Work Text:
Minjae sighed as he turned off the music, stretching out his muscles one last time before he began the process of closing up for the night. He normally wouldn’t stay after the rest of the group had gone home; they had a strict curfew, given the fact that most of the group were still in high school, and no one was allowed to stay after rehearsals ended on school nights. But it was the weekend, and since they weren’t actively working on anything for the moment Minjae had decided that he wanted to work on a personal project for a bit after their official workday was over.
He’d promised it would only be a couple of hours when the rest of the group had left; even though it wasn’t technically work that he was doing, their manager was still insistent that Minjae had to stay within his legal work limits because he was at the company building. So now that it was almost ten, it was time for Minjae to pack up and head back to the dorm. Their manager had offered to come back for him, but Minjae had insisted that he could walk the mile or so home on his own. He had his glasses in his bag, and Minjae knew the route like the back of his hand.
The night air was comfortably warm as Minjae stepped out of the company building, adjusting both his mask and his glasses until he could see clearly without his glasses fogging over every time he breathed out. It was the thing Minjae hated the most about his glasses, and part of the reason he rarely wore them unless absolutely necessary. But Minjae’s vision was much worse at night than it was during the day; Minjae’s eyes took longer than most people’s to adjust to the darkness, which meant that things like streetlights or cars could seriously impair his ability to see the world around him. So Minjae wore his glasses whenever he was out at night, because they made things a bit easier.
There was a nice little park between the company building and their dorm that Minjae liked to cut through whenever he walked home at night, because there wasn’t too much light and once his eyes adjusted he could easily cut through an entire city block without having to worry too much about being temporarily blinded by any lights. It also didn’t hurt that it was just a nice, quiet place to walk and start to relax after a long day at the studio, so Minjae happily chose to cut through the park even though it was dark.
Minjae didn’t expect to be blinded by some kind of light halfway through the park, or to be knocked down into the little flower bed beside the pat and land, hard, on his left elbow. His arm hurt, but Minjae forced himself to get back up to his feet and try to figure out where he was and what had happened. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for Minjae to realize that his glasses were no longer on his face. Minjae tried to kneel down and look for them, but between the bright light and the fact that his glasses were gone he really couldn’t see anything.
“Fuck…” Minjae muttered softly, wincing as he realized that moving his left arm was incredibly painful. It wasn’t unbearable, but Minjae knew that his fall had probably caused some damage and he would likely be asking their manager to take a look at it and potentially take him to the hospital for x-rays when he got home.
Which led into Minjae’s next problem; between the bright light and losing his glasses when he fell, Minjae really couldn’t see much of anything and he wasn’t really sure how to get out of the park and get home.
Minjae pulled out his phone, wincing at the brightness of his screen as he tried to get his bearings and find his way out of the park. Unfortunately, looking at the screen only seemed to make the situation worse as Minjae stumbled through the darkness of the park until he finally managed to find an exit out to the street. Unfortunately, it was a location Minjae wasn’t familiar with and he really wasn’t sure where he was supposed to go to get back to something familiar and there really wasn’t anyone around for him to ask for help.
Unfortunately, Minjae’s luck seemed to only be getting worse, as his phone went black, refusing to turn back on no matter what Minjae tried. He’d forgotten to plug his phone in to charge while he was dancing, which meant that the battery was likely completely dead.
The street was eerily quiet as Minjae walked, unsure of where he was actually going. He knew that he’d walked too far - that he should have been home already. But there was nothing familiar about his surroundings at all, and Minjae couldn’t help feeling confused as he turned onto a more brightly lit street at the next corner. The only good thing was that there was what looked like a police substation down the street, and Minjae hurried towards it.
“Can I help you?” a bored-looking officer asked as Minjae walked through the door, not looking up from the magazine he was flipping through.
“I’m lost…” Minjae began, wincing slightly at the brightness of the light in the station. “My phone died, and I lost my glasses…”
The officer sighed, closing his magazine and sitting up to get a better look at Minjae. As soon as the man actually looked at him, however, the officer’s reaction to him changed completely. “Aish… are you okay, kid?”
