Work Text:
Dejun took a deep breath as the music began, going through everything in his head as he listened to the whole track and carefully marked his way through the piece. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be in the dance studio so late, after everyone else had gone home for the night - the rest of the group had finished everything on their schedules for the day and headed home to get some rest, but Dejun had stayed behind to practice a little while longer because he was still struggling with some parts of their new title track’s dance.
While Dejun was confident when it came to his singing abilities, he couldn’t say the same about his dancing. He always felt as though he needed a lot of additional practice to be anywhere close to the same level as some of the other members of his group. The last thing that Dejun wanted was to be seen as the weak link when it came to a performance, which meant that he needed to spend extra time in the practice rooms to make sure that his dancing was actually up to the same level as the rest of his members.
This dance was particularly difficult; their choreography was always pretty intense, but this was on an even higher level than normal for WayV. And while Dejun was excited for the challenge - he certainly wanted to put on the best performance possible, and harder dances definitely looked more impressive even to fans who didn’t know much about dance - it was also rather stressful for him to think about all of the extra work that it would require him to put in on top of the hours they were all putting in to prepare for the comeback itself.
Dejun honestly wasn’t sure how many times he’d run through the dance by the time he checked his watch, realizing that it was almost one in the morning. He was exhausted; they had gotten to the company building shortly after eight the previous morning, which meant that it had been almost seventeen hours that Dejun had been at work. Still, he wanted to get in one last run to make sure that he didn’t lose all of the progress that he’d managed to make since everyone else had left several hours earlier.
Dejun honestly didn’t even realize that he’d forgotten to spot properly as he went into one of the turns until it was too late, and he suddenly realized that he had no idea what direction he was facing or even how quickly he was moving. He hadn’t even realized that he was falling until he hit the floor with an audible thud, landing hard on his left hand in a way that sent pain shooting up through his wrist and arm. Dejun couldn’t help whimpering at the pain as he rolled onto his back, cradling his injured wrist against his chest and closing his eyes as he waited to see if the pain was going to go away or if it was something serious that he would have to deal with immediately.
It took a while for Dejun to get himself to sit up. Although his wrist was still sore, the pain had subsided somewhat into something significantly more manageable. Dejun knew that if he put any weight on the joint it would not be pleasant, but he could manage as long as he wasn’t actually using his wrist. He just needed to clean things up and get himself back to the dorm; once he got some ice and some painkillers, he would be fine after a few hours of rest.
Dejun had barely made it over to the sound system to turn off the music playing on his phone when he got a text message alert, startling him so that he nearly dropped his phone and had to catch the device with his injured hand. It hurt, but not nearly as much as the initial fall had.
From: Sicheng-ge
When are you coming home?
Dejun sighed, as he realized that he’d kept the oldest of his roommates awake much longer than Sicheng had probably intended to stay up; it was a rule that someone had to stay up until everyone was home, to make sure that there was always someone who knew if something was wrong or someone had gone missing. That fact had slipped Dejun’s mind when he’d decided to keep going for one last run, and now he felt guilty knowing that Sicheng was waiting up for him back at their dorm.
To: Sicheng-ge
I’m packing up now. I’ll be home soon.
Dejun had to stop several times as he packed up, taking a deep breath to deal with the pain in his wrist that flared pretty much any time he had to move it. It was confusing, because Dejun couldn’t see any swelling in his wrist despite the pain that he was feeling. By the time he managed to get everything packed up, his phone was buzzing again with a new message.
From: Kun-ge
Are you almost home? It’s late, Junnie... Sicheng is getting worried that you aren’t back yet.
Dejun felt guilty, as he realized that the eldest of his roommates had gone as far as messaging their group’s leader when he hadn’t arrived back at their shared apartment in a reasonable time frame. He honestly didn’t want to inconvenience anyone, and he felt guilty that Kun and Sicheng weren’t sleeping because he had chosen to stay out so late practicing.
To: Kun-ge
Tell him he can go to bed, ge. I’m about to leave, it just took a little longer than I thought to pack everything up. But I’m coming home now.
Dejun hadn’t even managed to finish turning off the lights, before he had a response from Kun.
From: Kun-ge
Stay at the company building. I’m driving up there to pick you up.
Dejun sighed, closing his eyes and wishing that the older man had just stayed at the dorms and allowed him to walk back as he’d originally planned. He’d honestly hoped for some time for everyone to go to sleep while he walked, so that he wouldn’t have to deal with any questions about why he was favoring his left wrist. But now he was stuck, trying to figure out how he was going to hide the fact that he was injured from the rest of the group while his wrist healed from whatever he had managed to do to it.
