Chapter Text
Sunoo was such an extrovert. It’s like he created the ‘extroverted person stereotypes,’ if you named it, Sunoo’s probably experienced it. Some could argue he was the living definition of a social butterfly. Despite the worldwide pandemic, Sunoo didn’t hesitate to make friends with idols he met every day at different music shows or in their other schedules. As such, Sunoo didn’t spend much time with his group outside of their schedules, opting to go out with his friends instead.
Now, don’t misunderstand. It’s not like the others didn’t go out and weren’t extroverted. Most of the members were extroverted as well, but that didn’t mean they weren’t hesitant to make friends sometimes. They needed time to recover from their strenuous schedules too. However, seeing Sunoo having fun with other idols didn’t mean they didn’t get jealous. He interacted with so many idols on a daily basis, it seemed like he was part of every group except Enhypen. It was hard for them not to get jealous of Sunoo’s friends. But they didn’t mention anything about it, they figured they’d only upset Sunoo if they did. Besides, it’s not like he was in any danger by having a lot of friends.
Enhypen tried to get used to it, letting Sunoo visit his friends whenever he could, knowing they would need it if they wanted the boy to keep smiling brightly at them. It’s not like they weren’t together most of the time for their schedules anyway. Still, it was hard seeing the younger being so unwaveringly loving to other groups, Enhypen was his group. His love should be reserved for them (mostly). They still struggled with it, even after three years of being a group. Sunoo barely noticed though, he was too busy with his best friends. Enhypen were supposed to be his best friends. Curse Sunoo’s naturally light and innocent social butterfly skills. His team sighed heavily collectively.
Now, here they were, at the end of the year show in Korea. This was their last end of the year show, meaning they would get a long deserved break for Christmas and New Years after tonight. They had just finished a successful performance, and the night was starting to wrap up as all of the idols that were at the end of the year show gathered around the somewhat cramped stage. The MC’s made some closing speeches, and some other idols made short closing speeches before the audience cheered and the camera shut off. Enhypen made their way to the backstage, frankly ready to go home. Jungwon, too tired to go through their regular routine, forgot to make sure all of his members were there. They made their way through the flow of people, ready to just get home already. Before they left, Jungwon made sure the rest of his team was there before they exited the building fully. He counted five of his members, not including himself. His eyebrows furrowed and he counted once more, only counting five of his members like before.
“Where’s Sunoo-hyung? Guys?” Jungwon turned around, hoping to see the older boy.
“Jungwon-ah, he’s over there!” Heeseung pointed over to where Sunoo was, and Jungwon took note of him.
Sunoo turned away from his conversation and found his group, waving before going to join them so he could go home. Suddenly, a hand touched Sunoo’s shoulder and he whipped around, expecting it to be one of his friends. His eyes widened and his smile fell as his eyes met with another, more sinister pair.
“Hey, Sunoo-yah. It’s been a while, right?”
“H–Hey Doyoon. How have you been?”
“Let’s catch up! I was just about to go get dinner.”
“I–– I really need to leave with my group actually.”
“Whhhaaaattt?” Doyoon grabbed Sunoo by the hair harshly, claiming he couldn’t hear him.
Sunoo’s eyes filled with tears as he closed them, past memories flashing through his mind. Doyoon used to bully him when they were trainees, before Sunoo found Hybe. He was also the reason why Sunoo accepted the offer from Hybe, to escape the hellhole that was his previous company.
“Answer me!” He said as he hit Sunoo on the head and made him fall. Sunoo lightly fell to the ground, hands cushioning his fall. Doyoon feigned innocence, helping Sunoo up as he said woah, are you okay, Sunoo-yah? Clumsy as ever I see!
“Come with me over here, Sunoo-ah. I have something to tell you.” Doyoon said as he grabbed Sunoo by the wrist, leading him to a dark corner of the stage. He looked back to see if he could find his group. Almost all of them were looking at their phones, looking like they didn’t care where Sunoo was at all. But, he knew better; if they truly didn’t care they would’ve gone to their van by now.
