chicken noodle soup || sope

sixteen

Hoseok cried out loudly as the steak dropped to the floor. A searing pain stung through his hand and shot up his arm, all of the nerve endings on fire. It was one of the worst pains he had ever experienced. The skin was bright red and beginning to blister, and the pain was somehow only getting worse with time.

Seokjin took a step towards his friend to help, but before he could, the head chef had traversed the entire kitchen and had situated himself at Hoseok's side. Seokjin was worried that Chef Min would yell at the boy for dropping the steak, but the steak was the least of Yoongi's concerns.

"Oh my god Hobi are you alright?" Yoongi panicked, lightly holding Hoseok's wrist, careful not to touch the scorched skin on his palm. He led the younger over to the sink, where he told Jungkook not-so-kindly to "get the fuck out of the way" and turned on the cold water. "Here, run your hand under the water."

Hoseok did as he was told and let the water run over his palm. The cooling sensation reduced the pain but not enough to stop Hoseok from letting a couple tears escape from his eyes.

"It h-hurts..." Hoseok whimpered.

Yoongi's heart broke a little. "I know Hobi, I know." He hated that the red-haired boy was in so much pain. By look's of the swollen and red injury, Yoongi determined that it was at least a second-degree burn, and as an experienced chef, he knew all too well how those kinds of burns felt.

"I should take him to the hospital!" Seokjin suggested with a concerned tone.

"No!" Hoseok lashed out suddenly, throwing him into another fit of tears, "N-no hospitals..."

"At least let me treat it then," Yoongi urged him. He wrapped his arm around Hoseok's back, leading him out of the kitchen. Hoseok obliged immediately, not really having the energy to do much else.

Seokjin looked on sadly as the two left. He knew that his friend was hurt but... Hoseok had yelled at him. He was just trying to help and Hoseok had jumped straight down his throat for it. It was like he didn't even know the red-headed boy was anymore.

Yoongi led the wounded chef out of the kitchen and hurried him up a set of stairs. When they arrived at the top, Yoongi opened the door to reveal a loft-style apartment, painted in neutral colours and furnished with minimalistic décor.

"You l-live here?" Hoseok sniffled, trying to ignore the shooting pain in his palm.

"Mhm," Yoongi hummed, leading Hoseok over to the couch and sitting him down there. "I'm going to go get my first aid kit. I'll be right back okay?"

Hoseok gave him a small nod and Yoongi disappeared into another room, only to emerge a second later with a large white container under his arm. He sat down on the couch, setting the case beside him and pulling a tube of some kind of cream out.

"Give me your hand," Yoongi told to red head softly, taking the boy's wrist and placing the hand palm-up on his lap. He squeezed some of medical cream onto his fingers and then slowly brushed the substance over Hoseok's blistered skin. The sunshine boy flinched, but then proceeded to let out a long sigh as the stinging pain began to dissipate.

"Am I hurting you?" Yoongi asked, shooting Hoseok a concerned look.

Hoseok shook his head, "No, it feels a lot better."

Yoongi hummed in response and took a roll of bandage wrap out of the kit, carefully unrolling some of it to bring around Hoseok's hand. "So you want to tell me why you didn't want to go to the hospital?"

"Oh uh..." Hoseok went quiet for a moment. "I just don't like hospitals. When my mother was sick, I spent almost everyday there. I visited in the mornings and after school, I did my homework in the hospital cafeteria- it was basically my second home for just over a year. Now it just brings back a lot of bad memories."