When he shoved the check-in area door open he didn't realise how hard he had pushed it because when it hit the opposite wall with a loud thud he jumped in surprise and he saw the woman that was behind the desk did so too. She actually let out a little squeak and took a step back and Hoseok stopped stupidly a few feet away from the desk before his panicked mind remembered what he was doing and he darted over to it to lean on the polished wooden counter. The woman flinched and looked at his hands, one of her own hands reaching up to her breast to seize a handful of her white blouse.

"I need to call an ambulance," he said, trying his hardest to keep his voice calm and not at a shout because he could see that the woman was frightened and he didn't want to scare her any more than he already had. "It's an emergency I have to call an-"

"Hang on," she said as she lifted the receiver up from the cradle, "do you want to call it or do you want me to?" Hoseok went dumb for a moment before finally managing to stutter out that she should call them. Right now he knew that the minute he heard the operator's voice on the line he would just start blabbering nonsense and he couldn't afford to waste any time because this really was an emergency. "OK, OK, I'm dialing the number. What do I need to report?"

"An...an accident. My friend got hit with a glass...a glass bottle and he's...shit there's a shard stuck in his throat and-" the woman's face seemed to pale and her mouth went slack at this as she pressed the receiver against her ear. "He needs an ambulance," Hoseok managed to finish lamely. He had his weight balanced on his wrists but they didn't feel that steady and he thought that they might just give in so he shifted and folded his elbows on it instead. That made him feel a little more stable, for his legs weren't going to hold him up much longer either. They might just need to take him to the hospital too at this rate because he was pretty sure that his heart was going to explode if he didn't find a way to calm himself down.

"What room number are you?" she asked as she waited for the operator to answer her call and he managed to mumble the room number was six and she went silent for a moment. "Hello, yes I need an ambulance." He heard a voice on the other end, a static burst that was indecipherable to his ears and was just a noise. So she quickly gave the address of the hostel and proceeded to give the details that she had, that there had been an accident and a person had been injured by a piece of glass, a throat injury that required emergency treatment.

Hoseok closed his eyes and listened to her voice, taking deep breaths in through his nose and letting them back out again through his mouth. She was talking in a low voice and though she sounded frightened she was trying very hard to keep calm and give the details to the operator. His heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel twin pulses in his throat and his head, just like how his headaches used to feel. When he reached up to rub at his brow he wasn't surprised to feel that it was clammy against the back of his hand.

"OK...OK thank you." The receiver went back into the cradle with a clunking sound and he opened his eyes to see the woman on the desk shifting to grab something. Before he could see what it was he felt her hand against his brow and she started dabbing at his skin with a tissue, the little pink floral box on the counter in front of him. "Take deep breaths, OK? It's going to be OK. Your friend is going to be fine, the ambulance will be here in a few minutes so just take deep breaths and try to calm down."

"...OK."

"You look like you're going to faint," the woman said in a cautious tone, the tissue lightly moving along his brow. "Do you need to sit down? I can get you a chair if you need one?" Hoseok couldn't seem to answer her for a moment because he was so distracted by his own terrified thoughts, eyes glued to the red telephone. But then he managed to say that he was fine, that he didn't need a chair. It wasn't exactly the truth, because he probably should sit down but right now he wasn't important. "I know that you're scared and that you might not be thinking straight but...do I need to call the police?"

Hoseok dragged his eyes away from the phone to look at her and the first thing that hit him was that she didn't look that old at all. She looked like she might just be a college freshman and he wondered if she was maybe related to the owner or working this job for some easy cash just like they had been those few days ago that felt like an eternity to him; those days before Jungkook had been hit by a car and he had collapsed on the street, before Jimin had tried to commit suicide and Yoongi had taken to hurting himself for some cheap kicks...before Taehyung had started letting life fuck him over literally and figuratively. The young woman was nibbling on her lower lip anxiously and he could see that she didn't want to ask the question but she knew that she had to, teeth likely scraping off her medium pink lipstick as she did. She lowered her hand from his face and put the tissue down on the counter before once again grabbing a handful of her blouse to fiddle with one of the buttons.

