Love Yourself | Bangtan

Hospital Gowns

The first night in the hospital has always been known to be the hardest. Taehyung could barely move a muscle, he laid on his back stiff as a board. It was a mission to breathe, to the point that trying was almost pointless. His night was mostly restless.

Every so often a short lady would knock on the door to Taehyung's room to check on him. Each of the times she checked on him he pretended to be fast asleep. He didn't want to be asked questions, moved, or looked at.

A light knock on the door sounded throughout the quiet hospital room, where the only other sound you could hear was the beeping of Taehyung's heart monitor. The door cracked open and with a creaking sound, the lady entered. "Hello, are you awake?" She asked and waited for a response.

She walked around the room for a moment, then stopped, and pondered.

"Hey, kid. You know that I know you aren't sleeping, right?" She laughed and checked the clipboard hanging on the wall.

Taehyung gave in and held his eyes slightly opened and finally acknowledged her. The woman smiled back and proceeded to record Taehyung's vitals.

"So, Kim Taehyung, do you know why exactly you are hospitalized?"

"Yes," He mumbled a short answer, suddenly aware of his cotton mouth. He tried to find a reason for why his mouth was so dry.

"You don't have any gaps in your memory at all, right?" She went down the list of questions slowly with Taehyung. He couldn't give many detailed answers and slurred his mumbled words.

"Now, get some rest, kid. There is no way you'll recover if you aren't resting." The nurse strolled to the door as she spoke. Her motherly tone naturally laced her words. It was hard to not want to comfort and advise him as a mother should. He was alone, confused, obviously hurt, and scared. Had he no family to worry about him? Had he no mother to hold him? No brothers to guide him? 

Taehyung merely blinked at the woman's words, making one humming sound in compliance.

"Thank you." The lady bowed before leaving Taehyung's room. "Oh, poor kid," she pressed her back to the door, closing it. She shook her head as she walked away, and to think that her own son was almost the same age as Taehyung, heartbreaking.

•••

Taehyung woke up to a knock at the door, like before, he pretended to be asleep. He could only hear a few whispers as the door opened, but he could tell that this was for sure not the nurse. He felt multiple people approach his hospital bed, surrounding him. Taehyung grew more and more anxious, not having any clue who these people might be.

What if they were his aunt, thug cousin, and his cousin's gang members? What would he do? What could he do? Nothing, just sit there and take whatever that would be given to him. He internally cursed, panicking, not knowing whether he should open his eyes or not.

A few small whispers late, then the door opened again. Taehyung could feel that the room was a lot freer, as though most of the people that had just come in, left. The boy grew more paranoid, fearing who might still be in his room, and where the others went.

Minutes upon minutes passing by and no movement was made by anyone. That was until a loud audio clip started to play in the corner of the room before being cut off. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry." A boyish voice sounded off. Taehyung couldn't place the voice anywhere, but it didn't feel completely foreign to him.

Slowly, Taehyung mustered up the courage to peak at whoever may be with him. He was shocked but oddly relieved to see a stranger on his phone in the corner of the room. The kid was bruised on his cheek and had a black eye, wearing all black sweats. His legs in a man spreading position and his elbows on his knees, hunched over playing a mobile game.