Crash

The first thing he felt was pain. His head hurt his arms hurt, his legs hurt, Hell, he was pretty sure even his hair hurt. He also felt extremely tired, as if he’d just finish a four hour long concert.

“Yoongi?”

Namjoon’s voice echoed through his head, but it was different. It sounded just as tired as he felt, raspy, a bit forced. He could also hear faint noises in the background, beeps, shuffling and the occasional clicking of a door, maybe.

“Yoongi?”

He really didn’t feel like opening his eyes, but the bastard was getting persistent so he gave up. He had to blink a few times to adjust to the weak lighting of the room and another few times to realize he hadn’t the slightest idea where he was. He could feel a little wave of panic grow in his chest as his eyes darted from one place to the other. Two warm hands came over, one holding him down, the other running up and down his arm as Namjoon entered his line of vision.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, calm down.”

What part of this situation was ok was beyond him, but his presence did make him relax slightly. (Though it was a bit annoying how he was being talked to like a little child)

“Where…” He coughed a bit, shocked at how rough his voice sounded. He could feel his neck burning and he quickly covered it with his free hand. Namjoon threw him an understanding smile. “Where are we?”

“It’s a hospital. We had an accident. Don’t you remember?”

He tried to think back to the day. It started out nicely; they all went over to the studio to practice. Jin and Taehyung had voice lessons in the morning and Hoseok, Jimin and Jungkook went to try out some choreography or another. Namjoon had been somewhere, writing lyrics and he himself had been trying out a new beat. Then, after lunch, they all practiced their dancing. It was a rare night they decided to all go home together. He and Hoseok had actually wanted to stay behind, but in the end agreed to go home. And on their way home…

“Oh… Did a car crash into us or something?”

“Yeah…”

He didn’t remember much of it. He distinctly remembered someone suddenly yelling something and then pain all over as the car flipped. But then it all went black.

“Where are the others?”

Namjoon lifted his head up and nodded in the opposite direction. Yoongi moved his head around and saw Hoseok with a bandaged arm and Jungkook covered in band aids, both supporting a few cuts and bruises, sleeping on a couch. Well, Jungkook was mostly sleeping on Hoseok. Jin was in the bed between him and the other two, also asleep.

“What about the others?”

Namjoon’s grim smile didn’t do much to his already nervous mind.

“Taehyung’s got his own room. Nobody’s allowed in. He had a… thing pierce through his abdomen. They said the wound could get infected so they moved him there right after the operation. And Jimin’s still in surgery. He’s the worst. He took the blast head on…”

To say that Yoongi was in shock was a bit of an understatement.

“Hey, hey, calm down. You’ll get yourself a heart attack” Namjoon whispered, resuming his hand movements over his arm.

Only then did he notice the beeping had increased with his panic. Yoongi closed his eyes and took long and steady breaths, forcing his heart to go back to a normal beat. He heard movement and then Jungkook was hovering over him as well. He had red and puffy eyes and looked even more exhausted than both Yoongi and Namjoon combined.

“Hey hyung…”

His voice was so quiet it was scary. Yoongi moved a hand over to the younger’s cheek and whispered back “You ok?”

The reaction was so instant Yoongi felt his heart break. Jungkook shook his head, leaning into the touch as a fresh wave of tears started falling. Just then, the manager came in. He took a second to realize what was going on and quickly moved over, pulling Jungkook outside while throwing a few concerned glances at Yoongi, who only shook his head in response.

As soon as the door closed, Namjoon said “He was awake through the whole thing; the only one, apparently. We all kind of passed out from the force of the crash, I’m guessing, except for him. When I woke up, he was a complete mess. Can’t really blame him…”

“What exactly happened?”

“Well, from what I gather, a car slipped and crashed into another car that crashed into us. A guy died. The one in the second car…”

There was silence for a while, until the door opened again and the manager came in, alone. He signaled Namjoon to go outside, which he did, and he took his place next to Yoongi.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. But I still look better than you… Are you ok?”

It was true. Their manager looked like he’d been to Hell and back again. He was covered in bandages and band aids and cuts and bruises and his left arm was plastered up, much like Hoseok’s.

“I’ve seen better days…”

Hoseok scoffed from the other side of the room, but when they both turned to look, he was still fast asleep.

“What kind of person listens on other’s conversation in their sleep…?”

The manager laughed and then turned his attention back on Yoongi.

“How’s your leg?”

“My leg?” He moved them both and, indeed, felt a bit of pain in his left thigh, but nothing he couldn’t handle “Its fine. It barely itches.”

The other didn’t look so convinced, but didn’t push the matter further.

“I heard Taehyung’s in a different room. Can I go see him?”

The manager seemed surprised at the request and hesitated a bit. “I’ll have a doctor look you over first” And with that he was out the door. A few minutes later, a tall man came over, offering a comforting smile and quietly started to look him over, from head to toe.

“You should get some more rest. I understand you want to visit your other friend, yes?”

Yoongi nodded.

“You are aware that you can’t physically go into the room though, yes?”

Another nod.

“Ok, well, I don’t see any problem in that. But try walking a bit before. If your leg hurts too much we’ll give you a crutch.”

He couldn’t help the slightly disgusted face at the thought of having to walk with a stick as support, causing the doctor to giggle. But he did walk around the room for a bit, quietly, and only slightly limping. The doctor then gave his approval.

Tae’s room was farther away, in a different wing of the hospital. And when he and the manager reached it, they saw Namjoon and Jungkook there as well, sitting on some chairs and looking through the window at the opposite wall. Jungkook was still crying, silently, though not as heavily as before and the leader was holding him close, whispering, probably, soothing and encouraging words to him.

When Yoongi was close enough, he offered a nod and then looked through the glass to an image he was sure would never go away from his mind for the rest of his life.

Taehyung was laying in bed, motionless, an oxygen mask over his mouth, his forehead bandaged, his entire body, bandaged, face covered in scratches. His bed was surrounded by way too many machines and they were all connected to him through numerous tubes and whatnot. It was not a pretty sight. There was also one particular little thing that captured his attention. Blood was being pumped into him.

The manager seemed to have noticed where his eyes landed, for he said “He lost a lot of blood. They’ve been replacing it since before he even reached the hospital.”

Yoongi took a few moments to regain his senses. He would have taken a seat too, but he wanted to ask something else and their youngest seemed so fragile he might just have a break down, so he urged the manager to follow him back to their room.

“What about Jimin? I heard he’s still in surgery, but what happened?”

His expression was a bad enough response to that.

“They’ve been operating on him for eight hours now… I heard… they almost lost him on the way to the hospital. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but the car that hit us crashed in his seat.” He took in a shaky breath before continuing “After the car tipped over, I kind of blacked out. When I came back to it, we were all here and only Jungkook was awake and, frankly, I’m too scared to ask him what he knows. He was standing in the corner, shaking and crying and not saying a word… I heard he was awake through the whole thing. Namjoon finally got him to calm down and I honestly don’t want him to get traumatized to the point of not talking.”

That was a mutual feeling, Yoongi grimly thought.

Jungkook was looking out the window, mindlessly, listening to the soft music from the radio and the jokes Hoseok and Jin were making. It was relaxing and it was nice. It was the first time in a while they were all going home together.

Usually, Yoongi would stay behind and work on his music, so would Namjoon, Hoseok and Jimin, sometimes himself too, would dance a bit more, just to get it right. They would always go home separately. Today, however, their manager had decided to treat them out so they all went over to a restaurant they liked and were now in the car, heading to their apartment.

It was raining outside, again. It had been raining for a few days now, only stopping an hour or two before starting again. He had heard there were problems in other small towns because of it too. And it sometimes brought the mood down.

“Watch-!” Jimin’s sudden and loud scream snapped his attention back to reality just a second before a huge crash was heard and the car jerked, harshly, to the side. He instinctively grabbed onto the chair in front of him as the car flipped upside down, things flying around (their phones, bags and everything), then up, then down and then landed on its side, in a tree. The car that hit them also smashed into them, again, pushing them even harder into the already broken, weak tree. Then another car smashed in front of them, a few feet away, hitting a light pole.

Jungkook took a few seconds to regain his breath, shaking, before he choked out a “H-hyung…?” He didn’t get a response. It was dark outside, and the lights went out so he couldn’t see anything. He shuffled around, uncomfortable, half suspended in air, half held by his seatbelt, moving his hand around his seat to release himself. He found the button he was looking for, but it was slightly stuck. He clicked it a few times, his nervousness and panic only rising, until it snapped and dropped him on glass.

He couldn’t help the loud whine and hiss that escaped him when he felt shards piercing his already beat up skin. A cough escaped him as he pulled himself in a sitting position, when his foot hit a phone. He didn’t hesitate to snatch it and turn the flashlight on, but it was broken. He heard a harsh cough and only panicked more, feeling around his pockets. Sure enough, by some miracle, his phone was there and still working.

The flashlight got turned on and he looked up, instantly regretting it. It was too shocking of an image that he had to actually turn around to throw up. He gasped a bit, calming down (or trying to) before moving up and trying to open up Yoongi’s seatbelt. He was the one closest to him.

He then became aware of voices outside, people running around and screaming something. He got Yoongi free, the elder crashing into him, face covered in still bleeding bruises and scratches. Jungkook let out a sob, trying to hold himself together.

“Hyung…?”

No answer.

Someone was on top of the car, trying to pull the door open. Jungkook then placed Yoongi down as gently as possible, moving to the front seat where the leader was. He was also out cold and his forehead was bleeding from the impact. Jungkook started trying to unbuckle him too just as the door was forced open.

A man put his head through and gasped, before getting back out and yelling “Min! Come here and give me a hand!” He then let himself in, feet landing on either side of Yoongi as he pulled him up and passed him over to the other, Min, guy.

Jungkook released Namjoon and the man wordlessly maneuvered himself to pull him out as well. He then turned back in and looked Jungkook up and down with a pitying and concerned glance.

“You should get out, I’ll help them”

But he didn’t want to. He was crying and he was scared and it hurt all over, but the others needed help and he wanted to offer it. He didn’t want to go out, so he shook his head.

The man seemed to want to argue, but both their attention was grabbed by the sudden, very harsh cough, coming from the seat behind Jungkook’s. Taehyung sat there. The younger lost no time to move over and peak over the chair only to feel his stomach protesting again. Something was coming out from the car’s floor and it was stuck right through Tae’s stomach. He was in such shock at the image that the man immediately pulled him back and called Min again.

The other pulled him out of the car just as the first ambulance arrived. He suddenly struggled out of the hold and Min dropped him, out of shock. He fell down on the muddy grass, immediately throwing up whatever was left in him. A medic was next to him in seconds, while two others were looking over Namjoon and Yoongi a few feet away.

Two other ambulances arrived, followed by a fire truck and Min called for them to help because “people are stuck in here!” Jungkook felt someone put a blanket on him and gently, yet forcefully pulling him away, towards one of the cars. He followed, dazed, until a very loud crash was heard and he spun his head around. The firemen had turned the car that crashed into them away and were forcing the other side door open. Someone was pulling Jin out and the manager was already on the way to an ambulance; the one holding Yoongi and Namjoon already long gone.

The medic was trying to push him into the car, but he really didn’t want to go. He wanted to know everyone was out. He desperately wanted to see they were all breathing.

Hoseok was out too, one arm sticking in an obviously wrong manner. The fire man managed to force the other door open and he immediately called for the medics “This one’s too injured! Get me a medic, fast!” Jungkook watched in absolute horror as, after a few minutes of who-knows-what, they pulled Jimin out of the car, covered in blood from head o toe, Tehyung closely after.

They moved Tae into an ambulance and went on their way, but Jimin was laid on one of their moving bed-thingies and three medics surrounded him. They seemed to work on him all the way to the ambulance and that was when Jungkook decided to listen and jumped in too. Nobody really protested, though they may have wanted to, but his face was too much for anyone to say no. The doors closed and the car started moving at record speed.

Jungkook felt a nurse covering him with yet another blanket after which she moved to work on removing the remaining shards from his face. He heard the driver call in “This is an emergency, we need doctors at the ready and a surgery room ASAP.” He kept saying something else, but he never caught it, because “We’re losing him!” grabbed his fullest attention.

A medic had jumped on top of Jimin’s lifeless body and was pushing on his chest, trying to regain his pulse. Another doctor moved over and covered his face with a thing, pushing a tube through his throat and whatnot. Jungkook could feel the tears running down, uncontrollably, he could feel his body shaking and the hands wrapped around him for comfort.

“Come on kid, stay with me” the doctor said as he kept on pushing.

Jungkook reached his hand and held Jimin’s cold and bloodied one “Hyung…”

“Stay with me… Stay with me…”

“I got a pulse!”

The doctor immediately moved off, checking him over, whispering “Thatt’a boy…”

It took another two minutes for the ambulance to stop and open its doors. A team of medics were at the ready, immediately pulling the tray with Jimin away. Another one stepped into the car and bend over in front of Jungkook, offering him a kind smile. “Hey, you ok?” Jungkook could only stare at him through glossy eyes “Come on, let’s get you out of here” He let himself be pulled away and into the hospital, where another nurse joined the doctor and guided him to an empty room.

The nurse whispered something to the man before pulling away as he was sat down onto a bed. The doctor them smiled at him again “Hey, Jungkook, yes?” He still stared, dazed, offering a very small nod. “Don’t worry; your friends are going to be alright. I need you to tell me where it hurts, ok? I want to help you”

Nothing hurt; everything hurt. His heart hurt. The doctor gently removed the blankets from his death grip and slowly took off his jacket to look at his arms. As he put some band aids on him, Jungkook’s sobs became louder. The doctor immediately stopped and resumed his patient smile “Hey, hey, it’s ok; it’s all going to be ok…”

But nothing felt ok. He broke down, crying harder, shaking and panting, struggling to breath and the nurse moved almost instinctively to hug him. It was soothing, somehow, feeling another human body. He started hyperventilating and the doctor started whispering “breathe in… breath out…” to him. After he calmed down, he became mute. Didn’t say a single word.

He took to sitting in the corner of the room where Hoseok and Namjoon were sleeping an hour later. He stared at them, until a new wave of memories seemed to suddenly hit him, hard. He started shaking again, crying, telling himself to calm down, but failing. He stood like that for what felt like ages, until a familiar hand rubbed his back and he snapped his head up. Namjoon was awake. He didn’t lose a second to launch himself into the others arms.

At some point Hoseok woke up too, confused and sleepy, but then joined the leader on the floor, trying to comfort the distressed little singer. Another few minutes later, Jungkook fell asleep in their arms from all the crying and exhaustion.

“What happened?” Hoseok asked in a hoarse voice “to him, I mean”

“By what I can tell, he was awake…?”

Hoseok audibly gulped “You mean through the whole…?”

Namjoon only nodded, thinking what it must be like.

A nurse entered the room then, offering an understanding smile when she saw their position. She informed them that Yoongi and Jin were just released from their surgeries and that they could go to their room, if they so whished. Namjoon took Jungkook on his back and they followed the lady to the other room, all the while asking questions.

“Where are the other two boys? And the elder man that was with us?”

“The man is being checked over, he should join you soon enough. As for the other two, I’m afraid I do not know yet. But I will tell you as soon as I have information.

Hoseok took a seat on the only couch in the new room, Jungkook being placed right next to him, while Namjoon occupied the only chair next to Yoongi’s bed. About half an hour later, the manager came in, closely followed by the same nurse.

“Your friend, Kim Taehyung? He just got out, but I’m afraid you can’t visit him. He was pierced by a car component so his wound is very sensitive. It could get infected if not treated carefully. We have placed him in a single, specialized room in a different wing of the hospital. If you would like, I could show you to him. You just won’t be able to go in.”

Namjoon was quick to agree, leaving behind Jungkook and Hoseok who had both fallen asleep now. The manager also followed.

After the shocking image, they both returned to the room full of sleeping and injured young adults. Namjoon retook his seat and the manager went away to try find out what the situation with Jimin was.

“He’s not doing so good” were his first words when he came back “He’s still in surgery. They said he was the worst out of the whole thing”

Namjoon really doesn’t know what to do now. There’s nothing he can do.

“No mom, I’m serious, there’s no need for you to come. Yes. Yes, I know, but I told you I’m fine. Oh please, they were exaggerating, I just walked half the hospital and I’m perfectly fine. Yes it hurts, but it also hurts when you get a paper cut!”

Yoongi’s slightly annoyed voice made waking up somewhat funny.

“Oh for the love of- I am fine! I swear I am. I can run a marathon if I want to”

“Yeah right”

Yoongi jumps a bit at Jin’s voice, turning around to see him awake and smiling at him. He can’t help the relieved sight that escapes his mouth. But then his attention is grabbed by the phone again.

“What? No! No, just- mom. Mom, seriously, listen to me, there’s absolutely no reason for you to come here. No, that was only because Jin-hyung woke up. Yes. Yes. I’ll tell him. Yes. I’ll tell them too. I promise. Yes. I’ll call you when he wakes up. Yes. No. Yes. Ok. I’m hanging up. Yes I’ll call, bye. Bye.”

“Tell me what?” Jin seemed to be enjoying the call more than Yonngi would ever, if his grin was anything to go by.

“She said get well soon”

“Aha. Thank you.”

Jin sat up in his bed, rubbing at his sore and aching neck, glancing around the room. He figured out where they were. He figured out what happened. But he couldn’t see anyone else.

“Where are the others?”

Yoongi lay back down on his own bed and pointed to the other end of the room. Jin turned around and saw Hoseok with some headphones laying down, playing on his phone. He smiled and started waving a hand to grab his attention. The other noticed only a few seconds later and immediately jumped up, only slightly hissing when he hit the edge of the bench with his injured hand.

“Hyung! You’re awake! Does it hurt? Can you see properly? How many fingers am I holding up?”

Jin started laughing, moving the other’s hand away from his face “Calm down, I’m fine. I’m just a bit sore. How’s your arm?”

“Nothing I can’t handle”

Yoongi scoffed from his bed, earning a halfhearted glare.

“So what about the others?” Jin asked, still curious, and obviously worried.

Hoseok sat back down, looking anything but hopeful for the first time since Jin had met him, and it was unnerving.

“Namjoon is with Jungkookie” Yoongi began “He’s trying to make sure he’s still in his right mind” he sounded really bitter. “Taehyung’s in a different room because of his wound and Jimin’s been in surgery for ten hours now. Hobeom-nim is trying to figure out what’s happening. He’s also been calling Big Hit because someone leaked info out that we were in a car crash”

“Oh…” Because what else can he say to that.

Yoongi then passes him his phone “You wanna call home?”

Jin gratefully takes the phone and dials his mother, talking forever and trying to convince her that he’s fine; though he does nothing to stop her from promising to come over in a few hours.

“When’s she coming?” Yoongi asks when he’s given his phone back.

“In about four to five hours”

Just then the manager comes in, looking relieved and stressed at the same time “So… Jimin’s out” All three boys are immediately on their toes, bombarding him with questions. “He’s in the same wing as Taehyung. Calm down. Just put your shoes on and we can go see him. Jin, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, thank you”

On the way there, Jin couldn’t help but ask more questions to the manager, hoping he would give him better answers than the other two.

“So how are Namjoon and Jungkook then?”

The slightly sad look he received wasn’t very reassuring.

“Namjoon is perfectly fine. Much like you, he only really hit his head and had a few scratches, but other than that he’s fine. Jungkook is…”

Yoongi slowed his pace to walk alongside them and answered instead “He’s not talking”

“What do you mean, not talking…?”

