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2020. kth - 23. jjk - 18.

Taehyung's chest was heaving as he finally arrived at the hospital lobby. He clambered to the front desk, huffed out his name and who he was here to visit. The receptionist calmly stated the room number while pointing down the hall. Taehyung quickly thanked him before dashing off, body sweaty from both fear and movement.

While he was skidding around a corner, the young man had to swerve himself to avoid crashing into an elderly pair. Taehyung almost slammed himself into the wall, eyes wide from shock. He was about to splurt out an apology until he seemed to recognize the familiar faces from somewhere.

"Kim Taehyung?" The older man whispered, wrinkled eyes spread in surprise. The brunette bowed in both greeting and in apology, wondering who these people were as they obviously knew of him.

"I'm sorry, I'm in a rush to see someone." He blabbered, mind only really concerned about a certain ravenette who plagued his thoughts. The young male was about to turn and continue running down the hall, but the soft grip around his hands stopped him.

"You are here to see Jeongguk, yes?" The woman croaked, her voice hoarse from what sounded like crying. "We just saw him."

The gears in Taehyung's head clicked as he examined the two in front of him. Jeongguk's grandparents. He's met them once or twice before, a long time ago.

"Y-Yeah." He exhaled, heart still racing and fingers jittery from anxiety.

"Could we speak with you?" The woman carefully asks, tone brittle as fragility shined in her orbs. "Before you see him? I promise you, he is okay."

Although Taehyung wanted to refuse—because his entire being burned with uncertainty and uneasiness until he could see with his own two eyes that the younger was alright—he gave a weak nod instead.

⛓️ ⛓️ ⛓️

"You're pathetic." Yoonbin spat at the younger male, who was sitting upright on the hospital bed. "You told me this shit wouldn't happen again, well look where we fucking are." He hissed, fists clenching in rage as he shoved a hand through his disheveled locks. Jeongguk sighed, it had been less than a few hours since he awoke with a pounding headache and he's already got to deal with a moody Yoonbin. The ravenette just wanted to sleep, all this commotion was annoying him. He was tired.

"You said you could handle it, you said you had control over it!" Yoonbin raised his voice, arms waving around as he continued to rage in distress. "Do you have any idea about how many times I have covered your ass? Paid your hospital bills? No, you have no fucking clue. I am so done with you, so done with this shit!"

The smaller's chest was heaving at the end of his tantrum. But after hearing another sigh emitting from the Jeongguk's lips, he whipped his head around to face him.

"Got something to say?" He gritted out. "Are you even listening to me?"

Jeongguk couldn't control the need to roll his eyes, but it sent Yoonbin over the edge as the smaller stomped over to him and grabbed onto the younger's jaw, fingers digging into his skin as he painfully turned his head at a comfortable angle. 

"You listen here, you ungrateful piece of shit." Yoonbin hissed, other hand creeping onto Jeongguk's thigh and firmly squeezing the flesh, making the ravenette wince. "Don't forget your fucking place. Before me, you were nothing. Nothing."

"Just a weak, little boy who couldn't even look me in the eye." Jeongguk's eyes hardened, nevertheless, his gaze still diverted from Yoonbin's fiery orbs. The smaller cracked a satisfied, amused smirk at that. "Truly pathetic."

Despite his smaller size, the male still held strength in his grip. He quickly pulled Jeongguk's chin up, so they were in eye contact again. At this point, it became hard for the other to swallow.

"Get your shit together. Stop always fucking dragging me down with you." Yoonbin snarled. "Carve the fuck up and start behaving like a real man, because I won't be sticking around to babysit you." With that, the older released the other from his grasp. Jeongguk retracted back and coughed, a hand coming up to stroke against the soreness of his jaw.

"Y-Yoonbin—" The younger croaked out, insides panicking a little at the sight of the smaller male making his way towards the exit.

"Oh, and..." The blond took his coat from the hanger and shrugged it on his shoulders. "...I'm not paying for your medical bills this time. Good luck covering them with your broke ass."

As Yoonbin left, Jeongguk realized he was left all alone. Again.

⛓️ ⛓️ ⛓️

"Jeongguk?" Taehyung calls out as he opened the door, eyes spotting the young ravenette in bed. Relief spilled throughout his body when he finally saw that Jeongguk was alive and—presumably—okay.

"Hyung?" The ravenette quickly pushed himself upright on the bed, a little surprised to see the other here.

