Chapter Text
Juwon’s phone starts vibrating a couple hours after dinner on Saturday night. Dongsik groans, woken from a half-drowse on Juwon’s chest. Juwon sighs, and kisses his head, and shifts under him.
“You don’t have to get it,” Dongsik mumbles, squeezing his eyes shut.
“You know I do,” Juwon says, and eases him off his chest before sitting up. His phone is on the bedside table, and when he picks it up and looks at the caller ID he lets out a soft “Hm” that almost has Dongsik curious. He's sleepy though. Curious can wait.
By the time Juwon’s halfway out the bedroom door and answering the phone with “Han Juwon,” he’s almost shaken off the deep, muzzy tone of post-coital sleepiness. When that’s followed by a sharp “What?”, Dongsik sighs. Looks like he’ll be sleeping alone tonight.
He knows how this goes. There’s an emergency, somewhere; Juwon will be away a few hours if they’re lucky, a few days if they’re not. At least they managed to fuck before Juwon got pulled away.
The next steps will be this: Juwon will hang up once he has the details he needs, and come back to get dressed efficiently, and be apologetic as he leaves Dongsik alone. Dongsik will tell him it's all right, because it is, and he'll sleep, and then wake up to spend another day of retirement puttering around, and wait for Juwon to come home like the lovesick old dog he is.
That’s not what happens, though.
What happens is that Juwon reappears in the doorway, broad and bare-chested and looking utterly lost, his phone dangling from his fingers like he doesn’t want to touch it, or has forgotten exactly how hands work.
Dongsik sits up. “Juwon-ah? What is it?”
“That was SNUH.”
Seoul National University Hospital. For the briefest moment Dongsik thinks - hopes - wishes - it might be Han Kihwan. That maybe he’s finally truly out of their lives.
“It’s Hyeok-hyung,” Juwon manages after another moment, and Dongsik flails at the covers, untangling himself so he can get up. “He was in a car accident - he’s - I need to go to Seoul.”
Juwon turns away suddenly, going from unnerving stillness to quick action, dropping his phone on the dresser and pulling out clothes. Dongsik finally reaches him, stands beside him, knowing better than to touch in that moment, no matter how much he wants to.
“I’ll drive you,” he says, instead.
That makes Juwon stop and look at him. “You don’t have to - you wanted to sleep late tomorrow, you said - “
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll drive you.”
Juwon looks like he’s going to protest again, but then he just nods and goes back to getting dressed. When he pulls out some changes of clothes, Dongsik’s already dropped an overnight bag on the bed.
Fifteen minutes later they’re on the road. It’s late now, after 11. The roads are empty. Dongsik speeds, and Juwon doesn’t say a thing about it.
It takes a while for Juwon to speak. Dongsik figured it would.
“I didn’t know I was his emergency contact,” is the first thing he says.
“Was he yours?” Dongsik replies.
“For a long time, yeah.” They’re each other’s, now. That had felt like a big step.
Dongsik lets silence settle again before asking what the hospital said. Not much, apparently - Hyeok’s car was hit by another driver, he was brought in in serious condition, and either the hospital couldn’t tell Juwon much more or he just said he was coming and hung up. Dongsik suspects the second. He also knows the not-knowing must be driving Juwon insane. He doesn’t look great when Dongsik takes his eyes off the road to glance at him; Dongsik offers his hand, and Juwon takes it.
They separate at the hospital. Juwon is Hyeok’s emergency contact, and something like family. Dongsik isn’t, so he puts his hands on Juwon’s shoulders, forces him to meet his eyes. Says it will be okay. Says he’ll be right there in the waiting room. And then he lets Juwon go back without him, even though he hates folding himself down into an uncomfortable chair, and waiting.
The nurse who leads Juwon to Hyeok’s hospital room is gentle, and talkative, and he’s thankful for her. “He’s awake,” she says, which is a relief in and of itself, “But a little disoriented. He has a nasty concussion and a minor skull fracture, some contusions.”
Juwon isn’t sure what to expect. He’s seen such a range of injuries in his line of work, but he’s not sure what they equate to - in medical terminology, in status, in prognosis.
He definitely doesn’t expect Kwon Hyeok to look at him with big, bruise-ringed eyes and then burst into tears.
“Oh, Kwon Hyeok-ssi. You’re all right,” the nurse soothes, then glances at Juwon, who’s frozen in the doorway. He’s never seen Hyeok cry, not once in all the years he’s known him.
