CLOSER ll Jikook ll🔞 [Complete ✅]

CHAPTER 16

Hello, sweetheart, I can't give you party, so I think my pretty babies deserve update atleast.

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Outside hospital -11:33PM

The rain lashes down like needles, soaking everything in its way in relentless torrents. The solid ground beneath his feet has turned into a treacherous slick, but Jimin neither notices nor cares. He stands alone under the dim streetlights, the glow barely cutting through the downpour. He's drenched to the bone, his eyes hollow, his stare blank upon nothing, his mind of guilt and regret spiraling.

Hoseok's car lights pierced through the dark, rain-soaked silhouettes, and in their luminance, a spectacle of Jimin's pitiful form materialized. The car came to an abrupt halt, although the screeching of its wheels was barely audible against the roaring of the storm. Hoseok jumped out of the car, the door splintered as he ran toward Jimin. Hoseok's coat was soaked in seconds, the rain feeling like ice against his skin. But all he could see was Jimin: lost, vulnerable, shattered.

"Jimin!" He grasps Jimin's arm and jerks a little as he holds Jimin's arm just a bit closer. His voice is rough with panic. "What are you doing? Trying to kill yourself?"

Jimin barely reacted, eyes still distant, chest heaving as though he was gasping for air. "It's my fault," he murmurs hoarsely, voice trembling. "I should've never agreed to this insane plan. Jungkook's lying in there because I was too weak to stop him. I knew it would end like this-of course, it would end like this. I was stupid to think anything else."

"Jimin, stop!" Hoseok snapped, his own heart pounding in his chest. "You're freezing, you need to-"

"I'm freezing?!" He cut him off, eyes suddenly again blazing with a mixture of pain and anger. "I don't care! It's Jungkook who's cold-lying in that ward, fighting for his life because I let him. I should've protected him! Wasn't that my job? I'm supposed to the sane one, the cautious one, but I-" his voice breaks, and he grabs his head in frustration. "I let him do this! I let him take the fall because I was too afraid of admitting.. ."

Hoseok watches him, his heart breaking. "Admitting what?" he asks, softer this time.

"That I care too damn much," Jimin chokes out. "That maybe-no, definitely-I love him more than I ever wanted to. And because of that, I've condemned him to this. If he dies, it's on me, Hyung. It's all on me."

The words hang heavy and smothering in the air. Hoseok takes a deep breath, fighting down the squeeze of emotion that threatens to overtake him.

He knows Jimin's torment better than anyone-the weight he always carries, the self-blame he is so quick to shoulder. But something about it tonight, seeing Jimin so completely undone, hits him like a punch to the gut.

"Do you think he blames you for this?" Hoseok says softly, stepping closer, both his hands on Jimin's shoulders. "Jungkook couldn't. If he's in there fighting to stay alive, it is because of you. Because he knows you're out here, tearing yourself apart, and he wouldn't have let you drown in that guilt. But you standing out here in the rain, killing yourself with the guilt of regret isn't going to help him."

Jimin closes his eyes, lets the rain mix with tears that he doesn't want to fall. "Then what will? What will?"

To that, Hoseok answers contrary, firm. "Being at his side when he wakes up. Not letting the Jeons, or anyone else for that matter, take away what you and Jungkook have fought so hard for these three months, even if it's messy and screwed up."

Jimin's eyes played sightlessly across the length and breadth of the hospital once more, way past those walls where Jungkook lay silent, just a whim away from life or death.