Chapter Text
12 years had passed since Hi-Boyz disbanded, a one hit wonder they said, it's not like they didn't want to release more music they just couldn't. The company was sued by three of the members for mistreatment, they didn't have lines or much screen time, but it's not like they deserved it either. Those three always slacked off and whenever Yeonjun tried to get them to work they intimidated him for being younger, the poor boy was only 15 at the time, all he could do was just take it in. The members not working and their constant favouritism complaints and the company scolding them for underperforming.
Between the four remaining members, they tried to keep going. The three members didn't win the case, but the company' who was already struggling financially couldn't take the hit of the scandal, hanging by a thread.
There were so many rumours about after the case too, some involving Yeonjun fighting with the members or him having a bad attitude towards them. It was proven false quickly, all of the staff and Yeonjun's friends and classmates talked wonders about him, but the scandal and rumours made Hi-Boyz name be associated with many bad keywords online.
One of the members decided that they were better off as just a dancer, he didn't complain about the lack of lines because he genuinely didn't feel comfortable singing much.
Umh Jay, D.I and Topkey remained at the company, waiting for new on their awaited comeback, which had been postponed due to the scandal. Those news never came, instead, the company asked them to leave in good terms. They couldn't sustain the financial tool of a rookie group under the Kpop panorama at the time and with only three members it was better if they ended things quietly.
Soobin and Yeonjun were still in highschool and Jaeil was barely finishing highschool. Jaeil tried his best to study a lot, he had a very good memory since he was a child and his grades were really good before deciding to become an idol. He wanted to heal people and make them feel better, make them smile. Thus, he decided he wanted to heal people's body not just their mind. It took him months of no social contact and much focus, though as a former idol and trainee he had already developed a work ethic, and he got in. He was going to be a doctor.
On the other hand, Soobin and Yeonjun studied diligently in their performing arts high school. They still loved performing above everything and wanted to seek a new dream together. Yeonjun thought carefully about being in the spotlight and realised he was fine with not being famous as long as he could do what he loved most. Soobin was so young when everything happened, he was scared of the industry and realised that he made the choice to work too early in his life, he wasn't mature enough.
They both went together to university and eventually opened their own dance studio in Seoul, it was hard but successful enough to make ends meet.
Yeonjun met Taehyun in university and he became a teacher in their performing arts dance studio. Beomgyu who managed social media and the front desk was Soobin's friend who he met in the military. And Huening Kai was Beomgyu's friend who would help around whenever he could, dancing, setting up lights or music or even handing out flyers in the street.
For Soobin and Yeonjun, this group of people were like the friend group they never got during their idol days. Jaeil and them didn't lose contact, but over the years they got busy with their own lives and now they only sent birthday messages and new year blessings to each other. Though, deep down they knew they could still rely on each other. Jaeil would forever be their hyung.
They hadn't seen each other in years, or heard their voices.
The day they met again was a regular day for Jaeil, he woke up and headed to the hospital and worked his hours diligently. By night, he tried asking his fellow interns to lunch to no avail. This time, because no one genuinely could.
As he was about to head out he saw someone being transported from the ambulance. He didn't pay it much mind, his hours were over and he was not specialised in that area. But something kept nudging him, that person looked so familiar.
He lingered around the emergency rule and got the courage to ask a nurse about who had been brought in recently.
Apparently there had been a traffic accident involving three cars, and one of the drivers sustained heavy injuries. The was a traffic jam and car behind had hit him-from not maintaining a appropriate distance and speed -and the one in front had brake abruptly due to the amount of traffic, basically sandwiching the car in the middle and it's driver.
Jaeil walked out and ran into a frantic Soobin asking a nurse about Yeonjun's whereabouts. Because Soobin was running he accidentally brushed his shoulder to Jaeils. Soobin quickly apologised.
Jaeil thought that the boy had grown up into a fine man, his voice was deeper, his jawline sharper and god his height, he was a giant now. Still, Jaeil saw the dimples of their beloved maknae and grew soft, he was still the same.
Soobin raised his eyes from the ground to meet Jaeil staring at him intensely. He said, "Hyung? Jaeil-hyung is that you?" Soobin quickly hugged him tight, as tears were falling from his eyes.
Jaeil, "Hey, Soobin-ie. What happened? Are you OK?"
Soobin replied taking his hands off Jaeil with a shaky voice, "Yeonjun, he...he got into an accident."
Jaeil thought to himself, "No this can't be. Yeonjun he..."