The nurse raises her eyebrows. which is enough to spur Juwon to action, and he comes to stand near the bed, feeling overly aware of his body, of the dark coat he’d thrown on over his clothes even though it’s not really cold enough for it, of the antiseptic smell of the place, of the line of dried blood clinging to Hyeok’s hairline, the bandages beyond it.
“Juwon-ah, you’re here,” Hyeok says, choking on it a little. And Juwon sits down in the horrible vinyl-covered chair beside the bed, and takes his hand.
“Of course,” he says. He manages to bite back I’m your emergency contact, because that’s not even why. That’s why he knows. Not why he came. “You’re my hyung,” he says instead, and Hyeok keeps crying.
The nurse hands him a box of tissues and says, gently chiding, “Hyeok-ssi, you’ll give yourself a headache.”
“I already have a headache,” he mumbles, sounding like nothing more than a miserable kid, but the tears are easing now.
Juwon hands him some tissues, but lets the nurse take them away when they’re soiled - blood, snot, tears all together. Juwon’s stomach roils even more than it already was. He shuts his eyes, briefly.
“How are you doing?” the nurse asks, once Hyeok has calmed down. “Do you remember what happened?”
Juwon snaps his head up to look at her; she ignores him.
Hyeok nods. “Car accident. Hit my head.”
“That’s right. You’ve had a rough night, haven’t you?”
Hyeok hums a response and squeezes his eyes shut. Juwon had a concussion once, at school. He remembers it made lights feel too bright. He squeezes Hyeok’s hand. Hyeok takes a deep breath and squeezes back.
The nurse takes his vitals and says the doctor will be by soon, and Hyeok should rest. Juwon asks if he can sleep; he can, he's being monitored.
Hyeok takes back his hand, and it seems like he does fall asleep, or at least drowses. Juwon just sits and worries.
He texts Dongsik, saying Hyeok's okay, just concussed. He waits some more. Worries some more.
Eventually the doctor comes. He has terrible bedside manner, but somehow Juwon finds that comforting. All business. Hyeok likes it less, squinting and groaning as he's looked over.
When he's done with the examination, the doctor leaves Hyeok to fall back against his pillows - grunting as he bounces his head too much - and nods Juwon out into the hall, which makes Juwon's pulse race uncomfortably.
"We're going to keep him another day, just for monitoring," the doctor says without preamble. "Make sure he's improving. But I expect he'll be able to recover at home after that. Does he live alone?"
"Yes."
"Hm."
"He can stay with us," a familiar voice says behind Juwon, and he spins around, even as he feels the tension bleed out of his shoulders. Dongsik is there, slouching against the wall near Hyeok's door.
"And you are?" the doctor asks.
"My partner," Juwon says, and doesn't miss the quirk of a smile on Dongsik's face when he hears it. "He's right, Hyeok-hyung can come stay with us."
"Very well. I'll speak with you again tomorrow, I'm sure." And the doctor walks off.
Dongsik raises a sardonic eyebrow at the man's brusqueness.
"What are you doing?" Juwon asks.
"I didn't want to wait. You okay?"
"Yeah, uh... yes. Thank you."
Dongsik nods, and they both go back in the room.
Dongsik frowns when he sees Hyeok's bruises, the bandages, the blood. "Is he really okay?" he asks, voice very low, both of them hovering near the door to talk so they don't disturb him.
Juwon shrugs. "I've never seen him like this. But they say he'll be okay?"
Dongsik nods.
"Thanks for saying he can stay."
"Of course. He's your hyung, and he needs you."
Juwon just nods, and goes to sit beside the bed again. In a few minutes, he'll rouse Hyeok again, say goodbye for the night. But he doesn't want to yet.
There's no question Juwon would let Hyeok stay with him, even if there were other options. But as far as Juwon knows, Hyeok doesn't have anyone else. His parents are both dead. Juwon had attended the funeral visitations, uncomfortable, Hyeok tired-eyed and pale.
He keeps going back to the tears. Even more than the bandage, the blood, and how tired Hyeok seems, how out of it. Part of him wants to write it off to the concussion, or the pain medications.
But also he knows what it's like to feel like you're alone, and be afraid.
He raises his eyes to Dongsik, leaning on the wall the foot of the bed now, and Dongsik gives him a little smile.
A few minutes later they say goodbye to Hyeok, who blinks in confusion at Dongsik's sudden appearance but seems to accept it, still half-asleep. They promise to be back in the morning, and Hyeok nods, and lets his eyes slip closed again.
They head for Juwon's apartment, never sold because sometimes he does have to come to Seoul for one thing or another. He hasn't been there for almost six months, but a cleaner he trusts comes monthly, and he's unspeakably relieved that he doesn't have to face a hotel.
