03 — CRITICAL ELEVEN

risking my life just to save you.

—

"dohyon-ah!"

thanks to seungyoun's chaotic driving, they were able to skip a bunch of traffic lights and avoid traffic jams caused by the busy hour. the three men quickly got off the car, with seungwoo nonetheless being the one to sprint his way out immediately just so he could guarantee the safety of his dongsaeng. he heads towards a very discombobulated dohyon, panting tirelessly. "where did they take eunsang? have you seen him?"

dohyon points to the hospital. "they rushed him into the icu— but hyung!"

he didn't get the chance to explain himself, because once he mentioned the unconscious boy's whereabouts, seungwoo immediately turns towards the building and ran off, leaving without him. "hyung!"

"dohyon-ah," daniel rushes to give the boy a warm hug, followed by a very distressed seungyoun who looked as troubled as seungwoo earlier. "are you alright?"

dohyon nods as he tries to catch a breath. "where's wooseok-hyung?"

"he's on his way," seungyoun puts his hand on dohyon's shoulder as an act to comfort him. "you said that eunsang's in the icu, right?"

"yeah, he is."

"alright, we should probably go there now—"

"hyung,"

dohyon grabs seungyoun's arm before he could even do anything. seungyoun raises an eyebrow. "what?"

"please, for the sake of your well-being, do not get your hopes up."

daniel looks at the boy confusingly. "what do you mean?"

dohyon takes a deep breath. "the doctor gave a verdict of his death before we even reached the hospital."

seungyoun yanks his arm away from dohyon who still had his palm clasped into a tight grip. "don't."

"they don't really expect anything from him, he's been unconscious for quite a while before anyone had discovered him—"

"stop it!" seungyoun successfully got rid of dohyon's strong grip in his second try, then he proceeds to leave the boy without hesitation. "daniel, let's go."

the two made their way into the crowded icu filled with frantic nurses and critical patients, with daniel leading the way. "if he's been here for quite long, that means he's been moved to the second stage. if this hospital has a structure not far different than my mother's hospital, then i should have a slight idea of where to go. follow me."

seungyoun glances at daniel to see that he was holding a new item seungyoun didn't notice before, an item that looked like some sort of a vile filled with blueish liquid, but seungyoun did not question its function. instead, he obediently follows the guy from behind, awaiting for whatever plan the guy had in mind.

the moment he catches a sight of dongwook and hangyul, that was when he felt like reality stroke him hard. it made him realize that this was real, eunsang was in terrible danger, and there's a huge possibility that whatever's inside the emergency room is just his lifeless body left in vain.

"where's seungwoo-ssi?" daniel asks the both of them, his voice stable.

"inside. he's begged on to his knees to go in, the nurses really had no choice." dongwook answers.

"have you called eunsang's parents?"

he nods. "they're on their way."

"seungyoun-ah," daniel turns to seungyoun and gives the latter an obvious gesture to follow him. "i need to see eunsang. now."

"you're coming in?" dongwook asks in confusion. "trust me, they're just going to escort you to your way out unless you set up a rampage just like what seungwoo did before."

"well, drastic times calls for drastic measures," daniel opens the door in front of him without even thinking twice, letting the air conditioner inside the operation room relieve him immediately.

just as he expected, he was stopped by a nurse before he could even get his hand on the boy. "i'm sorry sir, but an operation is at place, you must leave."

daniel scoffs. "you didn't say that to the fire guy. move."

daniel barges his way into the room, ignoring the nurse without any further precautions. quickly he heads towards the bed right next to his left, in which he saw a very distressed han seungwoo crying against a soft pillow, inaudibly murmuring for a miracle. the latter lifts up his head to see daniel. "they said they tried everything.. put on the highest voltage for him.. but his heart doesn't seem to be working.."

daniel did not reply to his sentence. instead he opens the vile that he kept holding unto and filled an empty syringe with the said liquid, watching as the glass reflecting the insides of the syringe starts to appear quite plain-blue. he gets rid of the blanket used to cover eunsang's face, revealing the sight of eunsang's body helplessly lying on the bed, looking completely lifeless. he places his finger around the boy's neck, finding the best place to give a shot.

"what are you doing?" seungwoo asks doubtfully.

"this is the drastic measure, seungwoo-ssi." daniel mumbles lightly, his arm placed and ready to inject. "if my mom gave this just to be used in critical situations, well then let's just hope that this is one of those situations and hope this better bloody work."

daniel injects the syringe into eunsang's pale neck, allowing the fluid to enter his body. seungwoo didn't notice it at first as he was busy mourning for eunsang, but the moment he realize what daniel had done, his eyes immediately blaze in anger.

"what do you think you're doing?!"

"i'm honestly not so sure." daniel mumbles as he slowly backs away from eunsang.

seungwoo arches his eyebrow. "you're not sure? hey— DOCTOR? NURSE? please someone from this goddamn hospital get back here—"

"shut up, will you? they're going to kill me if they knew we did something to the body." daniel says as he tries to encourage seungwoo to lower his voice.

"kill you? in that way you might as well had killed eunsang!"

"and if i didn't do anything in particular, eunsang might've already had died anyway!"

seungwoo grabs the collar of daniel's shirt aggressively. "we do not know that!"