“He’s literally not talking” Hoseok piped in “Last time he said anything was about four hours ago, when Yoongi woke up. Then he started crying again and Nam-“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, crying?” Where they talking about the same Jeon Jungkook here?

“When the car crashed he was the only one awake.” The manager took over “I met with some of the guys who helped out a few hours ago and they told me what happened. He was trying to help everyone get out of the car… he was pretty shaken up. And he came in the same ambulance as Jimin…”

Jin looked a bit confused “what’s wrong about that though…”

Yoongi adopted a very grim expression “Jimin almost died in the ambulance. And he watched the whole fucking thing”

He felt his heart shrink then. Putting it all together, Jungkook had been awake as the car was hit, then turned upside down a few times, tried to help them all get out, saw them all beaten up and bloodied, literally saw Jimin die for a few seconds and then was left alone in a hospital with no one to talk to and no one to comfort him for three or four hours until someone woke up.

“Jesus…”

“Yeah…”

When they reached their destination, first thing they noticed was Namjoon, walking up and down the hall, also on the phone, talking, however, not to his own mother.

“Yes, Misses Jeon, I think that would be best… Yes, thank you. Oh, please, there is no need for you to apologize or anything. Yes. Yes. I’ll see you when you reach us. Yes, I’ll keep this phone on all times. No problem at all. Have a safe trip. Good bye.”

He hung up with a sigh, after which he placed the phone in his pocket and looked up to meet their somewhat worried, somewhat confused faces.

“Where you talking to Kookie’s mom?” Hoseok asks as he looks around for said youngster.

“Yeah. He didn’t look like he would and she called so I answered instead. I’m afraid I scared her by doing that though…”

“So she’s coming over? When?”

“Not sure, in a few hours? Three, four?”

“Where Jungkook?” Yoongi suddenly asked, visibly anxious. He couldn’t see him anywhere and by now he was sure nobody was supposed to leave his side. There was always someone with him, usually Namjoon or their manager, seemingly the only people able to keep him calm.

“Over there” Namjoon pointed toward a room at the end of the corridor “With Jimin”

Jin and Hoseok broke into a sprint almost seconds later, while the manager started questioning the leader. Yoongi wasn’t really in any kind of hurry, not to mention his leg would in no way allow him to even walk fast, let alone run.

When they reached the room, they couldn’t fully see Jimin, because the curtains around his bed were slightly drawn out, but sure enough, Jungkook was inside, sitting on a chair next to the bed, knees drawn to his chest. He was watching the other boy silently, headphones in place. He still had red and puffy eyes and remains of tears on his cheeks, but he wasn’t crying and he wasn’t shaking up for the first time since the whole thing started.

“He asked to be let inside the second he saw a doctor. I thought for sure they would say no, considering Taehyung’s in a better condition, yet we’re not allowed in there. But apparently that’s not how it works. Also, it’s only one person inside, and he seemed so desperate nobody could actually say no… He’s calmed down considerably since being allowed in too. I think seeing Jimin alive and breathing really helped.”

The manager took Yoongi’s phone (that was actually his) as it started ringing and moved to the side, mimicking them to continue talking and not mind him.

“So… what’s wrong with Jimin then?” Yoongi tentatively asked as he and Namjoon took to occupying the seats on the opposite wall.

“Well, first of all he’s lost a whole fucking lot of blood. Then his legs are injured, his arms are injured… He’s pretty much like a mummy… And…”

The way he dragged the last sentence was a bit unsettling.

“There’s a machine in there, connected to his heart. He can’t… His heart’s not really working properly so the thing is pumping it manually… Or something like that…”

Jin looked horrified “Are you saying he’s on life support?”

“…Yeah”

Taehyung felt a sharp pain every time he breathed in, which was, to say the least, annoying, because that was almost constantly. Great. Then the noises around him were getting on his nerves. Too many beeps, too many random sounds, and for a few minutes now, people were talking too.

He gave up trying to fall asleep again and opened his eyes instead. He immediately regretted it, because the ceiling light was abnormally bright in his sleepy state. The doctor, however, was over him in seconds.

“Hello there”

Tae looked up at him dizzily, wishing he was more awake to actually answer.

“How are you feeling?” He started pulling one of those mini-flashlights and throwing the light in and out of Tae’s eyes (which was even more bothersome) after which he placed it back into his chest pocket with a satisfied nod.

“Can you try saying something for me?”

“… It hurts…” his voice was so quiet and dry it threw him off guard for a good few seconds. His shock must have shown, because the doctor sent him an understanding smile.

“Where does it hurt? Here?”

He felt a hand gently push down on his abdomen, but it was enough for him to hiss in pain. Oh yeah, that’s the spot. The doctor was quick to remove his hand and turn his attention back to him.

“Do you remember what happened?”

Taehyung shook his head.

“You were in a car accident.”

Oh…

“One of the car’s pieces had pierced you through your lower abdomen.”

Oh!?

“But we were able to close off the wound and you should be just fine.”

“How long…?”

“The accident was yesterday. I’m not sure about the exact time. And you have been in the hospital for roughly, I’d say, around twenty hours? Your friends and parents are outside, but I’m afraid we can’t let them in yet. We need to keep you in a sealed room for at least forty-eight hours, until the wound starts healing properly, otherwise it might get infected.”

And while it made sense, he was a bit disappointed.

“But look, you can say hi” The doctor smiled towards the other side of the room and Tae slowly and gently moved his head to face that way. There was a pretty big window and on the other side he could see both his parents, smiling at him, as well as the manager and Jin with Hoseok. He couldn’t help but smile.

“I have to give you a shot now, and you might fall asleep. The side effect makes you sleepy. But at least you won’t have to get bored in here, right?”

Taehyung kept his eyes locked on the people outside his room even as he felt a weird, cold sensation in his arm. The needle was barely out when he felt darkness creeping up on him.

As the doctor exited the room, Tae’s parents as well as Hobeom went over to talk to him, while Jin and Hoseok kept looking at the now sleeping boy.

“So what was that, like, one minute?” Hoseok laughed.

“Well at least he’s fine”

“Then, should we go check up on Kookie?”

A few hours ago, the youngest was asked to move out of Jimin’s room. He did, though reluctantly, and with pleads to be left inside. Namjoon had used his entire strength to keep him from running back into the room. After seeing there was no way he would be allowed back in, he went back to saying absolutely zilch. The leader tried to talk to him, get him to drink something, eat something, anything, but he would always refuse.

Then the manager went and got a nurse, asking for some advice. They sent a psychiatrist over. The man was so gentle, asking Jungkook to follow him to his office. Namjoon followed them, promising to wait outside the room. About an hour in, the man came back out and asked for a room to be prepared. A few minutes later, he carried a sleeping Jungkook to his temporary bed, hooking him to an IV.

“He won’t eat” he had informed Namjoon when asked “nor will he drink or sleep. The only reason he was able to take a nap earlier was because of exhaustion; his body gave up on him. I’ve given him some sleeping pills, because he desperately needs all the rest he can get. And about his refusal to talk; it’s a sort of coping mechanism. A lot of people do that. The problem is to see how much it lasts. He still squeaks out a word or two, so it shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Also, he will need therapy sessions for a while. He’s seen too much to be able to cope with it on his own, and at such a young and fragile age. He’s already keeping himself together more remarkably that a lot of grown men can. He’s a thought one”

They never asked what exactly he had talked about with the doctor, but they were honestly thankful to see him asleep and finally relaxed.

When Jin and Hoseok reached their destination, Namjoon was sitting in a chair, looking thoughtfully at Jungkook who was fully awake. He was turned on his side, feet tangled into the sheets and hands gripping the half fallen blanket. His face was also buried into the pillow.

Jin raised his eyebrows expectantly at Namjoon who signaled them to leave the youngest alone and come next to him. They did, taking a seat on the floor.

“He had a nightmare.” He started whispering to them “He slept for, I don’t know, about four hours and then suddenly jumped out of bed and started throwing up. The doctor gave him something to calm down ten minutes ago. He’s been like that ever since.”

“Did you try talking to him?”

“Yeah. But he still won’t talk.”

Hoseok remained silent for a few minutes, looking Junkook over. He was perfectly still. The only way they even knew he was still breathing was the rise and fall in his chest.

“When are his parents coming?”

“They called an hour ago. Said they should be here by six, so… two hours? Give or take”

“Is he going to be ok though?”

Just then, the sheets started moving and they all snapped their attention back on Jungkook. He fiddled around to get his feet untangled after which he turned to look at them. They stood like that a few seconds, not sure what to do, until Kookie pushed his arm from under the blanket and in their direction.

Jin was quick to get up and take the extended hand. Jungkook pulled him as close as possible, almost to the point Jin thought he would have to climb on the bed with him. He intertwined their fingers to hold on tighter, pulling the hand close to his chest, and then buried his face back into the pillow.

Jin was at a loss of what to do, sending concerned and confused glances at the other two. But they were just as lost. While Jungkook never pushed any of them away, he wasn’t the touchiest of the lot. He was certainly not the first to initiate any kind of skinship (except to deliver a playful punch or whatever)

Jin hesitated a bit and then started running a hand through the others hair. He felt him relax into the touch and couldn’t help but smile.

“Hey Kookie? You know Taehyung woke up for a minute a while ago. Do you want to go see how he’s doing now?”

He shook his head a no.

“Then… do you want to talk about your dream?”

Again no.

Jin sighted in defeat. He won’t get anything out of him.

“Just a second then…” He started moving onto the bed (he was in a very uncomfortable position before) Junkook never once let go of his hand in the process, though he did move a bit to the side, to make more room. “Honestly, you’re like a big cat…”

Namjoon couldn’t help but smile, because at least he seemed to allow other people to comfort him now. When he’d first woken up and saw Jungkook in the corner of the room, crying and looking like a total mess, he wanted to talk to him. But whenever he would open his mouth, the other would whine, loudly, shutting him up.

Maybe the fact that he didn’t push Jin’s motherly concern away as roughly was a good sign.

“Ok, you should be fine in a few weeks. I’ll need you to tell me whenever you feel any kind of pain though.” The doctor said as he checked some things up on his pad. “You can go ahead and put your shirt back on. You’re free. I’ll see you on Tuesday”

Yoongi pulled his sweater back on and went outside of the office after thanking the man for his time. He stopped by a vending machine to get a few drinks, using the bag the manager had given him earlier, and went towards Taehyung’s room.

Ever since two days ago, they have been allowed to go in because he was healing nicely. The doctors even praised, saying his immune system was pretty outstanding. Safe to say, he was quite ecstatic to be able to talk to someone, though he was asleep most of the time; a side effect from some medicine or another. But he was getting better fast, and that was good enough.

The room was as loud as ever when he arrived. Tae was playing a game on Hoseok’s new phone while the latter kept commenting “Jump! Jump! Yes!” Jin was over to the side with Namjoon, laughing their asses off at the kind of expressions the others were pulling off while playing.

“I brought your drinks” Yoongi announced as he moved into the room, passing the cold beverage to everyone except Tae. He then moved to take a seat next to Namjoon, on the floor.

“NOOO!” Taehyung yelled into the phone, after which he hissed, grabbing at his abdomen. He should really control himself. He pouted and passed the phone back to Hoseok, then turned his fullest attention to Yoongi.

“Where’s Kookie?”

Namjoon started choking on his drink and Jin moved to pat him on the back while also asking “Yeah, I haven’t seen him since yesterday. Is he ok?”

Hoseok kept on playing, but nodded, also curious.

For a while now, Jungkook had been constantly in the presence of Namjoon, Yoongi or Jin (or the manager). The others had medicine to take and doctors fussing all over them, telling them to go sleep and rest rather than run around the hospital.

It was in one of those days that Yoongi and Namjoon found out something rather startling about their precious little maknae.

Jungkook was in the room with his psychiatrist, as quiet as always, and they were waiting outside. At some point, Namjoon got a text message from Jin, saying that Tae was awake and that they could go into the room now. Of course they wanted to go as soon as possible, but they both promised to wait outside for Kookie to finish his session.

After discussing it for a few minutes, Yoongi knocked on the door and they were both welcomed inside. Jungkook didn’t seem to register or acknowledge their presence though. He was sitting on the small couch in the middle of the room, playing with his fingers, eyes fixed on the floor.

“Taehyung woke up. And they said we were allowed to go in; can Jungkook come too? He’ll probably fall back asleep soon, so…” None of them really noticed how the younger tensed up.

The doctor, however, seemed really excited. “Yes! That would actually be a splendid idea. What do you say Jungkook?”

Kookie pulled his feet to his chest, in a protective manner and shook his head.

Both boys were surprised at the manner. The psychiatrist moved over and crouched in front of him, placing a gentle hand on his knee “Are you sure? It might really help you to see him. And I am sure he would be very happy to see you too.”

“No”

Namjoon moved to get closer, hand extended “Jun-“

“I said no!”

The sudden yell threw them all off guard.

Jungkook buried his head into his knees, putting his hands over his head, shaking and whispering “No, no, no…” His voice even broke, as he started crying and hyperventilating, fast. Thankfully the doctor was quick to pull out a special little oxygen mask form his desk.

“It’s ok, it’s ok, you don’t have to go. Come on; pull your head up for me… There you go; now breathe in this… It’s ok… breathe in… breathe out… in… out…”

The two boys quickly excused themselves, resuming waiting on the corridor. They didn’t say a word, but they were obviously shaken and quite very confused, not to mention worried. That was not a normal reaction.

When the doctor came out a few minutes later, Jungkook was still inside, breathing into the oxygen mask. Namjoon took the opportunity to move in and sit by him. Thankfully, he wasn’t pushed away.

“I’m afraid it will take a while for him to willingly go visit your friend. I am not fully aware of the facts, but he was the only one awake through the crash, yes?”

“That’s right” Yoongi answered. Namjoon was listening as well, all the while running a comforting hand up and down the youngster’s back.

“Well, I think he might have seen something that deeply affected him. It’s something that relates your friend to the crash. It happens a lot of times, a sort of trigger. If he was awake, he may have seen - Taehyung was it, injured or bleeding profusely. With that image in mind, it’s hard for his brain to see the same person again without immediately repeating that scene. He needs time to understand that his friend is safe now. It might take a while and even though he may react the same as today, he should still be pushed into going to visit. He will eventually gather the courage, I am sure. He’s coping with everything else quite well.”

Since then, Namjoon and Yoongi had kept the info to themselves. They had wanted to tell the others as well, but the words just wouldn’t come out. But now, faced with the question straight from the source, they had to fess up.

“He’s in therapy right now. Doctor’s trying to get him to eat actual food, without the IV. Though that hasn’t really worked out thus far…”

Taehyung nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off Yoongi. “So when he’s out, can he come over?”

He sounded so hopeful it was almost heartbreaking knowing there was no way it could happen any time soon.

“I don’t think so” Namjoon took over in a gentle tone.

To say that Tae looked hurt was an understatement. He looked like a kicked puppy in a raging storm “Why not!?”

“Don’t move, you’ll hurt yourself”

“Screw that, I want to see him! It’s been four days already. It’s already bad enough Jimin’s the way he is! You said he wasn’t hurt or anything”

“Tae, calm down” Hoseok glanced worriedly at the heart monitor, moving a hand over his shoulder in a manner of comfort. But the beeping kept increasing.

“He wasn’t hurt, but he can’t visit just yet. Just give him a few more- Tae?”

Hoseok panicked and immediately pressed the button he knew would call an emergency. The doctors had instructed them on how to use it when they were first allowed in.

Jin pulled Yoongi and Namjoon to the other end of the room while Hoseok kept calling for Taehyung “Hey, it’s ok, looks at me; you’re ok. Come on, breathe with me here… Tae?”

The doctor rushed in, two nurses behind and threw a quick glance over the monitors before instructing one nurse on what to do. She moved over and pulled out a syringe that she pushed into one of the tubes connected to Taehyung. The doctor started checking him over and the other nurse quietly escorted the rest of the boys out.

They waited in the hall in silence, until Hoseok also came out (he remained inside to tell the doctor what had happened) “What the hell was that?” He knew he shouldn’t be mad, it wasn’t Namjoon’s fault the other almost had a panic attack, but he wasn’t really thinking straight right now either.

Yoongi opened his mouth to say something but Hoseok shushed him up, holding a hand up. He took a few moments to calm down.

“Ok, sorry, I didn’t mean to yell…”

“Don’t worry about it”

“Why won’t you let him see Kookie though?”

“It’s not that we won’t let him,” Yoongi begun “but he won’t come. He doesn’t want to.” Both Jin and Hoseok looked like they had just been slapped “A few days ago, when you texted us that we could hang out with Tae, we were waiting for him to finish his therapy session. But we wanted to come too, so we asked the doctor if Kookie could come to, and he was ok with it. But then we asked Kookie and he said no”

“More like screamed…” Namjoon quietly noted, earning a concerned glance from Jin

“Yeah, and then he started hyperventilating and… The doctor said it may be some kind of trigger or whatever. Said he might have seen something. Taehyung was pierced with something from the car right? What if he saw him like that? He’s probably just scared”

“When does his session end?” Jin whispered to Namjoon.

“Ten minutes?”

“I’ll go stay with him today. Text me when the doctor’s out please.” With that, he was on his way.

Another ten minutes later, the nurses came out of the room and went on their way. The doctor bid them closer to talk to the remaining boys.

“He’s fine now. He had a small attack, but nothing to worry about. If it happens again, we may have to take extra measures though. He’s asleep right now, and I would suggest you let him rest for the remainder of today. Also, what happened before the attack?”

“We told him a friend couldn’t come visit”

“If you could perhaps not bring the subject up again, or in a more casual manner, it should be fine.” The man’s pager started beeping and he excused himself, leaving the boys on their own.

“So… now what?”

Hoseok looked thoughtful for a moment, seemingly wanting to say something, but then decided against it. Instead he said “Do you wanna go eat something? We haven’t had lunch yet… and they told us we can’t visit Jimin today so…”

They decided to go ahead and eat, while sending a message, informing Jin of what had happened and asking if he wanted to join them when Kookie got out. He did.

They spent the afternoon in the hospital’s café. At some point, the manager dropped by to tell them he would go over to Big Hit for an official statement. The fans were getting nervous since they hadn’t released any more news for two days now.

Jungkook still didn’t eat though. Jin tried giving him at least a glass of water, but to no avail. And, to be fair, he looked about ready to throw up whatever would touch his tongue.

“Kookie, did you sleep last night?”

He shook his head.

It was getting to the point the doctors had to secretly add a sleeping drug in his IV, because after waking up from at least four nightmares, he started refusing to take the pills as well. His parents tried to take him home, the doctor saying it could help, but he locked himself in the bathroom until they gave up and reassured him he could stay. His mother was worried sick and barely agreed to go home. She promised she would come over again another day and bring his brother too.

Jin didn’t push the matter, but he left the plastic cup in front of Jungkook.

And when they left, he did take it with him. Though he never drank it.

Blood. That’s what it looked like, that’s what it felt like, that’s what it tasted like; blood.

After the car crashed, when they were all brought into the hospital, Jungkook was left alone. Everyone else needed help. Everyone else was injured. He only had a few scratches. Except for Taehyung and Jimin, the rest were only slightly hurt, yet to his poor terrified mind, they could all just die and he would never see them again.

He was too dizzy to even remember when the doctor looked him over. And then they told him to wait outside, alone, in a hospital he had never visited before. And all he could do was try not to break down.

He waited, and waited, and waited for what felt like forever. He stood in the cold corridor, staring at his own reflection in a window, mentally talking to himself, arguing with himself.