Dejun was already waiting at the door leading into the parking garage when Kun texted him again, letting him know that he had arrived in the private parking area. The last thing Dejun wanted was to inconvenience anyone further, so he hurried out to the car the few members of NCT that held driver’s licenses shared for random occurrences such as this. He was surprised to find Sicheng already in the passenger’s seat, although he wasn’t quite sure why it surprised him - he should have known that the dancer would have tagged along as soon as Kun mentioned coming to pick him up.
“What were you thinking, staying here this late?” the dancer asked, as Dejun climbed into the back seat and buckled his seatbelt as best he could without using his injured wrist. “It’s almost 1:30, Junnie…”
“I’m sorry, ge… I lost track of time,” Dejun replied, shaking his head. “I didn’t mean to stay this late.”
“You really can’t do this to yourself, Junnie… you need to rest, too,” Kun commented, as he pulled out of his parking spot and started towards the exit of the parking garage. “We still have plenty of time to polish the choreography right now. There’s no reason for you to be pushing yourself like this when we’re all still just learning the dances.”
“Did you at least take some breaks and drink enough water?” Sicheng asked. Dejun didn’t respond immediately, knowing that he couldn’t honestly say yes to the older man. He’d lost track of time, to the point that he hadn’t even known it was after midnight before his disastrous final run; Dejun was definitely dehydrated. Sicheng sighed. “Junnie, you’re going to make yourself sick, bāobèi. Where’s your water bottle?”
Dejun unzipped his bag, digging through its contents until he realized that he’d left the bottle at the company building on accident. “I think I left it at the practice room on accident…” he began.
“Here… drink this.” Sicheng passed a small bottle of water back towards him, and Dejun was quick to grab for it without thinking about his injured wrist. He barely managed to stop himself from hissing in pain as he took the bottle before quickly transferring it to his uninjured hand and opening it so that he could drink before the elder men could get upset with him for not listening to their instructions, too. “I’m honestly surprised you haven’t already made yourself sick or managed to hurt yourself, with the way you push yourself with all of the extra dance practices…”
“I have to practice so that I can keep up…” Dejun began, shaking his head.
“You’re already doing so well, Junnie,” Kun interrupted. “I think it would be a good idea if you took it easy for a few days… I don’t want you to stay late for a little while, so that you can actually get some rest. The last thing we need right now is for someone to get injured, on top of everything else that’s going on.”
“Ge…” Dejun protested, shaking his head.
“Don’t argue with us, Junnie… you haven’t been doing so well at taking care of yourself lately, and the last thing we want is for something bad to happen to you,” Sicheng interrupted. “You’re going to do yourself some serious damage if you don’t take a break and rest properly.”
Dejun’s stomach churned a bit from the guilt as he glanced down at his injured wrist, knowing that he should probably tell the older men what had happened while he was practicing. But he also really didn’t want to know how disappointed they would be, or particularly want to deal with the trip to the hospital at two AM when he was already starting to feel the exhaustion from working for so many hours.
“We just want you to rest a little more,” Kun added. “You looked pale and so exhausted when you walked out of the company building just now, Junnie. We’re worried about you.”
Dejun didn’t respond, turning to look out the window as they drove through the quiet streets of the city. He could feel the tears starting to sting at his eyes as he realized that he had unintentionally been causing his members more stress, even though he was trying his best to reduce their stress by spending more time practicing their dances.
By the time they’d arrived back at their apartment building, Dejun was struggling to keep his eyes open. The only thing that seemed to be keeping him awake was the persistent, dull pain in his wrist. “Go wash up, and then I want you to drink some more water before you go to sleep,” Kun instructed, as they all climbed into the elevator to head up to their respective apartments. “We have a little bit of a later morning, so I want you to sleep in, too. Both of you.”
“Yes, ge,” Dejun replied, nodding at the man’s instructions. He reached up to rub at his eyes, hoping that he would be able to sneak a dose of ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet without Sicheng noticing so that he would be able to sleep without the pain in his wrist driving him absolutely crazy.
***
It was just about all Dejun could do to keep himself from crying out in pain as he woke up, laying on his injured wrist. It was still too early; he couldn’t see the sun through the curtains over the window, although it wasn’t completely dark outside. He took a deep breath, forcing himself out of bed and making his way out to the bathroom to find more painkillers to try and deal with how intense the pain in his wrist had gotten.