"I..." He let his voice hang in the air for a few seconds before it hit him that she was actually asking a very good question. What had just happened likely classified as assault of some kind, maybe something like grievous bodily harm, and yet he knew that he couldn't possibly ask her to call the police because that would mean that Taehyung would be arrested. That was something that could most certainly not happen and yet he didn't really seem to be able to tell her not to.

"Is was definitely an accident?" she asked in a quiet voice as she studied him and Hoseok reached up to bury his face in his hands for a moment before he lowered them again.

"Yes, it was an accident. You don't need to call the police."

"Because if you need me to I can-"

"Please don't call the cops," Hoseok nearly pleaded, voice a whine as he glanced between her and the phone, "please." The woman held his gaze for a moment before quietly saying that she wouldn't call them and he let out a sigh of relief, feeling his shoulders shaking as he did. "Thank you, thank you so much."

Taehyung's head was on his lap and the weight currently served as a useful anchor because Jungkook felt like he wasn't entirely there. He wasn't faint but there was a strange sensation over him that made him feel like he was floating and he couldn't seem to shake it off. It was as if he wasn't in his body at all but rather observing everything in a hazy daze, a spectator with no attachment to what was happening; emotionally, mentally and physically. But the other boy's head kept him anchored in place, like a rock holding down a piece of paper, a child's fingers snagged around the string of a balloon...an anchor for a ship. But even with the weight he still felt horribly distant to it all and he knew that it was shock. He was shocked so much by what had just happened that he couldn't feel anything or take in what was happening around him; something he was almost thankful for.

He felt numb and he contemplated slapping himself across the face but he couldn't seem to lift his arm to do so. One hand was on the carpet, the pile itchy against his palm, and the other was on the unconscious boy's shoulder. Jungkook dropped his gaze to study his friend. He wasn't entirely certain how he had managed to catch him but he was thankful that he had, even with the knowledge that he was supposed to be the one on the floor right now, was supposed to be on the receiving end of the bottle instead of Jimin. He supposed that he should be mad about that fact but it was currently the last thing on his mind. That could wait until later if it needed to be addressed.

His anger could wait for later, for it had been one of the reasons this had happened in the first place.

Just this morning Jungkook had promised to get himself together just like his other friends, had sworn to help sort out his aggressive tendencies and his need to always start fights, and yet a few hours later he had done it again. He knew that he would try and justify his reaction by claiming his worry over Taehyung coupled with his frustration over his behaviour were the reasons why he had done that: why he had exploded and started yelling all of those disgusting things at his friend. But those reasons meant very little when it was Jimin that had been hurt as a result rather than him. If he been smacked upside the head with a bottle and was currently lying on the floor with his face pouring blood then the excuse would be perfectly fine. All of his reasons would be acceptable because he could take responsibility for them and know that his pain had been his own fault but...

No reason he could ever bullshit could possibly justify the fact that Jimin was hurt.

Jungkook managed to move his hand to touch Taehyung's hair and the feel of it between his fingers helped keep him grounded. He was here, in this hostel room with his friends, he was awake and he wasn't floating away. But he didn't feel that happy with that knowledge because it meant that this really was reality. This wasn't something that he could brush off as a strange and terrible nightmare, it was reality and he currently living it whether or not he felt like he was.

"Where's Hoseok?" Yoongi asked suddenly, not shifting from his position beside Seokjin at all as he did, not even looking up. He was right beside the other man, chin digging into his arm as he leaned around him to stare at Jimin. It wasn't like Seokjin was trying to stop him from getting too close but he looked moments away from maybe putting an arm up just to make him stay away, from crowding the unconscious and injured boy. "What's taking him so fucking long?"

"Don't worry, the ambulance will be on its way here," Namjoon said in his best attempt at a reassuring tone. It was hard for him to sound reassuring however considering the fact that he was slumped on the settee across the room and looked like he was going to keel over too. His tanned skin looked a few considerable shades paler and Jungkook thought that he might be edging close to Yoongi's ghostly countenance. "They dispatch the crews to the address the minute you call. Hoseok's probably just giving details to the operator so they can inform the crew of what they're dealing with. Don't worry."

