Work Text:
All SEVENTEEN members had been working quite hard on their comeback which was still a few months away. All of them were really excited about the upcoming album and their schedules were continuing just like normal with no problems or issues whatsoever. Until a few weeks after they had completed everything and the only thing was left to do was perfect the songs and choreography. One day, the members were waiting for Joshua and Jihoon to start their dance practice. The two members had a shooting scheduled just before their practice and informed the others that they might be a bit late.
“Are they on their way?” Soonyoung asked Vernon, clearly annoyed that they couldn’t start the practice because they were not here yet. Vernon, who was texting with Joshua about when they were going to arrive at the company to start their practice, answered calmly while sitting on the practice room’s floor. “Shua hyung said that they just arrived at the company and were heading here, it’ll take five minutes. We should get the song ready so we can start when they arrive here.” He said while getting up from the floor and heading to the computer to start the song. While waiting, some members were sitting down and others were slowly starting to take their places for the dance.
After a short while and passed, Joshua and Jihoon finally arrived and they started the practice as always after having to hear some scolding from Soonyoung. The practice went as smoothly as it could and thy decided to finally end the practice when the two main dancers were satisfied with the work they have done so far. “Everyone, don’t forget your bags and water bottles here! We will leave as soon as all of you guys are ready.” Seungkwan announced while some of the members started to gather their items and out them in their bag to leave. “Cheol, I’m going to the restroom really quick, okay? I will wash my face, I’m going to be back in a minute or so.” Joshua called out to their leader.
“Yeah, we’ll wait for you. Just be quick.” Seungcheol said as Joshua left the practice room when he got the approval. Just when some minutes past after Joshua left the practice room, the door flew open, catching the members attention who were drinking water. They stared at the two man and woman who were standing in the entrance of the room with a confused look on their faces. “Hello, were you looking for someone?” Mingyu asked loudly while walking towards them. The woman in the front softly smiled and looked around the room, her eyes searching for someone. “Yes, actually…” She continued as she walked further into the room, the other woman and both of the man also slowly following her.
“Is Joshua and Jihoon here?” She asked, sounding as kind as a person can be . The members were now curious rather than confused about the situation now, they looked at each other while Jihoon stepped forward from behind Minghao with a frown on his face. Without giving Jihoon a second to talk, the man that was closer to them than the other man started to talk. “If you guys didn’t know, we are Jihoon’s parents. We wanted to make a special visit to surprise him and Joshua.” The woman with a bright hair color appeared from behind them while holding the other man’s hand. “We are Joshua’s parents. It's very nice to see you guys here.”
“What do you think you are doing here?” Jihoon’s cold voice immediately made the whole room go quiet. The people who introduced themselves as Jihoon’s parents, looked around, looked a bit annoyed and sighed. “You know, it has been a really long time since we have seen you or Joshua! You guys don’t visit us even when you are really close to where we live, since we noticed that you’re not going to come to us, we decided to do a visit. Aren’t you happy to see us? We can now hang out as a family all together!” Jihoon’s dad explained, while still trying to silently give a warning to Jihoon with his eyes, which definitely did not go unnoticed by other members just like the annoyed tone of his voice.
“Happy? To see you?” Jihoon screamed, making all of them almost jump out of their skin. He ruffled his hair and chuckled in pure anger. “You were the ones to destroy our whole childhood and dreams and we are supposed to be happy to see you? Who even let you in here?” He yelled, saying the last sentence to himself. The members were now completely silent, trying to reach out to Jihoon to tell him to calm down or pull him back when he started to scream at his and Joshua’s parents to leave the company as soon as they could. “Get out. Get out of the practice room and company. You think we are going to be totally fine with seeing you come in here hiding behind your ‘ kind and loving’ parents mask and talk about how nice it would be to visit, are you in your right mind now? Of course there’s a reason why we don’t even want to see your face and I’m already aware that you know why.”