Don’t be silly, they’ll be fine.

They were bleeding to death.

The doctors will take care of them.

People die in car accidents.

But they weren’t that injured.

Things can go wrong in surgeries.

Jimin died for a minute. He died. Right there, in front of your eyes.

He was dead.

Taehyung was-

He couldn’t even finish his thought. He jumped up from his seat and ran to the nearest bathroom, crashing into a stall and throwing up. It was a miracle there was even something left in his stomach. And whatever it was, it tasted like blood. He couldn’t help the tears that started falling and he desperately tried to hold them in.

An old man started rubbing a hand on his back “Oh, there, there…”

It was such a small and kind act; he wanted it to never go away. The warmth of another human being, it was, in a weird way, calming.

Then the man had to go away and he was left alone to calm down and wash his mouth a bit. Even the water tasted like blood.

He went back to sitting in the hall, looking out the window at the stars for an hour. Then a nurse came by and led him to where Namjoon and Hoseok where. She pointed him towards a room and then went away to her work.

Jungkook was stuck in front of the door for a good ten minutes, desperately trying to calm his racing heart. When he finally went in, he couldn’t look at the two beds. He was afraid. And he avoided peeking for half an hour, instead sitting on the floor, in the corner of the room, staring at his shoes.

But then someone moved and he immediately looked up. He had to cover up his mouth to not cry out loud, because what his mind saw was only blood. Everywhere; on the beds, the ceiling, the floor, blood. And then he started shaking and crying again. He couldn’t do this. But he didn’t want to go back out. He didn’t want to be alone anymore, it was too much. So he stood there, crying and keeping his eyes as shut as possible, because deep down he knew it was all in his mind, but it didn’t help.

And then, ten minutes later, maybe even an hour later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He almost jumped out of his skin, snapping his head to the side to see none other than Namjoon. He may have said something too, but he never heard it. All his ears could perceive was the sound of his trembling heart.

He stared at Namjoon as if at a ghost for a few seconds. The leader tentatively moved his hand back on his shoulder and that was all the confirmation Jungkook needed to know it wasn’t his mind messing up with him. He immediately jumped into the other’s arms, holding as tightly as possible and, this time, didn’t even try to stop the tears. This time, they weren’t tears of fear or pain, but happiness.

Hoseok woke up a bit after and marveled at the scene in front of him, while Namjoon only offered a confused and concerned smile. The dancer moved to join the hug with a bright smile.

“Aww, our little Kookie cares so much about us doesn’t he” He joked lightheartedly, though he was quite touched and, frankly, a bit scared. He had never seen the youngest so fragile and breakable, and a dark little thought told him it may be because someone had actually died. Deep down in the darkest places of his mind, the possibility was quite big, because he could still remember the crash. He could still hear the agonizingly loud cry from Jimin who sat right to his left.

Just then, the manager came in, all bandaged and beaten up but with such a relieved smile when his eyes fell on them. He asked them how they were, if they knew anything about the others and whatnot. Jungkook only shook his head in response and nobody really pushed him for answers either.

A while later, they found out where Yoongi and Jin were and they all moved to go to them. When they reached the room, Jungkook still had to tell himself to calm down. Even as he entered, he had to look anywhere but at the beds. He went to sit on a couch with Hoseok and Namjoon (Hobeom went outside to talk to the doctors) and tried to steady his heart.

When he first looked at the beds, the sheets were red and blood was dripping everywhere. He turned his head away and bit the inside of his cheeks to keep himself composed. “Don’t freak out, don’t freak out… It’s just in your head…” he whispered to himself.

Namjoon moved to sit by Yoongi’s bed, where there was a chair, while telling them to sleep a bit and catch their strength. Hoseok obliged in seconds, pulling Jungkook to sit on him, like a huge teddy bear. But Kookie still needed a few moments to recollect himself, though he didn’t protest at all. This time he kept an eye on the beds, watching as his misguided imagination shifted away and everything was back to normal. No blood.

He didn’t realize he fell asleep until an abnormally loud cry made him jump awake. He took a moment to look around, noticing that Namjoon was talking to Yoongi and instinctively moved over. When he saw that the rapper was indeed alive and breathing, a new wave of tears started falling. He wanted them to stop already, it was embarrassing, not to mention exhausting, it’s not like he was five, but they just would not listen to him. Namjoon talked to him for a few minutes later, and he finally relaxed.

All was good now, until the manager passed him a sandwich. He wasn’t particularly hungry, but considering he threw up so much in the past few hours, he decided it may be good to put something in him. However, the only thing he could taste was blood. Good thing his stomach was empty. He pushed every food he got from that moment on away. Everything tasted like blood. Even the damn water tasted like blood, even looked like it.

When he fell asleep, he could only see the crash, replaying in his head over and over. And then he would wake up from the same inhuman scream. And it was only two days later that he realized that it was Taehyung’s voice. After that, every dream was just that same image of Tae, stuck in his chair, broken glass in his bloody hair, a huge metal pipe pierced right through his abdomen.

The last straw was when the Tae in his dream looked up at him and opened his mouth to say something and a river of blood came out instead. He actually woke up screaming. Then he started refusing the sleeping pills.

While he was in one of his therapy hours, Namjoon and Yoongi actually wanted to bring him to Tae. He wanted to go, of course he did, but the second that name reached his ears, the image in his dream became unnervingly clear in his mind. He wasn’t ready for that.

After his little nervous breakdown in the office, they didn’t ask him up front again, though they kept throwing hints at him. He really did want to go, but he just couldn’t.

Then he had the same messed up dream again. He was actually confused, because he hadn’t been tired. Why had he fallen asleep when he really would have rather not? And then it hit him. The IV they were using to make sure he gets something resembling food into his system. He got sleepy after they hooked him up for a while now.

Not anymore.

The manager busted into the room, sweaty and panting. He brought up his hand, motioning for the boys to wait a second, let him catch his breath. Not two seconds later he looked at them with a very concerned frown “I need your help real quick. Come out for a sec”

As soon as the boys were out of Tae’s room, Namjoon moved closer to Hobeom “Is something wrong? What happened?”

“I need you to go talk to Jungkook. I don’t care what it takes or what method you use, but you need to get him to at least drink a cup of water. Now”

“What’s going on?” Jin asked as they began following the manager towards wherever Kookie was.

“He’s refusing the IV now… God, he hasn’t slept or eaten anything since yesterday! If this keeps going he’ll faint.”

As they were getting closer to where they knew the psychiatric office was, they could hear sounds of things cashing and some people yelling. Namjoon, Jin and Hoseok didn’t lose a beat and started running. They knew where they should go.

Sure enough, the source of the noise was Kookie’s Psychiatrist’s room. Two nurses were by the door, saying things like “Please calm down” and “Don’t throw that, please!” They peeked inside and saw the doctor holding his arms up with what was supposed to be reassuring smile.

“Now, Jungkook, please put that down and let’s talk about th-“

“No!”

And the book got thrown towards him, though he ducked in time. Not even a second later, Jungkook had another book in hand. He was behind the desk, a huge library at his disposal, and he looked anything but ready to listen to him. He looked ready to kill.

“Please, Jung-“

“You lied to me!” And he threw the book, this time hitting his target.

“Ow! I know I lied and I’m terribly sorry but you nee-“

“Shut up!”

Namjoon stepped into the room and Jungkook almost hesitated in throwing what looked like a notebook. Almost.

“Kookie, what are you doing; stop throwing things around!”

His answer was in the form of a manual.

“Kookie!”

Hoseok came in next, going past the doctor to be as close to Jungkook as possible, without the hazard of getting a book smacked down onto his head.

“Hey Kookie, could you please put that down and talk to me?”

This time he really did hesitate. He was still burning mad, obviously, but Hoseok had a broken arm already; he didn’t want to injure him more. But he still had a point to make, so he threw the book to the doctor instead.

Hoseok internally smiled, because this meant he could actually have a chance here.

“Ok, stop! Sop! Don’t take out another book ok? Just talk to me, why are you mad?”

“Because he’s a liar!” and yet another notebook found its way into the doctor’s arm.

“A liar…?” He threw a questioning glance at the man.

“He’s a fucking liar!”

Hoseok turned back to Kookie in complete shock, because he wasn’t the type to swear. And he was glad he did, because the youngster was leaning in to throw something a bit more dangerous than a book.

“Whoa! Put the lamp down! Jesus!”

He didn’t look convinced.

“They’ll go out!”

That, however, caught his attention and he froze, lamp at the ready. “What?”

“They’ll all go out. Ignore them ok, just talk to me instead”

The doctor looked like he may have wanted to say something on the matter, but Namjoon was quick in grabbing him and pulling him outside before closing the door.

Jungkook stared at the closed door for a few seconds, lamp still in hand, and Hoseok was honestly beginning to panic, thinking he’ll just run off to smack the poor guy in the head. But he didn’t. He got off the chair and dropped the lamp down. He was panting at this point and Hoseok was glad for his quick reflexes, because Kookie swayed before falling down, exhausted. He coughed him before he hit his head on the desk.

“Oh my God! You’re burning!”

Indeed, Jungkook had developed a fever since two days ago, but it only started getting noticeable since he refused the IV. He struggled in Hoseok’s weak hold, unintentionally causing him to bump his injured arm against the desk. A painful hiss escaped his mouth and Jungkook froze.

Hoseok was just about to whine, playfully, hoping to lighten up the mood, but the expression the other was showing made him swallow his words. He looked terrified.

“Oh, no, no, no, don’t worry, it’s fine, I’m fine. I just barely felt that! I was just overreacting”

Jungkook didn’t say anything, just keeping his eyes fixated on the bandaged arm. Hoseok noticed how much calmer he was now, so he grabbed the opportunity to get him to talk.

“Hey, Kookie; why where you mad? What did the doctor lie to you about?”

For a while, it didn’t look as if he would get an answer, but then “He put sleeping drugs in my IV…”

Oh… “But you need to sleep”

He shook his head.

“Why don’t you want to sleep? That’s why you have a fever… Come on, talk to me, please?”

Junkook mumbled something, but he couldn’t understand a thing “I’m sorry, what?”

“I have nightmares” he whispered a bit louder.

“Oh, Kookie… We all have them now, it’s normal considering what happened, it-“

“How is this normal!?” He suddenly yelled, looking at Hoseok as if he had insulted his entire family “How the hell is seeing someone die over and over fucking normal!?”

That was not what he was expecting to hear. He had some nightmares too, the crash, the spinning car, but not… death.

“Why do I have to go to sleep even though I know I’m going to keep dreaming this stupid shit again and again!? I don’t want to see it! I don’t want to! Why won’t it stop!?”

Hoseok moved to hold the younger into a tight hug. He really didn’t know how to deal with this. He never expected Kookie to have been dreaming such horrid nightmares. He silently wondered how the doctor hadn’t known about this.

“Don’t cry…”

They stood like that a few minutes until Jungkook stopped trembling.

“Jungkook, who… who was it that you kept dreaming about? Was it Jimin…?”

He shook his head “Taehyung…”

That would explain his refusal to go see him, but it also sparked an idea “Oh, but he’s doing so well! The doctors have been praising him since the beginning of the week on how good his immune system is, on how well he is recovering and they even said they’ll move him to a more relaxed environment at the end of next month if things keep going so well! You know, he asked about you, he’s really sad you won’t visit him… Why don’t we go see him now? He was awake when we left.”

Jungkook shook his head. It was understandable too, but maybe if he went and saw him alive and kicking, the nightmares would stop.

“Aww, come now, don’t be mean, he’ll be really sad if he doesn’t see you. He’s been asking about you every day, you know? And about Jimin too, because he hasn’t seen you, he even got mad at Namjoon one time. What do you say? Just a short visit, then we’ll get them to give you a new IV and maybe, who knows, you might even want a cup of water”

For the first time since the crash, Kookie actually considered going to Taehyung. He wanted to see him too. He actually tried going to him one time, but he couldn’t. Maybe now, with Hoseok to pull him, he could go. With that in mind, he whispered a soft “Ok…”

Hoseok smiled brightly and yelled at the door “Hey! Jin, come in for a sec!”

Jin was inside in seconds.

“Could you get everyone out of the way please?”

The eldest didn’t question and went back outside. Two seconds later, they could hear people walking away.

“Ok, come on now…”

Hoseok helped Jungkook up and started walking towards Taehyung’s room. They were both quiet until a few feet away from the door, when Kookie started whimpering. It was actually a bit cute.

“Don’t worry, I’m here with you, ok?”

They reached the door and Hoseok opened it, pushing a shaking Jungkook inside. He then closed the door, allowing the two some much postponed alone-time. God knew they needed it. He hadn’t lied when he said Tae had been asking about him every day. He really wanted to see him. And it would probably help them both now.

Jungkook stood frozen, back firmly pressed against the door. He kept shaking, his eyes sealed shut. He wasn’t ready. He wanted out. He wanted to run away. Someone open the door and pull him out.

“Kookie…?”

Taehyung’s voice snapped something inside of him and he spun around so fast he got a bit dizzy. Sure enough, on the only bed in the room, with a manga volume in hand, was none other than Tae. He was looking at him as if at a ghost, and he was doing the same.

They stood like that for a while, neither believing the image in front of them. And then, as if on cue, Tae literally threw the book away and Jungkook jumped onto the bed, honestly not carrying in the slightest if the other got hurt in the process, and hugged him as tight as he possibly could.

Unfortunately, the sudden body on top of Taehyung’s did cause some unwanted shots of pain, but he really, really didn’t care. Jungkook was finally here. After what felt like forever, with everyone annoyingly changing the subjects whenever he asked why the youngest wouldn’t visit, he was finally here. And oh good Lord if he didn’t feel a ton of pressure off his shoulders.

 Half an hour later, when Namjoon, Jin and the manager came back, they found Hoseok all giddily and smiley. He motioned them to keep quiet and opened the door to reveal Taehyung and Jungkook tangled together in the small bed, both sleeping soundly for the first time since the accident.

And someone may or may not have taken a photo because “They’re so freaking cute”

“Ok, now, it will hurt a bit, but if the pain is too much, just say the word, and we will stop” the doctor said with a smile as he watched Taehyung slowly get his feet out of bed. They had decided to let him try to walk today, because the wound from the operation seemed to have closed off beautifully. That and he’d been whining for a while that he wanted to move around.

Taehyung sat on the edge of his bed, looking half excited and half nervous. It’s been two months since the crash and he really wanted to be able to use his legs, even if only for two minutes. His father was on his other side, already holding him.

He took a deep breath and pushed himself off the bed. True to the doctor’s words, he felt a shock of pain climb up his entire body. He let out a soft hiss, but didn’t stop. He leaned heavily on his dad for support, which he was a tiny bit sorry for, but then a huge grin appeared on his face.

“Where to?” His father asked, mimicking his smile.

“Jungkookie!”

Jungkook let out a small laugh at the overly excited, overly childish way Tae had sang his name and moved a bit to the side to make room on the couch he was sitting on. On the other side of the room, Namjoon burst out laughing and Jin lightly hit him.

It took a while, but then Taehyung managed to sit down on the couch with a satisfied sight. He was already tired, slightly panting and trying to catch his breath, but Jungkook kept grinning at him like an idiot.

The doctor looked almost as happy as Tae himself, asking how he felt, if anything hurt and writing things down on his pad.

“Took you long enough” Jungkook joked, earning a weak punch in the arm.

“When you’re ready, let’s try the other way”

Tae offered a nod just as the door opened to reveal Yoongi and a bandageless Hoseok. He had gotten it removed two days prior, after an examination where the doctor told him his arm was doing just fine. It wasn’t in a very bad condition to begin with, but they wanted to make sure it healed properly. Also, a few long scars could be seen running from his wrist to the elbow. The doctors had assured him they would heal in a couple of weeks though.

Yoongi raised both eyebrows when first spotting Taehyung on the couch, but then smirked after remembering what day it was. “So how long did it take; an hour, two?” That earned him a glare.

“Where have you been anyway?” Jin asked from where he was standing next to the door.

“Later. More importantly, why don’t you show me just how slow you are?”

True, Tae wasn’t very fast, but he was still way too happy to be able to move to actually care about the teasing. So he took it upon himself to pay them back. As he moved back to his bed, when he was close to where Yoongi was standing, he faked a trip and hissed, clutching at his abdomen. Sure enough, the rapper immediately jumped, concern written all over his face.

“Ta-“

But then Taehyung turned around to face him with a huge grin, tongue out “Got ya~”

“You little…”

The others laughed while Tae went back on the bed, honestly exhausted. He was a bit annoyed, really, that all he managed was ten feet and he was already this tired.

As soon as he was under the covers, the doctor asked his dad to come outside, closely followed by Namjoon and Jin. Jungkook moved over to the bed, a by now very normal occurrence.

It started a few weeks ago, when Hoseok had managed to convince him to go visit Taehyung in the first place. He fell asleep there because of his exhaustion and woke up at some point only to realize he hadn’t had any nightmares. Since that day, he started hanging out in Tae’s room most of the time.

The doctors reached an agreement, letting him sleep in there as well, because he seemed to be getting back to his older self faster whenever next to Tae. And vice-versa.

There were, however, a few days every week, when Jungkook would go and stay in Jimin’s room. Usually it was Yoongi who watched over the dancer. But nowadays, on the rare occasion he did have a nightmare, it was always Jimin’s heart stopping. Whenever he would wake up from that, he would quietly migrate towards his room. Yoongi got used to it and silently moved out, allowing the youngest to take his place. He figured he only wanted to make sure the dream was just a dream.

So far, it was. But he was beginning to get worried.

“It’s been two months…” Yoongi had told the doctor who was looking over Jimin’s vitals that morning “Shouldn’t he be awake by now?”

The woman herself looked quite concerned “He’s in a coma. We never know when people like him wake up. It’s always a different time. It’s just the mind’s way of protecting itself.”

He wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but didn’t push the matter. According to her, his body was healing just fine. His bruises were barely visible, scratches invisible if not looked for, and, most importantly, his heart was doing just fine. But the simple fact that he would not open his eyes was unnerving.

When Jin came back into the room, Jungkook immediately adopted a grim expression.

“Aw, come on, a deal’s a deal” the eldest said as he motioned for the teen to move over and eat his salad.

The so-called “deal” was that he would be allowed to stay with Taehyung as much as he wanted, he could sleep there, play there, do whatever, but he had to at least try to eat. The idea came from his new psychiatrist (the boys and his parents didn’t want him near the other doctor again, and Jungkook himself wouldn’t go anywhere near the man) She was a nice lady that took her time in befriending him and earning his trust. Then, when noticing how clingy he was with Tae, proposed the idea, first to the doctors, and then to the boys themselves.

It was a bit hard at first, because he threw up not ten minutes after eating, and he point-blank refused to drink the water. The psychiatrist spent a whole day researching foods until she presented him with a salad leaf. “It’s as far-away from blood as you can get. It has a hard texture and barely any liquids, but it’s one of the healthiest foods, especially for you” It still took him an entire hour to eat it, but at least he didn’t puke that time.

Since then, Jin and Hoseok would bring him the tiniest salad at lunch.

As Jungkook moved to take the little plastic bowl, Hoseok noticed something “Tae?”

Jin looked over and couldn’t help the little giggle that escaped him. Taehyung was fast asleep. He pulled the covers over and went back to sit by Yoongi.

“So where have you been?”

Yoongi sighted “Over at Jimin”

“Oh… Did something happen?”

“Not really… He’s still asleep.”

Jin threw him an understanding smile “He’ll wake up”

“Yeah… When?

