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" 축배를들자이젠내손잡아
오늘부턴내가널절대로놓지않아"
jaemin woke up with a terrible headache and immense pain jabbing all around in his body. he looked down at himself and saw needles pricked into his arms left and right, a sight that made him internally panic.
he had things to do. his sisters to tend to. he can't just be here laying in a hospital.
the boy, with very excruciating pain, attempted to get up and literally just leave. he hated hospitals and he hated being in them.
"stop moving." a voice suddenly spoke, shaky but trying to be firm. jaemin slowly looked up and around then felt jeno placing him right back into bed. seeing him made him remember their argument in the morning, and how he just collapsed in the middle of the school hallway. it was just that the whole thing with jeno wanting him to stay home and everything really drained his energy, making it harder and harder for him to pretend he felt fine.
jaemin tried getting up again, not looking at jeno, knowing that if he did he would feel so terrible and want to breakdown again. he knew this boy was just trying to look after him and care, yet he always let his stubbornness get in the way. "did i stutter?" the familiar voice spoke again. "stop moving."
jaemin obeyed.
it went silent between them after that, the tension spiking and jaemin still looking away and jeno trying not to cry. the panic and fright through him when he saw jaemin lying on the floor in school like that had not passed him yet, even more when the boy didn't wake up and the paramedics had to be called. he just knew jaemin wasn't okay, yet because he dismissed his own condition, this happened.
the intense silence broke as the door to jaemin's hospital room opened, and a doctor with a few nurses came in. the nurses told the younger that he would be taken to another room, while the doctor pulled jeno out of the room so they could have a talk. jaemin watched as jeno turned away and followed the doctor to a small separate space with sofas and a coffee table in the middle of the room. he said nothing to the nurses, and let himself be taken away to whatever other room he was going to.
"have a seat, jeno." the doctor smiled warmly, and sat down across from jeno, who was still worried sick and wanted answers on what had happened to jaemin. "... we took his x-ray and found out jaemin actually had puncture wounds in his stomach, which caused internal bleeding." the doctor began. "after further inspection, it was discovered that this had been caused by a very forceful blow to the stomach area."
jeno's heart sank.
his father.
when his father hit him.
he did this.
"do you have any knowledge of wether jaemin was in some sort of accident, or maybe a really tough sport or anything that might've prompted this?" the doctor inquired, jeno momentarily having an inner conflict with himself before slowly nodding his head.
he knew he had to tell the doctor about this. it was an abuse case. it was illegal, and it had to stop. the doctor looked at him, ready to listen, and eventually ended up phoning the police when jeno was done. he told him everything he knew, everything jaemin had told him. he wasn't sure how the younger was going to take jeno speaking out about his situation, but honestly jeno didn't care anymore. he just wanted to make sure jaemin would be safe and kept away from danger. the doctor assured jeno he would handle the rest with the police, that jaemin's father would be found and put away.
jeno ended the night being told that the younger was going to be in the hospital for emergency surgery to close the puncture wounds and have to be monitored for the next few days.
he made his way back to jaemin's home, knocking on the door softly and seeing shuhua open the door. she heard about what happened and offered to look after yoora and areum while jeno went to see how jaemin was doing. the girl noticed how distraught jeno looked the moment she opened the door, and immediately brought him into a soothing hug. jeno hugged her back, though his mind was so cluttered he couldn't really steady his feelings correctly. he was blank.
shuhua left soon after jeno talked to her about what happened to jaemin and what he discussed with the doctor that was helping him, letting him know he did the right thing and she supported his decision.
the boy wandered into jaemin's room, and ended up finding yoora and areum cuddled up in his bed. the babies were scared and sad that they didn't see their big brother today, so they wanted to stay in his room and wait for him until he got back. they waited the whole afternoon in there, until eventually they fell asleep.
the girls were not used to being without jaemin. he was their only source of guardianship. he protected them. he fed them. he clothed them. he showered them with love. and without him, the poor babies were very frightened.
jeno got into the bed and brought the girls into comforting hugs, their short arms subconsciously going around jeno's torso as they searched for more warmth. the boy placed a kiss on each of their heads gently and soon he was also asleep.
asleep, thinking about the way jaemin wouldn't look at him and how much it hurt.
