Between Truths ║Dahkook║K.DH J.JK

Of Phone Calls

'Practice is on as usual.' The unexpected message came the next morning. 

Jungkook darted a glance at the wall clock. 8: 23 a.m. That meant that he was expected to be on the field, already warmed up within the next seven minutes. His dorm was three blocks away. Plus, there were that yards of swimming pool he had to cross. And he still needed to get changed.

He was annoyed not because he could not make it in time but because it thwarted his plans: he was finally going to look for that long overdue part-time job.  

Jungkook had run the distance before. He knew the pace he needed to set to arrive uncomfortably punctual. While it was tight, it was not impossible. He quickly grabbed his shoe bag by the door, praised himself for the habit of always having a prepared bag the night before. 

The door slammed behind him and Jungkook broke into a mad run, jumping recklessly down the flight of stairs. It was early enough on a Saturday morning that his dangerous rush had not run down into accidents. 'Good.'

His vain bravado, however, had failed to consider unexpected distractions.

Jungkook could not care for the nice cool morning breeze in peak summer in his rush but could not quite treat the phone vibration against his thigh with the same inattention. He only knew of two people that would call. But his mother never let it ring for this long. 

So, he struggled to pull the phone out of his jean's pocket and that disrupted the relentless pace he had pushed himself to. 

"Hey?" He said, his breath short.

He heard rustling.

"Can you come, now?" He recognised the voice, but she had sounded strange. Like something was wrong.

"Yein?" He said, concerned, "What's wrong?" Try as he might, his steps and breathing were lapsing badly out of control.

"I don't know—" her words broke into sobs and Jungkook slowed into an abrupt halt.

"Yein," He said firmly, "I need to know what happened."

"She—my mom—God, there's blood! What do I do?!" She was hysterical and the adrenalin thrummed in him like a revving engine would. 

"Where are you?" He asked urgently. 

"Home—"She answered. Already, Jungkook had broken into a run madder and more frantic in the opposite direction, before she pleaded him pitifully, "You would come, would you? Hurry, please,"She said.  

"I will. I promise," He told her. Then, "Did you call for an ambulance?"

"No!" She was horrified by her own answer.

"Hey, hey, listen. It's fine. I'll call them," He said, trying to calm her, "Stay on the phone with me, okay?"

She was put on hold by an incoming call. Jungkook unthinkingly declined, put her on hold himself to dial emergency. 

Much later, when he was sat upright on the hard chair of the emergency waiting room, uncomfortable and cold, Jungkook realised that he could not recall the morning in vivid clarity. But he knew how mindless he could get when adrenaline was smashing his system since the feeling was not a stranger after all. Life seemed to pass by like flashes in the dark. It felt intimately akin to when he would run madly on the field during training. Instinctive. Unthinking.

He usually loved the mad rush. But the offbeat happening of the day had tired him out like conversations with an old acquaintance would.

His gaze hovered over Yein, who was asleep; torso stretched out over two chairs, head cushioned by his lap. She must have been even more tired.