Yoongi slowly opened his eyes, tired and very much sleepy. He lifted his head from his rather uncomfortable position to look around, a bit confused. He was in Jimin’s room, machines beeping as per usual. The clock on his phone told him it was almost three in the morning. He hadn’t been having a nightmare or anything, nor was he thirsty, so why did he wake up?

A yawn escaped him and he decided he couldn’t be bothered to care. It’s not like people don’t randomly wake up in the middle of the night for no reason. Hell, he does it too sometimes. Maybe his position was a bit too uncomfortable.

With that in mind, he moved his chair a bit closer to the bed and rested his head on his crossed hands again. But then he felt something. It was small and soft and, had this been any other day, he probably wouldn’t have noticed it. But for a while now, he had become a bit hypersensitive to any kind of movement in the room; so his eyes snapped open.

He stood like that a few seconds, until he felt it again and slowly pulled his head back up, moving to stare at his hand. He was holding Jimin’s left hand, a habit he caught from Jungkook; some kind of silent reassurance that the other was still warm and still very much alive. It took a few seconds and then, sure enough, the fingers twitched.

Yoongi couldn’t believe his own eyes as the other’s hand, ever so slowly started closing in on his own. It wasn’t a very firm hold, barely a hold at all. It was soft and gentle and oh so very weak, but it was there.

He slowly moved his eyes; almost afraid of what he would find, to see if what he thought was happening was actually happening. And then he saw a pair of small and tired black eyes looking straight at him, and he almost felt his heart freeze. “…Jimin?”

The boy blinked, and then the smallest of smirks appeared on his face for a moment.

The next second, Yoongi was on his feet, button to call for the doctors firmly pressed. He leaned over the bed to be right above Jimin, not once letting go of his hand. He could feel a huge grin slowly making its way on his face, because not only was the younger awake, he was following him with his eyes. He was conscious. After three God damned months, he was finally back to reality.

“You little son of a bitch…”

Jimin threw him a tiny smile just as the doctor rushed in. She was obviously ready for the worst, but what she saw made her freeze in the doorway. She stared a good ten seconds, registering the image in front of her, and then a smile burst on her face as she moved closer, Yoongi only slightly moving back to give her more room.

“Well, I’ll be… What do we have here…” She paged a nurse to come in and started a quick little check up.

Yoongi still could barely believe what was happening, but he somehow remembered other people should be told of this. He almost dropped his phone in his rush to call Namjoon.

It took a while, but then the leader’s sleepy voice came through <<Hello?>> Him, the manager and Jin were all back at the dorm. They had gone with the intention of bringing Tae some things he asked for, but promptly fell asleep as soon as they arrived.

“You need to get here, right now” Yoongi didn’t intend to sound so menacing, but he was trying to be quiet. However, it seemed to throw the other off guard.

<<W-what?>> he could hear shuffling in the background and another voice asking, probably, if something happened.

“Come back now!”

<<R-right!>> more shuffling and then the manager’s voice came through, a bit panicky, asking what was wrong <<Did something happen?>>

“Jimin’s awake”

There was complete silence for less than five seconds, and then an eruption of yells and noises and whatnot. Yoongi smirked, imagining the kind of rush the three were probably in right now, if the loud crash was anything to go by.

<<We’ll be there in ten minutes!>> and then the call ended.

Yoongi peeked back down, as he started dialing another number, at Jimin, who seemed to have woken up a bit more. He was looking around as the doctor continued doing whatever. He was the first one to not look completely out of it as soon as his eyes opened, quite on the contrary. He looked more relaxed than any of them ever had.

<<Yes?>> came Hoseok’s sleepy response.

“Can you wake the others?”

<<Yeah, sure… Why?>>

“I need you to get them here. To Jimin’s”

He could hear Jungkook whine in the background <<What? Why? Did something happen to him?>>

“Yeah. He woke up”

<<HE WHAT!? Holly shit, Jeon Jungkook, get your ass up right now! Tae, get out of b->> the call ended and Yoongi looked back down.

The doctor finished whatever she had been doing and was now talking to the nurse, looking over some papers. Jimin was looking up at him while flexing all of his fingers and toes, seemingly wanting to make sure they were all there.

“Do you want some water?” The nurse asked.

Jimin offered a small nod in response and Yoongi helped him up a bit, so he could drink.

Just as he lay back down, a few coughs exiting his underused neck, the door burst open, reviling a breathless Jungkook. He had ran all the way here, at top speed, as soon as his brain managed to wake up enough to register what Hoseok was telling him. And then he just couldn’t help himself.

Jimin looked over at the youngest with a surprised expression, and then a tired smile.

“Hey…”

His voice was quiet, raspy and so very tired, yet pretty much everyone in the room smiled in response. Jungkook took a moment to catch his breath, after which he jumped over to the bed, the brightest of smiles gracing his features.

“Hey…” His voice cracked a bit, but he honestly couldn’t care less in that moment. He crashed on his knees, instinctively moving to hold Jimin’s free hand as the tears started flowing. The other smiled in response, gently squeezing his hand.

Hoseok entered then, already smiling like a dork, Taehyung right behind him with only one of his crutches, mirroring his expression, though he also looked a bit pale. The sudden wakeup call and moving around probably took its toll on him.

Yoongi motioned to his chair and Hoseok was quick to get the message. He guided Tae towards his new seat, which he took gratefully, sitting with a small hiss.

Jimin kept his eyes on him the whole time, then looked up at Yoongi with a questioning glaze.

“He’s fine. His abdomen hurts from his surgery and he caught a cold last night, but he’s fine…”

Taehyung still looked a bit in pain, as he adjusted his position, but he threw him gummy smile nonetheless.

Hoseok kneeled down next to Yoongi and ran a gentle hand through Jimin’s hair “Hey… How’re you feeling?”

“Tired…”

“No kidding”

The doctor looked like she wanted to ask them all to move outside, or at least out of the way, but they were all so emotional and happy; how could anyone disturb them? But she still had her job to do. Hesitantly, she moved closer to the elder boys, who immediately got the message and moved back, allowing her space to work.

Yoongi still held onto Jimin’s hand though. Not that he really had a choice, because his hold became firmer as time went by.

As the doctor finished whatever she had to do (taking his temperature, giving him a shot, checking his pulse and all that jazz) the door opened for the thirst time that hour, a bit too forcefully, almost smashing into the wall. Namjoon, Jin and Hobeom stumbled inside, looking as if they had been run over by a tornado. Their clothes were messy, hair all over the place; Jimin couldn’t help the weak little giggle.

That one sound made all their hearts skip a beat, and Jungkook cry even harder.

The doctor glanced nervously at the thermometer in his hand, while Taehyung kept on coughing in his bed. The fever wasn’t anything big, but considering his already weakened condition, it was troubling.

Jungkook was sitting outside, glaring at the door, point-blank refusing whatever food Jin tried to feed him. None of them were allowed in Tae’s room because of his cold and Jimin was in the middle of a session with his own doctor. They were trying to get his body back in motion with little exercises.

Jin sighted in defeat, moving to stand next to Namjoon.

“No luck?”

“None…”

It happened before; if Jungkook wasn’t allowed to stay with either of the two hospitalized members, he shut down completely, going back to however he was right after the accident, not talking, not eating, not drinking, not anything. And that in itself wouldn’t have been so extremely bad, if the process of getting him back on track wasn’t so hard. It would take them at least two to three days to get him to start eating again, not to mention the nightmares seemed to just know when he was most vulnerable. Last time, the doctors hooked him to an IV, but they suggested trying to get him to eat a bit harder now. If it all fails, fine, they’ll give him an IV again.

His psychiatrist was the most concerned though. She came out of the office once and called Hoseok (who was waiting outside at the time) in. She sat him down and urged Jungkook to tell him what he had just told her, making a confused Hoseok promise not to tell anyone, but insisting one person needs to know. Of course the maknae was hesitant, but after the dancer himself swore to not tell a soul, he gave in.

“I’m scared…”

“Go on…” the psychiatrist gently told him, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder and sending Hoseok a meaningful glance.

“…of not seeing them…”

It was a bit confusing, but then the doctor was kind enough to enlighten Hoseok, while Jungkook was in the bathroom. “He’s hallucinating”

“H-he… What?”

“Whenever he is away from Taehyung and Jimin for too long, when he is finally able to see them again, all his brain can imagine is blood everywhere, and that is what he sees. It’s a trauma; a pretty powerful one at that.”

Seeing Hoseok’s shocked and dazed expression, she continued “Allow me to explain; when he first came to me, I got him to reenact what happened after the car crashed for me. It’s standard procedure to, firstly, make sure he doesn’t have any kind of brain damage, and secondly, to understand what exactly he had gone through so I can decide on the proper way of approaching the situation. Usually, people can go two ways about this; they shut the memory, in which case we have to force it out, or they remember every little detail, which was what happened with Jungkook. And there is one particular memory that is causing him all the nightmares, as well as the hallucinations. After he got himself free from his chair, he tried to help everyone else out as well. But the ones in the back seat, you included, as I understand, were the most severely injured, especially Taehyung and Jimin. And when he went to help them, he saw the extreme damage they had both received first hand. That image was so shocking to him that it glued itself into his head.”

She gave him a second to process the flow of information and continued “On the way to the hospital, he rode with Jimin and witnessed him stop breathing. That and all the things he saw before combined into his night terrors. Now, because he was the only one awake at the time, and pretty much uninjured, he had to wait in the hospital alone for three hours. In all that time, all his brain would allow him to think about was what he saw in the backseats of the car. It didn’t matter that only Taehyung and Jimin were actually that gravely injured; to him, you all could die.”

Hoseok was a bit pale, but morbidly interested, because, up until then, nobody had actually explained what the youngest was going through.

“He told me, the first thing he would do when going into your rooms for the first time, was avoid looking at the beds. When he did look, all he could see was blood. I understand the worst was when going to Taehyung; that was because he was the main focus of his imagination, because he was the, let’s say, inspiration, for everything that followed. He was the one that left the biggest impact.”

“Umm… What about Jimin then…?” he asked in a very weak voice.

“He pretty much forced himself to go visit Jimin. After he saw that he was, in fact, alive, he was fine. He didn’t try very hard to visit Taehyung because you guys kept reassuring him he was fine, and he trusted you enough to believe it. And he was still afraid of what might happen if he went. Fortunately, it all turned up well.”

“Ok…”

“Now, back to the problem at hand; when he is away from someone for more than two or three days, his imagination starts running wild again. Because he can’t visit Taehyung, who, again, is the source of all his uneasiness, it might happen faster now. As I understand it, he’s already refusing to eat again; which is another problem. He told you, if I’m not mistaken, the reason he won’t eat, yes?”

“He… uh, he said everything tasted like blood…”

“Precisely. The reason we urged him to eat salad was because it’s as far away from blood as it gets, and it’s healthy. Right now, all things considered, drinking-wise, it’s really good that he can drink that one glass of water per day. I was actually shocked, because I thought he would keep refusing it until way later. Thankfully, he’s a smart boy; he knows he needs to drink something.”

“Right…”

“The reason I’m telling you all this” she began when noticing just what kind of effect all this info had on the other “is because someone who is next to him all the time, needs to know, needs to understand what he’s going through. It’s for his own sake.”

“How exactly does me knowing this help him…?”

“He’s going to turn to you when he needs help. In situations like now, when he’s so frustrated and there’s no way to avoid the situation, he will know someone understands. Even just that helps more than you can imagine.”

Which is why, at this moment, Hoseok was silently sitting next to Jungkook, scrolling through his phone, outside of Tae’s room, while the maknae somehow managed to sit tight. Jin asked him to try feeding the other something, but he refused. Why? Because he couldn’t imagine having everything that touches your tongue taste like blood. He did, however, make sure he drank his one glass of water.

The doctor came out, closing the door behind him (a clear sign they were not allowed in) and moved to talk with Namjoon and Jin.

“How is he?”

“His fever got stronger since last night, he’s coughing more too. Even though it looks to be nothing more than a cold, we need to keep a close eye on him. His body is weak enough on its own… We’ll keep him under surveillance through the night and see how things go.”

The boys nodded and went to stand by the others, just as Yoongi popped up.

“Hey.” He sounded exhausted.

“What happened to you?” Jin asked, half amused.

“Jimin’s parents were fussing all over the place. It’s nice, yes, but then they started babying me around too. God… I barely managed to get away… How about you?”

Jin tilted his head towards the seats a few feet away. Yoongi got the message with just one glance.

“That bad, huh”

“Yeah…”

“Hey, Jungkookie!”

The teen in question perked up, probably hoping he would be told he could visit Jimin.

“You wanna go for a walk outside? Get some fresh air?”

He looked disappointed for only a second, after which a small smile graced his face. He hadn’t actually walked around outside in a while, so he nodded.

Jin waved at them, happy that Jungkook seemed at least a bit more opened than before. If they’re lucky, he might actually want to eat something too later.

If looks could kill, Jin was pretty sure the hospital would have transformed into a morgue by now. Not to say that he or Namjoon weren’t angry, but the kind of glare Yoongi would throw, to – literally, anyone who looked their way was pretty damn scary. Even the manager was put off enough as to not even try telling him to calm down. They were all quite sure it would end up in a massacre anyway.

The four of them were sitting outside the hospital’s director’s office, where he and Bang Si-Hyuk were currently talking. It was a good thing that he came too, because otherwise, it would have been Yoongi in there, arguing and stomping around.

It all happened a few hours ago; when they were having lunch in the cafeteria. Jungkook was eating his fist-sized salad (or trying to), courtesy of none other than Taehyung. He was still sick, so the others weren’t allowed in, but he heard from the doctor that the youngest wasn’t eating again, so he asked for just two minutes to talk to him. Nobody really knew what he had told him, but Jungkook came back out with a determined look and pretty much dragged the others to eat.

Namjoon was looking through their twitter, bored, until he got a message from someone. He opened the link just to see a few pictures of what looked like Jungkook and Yoongi, walking around. They were taken when the two of them went outside to catch a breath of fresh air a while ago. And even though it was a bit nerve-racking that someone had actually taken pictures, even though they had been reassured no paparazzi were aloud anywhere near the hospital, it was the article that caught his full attention.

The first half was what you’d expect, about the crash, the other two cars, a small debate as to what had happened and the announcement of the arrest of the responsible driver. There was even a picture with their car, smashed and broken. It was the first time he saw the damage and he couldn’t really believe his eyes. It was, as the article put it, a miracle they all survived.

But then there was an anonymous person talking (the one who took the pictures), saying things like ‘I was so sorry for them’ and ‘how horrible’ but then Namjoon almost choked on his food ‘but from what I see, the damage isn’t that bad is it? The public was told that everyone was injured and resting in the hospital and that especially the younger ones were suffering, but I see Jungkook here walking around perfectly fine! How is he in any way hurt? He looks healthier than my sister who is also in that hospital. Why would they lie about him being injured?’

He was speechless. Who the hell was this? In his semi-rage and confusion, he failed to notice Jungkook peel over to also read.

‘They said that Taehyung was also in a dreadful situation right? But I saw him just a few days ago, running around after J-Hope and he was also fine’ How the hell was he fine? He was using crutches for God’s sake!? ‘So, like, what? Do they want attention or so-‘

Namjoon’s phone was swiftly snatched out of his hands and thrown to the other side of the room, breaking apart. When he looked up, shocked, he saw none other Jungkook, tears falling down his eyes, panting heavily and angry as hell. Jin immediately stood up, trying to calm down the teen. But by this point he was already hyperventilating, fast, unable to catch his breath. A few seconds later, a nurse ran in, carrying a portable oxygen mask and gave it to him. He was shaking, still crying, holding unto Hoseok (who was next to him) as if his life depended on it.

A few moments later, his psychiatrist ran in, followed by the other nurse who went to get her. She bent down next to the trembling mess of a boy and started whispering whatever to him, at least slightly calming him down. After Jungkook managed to breathe properly, the doctor and Hoseok went with him to the psychiatric office.

After the whole madness calmed down, Namjoon told explained what the other had read and Yoongi almost exploded then and there. He started stomping all the way to the director’s office, not once stopping from swearing and threatening to rip the neck of whoever the hell took those pictures and commented.

Thankfully, the manager was already there, talking a bit more politely, apparently also aware of the little article circulating through the internet. When Yoongi smashed the door open, Hobeom immediately tried to calm him down, while the director apologized and reassured they would find out who it was that took the pictures. But the rapper was beyond pissed, yelling about what happened in the cafeteria.

Ten minutes later, they were seated outside, quietly, while Bang Si-Hyuk, who came over immediately after Hobeom had called him, started talking to the director. They stood like that a full thirty minutes, point by which Yoongi was tempted to just walk into the office again. Fortunatelly, that was when Bang Si-Hyuk also came out. He looked unnervingly calm, asking where Jungkook was.

“With his psychiatrist” Jin answered, seemingly the only one able to talk politely at the moment.

“Could you show me the way?”

“Of course…”

The others followed too, now more worried than angry.

When they reached the office, Jungkook was fast asleep, head resting in Hoseok’s lap. The doctor was quick to explain the situation.

“The shock of the article was… tremendous. I’m afraid this will be a pretty big step-back in his mental recovery.”

Yoongi moved over to sit besides Hoseok, looking down on the sleeping boy.

“What happened?”

“He cried himself to sleep, basically.”

“Once he wakes up, I think he should be moved into a room.” The doctor began “We need to keep a close eye on him, to make sure this, combined with his thoughts from the accident don’t have a more dangerous tool on his already fragile mind.”

“What do you mean by dangerous?” Though if his pale skin was anything to go by, Namjoon had a pretty good idea what it meant.

The doctor didn’t know how to say it in a lightly manner, but Hobeom saved her the trouble. “Alright, guys, out. Give him space to breathe.” He pushed the boys out, leaving only Hoseok inside.

“Namjoon, did she mean what I think she meant?” Jin asked once they were alone, in the middle of the corridor.

“Yeah… I think she did”

Taehyung looked up expectantly at the doctor.

The man looked down exasperatedly at his patient.

And Tae’s parents were somehow managing to hold in their laughter, somewhere on the couch in the other side of the room.

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pleaaaase?”

“No.”

“Please with a cherry on top?”

“For the last time, no.”

“Please with two cherries on top?”

“Taeh-“

“Aw come on! I want to go see them too! I’ve been stuck in here for ages and I haven’t coughed since yesterday and my fever’s gone down and I feel great! Please! Please let me go visit the others! Please!”

It’s been like this for a few days now, ever since he heard of Jungkook’s little breakdown and hospitalization. He’s been trying to get his doctor to let him go see him, but to no avail. Not like he didn’t understand it was because of his cold, but his throat was fine, he hadn’t coughed or sneezed since last night, his fever was nowhere to be seen and his energy was back.

“Please?”

He looked so hopeful and helpless, the doctor couldn’t help but feel bad for not allowing him the visit, but it was for his own good. The cold was still very much there, and even though his fever had indeed gone down a whole lot, his temperature was still not at a normal level.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t yet. Maybe next week”

Taehyung didn’t bother to push the matter anymore, instead plopping down on his pillow with a pout. He’ll try again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Yoongi was walking relentlessly up and down a certain room, Jimin watching him with an amused smile. He came in a few hours prior, only minutes after his doctor left, and hadn’t said a word. Jimin was tired at that point and just fell asleep, but when he woke up, the rapper was still there, looking through his phone, then listening to music, then walking around.

“Is something bothering you?” Obviously, really, but it was still a good conversation starter.

Yoongi turned to look him up and down, frowning “You voice sounds weird”

“My neck is dry… So what happened?”

