paranoia / gyuricky

13: an unexpected call

Feeling that Ricky fell limp, Gyuvin opened his eyes, the lights from the fridges surrounding him buzzing, fading in and out. "Ricky?" he asks, he asks, a cry in his voice. Gyuvin looks behind him, letting out a sigh of relief when nobody was there. With a thud, the neon lights of the fridges turned on, remaining completely still.

Gunwook emerges from the stock room, his face pale and his entire body trembling. He stared at Gyuvin with wide eyes. "She was gonna fucking kill me, man! I thought—"

"Gunwook, help me! Get the pens, please! Fucking help me!" Gyuvin begged in a panic, pulling Ricky's limp body from the tank of water, and laying him down on the floor. "Hurry, please!"

Without a minute to spare, Gunwook dashes into the aisle where the EpiPens were still splayed out on the floor, grabbing a fistful of them. "Here, here!" he exclaimed, dropping them beside Ricky's body.

Gyuvin, with unsteady hands, takes hold of a couple of EpiPens, pumping the adrenaline into Ricky's chest one by one.

"It's better in the thighs," Gunwook said, grabbing a few EpiPens of his own, and sticking them into the outer side of Ricky's thigh.

"It's not... It's not working!" Gyuvin cried, using the EpiPens on the side of Ricky's other thigh.

Gunwook looks away for a moment, clearly thinking about something. His eyes suddenly light up, and he frantically slaps Gyuvin's shoulder. "CPR, man! CPR!"

The words click in Gyuvin's mind, and he leans in, plugging Ricky's nose before breathing twice into the blonde's mouth. He continues with chest compressions, intertwining his hands together at Ricky's sternum, pressing as hard as he could with each compression. "Come on, Ricky, please!" Gyuvin hears Ricky's ribs crack under the pressure, but it doesn't faze him. He continues with the compressions on Ricky's chest, as well as breathing into the older's mouth. "Come back to me, come back!"

Ricky sits up as water erupts from his mouth, coughing the remaining fluid out in front of him. He feels a pat on the back, which aids him in coughing up not only water, but also blood. His chest hurts like it did when he was drowning, but he doesn't care; Gyuvin kept his promise to bring him back, and that's all that matters.

Gyuvin feels a wave of relief wash over him, and he embraces Ricky from behind, gently caressing his face with his hands as he lies in Gyuvin's lap. "It's over, Ricky. It's over. You're okay now." He pats the blonde's head, humming to him softly. "You're okay."

An ambulance was called, and Taerae was admitted into the hospital. Ricky determined that his rib fracture wasn't nearly as severe enough for him to also need to go to the hospital, so he skipped out on that.

Arriving at the scene were officers Hanbin and Jiwoong, which was where things got messy. The police would never believe the actual story, so the group had to come up with something that explained why the grocery store was trashed and why Taerae had his flesh practically ripped apart.

"So," Hanbin started, a notepad in his hand. "What the hell happened?" he asked, alluding to the fact that the boys were completely dishevelled—mostly sweaty and bloody.

Matthew, the so-called "designated liar" of the group, spoke up. "So, basically, we were picking Ricky's prescription up, and suddenly, people were being attacked. We hid behind a counter, but Taerae wasn't lucky enough to make it in time, obviously. We were there until it was over."

Jiwoong nodded along in a way that made it hard to tell if he believed their nonsense or not. "Where'd you get that?" he asks suddenly, turning to Gunwook and gesturing to the very bloody cut on his shoulder.

Standing stiffly, Gunwook pointed at himself in confusion, receiving a nod from the officer. "Oh, well, the guy stabbed me 'cause I didn't see him. I was just standing in an aisle and then ouch! You know?"

"Okay." Hanbin nodded, scribbling Gunwook's words down on his notepad. "And all six of you were there to pick up Ricky's prescription?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Gyuvin blurted out, clearly worried about the officer catching on to the lie. "It was just me, Ricky, and Matthew. The others just happened to be there at the same time."

"Right!" Gunwook agreed with a nod. "Taerae was getting snacks with me and Yujin. The reason he got so injured was 'cause he went into another aisle where the attacker was."

Despite how easy it was to tell that they were lying, Hanbin just hummed in response, taking note of the information. "And the attacker... Do you remember what they looked like?"

Glances are exchanged and suddenly all eyes fall on Yujin, who very clearly did not want to be saying anything. "Oh, well..." he trails off, desperately trying to come up with something on the spot. "It was some guy wearing a skull mask, yeah. He was carrying a knife."

"A Moon Haemin copycat?" Jiwoong questioned, turning to look at his coworker.

Hanbin nodded, seemingly convinced by Yujin's description. "That could happen," he said. "There are a lot of cases of copycat killers."

"That's fucked up for real," Gyuvin said, crossing his arms with a frown.

"Yeah," Hanbin replied simply. "I think that's it, so for now, that's all. If anything, we'll contact you."

Only two people were permitted to see Taerae in the hospital, but Gunwook, who was known for his persuasiveness, managed to sweet talk his way into allowing all eight of them inside Taerae's hospital room. He had told the woman at the front desk that they were all Taerae's family members who had come to see him since they were so worried about him. Gunwook even got Yujin to shed a few tears, so the woman let them go, feeling sympathetic.

"I'm so fucking sorry, bro," Gyuvin apologized, tears welling up in his eyes as soon as he saw his friend. He was relieved to see that Taerae still wore his precious smile even with such a horrible injury; he couldn't even imagine how it felt.

Taerae only smiled wider, patting Gyuvin's head when he ran in for a hug. "Don't be sorry," he said. "I'm still alive, right? All of us are. Everything is okay."

Gyuvin let out a sigh of relief; things were finally over after a long night and his friends didn't hate him. Graduation was only a week away, so he couldn't be more excited about the future, especially with how much his relationship with Ricky had changed.

His phone suddenly ringing causes Gyuvin to excuse himself and step out into the hall. He was expecting his mom to be on the other line to yell at him, but instead, it was someone he had almost forgotten about.

"Hello? You're Kim Gyuvin, right?" asked the person on the other end.

Gyuvin nodded as if the other person could see. "Yeah, that's me. Who's this?"

"I'm Zhang Hao. Sorry for calling back so late, but to be fair, you did call me in the middle of the night," the man chuckled. "Is everything alright, though? Like, the witch, is she still after you?"