AN: Crystal here again!
WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NOW ~ read to find out!
leave a review while you're at it c:
Skyla's on the edge of dreams and reality when she opens her eyes to the sight of speckled ceiling tiles, dim lighting, and the faint tone of her heartbeat working a machine next to her. Exhaustion rattles in her bones that ached from the forty-five degree angle that the nurses unsympathetically set the bed to, and Sky manages to keep awake, her gaze making holes into the ceiling and reality grips her instead, but she's too tired to do anything but just stare up. She hears the door slowly slide open but doesn't feel obligated to acknowledge whatever presence comes in.
"Are you okay?"
The kindness and real concern from behind the words stir Sky as she slowly turns her neck towards the door, trying not to trigger any pain lying dormant up and down her spine. It's the guy. It's the guy whose life she saved at the cost of injuries of others. They yelled his name: Chanyeol.
"Mmm, yeah," she says as he rolls over to her bedside in a wheelchair slowly. She finally gets a good look at him, watching as he meanders over from the door. His black hair, cut and clean ordinarily, leaves little to the imagination, and his dark brown eyes has a permanent warm glow to it. Put that together with his round face and that he is a giant, you get yourself a teddy bear spinning around in a wheelchair. Except, this teddy bear looks downright miserable, as if the world is placed on his shoulders.
"I didn't mean to hurt you," he says softly, his deep voice making a gentle rumble as he avoids her eyes and stare at his long fingers. "I'm very sorry for what happened to you."
She smiles a little; being on the receiving end of a guilty apology full of sincerity takes away some of the harboring animosity. "I know you didn't mean to, and it's okay."
"Thank you for saving my life. Really, I cannot repay you for that. Ah, how rude of me, you don't even know my name. It's -"
"Chanyeol, right?"
The boy is taken back. "How do you know my name?"
Sky laughs. "Well, when I was, you know, trying to save you, your friends were yelling your name. I could only guess."
He nods and then smiles again, showing a plethora of perfect teeth that gleamed even in the dim lights overhead. "Ah, I see, and what is your name?"
Sky shuffles, pushing herself to a more upright position, sensing this conversation might continue for a while. "My name is Skyla Lin, but I just go by Sky."
"Sky?" Chanyeol says, pointing towards the ceiling, a goofy grin spreading across his face in a really lame attempt to break Sky's polite guise.
A ghost of amusement attaches itself to her lips, but it's merely for his benefit. "Yeah, just like the sky above." She notices that Chanyeol always seems to be smiling, the corners of his mouth refusing to obey the laws of gravity and come back down as he compliments the prettiness of her simple name.
She nods politely. "Thanks, and so what did the doctor say about your ankle?"
"How did you know that?"
Sky believes that they have reached a point where she is allowed to roll her eyes without repercussions, but couldn't help and smile at his obliviousness. "I'm not deaf, so I overhear things, not to mention that I understand Korean, you know. How do you think we are even talking right now?"
He laughs good-naturedly, a nice, hearty sound that embodies his chronic happiness. "Of course, I'm sorry, again. But um, they said it's just sprained for now, but they'll run x-rays later today to find any cracks or something."
"Today? But it's pretty late already, right?" Sky finally looks at the windows, standard white blinds that could barely hide the creeping sunlight through the cracks. It's already daytime. How long was she out? The natural light lazily illuminates half of the room. How did she not even notice that the sun's out? More importantly where's -
Sky makes a loud, inhuman noise, grabbing her blanket to shield her face. Chanyeol must have thought that her deep, contemplative stare at the windows and the sudden lack of interest in the conversation has to mean that she really wants to see the outside world. Thus, he maneuvers over and swiftly pulls on the blinds suddenly flooding the room with strong beams of light and into her eyes, not fast enough to adjust to the sudden change.
"Sky?! I'm so sorry, I thought you wanted the windows open!" He rushes over to her side hastily.
She blinks long and hard, rubbing them to erase the phosphenes dancing in her line of vision. "No, it's fine, it's fine, don't worry about it. What time is it?"
