Chapter 18.

It's in our nature to complicate, but in the end it's the casualties that carry all the weight.

  “Did he run off?” Taeyong asked as they all had went out on the porch, looking around but the darkness didn’t reveal anything.

Ten looked gloomy. “He said he was sorry.”

  “What?” Jaehyun asked, not sure if he heard right.

Ten sighed. “He was watching you, he was crying and he said ‘I’m so sorry’ and then he ran.”

  “He ran off too?” Johnny questioned. “If he couldn’t be more of a drama queen.”

  “No I think this is serious.” Mark said and they all looked at him. “We’re not all sunshine and rainbows.” Mark argued.

Taeyong, Ten and Jaehyun all nodded. Taeyong bit down on his lip before taking. “Maybe there are things he’s not telling. We all have a reason connected to the things we do.” He said and Jaehyun chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Let’s wait a bit for him to come back.”

  “If he’s not back within an hour we’ll be out looking for him, okay?” Hansol said sternly and everyone nodded. Jaehyun though narrowed his eyes on the moon that could be seen through the clouds. Taeyong tugged at Jaehyun’s sleeve to come sit by the fire with him. The group followed the two.

Doyoung was nowhere to be seen. Soohyun had taken a serious talk with Jaehyun who had told the other that he would manage. Soohyun spoke about talking with his father and Jaehyun said that wasn’t necessary. He could do that himself. Jongsuk was on his toes, he kept turning around with a hopeful face to see Doyoung. Jinyoung was very silent because Jongsuk had scolded him harshly for his behavior and Jaehyun was really thankful for that.

  “I’ll scold Doyoung when he comes back.” Jongsuk said but he looked worried. “For making me worry and for being a little .” He said and once again turned around to look for the boy. Hansol and Yuta got up to get flashlights and Ten and Johnny went too. Jaehyun looked at Taeyong who seemed deep in thought.

  “He’s your friend.” Jaehyun said and Taeyong’s eyes shifted to look at him.

Taeyong hummed, but he didn’t seem to agree. “Friend.” He repeated as if tasting the word on his tongue. “There’s something about him that I didn’t know and he didn’t know a lot about me either.”

  “Still.” Jaehyun said and Taeyong turned to face him with his whole body.

  “He was the reason for you to almost kill yourself…” He said and Jaehyun noticed the other’s voice grow thicker.

Jaehyun smiled kindly and shook his head. “There’s more to it.” He said and Taeyong pressed his lips into a thin line.

  “Am I a reason?” He asked and Jaehyun didn’t want to talk more about this so he stood, reaching out a hand for Taeyong to take.

  “Let’s go find, Doyoung. He’s a , but he doesn’t deserve to die and definitely not alone.”

Taeyong kept on holding onto Jaehyun’s hand. “You’re right.” He said and squeezed Jaehyun’s hand. “I’ll get my flashlight wait for me.” He spoke softly and then he ran.

Soohyun walked with Mark and Jaemin, because he didn’t want the young to walk alone. It didn’t go unnoticed to Jaehyun the way Sehun patted his shoulder or the way Taehyung wished Taeyong and him good luck with an extra wide smile. It made Jaehyun feel like he had enough strength to focus. Doyoung had been missing for over an hour and it was pitch black outside. Kun and Sicheng followed Taeyong and Jaehyun as the four of them went East, taking the path Jaehyun and Taeyong had used to get back from the river. They walked with long strides calling out Doyoung’s name and Taeyong pulled Jaehyun closer when the distance between them got too long. They walked for what seemed like hours and they even passed the waterfall. Jaehyun looked up to see the sky clear as if the moon wanted to help them too, and Kun and Sicheng seemed very worried, Kun even shifted over in Chinese as he worriedly spoke to Sicheng and Taeyong and Jaehyun shared a gaze.

Then their path suddenly turned to the right and Jaehyun reached out and grabbed onto Taeyong’s arm, pulling him back so that he didn’t fall head first down the side of a cliff. They all shared a gaze and Jaehyun leaned forward, pointing his flashlight down and he hoped not to see anything, but he heard him first.

  “Hello?” Doyoung’s voice sounded and Jaehyun noticed how weak it was. He squinted and pointed the flashlight towards it only to see Doyoung sprawled out, he was squinting up at them and he only moved his right hand in a little wave. Jaehyun hurried to the left and found and safe path down. They ran towards Doyoung and Sicheng gasped and covered his mouth at the sight of blood drenching Doyoung’s hair.

  “Find something to steady his neck.” Kun said and Taeyong ran around and found two large stones to put on each side of Doyoung’s head to title his head a little back and to keep it there. Jaehyun was calling for help and Sicheng was calling Jongsuk.

Taeyong held Doyoung’s hand and Kun pulled off his jacket and covered Doyoung with it. Jaehyun shrugged his off as well and put it over Doyoung’s legs. One of the legs seemed to lie in an awkward position and red drenched his jeans. Doyoung cried softly and Jaehyun gripped Doyoung’s right hand and felt the other hold onto it tightly.

  “I’m sorry.” Doyoung said weakly and Jaehyun shook his head. Telling the other not to worry.

Kun comforted Sicheng and Jaehyun tried to keep Doyoung awake even though he seemed to start to drift off. Jaehyun felt panic rise in his chest.

  “He’s drifting off.” He said into the phone and he heard the lady scurry around with something. “Please tell me more about his state.”

  “He’s bleeding from his head, somewhere near the front, we’ve steadied his neck because we’re not sure if it’s harmed in any way. His leg is definitely broken and we haven’t checked if there are other injuries.”

