Work Text:
“So, you’re not feeling any pain?” Soohyun asks once the nurse has left, her retreating footsteps disappearing under the steady beeping of the heart monitor.
“I feel great.” Gaon mumbles and gives his best friend a goofy smile. “It doesn’t hurt. I think it wasn’t that serious after all.”
Soohyun scoffs. “You were in surgery, that’s why it doesn’t hurt, you dumbass. You’re still high.”
Not that it was a major surgery, at least not according to the orthopedic surgeon that came earlier to explain she’d reattached the shard of Gaon’s wrist bone that had broken off during the accident.
“Ah, right.” He chuckles. He’s boneless and dopey in the hospital bed, his injured arm resting over his stomach; one of his legs propped up on a couple of pillows under the thin covers.
“Do you even remember what happened to you?” Soohyun asks as she tries the huge reclining chair on one side of the bed. It sways gently as she rocks back and forth.
“Of course,” Gaon replies with a determined nod, “I hit a car.”
Soohyun snorts. “Only you would describe it like that. Yah, you got hit by a car.”
“We hit each other. It was a crash,” he says, giggling, like his bicycle actually counts as another vehicle against a van.
“Are you sure you were wearing your helmet?” she grouses, and then goes on, longsuffering. “Aish, why do you keep getting hurt? You can’t take care of yourself; it’s like having a hamster.”
“Yah, stop making fun of my cheeks,” Gaon complains halfheartedly. Then he pouts, sighing dejectedly, “I just wanna go home. I miss my home so much.”
“Tough luck, they’re keeping you overnight. I’ll stay with you. You can’t be at your place alone, but when you’re released, I’ll ask for some days off; or you can stay at my place.” Soohyun says, reaching out to pat his arm carefully. “At least the Supreme Court put you in a nice room,” she notes looking around, still curled up on the chair. It’s not a huge, extravagant room, but it’s still obviously on the luxurious side.
“Mmmmh, it’s not the court,” he shakes his head and smiles. “It’s him.”
Soohyun groans. “Of course. Ugh, he probably owns the whole place, right?”
As if on cue, the door slides open and in strolls Chief Judge Kang Yohan, suit immaculate and hair perfectly coiffed like it’s early morning, not getting close to midnight.
“Chief!” Gaon beams at the newcomer, face flushing with delight.
Kang Yohan stops at the foot of Gaon’s bed, expression perfectly neutral. “Judge Kim.”
“Do you own this hospital?” blurts the younger man before his chief can say anything else, his eyes wide with curiosity.
Yohan’s lips curl in amused surprise at the question. “Just this wing.”
“See?” Gaon mumbles in his friend’s general direction, “Just this wing.”
“Visiting hours are over,” Soohyun points out with exaggerated politeness.
“I’m sure they are,” the chief judge answers with an equally congenial smile.
“No, chief, stay. Please, stay,” Gaon begs, his uninjured hand reaching out to beckon the other man close.
Kang Yohan’s eyes turn to Yoon Soohyun, smug.
She glowers at him, still firmly sconced in the plush reclining chair. “I’m staying with him tonight,” she states, without making a single move to leave the room or even vacate her seat. “You can pretend I’m not here.”
Unbothered, Kang Yohan circles to the other side of the bed and perches himself primly on the mattress, close to his associate’s uninjured side.
“Sir,” Gaon breathes, giving him a wide, sloppy smile. “You’re here.”
Kang Yohan nods. “Yes. I saw you earlier, when you were in the ER, do you remember?”
Gaon shakes his head from side to side.
“Well?” Yohan prompts, with a raised eyebrow.
Gaon lets out a long, forlorn sigh, but his eyes are bright. “I got hit by a car.”
“I know, you barely made it two blocks from the courthouse”. Yohan’s voice is stern but there’s a teasing, relieved edge to his words.
Gaon had announced he would spend the night at his own place to water his plants and check on his apartment. His bicycle was still in the court’s parking lot from the last time he’d done it, so he decided to take it; it was still early and the weather was nice. And yes, just two blocks away from the Supreme Court, he’d been hit by a drycleaning van at an intersection.
