Empty || Jihancheol

That's How It Is And That's How It's Gonna Be

Seungcheol, Jeonghan, and Junhui ran through the hall and down the stairs, they reached the living room to find everyone everyone crowding around Chan, who was sitting on the floor, "What the hell happened?!" Seungcheol asked loudly as he ran into the room.

Mingyu turned to face the leader, "Chan dropped a glass bottle of soju on his foot!" He explained.

"Ok, everyone back away from him!" Seungcheol knelt down next to Chan, who had tears running down his cheeks. His foot-and the floor under it-was absolutely covered in blood, "Hyung, it hurts, it really hurts!" He whimpered between short, fast breaths.

"Ok-uhh- Minghao, go get a bath towel! No, two bath towels! W-we need to put pressure on the wound," Seungcheol stuttered, trying not to panic," and we need to get him to the ER!"

•••

This is exactly how the group wanted to spend their night. 12:30 in the damn morning, all 13 of them waiting at the ER. Seungcheol glanced up every couple of minutes at the wall clock. They'd been waiting for almost an hour, Chan spent most of that time crying hysterically because he thought he'd lose his foot.

"Chan, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry, everything's gonna be ok, "Jeonghan kept saying, he rubbed Chan's back sympathetically, wiping tears off of the Maknae's face.

"Damn, and I thought it was a crazy day BEFORE this happened," The leader muttered to himself.

"What happened before this?" Jisoo asked as he sat next to Seungcheol. He looked tired and frustrated, just like they all did due to the situation at hand. He'd been nervously playing with his bright purple hair, so it look quite messy; it suited him though.

'I'll tell you but not here, follow me." Seungcheol muttered as he stood up and walked with Jisoo to the other side of the waiting room where they knew no one could hear.

Jisoo folded his arms, fiddling with his cross necklace, "Ok what is it?"

The older boy took a deep breath, "Jeonghan said you were the only one I could tell. Well, Jeonghan and I-uh..talked..and he and I are kind of a couple now." Seungcheol explained, choosing to omit the part about Jeonghan's ""diet"".

Jisoo's bright eyes grew wide with surprise, he hesitated for a second before answering, "Oooo, called it! He owes me 50,000 won!"

"Yeah, I heard about that, too." Seungcheol replied flatly,

"So, you two are really a thing huh? That's...that's....wow." Jisoo mumbled, raising his eyebrows in disbelief as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Anyway, I won't get into detail but basically Junhui almost saw us kissing and thank god he didn't because Jeonghan made it clear that you, me and him were the only ones who could know about it for now." Seungcheol stopped rambling and glanced around to make sure no one had heard all of that, "Clear?"

Jisoo stayed silent for a moment, shifting his eyes around the room before he looked at him again, "Crystal Clear."
•••

Chan's name was called and a doctor helped him into a wheelchair and took him away; the rest of them remained in the waiting room.

A nurse approached Seungcheol about 30 minutes later. "Are you Choi Seungcheol? You're the one that checked in Chan?" She asked, looking over her clipboard. Thankfully, she spoke Korean.

"Yes."

"A-are you Chan's legal guardian?" She asked.

"Acting. Acting legal guardian, yes," He explained, taking a step toward her, "Is he gonna be ok?"

The doctor hesitated for a moment, "Mr, Choi, Chan has multiple large gashes on his right foot, thankfully there was no nerve damage, but he did have to get a lot of stitches." She explained calmly.

Seungcheol was so relieved, like a weight had been lifted off of him, "Oh thank god, he's not gonna lose his leg or anything! Ok, what about recovery? What does he do now?"

"He's gonna have to be on crutches for the next 3 weeks, and he should continue to ice and rest his foot for another few weeks after that." She continued.

"What about dancing? When can he dance again?"

The doctor let out a small gasp before she replied, "Dancing?! Oh no, he shouldn't even be exerting himself for 3 weeks minimally, probably 4. He really can't put any weight of his foot."

"Oh..ok thank you." The leader choked out, walking back to the guys and slumping into his chair; he buried his face into his sweater paws. 'This is NOT good, very not good.' He thought.

"Well, what's the doc say?" Seokmin asked, filled with anticipation.

Seungcheol let out a long sigh, "The good news, he's gonna keep his foot. The bad news, he can't dance for at least 4 weeks," He groaned, tiredly propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.

Gasps filled the room, "That's not gonna work, he's a DANCER and we're performing at the MAMAs in 3 weeks!" -Soonyoung stood up and started pacing back and forth, his cheeks turning red- "Of all the performances he'd have to sit out of, the MAMAs! Of fucking course!" He ranted.

"Soonyoung, I know you're upset, but it's gonna work out," Seungcheol stood up and tried to calm him down, putting a hand on his shoulder and walking him to the other side of the room so the others wouldn't hear. The older boy figured if he and Soonyoung could lay down all the facts, they could understand what they're dealing with, "Listen, we're all anxious about this, but it'd be for the best if you and I try not to show it in front of the other guys, that'll just make it worse. Chan's out of the dance, ok? He will sit on the edge of the stage and sing, that's how it's gonna be. Not just that, but Jeonghan collapsed today during practice, you think that means we've been overworking a little bit? We know most of these routines inside and out, so please, let's just carry on as usual as much as we can and hope nothing else goes wrong?" Seungcheol pleaded, grasping Soonyoung by the arms.

The younger boy looked at the ground, remaining quiet for a long time.
Soonyoung was always a perfectionist, and he had a tendency to freak out when things went off the rails, it's one of his few flaws.

He took a deep breath before replying, "We'll cut the new song from our set list and replace it with '아주 Nice', since we already know the dance so well. I'll cut back on rehearsal time and allow everyone to rest more; and I need you to contact the MAMA showrunners and ask them about the set list change, can you do that for me?" He asked, wiping his sweaty forehead.

Seungcheol gulped, nodding at him in response, "Absolutely."