"10:04 in the morning," Chanyeol says, a deep look of worry etched onto his face as if he never smiled just a few moments before. He leans forward, his gray, hospital-issued wheelchair creaking as he shifts. Sky can count the wrinkles around his eyes, which are now the size of quarters from before, and see that his hair is in ruffled disarray instead of clean and neat, like before. He's the human equivalent of a wounded puppy.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Sky Lin wonders how many times she would have to repeat herself for his sake.
"You hurt your back pretty badly yesterday," he says, reaching out and touching her arm to make sure she's okay. "The doctors said that they don't think it's going to be serious, but they'll run some tests today also to make sure."
She raises an eyebrow. "I don't remember them saying that at all."
"You fell asleep when they were talking, actually. I promised to tell you what you missed." Chanyeol looks away shyly, his smile switched back on. "You sleep very still and peacefully. It looked ... nice."
"You were watching me sleep? You creep."
His reaction beats the speed of light as his expression shifts from a bashful schoolboy to an embarrassed five-year old. "Hey, wait a minute, I didn't it mean it like that!"
"Okaaaaaay, don't be offended. I know people who are into much weirder things than watching girls sleep."
Any spell of awkwardness completely shatters as he persistently protests against her assumption, and making a face when she giggles uncontrollably. Chanyeol tries to hide his expression of insulted, but fails. He's like an open book.
When her laughter calms down, Sky, loosened up from her tired state, says, "How are the others doing? They must have taken it harder than I have."
He waves it off. "Oh, they're not as bad as we are. Bruises here and bruises there, but nothing too serious. They'll heal in no time."
"Really, just bruises here and there?" A newcomer pops his head unexpectedly at the doorway, an annoyed expression on his face as the pair jolts at the sight of him. He comes into full view, also dressed in the issued patient wear hanging loosely on his slender frame. A half-smile reveals a dimple in his right cheek, but the smile doesn't travel to his dazed eyes. "Really, you're too cruel!"
He introduces himself as Yixing - his name explains the reasoning behind his accented Korean - and continues to put down Chanyeol's statement downplaying their injuries. Yixing claims that he saw his life flash before his eyes and how he would never feel the "absolute pleasure of feeling his legs as he runs through a meadow" ever again. His audience of two responds quite favorably, laughing loudly, and Sky finds herself in the company of two comedians, building upon each other's jokes till the three of them have tears in their eyes, gaily enjoying themselves. They didn't notice someone coming and standing solemnly at the door.
"Hey!"
The three of them immediately turn and see another guy, instantly breaking the cheery ambience in a sunny-lit room. Sky wonders how many boys she is going to meet because it's already hard enough keeping track of the identities of a handful of boys. This one is also dressed in patient's wear and his lips, tight and closed, are turned up slightly, giving the illusion of amusement at all times, yet his eyes look dead and serious, a dash of resentment. He folds his arms, leaning against the door frame with his eyebrows furrowed, as he says, "The company is here."
Chanyeol and Yixing share the same open-jawed look. "The managers are here? Jongdae, are you sure?" Yixing asks, getting up quickly from the foot of Sky's bed.
"Yeah, and we better go to Jongin's room now, if you're not too busy being occupied." His eyes flickers at Sky, and he frowns. "Let's go."
What is going on?
Yixing pushes Chanyeol in his wheelchair hurriedly out of her room without so much as a goodbye. Sky leans back on her bed and rubs her temples. Company could mean visitors, but the unhappy guy put "the" before "company," so it must mean a corporation of some sorts. What could the five hospitalized guys have to do with a company? They seem a little young to be immersed in a business tenure, but why would they care about their fates? This is too much.
A soft series of knocks echoes into the room, a pattern quite familiar to Sky and she sighs, her face becoming as bright as her room. "Hazel! Dude, where have you been?! I'm so glad you're here."
Her American accomplice walks in, decked out in a white cable-knit sweater and dark blue jeans, and slung over her shoulder is a bright red satchel almost bursting at the seams. Hazel gives her a reassuring smile as she sits in a chair next to her bed. "Hey, I came here as fast as I could!" she claims. "It's good to see you, sort of." She gestures at her satchel. "I don't know how long you'll be staying, so I got some fresh clothes for you to change into. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to wear dirty clothes again. I'll take them back to the hotel later today."
