𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓙𝓲𝓷𝓱𝓮𝓮

"ɴᴏᴏɴᴀ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋɪɴɢ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ?" Jungkook's voice knocked me out of my thought. I looked at him for a while then shook my head. Obviously, I was still thinking about Taehyung. I had been thinking about him ever since our last night.

"Say Jungkook-ah..." I trailed off, letting out a small sigh before I looked at him again. He stared back at me with his innocent eyes.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" I was hesitant, but I wanted to know if Jungkook knew about it or if he was willing to tell me about it.

His lips scrunched up as he gave it a thought for a while. "What will I get in return?" He shifted his position on the couch, facing me now with a smirk.

"Lamb skewer?" I suggested, I knew he would love that. And like what I'd expected, his eyes blinked with excitement and he nodded profusely.

"Sure. Okay, now you really need to answer me with all your honesty." I told Jungkook in a slow manner that he seemed scared of what was coming next.

"Okay..."

"Did anything happen in the past that involved Taehyung being in a swimming pool?" His eyes lightened up again, this time with surprise, and slowly it replaced with worries and panics.

"Noona, let's just forget about the Lamb Skewer." Jungkook smiled at me and turned away, deliberately busying himself with changing the channels on the TV.

I frowned and stopped his hand from changing the channels. "But–"

In a swift second, his fingers shot up and pointed at the hanging clock. "Oh, look at the time, noona. Goodnight." Jungkook smiled at me again, patting my head, and walked away. He knew that I could be very persistent, and the only way to avoid the question was to run away from me. I sighed in defeat.

✿   ✿   ✿

"We are finally official!" Soojung chirped enthusiastically as I saw her cheeks flushed bright pink.

"Congratulation, Soojung-ah!" Suzy bounded up to Soojung and they hugged for a while, while I just clapped and pressed my lips into a fine smile at her.

"Oh my God, I don't know why, but that night Namjoon looked totally different, it's like a different side of him that I have never seen it before. Is this what people called love?" Soojung cupped her cheeks and stared to the space, her eyes soon became distant and her lips formed into a wide smile.

"Now you know how wonderful love is. Jin always made me feel special every day. He's such a gentleman." Suzy copied Soojung's movement and they were giggling at each other. They looked so happy and beautiful, that this time I wasn't envied of their friendship or their beauty, but their love life. Why couldn't mine be like them? I mentally sighed.

Suddenly, there was a silence between them. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed that they were now eyeing me with concern. I guessed my expression was not good that they had to notice it so soon.

"Jinhee-ah, are you fighting with Taehyung again? I thought you guys just made up a few weeks ago. What is it this time?" Suzy asked.

"What did that jerk do? Even though I hate him for what he did last night, but still I need to thank him though." Soojung crossed her arms and puffed out a breath before she focused back at me.

"I guess it was my fault." I sighed, fiddling with my fingers under the desk. Suzy and Soojung perked up their brows and gave me a questioning look.

"Why?" Soojung wondered.

I looked up at them and pursed my lips, giving it a thought whether to tell them or not. Looking at their puppy eyes, it seemed that I didn't have any other choice but to tell them what happened that night.

"I called him a murderer." Instantly, I saw their eyes widened in shocked.

"What?!" They shrieked as they were taken aback at what they have just heard.

I dropped my gaze, feeling guilty again. "I know I shouldn't have said that, I should find out about it first. How can I just accuse him like that. I'm like the worst among the worst." I couldn't help myself but keep sighing because my heart was feeling so heavy, and I thought that was the only way to fix it.

Suzy and Soojung stared at each other as we were covered in silence. They were thinking of what to say, and Soojung broke it first. "But, everyone has been wondering about that, Jinhee, even us. We don't know how the rumor came from and what was it related to?" I saw Soojung's curious eyes and she wore a serious expression.

Suzy nodded, agreed with Soojung. "I don't think it's wrong to find out about it. Since you guys are in a relationship now, he should tell you about his past, right?" Suzy voiced out her own thought. He should tell me about his past? And that would mean, I would need to tell mine too. Wasn't that what I was most scared of?

I crossed my arms and leaned back on the chair to relax myself. "Maybe he wasn't ready yet and I kind of forced him to tell me... He looked so distressed that night." I told them as the image of Taehyung being traumatized immediately flashed through my mind. I shook my head to forget about it because it somehow pained me.

