Work Text:
"Uhhh…"
Jonghyun turns around. His manager, Euisoo is standing there holding up the car keys,
"I said I would drive you earlier. What are you doing?" Jonghyun scoffs and pulls his thin hoodie over his head before giving a muffled reply,
"I wanna ride home, I already told you."
Euisoo sighs,
"You're so stubborn. What's wrong with the car?" Jonghyun pops his head out of the hoodie,
"I don't like the car when it's this hot outside. Besides, I'm doing you a favour, now you don't have to drop me off." He stares at Jonghyun, who's now walking his bike down the steps at the front of the building,
"You know that's part of my job, right?"
"Well yeah, but you don't throw shit on the floor just because it's the cleaner's job to clean, do you?"
"That's… that's completely different."
"I'm doing you a favour, okay? I'm perfectly fine on my bike."
And so Jonghyun mounts his bike and slowly rides out into the almost empty car park. He doesn't get even a few metres away before the front wheel starts taking over and causes him to have to wrestle with the handle to keep steady. He was so caught up in his righteousness that he didn't realise there was something wrong with the steering.
He knows Euisoo is still watching him leave so he decides to make a point and keep going. He attempts to keep going straight but the wheel is veering off to the right and it's making him wobble dangerously. He very quickly loses his balance and lets out a tiny scream as he leans too far left.
And obviously he falls off the bike.
Euisoo watches Jonghyun collapse to the floor in a miserable heap. He sighs and goes to unlock the car, getting in and turning the engine on. When he drives over to where Jonghyun is he rolls the window down and stares at him for a while. He's still lying on the floor just staring upwards. Euisoo sighs again,
"Do you wanna get in the car?"
Jonghyun replies immediately,
"I think I'm gonna get in the car."
The manager opens the door and gets out, grabbing Jonghyun's bike and walking it to the building, putting it back where he kept it. When he returns Jonghyun is still on the ground, sitting cross-legged with one sleeve up, pouting at a bruise on his elbow. Euisoo sighs,
"I put your bike back. Let's go."
-
When they pull up to the dorm Euisoo turns the engine off and turns back to Jonghyun,
"Listen, I know you don't like being in cars around this season and I can't force you to do anything, but I'd much rather you be in the car than get hurt." Jonghyun nods and opens the door, stepping out and uttering a small,
"Thanks."
The moment he gets in the dorm he feels the urge to just curl up in bed and cry for an hour. He's so embarrassed that he fell off his fucking bike just because he's stubborn and doesn't like the car. The entire left side of his body hurts badly since he fell on it, and his elbow is bruised.
Jonghyun ends up in the bathroom with only his underwear on, staring in the mirror at the scrapes on his hip. He sighs tearfully and tries not to cry as he puts his clothes back on and goes to his and Kibum's room. Kibum is sitting in bed on his phone and he looks up when he hears movement,
"Hey."
For some reason just being around one of the members makes it extremely hard to not start crying, so Jonghyun takes a shaky breath and walks in, not saying anything because he knows his voice will break if he talks. He knows he's not gonna get out of this without crying but he tries to keep a straight face. Kibum notices how silent Jonghyun is being and asks,
"What's up?"
And Jonghyun just immediately starts crying. Kibum is up in an instant and hugs him, touching the bruise on his elbow without realising. Jonghyun gasps and pulls back, sitting on his bed with his hands over his face. Kibum frowns, worried that something bad has happened,
"What happened, Jonghyunnie?"
He starts explaining how he didn't listen to Euisoo and how he was stubborn and fell off his bike. The whole time Kibum is trying not to smile at how cute he is; he thought something terrible has happened but he's relieved it was just a minor accident. He sits down next to Jonghyun and plays with the elder's hand while he listens.
"-and I got hurt when I fell but I didn't wanna tell him because I felt bad and it's kinda my fault, but I hit my elbow and it hurts." He finally stops ranting and Kibum sits in silence for a moment. Eventually he says,
"Well, I don't think this is entirely your fault. I don't think it's anyone's fault, really. You both just have different opinions and different ways of showing them."
Jonghyun sniffles and moves closer to Kibum, leaning on his shoulder. The younger continues,
"He knows you don't like riding in the car on hot days because of your sensory issues, and you know he wants you to be safe on the way home. Right?"
Jonghyun nods.
"And you got hurt when you fell, huh? Is it just your elbow?"
Jonghyun pouts and mumbles into his shoulder,
"I hurt my hip." Kibum coos at him and strokes his hair,
"Have you looked at it? Did you break any skin or is it just bruises?"
"It didn't bleed but I scraped it."
It's quiet for a while, until Taemin appears in the doorway, halfway through asking when Jonghyun will be back before he spots him on the bed,
"Oh… uh, are you okay hyung?" Kibum answers for him quickly,
"He's okay, he just had a little bike accident."
Taemin's eyes widen,
"Really?!"
"Not a bad one, chill out! He just lost control of the bike, that's all."
It's silent.
Kibum looks up and scowls when he sees that Taemin's trying not to laugh,
"Taemin! He's clearly upset, why would you laugh at him?" Taemin just points at Jonghyun, and Kibum looks down and sees him covering his face to hide his own little hiccupy giggles. Kibum raises an eyebrow at him, and Jonghyun replies weakly,
"I probably looked really funny. Euisoo just- he just watched me fall off-"
And that has them all laughing.