Jungkook had been right after all to be afraid of that old lady and her food. Jin had food poisoning.

He was on his third round of IV drip but he still felt too weak to even speak. He had diarrhea and had been vomiting all day. Luckily, the antibiotics the nurse had given him had started to kick in and he didn’t feel the urge to run to the toilet, grabbing unto his butt.

Although, the vomiting was still there, it wasn’t as frequent as before. Jungkook would rush to his side with a metal bucket whenever he gagged. He’d been sitting in the uncomfortable chair in the hospital room for over nine hours, reading one magazine after the other from the stack on the cupboard.

“Stop looking at me and go to sleep,” Jungkook said, without looking up from the magazine in his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Jin croaked, his throat was dry and scratched, it hurt too much to speak.

“For being sick?” Jungkook asked. He closed the magazine and dropped it on the lap. “It’s not your fault that woman poisoned you.”

“You warned me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I would sue her if the situation wasn’t this.”

“She can’t pay you.”

“I don’t need her money. I need that place locked forever. I can’t imagine how many people have been victims of her poor hygiene. The environment alone was dirty, and that was what we were able to see. Imagine her cooking area, the place that we don’t see.” He shut his eyes and swallowed thickly. “Let’s not imagine it.”

A nurse already reported the chicken shop to the Health Department, and that was enough for Jin. He wanted to make up excuses for the old woman, look for a reason to justify why the food poisoning might not be her fault but it was, and he couldn’t let other people suffer the same fate as him.

“The IV’s almost done,” Jungkook said, looking up at the sachet hanging from the IV rod. “The nurse said you were going to receive more if you keep vomiting. Do you feel like vomiting?”

“A bit.” He had felt like vomiting for the past ten minutes but he had been forcing it down. His stomach hurt every time he retched and his throat hurt when he gagged. “Go back to the house, you can’t stay here with me all night.”

“Go to sleep, Jin,” Jungkook said. “You’re going to exhaust yourself even more.”

He knew Jungkook wouldn’t leave his side, and there was no point trying to convince him, so he shut his eyes and let the tiredness take over his body.

When Jin opened his eyes the room was empty. His tired gaze swept around the room, but Jungkook was not in the room. Maybe he went to pee or take a walk. Or maybe he went to the house, which would even be better. Again, he shut his eyes and went back to sleep.

“Jin,” a voice called.

Jin wasn’t sure how long it took before he opened his eyes but when he did, a nurse was standing above his bed, changing his IV. She placed a cold towel on his forehead and offered him a sip of water with a straw.

“B-baby,” he mumbled. It hurt to talk. His mouth felt so heavy and his throat felt like it had been set on fire. The breath that left his mouth was hot but he was cold all over. “Jungkook,” he called, wanting to take one glimpse of him before he shut his eyes again. He turned his head strenuously to the chair Jungkook had sat on earlier and it was empty.

“You’re having a fever,” she informed him. “But don't worry, it will come down soon.”

He swallowed painfully, wincing. “My friend.”

“Your friend is outside. He’s been here all night but he went to take a walk a few minutes ago. You should rest now, alright?”

Again, he shut his eyes against the pounding ache in the head and prayed for sleep to come instantaneously.

He might have slept for a few minutes or a lot of minutes or many hours, he wasn’t sure, but when he opened his eyes, light was flooding in through the blinds in the hospital room. The headache he’d felt earlier had disappeared, although his throat still ached like crazy when he swallowed.

That innocent looking old lady had almost killed him.

“Finally,” he heard from the side and turned to find Jiho looking up at him from his phone. He had his phone in one hand and a transparent cup of Iced Americano in the other hand. “You scared me there for a minute last night, when that pretty nurse rushed in, saying your fever was too high.”

“Sorry about that,” he said. Jiho was already doing a lot for them by letting them stay with him, now he was being inconvenienced by staying the night with them. “And thanks. You didn’t have to stay the night.”

“I couldn’t leave you by yourself. What kind of host would that make me?” Jiho asked, standing to his feet. He pocketed his phone and walked towards the bed.

Jin caught his words. “Jungkook is back at the house?” he asked. A part of him was glad Jungkook had gone to the house but a part of him was disappointed, even if he didn’t want to be.

“Yeah. The nurse said to call her when you wake up,” Jiho said, reaching for the bell by the side of the bed.

“Do you know when he’ll be here?”

“Later, I guess,” he said, nodding his head to an inaudible beat. “Also, I wanted to get you food but I’m not sure what you’d want to eat. I can’t get you fast food considering you were poisoned by one. So, what do you want?”

“Now, water,” he said.

Jiho grabbed the bottle of water by the bedside table, uncapped it and handed it to Jin. “You have to eat real food, you know?” He said. “I’ll just ask one of my female friends to prepare something and bring over.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I do,” Jiho said, already working on his phone. Right there, he made a phone call to his friend and asked her to bring over a bowl of oatmeal, some boiled potatoes and egg whites. He also promised her a good time if she did it within 2 hours.

The two hours rolled by quickly and Jiho’s friend arrived with the food. Jin gratefully accepted it, eating with one hand while receiving yet another IV drip with the other. Jungkook still hadn’t come by and he was starting to feel uneasy about it.

After the meal, Jiho and his friend left and he was alone. A nurse came by to turn on the TV for him, but he didn’t bother with that. His gaze constantly fleeted towards the door, waiting for it to open and for Jungkook to step in so his mind could be at ease.

Hours went by and with each one that past, Jin grew more and more agitated. This wasn’t right. Jungkook would have come by now. It was past 3 in the afternoon and he still hadn’t come. The same Jungkook who had refused to leave his side the previous day had suddenly left and wouldn’t return?

Thoughts went through his head. Had their conversation the previous day gotten to him? Did he get too overwhelmed and head back to Seoul? Jungkook couldn’t have possibly left, but maybe he had.

Jin sat up on the bed, and slowly took out the IV from his vein. It stung but it was nothing compared to the panic that was going through him. His heart raced but he tried to not focus on that. He left the room in a frenzy, his eyes sweeping the hospital for Jungkook but until he got outside, he couldn’t find him.

The hospital wasn’t far from the Café Jungkook had had his breakfast the previous morning and from there Jin retraced his steps back to the house. The car was still out there, parked in front of Jiho’s house. Wouldn’t he have taken the car if he was leaving?

Jin rushed through the gate, hoping he was panicking for nothing, hoping Jungkook had overslept or something was stopping him from coming to the hospital, maybe some kind of hospital phobia. “Jungkook!” he called loudly, barging into the living room.

Jiho was on the couch, tangled up with the girl from earlier. “Jin,” he startled, standing from on top of her, doing nothing to hide the bite marks all over his bare torso. “Why are you here?”

“Where’s Jungkook?” Jin asked, going straight to the point.

“The nurse said you’d get discharged by this evening, not now.”

Ignoring Jiho, he headed for the room, flinging it open. Empty. Their clothes were still where they left it the previous morning. It didn’t make any sense. Had Jungkook left immediately from the hospital?

“Jin,” Jiho called from the door.

“Where is he, Jiho?” He asked, his breathing strensous, heart racing a mile a minute.

Jiho shut his eyes in defeat. He let out a sigh. “He’s gone,” he said. “I didn’t want to tell you because of your condition. They came for him last night at the hospital. They took him away."