towards the bus stop that would take them to the hospital.
“Oh, uhm, I’m not going to go to the hospital today.”
They all stopped dead in their tracks, and Jonghyun noticed how it almost seemed as if someone had paused a movie, if it wasn’t for the background in which the cars and other students were still moving.
“What?!”
Taemin gaped at his hyung as Key felt his forehead, muttering something about Jjong having been brainwashed by aliens.
“I just have something urgent to do today, so...”
“Something more important than seeing your friend who was in a coma for a while freaking year?!”
Jonghyun visibly winced when Kibum yelled at him, but he didn’t seem taken aback.
“Listen, just tell hyung I’m really sorry for not being able to go with you guys, okay?”
And with that, he was gone, before Kibum could yell at him again, running off into the streets, mixing within the crowd of students that were heading home or somewhere to spend the afternoon together.
Key almost yelled in frustration, but in the end he just stomped away, sulking through the one-hour bus ride, making Taemin wonder if Minho’s quietness had finally rubbed off on him a little, or if he was really just that pissed. It was true that Jonghyun was being selfish by just not going without a proper reason, but he really cared about their hyung, so the maknae just assumed it was something really, really urgent.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jinki was reading a novel Leeteuk had brought him last night to pass the time, and he had become so engrossed in the story he almost didn’t notice the stomping steps that were apparently headed for his room. Almost.
“You just won’t believe what that stupid idiot did this time!!!” Jinki jumped a little as Kibum barged into his room, making a loud noise with both his screams and the banging sound of the door smashing against the wall. He peeked behind him to see a frowning Minho and an apologizing Taemin, which was probably the only reason the nurses hadn’t kicked them out yet.
“Uh... Key? Where’s Jonghyu-”
“EXACTLY!!! WHERE THE HELL IS HE THAT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THIS!!!!!!!”
The angry umma continued to rant and rant as Minho closed the door, to try and reduce the sound coming out into the hospital hallways, as Taemin tried to calm him down. Jinki looked questioningly at the large-eyed teen, who just shrugged before helping Taemin calm Kibum down a little.
When he had finally quieted down, he dropped onto the chair while crossing his arms, continuing to sulk and to mutter words against Jonghyun that Jinki would’ve preferred Taemin not to hear, and some he didn’t even recognize himself.
“Now that he’s calmed down, can any of you explain me what’s going on?”
“Well, Jonghyun hyung got a text message at lunch break, and ever since then he started acting weird.”
“And then when we were going to head towards the bus stop, hyung just left, saying to tell you he was sorry for not being able to come.”
“That fu-”
Jinki gave Kibum a warning look that clearly said he shouldn’t use that language no matter how angry he was, and he just had to shit his mouth already, not wanting to stress the older one out.
“He didn’t even give a proper explanation!”
“Well, I’m sure Jjong had some kind of reason. Now, can you calm down already? I thought you had come to visit me, not to complain about Jonghyun’s attitude.”
“...Sorry.”
Jinki nodded and smiled at Key, and then the mood lightened considerably. Soon enough, they were all laughing again, even Minho was smiling, but Jinki couldn’t help but wonder why the only person missing was precisely the one that wouldn’t leave the back of his head. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on Kibum’s ramble about this new shop that was going to be inaugurated, or on Taemin’s story about these dancing classes he was taking, or on Minho and his football tournament which his team had won recently, Jonghyun was always at the back of his head. And the worst thing was that, he didn’t even know how or when had the younger one taken that special part in his heart where he was more important than the others, and that scared him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Jonghyun found himself grinning like an idiot as he stood in front of the familiar door, his hand raised in the air from having just knocked on the wooden surface. He didn’t even have time to finish lowering when the door burst open, and an arm was shot out to drag him in, taking him all the way through the entrance and into the living room. Heck, he didn’t even have time to take off his shoes.
“Lee-”
“I’ve been waiting for you!! Hurry up, we’ve got loads of work!!!”
