The surgery was a success.

It wasn't like Dalnim was worried about any failures in the first place, but now it was time to deal with her worst enemy as of now: time. 

Her knee would have to take a few months to heal until she could start her therapy sessions to strengthen her knee and get back to her daily activities. Until then, she'll just be mindlessly laying in her bed in her boring hospital room. And to add to her misfortune, it was announced that Chanyeol must return to China to finish filming the movie he'd be leading in. Due to holidays and the scandal, the shooting was postponed, but it was about time to go back into it. 

It'll be two weeks without Chanyeol.

But, the tall rapper had an idea in mind. 

"At least one of the members would visit you every day."

It was the third day after Dalnim's surgery, and Chanyeol had come in to visit as usual. The Yoon family were also there, but minding their own business while the couple talked... well, not all were minding their business, the youngest Yoon may have been eavesdropping. 

Haneul skipped over to the two, standing along side Chanyeol, an excited expression plastered on her face. "The rest of EXO, oppa?" she chimed, her eyes sparkling with delight at the idea. "Unnie, I think this is a wonderful idea. I'd get to see Sehun-oppa."

Dalnim pulled a face at her sister. "I thought Chanyeol was your bias?"

"Well, that was thrown out the window when you started dating him, duh. Besides, I always had my eye on Sehun ever since they debuted," the young girl chirped. Haneul's gaze returned back to Chanyeol, who only stared back at her with amusement. "How about it, oppa? I say go for it!"

"Haneul-ah, we have to leave tonight," Mrs. Yoon called out. "Remember, you have school."

"But, eomma! I can meet the rest of EXO!"

"Well, I'll allow you to visit on weekends, so hope they visit your sister at those times too."

A chuckle left the athlete's lips at the absurdness of her own flesh and blood before her. Haneul really was a big EXO-L. "Yah, you should be visiting me for me, and not for Sehun, twerp."

"I mean, of course, unnie. But this is a bonus!"

"I already told my members about it, so it's not like you have any decision to decline, anyway," Chanyeol replied with a laugh. "You're going to be here for a while, and I know you'll be bored without me. You should have a lot of visitors."

"Boy, I have a whole volleyball team to try to keep me company. Do I really need eight more guys to be visiting me?"

"Of course!" Chanyeol and Haneul answered simultaneously. The male reached over and ran his fingers through Dalnim's long locks to calm her down. "Look, since your family has to return home to go back to work and school and I have to be all the way in China, it'd be good to always have someone around. I'll work hard and see if I can return earlier to see you."

Dalnim rolled her eyes. "Just focus on your movie, Chanyeol. Don't make too much mistakes because of me."

"I'm a professional actor, what are these mistakes you speak of?"

Ha, my idiot boyfriend...

"I'll text you everyday, alright? I want you to tell me about your day... and tell me if any of the boys do anything stupid and I'll have to beat them up."

"What about Kyungsoo?"

"Ah... as much as I love teasing the squishy man, if he pulls any stunts with you, I won't hesitate."

"Yes, you would. It's Kyungsoo."

Chanyeol pursed his lips at this, truly hesitating on answering. He guessed Dalnim really does know his complicated relationship with the doe-eyed vocal. That man was just someone not to be reckoned with... but it makes great fun on stage in concerts and events. 

"Oppa~" The rapper turned towards the younger Yoon. "Can you sing something for us before we have to leave? I miss listening to you sing just by yourself. You haven't done too much singing last Christmas."

"I haven't?" Chanyeol mused.

"You haven't," Mr. Yoon responded from behind. "Sing us something. When else would we have a chance to hear you sing?"

"Sure, abeoji."

Chanyeol took out his phone and scrolled through his songs in his library, the ones he had composed before. He glimpsed up at his girlfriend. "Any requests?"

"Mmm, I really loved it when you sang All of Me."

"Then I shall give you All of Me~"

"That was cheesy, Chanyeol," Mrs. Yoon sighed.

"It was," Mr. Yoon agreed.

"... Sorry. I'll just sing now."

 After the departure of the Yoon family and Chanyeol, Dalnim was left in the hands of her visitors. And surprisingly enough, EXO fulfilled their promise into visiting the injured girl, as well as her volleyball mates, to entertain her while she's bed ridden. The first few from the idol group to arrive for a visit were Junmyeon, Minseok, Sehun and Baekhyun.  

Jan. 21 ; 10:22 a.m.

Dalnim stared in awe as the four famous, fully disguised boys walked into her lonely room with a bouquet of flowers, a humongous Get Well Soon balloon, and a handful of drinks. 

"Omo, you guys actually came," the athlete gaped as she watched the four get comfortable around her. "You didn't have to, seriously. You're all busy."

