Body And Soul

13. Awake & Confused

Before he had been truly famous, Taehyung remembered experiencing extreme anxiety to the point of having a panic attack. His parents had consistently been trying to get him a seat at the table in different talent agencies since he was old enough to walk and had become what his parents thought was a child star due to being in some sort of commercial when he was a baby. Taehyung didn't really have a choice about whether or not he wanted to be famous. His parents didn't give him that choice.

It had happened at an audition that his parents had been trying to prep him for for weeks in advance. Being ten, they thought he was bound to screw up in some manner so they prepped him night and day so there wouldn't be a mistake. As he sat in the small waiting room on audition day watching more and more children his age enter, he felt a sense of anxiety take over him. It felt like the breath was crushed right out of him. He had ended up in the bathroom trying to figure out how to breathe again while his parents were left clueless in the lobby, wondering where their rebellious son had run off to.

That's exactly the way that he felt now as he fought through the darkness that surrounded him. It felt like it was taking away his ability to breathe and kept pushing him back down under the surface every time that he tried to break free from it. He wondered if it would just be easier to just stop fighting. Maybe this was the way he could get his wish granted for a break. Maybe he ought to just surrender.

However, no matter how many times he had fought against the anxiety in the past, he had never surrendered. He wasn't a quitter. He couldn't give up now, especially with the thought of there possibly being a brother out there that he had never met. There was a life worth fighting for still even if he was sick of the stress that came with it all.

With those thoughts in mind, that was when he broke through the surface of the darkness. He slowly opened his eyes, squinting into the blinding light shining down on him from above. It felt like he had a headache in his eyeballs and there was an incessant ringing in his ears. The artificial lights were all his blurry eyes could make out at first. He blinked slowly a few times until it all came into focus. He was in the hospital. It took a moment for Taehyung's mind to catch up with how he had gotten there in the first place. He eventually remembered the accident. He had swerved to try to avoid a pedestrian, and had crashed into another vehicle doing the same.

Taehyung tried to sit up in the bed, but felt extremely dizzy and numb when he tried to do so, which forced him to lay back down. A doctor came into the room then, shocked when he saw that he was awake. He immediately rushed over to begin taking his vitals. The doctor was gone before Taehyung even had a chance to ask him any questions. Sighing, Taehyung leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

- - -

Not able to sleep well, Jungkook moved to get up before the crack of dawn the next day. He knew that Jimin and Hobi would more than likely come over to the house again to try to record. Washing up, Jungkook opted for the most basic looking things in Taehyung's wardrobe before slipping out of the house. As he walked, he found himself walking towards the hospital again. He hoped that it was early enough that there weren't any paparazzi lingering about.

There didn't seem to be anyone lingering outside the building when Jungkook arrived. He slipped inside to see that visiting hours had just begun. Jungkook walked to the correct hospital room, freezing in the doorway when he saw his body had its eyes opened and trained up at the ceiling.

Taehyung was awake.

Jungkook didn't know what made him suddenly nervous. He had been hoping that Taehyung would wake up so they could figure out how to fix things, but now that it had actually happened, Jungkook wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up below him. Taehyung didn't seem to notice him standing there yet, so Jungkook took a moment to collect himself before stepping into the room.