"They're dealing with a fucking emergency," Yoongi practically spat, "that's all the details that they need."

"Yoongi," Seokjin said in a quiet voice as he reached over to grab his upper arm. The other man didn't shrug him off but rather seemed to sag somewhat from his touch. "Calm down OK? You're going to scare the kids and-"

"Forget about the kids," Yoongi murmured as he lowered his head. "I'm already terrifying myself." And from across the room Jungkook could hear his ragged breathing, accentuated by all of the ghosts of his past cigarettes. He wasn't exactly rasping but he was getting close and it sounded like he was going to suffer an asthma attack or possibly start hyperventilating. He reached up to bury his face in his hands and for a moment he was convinced that he was going to cry but then Hoseok came racing back into the room and the sound he made as he slammed into the door frame made him jolt back upright again.

"Ambulance is coming," Hoseok said breathlessly. "It's gonna be OK."

"How do you know that?" Yoongi asked in a voice that sounded that like a whine. Jungkook hated hearing it coming out of his mouth for his friend only ever used that tone jokingly, but hearing him actually whining like that suddenly made him start to come back to reality. "How do you know he's gonna be OK, huh?"

"For once in your life Yoongi, try a little fucking optimism," Hoseok said as he sagged against the hostel room wall and slowly slid down it to land on his ass. When he hit the floor a stray lock of hair fell forward over his brow and he brushed it back hastily.

Jungkook couldn't open his mouth to speak because his tongue felt stuck, weighed down just like his lap was from Taehyung's head. He didn't think that he had the right to speak right now after everything that had happened so instead he just thought his words over in his head as he looked at Jimin. He couldn't see his face fully and rather just a hint of his jaw because Seokjin had gently moved it to ensure that the shard couldn't possibly slip any further into his throat, that no pressure could finish the job that Taehyung had started. As a result he could really only look at the chunk of glass and so he did, all the while talking to himself in his head.

It's gonna be OK.

You're gonna be OK Jimin.

We didn't mean for this to happen, who would possibly wanna hurt you?

I'm sorry Jimin.

I'm so fucking sorry.

Yoongi had never been inside an ambulance before. He had stood on the curb of a great many streets and watched his friends getting escorted into the back, usually climbing in themselves with the help of one of the workers rather than needing to be wheeled inside: that time Taehyung had fractured his wrist in a rather aggressive game of basketball that had seen him diving for the ball and bending his hand far enough back for his knuckles to graze his forearm, the time that Jungkook had given himself concussion after a skateboarding accident. The one time he had ever seen someone getting taken inside on a stretcher was the evening that his old family neighbour had had a heart attack, and he hadn't seen her after that point for she had passed away whilst being transported to the hospital.

Yet here he was, sitting in the back of one with Jimin strapped to a stretcher in front of him and if that wasn't a bad omen then he didn't know what was.

He wasn't supposed to be in the back, it was technically against regulation, but he had caused enough of a scene in the hostel parking lot to get the workers to relent and let him ride. He hadn't cared who had come out of their rooms to watch, for there had been a rather sizable crowd of people all across the lot watching it all. Why, he was pretty certain he had seen people with phones out like it was something entertaining; the sight of a high school kid being wheeled out of a hostel room covered in blood and possibly dying. Way better entertainment than the internet or TV sets could offer for sure. Yoongi didn't know where his friends were right now, whether they were back at the hostel or in the act of rushing to the hospital but he found that he didn't care about that at this moment. The only thing he cared about right now was the boy lying in front of him.