Sunoo was harshly led to the dark corner where Doyoon resided and was thrown harshly to the ground.
“It’s been a while, Sunoo-yah. Last I saw you, you were leaving my company to be a trainee for someone else. I guess we know who now.” Doyoon crossed his arms as he looked at Sunoo who was still on the ground.
Sunoo’s hands clenched silently, resolving his steel. He stood up, finally finding the courage to face Doyoon.
“Who said you could stand up?!” Doyoon pushed Sunoo harshly, but Sunoo stood his ground and looked at Doyoon confidently.
That struck something in Doyoon. His eye twitched silently before he pushed Sunoo once more, Sunoo just staring back with a serious expression on his face. Doyoon’s fist clenched silently, before he swung his fist at Sunoo’s face. Sunoo flinched, looking to see if anyone else was looking at them. Sadly, idols were just walking around, not paying attention at all to them.
Doyoon knocked Sunoo on the ground harder, landing another punch on his eye. He kicked Sunoo continuously, the boy curling in on himself as tears fell on his face.
It’s okay. Just get through this. Just endure this and it’ll be okay.
Doyoon pushed Sunoo’s head against the hard concrete floor, blood flowing on Sunoo’s forehead and over his eye. Sunoo groaned, shakily standing up again. He looked at Doyoon with his one good eye seriously, the other looking back at him with an agitated expression on his face. He looked around and silently ran away, Sunoo smirking in response.
Does this mean I win?
He walked slowly over to his group once more, the horde of idols dissipating as everyone went home for the night. He locked eyes with Jungwon, the younger’s eyebrows furrowing up in silent worry. Sunoo’s lips curled up, an unconscious smile on his face. Sunoo’s eyes closed as his legs gave out, falling to the ground lightly.
💙
Jungwon ran to Sunoo, holding out his arms to catch him before he fell to the floor fully. Sunoo’s body collided with his, and both of them fell to the ground fully. Jungwon held Sunoo up, silently examining his injuries as tears fell from his eyes. He went to touch Sunoo’s forehead, the red, red, red of his injuries making Jungwon sick. His group crowded around both of them on the floor, concerned and crying faces on all of them.
“Call an ambulance! Right now! ” Jungwon spurred one of them, any of them really, to take action.
Heeseung put his hand on Jungwon’s shoulder, trying to ground the younger.
“We did. It’s on it’s way.”
Jungwon breathed out in relief, looking back at Sunoo on his lap silently. Tears welled up in his eyes once more and fell on his cheek. Once the ambulance finally arrived, their manager went with Sunoo while another staff drove Enhypen to the hospital.
Sunoo was wheeled in on a gurney into the emergency room, Enhypen clambering out of their van so they could follow him. Their manager requested he be put in a private part of the hospital, and the staff easiy agreed, quickly realizing who they were. They wheeled Sunoo to the private part of the hospital quickly, Enhypen running behind them.
“Give me the overview of his injuries, nurse.” The doctor said, opening both of Sunoo’s eyes and flashing them with a light before checking his ears.
“He has a gash on his forehead causing him to bleed out. He also popped a blood vessel in his left eye, has a few broken ribs, and is showing signs of extreme exhaustion.”
Enhypen simultaneously grimaced silently, some tearing up once more. How could something like this happen to Sunoo? Who could hurt their Sunoo like this?
“How did he sustain these wounds?” The doctor turned to the nurse, eyebrows furrowed.
“We’re not sure, sir. We called the police, they’ll look for signs of foul play before interviewing him.”
“Okay, nurse I want an x-ray of his ribs and an MRI to see if he sustained any brain damage. The gash doesn’t look too deep, so he won’t need stitches, but bandage it up and check on it every hour or so since we don’t want it to get infected.”
The doctor’s pager beeped and he excused himself.