As Hazel pulls out random articles of her clothing and folds them, Sky gets her caught up with the happenings of everything that has happened up until this moment. She parrots the information about her back complications but that she doesn't feel it that badly anymore and she's quickly recovering, besides that there is nothing to worry about.
"Speaking of things to worry about," Hazel says as she places the clothes on the nightstand, a sly glint in her eye. "I saw two guys being escorted out of your room just a few minutes ago. What's that about?
Sky doesn't even bat an eyelash. "Oh, the one in the wheelchair, Chanyeol, came in and apologized and a bunch of other stuff and the guy pushing him is Yixing. We were just talking when one of their friends came and I don't know - they had to go somewhere, I guess."
"Did something come up?"
Sky shakes her head, though not exactly saying no. "Ehhh, I really don't know -"
Hazel waves it off. "It's probably not that big of a deal, but boy do I have something to tell you. You won't believe what happened to me this morning." She hops from her chair and plops herself at the foot of Sky's bed, its previous occupant long forgotten. "I was at the hotel room this morning, getting ready to come here and -"
Her listener puts her hand up. "Whoa, wait a second. You went back to the hotel and left me here? By myself? With these baboons?"
"Yeah, well, it was getting awkward and late and I wanted to sleep so -"
"You abandoner."
"Not important right now! Let me finish and you can continue the abandoner thing later." Hazel pushes up on her glasses and takes a deep breath before going. "Anyways, I was getting ready and then someone knocks on the door. I had no idea who it could be, you know, since Sooyeon and them have a hangover and room service never comes that early."
"Uh huh," Sky interrupts sarcastically.
"Shut up, Sky. Anyways, I go open the door and you know who was standing there? Kris, but it's reasonably understandable 'cause we actually know who he is and stuff, but he's with two other guys: Minesok, who I met last night and I thought he was pretty nice to me so I didn't mind, and then ... I saw Murder Eyes."
"What the … Murder Eyes?" Sky enunciates.
Hazel brushes her hair from her eyes, tucking it behind her ear. "It's the guy who was giving you the devil's eye when we were on the streets. Though I should stop calling him that; his real name is Kyungsoo. Anyways, they said that they were there to pick me up to go to the hospital."
Her hospitalized friend raises one arched eyebrow, sitting up as straight as she could without reaching the boundary of pain. "What? They picked you up? At our hotel room? And brought you here? That's preeeeeetty weird."
"Right?" Hazel says exasperatedly. "Like, I don't even need bodyguards to come here. It just takes a lot of walking. Also, it was completely awkward. Kris and Minesok talked to me and it was nice, but Kyungsoo barely said anything." She throws her hands up in the air. "Only thing he said was how our room looked really messy and I really wanted to say something but I held back. Tao was supposed to come but he overslept so Kyungsoo came in his place, but I'm pretty sure it was against his will."
Chuckling at Hazel's pouting face, Sky nudges her with her foot. "Maybe they feel bad so they're trying to be extra nice to us."
Hazel purses her lips. "Yeah sure, they all feel guilty, but anyways, you should hurry up and get better! We don't have much time before we go back to school, you know."
"Do you think I want to spend the rest of our winter break in a hospital room, stupid, and since I'm a patient, you should take care of me, so yeah, can you get me something to eat or drink please?"
"Fattie."
"Dummy."
With that graceful parting, Hazel bounces away, her long hair trailing around the edge of the door and she kindly shuts it for her. Sky, at peace at last, presses some buttons to make the bed completely flat. She curls up in a ball, snuggling into the surprisingly soft blanket and drifts into back to sleep. It's not 1:00 in the afternoon yet, so she's got some time before she actually has to wake up.
Hazel strolls down the corridor, watching various doctors, nurses, and hospital staff milling and going on about their businesses. It holds a busy atmosphere, on the verge of organized chaos, but she luckily manages to stay out of their ways, save for a few close calls.