Dejun was surprised when he turned on the light in the bathroom and saw the dark bruising and the swelling that had started at some point after he’d gotten home a few hours earlier. He honestly hadn’t expected things to get that much worse that quickly, and Dejun really had no idea how he was going to hide the fact that he’d hurt himself by not being more careful. The fact that Dejun couldn’t move his fingers or wrist at all without his wrist hurting was also extremely concerning, and there was no way he could get the bottle of painkillers open with one hand.
“Yah… Dejun-ah, why are you up so early?” Dejun turned quickly as he heard Guanheng coming up behind him, wincing as he dropped the bottle he’d been holding and it hit the floor loudly. “What are you doing?”
“I just needed some painkillers…” Dejun began, moving to grab the bottle with his good hand.
“What’s hurting? Are you okay?” Guanheng asked, getting closer than Dejun was really comfortable with under the circumstances. Dejun was surprised when Guanheng grabbed his left arm several inches above the bruised and swollen skin of his wrist. “Yah… what happened to your hand?”
“It’s not a big deal…” Dejun began, shaking his head.
“What are you talking about, not a big deal? Can you even move your fingers?” Guanheng asked, obviously frustrated by the fact that Dejun was trying to brush him off.
“It’s just sprained… it really isn’t a big deal,” Dejun replied. “I just need to give it some time to heal, and it’ll be fine.”
“Has anyone looked at it yet?” Guanheng asked, gently prodding at Dejun’s fingers and trying to move his wrist. Dejun couldn’t help wincing at the pain the movement caused, trying to pull away from his friend. “You know that I have to tell Kun-ge about this… you can’t hide an injury like this and just assume that it’s going to heal properly…”
Dejun sighed, closing his eyes. “At least let Kun-ge sleep for a little while longer… he and Sicheng-ge came to pick me up at the company building at one-thirty this morning,” Dejun admitted. “We didn’t get back until almost two…”
Guanheng sighed, closing his eyes. “Give me the bottle…” Dejun handed over the bottle of painkillers, watching as Guanheng opened the bottle and poured out two pills. “Did you take anything when you got home?” Guanheng asked, hesitating before he could pass the pills over.
“Just ibuprofen,” he replied. “It wasn’t bad last night… the bruising and swelling are new.”
“Okay… take these, and go lay back down for a little while,” Guanheng replied, passing over the dose of acetaminophen Dejun had been trying to get himself. “I’m going to tell everyone as soon as I get the chance… but I won’t wake anyone up. Try to get some more rest.”
Dejun nodded, taking the pills into the kitchen to grab a drink of water so that he could swallow the medication before heading into the living room and laying down on the couch. He knew that there wasn’t a point in heading back to his bed; as soon as Sicheng woke up, the older man would be coming to wake him up to inspect his injury and likely call someone to take him to the hospital to have it checked out.
“Yah… Junnie…” Dejun opened his eyes, unsure of when he had fallen asleep on the sofa. He turned towards the sound of Kun’s voice, surprised to see the leader kneeling next to him. “Let me see your hand, bāobèi…”
Dejun sighed, letting the leader take his injured wrist. He could see the concern in the leader’s face as Kun gently straightened his fingers, watching the way Dejun reacted as he manipulated the joint. “It wasn’t that bad last night,” Dejun finally commented, when Kun didn’t say anything immediately.
“Was it hurting last night when we picked you up?” Kun asked. Dejun nodded slowly. He had to look away from the older man as Kun sighed. “What happened?”
“I was practicing the dance, and I lost control of the spin at the end,” Dejun replied. “I caught myself with that hand as I fell.”
“We need to take him to the hospital… he could have broken something…” Dejun looked up, surprised to see that Ten was standing behind the sofa watching them. The Thai man reached down to stroke a hand through Dejun’s hair. “You aren’t supposed to catch yourself with your hands, baby… that’s how you break a wrist or an elbow. We’re going to have to teach you how to fall properly.”
“We’ll worry about teaching him to fall later… but right now, we need to deal with the fact that his wrist is probably at least sprained,” Sicheng commented, as the dancer came into the room with an ice pack wrapped in a towel that he quickly helped Kun wrap around Dejun’s wrist. “How on Earth did you manage to make it all night without even telling us that you’d hurt yourself?”
