𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐒 ━━ taekook

thirty nine.

⛴

Two males lay on two stark white bed, the sheets neatly pressed beneath them. One is hooked to IV and a monitor, a canula stretches along the length of his face. The other is barren, standing alone in the middle of the room. The former's chest rises and falls, the latter is still and motionless. The sheet is drawn over one's face, while the other has it tucked underneath his arms. 

One is rolled out to another room, where the monotone beeping of monitors punctuates the silence draped over the space. The other is led down to a morgue-like room, a temporary graveyard for those who have passed. 

A group of five are bunched into the small waiting area of the hallway outside one of the doors. Quiet murmurs pass between them, textured by tears slipping past their orbs. But one is seated on a smooth chair, eyes staring into the tiles of the floor, hushed into silence. One of the others turns to the youngest with pity in his eyes. 

"Jeongguk-ah, it's late... Let's get you home, and Hoseok can stay here for the night..."

The boy looks up with a subdued gaze, and shook his head, running a hand through his bedraggled locks. He opened his parched mouth, a rough voice slipping past his chapped lips. 

"I-I want to stay here with T-tae..."

Yoongi sighed and looked over to an equally tired Hoseok, rising up from his seat to sit beside Jeongguk. 

"Kook, you should get some rest, today's been especially bad for you..."

Jeongguk blinks to rid the sting from his eyes, looking over at the rest of his hyungs. 

"I don't w-want to leave him alone. I did once, a-and look wh—" 

Jeongguk looks down, fighting the prick in his throat, willing himself not to cry. A beat of silence passes between them, before Seokjin gets up and wraps his arm around the younger's shoulders. He guides his shaking frame up and towards the door. Seokjin looks back, his arm still around Jeongguk. 

"We'll head home, all of us."

The fight went out of Jeongguk, feeling himself unravel at his hyung's words. And silently, he let himself be tugged towards a car, and back to the security of his house. 

But his home was still in that building, still on that hospital bed. He left him again...

- - -

The three of them sat in Jeongguk's living room, the silence stretching between them like black smoke. 

Seokjin was a few paces away from the others,  busying himself with making something for the three of them to eat. He absent-mindedly loaded the rice cooker and set it, while thoughts drowned his brain. 

Their Taehyung had gone through so much, even after all of them had made their promises. To protect, to love, to care. To be together always. 

Then why had they allowed themselves to drift apart? Their strength was each other, then why did they let themselves become so weak? 

That fight never should have happened. They never should have left. Should have realized Taehyung was so helpless...

Jimin sat on one of the plush cushions of Jeongguk's couch, running his fingers over the comfortable fabric. Tears pricked at his eyes for the twentieth time today, and he cursed himself for being so inconsiderate. 

He should have known what Taehyung would do, how he would react. And the price he paid wasn't deserved at all. He didn't deserve the pain. Didn't deserve any of it...