health | jungkook

viii.

Taejin ran a hand through her hair, trying to make herself look presentable. She looked at herself through the camera on her phone and wiped aggressively at her face, trying to erase any evidence that she was crying.

A knock was heard on the door.

"C-Come in."

The door slowly opened as a mop of black hair popped out, following with a pair of wide doe eyes peaking through.

Taejin smiled softly. "You can fully come in, Jungkook."

The male entered shyly with his intravenous (IV) pole with him, a small grin on his face as he closed the door gently. "Hi Taejin."

"Hello Jungkook, nice to finally actually meet you. Have a seat."

Jungkook nodded and grabbed a chair to pull next to Taejin's bed, his IV pole beside him. After adjusting his hospital gown, he looked up at the female with furrowed eyes. "You were crying."

Taejin blinked before looking away. "How would you know?"

"Your eyes are red, I may be sick but I am not blind."

Taejin sighed and played with her hospital bracelet. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine now. Please, let's change the topic. Does your nurse know you're here?"

"No," Jungkook stated bluntly. "He'll figure it out sooner or later."

"Oh, it's a guy?"

"Yes, Nurse Jimin-hyung. He's very nice and cool, I like him a lot."

Taejin widened her eyes and smiled. "Jimin? As in Park Jimin?"

Jungkook nodded. "Yeah, so?"

"My nurse has a crush on him, what a coincidence."

"Who is your nurse?"

"Kim Jihye? I've had her for about three months now because I switched nurses when I switched floors."

"I see," Jungkook nodded and looked around her room, seeing a very specific chart on a clipboard that was labeled with the different days of the week and the times of day. "What's that?"

"That's my daily logbook where Jihye tracks my eating, my symptoms, how long I sleep, when I take my medications, the works," she answered. "It's very specific, nothing is ever blank."

"And that?" Jungkook pointed to the whiteboard with different bullet points and designated sections and lots of words.

"Whenever I have super bad symptoms or problems, Jihye lists them there for my doctor, Doctor Jung Hoseok, to see. So on the left side is the symptom or the problem I had with the date, the middle is where Doctor Jung notes if I need to have tests or scans ran and the scheduled time frame, and the right is where he vaguely states what caused the problem to happen. Then Jihye will go through and add it onto my files."

Jungkook blinked. "Wow, they are really specific when it comes to you. All I have is the basic clipboard where Jimin-hyung writes out my vitals and stuff."

"I have that hanging somewhere around here.. Jihye always moves it around."

"May I ask why they are so... how do I say it?" Jungkook started, tapping his chin. "Precise with you?"

"Well, pancreatic cancer doesn't have a cure yet, only different treatments. And if my cancer were to get worse, they'd have some sort of background information to use to try to figure out what exactly happened and why it happened. Like if I were to be experiencing a lot of pain in my stomach area, then after taking an x-ray they see my tumor had spread then they'd know what was causing the discomfort."

Jungkook nodded, taking in the information. He observed Taejin's body, how small and fragile it looked. Her slender fingers resting at her sides and her tiny wrist, so tiny that if he wrapped his fingers around it his fingers would touch- more like overlap each other.

"Are you going to do that surgery for your heart, Jungkook?" She asked softly.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Still not sure."

"What's stopping you from doing it?"

"Many things. A big one being I could die on the operating table. Another one being how I don't-" Jungkook stopped himself and shook his head, playing with her hospital sheets. "Forget it."

Taejin set her small hand on his, soft gaze on him. "No, keep going. I want to hear what you have to say."

He swallowed harshly before whispering, "I don't want to be saved," he closed his eyes. "My mom spends her days working just to pay for my hospital bills. If this thing were to kill me, she wouldn't have to work as hard. Taehyung is doing fine without me being with him at school. They are the only ones I care about. There's no point in doing it."

Taejin slowly shook her head. "If you were to get the surgery, it wouldn't take too long for your mom to not have to work so hard. How do you know that Taehyung is not worried sick about you? If you're his best friend your death would hurt him to the core."

Jungkook looked up at the girl and opened his mouth to say something when the door opened.

"Okay, sorry I'm late. I have your three o'clock dosage on it's way here and Doctor Jung and I need to speak with you about som- oh, you have company," Jihye said, dropping the clipboard to her side. "And he has a gown on, are you an active patient?"

Taejin removed her hand from where it was placed on Jungkook's hand. "Jihye, this is Jungkook. He's from the floor below us."

"You're the patient Mr. Park was looking for," she immediately said and grabbed the phone that was hanging beside the doorway, pressing three numbers. "Mr. Park, I have your patient here in room 517.. You're welcome, bye."

"Do I have to go back now?" Jungkook groaned.

"Yes, Mr. Park is on his way. And I need to have a word with Taejin-" Jihye was interrupted when she felt a presence behind her.

"There you are, Jungkook-ah! You could have at least told me you were coming to see someone," Jimin scolded lightly before looking down at Jihye with a smile. "Thanks for locating him, short stack."

Jihye felt her cheeks burn but still frowned at the nickname. "Stop calling me that Park, I'm not that small! And please take your patient away so I can have some privacy with mine."

"No problem, Kim. Jungkook, let's go. I'll let you come see your friend soon," Jimin spoke as Jungkook frowned before getting up from his seat and grabbing his pole.

"Text me later?" He said to the girl hopefully.

"I don't see why not," Taejin answered with a smile. "Bye Jungkookie."

"Bye Taejinnie," he said and walked out the hospital room, Jimin closing the door behind them.