𝐼𝓃 𝒴𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂𝓈 ~| Huang Renjun

十七

"I told you you didn't need to come back," Jihyun uttered with a hoarse voice, looking at Haechan and Mark walking into the room, not moving anything but her eyes.

The boys' eyes showed a mild amount of pain upon seeing the girl, but they tried masking it. "But we wanted to come," Mark replied to her, slightly shaking the gift they had brought with them.

"You were the one who wanted to come, you just dragged me into it," Haechan was quick to mention, crossing his arms. This comment getting him a gaze from the older. "Hospitals depress me, it's not a nice feeling. I wouldn't come here willingly."

"But you were the one who asked me if I wanted to come here with you last night, and I have proof. So don't play indifferent now," Mark replied sternly before turning back to Jihyun, not noticing Haechan's eyes widening and mouth opening to argue, yet Mark kept talking. "Has Jihee come here today yet?"

"She may have, I don't know. I woke up not so long ago." As Mark placed the gift down in a nearby table, Jihyun's lips parted as a question formed in her mind. She didn't really want to ask it out of anger at him, but she felt obliged to. "How's Renjun doing?"

Mark didn't seem to expect such question, as he stopped arranging the flowers he had also brought along with the gift and gave Jihyun an eyeful before looking to Haechan for help. "Uh, well. We don't really know, we haven't seen him ye-"

"We saw him before we came here. He was brought to the hospital in an ambulance last night and his room was on our way here so.." Haechan started. "He's in an equally terrible condition."

There was silence after his comment that seemed to eat them all inside as worry gnawed their minds. At last, Mark spoke softly to Jihyun. "You have to go with him. For your own good."

"I don't want to see him. Not only did he make me suffer physically over his selfishness, he also yelled at me, and then started dating her."

"But your health-"

"If you're not gonna do it for you, do it for us." The two sets of eyes fixed on Haechan as soon as his voice was heard. "Do you have any idea how worried Jisung has been?"

Mark gently shook his head and walked over to Haechan, trying to signal him not to speak. Quietly, he voiced, "don't. Feeling bad emotionally can make your health deteriorate. Don't poke the bear."

"Remember you're Jisung's only same-age friend. He really holds you dear, and this whole ordeal has only made him so terrified of losing that that he's forgotten to take care of himself and Jaemin needs to make sure he eats properly," Haechan continued as Mark sighed a curse, noticing the growing guilt in Jihyun's eyes. "And yeah, I did ask Mark to come here with me because we care for you," he emphasized, "and none of us want to lose you over you and your anger towards Renjun. And I'm sure Xinghua doesn't wanna lose her friend and cousin at the same time, now does she?"

All of them remained silent for yet another moment, until Mark spoke once again. "And well, you're not gonna leave this place until you're better."

"Well, fuck, alright."

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"Jisung? I bought you food again. I know how much you like pork belly, so I.." Jaemin trailed off, walking into Jisung's room and finding him on his bed under the blankets, sobbing. Jeno was there too, trying to soothe the youngest as if he was no more than a small child.

Needless to say, Jaemin's heart sank at the sight and walked closer to the two in a quiet manner and sat on the bed. Jeno gave him a quick look before fixing his eyes on the crying teenager. "Jisung, you need to stop now. Crying some over someone is valid and shows how much you care, but crying this much and forgetting to take care of yourself is unacceptable. Come now, Jaemin was kind enough to get you pork belly."

Jisung's head peeked from under the blankets and his puffy pinkly colored eyes looked for Jaemin and the food he had brought. He wanted to speak, but the sobs involuntarily coming off of him made it impossible. "Why are you crying?" Jaemin asked softly, giving the youngest a pained look. "Do your bones hurt again?"

Jisung shook his head no as he tried breathing in an out in even amounts of time to calm down. He wiped tears away, but more kept falling in replacement. Jeno asked this time. "Is it Jihyun?" The boy shook his head no again. "Renjun?"

"No," he replied. "I saw Xinghua this morning. She looked awful. I hadn't ever seen someone as exhausted as she was. Not even when Jihyun went to school like that. I just feel so bad for her, I cannot imagine how hard it must be for her to have her cousin and friend both in critical condition in the hospital."

"Now, now. Empathy is a good thing to have, but you can't let it consume you like this," Jaemin voiced softly. "Go wash your face now. Jeno will take this to the dining table while I clean this mess of a room that is very strongly getting on my nerves," he added, patting Jisung's leg.

And so they all did. Jaemin was used to cleaning after Jisung's mess so he ended quick, going to the other boys once he was done. Jisung was eating and Jeno was on his phone, both sitting at the table.

Jeno spoke as soon as he caught glance of Jaemin. "Mark just called."

They both noticed Jisung tensing up. "What did he say?"

"Jihyun finally agreed to see Renjun again. But we oughta help them because, well, I don't think the hospital staff is just gonna let that happen. Soulmates are still a rare, nearly impossible thing and he staff may think she's delusional and saying nonsense."

"How are we supposed to help?" Jisung asked. His voice was still a little hoarse but way better than earlier. "Just carry her to his room? Isn't that gonna be.. odd?"

"How so? We're technically her family."

"But the doctors don't know that. They're just gonna see a bunch of teenagers carrying a defenseless girl, who is supposed to be in bed, to god knows where. I would be very much terrified and call the police."

"Ok, fair enough," Jeno returned. "But then how are we gonna get them to be with each other again? How do soulmates even heal from something this?" His voice started getting quieter as he went on, thinking out loud. "I'm gonna call Winwin hyung."

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I apologize for not updating much recently. My brother had surgery and I have been very busy 😔 Also, I'm currently working on a Jisung book 0v0