Jeonghan, being the closest to Jihoon, stepped forward from the place he was standing at and called out to the younger male. “Ji, please calm down.” He said while reaching out to grab Jihoon’s wrist. The moment he touched the younger’s wrist and tried to pull him away, he was met with a scream instead. “Let go of me!” Jihoon screamed and pulled his hand away from Jeonghan. The rest of the members were standing there, in shock. No matter how mad or upset Jihoon was before, he had never acted like this to any of them. Despite how the members reacted, Jihoon and Joshua’s parents did not even flinch at his reaction, they were acting like they had seen Jihoon this angry before. Without letting anyone say anything to him, Jihoon continued to scream at their parents to leave the room and the building completely.
Despite what happened to Jeonghan, Wonwoo didn’t even think twice before running up to Jihoon and holding his hands in place when he saw him walking forward to their parents and making a fist with his hand. “Hyung, please calm down.” He warned Jihoon, whispering in his ear. “Wonwoo, please move away before I say anything that might hurt you. They deserve every single thing I’m doing to them right now.” Jihoon took a deep breath before calmly turning around and getting his wrist out of Wonwoo’s hold and pushing the other away slowly. Wonwoo sighed and walked away from him in disappointment. “Stay away, I don’t want anyone else trying to stop me here.” Jihoon warned them in a cold tone without even taking a look at any of them before turning away to face their parents.
“Stop the act, it’s making you look worse than you already are. What are you doing here? Why did you even come here in the first place when you could have just contacted me. I’m not stupid, I’m aware that you got my number from our old manager a few days ago. If you were smart enough to call me, we wouldn’t have to deal with this mess now.” Jihoon and Joshua’s parents' faces darkened with every word that came out of the other’s mouth. Annoyed, Joshua’s father, who had not said a word ever since he stepped into the room, walked up to Jihoon and stood right in front of him, trying to get the control back in their hands. “Money. We are only here for money.” A silence filled the room before he continued his words, still looking directly at Jihoon.
“Yes, we did get your number from your manager. But that is not the important thing that we need to talk about now. We need money to keep our life in LA. We are also not asking for you to give us what we want. We want the money and you and Joshua, being the disappointment of both of the families since the day you were born, are going to give us what we need. At least to get a use out of yourself and pay us the money we spent to raise you back.” No one in the practice room even dared to even breathe for a whole minute. The room was full of silence, despite the shocked look on the other members face, Jihoon was still standing still with a cold face.
It was hard to say that he was surprised. Actually, the part that made him shocked was the fact that they didn’t come here as early as he and Joshua started to expect them to arrive because they both started to get random calls from the same few phone numbers and it was quite obvious who the person calling them was. They both were aware that they were going to face this situation at some point in their lives, but they just didn't expect it to be a completely normal day. “Money?” Jihoon chuckled in anger as a tension filled the room. “Money. That is all you are here for?” He asked in a disdainful tone.
Jihoon just did not want to believe that it was the only reason they were here. Normally, it would be okay for Joshua’s and his parents to visit if they were great people but as you can expect from his outburst, they weren’t even good parents to them to begin with. But they never were. Jihoon and Joshua were both living in LA when they were younger. The reason why the public was not aware that Jihoon had also lived in LA at a part of his life, mostly his childhood, was because of what had happened while he was still in LA. Despite Joshua who was actually born in LA, Jihoon was born in South Korea. His parents had moved to LA to live a little more comfortably when he was born, a year after Joshua was born.
Joshua and Jihoon’s parents were friends ever since the birth of their children. Since they were really good friends, they also raised their children together but not in the way it should have been. It is safe to say that Joshua and Jihoon’s childhood was not the brightest and happiest like it should’ve been. They were both given hard chores, responsibilities from an early age and also had to deal with their parents acting like they did not have a child unless they needed something or they were angry and had to let out their anger on something.
They were beaten up badly almost every other day and verbally abused no matter what they did. Jihoon hated their parents even more every time he saw the scars on Joshua’s body, reminding him that they were never going to fully recover from what happened to them. There were punishments for almost everything as well as the abuse went on. Of course, they were naturally drawn close together since they found comfort in each other’s gentle touches instead of the hard slaps of their parents. From the outside, it did not show to anyone no matter how much they tried to reach out to authorities for this. So, they only had each other.
