𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘; park jisung

1.03

"Alright," Mark led the dialogue once again, "this may be a weird question, but: Do you happen to be Jungwoo's sister?"

Speaking without thinking, Hana fired back. "You guys know Jungwoo? I mean, yes, he's my brother--do you guys know where he is? Do you know him?" Her eyes shifted around the vehicle, waiting for answers from anyone, growing impatient.

"We do. And uh, it would probably be best if you came home with us. Our friend is a medic and you look like you could use one." Damn, Jaemin's right. She ran her hand over her exposed shoulder, and her skin felt rough, with a sting to the touch, and she had more burns under the sleeves of her jacket. "And I think your brother would want to see you too." Jaemin, from beside her, insisted. Haechan and Jeno nodded.

"Holy shit," the driver, Chenle, broke his silence, "Jungwoo's long lost sister." He wore a content grin on his face, evidently entertained by Hana's presence.

"I just texted him, he's asking us to keep you for the night." Mark set his phone back onto his lap.

"Where is he?" The eager sister asked.

"Out of town on business, though he's coming back as soon as he can, which will be tomorrow evening."

Business, hmm. The idea of going home with seven men seemingly her age was strange, but the idea of seeing her brother after seven years overpowered her thoughts. And it was then that she began overthinking.

What if he's changed? What if he's not the same Jungwoo he left home as?

Moreso, she had more questions she wanted to know from him, including why he never tried to see her, and if he had essentially forgotten her. She didn't know it yet, but she had buried resentment toward him.

Despite these polarizing thoughts, she not once felt suspicious of the men. They could've easily been lying to her, but her mind just hadn't explored those possibilities; she really had no reason to mistrust in them.

✦*ೃ༄

Hana entered the mansion behind the young men, and most of them traveled up the stairs, likely to their own rooms. Chenle showed her to the guest room per Mark's instruction, and brought her some of his clothes to change into and a spare toothbrush. He stood in the doorway, rhythmically tapping his fingers on the door frame as he watched her place the items on the bed.

"Don't get settled yet, Taeyong and Doyoung are on the way."

"Taeyong and Doyoung?"

"Mm-hmm. Doyoung is one of our medics of the group, he's the most available right now so he'll be treating your burns. And Taeyong is our boss sorta, so he'll be here to meet you."

"Oh, I kinda assumed Mark was your leader."

"He is." Chenle shrugged. Hana's eyebrows scrunched at the overlapping bits of information. Perceiving her puzzlement, he rejoined. "Don't worry, you still have a lot to learn."

"And that's supposed to make me not worry?" She humored. The boy was about to retort, but the noise of voices getting louder and layering on one another stopped him. Hana could now also hear more unfamiliar voices.

"They're here, I'll introduce you to them." Chenle gave her no time to react as he walked off, leaving Hana to follow shortly behind.

Great, she thought, more intimidating men to meet.

As the two made their way down the stairs, the alleged Taeyong and Doyoung, who were previously in conversation with others, glued their eyes onto Hana as she awkwardly avoided direct eye contact.

Chenle introduced Hana to Doyoung and Taeyong, and after the three became acquainted, Doyoung asked Hana to have a seat on the couch, as he'd examine her burns. Only, when she tried to take off her jacket, she came across the ugly discovery that the jacket was burned into her skin, latching into her skin and refusing to come off. The idea made her nauseous, and Doyoung wasn't pleased much either.

Doyoung whistled in apprehension, dreading the process ahead of him. "Okay, please don't worry, I've dealt with worse."

Hana smiled sheepishly. He seemed to be sweet. And he worked with such confidence, as if he had multiple lives of experience.

Unfortunately Doyoung had to cut around her jacket, which happened to be Heejin's, and Hana could only hope she'd never ask for it back, though that was the least of her available concerns. Once the jacket was cut off, and only the parts burned into her skin remained, Doyoung had her soak her arms in a pail of cool water while he moved over to tend to the burns on Jisung's arms, which were less severe due to the fact that he wore a burnproof shirt at the time of the fire. Unfair, Hana thought, given that he had time to prepare. He was now wearing a black tank top, same pants.

But she failed to realize that the reason Jisung pushed her out of the door frame first before himself was so that he'd be left to face the aftermath of the flames multiplying in size and quantity after coming into contact with Hana. He recognized that he had burnproof clothing, so he selflessly took the worse of it.

Taeyong now stood in front of Hana, observing her now relaxed state, as opposed to the squeamish fright she was when Doyoung tugged at the remains of the jacket and cut around it. Understandable, as she was in a particular agony she'd never felt before.

His demeanor exuded an air of calculated composure as his eyes analyzed her with intensity.

"You're family of Jungwoo, so we'll look out for you," Hana nodded at the Taeyong's words, not knowing what to really say or do in response. "You can stay here, at the very least until Jungwoo is able to see you."

"Okay." Hana smiled politely. The man patted her shoulder to compensate for his cold manner, before going to where Mark was situated in the room, conversing with him about whatever was relevant to the two.

After Doyoung finished tending to Jisung's burns, the latter retired to his own room while Doyoung came back around to Hana, lifting one of her arms from the pail of water. He tugged at the jacket material, earning a wince from Hana.

"It's going to hurt, I'm sorry. Luckily it loosened up," he assessed, "will you be okay if I worked on removing it now?" Hana felt as though she had no choice but to oblige, so she nodded.

The process was still extremely painful, and consequently, Hana squeezed the thing closest to her which inconveniently happened to be Chenle's shoulder, and he fortunately didn't mind. Instead, he removed her hand from his shoulder and held it in his own hands, allowing her to squeeze at his hands, which she did. Underneath the bits of jacket being removed precisely, Hana's flesh was revealed to be blistering, earning a wince and sympathetic frown from Doyoung. Chenle squeezed Hana's hand back in a rhythmic fashion with hopes of distracting Hana from the sensation in her arms, and it blessedly worked somewhat.

And after all material of the jacket was removed from her skin, Doyoung worked on disinfecting her burns as he did for Jisung. Once done, another painful process on Hana's behalf though not nearly as agonizing as the removal of the jacket, he instructed her to wait an hour until showering and to re-rinse her wounds in peroxide twice daily. After wrapping her arms with gauze and bandage, he left her some supply to rewrap herself whenever necessary.

As the time progressed and it was now in the earlier hours before morning, Taeyong and Doyoung retired to their own homes after hours of relishing in the others' presence again, leaving Hana once again in a house with the Seven. Shyly, she bid the rest who were downstairs, a goodnight, before shutting herself into the guest room and showering.