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Minho was struggling to stay awake as the stylists applied makeup to his eyes. He had taken painkillers that he had left over from his sprained ankle a few months ago, but he had forgotten that the medication also made him quite drowsy. When he was up and moving he could push through, but sitting here with his eyes closed made it nearly impossible not to drift off.
Over the past week leading up to their trip to the US, Minho’s ankle had started to ache after the long practice days leading up to both their performance as well as the shooting for the music video. He had assumed it was just from overworking, and once they finished with this Minho would be able to take it easy, so he pushed through. It had been fine, his ankle would ache after long days, but it was nothing ibuprofen couldn’t fix. The first filming day in America had been fine too, they had done both the group shots and solo parts for their next music video.
The performance however was when things went wrong. When Minho had woken up that morning his ankle had been aching from pushing himself while filming, but he had ignored it thinking it was just the same as previous days. However, halfway through the performance something had snapped. Pain had exploded from his ankle and he had fallen right in the middle of the stage in front of everyone. He had been so embarrassed he had locked himself in his hotel room away from his worrying members, assuring them he was fine even though he definitely was not. That night dark purple bruises had blossomed across his foot and it had swollen up even worse than when he had sprained it. He had iced it and kept it elevated all night, and had wrapped it this morning to get him through the shoot today.
“Minho!” someone shook his shoulder, snapping him back awake.
He blinked, squinting from the unexpectedly bright light. He went to rub his eyes but someone grabbed his wrists to stop him.
“Hey, don't rub your eyes,” Chan said, tugging his hands away from his face. “You'll ruin your makeup.”
“Sorry, hyung,” Minho said, his voice a little raspy from sleep.
“It's okay,” Chan gently rubbed his thumb along the inside of his wrist. “Are you feeling okay?”
Minho nodded, despite the throbbing pain radiating from his ankle, “Just tired.”
Chan frowned, “Didn't you go to bed early last night?”
Minho froze. He had told the others that he was going to bed early in order to take care of his ankle without worrying them. Between the pain and keeping ice on it all night Minho had only managed a few hours of sleep last night.
He shrugged, “Yeah, I don't know. I think it's jet lag or something.”
“You're not coming down with something, are you?” Chan brushed his hands under Minho's hair to feel his forehead.
“I'm fine, hyung,” Minho pulled away. “Really. Stop worrying.”
“Never,” Chan pressed a kiss to his temple. “It's my job to worry about you guys.”
“It's really not,” Minho pointed out.
Chan sighed, standing back on his feet, “Come on. The crew is waiting on us. They want to get photos for the photo cards before we start filming.”
“Oh, sorry,” Minho got up, making sure not to wince or limp as he followed Chan out of the dressing room.
“It's okay,” Chan assured him, giving Minho's shoulder a squeeze as he followed behind him. “You probably needed the rest.”
Minho hummed in reply, but didn’t trust himself to talk as they began to walk up the stairs. He was barely able to control his expression so Chan wouldn’t notice. Chan always seemed to notice when any of them weren’t feeling well, so Minho had to be extra careful around him. He just needed to get through today, then he could let Chan and everyone else worry about him. Of course they would be mad at him for hiding his injuries for so long, Chan especially.
Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to say anything. He could take care of it.
“Hey, you okay?” Chan asked. He had stopped at the first landing, while Minho was still a few steps behind him. Usually Minho was able to easily keep up with Chan, but with the white hot pain spiking from his ankle every step he took up these stairs Minho could not walk any faster without screaming.
“Yeah,” Minho nodded, forcing himself up the rest of the stairs. “I just haven’t fully woken up I think.”
Chan frowned, clearly not believing him. He crouched a bit and motioned for Minho to hop on his back, “Come on, I can carry you the rest of the way.”
Minho gave him a look that was very close to a glare, “I said I’m fine, hyung.”
“I know,” Chan sighed. “I slept in this morning, so I wasn’t able to get to the gym.”
Minho sighed. He knew Chan knew something was wrong, and was just trying to get Minho to accept his help. Minho also knew that there were still three flights of stairs that they had to climb to get to the filming spot for his and Chan’s duo shots. Plus he had other shots today and there was an absurd amount of stairs that he would have to keep climbing. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea to accept Chan’s help this once. He would just have to hope that Chan would believe he was extra tired today.
