"Arena?"

"Your rib?"

"Talk to me"

"Are u even alive?"

"ARENA"

Arena woke up to the swarm of texts and her phone going mental. She opened her eyes and noticed that the room was still dark. She was alone, so her mom and dad must've gone home.

She reached to the table beside her hospital bed and snatched up her phone with her left hand. She groaned from the stretch, it hurt her rib and made her want to wither up and die.

Although she was under painkillers and the dripfeeder was constantly renewing her doses, she felt the pain clearly.

"Ouch." Arena opened her phone and checked the time. It was 3 in the morning. Who could be texting her this early. She squinted at the light from the phone and looked at the notifications.

Of course. Kakao talk.

Bet you can already guess who it is.

Arena had left Kihyun yesterday with only saying that she hurt her rib and nothing else. Why would he worry about her? He had an extremely busy life + he was a celebrity, how and why did he find time for Arena? She couldn't understand that. Though, being honest, she felt quite flattered to have her UB texting and checking on her.

Arena's heart started beating faster. She replied Kihyun with a simple "Hey."

"Did I wake you?" Kihyun's response came through within 5 minutes.

"No, it's okay. I was awake." No way that she was going to make Kihyun feel bad for waking her up.

"How are you?" It was 5 a.m. in Atlanta but Kihyun couldn't sleep. Like Arena, he was wondering why his heart couldn't settle. He was worried so he stayed awake and texted her, hoping Arena would reply in the morning. When he heard his phone beep, Kihyun almost jumped out of his bed. Roommate Wonho was luckily sound asleep and didn't notice Kihyun almost shrieking like a 5 year old girl at the beep of his phone.

"I'm in the hospital. They've given me painkillers so it's fine, hurts a bit though."

"What?! Why are you in a hospital?" The inner mom in Kihyun was taking over. He was always known for being the mom of the group, taking care of everyone else, even his hyungs.

"Hahaha, u sound genuinely worried. Trust me when I say that it's okay, I'll be out by tonight. How was your last tour date?"

"Take care of yourself. The concert was amazing, everyone was cheering and singing along. It was a dream, but.."

"But what?"

"I kinda wished u were here doing my makeup, not that I have anything against the makeup artist we have, but there's only 1 person, you know. She has to do all of this herself, and we usually have to go everywhere earlier so we'd all get our makeup done in time."

Arena nodded and it took time for her to realize that Kihyun couldn't see her because they were texting. She slapped her forehead and typed a quick reply.

"I understand. I'm sad I couldn't come and be there."

Actually Arena couldn't understand why they only had one makeup artist. It sounded crazy because they had 7 members. Even smaller groups had multiple makeup artist so it was really, really, really confusing why MX didn't. It just didn't seem logical.

Thinking so hard about it made her brain hurt. Though Arena was seriously smart and with a high IQ score, overthinking sometimes made her feel that her brain was going to explode from the hundreds of thoughts inside it.

"Are you still sure there's no way you could join?" Kihyun's message reeked of desperation. He hated to admit it to himself, but he missed Arena. Who cares that he only knew her for a few days? Honestly. Maybe she came into his life with a reason.

Because everything had a reason.

Arena had a reason. She was his reason.

Kihyun wasn't going to let her go that easily, he didn't feel quite good with her being in Colorado with other boys surrounding her everyday. He felt a pang of jealousy. He felt a little ashamed of himself since he let himself be moved by a younger person. He was an adult for god's sake.

Yet he still wanted her near. Even if it was just for makeup and friendship and nothing more than that.

Kihyun didn't get an answer from Arena, who had dozed off in her hospital bed, her phone held in a tight grip against her chest and her ombre hair sprawled out on the pillows below her head. She took a shuddering breath mid her newly found sleep and snuggled deeper between the hospital sheets.

Kihyun's sleep wasn't good that night. Or the night after that.

***

When Arena awoke again in the morning she found her cellphone battery dead.

Of course.

She had left it turned on when she fell asleep again. She facepalmed and threw the phone gently onto the blanket at her feet.