“I got knocked over in the park, and I lost my glasses…” Minjae replied, as the officer came out from behind his desk and guided Minjae to sit down in a chair in front of the desk. “I just need to charge my phone for a few minutes…”
“Okay… we’ll charge your phone up so that we can call your parents, and then we’ll get you to a hospital to get that arm looked at,” the officer commented. Minjae looked down at his arm, surprised to see that it was already badly bruised and a bit swollen from his fall. It didn’t take long after that for the pain to catch up with Minjae, as he realized that he really couldn’t move his hand. “Let me hold your phone… do you know the number, or do we need to wait for it to charge?”
“It’ll have to charge… I know my mom’s number, but my parents don’t live here…” Minjae replied, wincing as he tried to move his fingers. While he was capable of moving them, it hurt and Minjae knew that it probably wasn’t a good idea to continue.
“Are you a trainee?” the officer asked, moving towards his desk with Minjae’s phone to plug it in.
“I debuted earlier this year,” Minjae replied. “My manager’s number is in the phone… he’ll come get me, if you can give him the addresss…”
“Of course. Let me see if I can find you an ice pack for that arm while we wait,” the officer added, heading further back into the station once Minjae’s phone was plugged in using the officer’s own charger.
Minjae had only been alone for a brief moment, before another officer came out of the back of the substation, smiling behind his own mask and moving to sit down next to him. “Can you tell me your name, son?” the man asked.
“Kim Minjae.”
“And you’re an Idol?” Minjae nodded in response to the question. “Which company are you with?”
“TOP Media,” Minjae replied. “I’m in a group called MCND.”
The second officer nodded, smiling at him. “I’ve heard that name before… I think my niece is a fan of yours. Is it alright if I take a look at your arm? I just want to make sure that you don’t need an ambulance,” the officer explained. Minjae nodded, letting the officer gently reposition his injured arm so that the man could feel along the bruised side of it. Minjae couldn’t help the hiss of pain as the man pressed against a particularly sore spot. “Sorry… the good news is that if it’s broken, the bone seems to still be in place. Are you able to move your fingers?”
“It hurts,” Minjae admitted, nodding.
“Okay, then maybe we shouldn’t do that.” The first officer came back into the room with an ice pack, wrapping it in a tee shirt as he walked. “You found ice?”
“It’s one of the instant ice packs. Might take it a minute to get properly cold, but it should help with the swelling and bruising… or at the very least, help with some of the pain,” the first officer replied, handing the ice pack to Minjae so that he could put it against his arm. “How’s it look?”
“I can’t tell if it’s broken or not, but the bone’s still in place if it is,” the second officer replied. “I think he can wait for his manager to get here and drive him to the hospital for x-rays.”
As soon as the officer had mentioned their manager, Minjae’s phone finally turned itself back on and almost immediately began to buzz with multiple messages. “I’m guessing that’s probably going to be your manager looking for you, huh?” the first officer asked, as the phone began to ring.
“Probably,” Minjae replied, trying to see the screen from where he was sitting as the first officer moved to pick the phone up and answer it on speaker.
“Yeobosayo?” the officer asked, putting the phone close enough to Minjae that they could both talk.
“Who is this?” Minjae instantly recognized Seongjun’s voice, realizing that the leader sounded panicked.
“Hyung… I’m here,” Minjae replied. “I’m at a police station…”
“Aish… what happened? Are you okay?”
“It’s a long story,” Minjae replied. “Is manager-hyung there?”
“He drove back towards the company building to look for you when you didn’t come home on time,” Seongjun replied. “Sungmin-ah is calling him now… where is this police station? He can come get you…”
“I don’t know…” Minjae began, looking up at the officer that had answered his phone.
“We’re at the station in Seocho-dong,” the officer replied.
“Seocho… aish, Minjae-yah, how did you walk that far out of the way?!” Seongjun asked, obviously surprised.
“I got knocked over in the park… my glasses fell off, and I was really confused…” Minjae replied.
“His arm is pretty banged up,” the second officer added. “We’ve gotten him some ice, but it’s going to need to be x-rayed just to make sure nothing is broken.”
“Okay… okay, yeah, I’ll get our manager to come down there… or should he meet him at a hospital…?” Seongjun asked.
“It’s not that bad, hyung… I can wait until he gets here,” Minjae replied, shaking his head. “It only hurts if I move it…”
“It’s stable, if there is a fracture,” the second officer added. “We’re going to keep his phone on the charger until your manager gets here, so if anything changes we’ll let you all know. But for right now, he’s okay.”