Jimin was unconscious but he could see that he was breathing because the mask the worker had clamped over his low face was covered in the lightest fog of his breath. She had put it in place shortly after getting him onto the stretcher and then she had done something he had not been expecting. She had removed the shard of glass and then hastily bundled his neck up with a wad of bandages before adding a neck brace-like contraption. Yoongi wasn't a doctor but he understood why she had put it on. The pressure helped stem blood flow and it meant that he wouldn't bleed out in the time it took for the ambulance to reach the hospital. But he was scared that the boy had been bleeding internally whilst they had waited for it to arrive, hemorrhaging from a deep slice in his throat that they had not been able to see. He told himself that he was being stupid for imagining it but he couldn't help himself.

When he had seen that shard of glass he had felt his heart actually stop beating in his chest and he was almost convinced that it hadn't started up yet; that it wouldn't start beating again until he knew that he was safe. It had been so much like that pesky little chunk that had been in his arm all those days back in the trainyard, that Namjoon had fixed with a bandanna knotted tightly around his elbow. But a bandanna could most certainly not fix this problem. It hadn't looked like a sliver to his eyes, it had looked like the blade of a dagger sunk right into his flesh; that glint of light playing off the deep green like a precious gem: a deadly emerald that clashed with the blood all over his jaw.

He was going to see that shard in his nightmares for the rest of his life, he knew that he was. If he ever managed to sleep after this night, which he greatly doubted he ever would again.

Yoongi reached over to brush a lock of hair back off his face and his sudden movement caught the attention of the female paramedic sitting just opposite him, by the bottom of the stretcher. He felt her eyes on him but he didn't look away from Jimin. The boy looked like he was sleeping rather than unconscious and that was a somewhat jarring sensation. It made him think of last night, of spending hours just staring at him and making sure that he stayed asleep and didn't wander off again; that he didn't go running off to find more bridges or simply just remove the curtains off the windows and knot them into a noose. He was good with shit like that, why all of those bed sheet ropes that he had tied would come in real handy for making a noose. Last night seemed an eternity ago and now he wasn't worrying about the boy killing himself, rather that he was going to die at the hands of a dear friend instead.

Taehyung...

Back in the hostel room he had sworn that if anything happened to Jimin then he would kill him with his bare hands. Right now he still felt like he could do that, that he would do that if needed, but he knew that he couldn't possibly do it. It was just his shock and fear causing him to shout those horrible words out to the boy. Yoongi wouldn't ever want to hurt his friends, even if they hurt him. He would much rather hurt himself than resort to such things, like the marks on his arm proved; the disgusting burns that were partly responsible for what had happened. He wanted to take those words back but he couldn't right now. Taehyung was all the way back in the hostel room, getting further and further away with every passing second.

If Jimin made it through to tomorrow then he would tell Taehyung that he was sorry and take it back, would beg forgiveness off the boy even after what had happened. If Jimin didn't then he didn't know what he would do. Yoongi barely felt like he himself was capable of making it through the night and he didn't think that he could handle such a thing. He would probably just drop dead and not have to worry about killing the other boy.

"He's going to be alright you know?" the young woman said, voice filling the silence that had occasionally only been broken by a static burst from the radio feed at the front of the vehicle rather than by voices. Yoongi didn't reply to this. "Trust me when I say I've seen much worst than that."

"How do I know you're not just saying that?" he croaked. "How do I know it's not a load of shit?"

Jimin didn't look alright right now, neck brace wrapped around his throat to stop him bleeding to death, plastic oxygen mask strapped over his lower face that didn't hide the massive gashes in his flesh from the exploding glass bottle. Yoongi eyed this and thought that it looked like a spider web, crisscrossing lines that went from his jawline up to his cheek and then along to his ear. It might just scar and there was a chance that the kids might find it cool but Yoongi didn't think it would; he thought that a scar would ruin the boy's face.

"You don't know, but it's the truth."

"It wasn't..." Yoongi stopped himself and closed his eyes, fingers still lingering on his hairline as he did. Silken soft. "It was an accident he wasn't...he jumped in."

"You don't need to explain it all to me," she said quietly, "but the doctor will likely want to know. In case a report needs to be filed with the police."

"He's such a...a dumbass," he finished after a moment, knowing that he couldn't hear him right now.