“They found out who posted the thing and moved her sister to a different hospital.”

“Oh… Well, isn’t that a good thing?”

“Yeah…”

“So then why are you still so stressed? I thought” he stopped for a bit to cough, earning a weird glance from the other “Sorry, I thought they even gave a statement the other day to clear the situation, isn’t everything good now? Did something happen to Kookie again?”

“No, no, he’s fine… If you can even call it that” he whispered the last part only to himself as he took a seat on the chair next to Jimin’s bed.

The very moment Jungkook had woken up that day, after the whole article incident, he had the most perfect poker face in the world. He could put professional players to shame. His psychiatrist looked so worried, it made the rest of them even more nervous than they already felt. And then they realized why; he shut himself in, completely. To top it off, he stopped talking; not like before, when he would still speak to them, now he was like a mute.

Funny enough, the psychiatrist said it wasn’t the worst. What the hell could have happened more?

Yoongi was brought back to reality by Jimin’s coughs. “Can you pass me some water please?”

He did, eying the younger’s neck suspiciously. “Ok, that is definitely not how your voice is supposed to sound. What happened?”

“I told you, it’s fine, I’m just tired and… and…”

“Save it. What did the doctor say?”

Jimin looked like a cornered puppy, avoiding eye contact at all cost. “Nothing really…”

“Jimin.”

“They might have said I might, maybe, possibly need a surgery if it doesn’t go back to normal till next week?” His voice kept getting quieter and quieter, to the point Yoongi bent over to catch everything, after which he snapped back up, eyes wide as fists.

“Surgery!? And why, pray-tell, did you not tell us?”

“Well, it’ll go back to normal in no time and it won’t be necessary so…”

“Jimin…” Yoongi was starting to reach his wit’s end at this point. There was too much going on, all at once. “Please tell us about stuff like this…”

The youngest pulled the covers over his head, muffling an apology.

Just then, the door opened, revealing Jin with Jungkook. Jimin pulled his covers back down and immediately grinned when seeing who it was. Kookie offered the absolute tiniest of smiles, but at least he was trying.

Yoongi motioned for him to take his seat as he went outside, in the corridor, to talk to the eldest.

“Anything?”

“Well he ate his salad… that count’s as something, right?”

“This is getting out of hand” Yoongi whined, ruffling his own hair.

Jin offered an understanding smile “Tell me about it… How’s Jimin?”

“Well, fine, except, you know, he may or may not have to get a surgery for his neck now”

“A what? Why?”

“His voice sounds weird, so I asked him about it and he told me the doctors said they’ll have to operate on him if it doesn’t go back to normal soon. How’s that news for you?”

“Rough… How come we didn’t notice this before…?”

“Well, to be fair, he’s usually asleep or with his doctors so… We haven’t really had a whole lot of time with him.”

“True, but still…”

After getting themselves something to drink, and the dreadful glass of water for Jungkook, the two went back into Jimin’s room. To their surprise, Kookie was looking intently at the other, a somewhat sad look in his eyes.

“Uhh…” Jimin started when noticing them.

“What happened?”

“Well…”

Jungkook then looked at Yoongi and pointed at Jimin’s neck.

“Oh, that; did you tell him?”

Jimin shook his head with a sheepish smile “He actually knew for a while…”

The elders both looked surprised at Jungkook, who was now eyeing the glass of water with a disgusted look.

“He knew?”

“Well, he’s been spending a lot of time with me… obviously he would realize it”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because there won’t be any need for a surgery! I’m sure it will be back to normal in no time”

Jin didn’t look convinced, passing the cup of water to Jungkook. The youngest hesitated a few seconds, then suddenly gulping it all in a flash.

“Whoa! Slow down! What if you choke yourself?” Jin began as soon as he saw what the other was doing. His response came in the form of a shake of the head, as he was given the glass back.

“At least he took it…” Yoongi whispered so only the eldest could hear him.

“What are we gonna do with these two…”

When Yoongi opened the door a few minutes ago, he wasn’t expecting to see Jungkook sitting up in his bed, cross-legged, the blanket covering his back, staring intently in the eyes of one supposedly still sick Taehyung who was mimicking the younger’s position, to the point he even had his own blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“Uh…”

“Can’t talk right now” Taehyung announced with the most serious tone he could manage.

Yoongi just stood in the middle of the door, confused beyond belief. He took his phone out and glanced at the time “You do know it’s nearly midnight, right?” He didn’t get an answer, so he just sighted and went to sit on the chair next to the bed.

It took another few seconds for Taehyung to suddenly groan and rub at his eyes, while Jungkook managed the smallest of smirks.

“So… what was that about?”

“Staring contest.”

“…”

“I told him that if I win, he had to talk to me”

And as silly as it sounded, it was actually quite nice seeing him try to open the other up again. It put a smile on Yoongi’s face.

“Cute”

Taehyung pouted, glaring at Jungkook.

“And yet, aren’t you supposed to be in your own bed, sleeping? Are you even allowed here?”

It was obvious by Tae’s sheepish smile that no, he was, in fact, not supposed to be there.

“Ok, down. I’m taking you back to your room”

“What!? No! Please! I’m so bored in there! My cold is gone too! Let me stay here and play”

“Tae… The doctor said you could come over on Monday. You won’t die waiting two more days”

“But what if I do?” He asked with the weirdest of expressions; something between terrifying and stupid. Good thing Yoongi was used to his abnormal behavior, or he would have started laughing and the other would win by default.

“No. Down. Let’s go.”

Taehyung stuck his tongue out at the elder and was just pushing his feet out of the bed when Jungkook grabbed him by his wrist. He turned to the younger, surprised, just to see him shake his head with a determined and pleading look. He then looked over at Yoongi.

“Uh…”

“Kookie…” but he only shook his head harder.

Yoongi ran a hand through his hair, exasperated. “Ok, fine, whatever. Stay then.”

Jungkook’s face immediately lit up, as did Taehyung’s, who jumped back onto the bed, giggling like a winner.

“I’ll be right back”

Yoongi went over to the vending machine next to the cafeteria, getting two bottles of honey water and a plastic cup of water. He might as well take advantage of the situation and make the maknae drink some more.

On the way back to the room, he stopped by a familiar office and knocked twice. Not a moment later, a “come in” was heard.

“Good evening, I’m sorry to disturb you. Are you busy?”

The doctor looked up from his papers and offered a smile “Not at all. What can I help you with?”

“Well, Taehyung kind of… snuck into Jungkook’s room. I know he’s not allowed to, but could you overlook it just this once? They both want to spend some time together, since they haven’t been able to since a while back…”

The man looked thoughtful for a moment, searching for a paper. He pulled it out and scanned it, while saying “Well, his cold is pretty much gone… And he has been doing a great job in recovering; I don’t see why not. Besides, we only told him to wait another day so he would sleep. And since he won’t do it anyway…”

“Thank you”

“No problem at all”

When he got back, Jungkook and Taehyung were both lying down, blankets tangled with their feet, tablet in hands, looking at a movie. He silently passed the drinks to the two, but, evidently, Kookie looked more than a little displeased even more so because he knew he already drank his one glass that day.

“It’s your fault he’s going against his doctor, so consider it payback.”

He received a glare in response, but the teen still drank the water, though it took forever.

An hour later, Yoongi was lost into his phone and almost didn’t notice the tablet slowly slipping away. Almost. Thankfully, it caught his eyes just in time. He bent forward to grab it just as it fell from the bed, a sight escaping him. When he looked back up, Taehyung and Jungkook were both asleep, much like that one time Hoseok had even taken a picture of them. Actually, that was a good idea.

He sat back down, smirking at the picture, and sent it to Hoseok with the message “Look what you’re missing out on”. He had gone away for the week, much like Namjoon, to stay with his parents. Now that his hand was firmly healed, the doctors officially discharged him. It was almost funny how only the young ones were now still hospitalized.

<<OMG! They’re so cute>> came Hoseok’s predictable response.

<<Why aren’t you asleep?>> Yoongi texted back.

<<Why aren’t you>>

<<I asked first>>

<<Touché. We went to a restaurant and only got back like two minutes ago. I was about to go take a shower>>

<<And I’m babysitting>>

<<lol>>

<<Not funny>>

<<Yeah right. How’s your leg?>>

Truth be told, Yoongi still felt a tiny little bit of pain whenever he used his left leg a bit too much, but the doctor reassured him it was nothing. <<It’s fine. When are you getting back?>>

<<Aww, you miss me?>>

<<You wish>>

<<Pff. Meannie. I’m coming on Thursday, noon?>>

<<Ok. See you then>>

<<Right! Go to sleep>>

<<Like you’re one to talk>>

<<Ke ke ke. Good night>>

<<Night>>

He moved over and gently removed the tangled blankets, laying them on top of the boys. One of them barely got over a cold, there was no need to rush in getting another.

“You two better get well soon… this is exhausting.”

“Everything seems to be in order” the doctor said happily, moving away from the bed to grab a little cup of medicine and a glass of water that he passed to Jimin. “No need to worry anymore. Tomorrow, we’ll continue with your exercises, until then, rest and try not to move around too much, ok?” the boy nodded and the doctor went away with a satisfied nod.

“See” Jimin began, turning to Yoongi “told you it would turn out alright”

Indeed, the younger had been quite persistent that his neck would not need a surgery. And really, nobody believed him, because recently only bad things kept happening over and over. First there was Taehyung’s cold, now back at full force because of one stupid night spent walking around instead of resting, then Jungkook started to refuse to see absolutely anyone except for Namjoon or Hoseok (and his psychiatrist, of course) because the poor kid blamed himself for Tae’s worsened health, and, to top it all off, Jin was stranded back in wherever-he-was, because the trains stopped moving for some reason. He told them he’d get a bus or something, but everyone reassured him there was no need to hurry back, that he should enjoy the opportunity and spend more time with his family.

“Stop being so cocky kid.” Yoongi joked, ruffling the other’s hair in a playful manner.

“Well at least one of you is getting his health in check” Najoon grumbled under his breath. He had been in a bad mood since his last visit to Jungkook. The boys didn’t ask him what happened, but the rather red mark on his cheek left little to the imagination.

Jimin offered a cheeky smile; Yoongi, on the other hand, threw the leader a disapproving look.

“Where is Hoseok?”

“With Jungkook’s brother”

The younger’s parents were called as soon as Jungkook hit his mental breakdown a few days ago. When they arrived, the psychiatrist recommended them to wait a bit, but his mother was way too worried. Unfortunately, her busting into the room, sort of sent the teen into hyper rampage mode. The only reason his mother didn’t receive a metal pad to the head was Namjoon’s quick reflexes (though he did get a punch in the face for it). Since then, the doctors had to use restrains on him.

The only other person who seemed to not get a negative reaction from Jungkook upon entering the room, seemed to be his brother, which was, as the psychiatrist put it, more than brilliant. For two days now, the two of them were always together.

“How is he?” Jimin tentatively asked.

Namjoon sighted, looking anywhere but at the younger “I really don’t know any more…”

Even Jungkook didn’t know. He was sitting up in bed, knees close to his chest, trying to pull his hands free. He hated the restraints, hated the room he was stuck in, hated the medicine he had to take, the fact that Tae was sick because of him, that he hit Namjoon, that he almost hit his mother, and he just hated himself the most.

He jerked his hands again, harder, but to no avail. It hurt whenever he pulled in an awkward direction, but he really didn’t care at that point. He was sure he had bruises by now. He pulled even harder, a small hiss escaping him.

“Stop that! What if you hurt yourself?” Hoseok said, moving towards him. He hadn’t even heard the door open.

“Kookie…” His brother looked him over with such sad eyes that Jungkook may have actually felt bad. However he was busy feeling angry and frustrated and a whole bunch of other things.

Feeling rather rebellious, Jungkook pulled even harder on his restrains, glaring the whole while straight at his brother. Hoseok was on him in seconds, holding his arm still.

“Jungkook, stop it! Do you want to break your hands or something?”

Like you care he thought miserably, moving onto his knees to pull even harder. His brother was beyond speechless, while Hoseok looked terrified, warning him he’ll end up pulling his arms out of their sockets. Truth be told, it did start hurting a whole freaking lot, but his emotions seemed to make the pain almost nonexistent. He gave the restrains one final jerk and then simply crashed back down on his back. Hoseok threw him the most disgruntled look he could manage, while simultaneously giving his shoulders a small massage.

“Mom wants to talk to you…” His brother stated after a few moments of silence. But he received no reaction. “Hey…” Still nothing. He sighted and moved to stand in front of his little brother’s face (even if the other still didn’t look him in the eyes) “I know you don’t want to, but she wants to tell you some things, ok?” It was quiet for a while and then he went to the door, Hoseok right behind him “I’m sending her in…”

Not one minute later, the door opened again. Jungkook kept his eyes closed, determined to not look at anyone. He heard the chair on the other side of the room being pulled over next to his bed. It was quiet for a while and he was almost tempted to look around, just to make sure someone was actually in the room. But then his mother’s voice came through, as warm and loving as ever.

“Hey honey…” He almost flinched at the oh-so familiar voice. “I’m sorry about last time; I probably startled you, didn’t I? Even though your doctor told me not to, I still came in like that. Oh, and poor Namjoon even got a bruise because of me… I should apologize to him later”

You don’t need to apologize… I hit him.

“Oh, and they even put those dreadful things on you… I’m so sorry, I should have listened.”

He felt a gentle hand along his wrist, his mom no doubt looking at the restrains. She hesitated and then moved to hold his hand. To her shock (no doubt) and immense pleasure, he didn’t hesitate in holding back, though he still didn’t look at her, eyes firmly closed.

“I know it’s hard…” She began with a soft voice “And I am very much aware there is little I can do to soothe you in this situation, because I will never fully understand what you are going through right now… But I am here, and your father and your brother are here too and we would do anything for this accident to have never happened. But it did, and all we can do now is just be here, next to you and try our best to make sure you see the good end of everything…”

Jungkook peeked down at his mother who was looking at their joined hands. He felt a pang of guilt seeing how sad she looked.

“I don’t really understand everything that is happening to you right now, even though the doctor tried to explain… All I could gather is that you are deeply hurt, not physically, but mentally. And it’s so much worse than last time we saw you… Oh, and poor Taehyung… You know he would never blame you for his cold, so please don’t beat yourself for it… Even his mother told us not to worry, that he was more worried if you caught the cold too because of him…”

She looked up at him, fully expecting to see him facing the other way or something, but, to her pleasure, he was staring right at her, tears forming in the corner of his eyes. She offered him such a worm smile and moved her free hand to run over his hair.

“Baby, you don’t need to punish yourself any more… you already look so weak and skinny, you barely sleep or eat… Please stop torturing yourself so much.” At this point his tears were freely falling, sobs escaping his throat as she continued to move her hand in a comforting manner “I know it’s hard, I’ve heard everything from the doctor, but you need to eat… You need to drink; you need to be healthy again. You were so full of energy, all the time, always. Now you can barely manage through the day. The other boys are so worried about you too… Please, please, take care of yourself”

She got out of her chair to move over and hug her crying mess of a son. That was the moment Jungkook wanted the restrains to disappear the most since he first got them. It wasn’t fair, he wanted to hug her back.

Hoseok smiled gently as he closed the door with a soft click. Jungkook’s brother threw him a questioning look.

“I think things’ll get better now”

Hoseok and Namjoon were staring down on Taehyung with warning glances, much like his doctor before he left a few minutes ago.

“You aren’t going anywhere this time” the leader warned.

Unlike last time they were allowed to go into his room, the two elder boys swore to be near him at all costs, all the time. His fever went down again, but they would die before letting him wonder around and get sick, again.

Tae flashed them a gummy smile, pulling the covers closer, as if they would protect him from their piercing glares. He was actually not planning on going anywhere this time, but it was nice seeing them care. (No way was he going to tell them though)

“How is Jimin?” he tried changing the subject.

“He’s complaining about being stuck in bed, but unlike someone, he listens to his doctor”

So much for changing the subject…

“If you move out of this bed again, we’ll ask the doctors to give us Jungkook’s restrains”

Tae pouted, covering his face with the blankets, as Hoseok threw the leader a displeased look. “Please don’t joke about that…”

The whole matter of Jungkook’s current mental state was a pretty touchy subject to Tae. He had bugged the others until they admitted everything, after which he became unsettlingly quiet. Then Namjoon popped up with a huge bruise on his cheek and Tae started begging the doctors to let him go talk to the youngest. They refused him over and over, someone accidentally slipping that Kookie had restraints, point in which Tae kind of froze, eyes wide in disbelief. Since then, he dropped the subject completely, always looking uncomfortable when the shackle-like things were brought up.

Namjoon silently apologized; while Hoseok removed the blanket from the younger’s face.

“Hey, don’t worry; I’m sure they’ll take them off in no time. The doctor even said he seems to be getting better faster since his mom’s visit. And you’re getting well too. You two will be back to barging into each other’s rooms in no time.”

“You mean like this?” Namjoon asked with a smirk, going through his phone. Once he found what he was looking for, he turned to Taehyung. The younger immediately turned red, ducking for the phone.

“Hey!”

Namjoon pulled back just in time, snickering, showing the pictures to Hoseok who also started giggling.

“When did you take those?” Tae was embarrassed, still trying to catch the phone from the elder’s grasp.

“Oh, you know, every time you guys would sneak around to play. How could we resist?”

“We?”

“Oh yeah, everyone has at least one copy on their phone…”

“What!?” He turned to Hoseok who was pretty much dying of laughter. “Why… Oh come on”

“Be grateful we didn’t upload them on twitter or anything… Maybe we should!”

“Hey!”

Just then the door burst open, revealing their manager, looking around the room, then running back outside. A second later, Yoongi appeared, trying to catch his breath.

“Have… You… Gimmie a sec… Have you seen Kookie?”

Tae was immediately on the edge of his bed “What do you mean see him; he’s locked in his room, isn’t he?”

“…Was”

Jungkook stared as his psychiatrist started undoing his restrains.

“I brought you your lunch, ok? You have to eat it all”

The door to the room would usually be locked, the key hidden somewhere in the doctor’s many pockets. But today, he didn’t hear the familiar click.

She passed him the little bowl of salad as she undid the second restrain and took to sitting in the chair next to his bed. Jungkook started eating, wordlessly, no complains, no nothing. His mother had quite the impact on him it seemed.

“Maybe we should bring your mother in more often” the doctor joked as she wrote something down.

Usually, Jungkook would have found the comment somewhat amusing, even offered a tiny smile, but his mind was elsewhere.

Maybe if someone had paid more attention, they would have noticed how his eyes never left the door, how his feet seemed to shake in anticipation, how he ate the salad, fast, not because he had to, but because he wanted the energy. Maybe if someone had been waiting outside of his room like usual, they would have heard the sound of the bowl being thrown to the other side of the room, or the psychiatrist’s yelp of surprise. And maybe if someone were around, they would have been able to stop him before he ran out the hospital’s front doors.

Namjoon was quick to run after Hobeom while Hoseok pulled his phone out, following close behind. Yoongi threw Tae a glance, catching the younger’s attention.

“You have… Don’t move from there, ok? Your… Your doctor’s gonna come stay with you. Keep your phone near.” And then he started going after the others.

As soon as the four of them were outside the hospital, they began getting even more worried. Jungkook had been wearing only a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, but it was freezing outside, not to mention raining. So cliché isn’t it, Yoongi thought miserably as he got into their manager’s car. The two of them would go one direction and the other boys another.

“He’s barefoot isn’t he? He can’t have gone far like that” Namjoon screamed over the thunder.

