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Changbin knew it the moment he’d stepped off of the raised platform and landed on the ground. He’d messed up his ankle. And if the audible pop echoing through the small gym was anything to go off of, he’d messed it up badly.
But he was alone in the gym. Han had gone home over half an hour ago, having an early wake-up time tomorrow. And Chan wasn’t here yet. Changbin wasn’t even sure if he was going to the gym today. Their leader had been cooped up in meetings for the better part of the day. Sometimes those warranted a late-night workout, other times it meant the oldest boy was going straight into bed.
Changbin heaved himself up and hobbled to the small bench against the wall. He’d have to pull of his shoe and sock to really asses his ankle. He slowly pulls on his laces, already pulling a face at the idea of having to move his ankle. He’d really screwed up this time.
“Come on Changbin-ah, you’re a big boy…” He whispered to himself.
Changbin slowly takes of his shoe, that wasn’t so bad. Now it was time for his sock. Looking at his already swelling foot, it wasn’t going to be easy.
“Just one quick pull and we’ll be done. One quick pull and you can see what you need to do to fix it.”
The quick pull was not a good idea. You could even say the quick pull was a terrible idea. It jostled his foot and made him grab his sore ankle way harder than he normally would’ve done. This might’ve been in his top 7 stupid ideas. Right next to borrowing Seungmin’s baseball glove without asking and finishing Lee Know’s favourite side dish before the older came back from a gruelling dance practice.
Slowly opening his eyes to look at his ankle didn’t ease Changbin’s unease. It looked worse than he’d hoped. It was already swelling up and purple bruises started to form on both sides. This probably wasn’t going to be fixed by taking a painkiller and elevating his foot. He’d need a professional to take a look at it.
Which brought him to his next dilemma. Where could he go and how would he get there? It was almost midnight, meaning that JYPe’s medical professionals had already gone home. A private clinic? The hospital? The last would probably be the easiest to get helped at, but it’s the least private option. Was he ready to be seen going to the hospital in his workout gear?
A quick Naver search showed that the hospital would be the fastest option. And so Changbin decides to risk it. He called for a taxi to take him to the hospital and hopped to the dressing room. He would at least make sure he had on normal pants and didn’t reek of sweat anymore. He’d have some time before the taxi was here anyway.
Three minutes later Changbin is pulling on his (luckily very wide legged) pants and tying the laces of his right shoe. His left shoe laying aimlessly on the floor. He’d have to put it on to be able to look slightly normal while going outside.
Just as he starts pulling the laces looser to make the shoe easier to pull on, the door to the dressing room opens.
“Hyung, are you still here?” Jeongin. Yang Jeongin.
Somehow the question causes tears to form in Changbin’s eyes. A broken “Yinnah” comes out of his mouth as soon as he sees his maknae come around the corner.
“Hyung! What’s wrong? What happened? Are you okay?” Jeongin is in front of him in mere seconds. Hands on the older boys knees and looking him over to see where the injury is. Changbin just points at his ankle dejectedly.
“I hurt my ankle. I think I need to go to a hospital,” Changbin felt the blush creep up his neck at the admission.
“Oh Changbin-hyung. This must hurt a lot. Are you okay?” Jeongin’s arms wrapped around his shoulders in an instance, and the older boy couldn’t help but start crying. He felt humiliated by the pain. And the fact that his favourite maknae was seeing him like this. They sit like that for a little while, until Changbin slowly calms down.
“Hyung, what happen-” Just as Jeongin starts to ask the question, Chanbin’s phone starts ringing.
“That must be the taxi. We should get downstairs before he drives off again,” Changbin starts to stand up, and Jeongin’s hands flutter around his hyung, trying to find a way to help him.
Jeongin decides to answer the phone, telling the taxi driver that they would be out as soon as possible, but that it might take them a couple of minutes. Luckily the man understands and promises to wait for them.
“Come on hyung, I’ll pull your laces tighter so you shoe won’t fall of. And then I’ll help you to the car,” Changbin just nods quietly at his dongsaeng. He’s really lucky Jeongin came to find him tonight.
