Set Aflame

23

Merry (late) Christmas! I hope you all had a great holiday!

Jungkook appears in the open door, shirt in hand, looking alarmed. "Y/n! What-"

He drops the shirt and gasps, hands flying to his mouth.

You fight back tears from the pain. The burning hurts a lot more now that you know it's because you're injured. "It- it hurts," you whimper. The burning is torture. You've never felt anything like this before- it's worse than the bullet. You'd rather get shot three more times than have these burns.

"What's going on? I heard a scream!" That's Jimin's voice. You pick up the shirt at your feet and bring it up to cover your chest and stomach. Jimin's face appears over Jungkook's shoulder. He gasps.

"Oh my god Y/n what happened!?"

Jungkook grabs a towel from the bathroom counter and hurries over to you, unfolding it and holding it out for you. You drop the shirt again and take the towel to wrap it around yourself.

The dry material rubs over your burns, making your breath hitch and tears escape from your eyes, which are shut tightly. You remove the towel from your arms quickly and wrap it around your chest instead.

"Guys? What's going on?"

And now Seohee. You open your eyes and shake your head vigorously. "Don't-don't let her find out about this! I don't want her to know!"

Jimin closes his mouth, which was opened in shock, and shuts the door quickly. You can hear his muffled voice through the wood.

"Nothing's going on."

"I heard a scream."

"Uh, Y/n saw a bug. That's all."

"Oh. Jesus. I was asleep. Tell her to not be so loud."

"Uh-huh, will do. You can go back to sleep now."

Jungkook kneels down in front of you and pulls one of your hands away from you, stretching your arm out to look at it. "Oh my god," he breathes. "You-you aren't supposed to burn like that."

"I-I know," you say. Your voice cracks. You can't stop the flow of tears falling from your eyes. Stop crying stop crying stop crying. "It hurts," you say, unable to breathe. "It-it won't stop hurting- I don't- I cant- it won't-"

Jungkook scoots over to the bathtub and turns the water on. "Shh," he says. "Come on. You can either lay in cool water or sit under a cool shower."

"I- n-now?"

"You don't need to take your clothes off- maybe your jeans, since that would be uncomfortable. And because if you get too cold, you'll get sick."

You hesitate. With him in here?

Jungkook seems to understand your problem. He reaches for a bottle of shampoo and dumps a bunch of it under the stream of water. Instantly, a bunch of bubbles begin foaming up and spreading around the tub.

Jimin knocks on the door. "Guys are you okay? What happened?"

"Um," Jungkook says. "It'll be fine. Just- hey can you bring me a cup of water?"

"Yeah."

You turn your arms around and stare at them, teeth sinking into your bottom lip. There isn't a spot on the top of your arms that isn't red and stinging. There are blisters forming, skin peeling, and the sight makes it even harder to breathe. You gasp and shut your eyes tight.

The pain is unreal. This isn't like your fingertips when they burn. This is different. This isn't just heat. This is agony.

Jungkook kneels in front of you and places a hand on your knee. You open your eyes and blink through the tears to see him but you can't. The tears keep coming.