"Of course we should visit you, Dalnim-ah. You're a friend to EXO, alright? And we promised Chanyeol," Minseok replied as he plopped into the vacant seat to her left. "We do have a short time to hang with you though, because, you're right, we're busy."

"But, it's only right to visit a friend whenever we can," Junmyeon added with a warm smile. 

Dalnim returned the appreciative grin. "Thank you, seriously, but you guys don't have to come every time because you feel obligated to. And all the gifts, you really shouldn't have."

"Are you only saying that because you already have a shit ton?" Minseok joked as he poked the balloon by his face, as it was tied to a nicely made fruit basket by his feet. Yes, to Dalnim's surprise, fans and supporters have sent in get well gifts for her in the past couple days, and it had been getting a bit crowded in her hospital room because of it. But she was forever thankful for it. Just looking at it all brightened her days.

"Well, I guess we'll have to snack on some of the ones you have here, then," Baekhyun suggested. "But we have brought you some drinks." The EXO vocal set down a medium-sized plastic cup onto the table for her. It looked to be the same exact drink he was happily sipping on. "There's this one cafe we go to a lot and their coffee is the best. So I recommend you try it."

Just as Dalnim was about to reach for the drink, Sehun intervened, practically forcing his own drink into her hands. "While hyung brought you coffee, I thought tea would be better for your health, noona," the maknae explained with a pleased expression. The brunette haired woman looked at this cup and saw a cute design for Azalea's Tea Shop written on it in cursive. She'll admit, it was aesthetic to just look at. "This is actually a very special blend. I swear the girl that makes it there is a damn professional at tea making."

"But!" Baekhyun cut in again. "Queen Kona's has a very unique blend to their coffee too. Dalnim-ah, you should visit their building when you can, the inside is the coziest! Plus, it has late night hours."

"The drive is quite lengthy to get to though," Sehun quipped.

"All you ever get from Azalea's is bubble tea."

The girl's gaze drifted over to Junmyeon and Minseok, as if to ask them with her eyes if this was seriously happening right now. That these two idiots before her were arguing over what drink she should try. Junmyeon looked just as done as she was with the squabble, pinching the bridge of his nose in a way that resembled a disappointed parent, while as Minseok smiled at her with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Dalnim laughed as she took both the drinks into her hands. "Okay, okay, boys. Stop whining, I'll have them both. Thank you." She went ahead and took a sip of the iced coffee first, letting the bitter taste spread on her tongue. She hummed in delight at the flavor, she sensed some cinnamon in that. Next, the hot tea. The taste of that was a bright citrus flavor with just a touch of something she couldn't recall, but enjoyed all the same. "Oh, they're both really good."

"But..." Both Sehun and Baekhyun looked at her with anticipation. "Which one do you prefer? Coffee or tea?"

"I don't like one over the other, though," Dalnim replied truthfully. "Both these drinks I feel are equally delicious. I'm not even that picky."

"Noona... you disappointed me."

"Me too."

A haughty laugh left the girl's lips. "Wow, good to know that's all it takes to get you guys to judge me!" 

"Ah, don't mind them," Junmyeon interjected as he patted her shoulder. "Why don't we turn on the TV?" The leader clicked the power button on the remote by Dalnim's bed, the television flickering to life. Much to their surprise, the channel the screen was on played current news, and more coincidentally, was discussing about Dalnim's condition. Junmyeon instantly turned it off. "Well, nevermind."

"Let's just do something fun," Minseok piped up.

"Like what?" Sehun murmured as he sipped on his on tea.

"Mm, I have a couple party game apps on my phone," Dalnim suggested as she picked up her phone and unlocked it. "I have Heads Up, how's that?"

"Oh damn, okay, I'm down," Baekhyun proclaimed as he pulled up a chair from the far end of the room and brought it closer to sit in. "You're going to guess all correctly, because I'm a great actor."

"Shut up Baekhyun-hyung, we've all acted before and your skills isn't any better than the rest of us."

The vocal gaped at Sehun, throwing him into a headlock. "This disrespect!"

"Don't hurt him!"

"Why is our maknae so disrespectful to his hyungs, huh?"

The game hasn't even started but the girl was already in a fit of giggles.

This has got to be the hardest she laughed in a while. 

The boys had continued to visit Dalnim, just as promised. As day after day passes, she was sure she had seen every member. Some would come in clusters, some would come individually. Either they played around with her or just had a nice, casual chat, it became a scheduled thing that Dalnim looked forward to. 

One notable visit, January 24th, was when Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, Jongdae, and Baekhyun came around and they played a couple games with Dalnim mostly as referee. They decided it'd be more interesting that there should be a punishment for the loser. That punishment that day was that the loser has to act out a scene of a drama of Dalnim's choice. And the poor loser was Kyungsoo. Even as much as he had tried to deny that he had the lowest points, he eventually accepted his fate.