“It honestly wasn’t that bad,” Dejun replied, shaking his head. “It was really only hurting when I moved it… and it wasn’t like this last night. I thought it wasn’t a big deal, and that it would be okay in a couple of days if I was just careful with it…”
Sicheng sighed, shaking his head. “No… if you are in pain, we need to know,” the dancer replied. “You’ve done some serious damage to yourself, and I don’t even want to know how much worse you’ve made it by not getting medical attention immediately…”
“I’m sorry, ge…” Dejun began.
“Manager-ge is on his way here already… he’s going to take you to the hospital after he drops the rest of us at the company building,” Kun replied. “Let’s get you up and get you dressed, okay? And you’re going to let us help you, so that you don’t do any more damage to your wrist.”
Dejun nodded, letting the group’s three oldest members help him up off the couch. He couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable with the fact that the rest of the members were there as well, all obviously trying not to look as though they were eavesdropping on the conversation taking place despite the fact that there really wasn’t any way for them to avoid it. “Is there anything we can do to help, ge?” Yangyang asked, as the youngest got up from his place on the floor by the table where they usually ate.
“We’ve got it, Yangie,” Ten reassured. “You guys just make sure you all have everything ready for rehearsals, and make sure that you keep Bella out of the way so that Junnie doesn’t accidentally trip over her.”
Having to be helped with something as simple as changing clothes was frustrating, especially when Sicheng insisted on keeping the ice on his wrist as much as possible. “Ge… it’s already swollen. The ice isn’t going to help,” Dejun reminded him, when the dancer tried to wrap an elastic bandage around the ice pack to hold it in place.
“It’ll help with the pain, at least,” Sicheng replied, carefully wrapping the bandage so that it would hold the ice in the correct place. “It’s just for a little while longer… we have to take it off soon anyway, so that it doesn’t cause damage to your skin with the cold. But for the moment, it’s better if we leave it on there.”
***
“I want you to at least watch the rest of dance practice today, even if you aren’t supposed to dance until the swelling goes down and you can get a proper cast,” the manager commented, as he pulled into the parking garage and their usual parking spot.
“Yes, ge,” Dejun replied, nodding tiredly as he adjusted the sling he had been given at the hospital. Between not being able to sleep well due to the pain and then being sedated while the doctor made sure the bones in his wrist were set properly after he’d been diagnosed with a broken wrist, Dejun was exhausted. But he couldn’t be left alone in his current condition, which meant that he didn’t have much of a choice but to go to the company building so that there would be someone nearby to keep an eye on him. Their manager had duties at the company building that he couldn’t put off, which meant that the best option they had was for Dejun to hang out in the practice room while the rest of the group worked.
The moment Dejun walked into the practice room, he was immediately surrounded by the rest of the group. Everyone was asking a lot of questions, and it took a moment for Kun to get everyone else to stop talking. “Guys! Guys, he can’t answer fifty questions at once…” the leader began. Dejun still felt a little overwhelmed as Yukhei put an arm around his shoulders, guiding him over to the sofa in a far corner of the room. Thankfully, everyone seemed to calm down once Dejun was settled on the couch. “Okay… the most important question is what did the doctor say?”
“I fractured something in my wrist,” Dejun replied. “They can’t put a cast on until the swelling goes down, so it’s just in a splint for a week or so. But after that I’m okay to dance, as long as I’m careful and it isn’t hurting.”
“How long do you have to be in the cast?” Yukhei asked, still not moving from where he had sat down next to Dejun.
“Six to eight weeks… so it’ll still be on for filming and when the album releases,” Dejun replied. “I’m going to ask for a black one, so that it’ll be easier for the stylists. They did say that after the first four weeks they might be able to switch it to a short cast, if it’s healing well. But that’s still after all of the filming and jacket shoot…”
“They might be able to delay some things…” Sicheng began.
“I don’t think we can delay that long,” Ten replied. “That will start creating timing conflicts with the other units… and they can’t really mess with Dream and 127’s timing much, after what happened with Donghyuck-ah during ‘Punch’ last year.” Dejun couldn’t help feeling a little guilty, knowing that his carelessness was going to cause all kinds of problems for their management team. Ten was right, after all; the company didn’t want the bad publicity that would come from more of their members having issues with exhaustion due to being overworked.
“We’ll figure it out,” Kun reassured. “For right now, you need to just take it easy and focus on doing what you need to do for that wrist to heal. Speaking of which, why didn’t you go back to the dorm?”
