Crime, Betrayal, and Love (A Seventeen Street Racing AU)

LXXV | Waiting

"Where is he!" S.Coups demands, running to the front desk and slamming his hands onto the counter.

The nurse from the night before slowly looks up at him, no emotion spreading over her face. She rolls her eyes. "Name?" she asks, turning back to look at her monitor.

"You know damn well who it is!" S.Coups shouts, panting.

The nurse shakes her head, apparently uncaring about our situation. Her lips form into a tight line as she clacks away at her keyboard. "Surgery room eight. He was just admitted for burn wounds and potential head trauma."

It grates on my sensitive nerves how not an ounce of sympathy resides in her voice. Mingyu could be on the operating table, dying, and she's sitting there as if it's a random fucking Tuesday. I want to lash out at her, scream about how she's scum, maybe even hit her. My hands start shaking—as if not all of me is shaking from stress. The man I care most about is lying unconscious, possibly dying. The fact I'm still put together is a miracle.

S.Coups runs toward the stairs, and all eleven members of seventeen, along with me, Jisoo, and Sana, follow after him. Jisoo hesitates as we reach the stairs, throwing her head back to look at the front desk lady. I know she wants to ask about Changkyun, but she doesn't get the chance to go back when she's pushed up the stairs by DK. Despair is written all over his face, and for the first time, I see no hint of the sunshine that he usually carries. A dark storm cloud shrouds him, and it does nothing to help my growing worry.

The tears well up in my eyes again. After the car ride here, I thought I had run out of supply.

"Come on. Be careful." Sana loops her arm through mine, helping me steady myself as we walk up the steep flights of stairs. "Don't overexert yourself," she whispers calmly in my ear. "You'll only hurt yourself, and that's not going to help Mingyu."

I try to meet her eyes and give her a smile or any knowing look that signifies I believe her, but the tears just cloud my vision and spill onto my cheeks. Nothing I can do will help Mingyu, and I hate myself for it. Why couldn't I have become a doctor? At least then, I may be helpful in some way. But no, instead, I'll be forced to sit outside the surgery room, endlessly waiting until the procedure is over and the doctors confirm that they saved his life or that they failed.

Sana doesn't try to shush my cries or speak more motivating nothings. She wraps her arm around me, taking me in a strange half-hug as we climb the stairs. It's an awkward feeling, but it helps—I think.

Finally, we reach the third floor, and all sixteen of us spill out. It's not hard to find the surgery wing. Five members of Monsta X are to our right, fighting with a desk lady as they inquire about Changkyun.

Either Jisoo's better judgment leaves her, or she's stopped caring about the threat, and she breaks off from Seventeen, running to the desk and Monsta X. "Is he alive?" She asks, nearly running into Jooheon.

He looks down at her, quickly puzzled. After a moment, he nods. "Yeah. We're just waiting for this shrew to tell us where he is!"

The woman sitting behind the count gives an exausperated sigh. "As I've explained, since you are not direct family, we cannot let you wait outside his surgery room."

"That's bullshit!" S.Coups barks, also approaching the desk, not caring that his group's number one rival—or previous number one—is standing not even a meter away from him. "Where's Kim Mingyu's room? His 'family' is anxious about him."

"I'm sorry, but even if you were Mr. Kim's family, there are wildly too many of you to wait." Her eyes widen, taking in the number of us. "I'm afraid to ask you all to leave. Once your friends are out of sur-"