Chapter 23:

Multitudes of shades of white blinded my sight, a faint beeping that bleeped to the left of me, and every corner of my body aching with undying pain.

It was a lapse, I believed, a time that I couldn’t really recall exactly, only in whispers of some sort of memory that was nearly nonexistent, like a dream.

Time melded together through my muddled brain, unable to distinguish minutes from seconds, or hours from days.

Something covered my mouth but I was unsure of its name; it slipped my memory.

I did remember the warmth of my left hand, significantly more heated than my right. A reason for the matter, though, was not something I could come up with.

Gradually, the melted time stretched out and broke apart and I began to realize something.

The beeping was gone, my mouth was clean of covering, and my delirium was wiped out like a tidal wave washing over dirt and revealing pearly white sand.

I was in a hospital.

Blinking a few times, my lids fluttered until my blurry surroundings gradually became clearer. The first thing I noticed was the array of colors on the nightstand next to me. Resting on that table was a bouquet of an assortment of flowers.

I was too exhausted to even panic or worry about what the hell actually happened.

My first intake of breath was sharp, short, and it burned. Literally, it felt like someone had set my lungs on fire, and everything then slowly came back.

The bridge, the fall, the water, the freezing feeling and sensation of being unable to breathe, all came back into my mind.

“Damn,” was all I managed to mutter, bringing my palm up to press into my forehead.

I realized that I was attached to an IV.

Desperately, I hoped that Jongin was okay. I clearly remembered that he was the one to save my life and I owed him a thousand meals and more to make up for it.

Then I remembered something else. We were dating.

Suddenly, a giddy feeling filled my body through my toes and up to my head, causing the tips of my ears to tingle. Jongin was my boyfriend. I had to remind myself to breathe normally (for the sake of my lungs) because I was getting far too excited.

I noticed that I craved him at the moment.

Looking around to see if there was a phone or something, I managed to steal a glance at a clock. It was eleven thirty in the morning. I hoped it wasn’t a week later or something.

“Oh, you’re awake!” A nurse suddenly popped in.

She had short, curly hair that bounced off her shoulders, and a super bright smile.

“I’ll have to tell the doctor,” she announced, and then winked at me.

I blinked back, feeling confused.

It took about five minutes for the doctor to come.

Oh god.

It was Doctor Choi. I recognized him immediately with the tiny stubble he had and his lean, young face.

“Kyungsoo,” he began. “You seem to have escaped from my hospital.”

I was too scared to even worry about the fact that he said my hospital. It wasn’t illegal, right, to suddenly leave the hospital? Or was it?

“U-Uh…” I blushed madly. “You see about that I-“

His booming voice cut me off.

“Aha! I’m just screwing with you. Jongin told me the entire story.”

My face continued to stay red as I thought about Jongin.

On cue, my boyfriend revealed himself from behind the doctor. He had a sly smile, the one he usually wore, that spoke to people of mischief and rebellion, but I knew what really was under it, a mere child at heart.

He said nothing though as Doctor Choi approached me.

“Well,” he sighed. “Not going to lie, everything was extremely worrying yesterday night.”

I inwardly sighed in relief because I had only been out for a day.

“Your lungs almost stopped working.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jongin shudder, like he was cringing from a bad memory. I shivered at the terrible thought of poor Jongin having to watch doctors try to revive me and almost failing.

He probably felt incredibly guilty, blaming himself for this incident. I knew I was going to have a difficult time convincing him that none of this had been his fault.

“However,” Choi continued. “You managed to come back with a small spark of life that we were able to work with and voila you’re here now.”

I couldn’t really respond; I just nodded.

“You’ll probably need to stay for a few more weeks,” Choi concluded.

He looked like he was going to leave but then he turned to me again.

“Oh, and if you ever try to leave my hospital again, we’re not going to be so nice the next time.”

He said it with a wink but I had to admit it was a bit frightening.

The doctor obviously noticed the growing tension (ual?) between Jongin and I and he decided to take his leave, closing the door behind him.

“Kyungsoo-“

I cut Jongin off.

“Just come over here,” I hissed at him, beckoning him over with a wave of my hand.

He padded over to me and pulled over a chair. It scraped against the floor and stopped only when it was centimeters away from the bed.

His hair had seen better days. So did the wrinkles in his shirt. And his face. He generally looked like a hobo that had found some nice clothes.

“You almost di-“

“My fault,” I interrupted with a smile. “100% my fault,” I assured him again.

