Requested by: Summery-Days
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You stretched your muscles, body automatically, following the warm ups you always did. It was wonderful, the feeling of muscle stretching against bone, warm and limber as you finished up your routine. Your best friend smacked you lightly against the head and grinned.
'Youngjae's looking at you again,' Jackson teased in a sing-song voice as you flushed slightly.
'Shut up Jackson,' you hissed, pushing him playfully in the chest as he chuckled, ruffling your hair which had been tied in a ponytail.
'How many times have I said this? You like him, he likes you can you both just get together already?" he groaned almost in despair as you rolled your eyes in disbelief.
'Mr Wang, since you seem to be very opinionated, then you wouldn't mine to be captain of the team for today?" Coach Kim asked as he glowered at your best friend under the rim of his ridiculously old and worn school cap.
'Sure Coach,' Jackson grinned, nonchalant as he bounded up to the front of the gym, his expression turning serious as he contemplated who to pick.
'Mark,' Coach barked gesturing to the front, clearly an order. 'You're captain too,'
Shuffling forward, his eyes bright and intelligent as he surveyed the rest of his classmates, already forming an ideal team in his head.
'I call dibs on JB,' Jackson said, and the broad-shouldered boy, shrugged taking his place in Jackson's team.
'Well, I get Jinyoung,' Mark said.
'Yugyeom,'
'Bam Bam,'
'(Y/N),' Jackson dropped a wink at you and you hi-fived him as you joined his team.
'Youngjae,' Mark chose the last member and you eyed Youngjae secretly as he stood by Mark's side.
Probably not secretly enough because Jackson leaned in and whispered. 'Get your head in the game I don't want to lose because you're moony-eyed over Youngjae,' he teased as you whacked him in the shoulder, snatching the basketball from him, dribbling to the centre of the court where you faced off with Bam Bam to start off the game.
And after the shrill whistle from Coach, you forgot everything except the basketball you were dribbling in your hands, you passed to Jackson as he ran furiously, passing to Yugyeom who used his height to his advantage and scored a three-pointer much to your team's joy.
This was why you loved the sport, the feeling of your legs running against the hardwood floor, the alertness of your surroundings as you waited for an opening in your team, the harsh pull of breath into your lungs as you ran before managing to score again for your team.
'Come on Mark, play properly,' Jackson joked as Mark narrowed his eyes and burst into motion. He zig-zagged around Yugyeom and passed the ball to Jinyoung who ducked around you and tossed it to Youngjae who scored a 2-pointer.
This continued for the next 25 minutes with Mark's team, motivated to protect their ego, scored twice.
'Don't taunt him,' you groaned, as the other team upped the ante, both teams were neck and neck and there were only 10 minutes left on the digital timer.
'Just get the ball,' Jackson ordered as the last round began.
Rolling your eyes at your useless teammate, you threw yourself into the thick of things, swerving through the opposing team and snatched the ball from Mark who was quite shocked as you flew by him, a human shaped blur as you made your way to the end of the court.
You didn't really know what went wrong, maybe you didn't time the jump as cleanly as you had expected or maybe your momentum carried you forward too much but as you jumped to score, your entire attention was focused on the ball as it soared through the net. Your joy was short-lived as you came back down to Earth and heard a sickening crack from your leg as you landed.
It was as if a bolt of lightning had shot up your leg and you screamed, writhing on the floor, gasping for air as you clutched your ankle. There were dark spots in your peripheral vision, you were starting to black out from the pain. Through deafened ears, you heard the thunder of several footsteps running towards you.
'Oh shit,' someone muttered above you.
'Is it broken?" Jackson's voice asked fraught with worry. One of them wanted to move you but judging from the sounds of whimpering and half-muted screaming that were coming out from your mouth, it would be impossible to move you without making the pain worse.
'(Y/N),' a clear firm voice asked as a warm hand touched the side of your face. You turned around to face Youngjae who looked quite collected as he began to sing you soothingly, taking your mind away from the pain momentarily.
'We're going to have to move you,' he muttered apologetically as he took your hand in his. 'I'm sorry for this,' he sighed, as he carried you as gently as he could but even his steady arms weren't enough for you to stay consciousness as the pain swallowed you.
Hospital
Cool, sterile air filtered through the room and you blinked slowly awake, groggy from sleep and painkillers. The tiling stayed in its original position as you slowly sat up, always a good sign. You looked down at your hand which was taped to an IV and your mouth twisted in disgust when you saw the huge block of plaster and bandages that had replaced your left leg.
'Hello there sleepyhead,' a voice said from the other side of the room, his legs crossed and a relieved smile broadened on his face as he approached you,
'How long was I out?" you asked Jackson.
'About 2 hours, Coach took you to the hospital and they fixed up your leg. Fractured by the way, not really broken but you'll still have to hobble around in school with a pair of these,' he gestured to a pair of crutches which were propped agains the wall and you groaned, burying your face in your hands. Imagine walking down the hallway using those you shuddered at the mere thought of it.