Ten minutes later the boys are finally in the taxi. Another twenty minutes later they hobble into the emergency room together. They hadn’t seen any fans or paparazzi while walking to the taxi and into the hospital, which Changbin was endlessly grateful for. And now the emergency room seemed to be quiet as well.
A man and a woman were sitting in a far corner, tightly holding the woman’s hand wrapped in what looked like a kitchen towel. Jeongin didn’t want to know what her hand looked like underneath the towel.
The younger carefully sets the older on a chair against the wall, telling the boy to wait for him while he walks up to the nurse behind the desk.
“Hello, what brings you here tonight?” The nurse askes with a small smile on her face. The boys were hard to miss while they had come into the building.
“Hyung hurt his ankle. It looks quite bad, so we think he might-” Jeongin cuts himself off before he can start rambling, “We need someone to take a look at it and tell us what to do,” He finishes his sentence.
“Okay, we can do that for sure. There’ll be a bit of a wait before we have someone who can see him. Maybe fifteen minutes? If you could fill out your information in that time, that would be a big help.” The nurse hands him a clipboard with some forms on it. Jeongin quickly thanks her and makes his way back to Changbin.
“We have fifteen minutes to fill out the form. After that, they should come pick us up to get you checked out.” Changbin nods and starts pulling up his insurance information. Jeongin grabs the pen and starts filling out the top of the form, asking the other whenever he isn’t sure about something.
As the nurse promised, exactly fifteen minutes later someone walks in to bring Changbin and Jeongin to an examination room. Luckily the nurse brought a wheelchair. Changbin didn’t think he could’ve kept his composure if he had to hobble his way there.
Inside the room Changbin takes place on the examination table. Jeongin stands next to him worriedly, while the nurse takes place on a stool opposite the two.
“What happened?” She asks kindly.
“I was working out and slipped when I stepped down from a raised platform. I heard my ankle pop and, well, I couldn’t really put much weight on it afterwards,” Changbin feels the blush creep back up: it felt so dumb.
“We hear that quite often actually. The moment you pay less attention is the moment it goes wrong,” The nurse smiles encouragingly at Changbin. He guesses that’s true.
“Go ahead and take of both your shoes and sit back on the examination table. We’ll see what’s going on with your ankle.”
Jeongin quickly steps in to help with his shoes, carefully pulling the laces and sliding both shoes off.
“It’s the left one,” The younger informs the nurse. She just smiles and starts her examination.
“It seems to be your ligaments, they’re either torn or pulled. I don’t think it’s broken, but we’ll take an X-Ray just to be sure. Injured ligaments are known to cause small fractures from time to time.”
Changbin sighs in relief, a big fracture would be tough to heal without causing Stay to be concerned.
What seems like a lifetime later, but in reality is only an hour or so, the results are in. There are no fractures, but Changbin seems to have torn at least one ligament. They taped up his ankle for now and instructed him to walk with crutches for the coming week. He’s also instructed to have someone examine his ankle after said week. They would only be able to pinpoint what exactly was wrong after some downtime.
The two boys thank the nurse profusely as they make their way to the exit. Only when the boys step outside do they remember they don’t have a car to get into.
“I’ll call us another cab,” Jeongin says while pulling out his phone.
“Or not…” The boys look at each other and back to the phone buzzing in Jeongin’s hand.
“I guess they found out we aren’t home yet,” Changbin says awkwardly.
Just as Jeongin starts pulling up the taxi-app on his phone, he gets an incoming call from Chan.
“Yah Yinnah, where the hell are you? I thought we promised to at least keep each other updated when we would be out late?” Came out of the phone as soon as the younger picked up.
“Ah, hyung… It’s a bit of a long story…” The worry in Jeongin’s voice seems to reach their leader immediately.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“We’re at the hospital, Changbin-hyung- ” Jeongin isn’t allowed to finish his sentence before Chan speaks up again.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Where do I need to go once I get there?” The rustling on the other side of the phone tells the two boys that their leader is already running out the door.