“He’s going to catch pneumonia if we don’t find him soon!”

They kept running around for ten minutes with no success. Tae kept calling them every two minutes, sounding more and more terrified each time. A while later, Jimin called too, firstly yelling at them for not telling him what was going on, then rambling about how the younger probably hates them all at this point, then crying, stressing Hoseok out even more. The last thing they heard before the call ended was a very distressed “Please find him”

They stopped after another twenty minutes, desperately trying to regain their breaths. They hid under the roof of a café, calling for the other searching party “Anything?” Namjoon panted into the phone.

<<Nothing yet. We called Bang Si-Hyuk and we have at least two more cars going around… How much energy could he possibly have? He’s been eating nothing but salad, how could he have run so far away?>>

“I have no idea… I’ll call you back later”

“So?”

“No luck…”

“Shit…”

“Yeah…”

“Where would you go?”

“What?”

“He’s been stuck inside that hospital for ages; he couldn’t have just ran off at random, right? He should have at least an idea where he wants to go… You think he went to the studio? Or the dorm? What’s that shop he likes again?”

“He wasn’t at the studio or at home, they checked”

Hoseok looked at his watch and grunted desperately “Namjoon, it’s been forty minutes; where the hell is he…”

“Call him again”

“He closed his phone”

They started running around again, looking through every shop and every little alley, calling for him, asking people if they’ve seen him, but nothing. Namjoon’s phone rang again and he picked up without bothering to check who it was. “Ye-“

<<Did you check the river?>>

“The… the what?”

<<The river, did you check there?>>

“Tae, that’s an hour walk from here!”

<<So what!? Go check!>>

“What was that about?” Hoseok absentmindedly asked while rounding another corner.

“Hello, Yoongi? You guys go check the river”

<<The river? You do know how far away that is right?>>

“Yeah… Taehyung’s idea”

<<Fine, got it>>

“Namjoon…”

The leader turned to see Hoseok still trying to call the younger. The whole situation felt like a movie… Hoseok turned to him with desperate eyes.

“What if we can’t find him…”

He didn’t really remember how he ended up in the middle of the road, soaking wet, cold, and yet feeling good for the first time in ages. When his psychiatrist seemingly forgot to lock the door, he could feel excitement build up in his entire system and rushed out the door without a second thought.

It was raining heavily and it was colder than he would have liked it to be, but it was freedom, and God was he loving it. He ran at full speed for what felt like forever. He slowed down after a while, but never fully stopped.

When his phone rang, his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He had honestly forgotten he even had it with him. He didn’t even check who it was, just denied the call and then shut the phone off. He had no intention of letting anyone ruin this for him. It had been too damn long.

When his adrenaline seemed to finally run out, he was in a familiar yet unfamiliar place. He recognized some buildings and whatnot, but he had no idea where he was. He looked around, panting heavily, trying to figure out which way to go. He thought about looking at a map in his phone, but then people will start calling him again, and he really didn’t want to deal with that.

He went to go down one street, then, realizing nothing looked familiar, went the other way. He didn’t want to get lost. Honestly, though, he didn’t know what he wanted.

An overly bright lightning followed by the unnecessarily loud crack startled him, moment in which he actually remembered he was barefoot “Ow!” It seemed the streets of Seoul weren’t quite as clean as one would think…

Maybe I should have taken my shoes he thought as he continued running down the street. If he remembered correctly, he would end up somewhere around one of those smaller rivers, then he could figure out where exactly to go. He didn’t want to be somewhere with a lot of people, because someone might recognize him and he still had an image to protect (though that wasn’t really on his mind right now)

It took him another twenty minutes to reach the river, point by which he was drenched, tired and his leg hurt because he stepped on something sharp a while back. But when he laid eyes on the water, his mood lifted up immediately and a smile graced his face. He went to lean onto the railing, catching his breath, while peeking down the stream. From where he was standing he could see the lights from downtown, ever so bright in the darkening sky. He hadn’t even checked what time it was, didn’t consider the late hour.

He was just about to move when he suddenly thought he heard his name and froze where he stood. Not a moment later, he heard it again. When he heard it a third time, he started running the opposite direction, even faster than before.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no he kept whispering to himself go away, go away, go away. But no matter how fast he ran, the voice kept getting louder.

“Jun- Is that? Jungkook, wait!” Yoongi’s yell made his heart jump and he glanced back, only to see a car following him a few feet behind.

No, no, no he ducked into a small alley, knowing they couldn’t follow him there, but as soon as the car stopped, Yoongi rushed out and kept yelling for him.

“Jungkook!”

He stumbled a bit, rocks on the ground slowing him down and giving the elder just enough time to get dangerously close to him.

“Jungko- OW! Mother f-“

In his desperation to get away, Jungkook had done what seemed the most obvious, and threw whatever landed in his hand towards the other. It just so happened that that thing was his phone and it hit the other straight in the head. The tiniest trace of guilt formed in his stomach, but he still never stopped, picking his phase back up.

“You little son of a bitch… Get back here!” Yoongi swayed a bit, holding his injured head, then running, though slower, after the youngest. He knew getting angry now was not the most ideal of situations, but God, was that little prick getting on his nerves.

Hobeom ran past him, yelling for him to get back to the car. But he really didn’t want to. No, Yoongi wanted to keep running, catch Jongkook and give him a good beating for that phone. But he did stop, taking a closer inspection of his new injury. When he removed his head, he saw, to his shock, some blood. “That little…!” Screw going to the car, he ran full speed after the maknae, pulling his own phone out and calling for Namjoon.

<<Yeah? Did you find him?>>

“Oh I found him alright, but I’m afraid he’ll need to be hospitalized”

<<What!? Why? What happened?>>

“Nothing yet, but just wait ‘till I get my hands on him”

Namjoon could probably hear the venom in his voice <<What on earth did he do to you?>>

“Oh nothing, just threw his fucking phone in my fucking head! Did I mention I’m bleeding? I swear I’m gonna rip his head off!”

<<Where are you?>>

“The river, Jimin was- Jungkook, Jesus! What the hell are you doing! Get down from there!”

<<What’s ha->>

Yoongi threw the phone into the manager’s arms and ever so slowly got closer to Jungkook who was balancing rather dangerously on top of the fence separating them and the river. It was already a pretty risky move, seeing as it was barely fifteen centimeters wide, but the railing was also slippery because of the water. One wrong step and he could end up in the river.

“Jungkook…” Yoongi began in the most reassuring and calm voice he could muster over the raging thunder, hands up in defense “Calm down, and get down from there…”

The boy kept his eyes on the elder’s forehead, obviously feeling bad, especially since he hadn’t been trying to hit him so hard, just enough for him to get away. He shook his head, taking another step.

“Jesus; will you stop moving!? What if you fall in?”

But the other didn’t listen. He wanted to move away enough so he could jump down onto the bridge a few feet away and run the other direction. Though he did slip a bit, but he quickly regained his balance.

Yoongi, however, looked like he swallowed his though when the other’s foot almost missed the fence. He, and the manager, somewhere in the back, seemingly froze for a good ten seconds.

“Ok stop! Stop! Just… Where are you going?”

Jungkook didn’t really know how to answer that. Away? Anywhere but here? Where did he want to go? All he wanted was, honestly, to get away from the hospital and just have time to himself, somewhere where nobody would bother and pester him about this and that. He was tired of people telling him what to do, of having to eat when he didn’t feel like it, of still tasting the fucking blood in anything that touched his tongue, of being locked inside a room with nothing to do but keep thinking back to that God forsaken accident over and over and over.

He hadn’t realized he started crying until a sob escaped him. His feet hurt as hell from all the running and stepping on whatever was lying around, his energy was completely gone, everything hurt and his head was dizzy. He took one last glance at the bridge a few feet away and just gave up. He didn’t have enough power for this; not physically nor mentally.

Yoongi watched as the other swayed a bit and then jumped off back onto the street. He immediately went next to him, just in time to catch him before he hit the ground.

“Shhh… It’s fine now… You’re gonna be fine…” He tried his best to calm down the crying mess in his arms, while the manager called the others to let everyone know they found him.

“I don’t want to go back…” Jungkook’s small and whiney voice send a chill down Yoongi’s spine. It had been more than a week since he last heard his voice, but he was sure it never sounded so weak. “Please… Don’t send me back…”

“I won’t… I won’t…” He continued to run a hand down the other’s back, while glancing worriedly at the manager. Could they actually not send him back to the hospital? Hobeom looked almost as lost as him. Seeing the youngest like this, none of them really felt like going back, but what could they do?

Jungkook kept crying in Yoongi’s arms for a good ten minutes, after which he sort of fell asleep, finally out of energy.

Everything hurt, was the first thought that entered Jungkook’s brain as he started coming back to reality. His hands were numb and his head was a bit dizzy. Suddenly he decided he didn’t want to wake up, so he snuggled back into the pillow, pulling the covers over his head to block out the sun.

Suddenly realizing what he just did, or, more precisely, what he had been able to just do, he snapped his eyes open and sat up. He couldn’t believe his eyes. This wasn’t the empty and by now almost suffocating room of the hospital, this was their shared bedroom. His hands weren’t held down on either side of him, he wasn’t surrounded by plain blue walls and he didn’t have a needle stuck into his arm. This was his bed, with his pillow (that was once Jimin’s; once) his fluffy blanket, surrounded by all the toys and whatnot that he liked, with one of Taehyung’s teddy bears next to the window.

Was he actually awake?

He continued to look around, confused and bewildered by everything around him, until a sound caught his attention. It came from their tiny little living room. Ever so slowly, he got out of bed, absentmindedly noticing his feet were covered in band aids, and moved towards the door.

“Don’t make so much noise, you’ll wake him up” That was Jin’s voice. Wasn’t he still at his parent’s?

“Oh please, he wouldn’t wake up if the national parade starts singing in his ears” And that was Yoongi.

Jin laughed a bit “How are you still so bitter?”

“Shove it… Where are you going?”

“I wanna check on him”

“You did barely five minutes ago”

“Well maybe he’s awake now, or what if he pushed his blankets away again?”

“Let him be…”

Jungkook heard the elder getting closer and decided he’d slept enough. He took in a shaky breath and opened the door just as Jin was about to grab the handle. A small gasp escaped him, after which he smiled widely.

“Well look who finally woke up!”

Yoongi peaked up from his tablet, and Jungkook felt guilt building up. He had a pretty big bandage over his forehead, no doubt the aftermath of him throwing the phone the other day. His discomfort probably showed, because the rapper moved a hand to his forehead with a shrug and a “Don’t worry about it”

“Sorry…”

“Oh!” Jin sounded delighted. He hadn’t heard the younger talk in so long; it was starting out to be a pretty good day. He told him to sit down and that he was just about to bring out lunch. It was already noon?

Something Jungkook noticed as he sat down though, was that both boys seemed to be trying their best to not touch him. He found it quite strange for a while. Then Jin brought out the food and he felt his stomach clench.

Everything looked delicious, honestly, and smelled sublime, but a little voice in his head kept whispering disgusting thoughts to him, so he looked away. The other two kept their eyes on him, after which Jin sort of put the meat out of sight.

“Do you… want some?” Yoongi tentatively asked, pointing to a Caesar Salad Jin had spontaneously decided to make because “Why not” Jungkook eyed it for a while, after which he decided he might as well try it. The worst that could happen was to throw up, and he was used to that by now. To his immense surprise and unbelievable pleasure, it tasted…normal. He couldn’t feel the bittersweet taste he had gotten used to in the past months, he couldn’t feel a slightly raspy texture that was never actually there when he swallowed, it was delicious. He was so shocked; he didn’t realize he sort of froze for a good two minutes.

Jin was just about to ask if he was alright when a tear escaped him. Of course the elder started panicking, while Yoongi looked on, only slightly alarmed, and thinking maybe it really was too soon to start eating. But then Jungkook whispered “It’s delicious…” taking another bite. Both boys took a moment to reflect on what they had just heard, actually considering their ears were messing with them. But Kookie kept eating, seemingly getting happier and happier with every bite.

By the time he finished the salad, he was a giggly mess, lying on the floor with their tiger plushy in hands, unable to contain himself. He hadn’t been this happy in ages. The two elder boys couldn’t help but mirror his huge smile.

“Since you’re in such a good mood” Jin began, pointing at three paper bags overflowing with what looked like letters “why don’t you give it a go”

He moved over to them, still laughing for no reason, and took some of them out.

“From A.R.M.Y.” Jin said with a gentle smile.

Jungkook had heard that they were receiving letters back at the office, but nobody could send them over for whatever reason, so the only messages he saw were the ones on Twitter, like, two months ago. He didn’t waste a moment and started opening up every envelope that had his name on it.

“Get well soon” “Please take care of yourself” “Don’t mind those hurtful comments going around, they don’t even know what’s going on” “Please take care of Chim Chim and Tae Tae for A.R.M.Y.” “We really miss you, but you need to rest” “Take it easy”  “You should take advantage and ask for a holiday, or a raise” “Get plenty of rest” “Don’t strain yourself” “Please send our thanks to Suga-oppa and Rap Mon-oppa for keeping us updated” “I hope you’re not hurt” “A.R.M.Y. will pray for you” And so, so much more. It was overwhelming and it made him even happier.

By the end of the day, he had read through all of his own letters, twice. Yoongi had jokingly called him obsessed, but he didn’t mind. Also, during that period, he finally figured out why the others were avoiding touching him. Jin had only just brushed by his arm while heading towards the bathroom and he literally jumped a feet in the air. Apparently, he had done that the day before too, at some point. He was a bit sensitive, apparently, but if it was him initiating any kind of contact, he was fine.

Yoongi said he was getting more and more like a bunny, much to his embarrassment.

It was raining, though not as heavily as that morning. It had been a good day, they practiced a bit and then worked on their choreography; later the manager came by and decided to treat them all to dinner. They hadn’t gone out like that in a while.

He took a seat in the back, next to Hoseok who started joking around with Jin who had a hand camera with him. They wanted to film something funny for a new Bangtan Bomb for YouTube. For a while now, they had been uploading older stuff.

He was sitting quietly in his seat, a bit tired, when something caught his eyes. He leaned over the window, scanning the street. Then he saw a car headed straight for them and his eyes went wide “Whatch-!”

“Jimin!”

His eyes snapped open and he would have probably jumped out of bed if Yoongi hadn’t been holding him down. His head was dizzy, spinning around a hundred miles per second, every muscle in his body felt hot and his heart was on the verge of bursting out of his chest.

“Jimin! Calm down! You’re fine! Everything’s fine!”

Yoongi’s voice didn’t do very much to calm him, probably because he could barely register what he was saying. But then the rapper grabbed his hands and pushed them down on his chest, then used his free hand to force the younger to face his way.

“Look at me!”

Jimin’s entire body was shaking uncontrollably; it was a miracle the elder was able to actually hold him in place. He had to frown, unable to clearly see who it was that was talking to him; his vision was blurry and his head was still making the room move by itself.

“Look at me…” Yoongi said again, in a much gentler voice.

It took Jimin another few seconds until the voice started to sound remotely familiar, point by which he was crying, his entire body hurt because he jerked rather harshly when he woke up and his body was still unrecovered and his brain kept playing tricks on him – he could feel the car pushing into his side, even though he knew it was impossible, but he could still feel it.

“You’re alright… You’re ok…” Yoongi continued whispering to him, now stroking his head in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. He was still pushing him down, just to make sure he wouldn’t cause himself more injuries. “You’re fine now… Everything’s alright…”

It took Jimin about ten minutes to finally relax his muscles, though he still shook every now and then. He looked dazed and completely out of it, eyes staring at nothing in particular. A few minutes ago, Yoongi had released his hold on him and had jumped in bed with him, allowing the younger to rest his head in his lap, while still running a hand through his hair.

It had been quite a while since the Jimin had woken up with such a rough reaction. Even in the beginning, when his nightmares seemed to have been the worst, he would still only slightly jump awake, not scream like today. Yoongi guessed it must be because he hadn’t had a nightmare in a while.

“You ok…?” He whispered tentatively to the boy below him. He hadn’t felt him twitch in a while, though he sensed his pants getting wet with ever flowing tears.

Jimin offered a small nod in response.

Yoongi sighted and pulled the covers over the younger. “Do you want to talk about it?

He didn’t get a response for a few minutes, point by which he was sure he would never get one, but then Jimin started talking, in the most quiet and unnervingly calm voice he had ever heard.

“I saw the crash… I remembered… how it happened”

Yoongi hummed in response, moving his hand to play at the base of the other’s neck. It was a funny little thing he saw Jungkook do one time, and Jimin pretty much melted to the touch. It was quite funny actually, like a cat.

Indeed, the other seemed to lean into the touch “When we were going back… I saw a car driving weirdly… And then I looked back to it… It came right into my seat…” A pause “It really hurt…”

Thinking back to it, Yoongi only now remembered the sudden and powerful yell that startled them all before the crash actually happened. It was Jimin’s voice, probably realizing what was going to happen.

“It was scary…” He shuffled a bit, pulling the covers to his face. “I died”

That threw Yoongi off guard “W-what…?” Did he hear that right?

“I died… And then I came back…” He buried his head in the elder’s jeans, slightly shaking “I was scared…” His voice broke a bit and Yoongi resumed stroking his neck, hoping it would calm him back down. “Why do I remember that…? I don’t want to remember…”

It was in this moment that Yoongi desperately wished Jin or Hoseok were in his place. They were better at dealing with this kind of situations. Even Namjoon was better, especially since he and Jimin would usually talk to each other about their problems. He, however, was not really good at expressing himself like that or comforting others.

“I don’t want to die…” It was so quiet, Jimin himself barely heard it. But Yoongi had become hypersensitive for a while now, and he froze as the words reached his ears. He immediately looked down at the other with shock and something else, moving him to look into his eyes.

“You’re not going to die. You’re fine now, aren’t you? You’re alive. Everyone’s alive.”

Jimin looked him straight in the eyes and whispered “But I wasn’t”

He knew that, of course he did. He’d heard the younger stopped breathing in the ambulance for almost half a minute. He’d seen the way Jungkook always checked his pulse whenever he would come into his room, just to be sure it was still there. He knew all that, but hearing Jimin himself say it threw a chill down his spine.

They continued to stay like that, in complete silence, save the random noises of the many medical machines all around them, until Jimin cracked a smile “But then I heard someone calling for me…”

“Y-you what…?”

“Someone called me, and then I woke up here… Do you know who it was?”

Yoongi remained silent, slightly shocked, then said “Jungkookie?”

Jimin nodded and regained a more comfortable position, pulling the covers back to his face “He kept telling me to wake up… But I didn’t want to; I thought it would hurt too much. But he wouldn’t shut up about it, and then I woke up here…” He started playing with one of his bandages “And then they said three months passed… I was quite shocked.”

He kept on saying some things, but Yoongi was partially in denial right now, so he didn’t really hear everything. Thinking back to it now, though, he could remember that look Jimin had when he first saw Jungkook. Now it made more sense.

“Did you tell anyone about this?” the rapper asked after coming back to reality.

Jimin shook his head.

“Not even your psychiatrist?

No again.

“Why not…?”

Jimin taught about it for a second, fidgeting with the blanket “I didn’t remember until now…”

“So you remembered because of the dream you had just now?”

He nodded.

They remained in silence for a while, before Jimin peeked up at Yoongi with an adorably embarrassed expression “Please don’t tell anyone…”

Yoongi couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m serious! Don’t tell anyone!”