'Hey look who's awake!' Bam Bam crowed as the rest of the members converged into the small hospital room.
'That was a pretty bad fall (Y/N),' Mark said seriously, as he examined your brand new 'leg'
'Yeah, I was there Mark,' you muttered, which caused the rest of the group to burst out laughing.
'Lucky thing that Youngjae managed to carry you out,' Yugyeom murmured, almost to himself.
'Where is Youngjae?' you tried to frame the question innocently but you could still catch the 'HAH' look that was plain in Jackson's eyes.
'He went to get you some food,' Jaebum said, and the rest of the group were already giving each other secret sidelong glances and much nudging occurred amongst themselves.
'Really Jackson, is there anyone you didn't tell?" you demanded both furious and exasperated at the same time, it was obvious that all of them knew. You didn't mind, the boys were like family to you but it was still pretty embarrassing.
'Jackson didn't have to tell us anything,' Jinyoung said as Jackson shot you a superior look. 'It's just the way both of you look at each other, its not like the rest of us are blind you know,' he said gently.
'Except maybe the 2 of them,' Mark joked.
'Speak of the devil,' Bam Bam muttered under his breath as Youngjae bounded into the room, a tray of food already with him.
'Hey (Y/N),' he said brightly as he set the food in front of you. It was quite decent, as far as hospital food went and seemed actually palatable.
'Thanks Youngjae,' you smiled at him as he suddenly turned shy and joined the rest of the boys.
'Couldn't get any food for us huh?' Jaebum teased and you shot him a glare which could have cut through steel, which he ignored as Youngjae turned the slightest bit red.
'I'll go now,' he was about to stand up when the rest protested.
'It's okay, we can get it ourselves,' Mark said, pushing Youngjae back into his seat firmly.
'Yeah you should probably keep (Y/N) company,' Yugyeom suggested as the members hurriedly exited the room leaving both of you alone.
Hesitant, he sat nearer to your bedside, examining your new cast with some interest. 'Are you feeling better?' he asked in his soft voice.
'Yeah, thanks for... carrying me by the way,' you blushed slightly, remembering the way his arms had curled protectively around your body before you blacked out.
'It's nothing,' he muttered. 'Hey,' his expression suddenly brightened. 'Is it okay if I write something on your cast? I mean it's what everyone does right?" he asked.
'Yeah sure, Youngjae,' you chuckled at his child-like enthusiasm. 'Knock yourself out,' you said as he unearthed a Sharpie from his pocket.
You heard the slight scratching as Youngjae scrawled a message in his messy handwriting. Leaning forward as he finished you were curious to as what he wrote.
Get well soon (Y/N)
Love, Youngjae
You didn't know if the 'love' was a sign but something about the cheesy yet cute message steeled your nerves. You were going to tell Youngjae you liked him, be damned the consqeuences or not.
Taking a deep breath, you felt so nervous that the walls were starting to spin all over again this time not because of the injury in your leg.
'(Y/N)? Are you okay? You look sort of... pale,' he muttered, touching your face with the tips of his fingers, which didn't help with your focus.
'Um- I-uh,' your throat seemed to have closed upon itself. 'Ilikeyou,' you blurted out suddenly, and you clapped your hands to your mouth, hoping against hope he didn't make you repeat your words. When you imagined saying the words, you had imagined being composed and not light-headed and barely conscious.
'Ummm (Y/N), I think they've given you too much pain meds,' Youngjae muttered and you felt your heart crushed into bits. Maybe Youngjae didn't like you after all, maybe the rest were right... but there was something in his eye when he heard the words from your mouth. Almost like a flicker of hope but he had quickly quelled it, waving your confession off as overdosage of painkillers and delirium.
'No no,' you tried to calm your voice. 'I mean it, I really do like you, as in like like you,'
Despite the few seconds of humiliation you had to go through as you said those words, it was all worth it when you saw Youngjae's face light up like the Sun, he was grinning madly and the hope which you had seen at first, burst forward of its own will.
'Are... you serious?" he asked, somewhere between disbelief and awe.
'OH MY GOD,' the moment was interrupted by Jackson's rough voice as he and the rest of the group burst in, clearly from the looks on their faces, it was obvious that they had been eavesdropping from outside. 'YES SHE LIKES YOU, YOU LIKE HIM CASE CLOSED JEEZ I FELT LIKE I WAS GROWING 50 YEARS OLDER OUT THERE,' Jackson burst out in exasperation and suddenly you would have given anything to throw him cheerfully out of the window.
Instead, you settled on berating him. 'Ever heard of privacy much?' you snapped at your best friend as the rest laughed at the look on both of you and Youngjae's faces.
'You've got a feisty one there Youngjae,' Jackson ignored your sarcasm before nudging the still smiling boy in the side.
'I don't mind,' he said softly before leaning up to kiss you on the cheek which brought upon a chorus of AWWWWs from the rest of the boys and of course the rising blush to your face.