“I’m not supposed to be alone right now,” Dejun replied, shaking his head. “They gave me something while they were setting my wrist… I don’t remember any of it…”
“They probably sedated him,” Guanheng replied. “They can’t really put the bones back in place properly otherwise… he would have been too tense and in too much pain.”
“Okay… we should really find somewhere you can lay down for a while and try to sleep off the medication they gave you,” Sicheng commented.
“I’m supposed to watch you all practice…” Dejun began.
“No…” Kun replied, shaking his head. “I’ll deal with the managers if they have an issue with it, but you got almost no sleep last night and you were just sedated at the hospital. We’re finding somewhere for you to lay down and sleep. Yangie needs to take a break for a while because his blood sugar is dropping anyway, so he can hang out with you.”
“Come on, ge… we’ll go take over Taeyong-hyung’s studio while he’s busy with other stuff,” Yangyang suggested, as he grabbed his bag full of diabetes supplies and threw it over one shoulder.
“I’ll walk down there with you guys… Junnie doesn’t seem very steady on his feet, and we don’t want either of you to get hurt,” Yukhei commented, as the group’s tallest member stood up before helping Dejun to his feet. He was thankful for Yukhei standing right next to him, as he nearly lost his balance once he was on his feet again and the taller man had to move quickly to keep Dejun on his feet. “Are you okay?”
“Just a little lightheaded,” Dejun admitted, taking a moment to steady himself with a little bit of help from both Yukhei and Sicheng. “I’m okay now… I think I just need to eat something.”
“Did they not feed you the hospital?” Sicheng asked, once Dejun was steadier on his feet.
“I didn’t think to ask,” Dejun admitted, as his stomach growled. “I wasn’t really hungry when my arm was hurting, and then I just wanted to get out of there…”
“Okay, we need to get something into your stomach before you go to sleep, too,” Kun commented. “Guanheng, will you run down and grab something for him to eat from the café? I don’t think we should make him wait, when he hasn’t eaten anything since dinner last night… and it would probably be a good idea to go ahead and get Yangie some lunch a little early, too.”
“On it!”
“Go ahead to Taeyong-ah’s studio… if he says anything about either of you eating in there, I’ll deal with it,” Kun commented, once Guanheng had hurried out of the room. “Yangie, I want you to text me if either of you start to feel off or anything weird happens… I’m going to leave my phone on, so that I can hear it if you guys need anything.”
“Come on, ge… let’s go pretend to be slackers for a little while,” Yangyang joked, moving to put an arm around Dejun’s waist so that he could help provide a little extra support as the group’s youngest and Yukhei helped Dejun to the little studio so that he could get some rest.
Taeyong was actually still in the room when they arrived, with his headphones around his neck. “Yah… what happened?” the Korean man asked, obviously concerned as he saw Dejun’s arm in a sling. He was quick to remove his headphones, moving to try and help get Dejun sitting down on the sofa next to the door.
“Dejun-ah fell last night while he was practicing alone and broke his wrist,” Yukhei explained. “Kun-hyung thought you wouldn’t be in here, and that it would be a good place for him to lay down for a few hours… just so he can sleep off the rest of the sedatives from the hospital.”
“How heavily did they medicate you, that you’re still feeling the effects this morning?” Taeyong asked, as he helped Dejun get comfortable on the sofa with the use of the couple of pillows and blankets in the small room.
“I went this morning…” Dejun replied.
“Ge didn’t tell anyone he’d hurt himself last night,” Yangyang explained, as he put down his bag in the corner before moving to take a spare chair for himself. “He just got back a few minutes ago.”
Taeyong sighed, closing his eyes. “Okay… that’s a conversation we’re going to have to have in a few hours when you’re not so heavily medicated…” the man began. “Are you supposed to stay with him, Yangie?”
“Kun-hyung asked me to, since I’m running low right now,” Yangyang replied. “It’s not dangerous, but I shouldn’t be dancing until after we eat a real meal. Which Guanheng-hyung is getting for the two of us right now, so that we can both eat before Dejun-hyung takes a nap.”
Taeyong nodded, obviously a bit less concerned as he heard all of the plans that had already been established before they had run into him. “Okay… yeah, that sounds like the best plan for the moment,” the leader replied. “I need to finish up a couple of things, so I’m going to still be here for a bit longer if you guys need anything. But once I’m gone you can call or text me if there’s anything you two need - I know you guys are closer to a comeback, so it will be less stressful for me to step away from what I’m doing if you two need anything than it will be for Kun-ah right now.”
