Chapter Text
"Yah yah yah"
"How did you even injure yourself this bad?" Renjun came hurrying inside the room, his voice full off worry.
He dropped his bag that he was holding on the glass table, as he bent down on the floor to help.
"Don't even ask!"
"It's those children again"
"They kept running in the hallway, even- ack!" Haechan groaned in pain, holding his right leg.
"Careful!" Renjun helped him put a cushion under the heel of his foot.
"They kept-" Haechan huffed.
"-running and I was on the staircase. I stumbled bad, and this happened" Haechan cursed as he pointed his chin towards right foot on the table.
He rested his head on the back of the couch, trying to even out his breaths, but the burn on his ankle just refused to calm down, and the redness with swell was visible to the eyes, even without trying.
"I still have an event to go to-"
"Are you crazy?" Renjun snapped.
"Do you even see this?? Your foot is twisted in the worst way possible and you WANT to go to a damn event?" He couldnt believe the idiocy.
"It's not serious. A day worth of rest, some cold compress and a ibuprofen and i'll be good to go" He shook his head, eyebrows furrowed because of the throbbing pain and sweat that build up, because of the climbing that he had to do becauss with one leg.
He put his feet down and tried to stand up, actively trying to not put any weight on the injured ankle, and " ARGHH!!!"
An ear-deafening scream echoed through the apartment.
By the time his pain had subsided a bit, and haechan finally properly addressed his environment. He realised that the walls around him had already changed colours, and the silence had turned into active chaos of people rushing from one corner to another. The strong smell of disinfectant slowly invading his nostrils.
"God" He sighed, as he scrunched his nose, trying to get that weird nausea inducing sting out of his nose.
He pulled the who knows where he got that cap from, down trying to avoid the eyes that could easily identify his presence.
"The doctor has just left an important conference and should be arriving in ten" Renjun said, as he passed the bottle of water to Haechan.
They were sitting on the cold, metal bench in the corridor.
And having nothing to do haechan simply looked around.
There were variety of people around him, of varying ages, varying personalities and varying temperament.
A five year old girl on the table diagonally opposite to theirs, caught his eyes. She seemed to be holding her cheeks and jaw, maybe trying to put pressure on it. Her cheeks looked swollen. He looked up at the board that hung above the door. Dentist, Dr. Zhong.
Ah! Poor girl. He pitied.
Haechan didn't like anything about the doctors. His probable answers to anyone asking were yeah i hate them. They are nerds with no personality. They only know how to give medicines, and nothing more. So yeah I hate everything about them. And honestly, all, who know him, would agree.
He's an idol. A singer- voice behind many osts, and albums and songs, a personality with whom many of the producers might actually pay to work with.
But he was also under an entertainment company that didn't give a fuck about their artists. He was a part of this group, 127- which btw he takes a lot of pride in. He considers them as his brother for life with whom he had spent all his life with.
And as much as he loved being an idol, being on stage, and being with his members, the sheer amount of times that, the company alone had sent him to hospital visits is impossible.
He hated the smell, the chaos, the emotions, and the families that lingered there. Literally everything.
"Do you want me to call doyoung-ie hyung?" Renjun asked, scrolling through his phone.
"Don't, he'd get unnecessarily worried." Haechan shook his head. "I'll call him later myself" Haechan diverted his attention towards his own screen.
"Mr Renjun?" The receptionist called.
" Yes!" He immediately got up, running to the counter.
"Your doctor has arrived already, please take the patient inside with you" She said, with a sweet smile, that kind of reached to her eyes.
"Thank you for your service" Renjun mirrored the smile back, though not as pretty.
"Let's go, your doctor's here" He said, already taking two steps forward.
But when haechan didn't follow him. He turned around, asking "What happened?"
"..... "
Haechan still didn't answer. He kept looking at him, dead panned, staring.
"You do know that I cant walk right now, right?"
Renjun forgot
"Sorry, sorry sorry" He repeated, as he ran back to help him stand, and assist with walking, while trying to stifle the laughter.
It's not always that anyone would get to see haechan like this.
And truly, nobody would ever get to see Haechan like this. Haechan would make sure of that.
The moment he entered the doctor's office. He knew, that nobody is going to see him ever again. Not for a week atleast.
" So, well, your ankle is totally injured, and not just compression, they need proper rest. Let's say a week of it."
"No movement, no jumping around, and no dancing. Not staying standing for long, Only rest and medicines" The doctor said, as he passed the prescription to Renjun.
Haechan hated it. But not really because of any reason that renjun thought while looking at his subtitled face.
But because, the writing on the prescription, the same advice that he gave to Renjun, the hands that passed the prescription, and that voice that he could identify even if a voice changer was attached to it, or those eyes, that were still soft as ever.
He hated how he was just sitting there, with his feet in the lap of his doctor. His eyes lingering over the black name plate that had letters engraved on it, both in Korean and in English.
Na Jaemin. 나 재민
He felt a soft touch on his ankle. The soft hand that traced the ache. "You have to take care of yourself, donghyuck-a"
Haechan blinked, coming back to his senses. He looked around, and surely Renjun wasn't there.
"hyuck" Jaemin's voice got a bit softer this time, as he massaged haechan's ankle.
"How are you?" He asked, tone almost neutral. And if Haechan didn't know jaemin better, he would have never been able to sense the restrained excitement, the soft care, and the past that shadowed it.
He parted his mouth to reply, but all that ever came out was a, high pitched, low volume, muffled " Fine", one word.
He hated it because he sure had so much to say, and so much to ask and there was so much in his chest, that was causing him a pain in his throat. And he wanted to get that all out. But at the moment, nothing did. Not a single word.
Not even a follow up question from jaemin, just a nod of acknowledgement, and a small moment of warmth of his hand, when he helped haechan in putting his bandaged foot back to the cold floor, on his hard slippers.
" Your friend is out there to buy the medicines, and i have to go outside for a moment." Jaemin said, as he picked up his phone from the table.
" Would you excuse me?" He asked, but before haechan could answer, before he could allow, he saw jaemin rushing out of the room.
Was he in that hurry?