"guys,"

their stirred argument was interrupted by seungyoun, who somehow was already on the other side of the bed with eunsang. he lays his hand on the boy's chest, skimming through the dialysis of the latter's previous use of reflex nerves.

it shouldn't have been like this.. he thought to himself.

his fingers trail pass the body towards the neck where daniel had injected earlier. his breath hitches. he lifts up his head to the both of them. "i can feel his pulse."

seungwoo and daniel both exchanged surprised glances.

—

wooseok can't believe the first time he decided to not participate an x1-related schedule, he suddenly ends up receiving horrible news right after it all finished. it was as if the world forbids him to do anything unrelated to x1.

he rushes into the hospital, his whole body icing up in distress, shivering blood runs through his veins. what else did eunsang do now that could end up be so deliberately stupid?!

eventually he found his other friends who are also desperately praying for good news right in the waiting room. however, he did not catch sight of seungyoun nor seungwoo, there were only some of his dongsaengs in school uniforms and lee dongwook, who was seemingly sitting at the edge of the seat calming hyeongjun down. not wanting to burst anyone's bubble, he swerves quietly through the dampen atmosphere, finding his way to yohan instead. "yohan,"

yohan lifts up his head, revealing his swollen red cheeks and eyes that look like he's been crying. "hyung, you're finally here."

"where's seungyoun and seungwoo-hyung?"

"they're inside the icu. hangyul said they've been in there for a while."

"are they even allowed to be in there?"

".. well they're with daniel-ssi , who's quite well known in the medical world so perhaps that's what keeps them retained there. seungyoun hyung also has a credible reputation for himself, too."

"wait, daniel's here too?"

yohan nods. "which made me wonder, why is he here? i thought you all despised him or something."

wooseok shrugs as he sits down next to him, resting both of his ankles. "something else happened last night, and solely because of that it gave us all the proof we needed to trust him."

"after all these days, you've finally made up your mind." yohan's gaze changes once he actually got a better look of wooseok. "hey dude, you look really pale, i don't think you're alright."

wooseok sighs. "that little shit, eunsang. i hate the fact that i'm worrying him so much, it's to the point i have problems trying to function properly."

yohan clicks his tongue. "he'll be fine, we all know him. he's strong and ambitious, nothing could ever knock him out just that easy."

"this is the third time he's done this yohan, and if this continues on every week he'll lose all his nine lives in no time." wooseok frowns.

before yohan could reply to wooseok's statement, the door of the icu bursts open, revealing the three other absent guys who had spent a long time inside. wooseok quickly gets up on his feet, followed by the other boys and dongwook. he heads towards seungyoun. "how is he? is eunsang alright?"

seungyoun puts his hand on wooseok's shoulder. "he's.. breathing. and that's quite enough good news we could get at the moment."

"but i thought the doctor had gave his verdict, claimed that he was dead." dongwook mutters lowly, though from the look of his face it's obvious that this news was a gust of relief for him.

"let's just say a miracle happened and we managed to save him." seungwoo says apprehensively. "daniel managed to save him, and because of that i've never had felt truly this grateful."

dongpyo leans on hangyul's shoulder. "i thought daniel's the bad guy, what happened?" hangyul just shrugs at the latter, tired of having to handle all the drama.

however, something was just not clicking for seungyoun. he gazes at the hallway, thinking deeply. "it's strange that they claim his death the moment they were on their way to the hospital though, it was as if they've given up midway, when in reality there were still a lot of ways to save him."

"though they didn't do anything on our way to the hospital, they quickly rushed him to the icu and did the best they can. perhaps the treatment was just not compatible for eunsang's type of body." hangyul says, as he tries to refrain from using the words 'x1' as minimum as possible because dongwook was still there with them.

"they tried to do a couple of different methods of saving him after they reached the hospital, a very terrible use of time and could've had sabotaged his life in so many ways." seungyoun mumbles suspiciously. "and did they do anything else to eunsang after they had him in the icu? did they actually try to save him?"

seungwoo turns to seungyoun. "they told me they've tried electrocuting him, yet it didn't work. the attempt was none or less a failure."

daniel arches an eyebrow. "seriously, what are you trying to imply, seungyoun-ssi?"

and in his defense, seungyoun wasn't quite sure where this is going either. but for some reason, he instead begins to become doubtful. "that's strange.."

"what is?"

"i didn't feel any signs of high electrocution on eunsang's chest when i examined him just now." seungyoun says honestly. "i don't know if my senses were wrong or if it's because of eunsang's power to stay immune from mine, but it's just.. strange. not even a single bit of electricity was left in his skin."

"so you're saying.." wooseok purses his lips. "they didn't even try to help eunsang at all?"

blatant silence. the tense atmosphere made daniel had the urge to think of the abnormalities himself. "wait, time out." daniel raises his head again. "what's the name of this hospital? i wasn't paying attention."

"why are you asking?" seungwoo asks.

"nothing in particular, just tell me."

"this is asan hospital," hangyul answers immediately. "it's the hospital nearest to school."

daniel groans in distress. "SHIT!"

dongpyo leans to hangyul again. "that kind of reaction doesn't look like good news."

"what's wrong, daniel?" seungwoo asks to the latter gently. "what's wrong with this hospital?"

"asan, the hospital you all were born in, where i was born in. registered by cj corporation." daniel informs them clearly. "this hospital belongs to my father."

—

AAAAAAAA X1 AND IZ*ONE FUCK AHN JUNYOUNG IS TRULY A BITCHHHHHHH :((((((((((

200 votes for next chap~