To Sink Like a Stone

20 - Rinse and Repeat

Their reunion was underwhelming, not at all like the flowery, smiley scene Jungkook had imagined in his earlier desperation.  Unfortunately, neither of the boys' conditions were quite so underwhelming.

Jungkook sat with his swollen and burning ankle folded painfully beneath his body, his head lolling involuntarily to the side as he tried to steady his vision. His head ached, but his heartbeat overtook that pounding as the boy realized exactly what he'd found: Min Yoongi, the missing member.

Yoongi, similarly, was weak and suffering. The skin surrounding his eye was still bulging a bit, and the bruising had faded to a sickly green. His hands trembled when he pulled them from the younger's shoulders, the bones more prominent than ever.

The exhaustion between the two was obvious, as Jungkook's voice came across as dizzied and delirious, and Yoongi couldn't say much besides a few gasped yes's and no's.

Through bewildered tears, Jungkook hiccuped, "Where have you been? It's been days! Are you all right?"

"No." Yoongi's fingers scraped past Jungkook's rustled hair and pressed against his ear. The boy's whole head was burning up. Yoongi was baffled as to how he made it this far into the city without crutches and began to run his shaking fingers as gently as possibly over the bump in Jungkook's leg.

"I don't think I'll be able to walk much farther on that." He felt a pang of self-pity, then his eyes shot back to Yoongi's face. "What happened to your eye?"

Frantically, the older boy covered half his face with one hand, then rushed to stall his explanation. "Someone was just angry with me, probably. I-I don't really know what--"

Jungkook's head teetered to the side as he lost consciousness. Yoongi sighed. He wouldn't have to come up with another lie.

After resting in the silent alley for a few moments, Yoongi pushed himself to his feet. He grimaced, knowing that these legs that struggled to hold his own body upright would have to bear the full weight of an extra person all the way back home.

With great difficulty, Yoongi slung the younger boy over his back and, feeling very out-of-place, began to walk the streets toward the house. He sensed the stares of the passerby as he trudged from block to block, and yet he still felt so alone in the busy city.

Several times he thought about stopping and asking someone to help them get home. He even considered calling a taxi, but he didn't want to waste any time. He wanted to bring Jungkook back as fast as he could. Besides, he didn't have the money to pay a driver.

The soles of Yoongi's shoes were worn and flat, and he could feel they weren't made for walking as his feet began to cramp and throb. His knees struggled against the weight pressing down on his back, desperately fighting against the buckling he foresaw in his near future.

The blocks passed one by one until Yoongi was moving by pure momentum; he couldn't command his legs if he wanted. No stopping or slowing was under his control. He became numb to all but his own heartbeat and that of the boy draped over his shoulder.

The world stopped spinning. The people stopped moving. Yoongi was caught in the middle of a dead and empty city, dragging double his weight again, stuck in a trance. He wondered about Jungkook and only Jungkook, feeling the shallow breaths move into and from his chest.

His thoughts wandered down to the boy's leg, and he consciously walked so the broken ankle wouldn't bounce against anything. He tried to be gentle, but he had to keep some kind of strength in his step to keep from passing out himself.

Suddenly, something snapped Yoongi from his trance, catching his attention from afar. It was a voice, someone calling out to him. "Yoongi?"

It was Jimin.