“Bu-”
“Less talking more working!! Here, put all of these into those boxes, and come tell me when you’re done!!”
Jonghyun gaped as a mountain of stuff was forced upon him, and then he was left alone with the belongings that were once property of Jinki’s parents, and a pile of boxes to put them in. He sighed and started his task, organizing the objects in differently labeled boxed, as he heard the sound of Leeteuk cleaning the rest of the house. It had gotten quite a layer of dust in one year, apparently.
He spent about half an hour putting things into boxes, and the mountain was hardly half of its initial size. He could see why they had to be stored before Jinki got discharged and came back home, but really, why couldn’t they get more help?
“Jjong, do you have much left?!”
He raised his head in the direction of the bedrooms, where Leeteuk’s voice had come from.
“About half of it!”
A moment after he answered, the older one came walking through the hallway, wiping his hands with a clean cloth, and with a smile painted across his face.
“I’ll give you a hand, since I’m done with all the cleaning.”
They both sat on the floor, revising the items before they were sorted out in the different boxes. Leeteuk had stored away all the clothing beforehand, so now it was mostly souvenirs from different trips, books, notebooks, a few ornaments. It was all okay, until the picture frames started showing up.
“...Are you sure you want to put this away too...?”
They both looked at the picture of a happy family, standing in front of a beautiful beach. Jonghyun put it down, refusing to look at it for any longer. Leeteuk slowly shook his head, picking the small frame up, and carefully placing it inside a box.
“We’re already feeling bad enough when we see this, so imagine how much Jinki would suffer.”
Jonghyun nodded, picking up more books, and going to put them into a box that was already about to be taped and moved, when one of them fell from his hands, releasing a small cloud of dust as its pages were spread open, revealing a small paper covering some of the words in the page it had been marking.
Jonghyun frowned before picking the paper up, only then noticing it was an old photo. He could see Jinki when he was small, flashing his toothy smile that hadn’t changed over the years. His parents were smiling behind him, their hands linked together, while his mother’s free hand was placed lovingly on his shoulder. The photograph slipped from his fingers, landing on the opposite side, where now an elegant handwriting could be seen. Jonghyun could only stare wide-eyed as his brain processed the words, tears starting to well inside his eyes.
‘The most precious gift the world could ever give us, has now been with us for five years. No matter how long have to spend apart, or how long we have to be together, have for granted that we’ll always look out for you, no matter where we are.’
Jonghyun only reacted when he saw the salty drops of water that were falling onto the photograph, quickly rubbing at his eyes in fear that his tears would ruin the words written with so much affection. He picked it up and put it in his pocket before standing up and walking towards the boxes, pretending he was arranging the books inside the box the moment he heard steps, which then were replaced by the sound of a voice.
“Are you okay? I thought I heard something falling.”
“Oh, I just dropped a book. Nothing to worry about.”
“Huh. Okay then.”
Jonghyun only turned back around to look if Leeteuk was really gone when the steps had faded into the living room. He sighed and rubbed again at his eyes, deciding he would need to wash his face before they stopped being al red and puffy. If Leeteuk saw that photo, he’d want to put it away too. He was too over-protective at times; he wouldn’t want Jinki to have to face the loss of something like that. But he knew after all the crying and the wailing, Jinki would [i]need[/i] that photo. Just to know that, in fact, not everything was lost. That there would always be something he could hang onto.
After another half an hour, they both finished packing and moving the boxes into Leeteuk’s car, after which they finished some final touches of the new decoration.
“So, that was everything.”
“Is it really okay for us to be preparing this right now? Shouldn’t we wait until we actually know when he’s getting discharged?”
Both males stood in front of the living room, watching the colorful ornaments and arrangements placed around the house.
“Oh, I got a call from the hospital earlier. They said everything was arranged for his discharge. So I talked with that adoption lady, and she said everything was okay, so he’s getting discharged tonight. I’ll go pick him up tomorrow morning, and-”
“Wait wait wait wait wait. You’re... you’re saying he’s...”
