Immunity (BTS Fan Fiction) | ABANDONED

Chapter 3: Blood Red Rose

OOF I'M SUPER LATE RIP. I HAD TO GO TO WORK AND I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO POST BEFORE I LEFT I'M SORRY.

______________________

The cigarette wobbled between Yoongi's index and middle fingers. Its weak glow was the only light in the dark bedroom.

What happened? He had talked to Youngjae just one week before arriving home. He seemed fine...

Yoongi glanced at the bathroom. It was too dark to see inside, but the image of his husband's body draped against the toilet was forever burned into his cerebral cortex.

His eyes. Glassy, with dried blood clotted along the edges like flowers.

Youngjae was gone. Yoongi just couldn't figure out why. It was like a hole had been punched into the middle of their life together, leaving Yoongi with nothing more than Before the war and After.

He should have never left. Then maybe there would be no After.

A shrill noise suddenly rang out, and he realized numbly that it was his phone. He picked it up, squinting at the caller ID, and decided it'd be better to pick up now than to push it off. Besides, the person on the other end might be able to shed some light on the horrifying subject.

"Hey," his voice was rough and cracked from disuse.

"Yoongi-hyung?" Namjoon breathed, exhaustion evident in the syllables. "I heard you were back in town."

"Yeah," Yoongi looked back at the bathroom. "Have - have you talked to Youngjae recently?"

"Not since before," Namjoon said. "We only really get along when you're around."

"Hmm," Yoongi muttered, only half listening.

"Why? Haven't you seen him?"

Here it came. The moment in which it all became real because he had to say the words aloud.

"Y-yeah - I mean, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"He's -" Yoongi scrubbed a hand down his face, "He's de- not - I don't know what happened."

A long pause on the other end. Yoongi waited for his friend to respond, but when he did, it wasn't with what was expected.

"What did he look like?" Namjoon's hushed words caught Yoongi's attention.

"Too thin. Blood -" breathe, Yoongi "- blood everywhere."

Silence. Yoongi tuned in to the sounds of the world around him - not that there were very many.

"Get out of there, hyung," Namjoon whispered. "Did you call anyone?"

Yoongi frowned. No, he didn't. He was too numb. Too confused.

"Good," Namjoon said fiercely. "Don't. Come to Seoul ASAP."

"What's going on? I feel like the whole world went to shit after I left."

A humorless laugh answered him from the other end of the call.

"It did, hyung. It did."

. . .

The bouquet was dying. It was ironic, if you looked at it in the poetic sense of the term. Roses with crumpling maroon petals - it seemed nothing could make it out of here alive.

Jin brushed off the thought, chanting the word "cure" over and over again like it would change things. Within the past twenty-four hours, his job had gotten much harder.