“Fine,” Minho sighed, climbing onto Chan’s back. The leader wrapped his arms under his legs, securely holding him up.
The relief from his ankle was immediate and Minho had to hold back a sigh as he wrapped his arms around Chan’s shoulders. As they climbed up the next flight of stairs his ankle still throbbed but now that he wasn’t putting any weight on it was feeling much better already.
The walk up the stairs was a blur after Minho rested his head on Chan’s shoulder. Maybe he shouldn’t have taken the full dosage of his pain meds.
As Chan set him down at the top of the stairs, Minho did his best to avoid flinching as he put weight back on his injured foot. Pain spiked up his leg, feeling almost up to his hip. He couldn’t help but clench his teeth from the intense pain.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Chan rested his hand on Minho's arm. His lips were downturned with concern and his eyes were wide.
Minho felt a stab of guilt for lying to him. Chan was always trying to look out for them. He hated seeing any of them hurt, and took so much responsibility over them. Minho knew he would be mad if he found out he’d been lying about being hurt, which was the very reason he could not tell him. Chan already had too much to deal with on top of Minho’s injury.
“Oh, good you guys are here,” one of the filming managers came out of the room they were going to be filming in. “We need to get started filming. In order to stay on schedule we need to get these done as fast as possible.”
“Why, what’s the rush?” Chan asked.
“The director found another room he wants to use on the ground floor for your duet shots,” the manager explained. “We’ll need the extra time to move all the equipment downstairs.”
Minho sighed, of course there would be even more climbing up and down the stairs. Why did they have to choose a house without an elevator? Surely there was a large overly extravagant mansion with an elevator that they could have filmed in.
“Okay, well we should get started then,” Minho sighed, following the manager into the room.
The room was filled with all of the crew and filming equipment set up in the small room. Chan and Minho had to squeeze through in order to get to the couch where they were going to be sitting for this part of the shoot.
Minho was relieved he wouldn’t be on his feet, giving his ankle a rest for the time being. They started first with photos, before actually filming for the music video. It was a fairly easy shoot, just a few shots of the two of them before the crew started moving all of the equipment downstairs. Chan had talked to the manager and she had agreed to let them stay up here until the other room was ready for them to start filming again, giving Minho a bit of time to rest.
He was still exhausted, and his ankle was faintly throbbing. He leaned back on the couch letting his eyes flutter shut again. Maybe he could get a few minutes of sleep before they had to go downstairs again.
Before he could drift off, something gently brushed his hair back away from his face. He peeled his eyes open to find Chan staring down at him, his expression still filled with concern. His fingers were gently running through the strands of Minho’s hair, and he couldn’t help but lean into Chan’s soft touch as his eyes fluttered shut again.
Minho was somewhere between sleep, and awake, when a rough shaking snapped him back into reality.
“Wha’?” Minho groaned, looking around to see what could be causing the commotion. Chan had his hands on his shoulders, but he hadn’t been shaking him awake like Minho had thought at first. “Hyung? What’s happening?”
“I think there’s an earthquake,” Chan explained. “Come on, we need to get under something.”
Chan helped Minho stand up, but as soon as he put weight on his injured foot his leg seemed to give way out from under him. He cried out as he fell to the ground, his foot throbbing even more intensely than it had been all day.
“Minho!” Chan crouched in front of him. “What happened? Are you okay?”
Before he could answer, a loud crash came from above and something came crashing down from above. Chan pulled Minho’s body against his to shield him from the debris raining down from above.
Minho curled against Chan, pressing his face into his chest. His foot felt like it was on fire and his whole leg was aching from the pain. He didn’t know what was happening. He was in so much pain and he just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. But the world seemed to be falling apart around him.
He couldn’t help the tears from pouring out of his eyes as he pressed closer against Chan. His hyung’s arms squeezed tighter around him. Chan was saying something, but Minho couldn’t tell what he was saying between the pain shooting up his leg and his own heaving sob.
Minho continued to cry, even as the room stopped shaking. Chan kept his arms securely around him, rubbing circles into Minho’s back to try to comfort him. He was saying something, but Minho couldn’t focus on his words between his own loud sobs and the pain radiating from his ankle.
Minho could barely even think he was in so much pain. It was completely clouding his senses.
-~-
Chan had no idea what to do in this situation. He was trapped beneath a pile of rubble from the floor above that collapsed when the ground had started shaking. Luckily the couch in the room had managed to hold back the rubble from crushing both him and Minho, leaving a small pocket of space for him to sit up.
