The Marriage Assignment [4]

Chapter 29, The Blood of Two on My Hands

Headlines,
"BTS's J-HOPE IN CROSS FIRE!"
"Breaking News: BANGTAN SONYEONDAN UNDER ATTACK!"
"JUNG HOSEOK, A KPOP IDOL HOSPITALIZED" [...]
"GUNMAN AND POSSIBLE MISTRESS DRAMA?"
"BTS'S SECURITY UNDER CRITICAL CONDITION" [...]
"THE BLOOD OF TWO ON WHO'S HANDS" [...]

A week after the attack

[ HOSEOK'S P.O.V. ]

I can taste coffee off her lips when she kisses me awake. She's been doing so ever since my first night in the hospital. In the beginning, bleeding, bruised, and hardly able to open my swollen shut eyes, I'm now able to feel more, heal more. I feel her kisses, I feel that she misses me, so I pucker my lips and purr, "Morning."

I open my eyes that are a little black and blue and purple—I see my fiancée sit by my arm, holding breakfast for the both of us. She helps me nudge-up and I groan, whine. But as my lips touch the coffee and treats she brings, I smile and kiss her mouth in devouring again. "Thank you for this. The food here is disgusting."

"If they find out I'm doing this for you they'll kick me out a second time." She giggles, then she cups my cheek and kisses me again. I shut my eyes, hold her waist and wish to playfully bring her down with me on the hospital bed.

"Second time," I sigh, letting her go so she can grab bagels, "Right...the catfight in the hallway. I can't believe I missed that."

There's still an anger in her when she spits, "That's what that dreadful woman needed. The minute Jungkook told me what she did to my baby Yeri I needed to claw her hair out. It was deserved."

"What exactly happened?"

"The bitch had the audacity to come and show face again, knowing well on out that I was here," her brows are knit, her nostrils are flaring and the more she grabs on to her coffee cup, the more she'll spill. "To bad for her, I wasn't the quiet-type she was probably assuming. I start clapping her with my heels right by your hospital's door."

"I was resting from surgery, healing from internal bleeding, and you were—"

"Oh, shut up, I was protecting my child and fighting for your honour," she hums, cocking a brow, "Or did you forget all about kissing the bimbo after being pummelled to possible death?"

With a slight sad smile, I say, "The fact that you're angrier over the kiss, than a guy that pulled a gun on me says a lot about your character." She hiccups an offended gasp, "Well excuse me, if the gunman were still alive, maybe I would've made him bleed with my heels as well."

With no smile, I ask, "Any new stories out today?"

My fiancée settles, placing her coffee to the side, she waves a newspaper in the air and opens up to a newer headline that pools in. "This one has the real facts finally, but there are still online articles that are trending and surfacing rumours. So naturally, no one quite knows the story just yet."

I read a few sentences. Then I get to a part that makes me relive all the horror that happened. With trembling hands and lips I recite, "Reasons behind gunman attack are being investigated. Police at the scene clarify circulating information to be false on media outlets online. It is advised that people wait and research their sources effectively. Know that the deaths that occurred were not of the Kpop star, but the security guard and later, the gunman himse—"

I assume my shaking gets worse from the way she pulls the newspaper down. "Don't do this to yourself," she whispers, kissing my forehead, combing my hair with her fingers, and slowly soothing me away from the attack that haunts me.