"Can you hear me?" Hoseok's voice was mellow and felt as if it was coming from a faraway and empty place. It took a few moments for Jungkook to adjust to the light before he gave a slow nod. "Good!" Hoseok smiled brightly at him and took a step back, disappearing from his vision. Jungkook blinked a few times, his head empty and light.
He got up, his muscles crushing and pulling, and everything was dizzy a bit. Then Namjoon quickly held him and he sat on the hospital bed, trying to collect himself. It was indeed a hospital. He was in a room with an IV drip attached to him, the indigo curtains were drawn thus he couldn't tell if it was day or night. The other boys were clustered around in the room with him and they stood up but didn't crowd around him.
"Hey," Jimin acknowledged Jungkook first, his voice meek like always, his face a bit pale.
"We were really worried for you," Taehyung said from beside Jimin, his face blank but Jungkook couldn't wipe his aghast expression from the time before.
"You slept only for an hour. You should rest more," Namjoon spoke softly standing close to Jungkook. But Jungkook's eyes were down to his body, a blanket atop him, pajamas, hospital attire, he was clothed, oh thank god.
What really caught his eyes were his hands, they were cadevorous, callous, and filled with scratch marks, his nails were chipped, and ashen, skin so morbidly pale that it didn't feel like he was looking at his own hands. He blinked and stared again.
He did this to himself.
"Jungkook, it's okay. Your health will recover. You're slightly malnutritioned," Jin voiced out, sounding concerned.
"Why did you guys come to get me?" He spoke, his voice hoarse and dry, as if the each syllable were making a cut inside his throat.
Jin's eyes widened in surprise. Jungkook looked around to see the same on everyone. Even Yoongi who never showed much on his face stared at him quizzically.
"I ought to smack some sense onto you," Hoseok clicked his tongue in annoyance, breaking the silent. "Of course, we would come for you. We couldn't just leave it to the police."
Jungkook couldn't believe before that they'd send help. Yet they came themselves.
"Talking about the police, he might have to speak to the officers outside soon," Taehyung made his presence known with his gravelly voice. Jungkook's stomach twisted in trepidation.
He really was half buried, deeply in some quicksand.
Not one place was safe.
"They can come later." Jin let out a small huff of sigh. "Do you guys remember, a year ago when Jimin got admitted to the hospital?"
"Yeah, I came to pick him up. He was there too." Namjoon was still standing by Jungkook as he patted a hand on his shoulder. Jungkook did remember.
"Please!" Jimin cried out, "I don't want to recall such an embarrassing tale."
"It's not a tale, you really screamed at us and a threw a fit," Taehyung mocked.
"He threw his bag at you, Taehyung," Yoongi murmured quietly.
"Yeah, he did," Jin nodded his head in affirmative.
"I didn't know that!" Hoseok shouted while Taehyung made faces at Jimin. "I really missed out on so much drama."
"You guys were gossiping behind my back, what did you expect me to do?" Jimin pressed his lips together.
"It's called a discussion, Jimin," Taehyung counterattacked.
Namjoon was silently shaking in laughter, since his hand was still on Jungkook's shoulder he could feel the tremor echo from the elder, lacing onto his own skin. Jungkook almost smiled even in this situation.
"I think I can talk to the officers now," Jungkook said, in such a low voice he thought no one would hear but everybody immediately stopped and placed their attention on him.
"I should go and tell them to come in then," Namjoon detached his hand and fixed the beanie resting atop his head.
"Yeah, we should all leave too," Hoseok said in a serious tone.
"I want you guys to stay," Jungkook said, his fists gripping onto the blanket. He wasn't ready to face the inquiries, or whatever that was going to bring back everything that had happened in the past days, or his past years.
No place felt safe.
Although these boys, maybe they could make it feel safer.
"Alright." Jin spoke softly and Jungkook could feel the gaunt, restraining muscles in his hands loosening up, he relaxed a bit. While his hands rested on his lap he could feel his legs too, a bit thinner than he could last remember.
Jin hyung said it's going to be okay.
He tried to not fret much on it.
