Healing (KTH, featuring KNJ)

Chapter 59

Jin was on the phone with his father trying to figure out what had happened. His story was a little confusing, and Jin was so overwhelmed with relief hearing Clara was found that it was hard to really focus on everything he said.

Here is what he could figure out. His father had gone out in the morning to get something from the bakery down the block. When he was walking back to the apartment building he saw a girl sitting on a bench crying. At first he didn't think much of it, but when he looked a second time she seemed familiar. Suddenly it clicked that it was Clara.

He rushed over to her to see what was wrong but couldn't get a word out of her. When she finally looked up a bit he could see she wasn't in the best of condition. It looked like she had a few cuts and bruises and her clothes didn't look very clean. She had a few pieces of crumpled up paper in her hand but didn't seem to have anything else with her. She wasn't really appropriately dressed for the cold of the morning, so he quickly covered her with his jacket and ushered her inside the building and up to the apartment. When Clara got there she curled into a chair in the living room. She had stopped crying but was unwilling to move or acknowledge anyone else in the room. And that was about as far as things had gotten when he called Jin. Jin's mom was on her way to get Namjoon's parents now, but there really wasn't much else to say beyond that they would take care of her until someone else arrived.

Within a few minutes Taehyung, Namjoon, and Jin were in a car on the way to Jin's parents apartment. They had gotten ahold of Namjoon's parents who were in Seoul but were not at home. They had been out looking for Clara when Jin's mother called so they were also on their way to the apartment.

While Jin was in the car he called his parents back to try to get any additional information but things remained largely the same from before. His father was able to see the papers in her hand were from a hospital but she wouldn't give them to him to read. And by now he could see that at least some of her cuts had been treated already, a few appeared to have stitches.

But nothing else really made sense. If she was at the hospital why wouldn't they have called Taehyung? And the company had called all the local hospitals and they all reported that they didn't have anyone who met Clara's description. Really why hadn't Clara just gone home, or called someone? And what could have possibly happened during the time she was gone?

Taehyung was beside himself wanting to get to her so he could assure himself that she was alive and unharmed. So when they pulled up to the building Jin had to pull him back to put on a hat and mask before they got out of the car. It felt like the elevator took forever, and when they finally were in front of the apartment door Taehyung just tapped his feet impatiently while Jin entered the code to let them in. From there Taehyung almost fell down trying to both kick off his shoes and run to her at the same time.

He slowed down a bit as he got closer to her. She hadn't even looked at him when he called her name and was curled pretty tightly in on herself, her side leaning against the chair.

Taehyung began to approach a bit more carefully.

"Hey Clara, I'm here. Are you ok? Can I see you?"

At this Clara very subtly shook her head no, not willing to move at all.

"That's ok," he said comforting her, "can I see the papers in your hand?"

Again a slight shake of her head no.

Taehyung reached out to hold her free hand which had her flinching away at first, but she allowed him to gently take hold and start to caress her knuckles with his thumb.

"Can you tell me what happened sweetheart? We've been really worried about you."

Another subtle 'no', by now he could see a few tears trickling down her cheeks.