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it had been hard for all them, trying to process everything that they just heard. it started with hongjoong getting a phone call in their van as they made their way back to the doors, the leader, per usual, sitting at the front with seonghwa. the loud ringtone forced the van into an settling quiet as hongjoong answered, though his lack of response had caused the others in the back to steal glances at each other. it wasn’t until hongjoong had ended the call that the imminent chaos began. he couldn’t even turn to look at the others, opting to stare blankly at the carpeted floors of their van.
“yeosang…” he trailed off slightly, his voice barely above a whisper. though, it was dead silent and clearly audible. “on his way to his schedule on ‘the show’, a car had hit the one he was in, right where yeosang had been sitting.” the stillness of the van only added to the sinking feeling in their stomachs, the fast paces of their heartbeats, the worst possible scenarios. but nothing had prepared them for what they were about to hear next. “yeosang, after a very thorough evaluation by multiple doctors, and them doing everything they can, is in an indefinite coma with minimal chances of survival.”
and nothing could’ve prepared them for the absolutely heart-breaking sob that came from wooyoung. his best friend of 11 years, in an indefinite coma with little to no chance of survival. it felt like he was losing an entire piece of himself. the boy had curled up in his spot in between san and mingi, pulling his knees up to his chest and sobbing uncontrollably, unable to even hear any of the words the two beside him were using in their attempts to comfort him.
just like that, it had set off a chain reaction, jongho, however strong and tough he claimed to be, had broken into another set of cries at the news. he turned to sob into yunho’s side, the older pulling him in as silent tears of his own flown through. hongjoong, though absolutely heartbroken and teary-eyed, reminded himself of his leader position and asked their driver to make a detour to the hospital. seonghwa, much opposite to their leader, lost all sense of who he was and began to cry next to hongjoong, the leader pulling in his best friend and giving him gentle reassurances.
-+-
wooyoung was distraught, to say the least. distressed, heartbroken, absolutely devastated, and nothing was working to keep him calm. he had been crying for a little over an hour now, though he’s now doing it in the confinement of their dorm walls. he’s been pacing the house in an attempts to keep himself occupied and hopefully calm himself down, but it wasn’t working. the slightest thought of yeosang made him distressed enough to start another round of fresh tears. he was beginning to feel exhausted, but that didn’t matter to him right now. what did was his best friend of 8 years potentially dying in a hospital and he couldn’t be there.
what pulled him out of his thoughts, though, was a knock at the door. considering he had been the closest to the door after all his pacing, he decided to open it, wiping his face and trying to take deep breaths. he wasn’t expecting for there to be other idols to be standing outside his door, though.
“oh my gosh, that’s a lot of you,” wooyoung said, attempting to count all the heads he saw outside, though it was a futile attempt because there were too many of them. he heard hongjoong come from behind him, urging everybody to come inside and take up space in their dorm.
as soon as everybody began settling in, wooyoung took into account who was there. all of stray kids, all of txt, a couple sf9 members, kim suwoong, yohan.
“we heard what happened,” chan started, making eye contact with hongjoong first. “how can we help?”
“just being here for us is enough,” hongjoong says, his voice quieter than normal, his hand still holding seonghwa’s.
chan walked to be in front of the ‘98 liners, placing a gentle on hongjoong’s shoulder as the other found its way to seonghwa’s free hand. “we will always be here for you guys. yeosang is our friend, too. please, if you need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to call us.”
“same for us,” yeonjun gestured to his group. he turned to look at wooyoung, the other immediately launching himself into his friend’s arms as changbin made his way to stand by both of them. “i know we aren’t all as close to each other as wooyoung, changbin, and i are to yeosang but we want to be here for you, too. this is hard for us, so i can’t imagine how hard it is for you guys as his other family.”
“yeah. i may not know yeosang much, but i’m here to support you guys as an extension to my friendship with seonghwa, yunho, and san,” suwoong said from where he was standing. seonghwa turned to flash him a smile, his lips wobbling as though he was about to cry again. suwoong cooed, coming forward to place a hand on seonghwa’s hair and run his fingers through it soothingly as he felt the younger’s shoulders shaking as he began to cry again.
“same for us,” hwiyoung said. he was currently holding jongho’s hand while the two sat on the couch, chani sitting on jongho’s other side. “of course, we don’t know you as well as we do jongho, but please don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“and i know i don’t know any of you as well as i do yeosang, but he’s one of my friends and i would do anything to help out his family,” yohan said, looking at ateez.
“thank you, all of you,” wooyoung’s voice was strained and much thinner than those of his bandmates in his current state, but everybody had still turned their attention to him. “i’m sure he would appreciate the support. he’s never been one to openly make friends, but he appreciates you all being here for him. we haven’t lost him yet. while the doctors say he has no chance of living, yeosangie is a fighter. so what we can do right now is fight with him. give him our energy to fight to stay. he wouldn’t give up. not yet. not when he has so many things to accomplish and so many people to be there for him. so please, don’t give up on him yet. fight for him, with him, and with us. please.”
nobody had expected wooyoung to say such a thing. but you could hear the raw trust in his voice, the love he held for yeosang. it was so strong. everybody in the room had felt it, had felt touched by it. it ignited a small of themselves to keep fighting with yeosang. tears touched all of their eyes, the emotions being shared together by the young men in the crowded dorm.
they would fight with yeosang, to give him a better chance of staying with them all.
-+-
yeosangie. hi. i’m sorry none of us have come to visit. we didn’t have the courage to until now. y’know, for someone who claims he’s bad at making friends, there’s a lot of people who have sent their regards for you in the industry. like, i’m talking entire groups of idols who have sent gifts, flowers, food, anything for us. it’s starting to overflow our dorm to be honest. anyway, this mean that you have fight super hard yeosangie. you can’t let everybody down.
-+-
ateez had been put on an indefinite hiatus, one that was enforced by management after ateez had tried to force themselves through schedules and promotions. it had been mandated after wooyoung lost it during one of their usual introductions at a music show, breaking down when he went to get a comment from yeosang but remembered what had happened. now, they were all staying at home, though it didn’t feel like home without yeosang.
wooyoung had just been sitting with yeosang at his hospital bed. it’s what he had spent most of his time doing anyway. the members visited often, usually came with him when he went but left a couple of hours later. even other idols came and visited, often greeted by wooyoung. today though, it had been just him.
“sang-ah, how much longer are you going to pretend?” wooyoung looked at his best friend and sighed. “we need you back here with us. yunho hasn’t been the same. he hasn’t left your bed much because he misses you and sannie will usually join him.”
wooyoung sighed again at the lack of response, lowering his head and holding back tears. then he felt it.
somebody squeezed his hand.
“sangie?” wooyoung nearly screeched, but remembered to use a quiet voice. “oh, okay, uh. the doctor said to keep talking if this happens so i’ll just keep talking. i can do that. i’m good at that. ugh why is it so hard to keep talking~”
“you must really miss me if you’re this much of a mess,” yeosang said, his voice nearly inaudible and scratchy from not using it. it was comical the way wooyoung’s eyes widened, nearly bulging out of his head in his surprise.
“yeosang!” he said. “y-you’re awake!”
“i am,” yeosang replied, smiling just the tiniest bit, but it was enough for wooyoung. “are you gonna give me a hug?”
wooyoung smiled at him back, hastily leaning forward for a hug but being mindful of his injuries. he began to tear at the feeling of yeosang raising a hand to rest it gently on his back. “i missed you so much, yeosangie.”
“i know you did, wooyoungie,” yeosang whispered. “i love you.”
“i love you more.”