“Yeah, yeah, alright”

“You don’t sound very convincing…” Jimin pouted, but didn’t push the matter anymore.

Jin watched patiently as Jimin started sitting up in his bed. The nurse helped him all the way up and then adjusted his pillows to make him more comfortable. She made sure he took his medicine before offering a smile and leaving for her other duties. Jimin moved around a bit more, a tiny hiss escaping him when he accidentally sat in a weird way. Another minute later, he was finally happy. He then turned to Jin who passed him his laptop.

He had asked for it a while back, but then they had the Jungkook situation and he himself forgot about it. When Jin said he would come over the other day, he suddenly remembered and bugged the elder about it until he agreed. “Thank you”

“You sound better… But you look worse” That earned him a glare.

But it was true; Jimin was feeling much better nowadays, though most of his left side of the body still hurt. The doctors had removed some bandages for good, however, and some pretty harsh scars were now exposed. Jimin himself had cringed rather sharply when he first saw them, obviously not amused. The others were told to act as nicely as they could around him, just in case he might develop a sort of depression, which he did.

In the beginning, they hadn’t even noticed, until Hoseok had caught him absentmindedly rubbing at the scars on his arm. He only asked if they itched, but it was enough of a trigger for the younger to start a frustratingly long list of things wrong with him. On the bright side, the sudden burst seemed to make him feel better. Namjoon was the one that reassured him the most, saying the wounds would disappear, that they could even get him some sort of plastic surgery if he wanted to, so not even a scratch would remain. (His parents were more than happy to agree to anything the leader said too)

For a few days now, he seemed to calm down about the matter, though he was not completely over it. But at least he was back to smiling again.

Jin took a seat on the couch, eying the younger as he started surfing the internet. He had been informed, by Namjoon, to not mention his legs. They were obviously the most injured part of his body. He had told him that about a month back, when he had been awake for about a week or two, he started crying hysterically. The doctor had to sedate him to keep him calm, while Namjoon tried his best to find out what hurt so much that he would break down like that. But then the answer shocked him to the point he remained speechless. “I can’t feel it” was what the younger cried out. He was referring to his left leg. It wasn’t that something hurt, it was that it wasn’t.

Since then, the doctors had started a session of massages for his leg, once a day. It took a weak, but the look on Jimin’s face when he started feeling every touch on his leg was priceless. It was as if the Gods had replaced his smile with the sun itself. Apparently, the muscles and veins in his legs had tangled in a weird position during the surgery and his brain stopped receiving signals from them. The massages helped reposition them and everything was back to normal. They didn’t stop with the sessions though, just to make sure the muscles wouldn’t snap back in that weird position again.

His legs were still a sensitive topic though.

“Did you sleep last night?”

“Not really…”

“How so?”

“I kept waking up, but I don’t know why.”

“Nightmares?”

“No… more like…” he struggled with the words, throwing his hands around in weird gestures, earning a giggle from the elder “You know those kind of dreams, the really short ones, where you miss a step or fall off the chair and you jump back awake? It was like that, but longer dreams… Like, an hour long, maybe two?”

“Oh… You know Taehyung’s been having those for a while as well?”

Jimin looked away from his computer in shock “Really?”

“Yeah, he said he kept dreaming about falling and he would wake up constantly because of it”

Jimin kept quiet for a while, looking back at the screen, but not paying attention “How come we had the same dreams…?”

“Maybe…” Jin started, trying hard to suppress a smile “it’s because Kookie isn’t here anymore?”

“What!? Why would that matter?” he said, flustered.

Now Jin full on laughed. How could he not, seeing how embarrassed the other felt? “Well” he began after calming down “Up until now, he was always around, even if you couldn’t see him, you both knew he was here somewhere. But now that he’s away, it affects you.”

“But… Why… But…”

“You know, when I was small, me and my brother were left alone home, with our grandmother, for the first time. Our parents had to go away for the weekend because of some family problems. The whole weekend, both me and my brother kept having trouble sleeping. And, just like you two, we had similar dreams, though not like falling. We dreamt, I remember, about being alone in a room, or in the street. When our parents came back, the dreams stopped. They never happened again after that. Maybe it’s the same for you two right now?”

Jimin started pondering over the new information, going back to scrolling on his laptop. It was another hour later, point by which Jin almost forgot they even had that conversation, that the other spoke again.

“So…” Jin looked up from his book with a curious look “if Jungkook comes back, the dreams will stop right?”

It took the elder a moment to understand what the other was talking about. “Oh! You mean the… Hmm, well, I’m not sure, but maybe. It seems likely he is the cause of the dreams, seeing as both you and Taehyung started having them once he left.”

“Hmm…” it seemed to be a pretty reasonable explanation “What is he doing?”

“Well, when I woke up he was watching a movie and drinking (rather slowly) tea. Yoongi said he woke up because of a nightmare.”

“Oh…”

It seemed that whenever something good happened to Jungkook, a bad thing needed to happen as well. He started eating now, he looked more happy that they had seen him in months, but the nightmares came back at full force.

“When is he going to come over?”

“I don’t know…” Even the psychiatrist seemed to question whether she should go to their dorm instead. The change of environment had obviously done him a great good already. She actually wanted to let him on his own for another few days, but because of the dreams coming back, she said she should have a talk with him.

“When you go back, can you tell him to at least give us a call?”

“Sure”

Taehyung kept a bright smile as he skipped along the dirty path of the inner garden of the hospital. It was cold, his breath visible as he blew it out, playfully, like smoke from an invisible cigar, the wind was blowing and the smell of winter was fresh in the air. Even though it seemed to be just an ordinarily depressing, cloudy day, Tae kept on jumping around like a ball of sunshine. Naturally, people ten feet away got infested with his good mood, Namjoon being one of them.

The leader watched with a smile as Taehyung seemed to find joy in the smallest of things. It was the very first day since the accident that the younger was allowed outside of the hospital, the first time since that dreadful day that he was able to taste fresh air. When the doctor first proposed the little trip to him, he looked as if he had just been slapped, eyes wide, mouth slightly opened, unable to say anything. Then the man asked again, with a laugh, and Tae transformed into a little kid experiencing his first Christmas.

His parents had left just the day before; going back to work after Taehyung had insisted that he was fine on his own. Truthfully, he was probably just a little tired of their constant presence. Not like he wasn’t grateful and happy that they would visit so much, but he needed some alone time too.

Namjoon peaked up to the gray clouds and then at his clock with a sight. “Taehyung!”

The younger froze in whatever position he was in, one foot up, like a broken ballerina, and turned his head back to the leader “Yeah?”

“It’s time to go inside”

“What? Already?”

Already wasn’t really a good word though, seeing as they had been outside for a little over two hours. It was a miracle he hadn’t gotten bored, really.

“Come on, you can come back again tomorrow. Besides” he began, throwing another look to the sky “it’s gonna start raining soon”

Taehyung pouted, throwing a stick he had picked up at some point back on the ground. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and started heading back towards the door and Namjoon. He did go at an impressingly slow pace, but who could blame him?

“Come on, wanna visit Jimin?”

That seemed to brighten things up again.

Tae practically skipped all the way to the other’s room, all the while talking excitedly about when it would snow and what he would do and what he would build, because snow men were too mainstream, why not build a snow sphinx or a snow rabbit or all kinds of weird things only he could come up with.

Jimin was, unfortunately, asleep when they arrived at his room. Namjoon wanted to go eat or something but Taehyugn seemed strangely persistent that they remain there; so they did.

It soon became apparent that Jimin wasn’t having the nicest of dreams. He would sometimes frown, just for a second, or suddenly twitch his fingers, as if grabbing onto something. Tae moved to hold his hand, curiously looking at the heart monitor. The beeping would sometimes intensify, then go back to a normal beat. At some point it caught a really fast pace, startling Tae, just a second before Jimin jumped awake.

He snapped his eyes open, allowing a small gasp to escape him. He unconsciously started holding onto Tae’s hand, closing his eyes again and taking calming breaths.

“You ok?” Namjoon asked from over to the couch. He had seen the whole heart-monitor-reaction-to-nightmares enough times to not have any reaction by now. In the beginning, he tried to wake up whoever was having said bad dreams, but then gave up after Jungkook seemed more shaken from not seeing the end of it.

“Yeah…”

After a few minutes of Jimin waking up completely, Taehyung started talking animatedly about his trip outside, a huge smile never leaving his face. Jimin would sometimes start laughing at whatever irrational thing the other was saying, obviously inventing a few events, make things more interesting, but Namjoon couldn’t help but see the slightly sad look on the younger’s face.

An hour later, Taehyung’s doctor popped in, calling his (trouble maker) patient over for his daily session of exercises. They weren’t anything special, just some things to get his shoulder fixed. Apparently, he slept in some awkward position at some point and a muscle bent in a weird manner. Since then, he was unable to move it around as freely. The doctor said it should take another three to five sessions, seeing as he was already recovering nicely.

Once the hyperactive ball of sunshine left, Namjoon directed his full attention to Jimin.

“What’s bothering you?”

“What?” He looked completely caught off guard by the sudden question.

“You look troubled or something. What’s wrong? Is it because of…” He didn’t finish, instead moving his hand in a suggestive manner towards the door. It was hard to believe the other wasn’t feeling a tiny bit jelous of Tae’s freedom to move around.

“Oh, no, no, nothing like that. It just…” He really didn’t know how to voice it out though…

“Is it something meant for your psychiatrist?” Namjoon tried after a long moment of silence.

“Not really… It’s just hard to explain.”

“Does it have something to do with your nightmare just now?”

“No… Wait. How do you know I had a nightmare?”

“Oh please, it’s obvious”

Jimin huffed, hands folded over his chest. “Meannie…”

Namjoon let out a chuckle and then continued “So what is it then?”

“Well, it’s like… You know…” He let out an exhausted breath of air and looked Namjoon right in the eyes “What if I can’t dance again?”

The leader’s eyes went wide. He was, honestly, not expecting that. “W-What?”

“They said I’ve got a lot of lasting damage, from the car, and… wh-what if… my leg still hurt every time I bend it. My arm… it’s… I can’t sleep in certain positions because it hurts…” His voice started cracking, all the dark and depressing thoughts he’d been keeping to himself, even from the psychiatrist, seemingly jumbling out of his mouth. He didn’t even realize he’d started crying until Namjoon’s arms suddenly appeared around him, rocking him back and forth in a comforting manner as soft and kind words reached his ears.

“You’ll be fine, you’ll see. Don’t worry about it… Shh… You’ll be fine”

Jungkook kept on shuffling in his seat, eyes peeking at everything in the room. He was feeling a bit uneasy, thought he didn’t really know why. A little voice at the back of his head kept whispering, bugging him about how completely out of it he was.

“Jungkook?”

The sudden voice made him jump a bit, after which he mentally slapped himself for somehow managing to completely ignore the psychiatrist’s presence. She had arrived a little over ten minutes ago, after a few days of a break. She had called every day, just for a quick little check up, see if he needed some time with her before their actual session.

“Yes?” He asked in a uncomfortably small voice.

She send him an encouraging smile “How have you been?”

“Fine…” he shrugged.

“I heard you ate a lot. That’s really good.”

He just nods, moving to glancing around the room again. He really would have preferred Yoongi and Hoseok to have not left him alone there. Well, no, he was happy to be alone in their living room with the doctor, but he would have liked the others to have been in the kitchen or the bedroom rather than shopping or whatever. It was somehow relaxing knowing others were around.

“I understand you’ve been having nightmares though?”

He nodded again, fidgeting with his fingers.

“Was it a new dream?”

He shook his head.

“Was it the one with Taehyung?”

Another shake.

“Then… The one with Jimin?”

Yes, the dream Hoseok didn’t know about. A stupid nightmare that would just pop up out of nowhere, at random. It would only last a few seconds, because he’d get too terrified to let it go longer.

The psychiatrist sighted, and who could blame her? Unlike the time when he had the dreams with Tae, they didn’t know what triggered these ones. It wasn’t the fact that he couldn’t see Jimin, because he’d had them even then, sometimes.

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

He shook his head.

“Don’t be like that” she said in a playful manner, trying to ease the obvious tension her patient was suffering, “It helped last time, why not give it another try?”

He hesitated, for more than a few minutes, shifting in his seat, playing with whatever landed in his hands. The doctor didn’t push him, didn’t urge him to start already, one of the reasons he loved her at this point, just sat silently with a patient smile.

“It’s not like before…” he started in a small voice, taking one of Tae’s teddy bears in his arms. The psychiatrist nodded, writing something down on her pad, soft eyes never leaving him. “It’s not the same but it’s not that different.”

“Ok…” she whispered after a few seconds “Could you tell me what’s different and what’s the same?”

“Well, Jimin’s still… you know…” She nodded, writing something again. She’d heard the story before, she knew what he meant, and there was no reason to cause him any more unpleasant images at the moment. “And he’s still… It happens in the car. That hasn’t changed. The others aren’t there, just the two of us and there are voices outside. I can hear someone walking on the car and trying to pull out the door, but it never opens…” So far, nothing changed. “And then I look back and Jimin’s there… in his chair…”

A chill runs down Jungkook’s spine as he remembers every detail of the dream, the way the other looked, crushed by the bent car, bleeding, gasping for air, and then “He looked up at me” then the new dream begins “and he said “help me” and then there’s a car beeping and getting closer from somewhere and… And then he extends his hand towards me and… umm…” He doesn’t know how to continue, because he doesn’t want to continue. A childish little thought that, as long as he doesn’t say it aloud, it somehow means it didn’t happen. He holds onto the bear in his arm harder, glancing nervously between the doctor and the floor. She sends him a kind smile and he knows she won’t push him past a breaking point, but he also knows she is aware he hasn’t reached that point yet. “I wake up when the car gets hit… And before that happens… It’s like, Jimin looks like he wants to say something and… but when he opens his mouth, there’s blood coming out and then everything looks like it’s melting away and…And… There’s like, ten voices coming out of him…”

The doctor sends him a pitying look, continuing to write things down “What do the voices say?”

He’s silent for a few moments and then whispers “I don’t know… I can’t tell”

She doesn’t push the matter anymore, instead going to talking to him about more pleasant things. Asking him how he is feeling, what he’s been eating, if he has tried drinking more than just water or tea yet, if he’s talked to his parents or friends.

As he answers, he feels his mood lifting up again, for which he is grateful, but the little guilt stuck in his stomach never leaves, because he does know what those voices were saying, he’s always heard them loud and clear, because it’s not like they whisper it in creepy tones like in the horror movies he likes watching so much. No, they scream it out with all their might, and it hurts his ears; like cats screeching at the top of their lungs, or like nails running down a chalkboard.

“He’s dead!”

“He keeps asking how you two are” Yoongi says in a lazy matter as he shuffles over to the couch, barely sparing the others a look. He’d been up for almost two days now and he was in no mood to waste a perfect napping opportunity. He crashed on the heavenly material with a satisfied huff, eyes closed, and proceeded to fall asleep in less than ten seconds; a new personal record.

Jimin can’t help but laugh, while Taehyung only watches the rapper with big eyes.

“Well, yeah…” Jin says in a bewildered voice, eyes also on the sleeping figure on the couch. “Like he said.” The other two had been asking about Jungkook, since the younger hadn’t visited them in almost two weeks. They were worried too.

“Hoseok and Namjoon are with him. They said they’ll try taking him over to the park a few blocks away. Said they’d call later. But what I’m curious about…” he began in a more stern voice, making Tae sink into his chair “is why your doctor told us to keep an eye on you. What did you do this time? Jump out from the window?” It may have sounded like an exaggeration, but it wasn’t, he’d done it; twice.

“No! I didn’t do anything this time!”

“Yeah” Jimin said in a sarcastic voice “except, you know, accidentally breaking the coffee machine and the sweet’s dispenser over at the cafeteria… Nothing indeed”

Taehyung threw him a look that basically said “you traitor”

“You did what? How on earth did you manage to break two vending machines? What did you do to them?”

“I swear I only touched them…” it was almost hilarious how sincere he looked.

“Did Namjoon’s luck rub off you or something…” Jim muttered under his breath as he finally passed the two the things they’d asked for last time he visited. For Jimin, a new set of headphones and a book he hadn’t finished reading yet, and for Taehyung some clothes and a pair of sneakers. Since he was now allowed to go outside, he wanted to take full advantage of the situation (and not wear those weird shoes the hospital was offering him. He’s not the fashion terrorist here, thank you very much) “How are you two doing then?”

Tae perked up immediately, a huge smile already in place. Jimin couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “The doctors said they’ll take out the stitches on Friday!”

“Really!?” Those were good news indeed. It was already a pretty long time he had spent with them on, but his wound was no joke, so who could question? “And how’s your abdomen then? Does it still sting when you bend?”

“Not as much. But after they take the stitches out, they said I’ll have to stay put for a while, so later, I’m gonna go outside. Do you wanna come too?”

“I don’t know…” Jin started, immediately looking over at Jimin. The other send him a quick smile and a nod, a little “don’t worry about me” so he agreed to join the younger on his little adventure.

Later that evening, when Jin was strolling casually behind his hyperactive friend, his thoughts were interrupted by a low voice “You know” Jin looked up in surprise, eyes falling on Tae’s “I overheard the doctors a while ago. They were talking about Jimin’s leg.”

Jin remained quiet, still a bit shocked by the other’s sudden very mature aura.

“They said he might need a cane”

Jin was sure the sound he was hearing wasn’t the chough of an elderly woman a few feet away, or the laughing children who were playing with the small amounts of snow that had fallen the night before, but the sound of his heart, smashing down in a million little pieces. “W-what? Where did you hear that?”

“When I went to visit him a few days ago. They were just leaving his room, after one of his therapy sessions, and I heard them when they passed me. They said “He might not be able to use that leg” and that “we might have to get him a cane” or something”

It was quiet for a few moments, Jin trying to process all the information “Does he…?”

“He doesn’t know. They didn’t say anything to him, not that I know of at least. When I asked how his leg was, he looked pretty happy too, and I don’t want to bring his mood down. I heard being happy makes you heal faster.”

Jin remained silent, eyes searching Taehyung’s body. Now, the way he seemed bothered by something, the way his eyes always seemed to glitter with sadness and hope made sense. Now, the way the other seemed to always try to be in Jimin’s company and tell him jokes and lift the mood up, made sense.

“Have you told anyone else about this?”

Tae shook his head, kicking a little stone into the frozen bushes. “I wanted to tell Namjoon… But he’s already troubled enough trying to take care of everything and everyone… So I told you instead.”

“Well, thanks. I won’t tell. How about we go to the cafeteria then, get some hot chocolate and go watch a movie with Jimin?” Tae turned to him with a smile, hopping back towards the entrance. He had a point, Jin thought to himself as he followed the younger on the now familiar path towards the (now repaired) drink’s machine, they might as well use the time they have to make Jimin feel better. If, by any God forsaken chance, he does end up needing to use a cane, they needed to make sure he was in a good condition to take the news without trying to jump off a building.

When they got back to the room, Yoongi was, surprisingly awake, a bag of chips in hand and Jimin was on the phone with his parents, trying to convince them to not come over because “I’m fine, really. And you just left, like, two days ago!”

“So you guys sure about this?” Hobeom asked in a slightly concerned voice, though literally everyone said it was fine, from the boys to their parents to Big Hit, but he was still questioning the whole thing; not because he didn’t want them to have some fun, but what if the reactions will be too much or too out of hand?

“Stop worrying so much” Namjoon laughed as he passed Jimin a hoodie. “Even Bang PD-nim said it was fine”

“Yeah…” He sighted in defeat and moved back, phone already in hand. “Ok, huddle up!”