Minho was clinging to Chan, his knuckles nearly white from how tight he was gripping onto Chan’s shirt. His chest was heaving as he sobbed harshly into Chan’s chest. Chan had never seen Minho cry this hard in all of the years he’d known him. Among all of the members Minho was the least likely to cry at anything. Chan could count on one hand the amount of time he had actually seen Minho cry, and it had never been this bad. He had never seen Minho heaving for breath because his lungs could barely take in air between sobs.
Something was clearly very, very wrong. Minho had been off since Chan had found him asleep in the dressing room. It was more than just jet lag, or a rough performance yesterday. Chan had assumed Minho had caught a cold or something and would be worse tomorrow, but now he was clinging to Chan and clearly in so much pain he was barely even responsive.
Chan looked around trying to find the source of what was causing him so much anguish. As he shifted his weight Minho let out a scream of pure agony that pierced Chan’s ears.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Chan quickly moved so he wasn’t putting any weight on Minho anymore.
A whimper left Minho’s lips, but compared to his scream it was much better, and his hands relaxed their grip on Chan shirt so he decided to take it as a good sign. His eyes blinked open again, and Chan could see that as well as tears still glistening in his eyes there was pain clouded in his irises.
“Hy-hyung?” Minho blinked, his voice rough and watery crying.
“Hey, love, I’m here,” Chan ran a hand through his hair to try to comfort him. “Can you tell me what hurts?”
Minho closed his eyes with a grimace, “My-my leg. I-I-I’m sorry!”
Tears began pouring down his face again, as his breath stuttered with sobs.
“Hey, hey, hey, no,” Chan adjusted Minho so his head was resting in Chan’s lap. “It’s not your fault. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Minho shook his head, “I-I-I lied to you!”
“What?” Chan ran his fingers through Minho’s hair.
“I-I told you I was f-fi-fine, but I-I’m not!” Minho sobbed. “It hurts!”
“Sh, sh, sh,” Chan rocked Minho back and forth to try and offer some more comfort. “It’s okay, Minho. I’m not upset. I’m not mad at you. I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.”
Minho turned his head so his cries were muffled by Chan’s arms, burying his face as if it could hide him from the pain.
Chan could guess by what he said that Minho had been hurt before the earthquake. His injury was most likely why he had been acting off today. Chan guessed his injury was also the reason for his fall at their performance last night as well. He had brushed everyone off, assuring them he was fine, but Chan should have seen through it. He should have known something was wrong. He was their leader, he was supposed to notice when something was wrong and take care of them. But he hadn’t noticed anything until this morning. He had let Minho hide away and deal with pain himself instead of helping him.
“I’m so sorry, Minho,” Chan’s throat felt tight with guilt. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice you were in so much pain.”
Minho stared up at him, giving a weak shake of his head, “No, don’t. It’s…I didn’t want you to. I-I’m sorry, hyung.”
Before Chan could assure him that there was nothing he needed to apologize for, a loud crash sounded from a little ways away. Chan instinctually tightened his grip on Minho, pulling him closer into Chan’s chest so he was covering most of his upper body in case the rubble started falling again.
Another crash reverberated through the building, sounding closer this time.
“Hyung, what is that?” Minho asked.
“I don’t know,” Chan admitted, his arms still tightly wrapped around his boyfriend.
Was the building coming apart? Was the floor going to collapse under them? Were they safe? Chan had assumed now that the tremors had stopped that they would be safe, but what if the earthquake had destroyed the supports of the building and it was now unstable?
Chan’s grip tightened around Minho. He couldn’t let him get hurt any worse. Minho was already in so much pain. He had to find a way to get them out of here before something hurt him even worse.
Another crash sounded, as the wood of the door shattered from some force on the other side. Chan curled his body around Minho to protect him from whatever was happening.
“Hyung, what’s happening?” Minho’s voice was tight with fear, and his hands were wrapped tightly in Chan’s shirt again.
Before Chan could answer, a voice spoke in English from the other side of the door, “I think I found them! Bang Chan? Lee Know?”
“Yes,” Chan sighed in relief. It wasn’t the building coming apart, there were people here to save them. “Yes! We’re in here!”