***
Minjae was thankful for their manager holding onto his good arm, as he tried to kick off his shoes without having to lean down and properly untie them. He was just too tired to deal with trying to figure out how to untie or retie his shoes with his left arm splinted and in a sling. He had a large crack in his ulna, which the doctor had assured them would heal on its own in a few weeks. The splint was intended to stabilize and protect the injury until the swelling went down enough for a proper cast in a few days. While it wasn’t ideal, it at least wasn’t severe enough to require surgery.
“Are you hungry? We can get you something to eat before you go to bed…” the manager began, once Minjae was safely standing on both feet again.
“I’m just really tired,” Minjae replied, shaking his head. “I think I just want to go to bed, honestly…”
The manager nodded, sighing. “Okay… let’s get you ready for bed, then,” the man replied, starting to gently guide Minjae towards the dark living room.
Minjae couldn’t help hesitating, unsure of himself in the darkness. “I lost my glasses…” he began. Minjae couldn’t completely place the discomfort he was feeling, but he somehow knew it was related to the fact that he couldn’t see beyond the small sliver of light coming from the little entryway.
“Right… we’ll need to get you some new glasses…” the man began, starting to try and guide Minjae into the darkness again.
“I can’t see in the dark, hyung,” Minjae replied, shaking his head. “I can do okay during the day, but I’m practically blind at night without my glasses. That’s why I got lost…”
The manager sighed, shaking his head with a slight smile on his face. “Right… lights on, then,” the man replied. “And you’re never allowed to walk home after dark by yourself again.” Minjae nodded, as the manager turned on the light for the living area before gently pulling on Minjae’s good arm to get him to move again.
Almost as soon as the light turned on, Minjae heard movement from down the hallway, and he was suddenly faced with all of his members hurrying out in their pajamas and talking rapidly. Minjae couldn’t understand a word of what any of them were saying, and he automatically backed away from the chaos and directly into their manager.
“Guys! Guys! He’s tired… and you should all be in bed,” their manager commented, keeping a hand on Minjae’s back to steady him. “We’re going to get him ready for bed, and then everyone is going to sleep. You can talk about what happened tomorrow, but right now you all need sleep.”
The other members nodded, before Sungmin moved forward to take Minjae’s good hand. “C’mon, Jae-yah… let’s get you into some pajamas, and then we’ll brush your teeth and you can go to bed,” the elder commented, leading Minjae down the hall.
“Did they give him any painkillers or anything to take?” Seongjun asked.
“They gave him something at the hospital,” the manager replied, as Junhyuk and Sungmin herded Minjae into the bathroom. “I can’t pick up the prescription until morning, but he was really only hurting when they were manipulating his arm for the x-rays…”
Minjae didn’t hear the rest, as Sungmin closed the door to give Minjae at least a little bit of privacy. It wasn’t like it really mattered; they had all changed in front of each other a million times over the years. But Minjae was still thankful that the older man seemed concerned about something so trivial, even after so many years. “Junhyuk-ah, will you help him clean up a little bit, while I get him some clean pajamas? We can figure out how he can get an actual shower tomorrow, but we can at least help him not smell all night…”
“On it,” the maknae replied, getting a towel and a washcloth from the shelf they kept them on as Sungmin left to find Minjae some new pajamas.
By the time Sungmin came back, Junhyuk and Minjae had managed to at least get rid of the sweat left over from his extra hours of dancing. “Dude… you need to do your laundry,” Sungmin commented as he came through the bathroom door. “I had to get a tee shirt from Huijun-ah.”
“Mianhe…” Minjae began, shaking his head. He hadn’t realized just how far behind he’d gotten on his laundry.
“We’ll work on it tomorrow,” Sungmin replied, as he started to help Minjae change into the pajamas he’d found.
Minjae was thoroughly exhausted by the time he was actually ready to go to sleep, leaning fairly heavily on Junhyuk as the maknae guided him to their shared room. Seongjun was already there, adding some extra pillows from the sofa to Minjae’s bed. “Manager-hyung said that we needed to prop up your arm, to help with the swelling until he can get your prescription tomorrow…” the leader explained, as Junhyuk helped Minjae to his bed.