He scrubs the hospital off him but doesn't sleep much, in his old bed in his old home, head full of worries, but he didn't expect to. At least Dongsik is there, passed out and snoring softly, making it better. And he'll be there tomorrow, too, as they figure out what comes next.
- - -
Hyeok is slightly more with it when Juwon arrives to visit him the next day - with it enough to protest at the idea of staying with Juwon and Dongsik, insisting he’ll be fine on his own, that he doesn’t want to intrude.
He revises that opinion somewhat when the nurse gets him out of bed to test his walking and they all discover just how dizzy he is.
“It’s normal,” the nurse says. “It will fade.”
Hyeok looks like he’s going to be sick, and Juwon isn’t sure if it’s because of dizziness or worry.
Worry’s probably part of it. Hyeok sleeps a lot, and spends a fair amount of time sitting up with his eyes closed, just breathing. But when he engages, it’s mostly to ask questions. Does his office know - yes, Juwon called them that morning. Was his car totalled - yes. Juwon pulled a few strings to get photos from the attending police officers, and he shows them to Hyeok, who studies them, squinting, then spends some more time on eyes-closed breathing. Are they really okay with Hyeok coming to stay - yes, of course. Who’s stepping in on his cases - Juwon doesn’t know. Are his plants okay - it's only been a day, they should be fine.
The questions repeat a little - not really the same ones, exactly, but it seems like Hyeok isn’t sure of the answers. He checks twice if Juwon called his office. He checks once to make sure he’s got it right and they're going to Manyang after he's discharged.
Juwon asks the doctor about it, and get another ‘It’s normal’ - normal for Hyeok to be disoriented, normal for him to struggle a bit with his memory as his brain catches back up.
Juwon spends most of the night awake again, this time reading everything he can find out about concussions, and apparently it is all normal. But he hates it, because it’s not normal for him. For his hyung, who has always been one of the sharpest, most stable people he knows, and now is neither of those things, and everything he reads says it will pass, but the range of time it could take is so wide, and nothing’s sure, and - eventually Dongsik curls around him in the bed and wrests his phone away, mumbling “Go to sleep, for fuck’s sake,” and keeps ahold of him, firm and warm, which does actually help, damn him.
- - -
Hyeok is discharged the next day. They go back to his apartment, first, and come away with a suitcase and a backpack and a trunkload of orchids, which makes Dongsik laugh in disbelief. Juwon had known Hyeok was into orchids, but not quite how much.
Juwon is thankful, though, that Hyeok’s assistant thought to drop his office orchids by - knew that he wouldn’t be willing to leave town without them. None of them know how long Hyeok will stay, and apparently some of the plants need almost daily care. At least Hyeok seems focused as he checks them over, and even manages to stay on his feet for a bit before the dizziness hits him again.
They have to stop three times on the drive to Manyang for Hyeok to throw up by the side of the road. It’s a miserable experience for everyone: Hyeok’s sick, Juwon’s germphobia and general anxiety are operating at full strength, and Dongsik has to drive very carefully and try not to worry too much about either of them, which is not an easy feat. It would probably be at least a bit better if Hyeok could ride in the front, keep his eyes on the road, but he had balked entirely at sitting up front, and every time Dongsik looks at him in the rearview mirror he has his eyes screwed up tight.
They're all exhausted when they get to Manyang. They help Hyeok into the house, and Dongsik stays inside to get him settled in the little guest room, because his leg is sore from driving, making Juwon insist on carrying everything in himself.
Dongsik has to begrudgingly admit that the second bedroom was a good choice on Juwon's part when they moved. Dongsik had thought it was excessive, but Juwon uses it sometimes when he needs space or one of them is sick, and now they actually have a guest.
Dongsik tries to convince Hyeok to eat, but even the lure of getting his orchids all set up isn't enough to keep him up - he falls into bed as soon as he's used to bathroom and brushed his teeth, and seems to be asleep almost immediately. Rough day, in a series of rough days.
- - -
The first few days with Hyeok there are quiet. He sleeps a lot, and even when he’s awake, he’s hardly talkative, or attentive.
He’s still dizzy often, and nauseous some, though only enough to throw up again on the first day there. His head clearly pains him, but he doesn’t complain about it like he did in the hospital. That initial vulnerability has disappeared, now that he’s less overwhelmed.
Mostly he fusses over his orchids - moving them around the house to get the best light, checking on them repeatedly - and sits on the sofa, half-watching Juwon and Dongsik as they go about their days.