Turning a couple of corners to avoid bumping into people, she finds herself walking down the windows of the hallway, hazily illuminating the floor and accommodating to her shadow. Before she realizes it, Hazel leans against the tall windowsill, propping herself up with her elbows as she sees the bustling of the people of Seoul down below continue on for a new day. Her life has taken an interesting turn, though more so on the side of worse, yet this foreign city carries on with its normal routines. Something so sprawling and grand and alien never seems to stop as its buildings jut out against the pale blue sky, save for some clouds, and cars slowly making their way to their destination noisily, even with the sound walls of the hospital and being up on the third floor. She itches to immerse herself again in it among the crowd of people and explore every nook and cranny of Seoul with Sky.
"Hazel?" The familiar, deep, husky voice that speaks her name accented abruptly draws her out of her cliché, deep contemplation of life and she looks up. It's Tao, surprisingly, dressed in a red shirt peeking from under a wooly cardigan paired with holey jeans. He has a wide-eyed expression and slightly out of breath. She didn't know whether to feel embarrassed for his deranged state of confusion or being caught staring out the window sighing loudly. She laughs anyways, tucking her long, black hair behind her ear shyly. He stops in front of her, his tousled hair almost spilling into his eyes, but still manages a small smile.
"Hey, Tao! It's good to see that you sleep well today."
He blushes. "I was really going to come pick you up, but I guess I kind of overslept. I'm sorry."
"Are you sure you're sleeping well? Your dark circles look a bit unhealthy."
"I was born with them."
"Oh. Oh, wow, that's the first time I've heard that before. Are you serious?"
"Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm serious."
Hazel is pretty much kicking her mental self in the head for starting off a conversation by pointing out things wrong with his face. Tao doesn't seem to be taking it to heart and chuckles, but probably at her.
"Do you know where the other rooms are?" Tao asks, craning his neck to scan the numbers of the rooms lining up along the wall.
Hazel pushes up her glasses. "I'm not entirely sure, honestly. I just came from Sky's and I'm about to go looking for something for her to eat."
"Yeah, but I don't think hospitals have good food," says Tao.
"Really? But I bought some tea the day before and -"
"Convenience store around the corner, we should check that out. I passed by it when I was coming here."
"When you were running for your life to get here on time?"
He laughs again. "Especially so. Let's go!"
"Are you sure? We shouldn't be gone for too long."
"Nah, nah, we won't take long. I need to buy stuff anyways."
Tao starts walking down the hallway back where he came from and Hazel is about to trail after him before she realizes something. "But why should I go with you? We just met yesterday. You could be a serial killer."
He whips around. "Wait, wait, I'm not a serial killer."
"I could be a serial killer." She bites the insides of her cheeks.
Hazel believes that if this boy's eyes grow any larger, they'll pop right out of his head. She throws her head back and chuckles so hard she almost chokes on air. "I'm kidding, really! We should hurry now."
Tao certainly did not expect a friendly girl with large glasses and normal to have such weird answers and quickly trails after her, loudly professing that she doesn't even know where the convenience store is.
The doctors said that it's only a slight sprain in her back and as long as she doesn't put too much pressure on it, she'll be okay. Or, they kind of said it through a slightly incompetent, grinning translator who explained in senseless English and used hand gestures to fill in the gaps. Without any chance to exercise her comparatively larger knowledge of their native tongue, Sky is whisked away back to her room in a wheelchair and given a vague decision of either more doctoral observations or official discharge. She's uncertain about all of that stuff, but she knows one thing for certain.
Hazel Chen is taking way too long to get her food.
Skyla Lin can feel hunger pangs creeping around her stomach and grimaces; she tries to put that out of her mind by practicing wheeling around the room, careful to not strain her back as noted. Soon, she got the basics down. Then, she is a wheelchair prodigy, speeding up and down her room, spinning in circles, but can't seem to brake easily. Sky shouts and whoops as she turns particularly sharp corners and as quickly as her gleeful moments came, it fades as soon as her stomach grumbles like thunder.
