iris . vkook

fifty five

오십 오

Taehyung's PoV;

Frowning, I rested my chin on my palm as I watched the sleeping man in concern.

"All done." Ten said, stepping back as he clapped his gloved hands, peeling off the rubber and dumping them on the side.

Taeyong came back in from the kitchen, passing me a cup of hot chocolate (he insisted it'd warm me up and lift my mood - 'a little bit of sugar never hurt anyone'. To which Ten had cockily replied - 'unless they have diabetes'.) which I took between slightly trembling hands.

He passed Ten a cup of warm milk, since he couldn't sleep if he had a caffeinated drink this late at night.

"Will he be okay?" I asked, playing with my hoodie sleeve as I stared at the relatively short man before me with desperate eyes, ignoring how he managed to spill milk on the floor (Yeontan cleaned it up).

"I don't see why not." Ten shrugged.

Taeyong returned again, this time with a cup of coffee between his hands, sitting on the floor beside Jeongguk.

"He's a tough cookie, Tae. He'll be fine." Taeyong smiled warmly, the fond look in his eyes reminding me of a motherly gaze.

"He's been through worse." Ten said simply, "he got hit by a car once."

"Ten!" Taeyong scolded, "now is not the time!"

"I'm not reminding Taehyung of how many injuries the dumbass manages to obtain, I'm attempting to show that Jeongguk is strong." Ten retaliated, nudging Jeongguk's head with his socked foot so it stayed on the mattress.

Ten had cleaned and bandadged Jeongguk up, Taeyong supervising whilst Yeontan sat on Jeongguk's neck (thankfully the pup didn't weigh enough to inflict harm, though it was possible it caused discomfort - but he growled each time we tried to move him, he loved Jeongguk too much). 

He explained that Jeongguk had at least two broken ribs and he assumed that they had been caused by kicking, judging by the bruising and shoe tip indents in his skin.

The cuts on his face were easy to clean, and honestly, they didn't look as bad or painful once they'd been sterilised and left. It left him looking boyish, rather than an assassin.

We'd checked his legs for any injuries, but there was only minor grazing and bruising which was possibly from Jeongguk being a clumsy shit rather than related to the other injuries.

The wound on his stomach had proved to be a pain in the ass, but Ten insisted that it could be fixed with a few stitches.

This 'few stitches' turned out to be twelve.

After he'd cleaned and stitched the injury, he wrapped Jeongguk's waist in bandadges that we'd found in my first-aid kit. Taeyong shoved his bloody clothes into the wash and then we'd sat and waited. 

We'd had the decency to chuck a blanket over him, though we couldn't cover him up fully incase it began to bleed.

Yeontan had moved now, his head resting on Jeongguk's neck and his butt on the floor.

It looked extremely uncomfortable, but he wanted to be close to him and none of us had the heart to rip him from Jeongguk and put him in 'puppy jail' where yes, he'd be cosier, but he'd be a lot unhappier. Despite the uncomfortability, he slept well and his tail occasionally wagged if he thought Jeongguk was coming round.

"For real, though, Taehyung. Don't sweat it. He's gonna be okay." Taeyong smiled again, "to him, it's just bruising and a cut. It's no big deal to him, he'll wake up and go back to normal."

Ten spoke up, "yeah, the day after he got hit by a car, we went to McDonald's and he ate like he'd never cracked three ribs."

"You're lucky we were in Seoul." Taeyong sighed, "we were on our way back home after our flight got cancelled."

"Where were you going?"

"Thailand." Ten said, "but that's not important. Why Jeongguk is so beaten up is more of a concern."

"Do you know what he was doing today?" Taeyong asked, a serious look on his face that made me nervously fidget.

"Well, he was stressing over the deadline for his targets, so I assume he was fulfilling the assassination." I replied.

"Which was?" Ten pressed.

"My parents." I said, confused as to what it had to do with it.

My parents were two people involved in business, Jeongguk would've had no problem taking them down with his skills.

"Do you have anyone which would've resisted against the attack?" Taeyong asked, "brothers, sisters, close family friends?"

"Uh, no. I'm an only child." I said.

Both Ten and Taeyong frowned, stumped.

"Fuck, we need the profile." Ten cursed, sighing, "but he burns all of them."

"I have mine, if it's any help." I offered, gesturing towards the paper in the blue cardboard binder.

Taeyong nodded, murmuring that it was 'worth a shot' as he reached for it, long fingers thumbing through the pages whilst scanning the information.

"Anything?" Ten asked, nudging Jeongguk's head again as it began to slip off the mattress.

"Uh, yeah. I think." Taeyong replied, "Taehyung, do you know anything about Kim Jong-in?"

"I don't know who that is." I said, "Jeongguk possibly mentioned him once, but I don't recognise the name."

"He goes by Kai, preferrably." 

"Ah! Yeah. He goes to my school, he used to bully me quite a bit before Jeongguk beat him up." I replied, a lightbulb going off in my head, "why?"

Taeyong dragged his bottom lip behind his teeth, fingertips tapping against the paper as he shut his eyes.

"It's... nothing." He said, "it doesn't matter."

I nodded, brushing off his weird behaviour as Ten offered him a questioning stare.

Taeyong ignored the both of us, leaving the folder next to Jeongguk's feet (socked in neon pink socks which were unsurprisingly owned by Ten).

Both me and Ten opened our mouths, ready to say something but we quickly shut them as Yeontan's head snapped up in time with Jeongguk's low, sudden groan.

"Hey! Jeon, you up?" Ten asked.

"Yeaaah." Jeongguk grunted, voice croaky as he struggled to move, limbs popping and cracking as he did (giving me unfortunate flashbacks of Pennywise's exit from the cupboard), struggling to sit up.

He rubbed his cracked palms against his eyes, barely flinching as he pressed against the bruising.

He opened them slowly, his eyes sparkling purple and pink and the feeling of comfort returned to me once he showed that he was awake.

"What happened?" Ten asked.

"Fucking Kim Jong-in. That's what happened." Jeongguk groaned.