Worst is yet to come

Chapter 12

The evening wasn't any better. It started with Seokjin who immediately noticed something was wrong when Yoongi and Hoseok had returned to the van after visiting hour with red puffy eyes from crying so much. The two rappers needed almost the entire car ride back to the hotel to explain what the doctor had told them, since they continued to stutter every couple of words. Seokjin had cried as well, due to a combination of buildup anxiety, exhaustion and all emotions coming from the bad news, and it had left him utterly exhausted. The oldest already looked death on his feet, but it turned out he could look even worse.

"Get some rest first. I will bring dinner to your room around 7pm" Sejin said as he practically guided Seokjin to their shared hotel room. Yoongi and Hoseok were walking on their own, but kept holding on to each other the whole time.

"But we need to stay awake when the doctor calls" Hoseok protested weakly, but he was quickly shushed by their manager who explained to them that the doctor had his phone number noted.

"Now go to bed and sleep" Sejin said when he opened the door of their room and motioned for the three members to get inside. Once the boys were seated on their bed, he entered the room as well and sat down in the chair next to the bed "Guys, please listen to me closely for a minute, okay?" he started and waited until three pair of eyes were looking at him.

"I know this is hard and mentally challenging, but you need to rest and look after yourselves. The others need you, and not just today or tomorrow. Most of them will be facing a long road of recovery, but you can't help them if you don't sleep or eat."

The manager looked at the defeated faces in front of them, and sighed sadly "I'm really sorry what happened, and I wish I could have taken their places. I know you're thinking the same, but we can't change the past. We can only do our bests right now, but that also includes taking care of ourselves so we can take care of them."

Seokjin, Yoongi and Hoseok all had tears in their eyes but nodded at Seijn's words. He was saying exactly what was on their minds: if they could turn back time, they would have made sure that the attackers had captured them, instead of the four youngest of their group. But like Sejin had said, nobody could change the past and they knew that their manager was telling the truth.

"If you can't sleep tonight, I will get you a sleeping pill. I have a few left from back home from our private doctor. And eat even if you don't have an appetite. I'm sorry, but there is just no other way"

And without any complains the three nodded at their manager's words.

~-~-~

Thankfully the sleeping pills had done their job since the oldest three had managed to sleep properly during the night. Sejin had to actually wake them up so they could leave on time for visiting hour of the general ward.

"The doctor had called later in the evening but all of you were already asleep" the manager said when he sat down on the edge of their bed. "The scan of Namjoon's leg had shown signs of compartment syndrome. It means that his leg had swollen too much and caused pressure within his muscles, so they needed to operate on his leg to prevent any permanent damage"

"He had another surgery?" Seokjin gasped. Sejin nodded "Yes, but it didn't last as long as the first one. The doctor explained they only needed to open the fascia around the muscles so the pressure would be relieved"

"Did it work? Do they know if he got permanent damage?" Yoongi asked

"I don't know Yoongi, but the doctor promised he would call this morning with an update. It's only 9am so we need to be patient"

"Did he say anything about Jungkook?"

"Only that they had managed to remove the buildup fluids in his stomach without any complications" the manager explained and told the boys to eat their breakfast that had been brought to their hotel room. Without any enthusiasm or appetite the three did eat their share and got dressed into comfortable clothes to get ready so they could leave again.