lie; kv

Chapter sixteen.

Jeongguk chewed on his bottom lip nervously, standing at a distance from the ward room that Taehyung had been admitted to. He had been with the boy for 3 hours now, but was separated when his family worriedly showed up and blocked out his existence.

He wasn't surprised or upset with how he was being treated, he believed that it was his fault Taehyung was in such a state in the first place and deserved every bit of ignorance.

His tired eyes me the ones of Taehyung's sister who stepped out of the room awkwardly and gave him a thin smile. To his surprise, her heel began to click towards him and soon enough she was standing right opposite him with her boney hands clasped together.

"Thanks for bringing my brother here," Hanseul started off, "And for staying with him for hours since we were far away, he probably really appreciates that too."

"It's no problem." Jeongguk's voice was barely a whisper, and it made the girl feel bad in a way.

"It's probably a lot to deal with him- I mean you hate Taehyung but he thinks you're best friends and won't leave you alone, it's probably so much to play along with the act when there's a lot of anger." She spoke in a soft tone, understanding eyes staring back at Jeongguk who sucked in a breath and looked down at his feet.

"I don't hate him," Jeongguk looked up and blinked rapidly, "I did because I didn't believe him when I should've. Now the only anger I have is at myself for being so stupid and being the reason why Taehyung is struggling like this. The old Taehyung's gone, and he's never coming back because of me and I'll never be able to make it up to him."

"You don't know that for sure," Hanseul frowned, "He might be different now, but he still feels and hurts like he would before, he still gets upset and happy, he still wants to see you and talk to you. His personality might be different, but it's still Taehyung."

"But how am I supposed to tell him that I believe him? And that I'm sorry for how I acted? I can't dump the truth on him when he's in there trying to fight against a brain bleed."

"You will one day, just not now. Don't spend the days waiting with guilt and anger- do you think Taehyung now and before would want his best friend to be this miserable? He'd want you to be the same as you were, which is not angry at him."

Jeongguk hummed, taking in her words with a slight sense of relief in him. His head perked up when the mentioned boys parents stepped out of the room, glancing at him with annoyed looks but nonetheless kept a calm demeanour.

"He's awake now, the doctors said he's likely going to have more problems with remembering new things, and behavioural changes." Mrs. Kim spoke, staring past at Jeongguk who hung his head down, "He wants to see you."

Jeongguk's head shot up at that.

"I don't want you near my son, but you're the only thing helping him through all this so I'm allowing it." Mr. Kim muttered and cleared his throat after, "We'll be out here and come back in an hour."

"Okay." Jeongguk quietly answered and dragged his feet towards the room.

Taehyung's eyes lit up the second the boy walked in, they made him look alive even with an nasal cannula delivering oxygen and a bunch of drips attached to him.

"Why do you look like you're the one who almost died?" Taehyung croaked, smiling at Jeongguk who sat down on a chair beside the bed.

"Why didn't you tell anyone you were throwing up and having headaches? You could've been helped before it got worse," Jeongguk sighed, "You're lucky you're awake-"

"I know, I heard the doctors explain what a brain bleed does," Taehyung rolled his eyes, "But I'm not scared for some reason, I just feel sick of everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I'm just sick of waking up with headaches, leg and back pain, meeting people who are used to me before the accident and constantly having a new health problem." Taehyung replied with uncertainty, "I wouldn't mind if I was in a coma right now."

"Then how would we hang out? And watch movies together?" Jeongguk attempted to keep a humongous conversation, but it was hard masking the pain inside of him.

"Can we watch a movie now? Visiting hours are over in 4 hours and that's plenty of time to watch something."

"Your parents are gonna come back in an hour and kick me-"

"Not on my watch," Taehyung scoffed and shuffled on the bed, "Sit here and put on."

"Put something on." Jeongguk corrected Taehyung and hesitantly sat beside him. He propped his legs up onto the bed too once his shoes were off and smiled when Taehyung placed the blanket over him too, "What do you want to watch?"

"I don't know, what was my favourite?"

"Horror," Jeongguk answered and opened up Netflix, scrolling through the selection until he found one of the movies Taehyung always rewatched.

"Oh this seems familiar." Taehyung mumbled as the intro of the movie began to play.

Jeongguk hummed, eyes trailing down to the boys arms that were laying straight on the bed due to IV needles being attached in awkward places. His eyes were stuck on the various healed cuts on his arms, and it made the guilt grow.

"Do you get urges to ever hurt yourself?" Jeongguk asked with genuine concern.

"Yeah, a lot, and I don't know why. I always think about how I'd be better off dead because I don't want to deal with everything," Taehyung started off, "But I like being with you, so I can ignore it."

"Tell me every time you think like that and I'll come to you."

Ending the chap here cus I'm tired and I know if I close Wattpad this chapter won't be published for a week 🙏