When the two men in casual attires- one a bit younger in a padded jacket, and the other middle aged man in an overcoat entered and sat before him, Jungkook could barely believe they were police officers because they looked so ordinary, but then they showed their badges and pulled out a recorder, a notebook and a pen, Jungkook reckoned how tight and serious their faces were, and how the atmosphere had devolved into an apprehensive one, even the other boys were tensed, he realized, that was it.
He really was going to be investigated.
"How are you feeling?" The older male spoke, his eyes screaming exhaustion and were red around the corners.
Jungkook only shook his head as a yes. His palms was starting to sweat and he could feel his beating heart sinking in the bottom of his stomach.
Would he have to tell them everything?
"Since you're ill, and might not be in the right state to say everything. We need minimum confirmation of what had happened in the course of the last two weeks."
So, it had been two weeks, two long weeks, fourteen days. Jungkook's eyes lost their focus and he could find himself staring in the hallow around somewhere behind the officer.
"We've got the testimony from the culprit." The male gave a curt glance to Namjoon who was standing behind Jungkook and resorted to staring at the younger again. "Your friend had notified us that you were being held captive at her apartment."
"You talked to her?" Her name almost slipped Jungkook's tongue but he wasn't able to say it.
"Yes, Miss Diana Park, she's in the police custody," The younger male spoke for the first time.
"I can't believe the wench got your surname, Jimin," Taehyung commented aloud and was nudged in the shoulder by the said boy, in which Taehyung let out a small yelp of pain.
Giving them both a sharp eye the officer moved to Jungkook again. "We are going to record this conversation for the sake of clarity. First and foremost, could you tell us, if she kidnapped you, where it was and when?"
Jungkook didn't know what the officer suggested with his change of tone on the 'if'. He tried to rummage his brain, trying to process his thoughts and words in a comprehensive form.
"Um, she didn't really force me to go with her," Jungkook stuttered a little.
The two officers gave a knowing look to each other. Jungkook's gut clenched, but he tried to go further back to retrieve more information out of himself anyway.
"It was cold that day, and the snow was falling, I don't remember the date, I do remember that it started to storm later in the evening. I was out of food, so at the afternoon-"
"Wait, you went out in the afternoon, and it stormed in the evening, right?" The younger officer interrupted him as he was writing quickly down on his notebook. He stopped after asking, and looked up to Jungkook's face, then to his hands resting on his lap.
Only then Jungkook noticed that his hands were shaking, nonstop. He was probably sweating too, visibly. Jungkook felt like a bacteria under the microscope, and those two officers peeking down on him.
Then he felt a soft weight on his back, Namjoon's hand, as if assuring him it was okay. Jungkook sucked in a deep breath, and continued, though his voice cracked at the begining.
"Y-yes. I went to buy some food at the seven eleven store down the road. When I got out the store, it was raining snow already. So, I stood there to wait. And a car pulled up. She told me to get in. I thought she would be taking me back to the dorm."
Jungkook's words were starting to jumble up, rushing in and becoming incoherent but then the young officer stopped him again.
"So you two knew each other? From where?"
Again, Jungkook didn't know what he implied with a change of voice and tone. He sat silent for a good second.
"She was my client...," He trailed off, couldn't bring himself to say exactly where.
"Alright." The officer noted down, glancing at the elder cop who gave him a smirk. Jungkook's brows furrowed when the older one dismissively shook his hand in the air and told him to continue.
Jungkook could feel something forming in his throat, making him unable to speak. He felt like he wasn't being taken seriously. The other thought crossed his mind too, that if they had spoken to Diana they must've known everything already.
"Oh, do continue," the older male said again, more eagerly this time.
His eyes didn't look as red as before or maybe it was because Jungkook's vision was becoming shrouded. He couldn't articulate one single word anymore.
Did anything really matter?
"It's okay, Jungkook-ah," Jin said in his soft, mellow voice from behind him. This was the first time he was calling out his name so endearingly, or the first time anyone did, actually.
Since Jin was behind him Jungkook couldn't see his face, but when he looked up, he saw Hoseok in the corner of the room, and he smiled reassuringly at him, as if everything in the world was fine and dandy. Yoongi sat beside him and only nodded a little, that too, seemed like a pat on the back, like the one coming from Namjoon.
"I got in the car and she drove me to her apartment instead," he continued. The officers were poker-faced, he didn't know what the countenance of the other boys were, or what they were thinking. Jungkook tried not to mull over anything else and he solely focused on telling everything from his viewpoint.
