To Sink Like a Stone

16 - Lie

"They already took Jungkook in for surgery?" Jimin gasped. "Is he ready for that?"

"Wait," Jin said, putting his finger up to tell Jimin to hold that thought. "So Jungkook didn't see Yoongi at all? But we watched him go into the building. He was definitely there. What could have happened after that?"

"Jimin stopped him to talk before we left, didn't he?" Hoseok mentioned. Every gaze in the room met Jimin's sharp eyes.

"Yes, I talked with him," he snapped back.

They could all tell Jimin didn't seem pleased with whatever conversation had transpired, but desperate curiosity overruled the feeling of privacy. "And did anything seem wrong? What did he say?"

"He seemed completely fine. I just wanted to stop and tell him about Kookie's surgery, that way he'd know how severe the injury is, but he really didn't seem upset.  Not even surprised. He just brushed it off like nothing." After seeing the suspecting glances from Namjoon and Jin, he added, "Maybe Yoongi was just tired, but he didn't seem shaken by the news at all. And then he said he needed to use the bathroom, so I headed out."

After a pensive hum, Jin confirmed, "So you didn't see where he went after. He could have left right then, for all we know."

"Guess he could have," Jimin sighed, lowering his eyes to the floor.

"Well, Yoongi's his own man," Namjoon suggested. His words were met with strange glances from around the room. "It's been a tough couple of weeks for him. He might just need a bit of time away from it all."

Hoseok grasped for words in the silence that followed. The situation was so out-of-the-ordinary; they had never just lost a member. And to have the calmness that Namjoon put on display seemed insensitive and irresponsible. Finally, Hoseok could produce his concerns, and he spoke with a small voice, "If he needed time away, he could have taken it before getting Jungkook's hopes up."

"I'm just as confused as the rest of you, but we shouldn't worry. Not right now while we need to focus on Jungkook and his surgery," the leader explained. He needed to keep order in the group. If they panicked, they would lose sleep, and everything would go to hell. "Yoongi's an adult. He can find his way home if he wants to, and if he's not home by tomorrow morning, we can worry then."

Nodding, Jin came in from the kitchen with a kettle of hot tea and four mugs. "We'll let the manager take care of it for now. You guys need to relax a little."

And he began to pour out four cups of tea.

After a few hours of quiet in Namjoon and Hoseok's room, Jimin and the other two headed off to each of their rooms, ready for another night to themselves.

The evening had been uneventful after the discussion of Yoongi. Taehyung moved from Impressionism to caricatures and filled ten pages of his sketchbook with rough and over-exaggerated depictions of his friends. Jin and Hoseok halfheartedly played Just Dance with the volume only three notches above mute. This was because Namjoon took an hour-long call in the hallway with the manager and asked if everyone could go to bed when he got back in the room.

While gathering their things to part at the end of the night, they all received a series of somewhat cryptic texts from Jungkook. It seemed the anesthetic was taking a while to wear off, and autocorrect could only do so much to save him.

"JK: Hye guys the surgry eent well."

"JK: But I'm alitle tried."

"JK: Se y'all tommroow."

Muffled snickers filled the room, but no one felt cheerful enough to truly laugh. And so they split apart for the night.

Jimin flicked on the light switch as he walked into his room. "Good night, Kook--" He caught himself and cleared his throat. Without looking at the second mattress, he flung his bag on top of his own covers and began to unpack.

He pulled out a half-empty water bottle and a bucket hat. At the bottom of his bag he found a hoodie, Jungkook's sweatshirt that he'd agreed to take home and wash before his roommate got back the next day. That promise likely wouldn't be fulfilled, as Jimin threw it across the room. The shirt hit the wall and slid behind Jungkook's headboard, landing on the carpet with a soft thud.

Back still turned toward the second bed, Jimin sunk to his knees. This would be the third night alone in his dorm. The third night without Jungkook.

It had been only three nights, yet he couldn't stand it.

He decided to shower, then go to bed and forget about the day. But as he climbed into the hot water, the events of that day began to haunt him even more. His swollen knuckles stung under the stream of water droplets. His arms and legs ached to their cores.

He remembered practicing relentlessly in the morning. He remembered carrying Jungkook out of the dance room and to the van. He remembered the youngest squeezing his hand as they waited to see the doctor, and he remembered using that same hand to stop Yoongi from seeing that boy who trusted him so much.

Jimin climbed out of the shower and, feeling no cleaner than before, dressed himself for bed. As he walked back into the bedroom, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the empty bed, covers still pulled taut over the mattress, untouched since the morning before, and he couldn't help himself any longer.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he crawled toward Jungkook's bed. He pulled himself to pillow and asked, "What have I done?" He'd left Jungkook alone in the hospital, lonelier than Jimin could ever be in his own room. He'd forced Yoongi out of the hospital and out of the house.

And yet, tears still flowing, he couldn't bring himself to forgive the older boy. Yoongi was the sole reason for Jimin's isolation. Yoongi trapped him in the room with that empty bed. Yoongi started it all, and it was for the best he hadn't come back