“We’re waiting at the exit, we were just going to grab a taxi…” Changbin answers slowly.
“Changbin? Wait, are you two together?” Chan seems equal parts concerned and relieved.
“Yeah, we’re together. We’ll wait for you at the parking lot entrance okay?” Chan hums in agreement while slamming a door shut.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t do anything stupid and stay on the line.”
For someone who appreciated traffic rules as much as Chan normally did, they all knew that appreciation flew out of the window the second one of his boys needed him. So it wasn’t really a surprise when Chan was in front the two tired boys within five minutes. Stepping out of the car Changbin feels the tears start up again.
“Hyung…” The injured boy barely whispers. Somehow seeing Chan made him emotional all over again.
The oldest had the shortest wrapped in his arms in a second, pulling Jeongin into the hug too. The youngest couldn’t really tell who the hug was for, but it felt nice nonetheless.
“What happened, Binnie?” Chan sounded emotional as well, while probably trying to stay strong for the younger boys.
“I slipped while stepping off of the raised platform in the gym. Jeongin found me while I was getting ready to go to the hospital. They said I probably have a torn ligament, but they can’t really tell right now. Said I needed to get checked out again in a week.”
“He got an X-Ray as well. There’re no fractures, so that’s good news. He just needs to use crutches for the next week, until someone can say what’s actually wrong and what to do next,” Jeongin adds.
Chan nods, “I thought Han was with you?”
“He was, but he needed to get home and I wanted to finish my set and cooldown before I went home. So he was gone by the time I fell,” Changbin explained.
Chan nods again. The older slowly lets go of the hug, taking a step towards his car. Chan was happy he took the incredibly pompous car right now. It seemed over the top, but it was the easiest to get in and out of.
“Let’s get you in the backseat. Do you want Jeongin next to you?” Changbin shook his head at the question, he’d probably need all the space to keep his leg elevated.
Getting Changbin in and out of the car was a lot easier with Chan there to help. The twenty minutes Chan took to drive home (funny how he followed all of the rules perfectly now), were quickly followed by getting Changbin into Chan and Jeongin’s shared dorm. Changbin tried to protest, telling the boys he would be fine on his own, but the other two wouldn’t hear it.
Within the next half an hour, Changbin had eaten a light snack, taken some painkillers, brushed his teeth and was laying comfortably in the shared king-sized bed. He had Jeongin laying on his left side, while Chan stood at the end of the bed
“Just try to get some sleep, I’ll discuss with the managers in the morning. For now you need to rest,” Changbin nodded sleepily, nuzzling into Jeongin’s embrace.
“Hyung, you need to be careful! I can’t bump your foot and make it worse!” Jeongin quietly scolded him.
“It’ll be fine. You could never hurt me,” Was the sleepy answer he received.
Chan just smiled quietly before making his way out of the room. It was already three o’clock by now, so everyone should be asleep. Still he send a quick message to their managers, telling them to call him as soon as they got to work.
The next message went to Hyunjin, telling the boy that Changbin was staying with him tonight. It wasn’t unusual for the members of 3Racha to sleep over at each others dorms, so Hyunjin probably didn’t think much of it.
Then Chan opened the first-aid manual on his computer. He’d kept logs of all the instructions medical professionals had given him and his members over the years. A quick glance at the document showed him he hadn’t messed anything up just yet. Elevating the foot, icing it in intervals and using painkillers when necessary.
Lastly he checked the fridge, seeing if there was something he could make for breakfast the next morning. He was met with depressingly empty shelves. It wasn’t the time to go to a store. And his protective streak didn’t allow him to leave the younger boys on their own while he went outside. He settled for ordering groceries for tomorrow morning. Asking the delivery service to deliver them before nine o’clock. That should give him enough time to make breakfast before the other boys would wake up.
Satisfied with the preparations, the oldest boy started brushing his teeth. Before long he joined the other two in their bed, pressing a kiss to their foreheads and tucking the duvet a bit tighter around them. Only then the oldest boy was able to close his eyes and go to sleep.