They would take turns to apply cream to each other’s wounds when they got beaten up or got punishments. Even when they were sure they lost hope, they’d find themselves in each other's embrace, hoping to find a piece of comfort in their arms. They always planned to escape the place they were forced to call “ home” but never had the chance to actually do it because they were always occupied with the responsibilities of the things their parents wanted them to do instead of doing it themselves. But sometimes, they did manage to try running away, only to meet with harsher consequences for trying to escape and not obeying the rules of their houses.
The last time they tried to run away together was also the last straw for their parents. After getting beaten up quite badly by them, they were fed up with the situation. After they both managed to escape their house, they both walked to a nearby park where they thought none of their parents were aware that it existed. Just when they thought they had made it and now they were free, they got caught a few hours later. When their parents caught them, Jihoon and Joshua were already very weak from the beating up that happened earlier that day, so they couldn’t even put up a fight when they were forcefully separated by one of their parents and taken home.
When their parents both got the boys into Jihoon’s family’s house since it was closer, of course confronted them about it. Even though they were mad, they decided to listen to them for once, just so they could laugh at their faces after they said they were running away. Not wanting Jihoon to get hurt by his parents in any kind of way, Joshua stood up and took the blame by saying that running away was actually his idea and he had pulled Jihoon to this even though Jihoon wanted to stay with their parents, which was a lie. When their parents heard about this, they were furious and shouting at Joshua, ignoring Jihoon for now, which was a win for Joshua at that moment.
Joshua was taken to another room by his parents shortly after that, forcing him to stay away from Jihoon as much as they could even when they were in the same house. Of course, there were a lot of consequences for his actions because they were “ wrong”. Not like their parents were doing a good job at being a parent for their children. Just when the door of the room he was pushed in was closed shut, the scolding began. Joshua was being thrown around and receiving hits and slaps from both of his parents. But he just stood there, knowing that Jihoon was safe and was not getting this treatment from his parents, or at least that was what he thought at that moment.
After the scolding and lots of shouting from his parents finally ended, Joshua was on his knees with his hands also resting on the floor. He felt tears in his eyes as a sob left his mouth. His whole body was shaking, covered in blood and bruises all around. When he finally found the strength to stand up and walk to the door, he quietly turned the door knob to not draw attention to himself. At first, he did not understand what was going on right outside of the room he was in. As expected, there was shouting but they were not as clear as Joshua needed them to be, to be able to hear what they were talking about.
Then he heard the front door slam open and a rustling sound of a bag. Then he heard Jihoon’s sobs coming from the other side of the door, sounding like he was the one at the door. Not understanding what is happening or why Jihoon’s parents are yelling something loudly that he can’t understand, he decided to open the door a bit more just enough to see what was happening on the front door. And there stood Jihoon, his black jacket carelessly thrown over his shoulders as he was on a rush while holding a big black backpack in his hands and crying his eyes out but as silent as he could, because it would be “ disrespectful” to make a sound according to their parents. Later that day, Joshua came out of his room while still trying his best to hold a still face and adt as nice as possible, just like how his mother wanted him to be, and asked where Jihoon was.
The answer was definitely not what he was expecting. “South Korea. His father wanted to send him there to get rid of him anyway, so this was like a cherry on top. I’m so jealous now, you know. I wish I could get rid of you as easily as he did with Jihoon.” said his dad with a selfish grin on his face while looking at Joshua up and down, trying to find a reaction to the situation that the younger boy just heard, but he felt disappointed when Joshua just quietly went back into his room and closed the door behind him slowly. “Get ready, I’m coming!” His dad called out from the other side of the door, a disturbingly loud laugh following his sentence. Joshua
earned against the door and sighed before standing up on his shaky legs and going to the center of the room. He could tell what was coming by the sound his father’s belt was making on the floor while he dragged it around on the hard, wooden floors of their house.
