Heal me // A Jikook Trilogy //

《66》Coming Home

It felt strange coming home.
Good and yet...

As we stepped though the tunnel and into the camp, it looked the same.
Home.
Peaceful.
Familiar.

Our trailers shone in their different colors, the Canopy waiting for us to open bottles of beer and Soju, sit down and smoke as we talked and sang and danced the night away.

To the right: the little building beneath which the Black Swan was urging us to pick up our job once more.
Make the world a better place.
Gives us a purpose once again.

Our training area, the outdoor shower, the garden at the edge.
So many memories were made here.
So much laughter and joy and fun.

And yet we stepped into this place changed.
I knew it.

All of us, had lost a little piece of ourselves in the recent fight.

Jin could not forget the blood of Yoongi coating his skin.
Could not forget the horror of knowing he was loosing too much blood.
Couldn't save him with the basic first aid he knew.

Taehyung was fighting the dark parts of him, trying to forget what he had done to Chen- forget his screams and the way his bones had cracked and the fear for his girlfriend.

Lian... she told us she felt little remorse for killing her brother, but I knew it was not all true.
It did affect her.
Had made her eyes a little... harder.
Darker.
And she was still royally pissed at Namjoon for drugging her.

And to our greatest dismay, we had to realize Tae and Lian were not walking back into the camp hand in hand.
Something was up.
Something I hadn't gotten around to ask about.

But there was no heated glances between them, their air between them tense and almost cold.
I hated it.
Loathed seeing them apart.

Namjoon had barely spoken, his eyes often far away, and I knew, that whatever truth Suho knew, it was eating him up from the inside.
Had him truly, utterly shaken.

He had released himself from hospital, much to the doctors dismay, but he was already walking without grimacing, without any sign of pain like he had not just nearly died.

Hwasa walked in with us this.

There had not been much discussion about her.
She would come with us, live here for the time being, where she would be save.
Hwasa too, despite her acting brave and unaffected, could not entirely hide the horror which she had experienced.
She wouldn't talk about it much either.
Wouldn't tell us what X-EXO had done to her before we came to rescue her.
But there was a fear in her eyes that didn't used to be there.

And then there was the fact that two were missing.

Hoseok had stayed at the hospital with Yoongi.
Yoongi, who, even after another week, had shown no changes.
We had dragged out leaving the hospital, but we had to go back eventually.

I glanced to my side.
To the boy walking in next to me.

Jimin was different too.
Whenever our eyes met, I saw the fear and panic he experienced while I was unconscious.

However, there shone something else beneath.
Something, he had still not told me and hid well.

Was it Kia?
Was it the fact he had killed his own sister for real this time?

He wouldn't talk about it.
Every time I tried to breach the subject he would shut me down hard.
Said we would talk about it later.
That he wanted me to get better first.