January 2019
It was a sunny day, the day that everything changed.
The sun's warm rays reflected off of the gleaming cars parked outside of the airport.
The traffic wasn't too heavy and the faint noise of cars honking could be heard in the distance.
A girl with dark raven locks walked through the airport alongside a boy with soft peach hair, laughing together as they held hands. Once again they were in their own world.
Even when they stepped out onto the pavement through those big glass double doors.
But then the boy momentarily averted his attention to the managers gesturing them towards their cars, letting go of her hand for a mere second.
Just a moment that changed everything.
The girl looked up at the sky, wondering why it was so sunny and warm when it was only January.
That's when a force from behind grabbed a hold of her.
And the whole world went black.
"Breaking news! The following footage may be disturbing for some viewers!
This morning, 10am at Seoul's international airport, k-pop idols V from BTS and soloist Moon returned from the band's Singapore world tour show, shortly after the other BTS members returned a day earlier.
They recently confirmed their dating status, about a month ago, which came as a shock for the whole industry and they've been stirring it up ever since.
In the following clip you can see the two exiting the airport in an orderly fashion, closely behind their managers and being motioned towards their cars.
However, as V lets go of Moon's hand, she momentarily falls behind. In this horrific moment, a hooded figure emerges from behind, grabbing Moon's head at either side and forcefully twisting it. With this one swift movement, the girl limply drops to the floor.
As seen here, V reacts horribly shocked, immediately pushing the aggressor away with such force he hits the stone wall near the entrance. Leaning down to inspect the victim, panic overcomes him as he yells out for help.
Our view is then obstructed by the emergency medical officers and further assistance and the video clip ends.
Moon's condition is completely unknown at the moment, but EMTs at the scene have notified us she was not found breathing.
All we can do is await an official announcement from her entertainment company, but as of now we must assume the worst."
"They just announced that Moon is laying in the hospital in critical condition", a dark voice from the hallway says.
Yoongi, who was making his way to the recording studio, nearly drops all the papers he's carrying. Catching himself in time, he goes silent and stops breathing. The voice sounds like one of their managers, but why is he saying that about Moonhae? Both her and Taehyung should just be back from the airport by now.
"My god, it's terrible", another voice responds, "She's slipping away as well. They don't know if they can keep her alive. They've already resuscitated her so many times."
The eavesdropping boy feels like he's going to throw up. There's no way any of this can be real.
"What happened?", he can't help bursting into the conversation, not being able to calm himself.
"Yoongi!", the two managers seem surprised, but also frightened.
"What happened?", he repeats himself, agitation now creeping into his voice.
"...Moonhae was...", one of them speaks hesitantly, "...She was attacked at the airport this morning. They don't know if she'll make it."
All of his breath and all the words are knocked out of the poor boy. His whole world shatters in front of him when he hears his worst nightmare coming true. Stumbling backwards and shaking his head adamantly, he retreats from the horrible news as everything feels like it's closing in on him. There's not one coherent thought forming in his mind when he takes off down the hallway, trying to run from the darkening edges in his vision, threatening to take his consciousness.
"Moonhae! Moonhae!", he shakes her limp body roughly, "Moonhae!"
Taehyung tries his best to wake her up, but her neck sticks out at an odd angle as she lies lifelessly on the pavement.
"Help! Someone help!", he croaks out in despair, tears now stinging his eyes, "She's not waking up!"
Some men start rushing towards her, checking her pulse and her breathing, rapidly working to save her.
"Why won't she wake up?", he trembles uncontrollably when looking down at her.
"No pulse. We need to transport her, nothing we can do without equipment", one EMT murmurs to the others.
"Sir, why won't she wake up?", Taehyung wails while grabbing at the man's shirt in desperation.
The man pushes him off without a second to waste, quickly helping his colleagues lift the girl onto a stretcher. Taehyung can only watch as they carry her serene body away, her long raven locks surrounding her, making her look like a peaceful angel. Nothing seems real anymore.
Suddenly, there's a police officer beside him, prodding him with questions.
"Who was the attacker? Sir?", he urges, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Attacker?", he turns to him with tear-streaked eyes, before realizing what he's asking with boiling blood.
"There", he spits out in the most hating way as he points at the dark figure sitting on the ground where he was thrown.
The officers immediately rush to handcuff him, but he barely makes any notions to resist. Harshly pulling off his black hood, they reveal none other than...
Jaewon.
The man who has taken so much from Moonhae and has now taken her life.
