“Hang in there, kid! We’ll get you fixed up,” a man’s voice said urgently. Heechul’s eyes closed. It wasn’t long before he passed out from the pain. The paramedics pushed his stretcher out of the back of the ambulance and rushed him in through the hospital’s automatic doors. Doctors took notice of the new patient and ran alongside the stretcher, gathering information from the paramedics. One of them directed the stretcher to an empty operating room while another hurried off to call Heechul’s family.
         Half an hour later, his sister, Haneul hurried through the doors to the hospital, tears in her eyes. She asked the front desk in desperation where her brother was. One of the nurses tried to calm her down and told her where his room was located. She ran off without the nurse and burst through the double doors to the surgery room. She stood shocked as she saw what they were doing to him, tears streaming  down her face like waterfalls. The nurse, finally catching up with her, grabbed her arms gently and directed her out of the room.
        “Will he be alright?” Haneul asked the nurse staring at the door she had exited through.
        “I’m sure he will,” the nurse replied as she always had to those who worried about their loved ones. Haneul didn’t seem to hear her. She kept her gaze on the door. “Will it be alright for you to wait in our waiting room? I’ll call you when he gets out.” Haneul nodded and left for the waiting room.

        The next day, Haneul skipped into her brother’s hospital room somewhat happily only to run into one of the doctors. “Oh, excuse me. How’s he doing?”
        The doctor glanced back at her and smiled. He had been examining all the equipment that connected itself to Heechul and wrote every detail down on the clipboard he held firmly with his left hand. “He’s recovering beautifully. Should only be a month or so before he gets out.” Haneul nodded and returned the smile he gave her before. Heechul was lucky. He made it out of the car crash with just a bunch of broken bones and a concussion; could have been worse.
        She walked around the doctor to the side of Heechul’s hospital bed and sat in a chair. She placed her hand on his and smiled at him, pushing hair out of his face with her other. The doctor quietly made his leave, so as not to disturb her. Flowers sat on the lamp stand next to the bed. Haneul gave them a quizzical look. Wonder who brought them…she wondered. She took her gaze away from the flowers and rested her cheek on Heechul’s sheets. “I wish you’d wake up…” she sighed.


        Heechul’s eyes fluttered open. He squinted as he tried to sit up, the pain in his chest suggesting otherwise. What happened? He wondered as he gave up on sitting and took a look around him. The windows about ten feet away had closed shutters to keep the people from outside from seeing in…or was it to keep the people inside from seeing out? A heart beat monitor had connected itself to Heechul’s pointer finger by a wire and a plastic cover that held on tight. He looked down to find his left leg covered in white plaster. Oh, god, I’m in a hospital. He tried to keep his anxiety down. He had always hated hospitals. They were full of people in agony and always bad news. He remembered the first time he went to one as a child to visit his sister after she broke her arm. A man was rushed in as he screamed in pain and blood decorated his face. It left a horrible feeling in Heechul, giving him the fear of hospitals. He shivered, not from the cold, but from just the fact he was stuck there.
        Just then, the door swung open. His sister stepped in, mid-sentence. Heechul smiled. No doubt she was having a chat with herself again. She tended to do that when there was no one else to talk to. Her words stopped abruptly as her gaze set upon her awoken brother. Her mouth hung open and closed as she grinned from ear to ear. She hurried to his bed side, forgetting about the door. It slammed, startling Heechul. Haneul kept her gaze on him, not seeming to notice. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
        Heechul took another quick look around the room and answered dully, “Sick.”
        Ha-Neul laughed, “Hospitals were never your favorite place.” She thought for a bit. “What I meant was, does it hurt anywhere?”
        Heechul nodded, “My ribs hurt.”
        “They say you broke a bone there…”
        “Figures.”
        “You remember what happened?” Haneul asked after giggling at her brother’s remark.
        “A car crash,” he nodded. “It wasn’t pretty-” He paused, “Where’s mom and dad?”
        Haneul sighed. “Back Home. They don’t have enough money for a train ticket.” Heechul huffed. Their father was a gambler back in the day and not a good one either. He had never had success in keeping a job even after he got over his gambling addiction. Even to this day low paying jobs refused him. Their mother didn’t get paid much from her cleaning job. Heechul would gladly pay for their train ticket but they always refused charity.
        “Why must they be so stubborn?” Heechul thought aloud.