When Taehyung opened his eyes he saw that the room was spinning and it took him a few seconds to realise that he was being moved. All he could see was white, perhaps a ceiling? He had no way of telling but it must have been, for he knew that he wasn't looking at clouds. White blurred into strange patterns that should have been flowers but looked like blobs of yellow paint splatters all over a sheet of paper to his unfocused gaze; outdated ugly floral wallpaper, and then the sight of brown. No way of figuring out what that was no matter how hard he tried. He felt his chin rubbing against something, something soft that might have been cotton but felt strangely warm. His head sagged forward and he felt a groan escaping his mouth, which he found was slack and hanging open. What was going on? Why did he feel like he was floating all of a sudden? Why did everything sound all muddled and distorted, as if he was standing at one end of a long tunnel trying to hear what was happening on the other side? He almost felt like he was in a tunnel but he didn't want to move towards the light.

He was scared of the light.

"...on my back properly?" There was a voice right beside his ear that sounded oddly familiar, even with the distortion.

"Hang on, let me get his legs," another voice sounded, husky and warm but also frightened; frightened just like how Taehyung felt right now. He wanted to ask questions but he couldn't do it, he could do no more than make strange mewling noises under his breath. "He's on now, nice and secure."

"...the hospital is?" a new voice said, this one distant as if the speaker was a few feet away. "'Cos I don't have a fucking clue and-"

"Ask the check-in lady," the voice beside his ear said and that was when he figured out that it was Seokjin. Was he leaning on his friend? Was he on his...back? But why would he be up there? "She should give us directions."

"Good idea," the husky voice from behind him said and that just had to be Namjoon.

Taehyung felt like he was starting to black out again and he would be more than happy to do so because he felt so disorientated and scared that he didn't want to be conscious right now. His head was lolling over Seokjin's shoulder and he could feel his friend shifting to keep him on his back securely, hands on his thighs and back hunched forward slightly and it was so much like the way he had carried Jungkook all of those days ago and-

Jungkook.

He tried opening his eyes again and after some effort he managed to keep them open even though his eyelids felt like lead weights. His vision still blurry, it just added to the effect that his head was packed with cotton wool rather than his brain. Well, it wasn't like he had had a good brain to begin with. He could see that same blobby wallpaper that he knew deep down were flowers and yet he couldn't seem to make his vision clear enough to see them better. They remained yellow blobs without centers or petals, no stems or leaves but rather snaking lines that seemed to wriggle everywhere. Why did the thought of Jungkook make his heart suddenly jump in his chest, like it had been jolted with a nice electrical current? He couldn't seem to figure that out either because he hadn't came around enough yet. He was currently only working on his first layer of hazy and panicked thoughts, it would take a few minutes to be able to delve down into his emotions and memories. A part of him, a niggling voice at the back of his mind, whispered that he might just not want to delve down into them at all.

That would require light, and he still didn't want the light. It was much easier to hide in the cold dark shadows instead, even if it meant feeling the way he did right now: confused and sick and scared.

"Got directions!" a voice called out and he knew that this was Jungkook alright. Even in his current state there was no mistaking his friend's voice. "Come on, we gotta blow this place!"

"Hoseok lock the door, don't forget the keys," Namjoon said.

"I won't, I won't I got them right here." There was a melodic jingling sound from his left: keys being waved from fingers. "Kookie's right we've got to hurry."

Taehyung felt Seokjin shifting one last time to secure him on his back and then he started walking at a fast pace, not a run because they weren't out if the hostel room yet. After a second or two he heard a door slamming and then the boy declared that they were in his jeans pocket. Then Jungkook started loudly yelling and that was when things kicked into action. His vision started to clear enough for him to make out glowing streetlights like fireflies and though he knew they weren't he almost wished that they were stars so that he could wish on them; so he could wish that everything was alright even though he was yet to remember what exactly had gone wrong in the first place.

The only thing he most certainly knew was that he had caused it somehow. Maybe he was just a part of it, but he had a feeling that he was completely responsible this time.