Soobin continues, "He was ok his way to pick me up and then...I got the call from the hospital."
Jaeil caresses Soobin's shoulder gently, trying to comfort the younger. Jaeil decides to stay with Soobin instead of going home and they go to find Yeonjun.
Yeonjun was laying unconscious in the hospital bed, bruising and cuts adorning his face. Soobin had managed to calm down on the way but he couldn't hold it any longer and he cried as he held Yeonjun's hand, caressing it.
The doctor enters, noticing both men, Jaeil looking familiar to him. He informs Soobin that Yeonjun had a fractured rib and a leg injury, as well as bruising and cuts. Yeonjun had surgery with no complications but they are waiting for him to wake up and make sure he didn't suffer any head injuries that went unnoticed or discomfort that shouldn't be there.
Soobin asks Jaeil, "Hyung, you're a doctor. Is Yeonjun going to be OK?" His eyes were red and puffy and Jaeil's heart hurt seeing the younger so desperate. He remembers when they were told the group was disbanding, he and Yeonjun cried while Soobin just stayed still looking lost.
He replies, "Yeonjun is going to be fine, but he's...he's going to be in terrible pain for a long time till he heals."
Soobin finally let his breath out, "Junnie is going to be so upset about not being able to dance."
"Oh it's true, last time we talked you guys said you were thinking about opening a dance studio."
They talked for some hours about everything that had happened after they lost contact. Jaeil talking about how they have grown so much, they used to be shorter than him and now wow they towered over him.
At some point Soobin says, "Hyung, it's so cool that you work in this hospital." and Jaeil says, "I'm glad you both found a way to continue your passion after Hi-Boyz, I was always concerned about you but you seem to be doing pretty well." They agreed on seeing each other more, now that they all had jobs and a means of income.
By the third hour, Yeonjun stirs in the bed. They both notice and Soobin rushes to his side.
"Junnie I thought I lost you, I was so scared."
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that all alone. But look, I'm OK." He tries sitting up but feels pain.
"Stop that, lay down. You don't need to act all tough with me."
Yeonjun looks at Soobin and asks acting scared, "Soobin this can't be real, I swear I'm seeing Jaeil-hyung right now."
Jaeil interjects while laughing, "OK drama boy, stop acting as if I'm a ghost or something."
Yeonjun closes his eyes for a moment and then explains, "It's just that...We lost contact for so long. I thought we wouldn't ever see each other again."
"I'm sorry for not contacting you guys more, medical school was hard and now I have this intership and I don't know. It slipped my mind. I'll make it up, I swear I never stopped caring."
Soobin stops him from continuing, "It's fine hyung, we understand. It's not like we made that much effort either. I just wish the situation was different though."
Yeonjun jokes, "Yeah who would have thought that our first meeting after so many years would be with me in an hospital bed and you as the doctor."
"Yeonjun, how are you feeling?" asks Jaeil.
"As if a truck just hit me." he jokes.
Jaeil rolls his eyes and Soobin scoffs.
"Junnie this isn't funny."
They all bicker for some time till Yeonjun decides to rest and the nurse asks them to tone the volume down. Soobin and Jaeil leave him to sign some papers, Soobin asks the nurse in the desk about what he needs to fill out. At one point the nurse points at the paper and says, "Here. Write down your relationship to the patient." Soobin writes: Partner.
Jaeil notices but does not say anything.
Soobin accompanies Jaeil to the main entrance where they met.
Curiosity gets the best from him and Jaeil comments, "When were you two going to tell me you're together?"
"You have a problem?" Soobin jokes knowing his hyung wasn't like that.
Jaeil says flustered, "No, I...Soobin-ie this is BIG news."
Then adds joking along with pouty lips, "I'm hurt my dongsaengs don't trust me enough."
Soobin laughs a bit at his hyung acting cute and says more serious, "I thought it was pretty obvious, we just kind of forgot I guess." He should have caught. Soobin always used to be so formal with everyone but he didn't even call Yeonjun hyung or use formal language, he even called him cute names.
Jaeil doesn't want to pry much more for now, he's so tired and has a morning shift waiting for him. But he cannot resist and asks, "Since when?"
Soobin reminisces, "Uhmm as far as feeling I think we already knew in highschool, even during Hi-Boyz, but especially after the disbandment. It made us closer and we sticked to each other through a lot."
"Officially speaking, we officially became boyfriends during uni and we've lived together since we graduated." Fidgeting with the promise ring Yeonjun got for them last year.