As he spoke, a lot of it didn't make sense to him. Why he followed Diana he couldn't tell, didn't know. He wasn't compelled to, yet he did. He completely brushed off the fact that he was scared of the opposite gender, or his profession. Leaving those aside, he merely told as much as he could, or as much his brain and mouth allowed him to.
Which included the parts of Diana drugging him using coffee, him waking up to realize she had gotten physical with him when he was out of his conscience, and that he was ill and out of it for the consequent next days. He told them about the white rounded pills and the closed door as well.
It was eerily silent when he stopped talking, the air inside the room constricting and tumultuous. Jungkook couldn't look up and his vapid gaze laid on his scrawny hands, intermingled together on his blanketed lap. The tremors had stopped in him.
One of the officers cleared his throat. "So." It was the older one. "You're telling me she had sex with you, while you were unconscious?"
Jungkook's locked hands grew tighter on each other, a muscle ticked in his jaw. The truth was, he was trying really hard not to crumble down. He was trying to hold himself together. He knew his ears were crimson in blood, steam coming out of them.
He was ashamed, so embarrassed, should he be?
"She said that you might have suggested the idea before," the other male said and let out a small cough, faking it clearly. "You know, in one of your sessions."
"She raped him, sir," Namjoon enunciated, the words strong and bold.
It was silent for a few moments until Jungkook heard a sound, and he almost couldn't believe it, but it was the sound of a cackle, coming from the cop in the overcoat.
"A woman raping a male, do you realize how absurd you sound?" He said indignantly. "To add with it too that they have some form of relationship going on before."
"It's you who sound atrocious," Namjoon scoffed. "With all due respect, having sex without consent, isn't even sex, it's rape, and it doesn't matter whatever relationship they had, whatever the gender of the victim was. Jungkook is the victim here."
Jungkook couldn't believe his ears, he was heaving low and deep as he could feel Namjoon's words and the gravity behind those very words bounce in the walls of his head.
"She not only drugged him, and raped him," Jin spoke next, having a hard time pronouncing the word rape but not finding a substitute, he went for it anyway, "She also gave him medicine regularly that disabled him from thinking clearly, kept him asleep, fed him poorly, made him sick." Jin's voice kept raising with each syllable. "She held him in her apartment, against his will for fourteen freaking days!" It ended with a shout.
"She also stalked him in the dorm late at night," Yoongi retorted from the corner, his voice loud enough for the officers to turn back and everyone else too shifting their gaze on him.
"Yeah," Hoseok said next to him, nodding, his demeanor grave. "We both saw it. I'm sure the landlord witnessed it too from the second floor."
"She had no right do any of those, despite having whatever relationship she had with him," Namjoon spoke from Jungkook's back, his voice confident.
Even Jungkook could feel it within him. He did nothing wrong, he was the victim here. Finally he lifted his eyes to see the officers glancing around the boys with an awestruck expression on.
"Listen." The one in the overcoat exhaled an exasperated sigh. "I'm sure none of you are getting what happened here."
"We know, we heard him loud and clear." Taehyung took a step forward, all this time he and Jimin were leaning against a wall. "Shouldn't you always believe the victim first before any sustainable proof comes out?"
"Y-yeah." Jimin advanced too, with his chest raised a bit high, and his small hands made into balls by his sides. "Since you're law enforcers shouldn't you know that, at least?"
"God!" The younger cop exclaimed and the two officers exchanged a glance next.
The elder one ran a hand on his forehead, massaged his temple, all along tapping a foot against the tiled floor.
Until he gave in, sighed and got up, the other following. "We will talk later for the charge sheet, and a proper testimony," he said fixing his overcoat as he inspected Jungkook's face looking up at him. "From the victim," he added up.
When they stepped outside, the temperature in the room immediately got warmer. Jimin and Taehyung breathed a deep sigh of relief, Hoseok got up and stretched his arms, Yoongi stayed seated there, Namjoon patted Jungkook's back and Jin told him he did great.
Jungkook felt himself deflating in the sitting position, finally he could breath in and out properly. Ruminations didn't visit him, he didn't overthink about how it went. Instead he looked around the boys' faces.