Jongin shook his head but I refused to allow him to believe anything less than what I said.

“Let’s talk about something else,” I encouraged. “You and I both know what happened. We don’t need to talk about it.”

Jongin’s expression was a cross between a pout and skeptical.

“Talk about what?” He wondered.

I put my fingers to my lips.

“Let’s talk about how you should feed me,” I informed him. “You should get me a sandwich. I’m really feeling like some salami right now.”

And for some (extremely odd) reason, that triggered Jongin’s emotions. He leaped forward, hugging my shoulders and burying his head into my shoulder.

“Kyungsoo, that was one of the scariest moments of my life and I’ve been dreading it the past 24 hours, and you’ve just managed to make me feel better with one sentence. Who the hell are you?”

I managed a smile, hugging him back then quickly pushing him away.

“You know I love you,” I told him. “But I’d rather not get you sick.”

Jongin nodded and wiped at his cheek. I smirked at the thought. The jerk didn’t want me to see him crying. He should’ve known that I could see his eyes watering.

“It’s a shame,” I started again. “I guess I can’t do the talent show like this.”

I gestured toward the inconvenient hospital room to explain myself, pretty convinced Jongin probably already thought about this.

His lips twitched about.

“Yeah,” he answered. “Shame.”

“What?” I demanded. “What?!”

He gave me a look I knew very well and honestly it made me uncomfortable because it was the I-know-something-you-don’t look.

“It’s nothing,” he responded. “There’s something more serious that we have to discuss.

I exhaled shakily.

“Is it about Jungwoo?” I suddenly recalled the boy who crashed into us and created all this chaos.

“Well, no but I guess we should talk about that too,” Jongin answered. “He’s also in the hospital. He didn’t go over the edge but after he hit us, his car flipped.”

“Oh,” I silently breathed. “Is he okay?”

“He had a pretty bad head injury but he’s okay now,” Jongin informed me, moving closer.

“Good,” I commented, closing my eyes, breathing in the burning air.

I couldn’t bring myself to hate Jungwoo. It wasn’t like he just blindly hated Jongin. He had a reason but he was just taking out on the wrong person. He should’ve talked with his father. Jongin definitely wasn’t the cause for his parents’ divorce.

“They’re going to arrest him, aren’t they?” I quietly added, not meeting Jongin’s eyes.

“Probably,” Jongin responded. “The police know the whole story. He has several charges of harassment and the crash was a deliberate attempt to hurt us. But I don’t really know. I haven’t talked to his father yet.”

For some reason it made me undeniably depressed thinking about Jungwoo being forced into jail. Sure he was ing messed up and probably had some psychopathic tendencies along with an emotionally damaged mind, but he was just a kid. A mistreated, unfortunate kid.

While my thoughts were churning I kept trying to trace all of the turmoil back to a focal point and it relentless came back to my parents every time. I found it very troubling and it made me anxious. I suddenly felt betrayed and disgusted, ultimately disappointed and almost too embarrassed to mention anything.

But I knew I couldn’t just sit here.

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin noticed. “You’re being really quiet.”

“I’m just thinking,” I told him, looking out the window.

I would be the utmost worst, ungrateful, disloyal child in the world, but the only idea that refused to leave my mind happened to be turning my parents in. I shuddered, thinking about it. Such an action would leave me alone and a traitor. I couldn’t do such a thing but they were wrong and I was absolutely disgusted with what they did.

“Kyungso-“

“I’m turning them in,” I interrupted him.

“What,” Jongin looked at me, confused.

“My parents,” I told him. “I’m turning them in.”

Jongin’s eyes widened and he wiped his messy hair out of his eyes with his palm in order to see me better.

“Kyungsoo, what the hell are you talking about?” Jongin asked.

“Oh god,” I answered. “I forgot that the car was hit right before I was going to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Jongin wondered.

I took a breath.

“My parents, they were the witnesses who were bribed to leave the country,” I explained. “If it weren’t for them, Jungwoo would’ve been charged, you would’ve been released and none of this would be going on now.”

Jongin was silent for a few seconds.

“So, why are you turning them in?” He questioned.

“Because- wait. You don’t care?” I wondered, bewildered by his perfectly natural expression.

Jongin, whose innocent yet serious expression made me shiver, calmly answered me.

“Of course not.”

“You don’t hate me?”

“Why would I hate you?” He asked in all seriousness.

“But my parents-“

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin almost laughed. “That’s them, not you. This isn’t a movie. I’m not going to be melodramatic about this. Besides, I always figured that could’ve been a possibility.”