Juwon puts him on a schedule so he at least sleeps at somewhat regular intervals, and tries to get him to eat, too, with mixed success. Dongsik attempts a variety of dishes before landing on a few things Hyeok likes and seems able to stomach. He also pulls some “You’re too skinny, be a good dongsaeng and eat more” prodding that seems to help. Juwon can’t seem to exert the same power, even when he pulls out a whiny ‘Hyung’ or two.
So Hyeok rests, and Dongsik keeps busy, and Juwon worries. Worries a lot, getting as little sleep as Hyeok gets a lot. Concussed Hyeok isn’t his Hyoek, and Juwon hates it. He’s worn out and almost shy, and willing to be looked after, and easily overwhelmed, sometimes even confused, not his usual self - not sharp in mind and personality.
Things don’t get easier when Hyeok’s sharpness does start to re-hone itself, though. After four days, he’s more alert, and more focused, which means he’s more frustrated. The dizziness isn’t going away. Juwon has to catch him getting up from the sofa that afternoon, and Hyeok lets out such an angry noise that Juwon almost drops him again.
“What? Did that hurt?”
“No,” Hyeok spits out. “I’m just tired of this.”
“I know, hyung.”
“You don’t. I should be back at work! I have cases! Instead I’m just… dizzy and sick and useless. And my head hurts.”
It’s the most he’s complained since he was discharged. He seems somewhat placated by Juwon’s solemn nodding in response.
“Okay, hyung. We can get you some painkillers, if you eat something.” He’s barely eaten all day.
“Ugh, Juwon-ah!”
Juwon levels him with an unimpressed stare. “You know you need to, hyung.”
“Aish, you two,” Dongsik says from the kitchen doorway. “Stop fighting. Hyeok-ah, come eat some rice, I just made some fresh.”
Dongsik is overall much more level-headed about Hyoek than Juwon is, and reacts better to Hyeok’s increasingly brittle moods. Dongsik just skates along like it isn’t happening. Juwon is always ready to bristle, to fight.
And while the guest room was Juwon’s idea, he’s not doing terribly well at actually having a guest. It's too much disruption to his life, his systems. When Hyeok gets sharp again, gets angry, Juwon lets things out that he probably shouldn’t - about the orchids dropping bits of dirt and drips of water on windowsills and tables, about where Hyeok puts his toothbrush, how he hangs up his towels.
The towels are a particularly big fight, because it ends up Hyeok’s been hanging his towel on an oddly-placed low hook - its hem dragging the ground - because raising his arms to get it on the high hooks Juwon and Dongsik use is one of the various things that make him dizzy. But that doesn’t come out until maybe ten minutes of just sniping at each other about towels, and cleanliness, and being ridiculous. And then on top of it they also fight because Juwon finds out how unwell Hyeok feels after hot baths, and panics a bit.
Dongsik stays out of it.
But by a week in, with a follow-up appointment behind them and Hyeok getting particularly twitchy about not yet being well enough to go home, let alone restart work, Dongsik wraps Juwon in his arms in bed and says “We need to find something to keep him occupied.”
“I don’t want to talk about Hyeok-hyung in bed,” Juwon mumbles, pouting against Dongsik’s chest. It had been a frustrating day. They hadn’t had to go all the way to Seoul, Juwon had found a doctor in Munju to see Hyeok, but still the ride had made him sick, and then the news hadn’t been what he wanted, what any of them wanted - though it was what Juwon and Dongsik had expected, at least - and it had ended with him in a dark mood like a teenager, testy and brooding. He'd refused dinner, again, to go lie down in his dark room and do whatever it is he does when he isn’t feeling well enough to look at his phone screen. More brooding, probably.
Dongsik laughs and scratches his fingers through Juwon's hair. “As though we’re going to do anything tonight, Juwon-ah, we’re both falling asleep.”
Juwon makes a soft, frustrated noise in the back of his throat, so Dongsik humors him with a nice deep kiss, before pulling back to say, again, “We really do need to find something to occupy him, though. He’s bored, that’s part of why he’s being so moody.”
“That and he still feels bad,” Juwon replies, and Dongwik smiles above his head, because even when he's upset with Hyeok, he stills cares so much.
“That too. But it might help both things if we can get him moving around, doing something, using his brain.”
It’s been a week and his memory still isn’t totally functional - he repeats things, forgets what he’s told. The doctor still says it’s normal, but Dongsik knows it puts Juwon on edge.
“Okay,” Juwon mumbles, burying his face in Dongsik’s chest again. “But what?”