~*~
The next morning came quicker than Chan had hoped. After a mere four hours of sleep, he could hear the door of their dorm open, followed by hurried steps.
“Channie-hyung! Where are you?” Felix’s voice followed. The worried sound had Chan sitting up immediately. He crept out of bed as quickly and carefully as possible, trying not to wake the other boys.
“Lix-ah, what’s wrong?” He asked as soon as he saw the younger boy standing in the living room.
“Changbin didn’t come over last night! We’d promised to have a sleep over, but he never came! And Hyunjin isn’t responding either! Something must’ve happened to them!”
“Calm down Lix-ah, they’re both fine,” Chan quickly said, trying to calm the blonde boy down, “Changbin stayed here last night.”
“What? But we- we promised-” It’s never fun to see Felix feeling dejected. It was even less fun when there was a sound reason for it.
“He got hurt in the gym. He slipped and hurt his ankle. Jeongin found him and took him to the emergency room. I could only get in contact with hem around two o’clock, so I just got them into bed as soon as possible,” Chan explained while hugging Felix.
“Is he okay?” The quiet question sounded scared.
“He’ll be fine. He didn’t break anything, but he did mess up a ligament. He’ll have to be careful the coming week and get examined again after that. Then we’ll know what he can and can’t do.”
Felix just nodded at that. Chans calm explanation and tight hug taking away some of his fear.
“Is he still asleep?” The younger asked.
“Yeah, he and Yinnah are in the bed. They’re all cuddled up and cozy. You can join them if you want,” Chan offered.
Felix nodded quickly, before kissing the oldest on the cheek and making his way to the bedroom. Chan just smiled to himself, before going outside to check if the groceries were there.
He was in luck and brought them inside, starting on breakfast before the others were awake. He might as well, seeing as he wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore.
Halfway through the second side-dish, Chans phone starts ringing. Their manager wanting to know what was wrong. Chan explained as fully as he could. The manager was concerned, but happy with how the boys had handled the situation. He wished them luck and promised to come by some time this afternoon.
Not even five minutes later, the phone started ringing again. Chan picked it up before the sound could wake up the three sleeping boys.
“Hyung, do you know why Changbin isn’t responding? We promised to go to for a walk this morning…” Hyunjin’s voice filled Chan with dread. It became the third time he had to explain the situation that morning.
Hyunjin was worried, of course. He was glad Changbin was sleeping, but decided to come over immediately. Chan hadn’t expected anything else.
Hyunjin was inside the apartment in less than fifteen minutes. Hair a sleepy mess and wearing what could only be the boy’s rumpled pyjama’s from the night before. Chan hugged him tightly before allowing him to take a peak through the bedroom door.
Unexpectedly, Jeongin came out of said door at that same moment. Hyunjin hugged him quickly and slipped into bed, filling Jeongin’s space and hugging Changbin.
“Hyung, when did Felix-hyung get here?” Their sleepy maknae asked as he leaned against the countertop.
Chan ruffled his hair a bit, before trying to tame it back down. Jeongin swatted his hands away before trying to fix his hair himself.
“About half an hour ago, I think? He was worried when Changbin didn’t come over for their sleep over last night. Hyunjin just came over as well, something about Changbin not showing up for their date.”
Jeongin just nodded. That was all his questions answered. He slowly made his way to the coffee machine. He’d need the caffeine after last night.
“Can I help you with anything?” He asked after he took a couple of sips.
Chan always appreciated his maknae. No matter how tired, Jeongin always offered to help. No matter how much he didn’t actually want to help.
“Could you call or text the others and explain what’s going on? I made enough breakfast for all of us, they’re more than welcome to join. I think Binnie will appreciate all of us being here.”
Jeongin nodded with determination, before he picked up his phone. He stilled when he looked at his contact list, glancing up at Chan.
“Just call Minho first. I think he’s with Seungmin today. If not, call him after. Jisungie is at a schedule, so you’d probably do well to text him. He’ll call back when he’s able.”
Jeongin just nods and starts his task. Everything to make sure his Binnie-hyung would be comfortable and happy today.