“He’ll be home tomorrow morning, and I’m already making arranges for him to go to school on Monday.”
Jonghyun was, once again, stuck with gaping while being wide-eyed, as he tried to believe what was happening. Everything was finally going back to normal. Everything...
“Calm down, Jjong. Everything will be okay. You’ve waited a long time for this, right? But I didn’t want to tell the others so they could have a happy surprise too.”
He could only nod, as he felt, for the second time in the day, tears slowly welling up, soon overwhelming him and streaming down his face. Leeteuk smiled and put his arms reassuringly around him, and Jonghyun couldn’t deny he needed it right now. He had dreamt of that moment for so, so long, and now it was finally real... The emotions were too much for him to handle, and he could only cry into the older one, until he had calmed down enough to get a grip on his own feelings.
“Feeling better now?”
He nodded, rubbing at his eyes as Leeteuk pushed him slowly towards the bathroom. He washed his face and calmed down for a moment, before smiling and thanking the older one.
“Well, it’s already lunch time, so you should go home and eat something. I’ll go buy some things and finish preparing things here for tomorrow.”
Jonghyun nodded, before heading out home, resisting the urge to tell everyone the news. Leeteuk was right that they all deserved the happy surprise, and he had already arranged for the hospital not to tell Jinki he was going home already. He smiled as he thought of the older one’s expression when he found out, and he discovered he couldn’t concentrate on anything but how bad he wanted it to be tomorrow already.
And it was then he noticed how Jinki had always been in his thoughts. He had thought it was normal when the other was in a coma, since he was just worried and hoping that he would wake up already. Lately, he had just been attributing it to the fact that he was so excited to be able to finally spend some time with him that he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He could still blame it on that, but deep inside, he knew he would just be lying to himself. Lately, the time he had been spending with Jinki had acquired a while new different meaning. And the thought of it made his heartbeat resound at a faster pace.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Hyung, you’re spacing out again!”
Jinki blinked at Kibum, who was waving his hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention back to reality rather than the random thoughts he was having at that moment. What Kibum didn’t know though, was that his thoughts weren’t so random. They were centered around a particular person who wasn’t there at the moment, and Jinki was glad none of the four boys that were in his room had noticed about this yet.
“Oh, uh, I’m sorry.”
“By the way hyung, exactly where were you and Jonghyun hyung yesterday? You didn’t come to your room at all...”
Jinki looked questioningly at Taemin, before realizing that, in fact, he hadn’t told them what had happened yesterday. He had sort of assumed Key would have beaten it out of Jonghyun at some point, but apparently, they hadn’t cared that much about what they were doing as compared to how they were just not there.
“Well, there was this huge room with a TV and videogames and books and...”
“There’s something like that in the hospital?”
“Yeah, Jjong took me there. We were so engrossed in playing time just flew by, and... Well, we eventually got hungry, so we ate at the cafeteria, and then we went back to my room and ran into you guys.”
Kibum nodded at the explanation, way more calmed about the whole issue than he had been the day it happened.
“Hey, let’s go there together the next time!”
All three heads turned to look at Taemin, who was just smiling at them.
“You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea!”
“Yeah, we should do that. It’s been a long time since I kicked hyung’s ass in videogames, after all.”
They all started laughing at the memory of Jonghyun almost throwing his control out the window after losing in his football videogame to Minho. He would’ve done it if Key hadn’t snatched it from him, and after ten or so rematches, Jonghyun ended up sulking in his room and not coming out until it was time for dinner.
“Well, if you want to go, you should ask Jonghyun what he did to get that room all to ourselves.”
“Wait. All to yourselves?”
“Oh, he didn’t tell you that either? He said he begged the nurses or something so we could have the whole thing just for the two of us.”
“He WHAT?!”
Jinki stared up at Kibum as he screeched and started rambling about something he didn’t quite understand. Taemin and Minho just looked at each other and shrugged, already used to the umma’s rants.
