The hasty, seemly panicked steps echoed through the monotonous white hallway. They belonged to the black haired boy who was clearly in distress: clenched expression, sharp movements and hints of dried blood still on his white uniform shirt. His friends were sitting in the nearby sitting area, watching him from afar helplessly.
"Jisung, at least let a doctor see you, please. You may have hurt yourself more than you realize." Jeno pleaded, but was boldly ignored by the younger who continued pacing.
"It's useless. If Jaemin couldn't help him calm down, who can?" Renjun sighed, head resting against the wall.
"He's right." Mark hummed. "Plus, he's a bit freaked out since he's blaming himself for Haeun getting hurt, and feels guilty."
"And we all know who's fault it really is." Renjun muttered out, turning his head.
The entire group looked over a bit farther, where a figure with slump shoulders rested against the wall. He looked weirdly calm, as if in his own thoughts, and instead of coming back with a threatening response, he remained silent.
Jaemin put his hand on Renjun's thigh. "Don't be like that. You know how easily Donghyuck can get mad."
"That doesn't justify what he did. Look around, where are we now because of him?" Renjun shot back with eyes full of disbelief.
"Enough the two of you. Everyone's under enough stress already, arguing won't help with anything." Jeno rolled his eyes disapprovingly.
"You guys are clearly missing the most important point."
All eyes set on Chenle, who was surprisingly relaxed. It wasn't too shocking, as he wasn't very expressive, but it was still rather unnerving.
"What do you mean?" Mark tilted his head.
"Like Jaemin said, Donghyuck has anger issues. Even if someone got hurt because of him, he wouldn't just stop there. The way he is now is weird. He doesn't even seem mad." Chenle clicked his tongue, and glanced over at the elder boy.
"He's not wrong." Jeno pointed out. "But what do you think happened?"
Their conversation was soon interrupted as they all heard the sound of metal hinges and a door dragging open. Turning their heads, they watched as two nurses left room 204, followed by a tall, middle-aged, emotionless doctor who held a wooden chart with a couple of papers clipped onto it.
Before the boys could even react, Jisung lunged at the man, stopping right in front of him.
"How's Haeun? Is she alright? Is she badly injured?" He bombarded with anticipating questions.
The doctor took a short second to look him from head-to-toe, frowning slightly, before letting the chart fall back to his side.
"Are you a relative of the patient?" He asked bluntly, voice cold and dispassionate.
"I- no. No I'm not."
"Did you get in contact with any member of her family?"
"No, sir. I couldn't."
The doctor exhaled a harsh sigh, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Technically, you wouldn't be allowed to see the patient."
"Could you at least tell me if she's alright or not?!" Jisung began losing his temper, raising his voice.
The man cleared his throat, slightly taken aback, before responding. "The patient is in stable condition. There's no need for concern."
A mutual sigh of relief came from all of the guys, even Donghyuck who had still remained further away.
"I know that this is against hospital policy, but could we please see her? We want to see for ourselves." Mark asked hopefully.
The doctor seemed to be debating the request in his mind, but finally gave in.
"Fine. But please don't disrupt the patient, and don't awake her. She's supposed to be resting." He muttered, and the boys unanimously smiled.
"Thank you so much." Jisung exclaimed quickly before running in through the hospital door and into the room.
It was very basic, yet comfortable looking. In the middle of course was a big one-person bed. At the far end, beside the huge window, was a small couch along with a coffee table. The floor was made of light wooden planks, and the walls were a soft white.
Jisung immediately reached the bed side, looking down.
The girl seemed to be in deep sleep, face resting into a relaxed expression. Except a small bruise on her jaw, she seemed to be perfectly fine. Her attire had been exchanged for a neat hospital gown, she had been cleaned up and tucked comfortably under the hospital sheets.
The rest of the guys flooded in, also crowding around the bed.
"Thank god, she seems fine." Jaemin exclaimed happily. "At least she won't be suing you guys."
"Shut up, Jaemin, not the situation to be joking around." Jeno smacked him lightly on the arm.
"Sorry, sorry, just tryna lift the mood a little."
"Should we wait for her to wake up? The doctor said we can't do that ourselves, and it'd be kind of rude to leave her alone in here." Mark hummed.
Everyone agreed, eventually getting seated comfortably and trying to keep their voices down as they began talking. But Jisung mostly stayed out of the discussions, having taken a seat right beside Haeun whilst staring at her.
To him, she looked angelic. Somehow watching her peaceful, comfortable sleeping face made him feel happy and warm inside. Haeun had always been beautiful to him, but not as much as he found her to be now.
Jisung also felt like he'd under-appreciated the girl for a long time. He should've been nicer to her. He should've tried to resolve their misunderstandings, not stayed away from them like a coward. Haeun had came in between him and Donghyuck, knowing that potentially she'd get hurt. All for him.
"Hey Jisung? Jisung!" The boy was brought out of his trance and he whipped his head to the side to find his friends staring at him.
"Huh?"
"Damn are you deaf or something- we wanted to ask you something." Chenle sat back comfortably on the couch.
"What?" Jisung's brows furrowed.
"What exactly happened between the three of you? This situation isn't exactly... normal." Jeno was careful with his choice of wording, not trying to come off as too pressuring.
"Oh." Jisung's expression turned more cloudy, as he had been reminded of what happened. He had forgotten how pissed of he was at Donghyuck.
"Yeah. Something happened."
"What was it?"
Jisung thought for a second, before turning around to take something out of his blazer pocket. It was a phone, with a baby blue case on it, which was clearly not his. It was Haeun's cellphone, and he easily typed in the code and unlocked it. After a few seconds of searching, he finally found the audio and played it out loud.