I blinked.

“You did?” I wondered.

“Kyungsoo, in all honesty, how often is it that people suddenly move to America on short notice?” Jongin posed.

I sighed as a response, nodding.

“I’m still going to turn them in,” I said.

Jongin’s eyes became scrunched.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” He challenged.

“Yes.”

“It could ruin your relationship with your parents forever,” he reasoned.

“I don’t care,” I replied. “They should’ve just gone to court as witnesses instead of taking the money. You know, I thought it was odd that they were willing to pay for part of the apartment fee. It’s because they were paid a load of money.”

“So you’re definitely turning them in?” Jongin confirmed.

“Yes,” I took a deep breath. “I am.”

“You’re ing insane but I love you.”

Jongin leaned in and kissed me on the forehead.

“So I’m getting you that salami sandwich.”

I was in the middle of the sandwich when Maggie Ann spontaneously arrived. Her presence made me slightly happier but I couldn’t help but wonder who told her I was in the hospital. It may’ve been Chanyeol or Baekhyun. Oh god. They were probably pissed as hell.

“Hi!” She bounded in.

In her pale hands was a basket filled with chocolates and candies.

Inside, I was naturally happy because I loved food but I just smiled as she set it down on the ground by the bed and muttered a thank you.

“Feeling better?” She asked in Korean and I suspected she looked it up before coming over.

I nodded smiling at her.

I wrapped my fingers around my throat, signaling that it hurt and then I proceeded to imitate breathing and dying to try to convey breathing problems but I think she translated it into zombie apocalypse or something because she looked kind of scared.

After taking another bite of my sandwich I ripped off a piece and offered it to her. Initially she rejected it until I insisted and she grabbed it, gobbling it immediately.

Jongin had been gone for an hour and I wondered if he was getting Chanyeol and Baekhyun. He got along okay with them compared to the beginning of the year.

Minutes later, Maggie Ann sat on my bed and the two of us unwrapped chocolates and had wordless conversations, signaling to each other which ones were good and which were bad.

I seriously didn’t mind her. Normally girls kind of annoyed me. Not in an I’m gay and I don’t swing that way kind of annoying, but in more of a Jesus Christ stop being so emotional kind of annoying. But Maggie Ann was mostly positive.

She ended up leaving after about forty-five minutes and as she was walking out the door, my two best friends of four years clambered into the room.

“You little .”

Baekhyun’s raspy voice was suddenly apparent.

“What the were you thinking?!”

The two violently strode past Maggie Ann, who gave me a good luck wink as she left, and almost jumped onto my bed.

“You had us worried and , like what the ?”

Baekhyun was gripping my elbow and I realized he wasn’t that angry. He was just acting that way to stop himself from crying because water welled in his eyes.

Chanyeol was examining my damaged body first. I noticed he always did these things. He was very attentive when it came to wounds and things of the sort.

“So, was it like, cool? Going over the edge of a-“

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun harshly cut him off.

However, Chanyeol and I shared a mischievous glint between our eyes.

“Sure,” I answered. “If you subtract the freezing cold water, the feeling of impact, and the almost drowning part. Yeah, other than that it feels like you’re flying.”

The three of us ended up chuckling and shaking our heads, probably wondering how the hell we get ourselves into ing crazy situations.

“Can we not talk about this,” Baekhyun sighed. “It’s ing depressing as hell.”

“Well technically it was too cold to be hell,” Chanyeol thoughtfully added, earning a glare from his boyfriend.

“So did you guys come to just harass me about irresponsibility or…?”

Baekhyun finally smiled.

“No,” he remarked. “Better.”

I was suddenly afraid.

“See, I thought it was a shame that you can’t make it to the talent show with this-“ he gestured around the room. “Unfortunate arrangement.”

“Okay…” I trailed.

“So we’re going to bring the talent show to you with live streaming!”

I groaned.

And here I thought I escaped hell.

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A/N: MUAHAHA. I UPDATED AND . Yessss. Showertimeeee. Thanks btw guys for your comments you’re all so ing sweet.  I did get better. Actually I got a bad cold last week but that is nothing compared to stomach flu like that is the worst.AND WAIT THE WHY DO I HAVE 500 SUBS? LIKE WHAT? WHAT? SERIOUSLY GUYS YOU'RE ALL ING AMAZING. I DON'T DESERVE THIS . I LOVE YOU WITH A PASSION. Anywayssss, comment, subscribe, fill me with love. KBYE.