There's no sensibility left in Taehyung when he runs up to him and violently grabs a hold of the collar of his sweatshirt.
"Why?! Why would you do this?!", he yells, tears still streaming.
The police officers immediately separate the two, holding Taehyung back in vain as he wriggles around. Though he stops trying to resist when he catches sight of Jaewon's eyes.
They're dark. They're so dark there's nothing but empty blackness to be seen in a sea of bloodshot redness. The circles underneath them are so deep, they seem to be taking over the entire man's being. It scares the boy how he can't find an ounce of sanity left in his expression.
"No one...", Jaewon starts murmuring to himself before bursting out and struggling in the police officer's hold, "NO ONE CAN HAVE HER! NO ONE CAN FUCKING HAVE HER!"
As Taehyung stares at the insane figure writhing around in shock, he's quickly dragged off in handcuffs into the nearest police van. When they drive out of sight, he immediately snaps out of his trance, whipping around to Moonhae being lifted into an ambulance.
All the sounds around him seem to black out as he runs towards her body. A man that looks like a medical officer holds him back and appears to be shouting something at him, but he just can't understand. Then there's many people trying to get him away from the ambulance so they can close the doors, but with him not ceasing to move towards her, they eventually release their grasp on him. Time seems a blur when he suddenly ends up at the hospital, clutching her hand tightly as they wheel her through the corridors. When a forceful grip takes a hold of his shoulders and two large doors separate him from her, his hysteria kicks in again.
Pounding and screaming at the doors, he can't get to her. All he wants is to see her. To see her smiling up at him. She doesn't even have to be smiling, she could just have that stupid little moody pout on her face she always has and everything would be okay. She would be okay. None of this would have happened. But now he's here, sobbing out to her, although she's no longer with him.
"I can't do this", Jimin starts shaking his head again frantically, his puffy red eyes in an alarmed state. His breath becomes shaky and his limbs begin to tremble.
None of the others know what to say as they enter the hospital. They're just as shaken up as the boy next to them, although they may not be hyperventilating at the moment.
"We have to see her", Namjoon's voice is but a broken whisper as he places a hand on Jimin's shoulder.
"B-but if she...", his sentence is cut off by his own choked cry.
"Just go", Yoongi says behind them in the darkest tone they've ever heard come from him. The boy has his head lowered and keeps his eyes firmly focused on the ground, not daring to face anyone or anything.
Without another word, the six of them head towards one of the hospital's private rooms. Hoseok is the one to step up to the door with trembling hands and slowly push it open.
The room is dark and gloomy due to the dimly drawn curtains over the windows. Faint beeping from a heart-rate monitor and quiet sniffling sounds fill the place. All of it adds to the dread they experience as they slowly shuffle towards the patient's bed.
Lying there, a respiratory mask covering her porcelain white face and dark locks framing her tranquil expression, is Moonhae. Her frail figure is covered by a heated blanket, only her hand sticking out from under it, which is tightly clutched by the hunched-over boy sitting on a chair next to her.
"Taehyung...?", Namjoon says hesitantly after taking in the horrific scene.
The boy barely lifts his head and turns towards his friends who've just entered. His eyes are bloodshot and irritated from crying so much, his dusty peach hair disheveled along with the rest of his appearance. He's in bad shape and it shows. As soon as he sees them, his face crinkles up in pain and he starts sobbing uncontrollably.
Despite his own grief, Jimin immediately runs to the boy and embraces him firmly, his touch providing the comfort he can't express through words at the moment.
"T-they d-don't know if... I-if she's going to live", Taehyung cries out into Jimin's arms.
It hits them harder than anything else. Those words break all of their hearts repeatedly. The possibility that one of their closest friends is unbelievably close to death. That she may never wake up. She may never smile at them again, make them laugh with her unapologetic nature. The girl they've all loved.
"It was Jaewon, wasn't it?", Yoongi's voice sounds inexplicably frightening when he finally speaks.
"Yoongi...", Namjoon starts.
"Wasn't it?", his tone sharpens.
"Yes, h-he-", Taehyung answers with a sob and can't finish his sentence.
Yoongi looks like he's about to explode, his knuckles white from pushing his fingernails into his palms. Namjoon is about to calm the boy when the hospital room's door suddenly flies open.
"Prep her for the next surgery stat. This is time sensitive", the doctor strides in, followed by a whole team of medical staff, quickly gathering around Moonhae and checking her equipment.
"W-wait! W-what's going on?", Taehyung jumps up and grabs her limp hand protectively.