“Thank you, hyung,” Dejun replied, thankful for the fact that they were considered part of NCT as well. Although he hadn’t spent as much time with the Korean members as some of the others, the fact that Taeyong and all of the others saw them as their members, too, was definitely a relief at a time like this when they really needed the backup.
“I can let Kun-hyung know that you’re keeping an eye on things, so that he doesn’t have to worry so much,” Yukhei commented, as he started towards the door. “Thank you, hyung.”
“You guys are my members, too,” Taeyong replied. “I’m going to be there for you, the same way I would be there for anyone else in NCT.”
***
Dejun looked up from his phone as someone knocked on the door of his bedroom, immediately putting down the device when he saw Sicheng standing in the doorway. “I’m guessing this is where we have to have that conversation about me being an idiot last night?” Dejun asked.
“We just want to make sure you understand how serious this is…” Sicheng began. Dejun nodded, slowly forcing himself to sit up on the bed and getting himself to his feet.
“I know that I screwed up, ge… but I know that you all need to make sure I get it,” he replied, following Sicheng out to the living room. Dejun was honestly surprised to see the whole group, plus Taeyong, sitting in the living room waiting for him to join them. “It really has to be everyone?”
“We wanted to make sure that everyone is on the same page about what the rules are going to be moving forward,” Taeyong replied, as Sicheng guided Dejun to the couch to sit down next to Guanheng. Sicheng squeezed himself in on Dejun’s other side, although there wasn’t a lot of extra space. “Kun-ah and I have been talking about some changes that need to be made for everyone’s safety… this isn’t the first time someone’s gotten injured when they were alone in the practice rooms, but it’s one of the worst and we obviously need to reconsider how we all do some things.”
“But the first thing we need to talk about is what happened last night,” Kun added. “You can’t ignore an injury or illness… pain is there for a reason, Junnie. It’s your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong.”
“You should have come to us as soon as you realized that you were hurt,” Sicheng added. “It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the night, bāobèi. We wouldn’t have minded taking you to the hospital when we picked you up…”
Dejun nodded slowly. “I know that now,” he replied, sighing. “I know that it was stupid… I was just so tired, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. And I was already feeling guilty for keeping you two up so late…”
“You should never feel guilty for asking for help, ge,” Yangyang replied, shaking his head. “I ask for help all of the time because of my diabetes… do you think I should feel guilty for asking everyone to help me when my blood sugar is doing weird things?”
Dejun shook his head. “No… not at all,” he replied. “That’s different… you could get really sick if you don’t take care of yourself properly, Yangie. We don’t don’t mind helping you with that…”
“But if you’d kept trying to hide that you were hurt, you could have done permanent damage to your wrist,” Ten commented, interrupting Dejun’s explanation as to why Yangyang’s situation was different. “As it is, you probably made it worse by sleeping on it without even trying to stabilize your wrist at all.”
“I know,” Dejun admitted, nodding. “I really am sorry… I should have thought through what I was doing. I just thought that it couldn’t be that bad, if it wasn’t swelling…”
“Swelling is a bad thing, but if you’re in pain and it isn’t swelling that’s still a major concern,” Sicheng replied. “Seriously… if you’re in any kind of pain, you need to let someone else know. Even if you just have a headache, you need to tell us so that we can make sure you aren’t overdoing things and potentially doing some serious damage to yourself.”
Dejun nodded. “Okay,” he replied softly. He knew that they were right; he obviously wasn’t doing the best at taking care of himself, and Dejun understood that the other members were only trying to make sure that he didn’t end up seriously hurting himself again.
“That leads to the next part of this conversation… which is why I’m here,” Taeyong commented. “Kun-ah and I talked about it, and we think that it’s best if no one in the group stays at the company building alone any more. No matter what you’re doing, if you aren’t with a manager you need to have another member with you when you’re staying late.”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone from WayV… it just needs to be someone from an NCT unit. Someone that we know, and that knows how to get in contact with Taeyong-hyung or myself if something happens,” Kun added.
“I also don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go back to dancing as soon as you have a cast, Dejun-ah,” Taeyong commented. “Your wrist is going to need time to heal… I think that we need to push for them to find a way for you to not dance this comeback…”
“Hyung…” Dejun began, shaking his head.