Kang Yohan reaches out to touch Gaon’s face. There’s a patch of reddened skin where the helmet dug into his temple when his head hit the ground and a bruise forming at the corner of mouth. Yohan cradles his chin with two fingers and brushes the pad of his thumb along the welt on his lower lip.
Soohyun jolts halfway out of the chair. “What are you doing?”
“It’s fine! It’s fine,” Gaon placates her with another happy smile; his words slurring a little. His good hand wraps around his senior’s wrist, holding it in place. “He touches me all the time. We’re— It’s alright. It’s my chief.”
He presses Yohan’s hand to his own chest and keeps it there with both hands, his heart beating steadily against his chief’s palm.
Kang Yohan cocks one sharp eyebrow at Yoon Soohyun, daring her to say anything else. She scowls at him but settles back in the chair and pulls out her phone to pretend she’s not listening.
With his other hand, the chief makes sure Gaon’s IV line doesn’t tangle and then flicks the splint wrapped around his left hand. “What happened?”
“Doctor said I chipped my wrist,” Gaon says, looking down at his injured arm. He wrinkles his nose. “Ah, it makes me sound like a dainty teacup.”
Yohan considers it for a second before giving him a wry smile. “You’re an onggi jar. A really plain one.”
Soohyun scoffs, eyes glued to her phone.
“Yesss,” Gaon beams like he’s been given the sweetest compliment in the world; he’s smiling so hard his eyes are almost closed. “With a chipped handle.” He giggles and then he swipes his left foot to-and-fro under the covers. “I broke my ankle too.”
Yohan clicks his tongue. “It’s just sprained. You’ll only get a boot a couple of weeks.”
Miraculously, the leg that had gotten the brunt of the impact got away with just some nasty bruising, but, in the fall, Gaon had twisted his other ankle and then hit the ground with his wrist, breaking it.
The chief purses his lips. “And all because you insist on riding your flimsy bicycle instead of taking one of the cars or letting me get you a motorcycle.”
“Motorbikes are infernal, dangerous machines,” Gaon says flatly, with an exaggerated frown, like he’s reciting a well-rehearsed speech.
Yohan scoffs. “You’re not sixteen anymore.”
“Yah,” Soohyun snaps, “he’s perfectly capable of deciding what’s best for himself.”
Kang Yohan shoots her a derisive glare. “That’s exactly my point.”
“Hyu— Chief,” Gaon urges, tugging on his fingers. He’s clearly trying to dispel the tension.
Yohan drags his eyes back to Gaon, reaches out to brush his fringe back for good measure. “Hmm?”
“Chief, I think it was really an accident. I mean, a real accident.”
Yohan raises his eyebrows but says nothing, aware of Soohyun’s keen attention.
“She was really sweet,” Gaon goes on, “and— and she looked very scared. And young.”
The older judge hums with a nod. “Barely old enough to drive. The paramedics had to give her a mild sedative to calm her down.”
Gaon’s face falls. “Is she alright?”
Yohan nodded. “I talked to her parents earlier. She’s fine, they took her home.”
The driver was a 19-year-old girl who’d just gotten her driver’s license to help with the family business. She’d panicked when the lights had changed as she was about to cross the street and the bicycle appeared in front of the van, and she’d failed to brake in time. She’d been the one to call the ambulance, then she’d knelt down next to him and wept until the paramedics got there. The chances of her being some undercover assassin sent by their enemies was less than zero. Gaon surely wouldn’t pursue any charges; the fright was probably lesson and punishment enough.
“Hyu— Chief” Gaon calls again, in what can only be described as a stage whisper. “Can I ask you something?”
“Or course.” Yohan leans in carefully; he looks at Soohyun with a smirk as he lowers his ear to Gaon’s mouth, careful to hide the other’s face from her sight.
She glares at him, not even pretending she’s not trying to listen in.
“Can I stay with you?” Gaon all but whines, “Are you going to send me back to my roo— Oh, you smell like home.” Then he’s pressing his nose to Yohan’s collar, his words tripping over each other, “can I go home? Please, take me home. I don’t want to be alone. I miss Elijah, and—” he jolts. “Dinner! It’s late and Elijah’s hungry and I haven’t made dinner!”