As for Jihoon, he was lost. Not because he was walking around the streets of Seoul ever since he had left the airport but because this was the time he really did not know what to do or even how to live here without any help from anyone he knew back in LA. The only things he had with him was his phone and the package that he could manage to grab from his room on his way out of the house as well as a thick, large jacket. For the next few weeks, he lived off of the money that he earned while working overtime and saving much of it until his father started to send him money, just to make sure that he was alive as well as saying that he did it to not receive the lots of calls that he would probably get if Jihoon died. While working for a restaurant and making a delivery, he saw the building of PLEDIS. He looked the place up as soon as he went home since he did not know what it was.
After reading many articles and learning what this place was about and arguing with himself whether it was worth it, he decided to try his chance. He loved music. He and Joshua loved music, actually. It had always been their dream to work and make music together, to become an idol and make their debut together. They used to sneak into the dance practice room of their school to dance and sing together despite the room being only reserved for the dance team of the school. So, when he was accepted and became a trainee; he did not know that Joshua also managed to escape from their parents too. The two had lost touch when Jihoon was sent to South Korea since Joshua’s parents had forced Joshua to change his phone number and checked his phone at random times a day.
The first time they met again was in the hallway of the PLEDIS building. Jihoon was heading to his studio to work on some songs and lyrics while Joshua was spending his first day of being a trainee exploring the company building to know where to go when he was called to a particular place. At first, they couldn’t figure out why they were looking familiar to each other when they passed by in the hallway. In these 3 years of being a trainee and around 4-5 years of living in this country, Jihoon had changed a lot. Of course, he was healthier and all the bruises that used to be on his body almost his whole life were now gone. His hair was longer, covering almost all of his forehead, something that neither of his parents would approve of back in LA. So, it took them a second to recognize each other. But when they finally did, it was almost impossible to separate them, just like how they used to be.
So that was the reason Jihoon, the one back in the present day, was mad at their parents, even though they did not do anything wrong. Yet, at least. “Money is all we’re here for.” Jihoon’s father held out his hand, demanding that some kind of money was going to be put on his hand. Jihoon let out a fake smile and looked at their parents like they were joking with him. “No.” He said and smiled again. “No matter what you do, we will be getting the control back anyways. We will manage to hurt you and Joshua again, but this time you won’t be so lucky.” Jihoon’s mother talked while standing behind Joshua‘s parents. Jihoon felt his blood boiling, his hands shaking from the anger he felt. “Security!” He called out loudly, probably enough to let anyone near the practice room know that he is calling for the bodyguards.
Joshua’s mother started to walk up to him while the security guards ran down the hallway, opening their door. “You’ll regret doing this, Lee Jihoon.” She said while getting dragged away by one of the female guards. “Yes we did not get to hurt you, but the same thing does not apply to Joshua, you know. You will never be safe as long as we are alive!” His father shouted while trying to free himself from the security’s grip on his arms. “This visit did not go to waste, Jihoon. We will see what you do when you find Joshua.” Joshua’s father screamed as they all got out of the room. There was a complete silence for a second.No one said anything or even dared to move.
Jihoon’s eyes widened at their words, he stood still for a moment before starting panicking and looking around the room. like he was searching for something. He mumbled something under his breath, which the members couldn’t catch and suddenly started to run after the securities, to the door. Before he could go any further, Seokmin caught his wrist and turned him towards them. “Hyung, what is going on?” He asked while holding Jihoon still by his shoulders. Jihoon tried to escape from his grip while mumbling about Joshua being hurt. Being the only one to understand what Jihoon was saying, Minghao stepped forward and held his shoulders. “Hyung, what happened to Shua hyung?” Jihoon let out a sob when he mentioned Joshua’s name, his tears falling down his face.
After managing to free himself from Seokmin and Minghao’s grip, he stepped a few steps away from them and looked around the room. “Look everywhere. Every room, hallway and even the studios. Just call me if you see or find Joshua and bring him here.” Confusion filled other member’s faces with Jihoon’s words. As some of them started to look around, Junhui walked up to Jihoon who was wiping his tears and trying to calm down. “Ji, what is happening, why are we searching for Shua hyung?” He asked while grabbing Jihoon’s hand that was trying to wipe his tears and held them. Jihoon closed his eyes and took a deep breath before answering. “Shua hyung is probably really badly hurt right now. I- I don’t know what they did to him, but they definitely did something that we would never ever want to see.”