“Please take care of him. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He slightly bowed to them and the boys bowed back to him before the man left the room.
The nurses dressed his wounds and underwent the process to get a chest x-ray. The boys stood around awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Once the nurses left, their manager entered the room, presumably because he finished making all of the calls he needed to. He sighed before looking at the six boys, not failing to recognize the heavy atmosphere of the room. His eyes finally landed on Sunoo, still presumably unconscious, in his hospital bed. He sighed deeper, closing his eyes silently.
“I need to go back to the company to wrap some things up, so you guys wait here and see if Sunoo wakes up.”
The boys simultaneously nodded, silent as they all thought of the same sentiments. When Sunoo finally awoke, after what seemed to be like an eternity to Enhypen, they all smiled simultaneously as they crowded around the member of the maknae line.
Sunoo’s vision was quickly overwhelmed with an extreme light, making him squint as he opened his eyes. Or, well, eye. Why was half of his vision black? Where even was he? He moved his one good eye to the side, immediately meeting a pair of eyes that were starting to tear up. He immediately recognized the eyes, the curl of Jungwon’s cat-like eyes were unmistakable to Sunoo.
“Jungwon?” He slightly whispered, voice exhausted.
“Yeah, it’s me, Sunoo-hyung. How are you feeling?” Jungwon whispered back, not daring to speak any louder.
“Okay…where am I? Why can’t I see anything out of my left eye?”
“You’re at the hospital, Sunoo-hyung. They put an eyepatch over your eye because you burst a blood vessel there.”
“Ah…I see.” Sunoo lifted his hand and put it over his eye thoughtfully, but also softly so as not to upset it. Sunoo then looked around to his other members shyly, taking note of their pain-filled expressions.
He looked down at his lap silently, feeling guilty he made them worry.
“I––I’m sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean to make you worry.” Sunoo unintentionally pouted, an unconscious action on his part.
“Don’t apologize, Sunoo-hyung.” Ni-ki stepped closer to him with a serious expression on his face.
“He’s right. Whoever did this to you is the one to blame. You should never have to apologize for being hurt. ” Sunghoon continued Ni-ki’s point, rubbing Sunoo’s hand lightly.
Sunoo looked at Sunghoon emotionally, unintentional tears welling up in his eyes.
“I––I’m sorry. I––I know you guys get annoyed when I visit my friends after our schedules are over. Which, of course, is fine! We’re usually tired…and you just wanna get home…but I lag behind and talk to everyone. I know you guys patiently wait for me, and I really appreciate it. I hope you guys know. I’m sorry we wound up in this situation because of me too. I…I never should’ve gone with Doyoon. I… the bad memories just came back and I was powerless. You guys must be disappointed. I’m sorry.” A single tear flowed out of Sunoo’s eyes as he closed them sadly.
All of their hearts broke simultaneously as Sunoo made his speech, eyes unwillingly tearing up. They all moved closer to the bed, tears falling from their eyes as they surrounded Sunoo in a big group hug. Once they made contact with the boy on the bed, Sunoo slightly flinched before opening his eyes, tears falling from them simultaneously.
“You could never disappoint us, Sunoo-yah.” Heeseung whispered into Sunoo’s neck, voice shaking as he spoke lightly, not daring to speak any louder.
Sunoo’s mouth flickered between a warm smile and a sad frown, not knowing how he should react to the statement. Tears fell from his eyes as he looked at his teammates, all hugging him at different positions of Sunoo. He felt so incredibly warmed by them, down to his bones. So he smiled warmly, lip lightly shaking as one final tear left his eye.
“I love you guys…so much.” Sunoo whispered warmly, smiling like there was no tomorrow.
“We do too, Sunoo-hyung. We always will, no matter what.” Jungwon looked at him with a small smile on his face, eyes glassy with unshed tears. Sunoo’s smile widened, looking cheerfully at their leader. Sunoo would always have his teammates. So, no matter what he went through, he knew he could endure it as long as his team still loved him.