“Thanks, hyung,” Minjae replied, smiling as his roommates got him tucked into bed and settled comfortably. He was asleep before the others even managed to get the lights turned off.
***
“Right… we’re going to have to set some new rules about staying over at the practice rooms after rehearsals,” Seongjun commented, as he handed Minjae an ice pack for his arm and then sat down to join the group meeting he had called while their manager was out getting Minjae’s prescription for him. “We can’t have anyone walking home alone after this… and especially not you, Jae-yah. You got lucky, that you’re only going to be in a cast for a few weeks.”
Minjae nodded. “I know, hyung. I didn’t think about the possibility of losing my glasses when I decided to walk home…” Minjae replied.
“We’re not mad, okay?” Sungmin added quickly. “We all sort of missed the mark on this one… we should have realized that letting you walk home alone after dark wasn’t a great idea. But now we know, and we can make sure there aren’t any more accidents like last night.”
“Maybe it would be best if none of us walked after dark…” Huijun began. Minjae nodded in agreement with the thought. Although having one of his members with him wouldn’t have prevented his injury, it would have at least gotten him to the hospital a bit sooner and without all of the stress on everyone else.
“Honestly, we probably shouldn’t be rehearsing alone at the company building, either,” Junhyuk added. “I know that we’re never really alone in the building, but no one else goes to our rehearsal spaces unless they’re looking for us… and most of the time, no one goes looking for any of us other than our manager…”
“That is a good point… if something were to happen and one of us got hurt, it could be a long time before anyone finds out,” Seongjun replied. “Especially once they start lifting the time restrictions we’re under… next year, it’ll only be our maknae whose hours are restricted. Manager-hyung won’t have to set such strict limits for anyone else, and it could be much longer before we realize that there’s a problem if we don’t set up some kind of back-up to protect each other.”
“Okay… so no one stays alone at the company building after rehearsals, and no one walks home alone. And definitely no walking home after dark,” Sungmin reiterated.
“I’ll agree with that,” Minjae replied, nodding. “At the very least, it would have saved everyone a lot of stress last night… someone would have been there to help me find my glasses, or at least call for some help. I wouldn’t have ended up walking so far out of the way and getting lost…”
“I still don’t understand how you walked that far without running into someone else… that police station is so far out of the way…” Sungmin commented, shaking his head. “And to walk that far with a broken arm and no glasses… I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been…”
Minjae shook his head. “I don’t really know how it happened… I was just trying to find somewhere I could charge my phone, so that I could call you guys and get home,” he replied. “My arm didn’t even really hurt unless I tried to move it… I honestly thought it was just bruised pretty badly, not actually fractured…”
“At least it wasn’t a serious break,” Seongjun replied. “This could have been a lot worse… a few weeks in a cast isn’t that big of a deal in the long run. It’s going to suck, but once the cast comes off you should be okay. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if your injuries had been more serious…”
Minjae nodded, sighing as he adjusted the ice on his arm to make sure that it didn’t sit on his skin for too long. He was kind of exhausted, after being awake until the early hours of the morning and not being able to sleep very well because of his arm hurting every time he moved during the night. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad, except for the fact that Minjae was pretty much always moving in his sleep and he wasn’t really awake enough to realize that he was leaning on his injured arm until it began to hurt.
“Since we’re taking today off, do you guys want to watch a movie or something?” Sungmin asked.
“I still have homework to do…” Huijun replied, groaning as he stood up. “I’ll come join you guys afterwards. I’m going to get in trouble if I miss any more assignments for my science class.”
“I’m actually kind of tired,” Minjae admitted. “Maybe later? I kind of want to lay down and try to take a nap again…”
“After lunch, then? That way Huijun-ah can do his homework first, and you can take a nap,” Seongjun suggested, standing up so that he could help Minjae to his feet. The leader kept an arm around Minjae’s waist, guiding him into their room and helping him lay down and get into a comfortable position with his arm elevated. The leader took his ice pack, setting it off to the side as he got Minjae settled. “Do you need anything else, before I let you sleep?”
“I’m okay, hyung… but will you let me know when Manager-hyung gets back with my prescription? I think the pain medication might help me sleep better…” Minjae replied.
Seongjun nodded, smiling. “Of course, Jae-yah. Try to rest, okay? I’ll come back and wake you up when we have the meds.”