Some members around them heard what he was saying and looked at them, some with their phones in their hands, trying their best to reach out to Joshua. Jihoon turned to Chan, one of the members tha heard him talking. “Channie, I’ll go outside to look for Shua, let the others know if they ask for me. Call me if you find anything and don’t let anyone come after me, okay?” Chan quickly nodded and asked before Jihoon could leave the room. “You can call us if you find anything hyung, also…” He wrapped his arms tightly around his hyung and whispered to his ear. “It’s going to be okay, hyung. Please calm down, Shua hyung won’t be happy to hear that you were like this when he comes back.” Jihoon nodded and placed a kiss to the maknae’s cheek before storming out of the room and shutting the door behind him.
He searched around the company while making his way to the front of the company. After asking a few people if they have seen him, he decided to go outside, just in case. He noticed a small and old warehouse, in the corner of the parking lot. Jihoon was not planning to go there but something just didn’t sit right with him. After checking his phone and confirming that no one found Joshua or has any clue where he is, he decided to check the warehouse, just to be safe. As he was walking towards this old warehouse that looks like it’s falling apart slowly, judging from the wooden parts on the floor of the parking lot, it started raining. Jihoon looked up when he felt the rain drops falling on his face. He quickly walked to the front of the warehouse and opened the old wooden door with a creak.
“Shua?” The sound of the raindrops hitting the roof was loud, almost like they were leaking from somewhere in the warehouse. “Hyung?” Jihoon called out again, hoping that his voice would reach Joshua, if he was inside. Then he saw a familiar looking jacket, he knew that Joshua got out of the house while wearing that jacket. He ran to the direction of the clothing, hoping to see the person he was looking for. Then, he saw Joshua. Lying on the dark, wooden floors of the warehouse behind some old boxes. He was unconscious and looked really pale, with some blood on his clothes, as well as his face and arms. He looked almost unrecognizable, his face was covered with blood, some of it had dried, showing that this happened around ten minutes ago. Jihoon let out a sob and fell on his knees, his legs giving out at the sight of his hyung.
He held Joshua’s face with his hands and started caressing his face as he sobbed. “Hyung, please…” A painful and lid sob interrupted his sentence. “Please, wake up. Please, please please…” He held Joshua’s hand with one of his hands and continued caressing his face, despite his hand getting bloody every time he moved it. “You have to wake up, Shua. I- I don’t want to do this anymore, stop playing with me!” He shouted, hoping that Joshua was just playing a little “ game” with him. He was angry, but not with Joshua. With himself, because he wouldn’t prevent this from happening. Just at that moment, Joshua opened his eyes. He blinked a few times to get rid of the blurriness and then he reached his hand out and wiped Jihoon’s tears, who had not noticed that he was awake. “Ji, it’s okay.” He said softly, as Jihoon’s tears were falling down his cheeks.
He softly smiled and pulled Jihoon towards him since his body was too tired and hurt to get up on his own. He grabbed Jihoon’s face with his hands and caressed his cheeks as he placed a kiss on his forehead. “I love you, Hoon.” Jihoon’s tears slowed down with Joshua’s words, he was slowly calming down. “I’m grateful for knowing you, Ji.” Joshua coughed out some blood but continued, despite Jihoon’s eyes being filled with fear of losing him. “Thank you for having me in your life and standing next to me, no matter what.” They both smiled, their minds filled with the memories they had shared even though they were both covered in scars, in most of them. “Tell the members I’m also thankful for knowing them too.” Painful sobs escaped from between Jihoon’s lips as he felt more tears forming in his eyes.
Jihoon held Joshua in his arms as his sobs uncontrollably got louder. “I- I love you too, Shua.” He managed to say between his sobs. Jihoon raised his head slightly when he felt raindrops hit the ground. During the time they were here, the rain had gotten worse and now it was falling to the ground through the creaks of the roof since the warehouse they are in was quite old. Jihoon felt the body between his arms relax slowly, then he lowered his eyes and saw that Joshua had fallen unconscious. The panic he felt returned, still painful but quiet and calm this time. He watched as Joshua’s chest moved up and down slowly, making his chest hurt when he breathed. As he was just sitting there, legs too tired to move and his body felt heavy, the door burst opened, the creak of the door echoing throughout the whole warehouse.