"God Kookie, you're too fast slow the fuck down!" Namjoon shouted breathlessly from somewhere roughly to his right.

"No! Speed the fuck up!" Jungkook hollered back, voice echoing not just off the empty streets but also in his head, over and over until he let out another pathetic whimpering noise. He must had made it right down Seokjin's ear because he felt his escort's shoulders jerk up for a moment before going back down again.

"Tae?"

"Mmmm..."

"I don't know if you're even with us right now," his friend rapidly explained, voice hitching as he raced after the youngest boy, "but we're going to the hospital right now, OK?"

"Hos...ital?"

"Yes the hospital."

"Juh...Juh," Taehyung groaned before forcing his mouth to work, for his tongue to finally move rather than stay flat at the bottom of his mouth. "Jimin?"

"In an ambulance right now, hopefully already at the hospital," Seokjin explained and he must have jumped up onto a curb because he felt himself jostling up and down on his back for a few seconds before he settled back down.

"Guh...gonna be uh...OK?"

"Yeah, he's gonna be OK," Namjoon said hastily. "He's gonna be fine Tae."

"There's that positivity!" Hoseok called, voice echoing and making it hard to discern where he was; ahead or behind.

"It ain't going anywhere!" their friend declared and Taehyung shifted to try and hold his head up. He felt like he was starting to wake up now, to come around from his unconsciousness. He saw paving flags that glowed slightly from the orange streetlamps and then the sight of his friend's boots coming down with each step: left, right, left right. After a few more seconds he managed to look up fully and he caught sight of someone darting around a corner. Hoseok, he recognised his white pullover instantly. Seokjin flew around the corner gracelessly, running off the curb and into the gutter before jumping back onto the pavement because he didn't slow down fast enough to curve it smoothly like the boy just had. Someone was even further ahead of them and he knew it was Jungkook.

The boy ran as if he was running for his very life but that wasn't exactly the case. He was running for someone else's life instead: Jimin's.

The entrance area was rather empty at this hour and their arrival caused quite a commotion. Namjoon was the last one to run up the rubberised ramp that led inside, automatic glass doors sliding open to allow access, and when he did he saw his friends all standing around in dumb confusion, not at all sure what to do. There were several nurses in the area and they all stared at them with wide eyes and shocked expressions: blue scrubs and little masks hanging around their necks rather than covering their faces. There were a few women behind the desk and the one that was right in front of them looked to be middle-aged. Her short hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail and she looked seconds away from picking up the phone and calling someone. Hopefully not someone to come and drag their asses back outside after everything they had gone through to get here.

Namjoon felt like they had been running for an eternity but he knew in reality it had been just twenty minutes from the hostel to the hospital. For nearly fifteen of those minutes he had had a burning stitch in his side and yet he hadn't stopped or slowed down once because he couldn't do that. He had to get to the hospital and he had to see that Jimin was safe with his own eyes. Even if that meant collapsing just like Taehyung had the moment he did, he was more than willing to do so. Jungkook had ran at the front without stopping once, not faltering from the scrawled directions on the piece of wrinkled paper the check-in lady had given him and instead flying down the streets. Namjoon made a mental note to buy the young woman flowers when this was all over, a thank you for helping them even after they had caused so much trouble. Seokjin had carried Taehyung all the way there without complaint, even when carrying the unconscious boy must have been hard for him. The kids liked to make fun of his age all of the time and he wasn't surprised that he had been a little shocked that he had lifted Taehyung as if he was no more than a child and piggybacked him halfway across the city effortlessly. It might have been his fear fueling him but he felt that it wasn't the case at all.

"Hello, uh," Namjoon staggered over to the desk, trying to catch his breath as he did. "Excuse me but did a boy get brought in yet?"

"Are you here to check on a patient?" the woman asked, shoulders going down and expression softening as she looked at him.