'-she'll fall for it?'
'Of course she will! Are you doubting me?'
'No, but what if she asks him about it?'
'I'd be surprised if she did. She'll be too heartbroken to even start a conversation with him.'
'Woah, I almost feel bad for her.'
'Right? But don't worry. I've planned this out perfectly, and there's nothing money can't solve. She'll never figure out that it's fake.'
'You're truly amazing, Seulbi.'
'Thank you, but I already knew that. And you know I can't let some bitch just do me like that. And since Donghyuck didn't do shit about it, I took things into my own hands.'
'Jesus, when are you going to finally drop him? He gives me a bad vibe.'
'He does, and he's totally boring to hang out with. But he's hot! Besides, don't worry. I'll drop him soon enough, but I'd like to toy around with him a little more, you know. He's just... too much fun.'
'Wow Seulbi, you're truly-"
Then the recording cut off, leaving the room in pure silence. Everyone seemed stunned, their facial expressions showing nothing except shock.
The first to manage to utter something were Chenle and Jeno, saying the same thing at the exact same time. "What the fuck."
"What a fucking bitch." Renjun scoffed loudly.
"I never knew Seulbi was like that." Jaemin shook his head. "What the hell is wrong with her?"
"So this was all her? All along?" Mark asked in utter disbelief.
"Yeah. Apparently." Jisung left the phone on the bed side table with a grim expression. "I want to strangle her to death."
"You should. Not only did she fuck with Donghyuck, but also made up the fact that you guys had sex?" Renjun was getting extremely heated.
"I even heard she started spewing that he had actually assaulted her. What a bitch." Chenle spat out.
"Guys, I know this is a lot, but calm down. It's not the time to talk about this." Jaemin spoke in a tranquil tone.
"No, it is the time to talk about it. Seulbi is a fucking skank."
The boys all jumped as they heard the small, feeble voice. They turned to see Haeun with her eyes half-open, scanning them with her brown orbs calmly.
"Haeun! You're okay!" Jisung yelled out, a smile immediately falling onto his face as he quickly forgot about whatever they were talking about.
"Of course I am, I ain't no weakling." She chuckled, then grunted as she got herself up into a seating position. "Hi guys, what brings you here?"
"You of course. We brought you here after... what happened." Mark tried to keep up a smile. "But let's not talk about that. How are you feeling?"
"Not bad." Haeun hummed light-heartedly, before scanning the room. "And Donghyuck? Where is he?"
"Outside. I think he's too embarrassed to face you or something." Chenle shook his head disapprovingly.
"Speaking of that, someone should get him in here."
"No, that's okay." Haeun smiled. "He can come in whenever he wants to."
"But he has to apologize-" Renjun began but was interrupted.
"Can you stop mentioning it please? The doctor said she needs to rest." Jisung hissed, a bit defensively.
The guys all turned to each other, amused smirks on their lips, but didn't say anything.
"Hey, Jisung! Are you okay?" Haeun realized herself, facing him with worry.
"Yeah, don't worry about it." He smiled reassuringly.
"Good. Because if you were hurt, I wouldn't have the heart to tell you that you stink of blood and dirt. Please go wash up sir."
Jisung couldn't help but burst out into laughter, which lasted a couple of seconds. "Alright, sorry malady."
As he was about to get up to find a bathroom somewhere, the phone on the bedside table began to ring. The boy turned, eyes fixing on the caller before he frowned.
"'My favorite hoe'?" He asked confused.
"Oh! I need to take that!" Haeun lunged for her phone, picking up the call immediately. "Hello?"
"HEYYY BESTIEEEE." The greeting was loud enough for the entire room to hear. "I have some free time today, wanna hang out?"
"Uh, I might not be able to." Haeun uttered hesitantly, eyes scanning the room.
"Awee, why not? Are you tired? You sure sound like it."
"Something happened."
"What did? Where are you anyways? The echo is weird."
"I'll tell you if you don't freak out, okay?"
"Ohhh? Did my angel Haeun finally get detention or something? No need to stress about that!"
"No, that's not it. I'm in... uhm... hospital."
"WHAT?!"
The scream was so loud that Haeun had to rapidly retract her ear from the phone, wincing at the pain.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE IN HOSPITAL? WHAT HAPPENED? WHICH HOSPITAL?!"
"The Gongnam one, but don't worry, I'm fin-"
"I'LL BE RIGHT THERE, WAIT FOR ME!"
And then she hung up.
"Who was that?" Jisung asked curiously and Haeun put down the phone with a sigh.
"A good friend of mine. She's very-"
Before the girl could even finish her sentence, the door burst wide open and a figure rushed in.
"Haeun! My baby!" The female voice yelled out, dropping all of her belongings and running up to the bed in a panic.
"How did you get here so quick-"
"Oh my god, are you alright? Why are you in here?! I swear to god, I'm gonna murder someone if they hurt-"
"Yuri! Please, calm down! I'm okay!" Haeun exclaimed.
"Bullshit, you're literally in hospital. Was it-" Yuri interrupted herself as her eyes flew around the room. She finally seemed to have noticed the amount of guys who were staring at her with wide eyes. "Oh."
"Yeah..." Haeun muttered a bit awkwardly before clearing her throat. "Yuri, these are some of my classmates- Jisung, Chenle, Mark, Renjun, Jeno and Jaemin. Guys, this is Yuri, my best friend."
"Nice meeting you all." Yuri said dismissively, but immediately turned back to Haeun. "Are you sure you're alright though? HOLY, you even have a bruise on your precious face! This is unacceptable!"
"Yes, yes, I'm okay." Haeun laughed it off. "I promise."