The firefighters helped Chan move Minho out through the hole they had made in the door, making sure not to jostle his leg too much. Chan crawled through next, the sharp edges of the broken door scratching against his sides, but he was free. The ceiling of the hallway was caving in a few meters away, but here they were safe.
Chan took Minho in his arms again, hugging him tightly against his chest, “You’re safe. I’ve got you. We’re safe now.”
Minho’s head curled into the space between Chan’s neck and shoulder as tears filled his eyes again.
-~-
Minho squinted his eyes, trying to block out the blinding light as the firefighters rolled his stretcher out of the building. Before his vision could fully adjust there was a weight pressed against his chest and a pair of all too familiar arms wrapped around his shoulders.
“I’m so sorry, hyung,” Jisung sobbed into his shoulder. “I’m so-sorry. I-I-I was so scared. I’m sorry.”
“Sungie,” Minho sighed, his hand that wasn’t clasped in Chan’s group came to rest on the back of his head. “What’s wrong?”
“I-I thought you were- you were…were,” Jisung couldn’t seem to get the words out. His breathing was quicker, making it impossible for him to speak properly.
“Hey, he’s okay,” Chan assured him, his hand joining Minho’s in running through the soft strands of Jisung’s hair. “It’s okay, Jisung-ah.”
Minho looked up at him and found that while Jisung had attached himself to Minho, Felix had wrapped himself around Chan. His makeup was only half done, so Minho assumed he had been in the middle of getting ready when the earthquake had happened. He had a thin layer of dust on his hair and he had tear streaks down his cheeks.
“I thought I wouldn’t get to-to apologize,” Jisung sobbed into Minho’s chest. “I-I don’t kn-know what I did, but I-I-I’m sorry, hyung. I don’t want you to be m-mad at me anymore.”
“Mad?” Minho furrowed his eyebrows, glancing up at Chan. He didn’t remember being mad at Jisung. Last night had been kind of a blur of pain, but he didn’t remember being mad at any of them, only himself. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“You-you didn’t want to see me last night,” Jisung cried. “I-I asked if I could come over last night and you said n-no. I don’t… I don’t know what I did, but I-I-I’m sorry! I’ll try to fix it! I promise! Just, please don’t be mad at me anymore!”
“Jisung, look at me,” Minho gently tilted his head so Jisung was looking him in the eyes. His eyes were red and puffy from crying and his face was covered with his tears. He looked terrified. Minho ran his thumb slowly across Jisung’s cheek, wiping away some of the moisture. “I’m not mad at you. I’m sorry I made you think I was. I was just…I didn’t want anyone to see me last night.”
“Wh-why?” Jisung asked.
“I-I was hurt more than I let you guys know, and I thought I could handle it myself,” Minho admitted. “Plus I knew it would make today so much more complicated. I didn’t want to put more pressure on everyone else just because I was hurt.”
“Hyung, do I need to give you Chan-hyung’s monthly ‘You are not a burden, let us take care of you’ speech?” Felix frowned down at Minho.
“Hey, it’s been two months since you’ve had to do that,” Chan defended.
“I know,” Felix said. “And I’m proud of you, but that doesn’t change that you might be rubbing off on Minho.”
Minho sighed, “I’m sorry. I know you guys care, it’s just…sometimes it’s just easier to hide.”
“Easier for who?” Jisung asked where he had curled up against Minho. “It’ll only hurt you more.”
Minho sighed, “It’s just hard sometimes. I-I love you guys, but sometimes I feel like I need to be independent. For years I just relied on myself, and I didn’t need anybody else, so sometimes I just revert back to that. Especially with this trip having so much jam packed into it, there was already so much stress and I didn’t want to add anything more.”
“Well, due to the half collapsed building, I’m pretty sure today’s filming is cancelled and we’ll have to find another filming location to finish up the music video,” Chan said. “So, today we’ll just be able to rest and focus on taking care of you. No extra stress. Just us making sure you’re okay.”
“Okay,” Minho let himself relax back into the stretcher.
Jisung leaned in closer, pressing a kiss to his cheek, before nuzzling into his neck, “You don’t have to do this alone, jagi.”
“I know,” Minho pressed a kiss to the top of his head. And Minho did know. He knew how much all of them cared about him (none of them were very subtle about it). Sometimes he might just need a reminder that he doesn’t have to do everything on his own anymore, he has seven amazing people who will always be there to take care of him.