Obsession | TAEKOOK FF

Chapter 22: The Eleventh Hour

The Heart-Stopping Call

​Kook’s POV

​I was sitting in my office, completely consumed by an agonizing wait. Just an hour ago, my chest had been floating on a cloud of absolute happiness because I was finally, after a week of suffocating silence, going to see my radiant sunshine again. But as the minutes ticked past the one-hour mark, a dark, suffocating worry began to claw at my throat. TaeTae was simply not the type of person to ever come late to work. He was always meticulously on time.

​What on earth could have happened to him? I kept asking myself, my heart beginning to thrum with a frantic rhythm. Why isn't he here yet?

​And then, out of absolutely nowhere, the violent, piercing blare of my smartphone shattered the quiet room.

​I swiped the screen and answered immediately, a sudden, cold wave of nervousness washing over my skin. "Hello?" I pressed the phone to my ear, my voice tight.

​"Hello. Do you happen to know a Mr. Kim Tae?" a deep, professional voice asked from the other end. "You are listed as the number one emergency contact in his recent call logs."

​My breath hitched in my throat. "Huh? Ahhh... yes! Yes, I know him!" I stammered, my grip tightening on the receiver until my knuckles turned white. "I'm his boyfriend. Why? What on earth happened to him? And why do you have his personal phone?"

​There was a heavy, agonizing pause on the line before the officer spoke again. "Sir, please try to remain calm. Your boyfriend has just been rushed to the hospital. He is currently in an extremely critical condition."

​The words hit me like a physical blow. My entire body went completely, paralyzingly cold. I couldn't move a single muscle, and my throat closed up so tightly I couldn't even form a word. Before I even realized what was happening, large, hot tears began to pour rapidly down my face, splashing onto my mahogany desk.

​"Hello? Hello? Are you still there, sir?" the policeman called out through the speaker, his voice sounding distant through the roaring in my ears. "Your boyfriend is currently at Myeongdong Hospital. I am going to transport his personal belongings to the local police station to keep them secured. Please come over as soon as you can."

​Without a single second of hesitation, I bolted out of my chair. I didn't even care that my mind was completely spinning or that I wasn't fully in my right senses. I sprinted down to my executive car, barking a desperate order to my personal driver. "Drive me to Myeongdong Hospital right now! Fast!"
​As the car tore out into the streets, my chest felt like it was going to explode from a chaotic storm of mixed emotions. I was utterly terrified of what had happened to TaeTae, and at the same exact time, a blinding, furious anger toward myself was burning through my veins. This is all my fault, my mind screamed in pure agony. If I hadn't treated him so horribly last week, he would have never taken a leave. He would have been safe with me.

​But luck was completely against me today. We hit the central avenue, and a massive, suffocating sheet of bumper-to-bumper heavy traffic brought the entire city to a dead halt.

​I stared out the window, my anxiety and madness reaching an absolute breaking point. I couldn't take it anymore. The walls of the car were suffocating me.

​"Just follow me to the hospital whenever the traffic clears!" I shouted to my driver.

​Before he could even answer, I threw the passenger door open, leaped out into the middle of the crowded highway, and began to run.

​I ran with everything I had. For almost an hour, my dress shoes slammed against the hard asphalt as I sprinted through the bustling city streets. I ran like an absolute madman, completely blind to the world around me. The only thing existing in my universe was the burning, desperate need to reach that hospital doors. I didn't care who I violently bumped into or the angry shouts of the pedestrians behind me; I just kept running, my lungs screaming for air.