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Waking up from a coma wasn’t great. It was made worse by the nice nurse by his bedside telling him that he’s been in said coma for almost two years.
What? Fuck.
Suho tried to take in deep breaths to stop the rising panic but his body felt fully out of his control. He opened his mouth - lips chafed and dry - to ask her what the hell she was talking about and what kind of lame joke was this? Before he realized he couldn’t verbalize the words. He could move his mouth but the words seemed to get stuck in his throat.
“Try to relax, Ahn-Ssi. The doctor is coming now,” the nurse said to him as she wrote down frantic notes.
What the fuck? Is his last thought before he drifts back into sleep.
The next time he wakes up it’s to familiar fingers running through his hair. He slowly opens his eyes, blinking up at the blurry figure next to his bed.
Halmeoni.
“Oh my baby, you’re up,” Halmeoni’s soft voice, voice breaking as she reaches to hug him.
The sweet smell of her perfume permeated through his sleepy haze as she gripped him tightly, tears falling into his neck.
“Ha-Hal-Ha,” Suho tries to call her name but the words get stuck in his mouth.
Halmeoni leans back and holds his face between her hands.
“Halmeoni’s here, Suho-ya,” she says, voice breaking into another sob.
Suho wants to comfort her, tell her to stop crying and tell her that everything is going to be okay but he can’t. It’s like he doesn’t even know how to verbalize full words anymore, he thinks frustrated.
Looking at his grandma - his kind, hardworking grandma who had worked so hard to raise him when she should have been enjoying her golden years - and seeing her sobbing but unable to do anything about it was a unique type of torture. He’d always been someone who could do anything. Someone who could work three jobs while going to school to take care of his family. He’d been the athlete that bested everyone else at the gym. And now he couldn’t do the simplest of things. Even weaker than a baby.
Ah, I’m in hell, Suho thinks.
“It’s May 2025, baby,” his grandma begins before, reciting facts in her soothing voice. “You’ve been here since late 2023.”
Suho gives her a miniscule nod, all that his atrophied muscles are capable of right now.
“The doctor will be here soon to explain more,” his halmeoni’s warm hands go back to petting his head - hair feeling longer than he ever remembered having it before.
It takes at least two weeks before he’s able to speak semi-clearly again and sit independently in his wheelchair. His recovery team had hit the ground running, throwing him into speech and physiotherapy almost immediately. He’s still very fuzzy around the details of why he’s there and what exactly had happened. But everyone has been telling him how much progress he’s been making.
What progress he thinks bitterly - being able to shakily hold chopsticks with his own hands? Children could do that. He had come from the pinnacle of physical health to someone who had the same strength as a toddler.
He tries to shake the negative thoughts from his head, already having spent the last week stewing in them. The whole reason he had begged the nurse to wheel him out into the garden was so he could take in the sun and try to think of literally anything else.
He hears fast footsteps heading towards where he is and somehow, instinctively, knows. Halmeoni had mentioned calling Sieun now that his exams were done for the semester. Suho had initially been worried about if Sieun would even care if a boy he’d met for a little more than a month was awake but Halmeoni had assured him that Sieun was a regular visitor to his hospital bed.
He turns towards the stalled footsteps and takes in the view. His heart begins to sing as soon as Suho spots him.
Yeon Sieun. Sieunie. Sieun-ah.
He looks similar to what Suho remembers. His hair is shorter and he’s wearing a uniform that’s not the Byeoksan one but the familiar warm-hearted eyes were the same.
“You been alright?” Suho asks, the words falling out of his mouth without him thinking.
His bookworm’s soulful eyes seem to water as he gives a soft nod and says, “mhm.”
Relief thrums through Suho’s body almost immediately. He hadn’t realized how worried he had been about Sieun until that moment – how fearful he was that Sieun was still being hurt without him.
It’s only a few minutes later, after Sieun’s friends have left and he’s been wheeled him into the garden area that Suho realizes he’s wrong. Sieun decidedly does not look the same. He’s somehow gotten even prettier.
What the hell?
Sieun had always had a quiet beauty that people noticed even if it wasn’t eyecatching. Even that fucker Yeongbin used to stare at Sieun for a few more minutes longer than necessary. But now, it’s like he’s gotten 1000 times prettier. Sieun looks like an idol now and worse, the punk had even learned how to smile seeing the beautiful one he’s giving Suho.
Sieun’s soulful eyes crinkle at the corner as he stares at Suho, mouth turned up gently at the corners.
“Yah, why are you staring so much? Did you miss this handsome face that much?” Suho blusters, almost embarrassed by Sieun’s gaze.
Fuck, he should’ve brushed his hair or something before Sieun’s visit. He resisted the urge to subtly check his breath to see if it still smelled like the gross nutritional shakes he had to drink daily now.
“I did,” Sieun says, his deep voice hypnotizing as usual.
“Yah!” Suho exclaims, breaking into laughter. “Are you finally admitting that hyung is handsome? How much did you miss hyung’s face?”
Well if going into a coma was one way to get Sieun to admit he liked Suho’s face, maybe he should consider going into more comas in the future. Just not ones that lasted almost two years. Were hour long comas possible? He wonders.
“I missed your face a lot,” Sieun’s voice says.
He says it matter-of-factly, mesmerizing eyes staring at Suho like he’s looking at the sun.
Suho’s traitorous dick actually jumps at that. He resists the urge to swat at his dick - he had actually forgotten the bastard the last few weeks and now it was taking Sieun’s visit as permission to work again? Fucking bastard.
“You’re going to make me blush, Sieunie,” Suho manages to mumble out, having to avert his eyes away from Sieun to hide his embarrassment.
“I missed you so much, Suho-ya,” Sieun’s voice breaks.
Suho turns towards Sieun again, jaw dropping in awe. He’s never heard Sieun be so honest - the boy who kept everything and everyone at a distance like he couldn’t bear to be known. Sieun looks breath-taking, warm eyes filled with tears again as he smiles towards Suho.
Ah I’m fucked.
Suho was clearly going to have to go three times as hard in physio to get back into shape to be able to protect this beautiful boy. Maybe he’d ask Halmeoni if she was still friends with that Shaman from her hometown so he could get him to curse anyone that stared at Sieun too long. Was death too harsh of a punishment for the perverts that were obviously circling his Sieunie? Nah, probably not.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh, Sieunie,” Suho says, burying his face into his hands. “You don’t know what you’re doing to me. Seriously!”
He was so fucked.