Twisted Life, Thorny Love

21. Bills

Jungkook fought tears as he drove to the hospital that his father called him to. He didn't want to think about what might have happened to his mother. He was satisfied with how peaceful his life was being right now. He didn't want to fall back into the vicious cycle of hospitals and hospital bills once again. 

........................................

He had been a fun-loving free bird like every other teenager until everything came crashing down four and half years ago when his little sister, who was just sixteen years old back then, decided to elope with a jerk who had promised to treat her like a princess. 

His parents couldn't come to terms with the fact that their sixteen year old daughter had eloped. They would have let her marry whoever she wanted if she had waited for the right time. But she didn't. She ran away. 

It was very hard at first. Jungkook loved his sister Jennie more than he loved himself. He was even ready to give his life for his sister. He had always wanted to be the perfect older brother that every girl craved for. He thought he had succeeded at it, but reality came crashing down when she eloped. 

But he soon learned to adjust with his life. So did his parents. Jennie became a prohibited topic in their house. No one was supposed to mention her even in the passing. It was hard for him. He missed her very much. He worried a lot not knowing whether or not she was fine. 

He constantly beat himself up for not taking better care of her. For not noticing how she came late from school everyday. For not noticing how she recharged her phone more often than required. 

A month after his sister ran away, his grandfather died of heart failure. It came down hard on their family. His father was the only child of their grandparents. After he got married, they decided to live their old age alone in a village. 

Thus, when his grandfather died, they had to bring his grandmother home. They couldn't let her live alone. 

But what made it worse was that his grandfather had been admitted in a private hospital two weeks before he died, and his insurance could only cover so much. Thus, a lot of those hospital bills fell on his father's shoulders. Still, it wasn't that hard for them. 

They cut out many of their expenses and started living a simple life to get by with their lives. 

Jungkook soon adjusted to the new simple life. It wasn't hard. If he had to sacrifice that much so that he and his family could live without struggling, he could gladly do that. 

His last year of BTech was somewhat peaceful. There was nothing much. He worked on the projects he had to do and concentrated on filling his resume up. He was excited for MTech. Jimin was already in his first year of MTech and he seemed to be enjoying the course. He couldn't wait to start MTech. 

But life never goes the way we want it to, does it? 

Everything once again came crashing down when his grandmother's kidneys failed two months before he was supposed to graduate. It all happened so suddenly that he didn't even have time to process what was happening. 

All was okay one second, and the other second the doctors were telling them that his grandmother had to receive dialysis thrice a week if they wanted her to live. 

Of course they wanted her to live as long as she could. His family was almost on the verge of living in the streets within two weeks. 

Each dialysis cost them diamonds. His father started taking private and bank loans to pay the hospital bills. They barely managed to make two ends meet. 

Needless to say, fights and arguments erupted left and right. There wasn't a day that went by without either Jungkook or his father storming out of the room, fuming in rage. 

They had a special room for his grandmother as she wasn't even able to get up from her bed anymore. 

She heard every single fight that the household had and felt very bad for burdening them, but she had no say in it. They had stopped her before she could even start to ask them to let her die in peace. 

It was one such evening when Jungkook returned from the college and found his father sitting on the couch with uncountable amount of bills around him. 

"Dad....let's use her insurance. It will be a bit less burdening if you use it" Jungkook said, putting his bag in his room and coming out to help his father manage some of the bills. 

"No, Kook. We need to save it for emergencies. We dunno what's gonna happen. We need to have some money for emergencies. As long as I can mana-" his father was cut off by a pretty weak knock on the door. 

They stared at the door, thinking they might have heard it wrong. But the weak knock came again. 

Before Jungkook could get up to open the door, his mother got to it. But she slammed the door the second she saw who was outside. 

"Mom, what's wrong?" Jungkook said, frowning and getting up from his seat and going up to his mother whose eyes were welling up with tears.

"J-Jennie..." his mother cried. "What??" his father ran to her. "S-She is outside" she cried. Jungkook ran to the door and slammed it open, staring wide eyed at his sister. 

"Jennie..." 

"Oppa....I am soo sorry...h-he ran away af-after g-getting me pregnant....h-he took all of t-the money I had and l-left me......h-he l-l-left me a-alone....I h-had nowhere t-to go......I am s-so sorry Eomma, Appa I am v-very very s-sorry. I will behave, E-Eomma, please I am s-sorry, I am very sorry..." she full on sobbed at the threshold of the house. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jeon stared at their daughter with their mouths wide open. They didn't know what to do. Sure, they were very angry at her for running away from them, but their hearts hurt to look at their daughter sob at the threshold like that.

"Appa, Eomma let's just forget everything and let her in. Please" Jungkook pleaded. He was crying as well. Mr. Jeon silently opened the door and let her in. "H-How have yo-" Jungkook's mother shut her mouth when her husband glared at her. 

The next few days were even harder for them. None of them talked to Jennie except Jungkook, who sneaked into her room when his parents were away. Now, added to the hospital bills of his grandmother, were the bills of his pregnant sister. 

"How many months?" Jungkook asked one day when he sneaked into her room. "What?" she asked. "How many months?" Jungkook asked, pointing to her stomach. "One and a half months"

"H-He left right after my pregnancy was confirmed. He took everything I had and just left" she cried. 

"I am soo sorry, Jennie. It shouldn't happen to anyone. But you should really know that you have done a big mistake. You were literally sixteen when you ran away. What made you so desperate, huh? Couldn't you have at least waited until you reached eighteen?" Jungkook asked. 

But before she could open her mouth, his mother came back from the hospital. He hurried out of the room to avoid arguing with her. His parents never even looked at her except for the times when she had to come out of her room to eat. 

"Her condition is getting worse" his mother said, putting her handbag on the couch. "Where is she?" Jungkook asked. 

"I admitted her into the hospital. Like I said, her condition is getting worse. So the doctors said it is better that she continues to stay at the hospital. It is gonna cost a lot more now.....I have no idea what to do" she said, sitting down on the couch and holding her head. 

He was just about to open his mouth to comfort her when his father entered the house, looking like shit with his top few buttons open and his tie hanging loose around his neck. 

"What's wrong, dad?" he asked as his father flopped onto the couch and held his head. 

"I lost my job"