Baby's Breath

**Chapter 26**

"Hey, how ya feelin', Baekyonce?" Jongin smiled as he pulled up a chair to sit beside his hospitalized friend. After what seemed like hours, Baekhyun had opened his eyes and Jongin happened to be the first one to see his friend coming to.

Jongin couldn't leave Baekhyun's bedside even though it had gotten late and the doctors insisted he needed to come back another time. There was a sense of loyalty, of course, but there was also betrayal that settled in his gut. Jongin thought if he had arrived sooner, he would have prevented all of this from happening, or if he had been brave enough to rush into the flames, Chanyeol wouldn't have taken so long carrying Baekhyun out.

He wondered how Chanyeol had done it. How had Chanyeol mustered up the bravery to charge through a burning building with someone who weighed just as much as him in his arms? How had he risked everything he had to save someone else? Maybe, Jongin thought, maybe taking a risk had nothing to do with how smart you were but how loving you were.

It didn't erase the guilt, though, when he looked at Baekhyun and saw the other male sitting up. "Easy there." he said, "Everyone's been worried about you, yanno. You feelin' okay?"

Baekhyun looked around and groaned, rubbing his hands over his face that felt so numb all over. "Yeah, feels like I got knocked out with a brick." he muttered, massaging his scalp where it hurt. "How long was I out? Where's Chanyeol?"

Jongin didn't have the heart to answer the second question with an ounce of truth, so he answered the first. "For a couple of days. Good news is that Chanyeol's all right, bad news is that... well..." He frowned, unable to meet Baekhyun's gaze as his friend swept back the sheets and saw both of his legs wrapped in a thick cast. "You broke your legs. You were rushed into the operation room and they stitched you up."

"What?"

"You can't play soccer anymore, Baek. They put metal rods in you, the doctors said you need to cut back on sports completely."

"... What?" Baekhyun asked again, staring at Jongin in disbelief.

Jongin sighed, sitting up and reaching for the clipboard that was attached to the foot of the bed. He flipped through the papers, reading the diagnosis of the patient in a mocking tone only to lighten the mood. When he was done, he lowered the clipboard and sighed, plopping down on the chair again. "Hey... but you never know, if you'll be able to run again, you can set the bar and be the miracle case all the doctors talk about, right?" 

He smiled, but Baekhyun didn't. That night, Baekhyun cried for hours and Jongin's shirt soaked in tears.

A week later, a court case opened to determine Chanyeol's fate. There shouldn't have been one in the first place, but when the officials working on the case received a signed petition from one high school fighting against Chanyeol's rehabilitation, the court decided to bring two lawyers on the scene to settle the case once and for all.

Twenty-four hours before the case opened, the defending lawyer requested a surveillance tape to be collected from Chanyeol's cell, to study if the boy really was violent in nature on a normal basis. The staff were reluctant to hand over a tape which the defending lawyer reviewed of the institution's quiet hallways and private cells.

There was one frame, however, that showed Chanyeol bursting out of a room, punching and kicking the staff that blocked his way. The lawyer returned the tape to the police station and searched for new material.

So far, things weren't looking in Chanyeol's favor.