Jinki just looked at the younger one questioningly, before deciding to just ignore him until he was being coherent again.
“You should get going already, shouldn’t you? I think visit time ended a while ago...”
Minho checked his watch, before nodding and pulling on Kibum’s shoulder. “We’ll see you tomorrow, hyung.”
Jinki nodded and waved them all goodbye for the third time since he had woken up. Just this time, he knew he was going to spend the rest of the day alone, since Leeteuk had called him earlier to say he was really sorry, but he wouldn’t be able to make it. Not that he had anything against it, since he didn’t want to become a burden to everyone, but... It was going to be a very long, lonely day.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Jinki...! Jinki...! Wake up...!”
He groaned and rolled over, trying to bury himself further beneath the blankets covering his entire frame.
“Jinki!!”
He finally opened his eyes, seeing a blurry silhouette that, with a little rubbing to his eyes, slowly became Leeteuk.
“Good, you’re finally awake.”
“...Hyung...?” Jinki asked sleepily, suppressing a yawn that wanted to escape his lips, while he sat up and rubbed his eyes some more, just to make sure they wouldn’t fall shut again.
“Come on, get up already!”
“Huh... I... what...?” Jinki could only stutter as his half-asleep brain tried to process that Leeteuk had dragged him out of bed, and pushed him into the bathroom with a change of clothes.
“Get changed and come out so we can leave already!!”
Jinki got dressed almost automatically before realizing what was happening, a frown settling across his brow. Why was Leeteuk telling him to get dressed in normal clothes? What was he doing there so early? And what did he mean by ‘leave’? It all had one explanation, but Jinki didn’t want to jump to conclusions too early.
“Hyung... am I getting discharged?” He asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, looking questioningly at Leeteuk.
“Oh, no. Sorry if you got your hopes up. I just got a special permission to get you out of this boring hospital for a day.”
Leeteuk was dragging Jinki through the hospital as he explained, probably heading towards the exit, wherever that was. Jinki nodded, glad that he hadn’t gotten his hopes up in the first place. A day out of the hospital sounded really nice anyways, and it would surely help with getting distracted.
“I already told your friends, and we’re meeting at a café.”
He didn’t even have time to nod before Leeteuk was signing some papers at the counter at an unbelievable speed, and then he was being pushed into a car, and they were on their way to see Kibum and the others. He almost asked about school, before closing his mouth when he realized it was already Saturday.
They were soon pulling up in front of a nice-looking café, where he spotted Jonghyun, Key, Minho and Taemin sitting at one of the outside tables, talking amongst themselves. Leeteuk came out and waited for Jinki to do the same, before walking over to them. Minho noticed them first, and signaled it to the others, who almost immediately stood up and walked over to them.
“Hyung!”
Jinki smiled at them, hugging Taemin when the maknae all but came running towards him with open arms.
“Wow, now that you actually got out of those hospital pajamas, the idea that you’re back to normal really sinks in...”
“Whatever! We only have one day until who knows when, so let’s start enjoying it already! Besides, Teukie hyung said he’d pay for everything~”
“I what?”
“Let’s go!!”
Kibum dragged all of them along while Leeteuk stood there gaping for a while, before he finally noticed and started chasing after them, yelling at Key that he had never said anything like that.
Jinki just laughed and let himself be dragged, not really caring about anything but having fun. Just for this once, he let everything go and concentrated on the fact that he was out of the hospital, the fresh air felt great in his lungs, the cool weather wasn’t either too hot or too cold, and he was surrounded by his best friends who he knew he could always count on.
And still, his mind ended up wandering to a certain male who was laughing along with Kibum.
A/N: So, I'm writting at Starbucks, and it's extremely relaxing :D
I'm getting a lot of the next chapter done in barely a few minutes, so I decided I might as well post this here for you guys to see! ^-^
The next chapter will be up on Saturday... Oh, and, YAY FOR JONGYU STARTING TO BE OBVIOUS :D