It was so hard to bear this heavy feeling whenever I thought of everything that had happened on that night. Was this how relationship worked? You could be happy, sad, broken, and in pain just merely because of something called 'words'.

Words kill, people say.

That was quite literally true when it could make people feel so dead inside.

"I just had the feeling that it kind of related to Kwon Mia." They snapped up to look at me upon hearing that name.

"His childhood friend?" Soojung asked.

"Why did you say that?" Suzy wore the same expression as Soojung, her shining eyes glistened with curiosity again.

I bit my lips as I stared at both of them hesitantly. "Because when I brought up only her name, he immediately turned to someone that I don't know anymore. And because I know that even until now, Kwon Mia still affects him so damn much."

✿   ✿   ✿

"Okay, let's do this one last time." Hoseok, the dance leader, huffed out a breath and took his position again. Everyone does the same as I heard most of them panting hard after the hard choreography of a song called 'Fire.' The music started to play again and they flowed in sync, their every movement flourished with energy and strength.

I watched them from the side while Soojung and Suzy were squealing over their men dancing hard. Even though they tried to move differently, they would always end up performing differently, but they still worked hard to make it perfect and that was what actually captured all the women's heart.

We were inside of a dance studio that belonged to Hoseok's family. Since dancing had been pretty much became a part of his life, his family gave him the dance studio as his 18th birthday gift. The interior design was quite swanky and unique, just like the owner. I could really see that he really loved the dance studio. It was clean and sterile, even the laminated timber floor shone without any hint of dust.

By the time I was done daydreaming, the boys were finally done with the last step. All of them were drenched in sweat, and it was hard to believe that even though they were in that state, they still looked super fine and sexy like always.

How can people like this exist?

I saw Taehyung was walking towards me because I was sitting beside his Nike sports bag, intentionally.

"Good job, Taehyung." I greeted him with a smile, handing him a bottle of water. But instead of taking the bottle from my hand, he dug his own bag and took out another water bottle. My heart dropped at his action, because I could never get used to him acting like this.

He gulped down his water bottle in his calm manner, ignoring my whole presence even though I was just there, sitting in front of him, watching his whole movement and hoping that he would look at me even just for a second.

And to my surprise, he did. His cold eyes pierced into mine. "Go away." He grabbed his bag and walked away from me. I froze there, because his icy words literally caused me pain inside.

But before Taehyung could even grab the door handle, Hoseok's loud music abruptly stopped and replaced with his caller ringtone through the loudspeaker. Hoseok looked at the caller and a wide smile played on his lips.

"Yes eomma? I'm going home and–" His voice was bright at first, but ever so slowly, his smile dropped.

Others who were chatting happily suddenly stopped talking and the whole room filled with silence as we heard a motherly voice sobbed through the loudspeaker.

"Wait, mom, why are you crying?" Hoseok asked as his face masked with panic. The silence lingered as the only voice that could be heard were only Hoseok's and Mrs. Jung's.

"Hoseok-ah, your sister..." The motherly voice managed to mutter between her sobs.

"Jiwoo noona? What's wrong with her?" Hoseok's brows furrowed and his eyes moved nervously. Everyone stayed silent as we listened to their conversation carefully.

"S-she's in t-the operating room n-now." With that, everyone's jaw literally dropped to the floor. We looked at each other with widened eyes.

"What?!" Hoseok exclaimed in disbelief. "Eomma, what in the hell–"

"She got into a car crash. Hoseok-ah, please come here..." Mrs. Jung begged and she started to cry again.

Without wasting any second, Hoseok quickly ran out of the dance studio that I managed to catch his teary eyes and worried expression. While for the others, they were still in the dance studio, muted and speechless after hearing the news.

"Guys? Let's go!" My loud voice boomed the silence inside the room and startled everyone. They started to pack up and left the dance studio, and now we were making our way to the Seoul SKY Hospital.

✿   ✿   ✿

We stalked off in the direction of the waiting room, following Hoseok from behind. From afar, we could see Hoseok's family assembled, their face clouded with worries as they talked in hushed voices, some were sniffling in the corner.