Jaeil hugs him and says, "I may not seem too hyped up because I'm tired. But I am truly truly happy for you both, I'm glad everything turned out well and you both figured your feelings for each other." Jaeil always knew that their relationship was special, back in the day he chuckled it down to them being of similar age and sticking for each other, too young to know what love was. Now though, he's glad that they weren't alone during the dark days after the disbandment and found comfort in each other's presence.
The next day, all the interns see Jaeil rushing to sign in. He had been late and the lack of sleep was evident on his face and demeanour, he tried to hide it with a smile and energy. Sure he was still energetic but the difference was evident to the interns, they had been together for so long at this point.
Some days after, Dowon is doing his usual routine of eating dinner in the hospital cafeteria, Yiyoung wants to spend time with him so she also joins in. As Yiyoung sat on the chair she saw Jaeil in the distance, weird she thinks. None of the interns really enjoyed eating in the cafeteria and she had never seen Jaeil do so either.
She finally sits down with her tray and asks Dowon is trying to talk to her, she zones out to see what was up with Jaeil. All of them had noticed his weird mood lately.
Dowon, "Are you listening? What are you looking at?"
Yiyoung shushes him telling him to look.
They both see Jaeil with a serious look having a conversation with two other men, one of them being a patient in a wheelchair. He seemed really focused on what they were saying, like actually matured looking which was different from his usual cheerful personality.
They stopped prying seeing Jaeil standing up and continue eating.
The day after, Jaeil gets recognised as a member of Hi-Boyz going as far as to playing the song, he replies cheerfully but deep down this sends him into deep thought.
He always talked cheerfully about those days because he was truly happy back then, he could reminisce about it because for him it was something in the past he moved on from. But seeing Soobin and Yeonjun again and how much they've grown and thinking about why the disbandment happened in the first place made him feel strange. He moved on but he also lost contact with his dongsaengs too, he should have been there for them too.
All of this makes him feel conflicted and remorseful, for him Hi-Boyz was something fun that happened and now he had his life but for them it was all they knew.
That night, the interns all talk about what they had noticed about Jaeil lately to each other. Yiyoung saying that she had found him in the cafeteria. This sparked many random theories between them. Sabi mentioned that they had encountered a fan today and Jaeil was acting weird, Jaeil always talked about it cheerfully but this time it felt deeper.
Jaeil actually gets to listen in on this conversation before entering, the other three shutting up as soon as they see him enter. They also notice that Jaeil hadn't asked them to hang out after work all week.
Genuinely speaking Jaeil thought about doing it but all of these events made him think about why he did it. The answer was that he craved companionship and he felt alone. Back during Hi-Boyz and trainee days he grew used to being with many people all the time. He also thought about how the others never agreed to do it and he's just defeated, too caught up in his mind to keep trying.
Then he's surprised when during one of the weekend shifts, they propose to him to go out to the karaoke together. Of course he was free, he always was.
He tries to act as if he didn't want to but folds really quickly.
They eat and have fun for a while. Then Jaeil's gaze turns up to Sabi, who has put "When the day comes" on the karaoke machine. She invited Jaeil to sing with him, but he had been having mixed feelings about the song lately. Still, he gets dragged by Sabi and gets impressed by her. She learned the choreography to cheer him up. Yiyoung and Namkyung cheer then on as they dance together to the song of his youth.
The night is about to end and they're all tipsy, Jaeil cheers and says giggling at the end: "Thank you for hanging out with me tonight, I had a rough week and this has made me sooo happy."
They ask him about what really was up with him all week and he confesses looking at his fellow first year interns , "Yiyoung saw me the other day in the cafeteria. Don't act surprised that I know, you guys were staring."
"Truth is, someone really important to me got into an accident. And it really made me think about a lot of things. The two people you saw me were my bandmates, kind of like my little brothers and the accident...I guess I could say it made me value things a lot more." He smiles at the end, trying to act fine.
They all say how sorry they are that that happened, that it was awful and comfort him. They also apologise for never hanging with him and that they appreciate him helping them and being concerned for them and that it was short-sighted for them not to do the same and assume that he didn't have his own struggles.
Through this night Jaeil also learned that he should still talk cheerfully about the song, "When the day comes" is his youth, he gave so many years for that dream and he should cherish that. He made mistakes and he can still make it up to Yeonjun and Soobin. That he has people who care about him. And that he is not alone anymore.