        “They find it downgrading to have to take money from others, I guess. Even if it’s from their children,” Ha-Neul placed her hand on his. “Don’t worry though, I’ll keep them updated”
        Heechul rolled his eyes, his gaze falling on the flowers sitting on the stand next to him. Why didn’t he notice those earlier? “Who brought those?”
        Haneul glared at the vase the flowers resided in as if it were her long time rival. “I’ve been wondering that myself actually. It didn’t come with a card so I asked one of the nurses and they said a ‘handsome young man with short brown hair’ brought them in without a word and left.” They sat in silence for a moment; Heechul’s eyes still on the vase. “Well…,” Haneul finally said while stretching, “I’m going to go eat lunch. Want me to bring you back something?” Heechul took his gaze away from the flowers and smiled sweetly. His sister narrowed her eyes at him. “I should’ve guessed. Be back in a bit!” She hurried to the door, opened it, looked back with a smile, then left.
        Heechul sighed, wincing in pain. He couldn’t wait for the pain to go away. He had almost forgotten what it was like to not feel pain whenever you shifted in place. Just then he heard a knock on the door and looked up to find a familiar face. In the doorway stood a six-feet-two-inches tall young man. His hair was the color of a tree’s bark that was short and styled with care. He wore faded jeans with a green and white striped short sleeve shirt. He had a smirk on his face and held up a bouquet of flowers. “Hey, so you’re awake?”
        Heechul felt his heart leap. He hated to admit that he had a crush on a close guy friend of his. He felt ashamed of his feelings. He blamed not only himself but society as well. Maybe if it weren’t thought as taboo to almost everyone, he’d be comfortable with it. Also the fact that his friend could be a homophobe troubled him. He figured this “crush” would go away with time and that maybe he was just imagining it. But with his friend standing there, in the doorway to his hospital room, he was sure he couldn’t keep lying to himself, and that nearly scared him more than the fact that he was in the hospital. “Hey, Shiwon,” Heechul replied with a nervous smile.
         Shiwon shifted in place, not sure what to do. “I, uh, brought you some flowers. Are you feeling any better?”
         Heechul nodded, and then noticed Shiwon’s uncertainty. “Come on in!”
         Shiwon smiled, closing the door carefully. He looked at the vase next to Heechul’s bed and chuckled. “I wonder who brought those.”
         Heechul glanced at the vase then back to Shiwon, “You stinker, you brought it didn’t you?” Shiwon only laughed in response and sat in a chair next to the bed. “So why bring more?”
         “Didn’t think you’d catch me.” Heechul eyed him suspiciously. “So where’s your sister?” Shiwon asked trying to change the subject, while putting the flowers he brought on the end of the bed.
          “She went out to buy me lunch,” Heechul said in a girly way, batting his eyelashes. Shiwon let out a laugh. Heechul was always so carefree it seemed, even when in a bad situation.
          “So how are you holdin’ up? I know how much you hate hospitals…,” Shiwon became serious.
          Heechul was surprised at his change of tone. “I’m fine….I’ll be fine.” Shiwon nodded and sat back in his chair. “Why? Do you worry about little ol’ me?” he joked.
Shiwon grinned, “You know I do. So do the rest of the guys.”
          “Ah, they asked about me?”
          “Of course, why wouldn’t they?”
          Heechul closed his eyes for a moment. He was glad to have friends that worried about him. He just hoped they didn’t worry too much. “Well you can tell them that I’m alive and kicking.”
          “I will.” The room fell silent. Then: “So…,” he trailed off, eyeing the room, careful not to look at Heechul for long. Looking at him too long caused something in his stomach to flutter.
          “So…how’s the weather?”
          “What?”
          “The weather…,” Heechul repeated.
          “The weather…,” Shiwon echoed.
          “I can’t go outside, remember?”
          “Oh, right!” Shiwon laughed nervously as Heechul shook his head. “It’s alright, the sun’s shining brightly.”
          “That’s good…”
          “Yeah…So how long are they keeping you here?”
          “About six weeks,” Heechul’s face seemed to age as he spoke.
          Shiwon frowned, “I guess I’ll be visiting often.” He bent over and kissed him on the cheek. Heechul raised and eyebrow. “Heechul, fighting!” Shiwon smiled.
          Heechul stared at him with confusion as his face flushed. Then: “Yeah, fighting…”