"Mom, what happened? Tell me, I need to know!" Hoseok approached his mother who was already hugging and crying on him. Her eyes closed shut as the tears trailed down her cheeks.

"She was drunk and she drove the car recklessly..." Mrs. Jung tried to explain the situation, but soon her legs became anemic that Hoseok had to hold her. Another elder woman who seemed to be his grandmother approached them and tried to assure Mrs. Jung who was still crying uncontrollably.

"Argh! Shit! Why did she have to do that?!" Hoseok cried out as he ran his fingers through his hair angrily that it turned messy, just as messy as his mind and feelings right now. He was facing the gray wall of the waiting room, his one hand supporting his leaning body and I saw his shoulder shaking. He was crying silently. And he did not want to let others see it.

The red-lighted signboard of Emergency Room suddenly turned off and a doctor accompanied by two nurses came out of the room. All the family members stood up and walked small steps toward the doctor to hear the results, not to mention, Hoseok was the fastest one.

"Doctor, how's my noona? Tell me that she's alright, please." Hoseok was holding onto the doctor's shoulders, slightly shaking it that the nurses had to stop him from doing so. His eyes were begging him, as if he was pleading him to tell him lies because he wasn't ready to hear the worst case of it.

But the doctor had no choice, he still have to do his job as a doctor. 

"Mr. Jung, please calm down." He cleared his throat and proceed, "I have tried my best to save her. Due to the severe brain injury, I'm very sorry to inform you that she's in the comatose state right now."

Upon hearing that, everyone went numb. The world seemed to stop momentarily because no one dare to move. A moment of silence passed by before I heard Mrs. Jung started to bawl out again, this time louder. Others bowed their heads in a sympathetic manner, while I covered my mouth to fight back the gasp that has been dying to escape. Jiwoo unnie in coma? Oh God... You must be kidding me.

"What? No, you must be kidding me, right?" Hoseok voiced out my thought. He chuckled but without any humor and shook his head in rejection. The doctor only replied with bowing his head.

"She's still sedated from the surgery and she's on the ventilator to help her breathe while her body heals from the trauma. We'll let you know when it's okay to see her." The doctor continued. He was about to turn away when Hoseok grabbed his arm.

"What are the chances?" Hoseok asked, his voice came out hoarse because he was holding back his tears. The doctor gave him a questionable look.

Hoseok swallowed hard before he asked again. "What are the chances that she will wake up?" His voice finally broke and I saw tears started to roll down his cheeks.

"It's all depends on the patient's will itself. We will try our best to treat her with our best treatments and medicines." The doctor said with determination.

He looked at Hoseok long enough and patted his arm. "Mr. Jung, it can be helpful for the patients in a comatose state to hear from their loved ones. Please support her and give her the reason to wake up." He smiled apologetically and bowed at Hoseok before he finally walked away, followed by the nurses.

Soon enough, we heard Hoseok's grunts echoed inside the waiting room. He was walking back and forth wobbly that he seemed like he could just fall anytime. We were all watching him worriedly. I didn't even know what to do because he wasn't crying. He looked like he was so lost, that he didn't know what to do in this sudden situation because it just happened in a snap of fingers.

Jimin and Taehyung made the decision to step forward and walked towards him. "Hyung..." Jimin called out softly, he was standing in front of Hoseok that it made him stop moving. Hoseok tried to avoid him but Taehyung who was standing on the other side made him stop again.

"Hyung..." Taehyung held his arm. His voice was low as he stared at Hoseok who was standing there with a darkened expression.

"Why..?" Hoseok asked with his head bowed. Then, he shook his head and held onto them.

"Why must this happen to her?! Why?!" He started to shout out helplessly. A few seconds later, we finally heard Hoseok broke into cries as he had lost in the battle of fighting back the tears.

His brain couldn't take in the reality anymore that his weak body was about to fall, but Jimin quickly caught him. He shuddered his weight on Jimin as he continued to howl in grief, not even care of everyone's attention on him.

Because all he ever wanted at that moment was to see his sister being awake and smiled happily, telling him that all of this was just one of her pranks that she had done before.

But the situation was giving him too much pain that he had to believe, this time...

It was all real.

♡━━━━━━━━━━━♡

𝓣𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓮𝓻

"She always gives me strength. In fact, she's actually my hope and my sunshine."