Stay alive

Chapter 12

Seokjin felt like he was living outside his body at the moment. He couldn't remember anything how he got to the hospital, but the doctors had said that they had given him something to relax during the flight because apparently he had freaked out the second he was inside the helicopter. It wasn't a surprise that he had reacted that way, considering that they had survived a plane crash, but still it felt weird not knowing exactly what had happened until now.

The first couple of hours in the hospital were also very blurry. Numerous doctors and nurses had visited his bedside, but since he was under the influence of sedatives, he couldn't really figure out what was going on. He also missed a few hours during his surgery when they had to fix his legs, but Seokjin couldn't care less. The only thing on his mind were his members, and despite not knowing everything of the past couple of hours, he still remembered everything that had happened before that. Hoseok was on the brink of death, Yoongi probably as well. He didn't know about Jungkook either, but it didn't look good. Namjoon and Jimin were badly hurt too, not life-threatening, but they could still be permanently injured for the rest of their lives. And Taehyung...

Seokjin had asked many times about their second youngest, but all he received was 'I will ask', 'Let me make a phone call', 'Don't worry, he will be fine". And that was exactly not what he wanted to hear. He wanted to hear if Taehyung was found or not. Not this kind of speculation and empty promises. And the longer he had to wait for answers, the more upset he got. But thankfully, before Seokjin could lose his temper, he got distracted by a doctor walking inside his hospital room.

"Kim Seokjin?" the man asked. Seokjin quickly nodded and tried to sit up a little bit straighter in bed, but it was difficult with two heavily bandaged legs. "I'm here to update you about your friends"

To Seokjin's surprise, the doctor spoke Korean and it made the boy immediately calm down a little bit. "Your manager is here as well. Is it alright if he comes inside and listens as well?"

Seokjin's eyes went wide. "Sejin is here?"

The doctor nodded and made hand gestures towards the door that was still open. Sejin carefully stepped inside, but once he saw Seokjin looking at him, he immediately stepped closer to his bedside. "Oh god, Seokjin! I was so afraid! I thought I lost you all!!!"

The boy wanted to respond, but his throat was closing up with emotions and his eyes became blurry with tears. Sejin pulled him in a strong hug, and let his head rest on Seokjin's head for a minute without saying anything. Afterwards he pulled back and looked him directly in the eyes "Are you in pain? Do you need anything?"

"I'm okay" Seokjin's voice cracked awfully, but no one commented on it. "Doctor, please, tell me about them"

The doctor nodded and grabbed a chair to sit down. Sejin did the same on the other side of the bed and grabbed Seokjin's hand. "Let me start with Jimin and Namjoon first. Both boys needed surgery to fix their broken bones. I just got a phone call that Namjoon is awake and ready to be moved to the general ward to rest, but we want to keep a closer eye on Jimin. I want him to stay in the ICU for at least one night to monitor him 24/7 because of his head wound. If all is well, he can be moved to the general ward as well. I cannot make any guarantees, but with proper physiotherapy I'm certain that both of them will recover enough to dance and perform again in the future."

'Okay, so the doctor started with the good news it seems...' Seokjin thought. The boy nodded and felt Sejin squeeze his hand. He wanted to say to the doctor that he was happy with the news that Jimin and Namjoon are going to be okay, but he just couldn't do it. He knew from the look on the man's face that he was saving the worst news for last.

"That's good news doctor, thank you so much" Sejin said instead. The doctor managed to form a careful smile, before he turned more serious.

"Hoseok got a massive internal bleeding in his stomach, but we managed to locate it rather quickly during the surgery and fix it without any major problems. He did lose a lot of blood however, and he was hemodynamically instable during the surgery, so we were glad that it didn't take too long. He's in the ICU right now and receiving multiple blood bags. But I'm sorry, but he's still in critical condition though. He does have a fair fighting chance if he takes the blood transfusions well, but he's prone to develop complications. The next 24 hours will the most dangerous ones"

And there it was, the bad news. Seokjin had already felt it coming once he had received Jimin's and Namjoon's update. He knew that the three other members were doing a lot worse, but hearing those words coming from the doctor did hurt. Somewhere in the back on his mind he had hope that the doctor would say 'Hoseok is doing alright, it was a small bleed and he's fine in a couple of hours'. But that was wishful thinking and not reality...

"Oh no Hoseok..." Sejin gasped, but once again Seokjin failed to react. He was staring blankly at his and Sejin's locked hands, waiting until the doctor started talking again.

"Jungkook is currently still in surgery. We took a scan of his head and saw a big epidural hematoma so we rushed him into surgery. They are trying to release the pressure on his brains by removing the bleed, but his surgery will take some more time since it's a difficult procedure. I'm sorry, I can't tell you more about him right now. It all depends on how the surgery goes"

"He was fine" Seokjin suddenly mumbled. Sejin was a bit startled "What do you mean? He was unresponsive when the rescuers had found you"

"Jungkook was fine, he helped me getting out of the plane. Yoongi checked his head, nothing was wrong! We checked! We knew something was wrong with his head, but we didn't see anything!" Seokjin continued. The boy looked visibly distressed, and the manager looked a bit helpless at the doctor. The man moved a little closer and placed a hand on his leg to get his attention. "Seokjin, listen to me. You and the boys did nothing wrong. Not all head traumas are seen from the outside. What happened to Jungkook is what we call 'talk and die'. Patients can appear to be fine, but deteriorated and show symptoms when the brain bleeds becomes bigger and puts pressure on the brains"

"What's - what's his prognosis?" Sejin asked concerned. "If his surgery is successful?" he added. He already knew the answer if the surgery would fail. The doctor sighed and sat back a little bit. "It's hard to tell. Some patients recover without lasting damage, but some are not so lucky..."

The manager nodded sorrowfully and looked at Seokjin. The boy looked like he had aged 10 years and hadn't slept for an entire year, but it was remarkable how well he was keeping himself together right now.

"What about Yoongi?" Seokjin asked. The doctor stayed silent for a few seconds to make sure that the boy and his manager were ready to hear about the last patient. "Yoongi was bitten by a venomous snake. The venom caused his organs to shut down, so he was rushed into the ICU. He's on dialysis right now and receives medication to maintain his blood pressure and a stable heart rhythm. Thankfully we had an antidote ready in this hospital because we see a lot of snake bites around this area, so we were able to help him quickly. But the venom did have enough time to damage his organs however. I don't think it damaged his kidneys permanently that he needs a transplant, but I'm not certain if his kidneys will recover completely though. He might need to take pills for his blood pressure for the rest of his life"

After holding a long breath, Seokjin could finally breath again. Yes it wasn't the best news ever, but taking pills for the rest of your life sounded a lot better than dying, so Seokjin was immense relieved to hear that at least one of the three seriously injured members was not in a critical condition anymore. Their manager did seem to think the same thing as he smiled softly at him.

"Yoongi's is going to be fine" Sejin whispered. And that was all Seokjin needed to hear to burst into tears. The doctor left the room to let to two men be, while they both cried in each other's arms.