Arena wasn't quite sure what time it was since she couldn't check the clock on her phone. She sighed in her bed and looked toward her window. It was still kinda dark so it couldn't have been late in the morning. If only she knew the exact time.

Arena hated not knowing stuff. It put her into a position of unknowingness and made her feel weird and queasy. Something about it didn't suit her.

She crossed her arms over her chest, immediately realizing the mistake she'd made. Arena winced and closed her eye as a weird reflex to pain. She muttered silent curses so harsh for a girl that would have made milk curd. Arena didn't have anything else or smarter to do but fall asleep again, cradling and holding her rib gently like a small child with her arms.

Meanwhile someone was shaking Kihyun up from his disturbed sleep. Wonho. He was leaning over his bandmate, hands tightly gripping his shoulders as he tried to shake him awake.

"I'm awake so get off," groaned Kihyun and shot up from his bed, knocking Wonho down in the process. "Ow." whined Wonho from the ground. He had fallen butt first onto the floor and was trying to stand up, scratching his neck.

Kihyun rubbed his eyes and cocked his head back to look at the ceiling above him. They were going back to Seoul today. They had packed everything yesterday. He stood up from the bed to walk into his washroom so he could wash off before departure. The flight from the USA to South Korea took... a while. Wonho was sprawled on his own bed, his butt still hurting a bit. He was grinning madly and Kihyun didn't even need to check. He already knew that Wonho was talking with Naha. Kihyun tried to hide his scowl as he yanked the washroom door closed with a PANG.

In the hospital Arena couldn't fall asleep again. Not with the agonizing strikes of pain in her side. Her pounding head didn't help. Arena felt the big urge to grab her head and shut everything out. She didn't even notice when her ears started ringing. Quietly at first and building up volume as it went along. Arena shot up into a sitting position her side still giving her pains from hell. She grabbed her ears with both hands and tried to shut out the sound. It didn't work.

She wanted to scream.

Her side hurt even more from moving her hand but Arena couldn't help it as she felt like her head was going to explode. She rocked back and forth minimally, pushing her palms against her ears so hard her ears hurt. But the ringing didn't stop. It only grew louder.

Arena screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

***

Kihyun exited the washroom, a towel thrown over his shoulder. His hair was wet and he was wearing a white t-shirt with sweatpants that hung low on his hips. "Stop banging the doors or you'll wake everyone in this damned hotel up." Wonho was tying his converse shoelaces, sitting on the floor. "Don't sit on the floor or I'll step on you," growled Kihyun and stepped over Wonho. He made his bed, raised his suitcase onto the made bed with a backpack. He took his red baseball jacket from the closet behind Wonho with his ballcap.

"When do we have to be downstairs?" Kihyun's voice was low and quiet. He felt bad for growling at Wonho but Arena wasn't responding to his messages. He felt the jealousy almost drown him when he saw Wonho's phone flicker with Naha's message.

Wonho merely looked up from his tying and answered, "In an hour."

Kihyun took his own boots and sat down next to Wonho. Wonho stayed quiet and didn't say anything. His light brown hair was hidden under a black ballcap of his own. "I'm sorry for my tone." Wonho looked at Kihyun and nodded. He hadn't been asleep earlier when Kihyun had talked to Arena so he knew how his friend felt.

And it wasn't good. He had known Kihyun for years to know that he may seem like a serious flirt and smooth guy on the outside, but once someone caught his attention, he would take it seriously and turn into a rambling nervous softie.

He clapped his friend on the back and stood up holding a hand out to him. Kihyun took Wonho's hand and stood up. Wonho grinned, "Man I know how you feel. When Naha ignores me I feel rejected too. But there are millions of girls out there who's life would be complete why just seeing you. What makes Arena so special?"

Kihyun rolled his neck and stared his friend in the eye and put his hand on Wonho's shoulder. "I have no idea, my friend." He smiled.

***

Arena was still screaming when the nurses pinned her down on the bed.