“Actually, I agree with Taeyong-hyung on this one,” Sicheng interjected. “You’re going to be off-balance with a cast on one arm… it’s not a good idea for you to try and dance like that. I honestly doubt that your doctor is really going to be okay with it, unless the company put some kind of pressure on them to okay it…”
Dejun wanted to protest, but he knew that Sicheng’s explanation made sense. It wasn’t logical that he would be allowed to dance with the full cast on; he hadn’t even questioned the idea earlier in the day, when he’d still been under the influence of some kind of sedative medication. But now that he was able to think clearly, Dejun could see how it was actually a really bad idea. He sighed, closing his eyes. “They’re going to make me miss the comeback completely…” he began.
“Maybe not,” Taeyong replied. “They’ve let Jisungie sit during promotions because of his ankle before… this isn’t something that would stop you from being able to sing and attend other activities. You just need to be given some time to rest.”
“We’ll talk to the managers tomorrow about what the options are,” Kun added.
“And we’re going to make sure that someone whose first language is Korean goes with you to your next doctor’s appointment,” Taeyong confirmed. “I’m not convinced that you heard the doctor correctly; there’s no way they approved you starting to dance immediately after you get an actual cast. Maybe after it’s had a couple of weeks to heal, but not right away…”
“Manager-hyung…” Dejun began.
“Works for SM,” Sicheng interrupted. There was a brief moment of silence, as they all processed what the man had said. “If the company wants you to work despite your injury, the managers will interpret things in whatever way will make that happen. We all know that SM treats us differently… but if a Korean NCT member is there, they’ll have a much harder time twisting the doctor’s words.”
“I’ll try and make sure that it’s me… but if not, I’m sure I can get Taeil-hyung or Dongyoung-ah to go,” Taeyong added. “I just don’t want you to go in there without some backup, especially when we know that there’s a possibility that someone might try to push you into doing something that really isn’t safe.”
Dejun nodded slowly, thankful that the older members were thinking of these things. “Thank you, hyungs,” he replied softly.
“I should probably go… and you should try and get some more rest,” Taeyong commented, getting up from his seat across the room and moving to squeeze Dejun’s shoulder gently. “If you need anything, just let me know. And don’t be afraid to come crash in my studio if you need to rest for the next few days. My sofa is yours to use if you need it.”
“Thank you, hyung,” Dejun replied, smiling at the leader as he got up to leave.
Dejun took a deep breath, closing his eyes and leaning into Guanheng’s side as the two leaders left the room. Even though he hadn’t done much that day, he was still exhausted. “Come on, baby… you look like you could use some sleep,” Ten commented, coming to help Dejun up off the couch. Dejun let Ten and Sicheng get him to his feet and lead him back to his room. Thankfully, Dejun had already showered and changed into some pajamas as soon as they had gotten home from the company building so he was able to just climb into bed once he’d taken off the sling.
“I’m going to bring your pain medication… do you need anything else?” Sicheng asked, once they had helped him adjust the extra pillows under his arm to help with the swelling.
“I’m fine, ge,” Dejun replied, shaking his head. “It honestly doesn’t hurt that much now that I can’t move my hand.”
“You should take the medication anyway, so that you can sleep comfortably,” Sicheng replied. “I think what they gave you is supposed to help with the swelling, too.”
Dejun nodded, letting his eyes close. “I think I remember them saying something about that…”
“Just stay awake for a few more minutes, and then you can go to sleep,” Sicheng commented, stroking a hand through Dejun’s hair.
It was quiet for a moment, although Dejun could feel Ten sitting down on the side of his bunk. “We probably should have tried to ice your wrist more today, to help get the swelling down,” Ten commented, checking Dejun’s fingers to see how swollen they were. “Tomorrow while we’re dancing, you should try to go to Taeyong-ge’s studio to rest with it up and iced.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Dejun agreed. “I think it’s swollen a lot more now than it was this morning… it doesn’t really hurt, but it’s kind of uncomfortable because it makes the bandages kind of tight around my hand. But they said not to mess with it…”
“You definitely shouldn’t mess with it… you don’t want to end up messing up your wrist even more than you already have,” Sicheng commented, as he came back into the room. “Sit up a little bit, bāobèi. You need to drink some water to take your medication, and then you can go to sleep.”
Dejun did as he was told, with a little assistance from the older man, and quickly swallowed the pill so that he could finally relax. “Go to sleep now. We’ll wake you up in plenty of time to get ready before we have to go to the company building in the morning.”