Taehyung walked over and sat himself down on the stool placed next to the bed. Although he was relieved, Taehyung was still really fucking angry. How could Jeongguk do that to himself?

"Do you have any idea what could've happened?" The older blurted out, not being to hold himself back. "You could have died."

Jeongguk immediately grew tight-lipped, he sighed and turned his head away from the other.

"Can we not talk about this?" He muttered, eyes shifting around the room. He's had enough scolding for one day. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

Taehyung scoffed, a sarcastic laugh fleeing his lips.

"You've got to be kidding me. Do you even know how serious this actually is? You could have—" The older male was rudely interrupted by an annoyed teenager who just had about enough with everyone today.

"Why are you even here?" The younger shot back, he had turned around to glare at the brunette. "You didn't seem to want to be anywhere near me before." Taehyung's lips parted and pupils dilated when he noticed how hurt Jeongguk really was by his dismissive behaviour lately. He felt the guilt coil around his chest, making him lower his head in shame as his fingers played with each other in his lap.

"It's complicated. I'm sorry. I just needed to clear my head about some things." He spoke in a quiet voice.

"Oh, by hanging around Min Sungjae? Yeah, it looked like you really had some big problems going on." The younger scoffed, shaking his head slightly. Taehyung raised his gaze at the mention of the familiar name.

"You know Min Sungjae?" He questions, watching as the vein on Jeongguk's neck bulged.

"Whatever, you should leave." The ravenette turned back around to face the window, completely done with this entire conversation. Taehyung heaved out an exhausted sigh, running his hands down his face.

"I met your grandparents on the way here." He said, observing the way the younger's posture stiffered. "They... told me some things."

No response.

"This... This isn't the first time you are in the hospital for something like this." The older continued, voicing out the thoughts that were troubling him. "They said there are other things too.." Taehyung peaked at the other through his eyelashes, there was hesitancy in the situation.

"Jeongguk." No response. "Why have you been emitted here almost seven times?"

Wind blew in from the window and rattled against the open curtains, the raven locks that lay messily on Jeongguk's head flowed with the breeze, and the slightly cold air brought a small shiver running down Taehyung's spine.

"Why do you even wanna know? Why do you even care?" Jeongguk grumbles out, voice monotone and stale.

"Of course I care, Jeongguk." Taehyung's brows furrowed in concern. Not liking the distant feeling emitting from Jeongguk's figure.

"Yeah right." The younger scoffed. "It doesn't even matter if I fucking died, no one would give a damn anyway." Taehyung's eyes blew wide in shock, his brain racking in bewilderment as he tried processing what he had just heard.

"What the fuck? Don't say shit like that, you don't want to die." The older adamantly spoke. This type of stuff was not funny to joke around with. And much to his horror, Jeongguk let out a dry heartless laugh.

"Then give me a good reason why I should even continue living right now."

Taehyung's brows scrunched up in confusion. The way Jeongguk was talking was honestly scaring him.

"Because you'll leave people behind." His words came out in a shaky whisper, face perplexed at the conversation.

Jeongguk finally turned around to face him, and the distant expressionless look on his features made the older swallow the thick lump lodged in his throat.

"Yeah? Who?"

Taehyung blinked.

"Me."

The younger quirked up a brow, slightly edging his face forward with an accusing expression.

"Really? Well if you're the only one then it doesn't really matter, does it?" He asked, sarcasm dripping in his tone. Meanwhile, Taehyung's mouth gaped a little in complete offense.

"Why would you say that?" His voice was demanding, strict and curt.

"Because you seemed to have no problem leaving me before. You've already proved that you can manage just fine without me, you'll forget about me anyway. You already did." Jeongguk leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes as he wanted to block out both the whirring noise of the room as well as the deafening silence.

Taehyung opened his mouth to rebuttal the comment, but Jeongguk already beat him to it.

"You can't even call me by my old nickname, or have you forgotten that too?"

Silence.

Taehyung didn't know what to say.

Jeongguk sighed and turned on his bed, facing back to the window and sliding down into his covers.

"Whatever. Just get out."

A minute passed as the older shamefully looked at the younger male, eyes filled with sorrow. With a heavy breath, the brunette stood back up on his feet and started making his way to the door.

"I'll be back tomorrow." He waited a few seconds for a response, but Jeongguk just kept lying still. With that, he exited the room and let the door softly close behind him.

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feelin spicy bc both me and jungkook are fake blondes