Amor de mi Alma || 2Jae

Chapter 24

When Youngjae wakes up he's in the hospital. His father sits beside him on his phone, still in his business clothes. Once he notices that Youngjae's looking around and sitting up, he tucks his phone away and lays a hand on his son's shoulder.

"What happened?" Youngjae asks, drawing his eyes from the boring old picture on the wall beside him to look at his father. They're in a curtained cubicle and the only sound he can hear besides the continuous ringing in his ears is footsteps out in the hallway, soft talking of a nurse, and the sounds of moans of pain somewhere in a cubicle to Youngjae's right.

"Car crash," Youngjae's father said. Just as he finishes the curtains move aside and reveal the same doctor that had checked out Youngjae's head just that morning. It's only three in the afternoon. He thinks that it's only been four hours, anyway.

"Good afternoon again, Youngjae," the doctor smiles. "Good to see you awake again."

"What's going on?" Youngjae inquires, sitting up a little straighter. "Where are mom and Yoona?"

"They'll be fine," the doctor says. "Yoona is recovering from a cut stomach in the female wing and your mom should be rolling into surgery right now."

"What for?"

"I'll leave that up to your father to tell you," the doctor says. "As for you, other than your leg, which is fractured but should be healed completely within six to eight weeks, I can't see any external brain damage on the CT scans, which means that you were very lucky considering your injuries. I'll just do a few quick tests to just make sure and as I said this morning, you'll be able to roll back into school the day after tomorrow. I'd just suggest a lot of rest tomorrow, and as sad as it is, no friends over to distract you or hype you up, understood?"

Youngjae wants to sigh but resists, instead letting the doctor do his job. It's confirmed that no further brain damage is made and that Youngjae can go back to school on Thursday and that he can come home with his dad today while Yoona and Youngjae's mom will have to spend a few nights at the hospital.

After that, the doctor and Youngjae's father stand outside the room to have a quick chat while Youngjae has his father's phone and tries to reach Jaebum. The number goes into voicemail multiple times, and then Youngjae realizes Jaebum's probably in his Calculus class and gives up, instead tossing the phone on the edge of his bed and crossing his arms to stare at the wall.

"Jae," Jaehoon appears at Youngjae's door, looking at the younger boy sitting on his bed and trying to fix the settings on his new phone. "Someone's here to see you."

Youngjae hums but doesn't look up to face Jaehoon, instead busying himself further with trying to get the date and time to go on the right numbers. 

"You're not gonna say anything?"

"Nah."

Jaehoon rolls his eyes and mumbles something to someone Youngjae can't see as the person stands behind the wall. Youngjae doesn't really care who it is, either, still working on the settings while his leg, cased in a brace, dangles off his bed. 

"No funky stuff, I'll be watching you guys," Jaehoon says in a hushed warning to whoever and Youngjae rolls his eyes at his brother. 

Just then, a second later, arms slide around his shoulders and a head rests on his head, a lazy kiss being pressed into his hair.

"What -?"

"I thought I'd come visit," Jaebum grins, sitting down beside Youngjae. "Jaehoon wanted me to come with him so I could talk with you."

"Oh."

"What's wrong? Are you not happy to see me? Do I need to leave -"

"No! No, not that," Youngjae sighs, and Jaebum grins.

"Good, because I wasn't planning to. What are you doing?"

"Trying to get this thing to cooperate with me but I can't figure out any of these settings," Youngjae says in exasperation, and Jaebum plucks the phone from his fingers and does a few tricks with his hands before nodding in satisfaction at the settings.

"Should be just the way you had your old phone as far as I know," Jaebum says. He taps on the camera app and drags his arm around Youngjae's shoulders to pull him in for a picture. "There, your first picture is of us."

Youngjae laughs, "Thanks, buddy."

Jaebum does something with the picture and then changes a few more things before closing the phone and handing it back to Youngjae.

"Are you coming to school again soon?" Jaebum asks.

"Tomorrow. Yoona called me from the hospital and she didn't want me to go out so soon after what happened but I've been gone for like, a month. I can't afford to miss more class."

"If it's about your health then I'm sure the principal will understand," Jaebum says.

"And I'm sure that if I keep up the missing school act that I'll have to retake Junior year," Youngjae sighs, turning a quarter circle and dropping his head on Jaebum's lap. He shifts until he's comfortable and then looks up at Jaebum. "I don't want to retake Junior year."

"I understand."

A silence follows as Youngjae looks at (admires) Jaebum, who's absent-mindedly playing with the younger's hair.

"How did Jinyoung react to the news?"

"Shocked," Jaebum says. "He was already shaken up from everything that he accused you of doing after Disneyland and he wanted to talk with you yesterday but he obviously couldn't... You weren't home until six or something, Jaehoon told me but I forgot, and your father didn't want him exciting you or whatever he said."

"That's what the doctor suggested, rest and no friends around. Surprised Dad let you see me, he's usually strict about those kinds of things."

Jaebum shrugs, twirling a blond lock between his fingers. "Maybe he likes me or thinks that I'm calm, or something."

"Maybe."

"How's Yoona doing?"

"Fine, she can come back home tomorrow," Youngjae says. "Once I'm at school Dad will pick her up from the hospital and bring her home and then he has to go to work."

"And your mom?"

Youngjae stiffens and his lips draw to a thin line, avoiding Jaebum's eyes. "Fine." His voice is a lot higher than he expected. "She's... yeah. Fine. She can come home in a few weeks."

"You can tell me, you know? Jaehoon already told me."

"Oh." Youngjae sits up and drops his hands in his lap, looking at his fingers and sighing. "I should've known."

"It's okay to be upset, you know?" Jaebum says. He scoots closer to Youngjae until their knees are touching. "It's not like it's a crime or something."

"I know," Youngjae says shortly. "Just don't like to talk about it."

"I understand." Jaebum backs off and Youngjae has the idea that the older boy doesn't want to continue asking like how Youngjae didn't continue asking about his abusive dad. "But just know that, if you ever need me, you can call me, okay? Even in the middle of the night."

"Thanks."

Jaebum smiles at Youngjae and lays his head on the younger's shoulder. Youngjae puts his head on Jaebum's while Jaebum takes their hands together and holds them between their legs, fingers laced together.

Here's another crappy chapter just because I just published the very first chapter of my book, Of the Sun and the Moon! I'm very happy, I really like the plot ideas that I have going so far and I've fallen in love with all of the characters and I love how I'm writing them! 

Please go check it out and give it some love! The link won't copy and paste into this chapter, but it's on my profile, I hope :)