Then Dalnim gotten reprimanded by the three non-losers for giving Kyungsoo a scene from It's Okay, That's Love, but she admitted, she sympathized with him.

Could they really blame her for liking his drama so much, anyway?

All these visits only gotten Dalnim closer to the boys and she truly felt they were her good friends. After all, they were seemingly close enough to buy lunch for her whenever she'd text that she was tired of the hospital food. She won't ever forget how much she was able to bond with Jongin over their love for fried chicken.

And the dancer always bought the chicken from one place in particular, Kang's Kickin Chicken, which he claimed had the best chicken ever. She'll have to bring her team there some day for chicken and beer.

Speaking of her volleyball team, they have visited as much as EXO did. Of course, the most who had visited were Yeon Kyun, Tae Ri, Hye Rin, and Hana. They never fail to bring a smile to the contained girl's face whenever they visit. However, it seemed like every time any one of them visits, they try to get Dalnim into a new idol group. SHINee, GOT7, Big Bang, Monsta X, BTS, the list just goes on and on. 

The girls' visits also consisted of binged drama watching, since there's not much else Dalnim could do cooped up in her room. 

Hana in particular was one to kill two birds with one stone. 

Jan. 29 ; 6:46 p.m.

Chinese take-out boxes sprawled around Dalnim and Hana, the laptop set out in front of them. The ending credits rolled up just as the short web drama ended, the catchy song playing right after. Dalnim nodded her head, pleased with the drama choice of the day, clapping her hands as well. 

"Wow, I really liked that," the ravenette told the other, thumbs up. "Astro is really cute! I just kind of want to adopt every single one of them. But, I have a question... how was MJ the only one to remember about going to the past?"

"Girl, don't ask me. This drama's main reason was to promote the boys, you'd think they'd make an extremely elaborate plot with everything answers? Not even fan favorite dramas have all the answers sometimes," Hana huffed as she popped a cream puff into her mouth. "But now that I've showed you these babies' drama, we can now start watching the reality show they have just released."

"What the hell already?"

"Yes, already. Aren't I a wonderful unnie showing you these babies' pre-debut things?" Hana went to work to finding a link to Astro's Ok Ready, while as Dalnim just waited with anticipation. The girl then chirped in question, "Oh, by the way, you listened to all the Eric Nam albums I gave you?"

"I did, I really like him!" Dalnim replied, a new sparkle to her eyes. "I feel like he's the kind of person I would love talking to in English."

"Ha, of course."

"Oh, and Day6, I like their album too."

"I'm sensing a pattern here."

"What do you mean?"

"Day6 have people who can speak English. Are you doing this on purpose?"

"No, but I may have looked up videos of them speaking English."

"Omo, you're getting to that kind of level of fan." Hana bared a smile. "I'm proud."

"Oh shush, let's just continue watching Astro."

Dalnim would have to say she was fortunate that her time off volleyball practices did give her time to really hang out and see the real sides of her teammates, Hana especially. While practices were the most she could see them, it barely gave anyone time to hang out. Besides, volleyball wasn't the only thing in their lives. Everyone had different hobbies as well as likes. And with Hana visiting her every other day, Dalnim learned more than she could ever expect.

It was a nice change to their friendship.

Needless to say, her being stuck in the hospital wasn't too bad. She didn't have to worry about the paparazzi invading her space nor about any fanatic girls wanting to skin her alive for taking away their Chanyeol oppa. Her own safe haven.

Protected, but boring.

One other thing to note about being stuck in the hospital was the amount of times she had to see Young Gi. There wasn't much she could do when he was actually one of the assigned nurses to her room. Sure, she'll admit to the pain she still had for what the male had done, but the boy had suffered enough. It didn't look like he was getting much sleep either from what Dalnim had seen.

Plus, how could she avoid him for long when he had brought over her students to visit?

Feb. 3 ; 3:22 p.m.

"Noona/unnie!"

Dalnim snapped her attention away from the book she was reading to the sound of rapid pitter-patter of feet and young chatter from her doorway. A bright smile tugged at her chapped lips at the sight of her children. It wasn't until that moment she realized how much she missed seeing the bunch. And it was then she also realized that she should have been returned back to giving English lessons to the children. 

"Oh, ah, you have some visitors, Dalnim," Young Gi meekly murmured, still standing by the doorway along with little Chanwoo, who sat in his wheelchair, waving at her with a toothy grin. "Please don't push, guys. Big sister is still recovering from her surgery."

"Yes oppa/hyung!" the children replied in unison. They still crowded around the athlete to greet her properly. Dalnim tried her best to ruffle their hair and give their hands a gentle squeeze, just something to show how delighted she was too see everyone. 

