Fateful (book 1 of the OT7 series) ✔️

Chapter 2

The black car pulled up to the hospital with a screeching halt, and 6 tall men threw open the doors and ran into the hospital entrance.

Namjoon was the first to reach the emergency desk and was yelling Jungkook's name to the nurse manning the station. Clearly used to this sort of chaos, she was unfazed and said sternly, "Sir, please don't raise your voice. Can you tell me the name of the person you're looking for and what injury he sustained?"

"We don't have time for this, just tell me where he is!" Jin yelled as he joined Namjoon. Hoseok, Taehyung and Jimin shouted their agreement too.

Only Yoongi stood apart from the other men and used his phone to ring JK's number. He heard the distinctive Super Mario theme song JK had on his phone and followed the sound. He turned the corner and noticed a girl sitting alone on a bench, bent over with her head in her hands. JK's phone was on the seat next to her.

Yoongi let out a whistle to signal the other boys, who came running as a group.

"Did you find him, Hyung?"
"Where is he?"
"Jungkoooooooook!"
"What is happening!"

The girl looked up at the cacophony of noises and made eye contact with Yoongi. They looked at each other for a long minute and she finally said, "Are you Yoongi? I'm Aerin."

He nodded and all 6 men crowded around her as she relayed what happened. She finished saying, "They're both in the operating rooms now. There's nothing more that we can do, we just have to wait and see." Tears kept rolling down Aerin's face and she impatiently wiped them away as she tried to be clear and concise in her explanation.

"He got shot? How could this have happened? What was he doing out there," whispered Taehyung.

"I don't know Tae, but he's going to be ok. He has to be. You know how JK is, he's strong."

"We don't know that Hobi-hyung. What if he doesn't make it? What are we going to do," Taehyung cried out as his face crumpled with anguish.

"Guys, enough of this. It's not going to help. Let's just stay positive and keep calm. Jimin, why don't you go the cafeteria and get coffee for everyone. It's going to be a long night," said Namjoon, falling into his natural habit of leading the group.

They all nodded and collapsed into the chairs in the waiting room. Yoongi saw that Aerin was by herself and sat next to her. He noticed that she was gripping her blood stained hands so tight, her knuckles had turned white.

God she's tiny, only a whisper of a girl. She looks like she's about to fall apart, thought Yoongi as he fought the suddenly instinctive urge to comfort her. That's strange. Yoongi's never thought of himself as a protective sort of guy. There are other men like Namjoon or Hoseok where those sorts of things seem to come naturally to them.

Jimin came around with 2 cups of coffee and offered one to Aerin. She hesitated briefly before looking up with a soft "thanks" and reached up to take a cup. She cupped the coffee with both hands and brought it to her lips. Her hands were shaking so hard, the coffee sloshed around the rim of the cup.

"Here let me help you." Yoongi said as he placed his hand over hers to steady the cup. Just as Aerin took a sip, the doors nearby opened and a doctor walked out, his blue scrubs covered with splotches of blood.

Everyone immediately jumped up to hear the news. As Yoongi disentangled his hand from the coffee cup, he felt Aerin slip her hand into his and squeezed tight. He glanced over and saw her worried face and squeezed back briefly in response before facing the doctor.

"Ok guys, the good news is that they both made it through the surgeries. They're both young and healthy so they should make a full recovery. It looked worse than they actually were, they were extremely lucky. We're going to get them cleaned up and then move them to a room. In the meantime, we don't have any info on the gentleman, so can one of you go speak to the nurse over there."

"Thank you so much, doctor. Thank you." said Namjoon, as all 7 of them bowed to express their gratitude.

As the doctor walked away, the boys hugged each other in relief. Aerin felt her knees give out and sank to the ground. She was still holding Yoongi's hand, and he stood next to her, with both their arms outstretched.

Namjoon was giving orders to everyone, "Tae, Hobi, why don't you head home and get some of JK's things so he's comfortable when he wakes up. Jimin and Jin-Hyung, why don't you get us some dinner. I'll go speak to the nurse now. And Yoongi-hyung..." he trailed off as he turned around and noticed the hand-holding situation. "Uhhh ... you just stay here in case the doctor comes back."

Jimin turned around and raised his eyebrows at Yoongi. Yoongi shrugged his shoulders, not feeling the need to explain to anyone.

Before he knew it, everyone had scattered and Yoongi and Aerin were alone in the waiting room. Yoongi looked down at Aerin who was still slumped on the floor, and  scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to do. Eventually he sat down next to her and waited for her to get her wits together.

After a few long minutes, Aerin looked around and let out little yelp of surprise as she realized she was grasping the hand of a stranger. She quickly let go, saying, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bother you."

"It's ok." He looked down at his hand. It felt cool and lonely when it felt so warm when he was holding her hand. Yoongi shook his head. Get a grip man. You must be in shock or something.

They both stood up and Yoongi led Aerin back to the chairs.

"I'm so relieved. Thank goodness they're both ok. I feel like I can breathe again. What did you say your friend's name is?" Aerin said.

"His name is Jungkook. Do you have anyone you can call to be with you? You can use my phone if you need."

Aerin shook her head. "Thanks, but that's ok. It's just me and Miki usually. I'm ok now that I know she's going to be all right. Your friend is lucky to have so many that care for him."

"Yea I'm sure he's not going to feel that way when we all scold him when he wakes up."

Aerin chuckled quietly. " It's a good problem, to have so many people care about you enough to be angry about things like that."

Yoongi saw a glint of sadness in Aerin's eyes and felt his heart hurt in response. Holy moly, I really must be losing my mind.