Jane receives terrible news
A/N: mentions of death in the family and all the grief and feelings with that; please don't read if this is triggering for you
"I love you too. I'll see you when I'm back." Jane hung up and sighed. She was currently waiting on Jooheon for them to leave. She was going back to visit her dad again. Her aunt had called and the prognosis wasn't good. "Honey, we need to go!" She shouted into the dorm and Jooheon faintly yelled back from somewhere he was coming.
He came stumbling down the hall, bag in hand as he tried to slip his jacket on. Jane smiled, shaking her head and moving around to help him get his coat on. "I swear, instead of growing up you stayed a child." Jooheon only smiled at her, dimples showing on his cheeks. "I'm your favorite man-child." She only snorted, rolling her eyes and telling him they needed to get a move on. They had a few hours of driving to get done.
"Call me when you get there, be careful. Do you need money to stop for food? You need to eat. Wait! I packed some snacks for you both." Kihyun, for whatever reason, seemed like he was nervous as all hell for her and Jooheon to be going by themselves. Jane only tapped her foot impatiently and bit the inside of her cheek.
She knew that all of them were just trying to make things easier and they did need food. She was not about to deal with a hangry Jooheon. "We have money, hyung," Jooheon said as he took the bag of snacks. "With all these snacks I doubt we'll even need to stop. Is there gimbap?" Jooheon looked hopeful as Kihyun nodded. "We're good then. Let's go, YunJae!"
"Finally," Jane muttered, grabbing her bag and opening the door. She huffed in frustration when she felt her phone start vibrating in her pocket. "Why does everyone want to talk to me today?" She whined as she slid her finger across the screen to answer. She didn't bother to check who was calling; figuring instead of opening the door to yell down the hall Kihyun or Shownu were calling to say something else.
"I just wanted to say to be safe!" Hyungwon's voice chirped over the phone. Jane couldn't even be irritated with him. He was going through his own stuff. "Thanks. I'll call you when we first stop, okay?" She hung up and slipped her phone back in her pocket, breathing in relief when they were finally loading into the car.
"Do you want to drive the first half and switch? I didn't sleep too much last night. I was working on something," Jooheon said with a yawn and Jane agreed. They pulled out and were on their way. 40 minutes in, her phone started vibrating again. She dug it out of her pocket, putting it on speaker and laying it on her lap.
"YunJae!" She immediately threw one of her hands onto Jooheon's arm and squeezed. It caused him to jump awake. "W-what?! What's wrong?" He asked, looking around. He looked at her lap to see her aunt was on the phone. He cleared his throat as her aunt went on about what was going on. "He's gone," her aunt choked out and Jane couldn't really hear anything after that.
Her eyes were wide and her grip on the steering wheel was iron tight. Jooheon grabbed her phone off her lap, taking it off speaker. She could hear him talking but it just sounded like mumbling. She felt tears burn her eyes. "YunJae-ah," Jooheon said softly. "Why don't we pull over for a minute? Let me drive." She only nodded, gulping down the lump in her throat.
They found a parking lot and Jane turned in. She shut the car off and she heard the door close from the other side but she couldn't bring herself to move. Jooheon didn't come to her side for a few minutes. She could see him on his phone, talking. She figured he was calling Shownu.
Her door finally opened but she still had her seatbelt on and was just staring straight out the windshield. "YunJae-ah," Jooheon said quietly, gently placing his hand on hers. "C'mon. I'm going to take us home." She snapped her head towards him, eyes filled with tears that had yet to fall. "N-no, we still need to go. I said I would be there today." Jooheon sighed, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her out of the car.
"We're going to go, I promise. Just not today. Shownu is going to call the managers and tell them what's going on. We're going to go together. Either tomorrow or the day after, okay? Right now, I'm taking us home." She only nodded, mindlessly walking to the passengers side of the car, getting in. Jooheon reached over and put her seatbelt on. She was still just staring straight ahead.
He grabbed her hand, holding on to it and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles the whole way back to the dorm. He was worried. Jane hadn't said a word the whole way back. She hadn't moved her gaze from out of the windshield. She's barely moved her body at all. He kept looking over to make sure he could still see her chest rising and falling.
Once they had gotten back to the dorm, she had climbed out of the car on her own. She reached towards the back to grab her bags but Jooheon only wrapped his arm around her and pulled her with him. "I'll get them later. Let's just go inside for now." She didn't say anything, just following him and letting him lead the way.
They walked in the dorm, Jane pausing at the doorway. Jooheon almost ran into her but looked up the last second and stopped himself. "Ja—oof!" She had turned and thrown her body into his, almost knocking him off his feet. She was trembling, trying not to break down and sob right there. Jooheon wrapped his arms around her waist. "Up, c'mon." He said and she jumped a little, wrapping her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. She kept her face buried in his shoulder.
The others had come out after hearing the door open, worried and sad looks on their faces. "We're almost to my bedroom," Jooheon said quietly. Jane didn't like crying. It was a very rare occasion when any of them would see her cry. He knew she didn't want to in front of them and quickly made his way to his bedroom, kicking the door closed.
Once she heard the door close, Jane let out the most heart wrenching sob Jooheon had ever heard from a person.