  “Did he tell you if it hurt anywhere?”

Taeyong shared a gaze with Jaehyun, his face only slightly lit up by their flashlight. “Doyoung! Hey! Are you hurting anywhere?” He asked and shook Doyoung’s right hand, leaning in over him and trying to get him to open his eyes. “He’s not responding!” He said and sat back, Kun hurried forward and kneeled down, putting his ear over Doyoung’s mouth and nose and looking at his chest. Taeyong focused the ray of light on his chest.

  “He’s not breathing.”

  “What do I do?!” Taeyong almost yelled and Kun pushed him away.

  “You don’t panic.” He said calmly and Jaehyun repeated everything to the woman on the line. They had been waiting for a long time now, from what he guessed about an hour, the helicopter should be there within the next hour. Kun opened Doyoung’s sweatshirt and Jaehyun handed him a sharp rock which they used to cut through Doyoung’s shirt. His chest looked fine, and Kun pressed three fingers to Doyoung’s chest around the middle of it, just from where his stomach stopped being soft and up. Kun pressed his left palm to the boy’s chest and after that he laced his fingers loosely and then he pushed down on Doyoung. He counted in a strained voice to thirty.

  “I can’t tip his head back.” He muttered and Jaehyun hurriedly spoke that into the phone. The lady told the other boy to just continue CPR. She had spoken of the things: A - Airway. B - Breathing. C - Circulation. Whereas they couldn’t do B they had to continue C, and Kun was pumping Doyoung’s blood around in a steady rhythm. Jaehyun was thankful that the other boy had taken first aid classes.

Kun though after 10 minutes straight seemed like he was getting too weak to continue. Taeyong got up beside him. “How much pressure?”

  “5 cm deep, nothing more.” He said. “Nothing less.” He added in a grunt and when he reached 30 he scooted to the side, holding his hand where Taeyong should put his and Taeyong tried to copy Kun. Kun was sweating profusely. “More pressure.” He told Taeyong and Sicheng came up to them.

  “I’m next.”

Jaehyun stared at Doyoung’s calm expression. He lowered the phone for a moment, the woman was talking to him. “DOYOUNG WAKE UP GOD DAMMIT!” He yelled and Taeyong got such a shock he leaned away.

Doyoung’s eyes flickered open and he tried to turn his head. “Wha-”

  “Don’t say anything!” Jaehyun said, abandoning his phone. “Just stay awake, please!”

Doyoung looked at him, there was something in his gaze that made Jaehyun feel like they had found some kind of middle ground. Kun passed out and Sicheng wrapped his arms around the boy, sitting on his knees and having Kun lean against his chest. “I got him.” He told Taeyong who didn’t know who to help anymore. He leaned over Doyoung and took Jaehyun’s phone.

  “He’s conscious.”

The helicopters lights blinded them and blew their hair out of their faces. Jaehyun felt so relieved and he gripped Doyoung’s hand tightly.

  “My chest hurts.” Doyoung whimpered.

  “You’re alive.” Jaehyun said without taking his gaze off the helicopter that had landed on the field and people were running towards them.

Doyoung held onto Jaehyun’s hand when Jaehyun was pushed away. “Don’t leave me.” He pleaded and Jaehyun grabbed onto one of the men.

  “Can any of us come with him?” He asked and the man nodded.

  “Two.” He said shortly as they got Doyoung into the helicopter. Jongsuk hadn’t arrived yet.

  “We’ll go.” Taeyong said and wrapped his arm around Jaehyun. Kun had come back to consciousness too and he and Sicheng were being wrapped in blankets and given water.

  “You’ll get help soon, right?” A man asked the two while crouching down in front of them. The two boys nodded and Jaehyun felt Taeyong secure his seatbelts while Jaehyun just watched Kun and Sicheng sit close as the helicopter rose up into the sky.

 

Taeyong and Jaehyun’s fingers were laced together and Jaehyun once again took himself in not letting go. He closed his eyes and hearing Taeyong speak into the microphone about Doyoung, where he lived and what his address was.

They had saved Doyoung’s life.

Taeyong had saved two lives that day. If Jaehyun’s excuse to not letting himself love Taeyong was that the other was a bad person, he could just as well throw that out of the window. Jaehyun had no excuses, but he still couldn’t let himself give in. Still he saw his heart caught inside those dark eyes and he leaned in when Taeyong came closer, the other’s lips pressed to Jaehyun’s forehead. He wouldn’t give in to Taeyong’s love, no.

Jaehyun heard Ten’s voice in his head.

“Let’s see to that.”

A/N:

Hey babes, so who's dying over NCT 127?? Yup, you know who it is, my name is trash and I'm currently screaming over Jaehyun and Taeyong. (OH AND DON'T FORGET YUTA OR WINWIN OR MARK OR TAEIL OR HAECHAN(DONGHYUCK)) Ah, I really wished for Johnny or Hansol to make it, and I really wanted Kun to appear too but nope. Sm gotta be a tease and release poor winwin without his best buddy. (I really want to write a Winwin and Yuta fic now with Winkun and... Yusol maybe... I'm not too sure of who to ship Yuta with) 

Ah, I'm literally screaming their teaser sounds so dope. Are you guys dying too?

Oh and I've had some classes in first aid and I was like: "Wait how do I translate this into English?" I literally forgot what CPR was called I'm a noob. And as you can see we'll hear more about Doyoung and see a new side of him in the next chapter AND we'll have another (golden) jaeyong moment, so prepare yourself for feels. <3

(Btw Jaehyun's legs are my new and I want to hug them (they so long)

Love,
Trash <3