"Well...", the doctor sighs before explaining the situation, "We put her into a medically induced coma after the first surgery, because there wasn't much we could do. Her body reacted in a very unlikely way to the trauma to her neck, immediately swelling up around the fracture, so we couldn't really see how bad the damage was. We still don't know. If the spinal damage isn't too great, she may get away with paralysis, but if not, then she may not survive at all. I can't tell you how this next surgery will go, but I hope to salvage what I can now that the swelling has slightly gone down."
In that moment Jimin clasps one hand over his mouth and the other on his stomach, quickly motioning to escape the enclosed room. The others still being in shock over the doctor's report themselves, don't run after the sickened boy.
The doctor himself looks after him apologetically, but quickly turns back to the rest, "I need you to vacate the room for the time being, so we can get her out of here sooner rather than later."
Everyone reluctantly complies, even Taehyung lets himself be pushed out of the room by Hoseok after glancing back at his love one last time.
Out in the hallway, they quietly seat themselves in the small waiting area. Being a private hospital, their wing is closed off from everyone else and safe place for them to be. One of the nurses then walks over to Taehyung with a clipboard in her hand.
"Sir, do you know any family members we can contact for her?", she asks nervously, "The only people we've spoken to so far are her managers and her company."
"No...", Taehyung sounds weak, his expression now blank although his eyes are still watery, "She doesn't have anything like that..."
"Not even her parents or a sibling?"
"No. She only has... Us", as he says it, the realization really weighs in on him.
There's only them for her. They're her family. And Taehyung is her everything. And he couldn't even protect her.
"Very well", the nurse goes to leave, but doesn't seem very satisfied.
Hours later, the exhausted Bangtan members begin dozing off in their seats. The emotional stress they're going through is enough to tire anyone out. Jimin returns from the bathroom after some time, having calmed his upset stomach. When Taehyung excuses himself to be in Moonhae's empty room, however, he doesn't catch a good feeling.
After waiting a while to see if the boy would return, Jimin finally decides to check up on him. He knows the other members would probably do the same if they weren't so emotionally preoccupied themselves.
Walking into the private room, he can immediately tell that something's off. The place is brighter, since the medical staff opened the curtains, but the floor in the bathroom near the entrance glistens with a dark liquid. As he steps closer and slightly pushes the door open, he realizes it's bright red blood dripped on the pearly white tiles. Shards of glass are spread across the ground and looking up above the sink he can see why. The entire mirror has been shattered, most of its pieces now laying on the floor in front of him. Blood stains cover the whole scene.
Stumbling backwards out of the bathroom, Jimin frantically whips his head towards the window where a lone figure is standing. The light-haired boy has his back towards him, silently gazing out at the tranquil scenery of trees and forest in front of him. Everything would be alright if it weren't for the blood dripping onto the carpet from his left hand.
"Taehyung!", Jimin rushes towards him with a gasp.
Taking a hold of his arm and lifting his hand up to see the wound, Taehyung just keeps staring out the window. There's deep cuts in his knuckles and some little shards from the mirror are still stuck in his flesh. Not knowing how long ago Taehyung shattered the mirror makes the ever dripping blood all the more alarming.
"What did you do?", he holds onto the injured hand with worry.
"Nothing", his voice is nothing but a whisper.
"You should go see one of the doctors."
"I'm fine", he responds lifelessly.
There's a short silence before Taehyung seems to be smiling as he gazes out at the nature.
"I'm going to release the song I wrote about her", his eyes glaze over, becoming lost in his own world, "I'm going to call it Scenery."
"What are you talking about?", he studies the boy in confusion.
"Look at this, Jiminie", he points out the window with his good hand, "The trees, the forest, the nature, it's life. It's a beautiful scenery. It's just like her."
"Taehyungie...", he looks at his friend painfully and holds his injury up for him to see and hopefully acknowledge, "I know you're going through it. Even more than any of us right now. But you can't do this to yourself. None of this is your fault and you can't take it out on yourself."
Jimin changing the subject drastically changes Taehyung's expression. The weary smile vanishes and his face goes blank again.
"But... If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have gone after her", he tears his eyes away from the view and stares down at his feet, "He said no one could have her. If I had never touched her, maybe... Maybe she would still be here."
The poor boy quietly starts sobbing again, broken down by his own words.
"It's not your fault, shh...", Jimin takes him into his arms once more.
"I can't live without her", he cries into him defeatedly.
"I know, I know...", he gently strokes his hair, before pulling back from him, "And we can't live without you. So come on. We need to get you stitched up."