hiraeth

Chapter Three: Hug Me

t h r e e | H U G M E

The boy's fever never wavered, if anything it seemed to only grow. Jin, being the group's unanimously voted 'mother', called up the manager once he deemed the boy's condition unusual, even for this time of the year where diseases ran rabid.

"No, his fever hasn't gone down... It's been over five hours!.... Yes... Yes, I understand... Alright... See you soon."

He sighed as he flipped his pale pink flip phone shut, at any other time he would be grinning softly at the device. "Guys, get Tae into the car. I had our manager to set an appointment at the hospital nearby." The members nodded, quickly sending Namjoon and Jimin to fetch the younger. Jungkook kept his head angled downwards, his fingers fidegting in his lap as he waited impatiently for his Hyung to arrive from the small room.
"It's alright, Kookie. He's going to be fine." Despite saying this, Jin's voice faltered, revealing his similar feelings of worry and fear.

"How do you know that? You don't! You don't know, Hyung! What if he dies?! What if its something serious?! Who'll be to blame?! Us! You! Me! All of us are to blame for neglecting his condition! There must've been some symptoms he shown recently, did you notice?! No! You didn't!"

Jin's eyes widened, he hadn't ever seen the younger act like this. "Yah, Jungkook, I know you're worried about Taehyung-we all are-but that doesn't mean you should take it out on Seokjin! None of us are at fault here, okay? Let's hurry up and get to the van before he gets worse." Jungkook nodded solemnly at Hoseok's words, sniffling as he shuffled out of the dorm.

"You didn't need to make him cry, Hoseok..." Despite being the one full of 'hope', Hoseok's sanity was collapsing due to the high tension filling the dorm due to Taehyung's mysterious illness and the approaching comeback. Yoongi stood in the corner of the room, lurking in the shadows, watching the situation unfold. A loud car horn from outside broke the silence, signalling that the van was ready.

The car ride was silent, everyone was so on edge you could probably cut the tension with a butter knife. Yoongi sat in the back, in the middle of JungKook and Hoseok. The two younger members were angrily staring out the window, avoiding even glancing at each other. Jin, of course, sat in front alongside the manager. Namjoon and Jimin sat opposite of each other in the middle seat, Jimin's foot anxiously bouncing up and down the whole time.

After what seemed like an eternity, the car slowly halted. "We're here." Everyone glanced at each other, except for Hoseok and JungKook, of course. Hesitantly, they nodded and nervously waited as their manager and Namjoon carried Taehyung's unconscious form into the emergency room.

The silence was deadly inside the waiting room. A few coughs and moans were heard from the other patients, though the members didn't mutter a single word. "Oh my god... Is that BTS?!" A high pitched voice called out, drawing attention towards the boys. Yoongi clicked his tongue, momentarily cursing their fame under his breath.

Their manager quickly shot into action, ushering the boys into a private quest room. "We probably should've thought this through, having you guys out in public like this wasn't smart." They said nothing, just hung their head low and nodded whenever the manager paused in-between his sentences.

"Look, I know you're worried for Taehyung, but you should get some rest. You all seem tired." He wasn't wrong. Their eyes were accompanied with blueish-purple bags, their eyes seemingly dead and dim. They nodded solemnly and slowly trudged over to the various chairs on the other side of the room.

As the others slept, Yoongi sat there fully awake. There wasn't a lingering tiredness that seemed to haunt him. He couldn't close his eyes for more than a second. His mind kept going back to what Taehyung said to him the night before, how he looked. Every detail.

His strange rectangular smile seemed a shadow of its usual self. A sad light flickered in her eyes as he stared down at me, how did I not notice the pain that lingered in his expressions before this?

"I'm so lonely, hyung."

How he shook his head, his eyes angled towards his hands that were intertwined in his lap before hesitantly glancing up.

How he talked about his loneliness being compared to a single star away from any galaxy.

How he recalled moments of when they first debuted, how he noticed the differences in treatment among the members.

"The fans loved it, though. They even started calling me an alien."

How he tried to belong in BTS, to be treated equally among the members. How no one noticed his pain.

How his tan skin was dusted light pink from his violent crying as he gripped onto Yoongi's old T-shirt, his head resting in the crook of his neck.

The boy seemed fine then, what caused him to suddenly fall ill enough to be sent into unconsciousness?

Tears started to prick at the corners of Yoongi's eyes, threatening to run down his pale face. A sudden groan from beside him shook him out of his train of thought.

"Huh? Oh, Yoongi, you're up. What's wrong? You usually like taking every opportunity to get a few seconds of sleep." Yoongi glanced over at the figure that laid down beside him, his voice husky from sleep.

"Go back to sleep, Hoseok. I woke up a bit ago from a quick nap, I was just getting up to get something from a vending machine."

J-Hope lazily raised his hand, "I want something to. Decide for me." Yoongi smiled forcefully at the younger male and pushed himself off of the white chair. As the door clicked shut behind him, he realized that the fans might recognize him.

He quickly popped up his hood and angled his head down, hoping the fans would have left by now. How long has it been? His mind tried to get a gist of how much time has passed since they arrived to no avail.

The sight of a bright blue vending machine came into view, snapping him out of his thoughts. A doctor rushed passed him, panting harshly as he sprinted towards the emergency room. Yoongi froze, his mind immediately went to the worst possible situation.

He decided to follow the doctor, to see if his bad feeling was true or if he was just paranoid.

As he neared the room where the doctor rushed into, voices became clearer.

"What's his condition?" A male voice, who was rather panicked, asked.

"He is slowly getting worse, Doctor! I.. I don't know how to explain it!" His question was soon followed by a high pitched female voice, probably a nurse.

"Nurse, it seems he attempted suicide by overdose... He took a recently released sleeping pill, by the way his symptoms are."

Yoongi took a shaky step back, sleeping pill? No, he thought, Taehyung wouldn't ever commit suicide! He wasn't that deep in, was he?

"What's this patient's name, Nurse?"

"Kim Taehyung."

A/N: CLIFF HANNGGERRRR

okay, so... This may go on hiatus for a bit... Sorry for leaving this at such a feelsy moment... Haha