"Yeah, yeah an emergency patient uh...a boy. Came in with a throat injury and-"

"And a young man, yes I remember. Took three nurses to drag him away from the stretcher." The woman moved her eyes over to his friends and he spared a glance back over his shoulder at them. Hoseok had hunkered down to catch his breath, head hanging forward so that his hair fell over his eyes and obscured his face. Jungkook was standing beside a potted plant, worrying at the paper directions as he scanned all of the walls for signs of any kind. Seokjin was just looking right back at him as he waited to hear what happened next, eyes attentive like a hawk.

"You can put me down now..." Taehyung mumbled and so their eldest friend lowered him down and let him off his back. The boy lurched sideways and Jungkook grabbed his upper arm instinctively without even looking, gaze still flirting around without rest.

"He's in surgery right now I think, let me just check son."

"OK, thank you," Namjoon said as he reached up to wipe at his brow with the back of his hand. Beaded with sweat just like he had imagined. The woman turned around to go to a machine, a computer that was covered in a database-like program. She hit a few keys and moved the mouse around before making several noises under her breath.

"Yes, the boy is in surgery right now. The man he was with should be in the waiting wing unless he managed to fight his way into the surgery room." Her tone was wry and the remark made Namjoon laugh under his breath. It sounded like something Yoongi would do. "Wing B."

"I can escort you," a young nurse said from across the room. "I'm going through Wing B. If you'll just follow me." She gestured over to a set of doors situated to the right of the desk and so they all quickly followed after her. She pushed on the doors and they swung open, long black ponytail swishing from the movement. "Your friend is very lucky to have friends like you." She said as she looked back at them. "Running all the way here to see if he's OK." Taehyung muttered something under his breath that seemed to disagree with this.

"I know it's not your job ma'am," Hoseok said in a quiet voice. "But do you know anything about him?"

"About your friend? An accident with a throat injury yes? A bottle shard lodged in his throat?" Namjoon rapidly agreed to this as they followed her down a thin corridor. "I don't really have any information on him but you would be surprised how often we deal with cases like that. Every few weekends we have a bar brawl incident and someone is wheeled in with shards in their throat, or stomach or eyes. I can assure you that he is in very capable hands in this hospital."

"Thank you," Seokjin said. "I'm sure that he is."

"I was exiting this wing when he was wheeled in, I saw the commotion with your other friend. I think that he will be fine. The shard had already been removed in transit, he'll just be getting minor surgery to the wound most likely. If it was anything serious then the paramedics on scene would have left the shard in place," the nurse explained as she pushed on another set of doors. "So try not to worry too much, OK? He'll be walking and talking in a few hours no problem."

Though it sounded like she might just have been saying this to calm them down Namjoon decided that he was going to trust what she said. The nurse had no need to talk to them, she could have denied any knowledge and just escorted them to the wing, yet she had claimed to have seen Jimin and she knew about the fact he had had a shard of glass in his throat, something he hadn't specified to the woman on the desk.

"OK, you should take some seats in here," she said as she gestured across a wide room, "and I'll be sure to get a nurse to update you as soon as possible." Namjoon glanced over it to see no sign of Yoongi but his friend could be absolutely anywhere: out smoking on the curb to calm himself down, inside the surgery room like the reception woman had joked. The others moved to sit down on a long stretch of benches and he hung back for a moment to scan the room.

There were three other people inside and one of them was a little girl sitting on the floor messing with toy blocks that had been left in a box. There was an elderly man in the corner with a newspaper and a cane and he hadn't even looked up at their arrival, and a man that night have been the girl's father in the opposite corner. U-shaped formation of padded benches and random tables here and there, posters all over the walls. After a moment of study he crossed the room, boot soles squeaking on the linoleum, and he sat down on the end of the bench beside Hoseok.

"Guys...I know this is pretty fucking stupid but..." Taehyung paused as he shifted on the bench and looked at them all slowly. Yet after a few seconds he didn't seem capable of finishing his train of thought and he just sat back against the bench.

"What?" Jungkook asked. "What's fucking stupid? Other than you of course."

"I wanted to...well..."

"Tae, just spit it out," Namjoon said wearily.