He felt at home.
"Gosh, that was so tense!" Taehyung shouted in ecstasy. "Like boom! Then bam! I think this was the most dramatic event in my life, like, I'd reached a big climax of my life!"
"Yeah," Jimin nodded. "I almost thought I'd have a mini heart attack when we were in the taxi going to Gangnam. And when we had the argument with the guards at level zero, and we held them back so Namjoon, Jin and Yoongi could go up, gosh, I can't even-" he abruptly stopped, placing a hand on the left side of his chest. "Yoongi hyung was so calm. But I couldn't believe Hoseok hyung was this calm as well."
He glanced at Hoseok, Jin chimed in. "Yeah, doesn't he freak out over a mere coackroach? I was surprised too."
"I don't react properly to proper incidents, more like I can't." Hoseok's face cracked up in the biggest smile, as if he was telling the most gleeful secret of his.
Jungkook was just glad none of them questioned him further, or commented on anything from before. He was enjoying this conversation because it made him feel normal, like nothing had happened and that everything was fine.
"You could call your parents if you want, or any relative to tell them about the situation." Jin gently placed a hand on his hunched up shoulder and said.
"You guys too. This was a lot, I'm sure every one of us is shocked." Namjoon announced, his eyes lingering on Taehyung and Jimin for longer.
"I'm fine." Taehyung shrugged with his shoulder and looked at Jimin. "What about you?"
"I don't have a family who would care enough for this," Jimin replied a bit reluctantly. Jungkook froze up for a second and then heard his next words.
"I mean, my parents separated a while back. Now they have their own families and I'm kind of a lone sheep, on my own."
"You never told me that," Taehyung said, his expression sad, almost.
"I didn't have the chance to. Plus it's nothing to tell about. It doesn't even define me. It's just a small part of my life, I think." Jimin said, albeit looking a bit confused at his own words. Jungkook loosened up.
"You have us," Jin commented. "We all have each other." He glanced around everyone's features. "I'm sure we will be fine, together."
"That's wise, hyung," Taehyung said playfully and Jungkook could almost see Jin rolling his eyes at the blue haired boy from his back.
"Thank you, hyung." Jimin smiled, as soon as that, his phone started to ring loudly. He pulled it out from his pocket and after checking the caller ID, ran from the room leaving them behind.
Taehyung crossed his arms over his chest. "Apparently, he has Sangah as well, who cares enough."
"Sigh," Hoseok drawled on the word with a loud exhale. "I'm the only one who's never gonna have this kind of intimacy."
Right then, a male nurse opened the door to the room a little and peeped in. "Is there any Jung Hoseok here?" He asked.
The boys looked at each other before they went back to Hoseok who slowly raised his hand high.
"A Serim is here for you, sir," he announced before disappearing behind the closed door.
"Apparently," Jin commenced, his word taunting.
"Someone else has someone too," Taehyung completed for Jin.
After showing them a look of guilt, Hoseok sauntered off the room. Only Taehyung, Yoongi, Jin and Namjoon were left. Finally they huddled in together around Jungkook.
"You should get rest," Taehyung told him. "Man, you looked so different at first, I almost couldn't recognize you. You need to gain your strength back."
"Yeah, go to sleep, Jungkook-ah," Jin said next, his voice as soft as a fresh pillow. Jungkook was suddenly missing the softness of a pillow again his head. Hence he slid off, and laid on the bed, the rest watched him do so.
"We should buy some food," Namjoon said, Jungkook heard with his eyes closed.
"I could cook some nutritious meals for him," Jin said in a hushed tone.
"Wouldn't the hospital give him food?" Taehyung retorted curiously.
"The rest of us need food too. We need to look after him," Yoongi voiced out.
"We can take turns." Namjoon's voice was distant this time, flying off and growing weaker as Jungkook found himself following the spiral within him deep down, and falling, and falling.
And knowing, he would get himself up from that soon.
He didn't know if everything would be okay, or not once he'd open his eyes again. For now, he didn't want to think about it.
---
A/n: this is the unofficial last chapter.
Because there will be another after this, and a reflection + explanation part at the end. Boy you don't know how much I have to say about this fic, though I'm not entirely sure who'd be interested enough for that.