Kang Yohan straightens as he tries to soothe Gaon; he rubs his chest, kneading the muscle of his pectoral, shushing him softly. “There are leftovers in the fridge, I’m sure she ate them all already.”
He doesn’t mention the younger man wasn’t even supposed to make dinner tonight.
“Yah, she wouldn’t”, Gaon pouts. “Have you eaten?”
Yohan shakes his head. “I had to rush to the hospital because this brat I know can’t look both ways before crossing the street.”
“I did look!” the younger whines, but stays on track. He clings to Yohan’s hand as he vows, “I’ll make you dinner.”
The chief’s face softens at that. “I don’t think you’ll be making dinner for a while, Gaon-ah.”
“But— You can’t go back to eating ramen.” Gaon’s shaking his head. “Elijah, she’s a genius. Her brain needs—” he’s stumped for a second, before his face brightens with the answer— “fish!”
Yoon Soohyun snorts.
Kang Yohan fights his smile, makes his expression earnest. He rubs Gaon’s shoulder with his free hand as he reassures him: “I’ll get her the biggest fish I can find. A whole tuna. She’ll eat it raw, in one sitting.”
“Yah! she can’t eat a whole fish like that. What are you saying?” Gaon sounds distressed. “What are we going to eat?”
His chief chuckles, fitting their fingers together. “I’ll figure it out; you don’t have to worry about it.”
“Of course I worry.” Gaon lets out an unhappy grunt. “You’re my family, I have to take care of you and make you happy.”
Yohan doesn’t turn to look at Yoon Soohyun even as his smile turns fond. “We’ll be happy if you stay put long enough to recover.”
That seems to take the fight out of Gaon. He sags against the mattress and his eyes blink very slowly, like the outburst completely exhausted him. But he tries again, “can I go home?”
“You have to stay here tonight.” Kang Yohan sounds like he tried to fight that decision. Now he does spare a glance in Soohyun’s direction; she’s looking a bit bewildered, but is still staring sharply at him. “Lieutenant Yoon is going to stay with you. I’ll take you home tomorrow. The doctor said she’ll probably release you around noon. Alright?”
“Alright,” Gaon’s eyes are closed now.
When Yohan tries to retrieve his hand, still trapped against the young man’s chest, Gaon tightens his grip. “Judge Kim.”
He doesn’t budge.
“Gaon-ah.”
Gaon’s eyelids tighten.
Yohan huffs, squeezing their fingers together before tugging again. “Yah, baby deer.”
“What?” Gaon grunts, “I’m here.”
“I’m going now.”
Gaon lets him stand up but clings to his hand as he moves away. “Tell Kkomi and Elijah I love them.”
Yohan does chuckle at that. “Oh, Elijah’s going to be thrilled you mentioned Kkomi first.”
But Gaon’s not listening, looking at his chief with a drowsy smile. “And Miss Ji. And—”
Kang Yohan pats the clumsy finger pointing at his chest and settles Gaon’s hand down on the bed. “I know.”
“Do y—”
“Hmm.” He gives Gaon’s pinky a small tug.
Gaon lets out another sleepy sigh. “We can’t—”
“When you’re home.” Kang Yohan assures him before finally stepping away from the bed. “Sleep, Kim Gaon.”
“Goodnight, chief,” Gaon mumbles, closing his eyes again.
“Lieutenant.” Chief Judge Kang Yohan gives Soohyun a curt nod before leaving the room.
There’s a long stretch of silence.
“What the hell was that?” Soohyun blurts out.
“What?” Gaon turns his head towards her but his eyes refuse to open again.
“All of that,” she specifies with a weak wave of her hand.
“My chief came to visit me.” Gaon’s smile is wide and dopey, his body feels heavy.
“That’s not what—” Soohyun huffs. She opens her mouth to say something else, but her nose wrinkles. “Baby deer?”
“Hmm?” Someone is calling him, but Gaon’s already falling asleep.