"Omo, this is such a wonderful surprise, big sister has missed all of you," Dalnim told the children, her heart full with warmth. "I'm sorry that I haven't been able to give any lessons to you all lately, but how would you feel about starting again from tomorrow?" All the children cheered in reply. "So, excited, hm? Have you all been practicing your English during break?"

While a few claimed that they have, the rest sheepishly turned down their heads, not muttering a word in case they get in trouble. Dalnim giggled at this. "It's okay. After all, this is your decision to. But, I think it'd be good to start off our class tomorrow with a good book reading, how does that sound?"

All the children cheered again for this, the excitement reverberating about her room. "Fantastic, now why don't you all tell me about what happened during your holidays? But, I need you all to go one at a time, alright? I want to hear everyone's stories in full detail."

An hour passed with Dalnim spending time with her loving children. Just the way all of them told her about whether what present they got for Christmas or how amazing watching the fireworks on New Years was, it raised her spirits. And it was another thing to add onto her list of something to look forward to everyday. She'll be more than delighted to be teaching her children English again.

Once it was about time the children to go back to their designated rooms, Young Gi lead them all back and returned to check on her vitals. With a bit of reluctance, Dalnim told him, "Yo, thanks for bringing the kids to visit me. I missed them a lot."

"Well, you used to rant to me before after every English lesson that they re-energize you. So, I thought that it'd be good too. I would have brought them earlier, but just thought it'd be best when your knee is better in case some of them get too touchy..." Young Gi scribbled into his clipboard, doing everything to avoid Dalnim's eyes. "Still awkward having me around?"

"A bit, yes. But, once I start the English lessons again, you'll have to stick by me. Kids like you too much after all."

There was a sliver of a smile. "Ha, you know, just watching you interacting with them all, it definitely showed how great of a teacher you would've been."

"Yeah..." Dalnim bit down on her lip as a random thought fluttered into her mind. Actually, it wasn't too random at all, it was a reoccurring idea that she hadn't voiced yet to anyone, as she wouldn't quite know how to attack it. "Young Gi, I need your opinion on something."

"Um, okay. Ask away."

"What do you think of me attempting to get a certificate to be an actual teacher?" Dalnim questioned.

Young Gi's eyes widened. "Are you giving up on being a volleyball player?" 

"I mean, not exactly," she replied. "But, I know for sure that I won't be able to fully train with the team for 6 months or more. I'm thinking I can try online classes during the time being while I do my therapy. And once I am better and can get back to practicing with the team, I'll cut down on the studying. But, I think I should try to get the certificate. That should take me 2 to 4 years, and that's to when the next Olympics happen..."

"Are you retiring as a player after that Olympics?"

"It's possible. I would have lived my dream, anyway. My next dream would to just teach English to those who wants it, doesn't matter who."

"Well, if that's what the heart desires, then you should go for it," Young Gi answered with a curt nod. "I mean, you knew how much I wanted to help people so I worked my butt off to be in the medical field. So, here I am. But, just know that it'll be extra hard to juggle studying with volleyball."

Dalnim waved it off dismissively, "You know me. I'm a very determined girl."

The nurse then clasped his hand into a fist, baring a grin, "Well then, I'll support you. Fighting!"

"Ha, thanks Young Gi."

They'll be fine.

With a knock on the door, a new figure entered the room. "I brought lunch!-- Oh." Hana halted on her tracks at the sight of Young Gi. The nurse stammered out an excuse to leave and hurried out of the room. The fellow spiker let out an irritated huff as she took the unoccupied chair besides Dalnim's bed, setting down the bought sandwiches onto the table. "Still unbelievable that you have deal with that face everyday."

"You used to like that face."

"Well that was before I knew he was a douchebag. Now, eat. I brought your favorite sandwich with all the toppings you like from Subway."

"Yes, unnie."

"Chanyeol should be coming back soon from China, right? Just in time that you start therapy."

"That's right."

Damn, two weeks zoomed by fast, hasn't it?

Yoon Dalnim was fine.

And she will continue to be fine for herself.

A/n: Dear god, look at this filler chapter, bye. I hope it didn't bore y'all too much. But I was trying to type this in a way that even if something bad happens in life, don't dwell on it too much, since time wouldn't wait for you. Life moves on with time and eventually, you'll be fine.

... I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Would y'all believe me if I said that there might be only a couple more chapters to this? Just the way I'm writing this with my plot in mind, I think I'm getting close to finishing the story. Which is insane.

How would y'all think with some cute, special chapters? Idk what I will do, but I'll think of something. Maybe cute dates with Chanim? Maybe some of the other character's adventures? I'm okay with requests on this. Just the fact that this story might be ending already just hasn't processed in my mind yet, sooo, yeah. Any scenarios any of y'all want to see? I kind of already have a thing in mind that might reference to one of my other stories *wink wink*

And holy, this is my third update this week I think? 

Damn.