All the boys jump around, some standing next to Jimin’s bed while others sat on it. They made some weird and funny expressions, forcing a giggle out of the manager’s mouth as he took the picture.

It had been quite an adventure to get everyone here today. Jungkook almost passed out when he first saw the car waiting to bring them over to the hospital that morning. As soon as his eyes landed on it, his feet stuck to the ground and his face went pale, hands finding Yoongi’s in seconds. They knew it was bound to happen, but it was still quite the image. Jin cooed him into relaxing and then the two ever-so-slowly guided him into the back seat of the car.

It wasn’t the first time he was sat there, oh no. They’ve been slowly trying to reduce his horror of the vehicle since a month ago, when he first arrived at their dorm. (Last time, when Yoongi had brought him there, he was asleep; he didn’t even realize he was in a car) And all was good, he slowly started to open up and not mind jumping in the back seat, but now, they had to actually drive. Of course both Yoongi and Jin stood on each side of him, at first not knowing what to do, but then Jungkook went and took both their hands in his.

The normal forty minutes drive took almost two hours, since Kookie flinched whenever the car gathered some speed. He even started tearing up at some point, but the others managed to keep him calm. As soon as the car stopped, he pretty much climbed over Yoongi and got out, almost crashing on the ground, breathing heavily, as if he’d just swam for a mile. His psychiatrist was there, looking a bit shaky (she had probably been waiting outside for a while, bless her soul) and immediately went to him with a huge smile, praising him “You did so well. You got here so fast. You were so brave” It was amazing, really, how effective her words were, because it took only ten minutes for the younger to go back to his usual self.

Jimin and Jungkook seemed to somehow have a mental connection, because as soon as Kookie walked into the room, Jimin moved to the side, no questions asked, and the other plopped down next to him, one hand finding the other’s in seconds. Hoseok, who had been in the room, immediately started laughing and lightly teasing the two. Jimin pouted, throwing some cheeky comebacks and giggling along. Jungkook couldn’t care less at the moment though, so he just sat there, head buried in one of the pillows.

A few minutes later, Namjoon appeared with Taehyung who was chewing on a chicken salad, apparently, his unfinished meal. The two of them had been together for a few days, the leader wanting to make sure everything was in order for tae’s soon-to-be release. The doctors had informed them that the wound from the surgery was healed almost perfectly, leaving behind nothing but a little scar the size of a finger. The day after tomorrow, Tae would be officially let out.

He had been extremely excited, obviously, talking nonstop about how he can’t wait to sleep in his own bed, surrounded by his own things. Then he would go stay with his parents for a week or so, play with his cousins, with his dog, with his cousin’s dog and just finally relax. He couldn’t wait. He had even called his parents, making sure they would not come get him, because he wanted to use the train. He hadn’t been on it in a while; he really wanted to use it.

Jimin was the one who initiated the whole idea the night before. He was skyping with Jungkook, while Tae was sitting with him. They had been spending time together almost every day now. “Should we upload a selca on twitter?” it had been a sudden idea, not something he had thought about for a long time, just the sprout of the moment. Tae was immediately on board, hopping in place with a grin. Yoongi popped in too, somewhere behind Kookie and looked almost as excited. They decided to meet the next day and ask Hobeom to take the picture.

And now they were here, huddled around Jimin’s bed as Namjoon wrote a new post. They hadn’t uploaded a picture since the accident. They had, however, updated their status every now and then. It wasn’t much, they would just say when something good happened, like when one of them got discharged, or when Tae got his stitches removed, or when Kookie went home for the first time.

“What are you writing?”

“Everyone, it’s been a while and we’re all feeling better, so, to celebrate, here’s a picture! We’re in Jimin’s room~ We’re bugging him~” Hoseok read aloud with a smile. “That should do it”

“I wanna upload it!” Junkook suddenly said, earning giggles from everyone else. Namjoon passed him the phone and he happily pressed the “Tweet” button.

By the end of the day, it became the most retweeted post in Korea, the hash tag BTSFighting topping trends in over twenty countries, much to the boy’s satisfaction.

“Come on, you’ll be fine. We’re with you, just like before” Yoongi said softly as he held Jungkook’s hand, slowly walking towards the car. He was shaking, slightly, obviously not completely ok with the idea of riding a car, again, in the same day. “You trust me, right?” Kookie send him a determined look, nodding slightly as he seemed to take firmer steps towards the vehicle. Yoongi couldn’t help but smile. “Good”

The ride back was still stressful. The worst part was when some idiot had the bright idea to honk, loudly, and Jungkook almost, almost, screamed at the top of his lungs. He didn’t though, but a pretty loud yelp did escape him and his hold on Jin and Yoongi’s hands tightened tenfold.

When they arrived at the dorm, however, Kookie remained in his seat until Jin got out, much to the other’s surprise. He held himself firm, though a huge breath of relief did pass his lips as soon as his feet touched the ground.

“You did so well” Jin praised, much like how the psychiatrist had taught him earlier. All the positive feedback brought the younger’s mood up. Though he did fall asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow, no doubt exhausted.

“He’s fast asleep” Jin said as he slid down next to Yoongi, resuming drinking the hot chocolate he had prepared earlier.

“I could have told you that”

“But you didn’t”

“You never asked”

Jin snorted, going over his phone. “Are you goona come to bed too today, or…?”

Yoongi shot him a smirk “I have work to do”

“You don’t have work to do, nobody’s giving you work, you’re just doing it on your own. Why don’t you do it in the morning at least?”

Yoongi got up, picking his mug and headed for the door “Because I’ll lose my inspiration” He threw the other a cheeky wink and closed the door.

“I’m out! I’m out!  I’m out! I’m out” Taehyung kept on singing as he jumped all over the room, unable to contain his excitement. Namjoon laughed from where he was standing next to Jin who was looking around, just to make sure they didn’t forget anything.

“You sure we’ve packed everything? Where’s your phone?”

“In my pocket” Tae answered, as he came to a stop next to them.

“You got everything?”

“Yep”

“Ok… Then, let’s go see the doctor and then we should go over to Jimin. When is your train leaving?”

“At nine.”

“Ok, then, when we arrive, pack your things. Don’t wait until the last minute, in the morning you’ll be too sleepy to actually do anything other than take a shower”

“Yeah, yeah” He said, but everyone knew he wouldn’t take care of his luggage unless Jin kept bugging him about it.

They reached the doctor’s office and Taehyung practically jumped on him, a huge smile in place, thanking him and promising to take care of himself. The man had become quite fond of him for the full five and a half months he’d been stuck there, so he was more than happy to return the hug, laughing all the same as Namjoon hissed “Get off him V!”

Then they went over to Jimin, and comedy ensued. As soon as Tae landed his eyes on him, his smile dropped a little, suddenly realizing the other will be alone in the hospital now. He hugged Jimin a bit too tight, faking some tears as he cried “I’m so sorry!” in a hilarious voice.

Of course Jimin found the whole thing unbearably funny, laughing at the top of his lungs; Jin, however, was trying to tell Tae to let the other go before he ends up suffocating him.

“You sure you don’t want me to stay?” Namjoon asked as the other two were picking up the bag Tae had thrown away to go on his little explosion of affection a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Besides, Hobi said he’ll drop by later. He said he wanted to bring me some things from the fans” Jimin smiled at the thought, remembering all the beautiful comments he had received when they had posted that picture on Twitter a few days ago.

It was no mystery that Jimin had been the worst injured in the crash, the media made sure to point that out. Everyone knew of his coma too, so when Namjoon had written that he’d woken up, chaos ensued; every fan on the planet seemed to send them congratulation messages on any and all social platforms.

When they decided to take the picture last Wednesday, he had borrowed the leader’s hoodie to cover the scars still very much visible on his left arm. He didn’t want to worry A.R.M.Y. They were already fussing over the fact he was still bed-bound, there was no need to give them more reasons of concern.

“Do you want anything else from the dorm?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Ok, then I’ll see you tomorrow”

“See ya”

“Bye! Bye!” Tae half yelled, giving Jimin one last hug before darting towards the manager’s car. He really wanted out.

Unlike Jungkook, it seemed that everyone else was completely fine with cars. Jimin’s psychiatrist said it was probably because they were all passed out, and even though they still relate the vehicle to the accident, the impact was not so strong as to actually cause any kind of trauma. It made sense.

When they arrived at the dorm, Tae took a moment, as soon as he got out of the car, to just breathe the late evening’s air and stare at the building. It had been too long. He went ahead and walked through each and every room, scanning everything, a soft smile never leaving his face. Jungkook was excitedly following him around, much to the other’s amusement. They looked like a duck and its chick, quite the cuties.

The two of them were inseparable the whole remainder of the time. They did everything together, from Tae’s luggage, to playing around, even taking a shower together. When they got out, Jungkook was talking loudly, crashing next to Yoongi who just happened to be there and started pointing at Taehyung, saying how huge the scar was. All the while, the other grinned, pulling his shirt up a bit to show the (actually not that big) remains of his wound, as if it were a reminder of war.

“It’s cool” He would say with a cheeky smile.

Yoongi, even though tired, found the whole situation amusing and decided, to pretty much everyone’s amazement, to spend his time with the two overly-excited boys.

By midnight, both Taehyung and Jungkook were exhausted and crashed on Kookie’s bed, because it was the easiest accessible one. They hadn’t even been lying down for two minutes before they were both in dream land. Yoongi smiled at the image and pulled the covers up, not before setting an alarm clock for Tae. It would be a shame to lose the train, wouldn’t it?

“Asleep?” Hoseok asked as Yoongi returned to the living room.

“Yep”

“Where are you going this late?”

“The studio”

“What, again?”

“What do you mean again, I didn’t go yesterday?”

“Yeah, just every other day… What are you working on?”

“It’s a secret” he said with a wink as he went out the door.

Jimin was alone with his parents today. Taehyung and Jungkook were both away at their own homes and the rest said they’d give him some time alone, for which he was grateful.

He was laughing with his dad about something, though he was still feeling bad. It wasn’t that he was sick or anything, his health was fine, his wound healing nicely, but his leg was still giving him trouble, for which he developed a depression. His psychiatrist recommended calling his parents over and, even though he had initially doubted it, it did indeed help. And even though his leg was still bothering him, at least he wasn’t crying to himself about it.

The door opened as his dad was showing him a new card trick he had learned from a customer a few days ago, to reveal his mother, positively giddily, the doctor right behind her. He looked a bit more nervous than her, but equally as excited.

“We have some important news for you” The doctor began as his mother moved to sit on the edge of the bed, gathering her son’s hand in her own. “I’ve been making some calls for a while now, and I was able to contact a Dr. Hunter, a dear friend of mine who lives back in the states. We talked for a bit and he informed me that the hospital he works in at the moment has a facility that may interest you.”

“Me…?”

“Yes! Oh darling, they can help you with your leg!” His mother said happily, holding his hand close to her chest.

“What… How exactly can they help me?”

“Well” the doctor began, adjusting his glasses “There are some exercises that you must do, specialized equipment that can hurry the healing process. They also have a few amazing machines and doctors that have managed to help a lot of young people like yourself recover from whatever problems they may have had. Why, he was just telling me about a girl who managed to regain the movement of her wrist.”

Jimin took a moment to process the information. “But… But I thought… So, what, do I have to, like, go to America?”

“Yes” The doctor quietly said as he moved closer, placing one arm on his shoulder and giving him a gentle squeeze. “As I said a while ago, the operation you need is quite risky, but they are specialized in it, they do it on a regular basis, sometimes even five times a day. The chances of your recovery are way greater there than they will ever be here. I am afraid we simply do not have the technology or the science.”

It should be good news, no, it should be amazing news! If the doctors over there can help him move without a wheelchair, it should be the absolute best news he had heard since birth. And yet, he can’t help but feel pressure and doubt at the sudden solution. He glances at his father, worriedly, but unable to voice his question, so he bites his lower lip.

“Don’t you dare worry about the money” His father says, seemingly able to read his mind “We have enough of that; we won’t let you lose your dancing because of an accident”

Jimin couldn’t help the tears that welled up in his eyes. Truthfully, he always knew both his parents supported his decision to dance and become an entertainer, but his father had never voiced it so sincerely before. He was touched to his core. The only answer he could manage was a small whimper, after which his dad also jumped onto the edge of the bed, wrapping a hand around him.

“So, is that a yes?” The doctor asked with a smile.

Again, all Jimin could manage was a nod, barely containing his sobs.

That night, Namjoon was quite surprised to receive a Skype call from Jimin. They talked about him coming to visit in just two days, what could he want?

“Hey” he began, sitting down at the table where Hoseok and Yoongi were playing on their phones, Jin somewhere in the kitchen, making sandwiches.

“Hey” He sounded more tired than the last time, it was worrying. Hoseok seemed to have also heard the exhaustion in his voice, because he moved over next to the leader in seconds. Yoongi also stopped playing, looking up with a questioning expression. “I need to talk to you guys about something. Is everyone there?”

“Yeah, wait a bit. Jin! Come here for a sec!”

“Just a minute!”  Ten seconds later, he popped out of the kitchen with a small tray of around a dozen sandwiches. They were all hungry as hell, don’t judge them. “What’s up? Oh! Hey Jimin”

“Hey… Listen, um…” he looked up nervously, seemingly at someone, because they heard a small “go ahead” from somewhere in the background. They knew. Of course, his parents were over. “Yeah, ok, so… I talked with my doctor about… you know” Yes, they did, why, only last Friday Hoseok had taken the younger on a little ride outside in his wheelchair, a device he seemed to hate from the depts of his soul. Who could blame him?

“Yeah, what about it? Are you gonna have the surgery?” Namjoon asked in a slightly panicky voice. He’d heard the operation was quite tricky.

“Well, yes and no.”

Now they were all confused “What do you mean?” Yoongi asked, still away from the camera.

“Well… The… I’m gonna have to go to America”

“You what!?” Namjoon, Jin and Hobi all cried at the same time, eyebrows shooting at the top of their heads. Yoongi, on the other hand, looked only mildly interested, moving the laptop to face his way.

“Are you going to a hospital there?”

“Hey hyung… Yeah, there’s this guy there who seems to be quite good at it, so my doctor asked if I wanted to give it a go.”

It was quiet for a while, the laptop moving again on the other three, Yoongi following it too this time. “When do you need to go?”

“Well, there’s a plane in a few days…” He looks over the camera again, probably at his parents “So… I guess I should leave by Sunday?” there’s a small “Yep” and Jimin smiles, though a bit sadly.

“You ok?” Jin asks, moving a hand to rest on the leader’s shoulder.

“Yeah… I mean its good news right?” It is, but he doesn’t look as happy as he should.

“Why don’t we come over tomorrow then?”

There’s a small pause, Jimin shifting around, sniffing and scratching the back of his neck “Please do…” his voice is small, but they all hear it and offer a comforting smile.

“Then we’ll get there in the morning. We’ll bring you a cake too, just don’t tell your doctor”

Jimin laughs, rubbing at his eyes, willing away unshed tears. “Thanks…”

Four months; that was the last time any of them saw Jimin. He left for America, going to one of their specialized facilities or whatever to get his leg fixed. And it’s not like they hadn’t talked at all, no; they texted with Kakao Talk, they Skyped once a month (if at all), but it was not the same, and they would all be lying if they said they didn’t miss him.

Yoongi peeked up from his phone as the car came to a stop. The ride to the airport took a bit longer than intended, because of the traffic, but the plane hadn’t landed just yet, so they were fine.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Hoseok sang happily as he got out.

Since about two or three months ago, everyone had dispersed back to their own families, a sort of holiday, if you will. The first to come back to the dorm were Jin, Namjoon and, no surprise, Yoongi. It just so happened that on the day everyone was together, Jimin texted them with the plane ticket, when he would arrive, what hour and all the rest. Obviously, they decided to go incognito and meet him ASAP.

Funny enough, he was actually supposed to come a few weeks ago, but an opportunity arose and, after much debate, he decided to postpone his return a while. Not only his parents, but Big Hit were quite insistent he go and take those special little voice training sessions. They didn’t talk about it that much, but he seemed really excited and pleased, so they were all looking forward to hearing him sing.

“There are quite some fans around, not a lot… We’ll get you into the lounge until the plane lands” The manager said as the rest of the boys got out of the car.

Yes, though none of them were expecting it, the fans found out about Jimin’s arrival. Apparently, someone back in the States recognized the hoodie he was wearing (you know, the one with the American flag) and followed him around a bit until they saw his face. The person snapped a few pictures and uploaded them on Twitter and Tumblr and Facebook and all the social media sites. Soon enough, everyone seemed to know Jimin was taking a flight. And obviously, where else could he go, but back to Korea?

Truthfully, Yoongi was really happy to see the pictures. They hadn’t had the chance to see the other in so long. Not to mention, he was walking, on his own two feet; it was an amazing image.

“How much longer?” Tae whined, pulling on Namjoon’s t-shirt, much like a spoiled kid. But they were all too excited to care.

“It’s landing in two minutes, relax”

“But I can’t” He started jumping up and down in his seat, Jungkook playfully following suit.

“We can go in five minutes” Hobeom said calmly as he sipped his tea. And even though he kept a lazy appearance, he was obviously as happy as the rest.

“Pff, fine”

And even though he said that, as soon as the message “Landed” popped next to Jimin’s plane, Tae started dragging everyone to the Arrival’s gate.

There were some fans around, they noticed, but they were keeping their distance. It was a bit weird, because they all thought they would be surrounded or something, but A.R.M.Y. knew better, and for that they were forever thankful. Besides, they still played around for the cameras a bit.

“Come on, come on, come on” Jungkook muttered under his breath, eyes fixed on the sliding doors. He and Tae were trying to peek inside and spot Jimin. So far, no good.

“He said he’s waiting for his bags, calm down” Jin scolded, though his voice was too happy. He was texting the other since the phone opened, trying to figure out what and when.

It took another five minutes for Jungkook to suddenly go still. The others looked at him, then at the door, where his eyes were fixed, and smiles started creeping up on all their faces.

Jimin was carrying his rucksack, passport still in hand, along with his sunglasses. He seemed to be talking with his dad who was pushing a trolley with quite a few luggages on top. When the man refused to let him carry anything again, he gave up, turned around, ready to put his glasses back on when his eyes landed on Namjoon’s and he froze.

A moment later, his mother gave him a light nudge, whispered something and he snapped out of it. He threw a glance at his dad who gave him a nod and then resumed walking, though quite a bit faster, until he was practically running, a huge smile gracing his face.

Taehyung and Jungkook decided they’ve waited long enough and darted toward the other as well.

“Jimin!” They both yelled as soon as the other jumped on them. He said something too, but they couldn’t tell exactly what, because not only they, but the fans were making quite a bit of noise.

“Are you taller!?” Jungkook joked, still holding on to the other. He received a light punch in the back and a murmured “You punk…” in response, for which he could only laugh. “I missed you too”

The others soon joined into the group hug, but Hobeom told them all to move along, that they could catch on while in the car. They had decided Jimin would be riding with them while his parents took a different car. They were to stop by a restaurant, eat everything on the menu, and then he would go home for a few days, sort his things out and then return to the dorm.

In the car, Jimin started talking excitedly about anything and everything, answering questions, asking questions, telling them about the doctors, the hospital, everything. It was during this moment that they realized he had indeed changed a bit. First off, his skin was tanned, he had a new and quite nice haircut, his muscles not only did not grow smaller, but they got bigger. Also, a few days later, they would realize his English had improved amazingly.

“Welcome back”