Some of the members quickly walked into the warehouse with an umbrella or a piece of clothing over their head to not get wet. “Jihoon? Joshua?” He heard Seungcheol call out for them, even though he wanted to scream and let them know they were here, he was exhausted. Everything was blurry and the sounds were not clear, his ears ringing and tears still falling down his face. Then at that moment, he felt he was getting picked up by someone he couldn’t see. He felt someone, probably Mingyu, side hugging him and caressing his waist as the remaining of the members ran over to Joshua, checking if he was still unconscious or woke up. Seeing them hover over Joshua just made Jihoon fully realize what was going on. He quickly got out the arms of Mingyu and screamed to the members. “Call an ambulance! Put something over Shua to keep him warm, it’s raining!”
He loudly screamed, resulting in other members stare at him for a few moments before one of them running to get a big jacket and another member calling an ambulance, something they probably should have done a long while ago. Things happened very quickly after that, Seungkwan put Wonwoo’s jacket on top of Joshua to keep him warm, as well as an umbrella over his head. Jihoon saw Seungcheol talking to the operator and what happened to Joshua and that they needed an ambulance. The ambulance arrived shortly after the call, they quickly transferred Joshua to the ambulance. Jihoon sees the members getting into the van to go follow the ambulance, but his body is numb, along with his mind. Then he saw Mingyu coming towards him, before he could even understand what was going on, he got picked up by Mingyu to the van.
—————
Joshua was clearly confused when he woke up on a hospital bed, with an IV in his arm. He tried to sit up while blinking fast to get used to the bright lights in the hospital room. A sharp, stinging pain struck his body, mostly his lower half. A groan escaped his lips when the throbbing pain slowly traveled through his body. When he finally managed to fully open his eyes, he saw the other members surrounding his hospital bed, as well as a nurse that looks like she is injecting something into the IV bag that is connected to him. The other members failed to hear what he said when he mumbled something under his breath. “Shua, can you repeat what you said, please?” Joshua heard what Jeonghan said and repeated himself louder as he was told. “Where am I exactly?” He asked while still trying to sit up right.
Then he felt someone’s, most likely Vernon’s, hands pressing down on his shoulders to lay back down despite his efforts on sitting up. “Hyung, you need to lay down. Your body is hurt and it is probably very painful too. So just lay down, we will help you sit when you need to.” Vernon said before Seokmin answered Joshua’s question. “You’re at a hospital hyung, Jihoon hyung found you in a warehouse inside the parking lot. You were already unconscious when he arrived there, apparently a security guard saw you going in there with some people. Then we called an ambulance and now, we are here.” Joshua nodded at Seokmin and tried to remember what had happened to him in the warehouse. At that moment, Seungkwan came closer to Joshua’s bed and held the older's hand, as he was trying to prepare him for something.
Seungkwan took a deep breath and cleared his throat before looking at Joshua and starting talking. “Joshua hyung, when you left the practice room to go to the bathroom, your and Jihoon hyung’s parents came to the room. They caused a scene and Jihoon called the security to get them out of the room. Jihoon hyung was the one to explain why your parents were here. He also told us about your and his childhood as well as why they came here.” There was a heavy silence in the room for a moment, before Junhui cut it off. “Shua hyung, are you okay?” Joshua was quiet and still, his face looked pale but relieved at the same time. And then Joshua just looked at the face member and smiled again. “Yeah I’m okay, it was just a lot to take in. I’m sorry for worrying you but I’m okay now. Just my body aches but it should be gone when the painkiller kicks in.”