"What is taking her so long?" Sky says aloud, a prickly feeling of annoyance rising in her gut. She decides to go out and look for Hazel, grabs the handle of the door, and flings it open.
Chanyeol, seated in wheelchair and hand raised to knock on her door, is situated right outside her room and taken aback by the sudden disappearing of the door and the appearing of Skyla Lin, also in a wheelchair. However, she couldn't stop the momentum of her wheelchair and crashes into Chanyeol's, propelling him across the hallway and bouncing off the wall.
"Whoa, what, wait, Chanyeol? Oh my gosh, are you okay? What are you doing out here?"
His nice smile, which she has come to familiarize over the course of the day, returns again. "I'm okay, sorry; I didn't mean to scare you like that. I just thought you might get hungry." Chanyeol extends a dark green snack bar to her and as she grasps it, she notices the words printed on the bar turns out to be -
"Seaweed," Sky enunciates every syllable for confirmation, and then smiles gratefully. "Wow, I actually like seaweed stuff. Thanks, Chanyeol, really, this means a lot."
"N-no problem, really," the gentle giant quietly says, looking down at his hands again. "My friend brought me some. I think you'll meet him soon. You would like him. His name is Baekhyun. I have all kinds of food to eat so if you want anything, I have it. Well, not everything because I don't have everything but like," Chanyeol turns redder and redder by the second, "you know what I mean, right?"
Sky's under the influence of a nice-tasting snack, but his words bubble on the surface and she gives it as much attention as she can muster. "Hmm," She chuckles. "Don't worry, I know what you mean. Baekhyun sounds like a nice guy; you should keep him around as a friend longer. Thanks Chanyeol."
The two patients, the girl nibbling quickly on a snack bar with her tousled hair pulled back from her face and the boy having a nice shade of strawberry red creep into his cheeks and ears, just sit in the middle of the hallway in wheelchairs with awkward body language and shared silence. Even eye contact is avoided. Some of the staff notices this spectacle that took up residence in a public, inconvenience place and continues on in hushed tones.
One passerby, also wearing a hospital-issued white large shirt and pants, stops instantly, however, his eyes widening and smirks at the sight. He slowly makes his way over, shuffling slowly with his hand on his right hip towards the odd pair. "Hey, hyung!" he calls out cheerily.
"Jongin!"
"It's for my friends," Tao claims as he grabs the most random pieces of food, flying from aisle to aisle while cradling the chosen ones in his arms. "They're in the hospital too."
Hazel looks alarmed. "But they're only five of them! They eat that much?"
He laughs nervously and continues his polite ransacking of the entire convenience store, reading out loud the labels as he goes. The lady at the cashier eyes him suspiciously the whole time, her arms folded and ready to pounce if any shoplifting occurs. Hazel tries her best to stay out of his way as she inspects the flavors of the ramen carefully, her fingers running over the characters on the plastic covering. Wait, one of them doesn't make any sense. She picks up one large ramen cup with bright orange and red colors, the name of the ramen scrawled in big black print.
"개, gae?" Shock settles on her senses. "They make these kinds of ramen?"
Tao appears by her side. "What did you say?"
"Here, it says 개 flavor on it! I didn't know they make this stuff here."
"What? No way, let me see it!" Tao trades with Hazel at least half of the goods in his hands for one measly ramen cup.
He stares at it and then sighs, exasperated. "Hazel, it's not 개, it's 게, ge."
"What? They aren't the same?"
"Noooo, Hazel, the ramen flavor 게, not 개."
"You just said it twice."
"Gaaaaaaeee, ge."
"What?"
"게, 게, 게!"
Then it hits her. 게 means crab, while 개 means dog. She read the flavor as dog-flavored.
A brief silence ensues as he laughs uncontrollably at her wide-eyed reaction. She tries her best not to look at Tao and stares at the plentiful varieties of snacks in her arms. Her face turns so red that she feels as if its on fire.
"Let's pretend this never happened, please," she says quietly, still staring down at the food.
"Why?" he says while still doubled over in laughter. "It's funny! Don't be embarrassed about it."
