chapter 4

Phantom
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Jeonghan shouted as much his ability allowed him to and tried waking Seungcheol up but in vain. If he could, he wouldv'e taken him to a hospital or called the emergency number but the absence of an earthly body prevented him from doing it. He couldn't even feel if he was alive or dead, his inability to feel anything against his skin made sure of that.

After a few minutes of futile thoughts on what to do, he sat down in frustration and dejection. He saw Seungcheol laying down with no certainty of life and sighed whilst a single drop of tear traced down the path of his dried out tears. It was funny how he had met the man just yesterday and things took an angsty turn on his life. He wondered if he was the reason, like always, for what happened to Seungcheol.

When he was finally about to give up he heard footsteps outside the door. Immediately, on his instincts, he banged the door and started yelling, forgetting his true self. He realized he couldn't be heard when the person on the other side stopped walking and started rustling their keys. Breathing heavily, Jeonghan panicked.

He remembered his hands swinging over tables and counters, knocking off anything on it, hoping the person on the other side could hear it and he knew it worked when there was a small knock on the door.

"Hey, is everything alright in there?" A man voiced out after the knock. Jeonghan could only knock any article down from it's posture until he could convince that person to break the door.

"Excuse me?" Two more heavy knocks on the door and after that nothing. It was silence in the air and that's when Jeonghan knew it was over. He crawled over to Seungcheol and watched his pale skin getting paler. 

Just as he closed his eyes thinking there was nothing else he could do, he heard a loud bang on the door instead of a knock. 

"Excuse me, Please, let me know if you're alright in there," Jeonghan's hope returned again and looked for anything he hadn't broken yet but there was none. Then, he saw the glass piece Seungcheol used to hurt himself covered with blood. He didn't know if it would work but he had to try anything to get the man to find Seungcheol. 

Jeonghan bent down to check for the space between the floor and the door and inspected if it would fit. He then slid the bloody glass under the door to the other side hoping it would hit the man's shoes.

"If you are not going to respond, I'm breaking this door," He heard him say the next second the glass piece was picked up. Within the next 10 seconds, he heard a loud thud on the door and it only grew aggressive each time he did it. After a minute or so, the door was completely taken down and the man entered the room to find the unconcious Seungcheol on the ground next to a pile of his own blood. 

"Oh, God," The man sprinted towards him and cleared out the source of his injury, the broken glasses, out of his way while Jeonghan's concentration was only on making sure Seungcheol survived. He didn't even bother to look at the man's face and blindly trusted that some kind of humanity still existed in the world to prove Seungcheol wrong.

The man fished out his cell phone and immediately called for the ambulence, giving them the address before hanging up. He ripped some fabric from a near-by cloth  and hurrily tied it across his wound, making sure to apply enough pressure all the while Jeonghan's eyes were fixed on Seungcheol. He raised Seungcheol's arm above his heart, towards the ceiling while making sure he laid on his back. 

From how the person was administering the situation, it was evident that he had some kind of medical background. By the time he was done with the first aid, the paramedics had already arrived at the scene.

"Patient has a laceration on his harm and his Cephalic vein has been severed. He's been unconcious for almost 15 mins now," The man informed the crew member while they shifted him to the stretcher and carried him downstairs as Jeonghan followed them

"Give him 2 units of B+ve, stat. His pulse is weak due to the hemorrhage," The man said as he got on the ambulance and he placed an oxygen mask on Seungcheol to help him breath and just as they were about to close the ambulance door, Jeonghan got a glimpse of the man. In that instant, his mouth hung with lips slightly parted and his eyes were as wide as they could stretch. 

He saw the same man who declared his time of death in the hospital Seungcheol was currently being taken to. He remembered his last ride on the very same ambulance and he remembered the desvasting look of the people he loved.

Once again his emotions turn jagged and his insides tight. He cursed the fate for letting him re live his final moments alive again as though the first time wasn't painful enough. It has been years since he last saw anyone who meant a damn to him and 3 years later, he's seeing the person who meant everything to him.

"I'm so sorry," Jeonghan whispered in tears as the ambulance sped off into the dark street.

 

 

"His vitals are stabilizing, I think he's coming back to conciousness," Seungcheol's ears could pick up the muffled voice around him. Everything was blurry as he opened his eyes as much as he could and saw two slender figures, one in a white coat and one in a doctor's scrub, standing in front of him.

"I'll take care from here. Thank you, Dr. Kim," Seungcheol made out a scene where the one wearing a scrub leave whilst other man removed his coat and sat next to him.

Within the next minute, his vision was pretty normal but this was when the pain kicked it. He experienced a kind of fatigue he's never had before and he's someone who has got great stamina. His head was still light headed and his arm hurt like it had been sawed off. He glanced down at his arm to see it dressed in gauze and an IV administered to him.

"My name is Hong Joshua. We're at the hospital and you're alright, now," The man said while giving him a tint of smile to assure him that everything was okay. 

"Do you remember your name?" The doctor asked him to which he replied with a weak response of his name.

"Do you remember what happened?" He asked Seungcheol and he tried to remember. His eyebrows tied into a knot and then, it slowly came to him that he tried to kill himself. He remembered Jeonghan's crying face, begging him not to do it.

Seungcheol pulled his IV tube out and struggled to get up from the bed.

"I have to go," His hoarse voice stated. Seungcheol's feet were already on the ground and when he stood up, his head started to spin and his legs gave in, forcing him to sit back on the bed.

"Woah, Woah. You can barely walk across this room and you think you can leave?" Joshua supported Seungcheol while he fell back a little.

"I'm fine. I've rested enough. I have to get to my house," Seungcheol attempted to get up one more time, only this time his feet never touched the floor because of Joshua.

"No, you can't and no, you won't," Joshua said in a stern voice with his hands on Seungcheol's shoulders. He stared right into his eyes and the kind of warmth he displayed earlier was gone. 

"I was the one who brought you in. I know what happened. If I hadn't heard all the noise coming from your house, you'd be dead by now," Joshua's face was visibly distraught. Just as Seungcheol was about to retaliate, he spoke again.

"Our hospital rules doesn't allow you to leave. I have to check you into the psychiatric ward,"

"This man is on a 72-hour psychiatric hold,"  He called one of his colleauges and informed him, earning a displeased expression from Seungcheol.

"Wha- I'm not mentally incompetent! It was a one-time thing and I won't do it again. You don't have to classify me as mentally ill," Now, Seungcheol was being exasperated by him and he almost yelled at his doctor in front of all the other paitents.

"No one said you're mentally ill. You had some bad time and there wasn't anyone there to help you through. We will get you someone with whom you can talk to," Joshua tried to make him understand the suituation from his misinterpretation.

"I do not want to talk to anyone. Please, just let me leave. I have to go see someone, right now," His anger was gone and now he just desperate to go see Jeonghan.

In the last conversation they had, he mentioned that he killed himself and Seungcheol was nothing but an imbecile for rubbing it in his

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LuhanSa
#1
Finally, a great jeongcheol fic, I am happy I found it!
janale6 #2
Chapter 4: you know..youre literally the only reason why i still check aff. youre fic is really interesting! thank you for writing
janale6 #3
Chapter 1: i saw ANGST, i clicked. thank you for writing this very interesting story. i love your writing. simple but detailed. cant wait to read more from you.

*i feel like i remember reading this manhwa but totally forgot most of it. lmao