There was definitely a sign of relief on the members' faces with Joshua’s words. As some time passed with them members talking, listening to music and even making jokes to make Joshua smile despite the nurses that keep going in and out of their room to check on him or give him medicine. “Guys, by the way, where is Jihoon? I haven’t seen him or heard anything about him. Where is he?” Joshua asked cluelessly while they were listening to some music. Joshua stared at the members in confusion as they all looked at each other’s faces weirdly, almost like they didn’t want to say where Jihoon was. Mingyu was the one to step up since he was the last person to talk to Jihoon. “Jihoon hyung left a few hours ago, before you woke up. He also took his phone and bag with him, he dışına tell us anything about where he was going.” Joshua frowned but Chan got his attention as he spoke.
“Hyung, I think Jihoon hung might be blaming himself for what had happened to you and all the other things, maybe even the past. We all saw how panicked he was when we were looking for you in the first place.” All the attention was on Chan now, he continued, feeling pressured. “He might be in the studio too, I tried calling him and messaging. He didn’t answer my texts or my calls but he did see them, so I'm almost sure that he’s okay.” Chan said. He was trying his best to not make Joshua get worried, since he was not feeling good yet. “Soonyoung, can you pass me my phone? I’m going to call him.” Soonyoung looked like he was unsure about what he should do at first. Realizing his hesitance, Joshua sighed, reached his hand out and smiled softly. “Please?” After his word and a little bit of convincing, Soonyoung placed the phone in his hand.
He quickly turned in his phone and started looking for Jihoon’s name in the contacts. “Guys, I think we should wait outside while two of them talk. Let’s go.” Vernon called out and all the rest of the members got out of the room t9 give the two some privacy. “Jihoon?” Joshua called to the other side when he finally picked up the phone. “ Shua? Did you wake up?” Jihoon asked, as if nothing was happening, “Come to the hospital, I want to talk to you.” Jihoon was silent for a moment after Joshua said that, but answered back. “Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Joshua hung up the phone and placed it on the little table next to his bed. After waiting for Jihoon for about five minutes, there was finally a knock on the door and a head peeking out of the small creak. “Come in.” Jihoon stood in the middle of the room in an awkward silence after getting inside the room with Joshua’s approval.
After some time, Joshua shifted to the side of the hospital bed and opened the thin blanket of the empty side, then patted on the bed to get Jihoon’s attention there and smiled. “Come here, Ji. It looks like we are going to have a talk.” Jihoon slowly made his way to the bed and slowly laid down on the empty spot, just like Joshua. They both laid down right next to each other in silence for some time as Joshua gathered up his words to talk. “It’s not your fault” Joshua said while looking at his side. Jihoon didn’t respond or look at Joshua. He kept staring at the TV placed in front of bed. “I mean it. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Joshua said while still looking at Jihoon, even though it didn’t seem like Jihoon was going to look at him. “If I was there, I could-“ Jihoon’s sentence was cut off by Joshua.
“Nothing would change, now that I remember what exactly happened, I can tell you that there were a lot of people there. If you were there, nothing would change. Except you would be laying down on a hospital bed with wounds all over your body just like me.” He continued after letting out a sigh. “It is not your fault, Jihoon. You couldn’t prevent this from happening even if you were there.” Finally, Jihoon turned to look at the older man, that was when Joshua saw the tears in his eyes, ready to fall at any moment. He opened his arms, careful to not move his arm with the IV too much. A sob escaped Jihoon’s lips as he wrapped his arms around Joshua’s neck, with the older wrapping his arms around Jihoon’s waist. Tears formed in Joshua’s eyes as the younger painfully sobbed in his arms. They stayed together until both of them had calmed down and finally stopped crying.
Just when Joshua was about to fall asleep, he felt Jihoon getting his hair out of his forehead and a soft pair of lips leaving a kiss on his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes and faintly smiled at Jihoon. “They will help you heal faster.” Jihoon confidently said when he noticed Joshua’s confusion since he wasn’t the one to give kisses most of the time. “The kisses?” Joshua asked and giggled. “Yeah, the kisses.” Jihoon said after leaving another kiss on his cheek. Joshua pulled Jihoon into a hug and covered them with the blanket. He placed a kiss on the younger’s forehead and closed his eyes. They both fell asleep shortly after that, with their arms still around each other, holding each other tightly.