Hazel still says nothing, biting the inside of her cheeks as she's given back her personally unreadable, crab-flavored ramen and puts back on the shelf and quickly hides her face as she goes back into looking for more options. Oh, she hopes it isn't unhealthy in terms in the amount of blood that comes rushing in and out of her cheeks so suddenly today.
Tao offers to pay for her simple treats for Sky and herself in addition to his myriad stock of food and after displaying his obvious strength over her as they progress from polite arguing to near wrestling, she begrudgingly agrees, though she doesn't do a very good job of hiding the bruises to her pride.
Afterwards, they find themselves at the mercy of the cold air and Tao gently coaxes the gaiety out of Hazel again, promising not to tell anybody what happened earlier with her illiterate mishap. She solemnly nods and begins to fill the air quickly with her little anecdotes and he tries to match with her, a discussion that flows at ease.
"That's how I managed to get stuck in a tree," Hazel finishes a tale of childhood woe, earning a gale of laughter from her audience of one. They match their paces well, the rhythm of their soles scuffling on the pavement of Seoul, swinging their groceries in their hands. Unexpectedly, the temperatures take a dip into biting iciness against the back of her neck.
"Ah, it's so cold!" Hazel shrieks, and then takes off running full speed down the street. "I can't take this anymore!"
"WHAT, WAIT, HAZEL!"
And she's like a kid again, her legs stretching farther and farther as her feet pounds against the concrete, and turns the corner. The hospital is not that far ahead and she screeches to a stop, wildly out of breath and adrenaline pumping through her veins. Hazel looks over her shoulder for Tao to see if he caught up. He's not there. "Slowpoke," Hazel announces.
"Who are you calling slowpoke?" Tao calls out and she finds him over on her far left, leaning against a pillar that's part of a nearby shop, his obvious attempt of appearing to be waiting a long while for her. His ragged breathing gives it away.
"Nice try, Tao, but I clearly won this time."
"Not true or fair, you had a good head start. If you want to win, we have to do it all over again."
"I don't need to do it over because I already won!"
Then, her male companion shivers, bringing up his shoulders only for a moment. As quickly as her spontaneous, elated childishness came, it disappears as she frowns, getting closer to Tao. "Are you alright? Is it too cold?"
"Uh, yeah, a little, but it's okay. Running actually helped a lot, surprisingly."
"Oh ... okay, well, we should get you inside either way, come on."
"Of course, of course. It just takes a while for me to warm up." Tao clutches his cardigan tighter around his torso. Hazel couldn't help herself as she touches his wooly outerwear, only to discover how thin the fabric actually is.
Hazel puts down the bags at her feet and begins to rummage through her purse. "Your clothes aren't doing you much good. Why didn't you wear something warmer?"
"I thought the weather would be warmer," he provides a dull answer.
"That's a bad excuse. There's snow everywhere."
"But -" Tao cuts off mid-sentence as Hazel Chen, rising to the balls of her feet, puts her only scarf she brought to Korea around his neck.
"This should keep you warm then," she remarks, revealing a set of dimples of her own, little dents tucking themselves away in the folds of her cheeks.
He couldn't make sense of it, tripping over his own thoughts. "I barely even know you."
"Same goes for you!" Her long fingers swiftly bring the two ends together and begin to knot the stretchy fabric together. She looks up at him, her eyes full of mirth. "Well, not sure if you know this, but my full name is Hazel Chen or," she switches to Chinese, "Chen Qiu Mei. Yours?"
His gaze softens, his gray-ringed eyes lighting up. "Huang Zitao."
"Do you have an English name?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"Embarrassing."
"Favorite color?"
"Blue."
"Hobbies?"
"I do martial - hey, hey, hey, that's too tight!" She had accidentally pushed the knot up too tight around his neck and stops in surprise before bursting into laughter, her fingers thoughtlessly making the knot looser.
"It's perfect now. Are you warmer?"
He smiles gratefully, pulling the scarf up to cover his face more. "Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Hazel. But, aren't you going to be cold too?"
