seonghwa cried as he drove behind the ambulance. the rest of the kids were completely confused, not sure what was happening.
once they arrived at the hospital, seonghwa stopped to quickly tell all six boys to stay in the waiting room. they obeyed, while seonghwa followed the paramedics bringing hongjoong into a room.
yunho looked around for somewhere to situate themselves, eventually picking a little empty corner with just enough seats for them.
but, once they went over there, some of them sat on the floor to form a circle.
"okay guys..." yunho said quietly, as not to disturb anyone else in the waiting room. "...i know you're all scared. trust me, i'm terrified. but let's not let our nervousness and confusion get the best of us. i'm sure dad will be fine.. he's strong, he can get through whatever happened to him. mom will be there with him, i promise, we're all gonna eventually go home and dad will be okay again." he gave a little pep talk. he knew everyone was scared out of their minds.
"hey, yeosang, what did dad even look like when you found him like that? i didn't see it very clearly, but i know you did." san asked.
everyone looked at yeosang. he paused.
'well.. at first i was nudging him to tell him something and he wasn't responding... so i thought he was asleep... but when i went to see his face, it was pale and... i don't know... he just didn't look asleep. he was sweating and that was when i realized he wasn't breathing, so i ran to tell mom.' yeosang explained with a sigh.
the group all nodded, then fell into silence. they could hear phones ringing, babies crying, and stretchers being wheeled around.
they could feel the stress coming from the other people in the waiting room. it was quite tense.
eventually, the boys split into doing separate things. yunho and mingi shared a pair of earbuds and just looked around while listening to music, wooyoung watched san play games on his phone, jongho fell asleep, and yeosang texted beomseok about the situation. they were all bored, tired, and worried.
about half an hour to forty-five minutes passed before anyone interacted with them.
eventually, the only one still awake, yunho, heard very hurried and rushed footsteps running down the hallway. he turned the corner of the wall he was sitting against, and saw seonghwa approaching.
without a second thought, the teen quickly stood up and ran into seonghwa's arms.
"i'm sorry it took so long... i was just really worried to leave that room... thank you for being so patient, and watching them, i really, really appreciate it." seonghwa spoke quickly.
"what happened to dad?" yunho asked.
"well, the thing is, no one is sure yet. they have to run some tests while we wait for him to hopefully wake up. they first thought it could be a.. st-stroke, which terrified me, but they don't think it's that anymore. worst case scenario, it was a seizure, but the most likely thing is dehydration. we'll have to see." seonghwa told him.
"oh.. okay then. are we gonna keep waiting in here?" "yeah, just for—"
"mr. kim?" a doctor said and put his arm on seonghwa's shoulder to get his attention. the parent whirled around and asked what it was.
"he's awake. for now we'll allow just you coming in, then the boys can come in after a little bit."
seonghwa turned back around, giving yunho one more big hug. "he's awake now, so i have to go see him. please watch them just for a little bit more, i'll be back, and you'll all get to come see him. i love you, thank you for being patient.."