Hazel shakes her head. "The cold never bothered me anyway."
"Race you inside!" She flies straight down the street and into the hospital. She bypasses the puzzled receptionists, darting in and out of people's ways, and slams her hand onto the elevator button. It opens up quickly and she hops inside, and Tao flies in behind her just as the elevator doors shut, the red scarf just barely missing being stuck between the doors.
The laughter is contagious and they're caught up in the fun of the moment, the air slowly warming up the numbing feeling of their fingers. She does a quick inspection of her bags to make sure everything is still inside the thin plastic confines and decent condition for consumption. When the sleek, silver doors open up again, Hazel takes the initial step forward and scans the hallway, eerily barren and quiet except for subtle footsteps and faint chatter. She tries to remember where the residential rooms are.
"I wonder if they're hungry," she says absent-mindedly. "I hope they are - wait, what's that - ?!"
"Get out of the way - YAH!"
Hazel turns around to see someone in a wheelchair trying to stop himself from hurtling towards her and before she could even register what's going on, he bumps into her and sends her tumbling to the ground.
"Whoa, hey, are you okay?" his voice loudly echoes as she pushes herself upright, groaning slightly, disoriented from the shift of gravity. Tao grabs her arm and suddenly pulls her up, jerking her back roughly. Hazel stumbles and opens her mouth to protest and as soon as she looks up, more shouts erupt in the air and the sound of wheelchairs crashing. The guy who knocked her over is now sprawled on the ground himself, and along with another person curled in a ball, giggling. It's Minesok, his soft laughter reducing him to a child, and joined by another guy, one she remembers to be Luhan, who also falls out and decides to roll around like a slug. The other three guys manage to stay in their wheelchairs point and howl with laughter at the fallen.
"What's going on?" Tao says, though his words falling on deaf ears. Hazel, still a little dazed, sees Skyla Lin and Chanyeol furiously wheeling around the corner, shoving each other out of the way and yelling taunts. They let go of their wheels, letting themselves crash into the obstacles in the middle of the hallway, nearly toppling over the other two guys.
"Oh, Hazel, you're back!" Sky shouts over the clamor gleefully, waving to her open-jawed friend clutching convenience store snacks. "Finally! What took you so long? I almost died from hunger."
"Glad to see you're doing better," Hazel manages to muster up some words as Sky takes the bag of goods from her friend. "What's going on?"
"Wheelchair racing!" she says, "but I wasn't exactly winning here."
"Why is Minesok racing with you guys? Did he get hurt between this morning and now?"
"Oh no, he wanted to join. Actually, the only ones who need wheelchairs is me and Chanyeol over here. The other patients don't actually need it. One of the guys, Sehun, wanted to join in too."
Sky, entirely relaxed and beaming, takes it upon herself to introduce her entourage of boys wrecking havoc in a hospital. The one that ran Hazel over and is now trapped in an impromptu wrestling match between Minesok and Luhan is Jongdae, who is erupting in loud exclamations trying to appeal to his hyungs to let him go. The trio who survived the Great Wheelchair Crash are Jongin, Yixing, and Sehun, the two former being real patients and the latter that aspired to win the race, who are on their feet around them cheering and clapping, overrun with merriment. Tao merges with the spectators and acts as a referee, shouting random, nonsensical fouls that send them over the edge of hysteria.
Before Hazel could fully register what is happening, a quiet clearing of the throat pierces the air, a small sound that halts the conversations, from behind her. They turn and see a portly, old man with round glasses and a full head of white hair standing before Minesok, Luhan, and Jongdae, still oblivious in their battle. The man, wearing a long lab coat and a stethoscope around his neck and his hands behind his back, stares sternly at the raucous display at his feet. The three guys finally realize the completely still atmosphere and slowly look up, entirely freezing up at the sight of the doctor with Luhan putting Minesok in a headlock who is sitting on top of Jongdae, their eyes in shock and a bit of fear. Everybody wears the same stunned, dumbstruck expression, tension mounting so thickly in the air that you could swim through it, and nobody dares to breathe.
None of them has the faintest idea on what to do.