"We should pray," Taehyung finished. For a minute they were all silent and no one seemed to know what to say to break the silence. "I mean...I know none of us believe in that shit but...I'm getting pretty desperate here, y'know?" He let out a laugh that sounded uneven and forced and that was when Jungkook grabbed hold of his hand. The boy jumped at the contact and the youngest tightened his grip before holding his own hand out to Seokjin. The eldest took it and then turned to Hoseok and a moment later the boy was offering him his hand too. Namjoon eyed his palm before reaching over and entwining his fingers within his.

"If Yoongi was here he'd call us all pussies," Hoseok said with a soft smile. "Praying for good things to happen like this. He used to say-"

"Pray for sunshine but buy a fucking umbrella," Namjoon interrupted as he closed his eyes.

Seokjin thought himself a rather patient person. He had to be patient to be able to put up with his friends and yet he suddenly found all sense of composure slipping right out of his hands. He didn't like the jittery sensation that he was currently plagued with, the bouncing knee that he couldn't seem to stop from going up and down, the need to bite at his nails even though he had broken that irritating habit all the way back in high school. It was enough to make him feel a little dizzy and he knew that he needed to calm down but it was rather hard to do so considering everything that had happened over the past hour. Getting worried to the point of passing out wasn't a smart idea but it seemed too hard to control himself without attracting his friends' attentions.

Right now, more than anything else he needed to stay calm for them all.

They didn't have Yoongi, levelheaded Yoongi who was very good in bad situations like this, because he had raced off with the ambulance crew and left them all behind. But not before he had gotten near hysterical in the hostel parking lot in front of them all, shouting himself nearly hoarse in a panicked state he had never seen his friend in. That was what had caused Seokjin to start to feel a little scared, for his composure to start slipping. Yoongi wasn't supposed to be the one hyperventilating and shaking like a leaf, he was supposed to be the rock and yet it seemed that that responsibility was now his alone to carry. He wasn't surprised that the other man had broken down after the events of the last few days, but by breaking down Yoongi had caused him to start to notice the cracks in his own armour and he wasn't quite sure how long it would hold.

Seokjin was so busy wondering about where the hell his friend was, biting down on his thumbnail as he did, that he didn't notice Hoseok moving until he felt the weight of his hand on his knee. The boy didn't exactly push down on his leg to make him stop bobbing it up and down but he knew that he wanted him to stop and so he forced himself to stop. He studied the back of his hand for a second before looking up at him but Hoseok was staring off across the waiting area and he didn't meet his gaze. He looked a little distant and he didn't want to disturb him whilst he was deep in his thoughts. He just hoped that they were positive ones instead of the horrible ones he couldn't seem to push away.

Seokjin shifted to look over at Namjoon and he saw his friend was sitting forward to rest his elbows on his knees, head held between both hands as he studied the linoleum. He wasn't distant but he looked wrecked and he felt a panging in his chest at the sight of him. Just a few nights ago he had told him that he was the big brother, the one with a bad habit of feeling responsible for everything, and the young man had laughed at this but he had been telling the truth. Right now Namjoon looked like he was already figuring out where he had to take the blame from, likely going to come to the conclusion that they shouldn't have started that discussion in the first place and that it was his fault for agreeing to it.

But how could they have possibly foresaw something like that happening? At worst Seokjin had expected some heated exchange of words and tears, of which there had been plenty. But it had started off so well, they had finally started to address all of the horrors that had been haunting them and had been attempting to exorcise them when it had all went wrong. Hell, he had even learnt everything about Yoongi self-harming himself when he had had no clue and Hoseok had finally lifted that dreadful weight off his shoulders but then...then they had cornered Taehyung and it had all went so horribly wrong so ridiculously fast.

He dragged his eyes off Namjoon and instead turned his head to look at Jungkook. The boy had his head slumped forward on his chest, either sleeping or passed out. He thought it was the former but it could have easily been the latter. But his rest wasn't exactly enjoyable and rather fitful. He could see his expression twitching every few seconds, his brow and lips going down and then back up again. He wasn't mumbling yet but he thought that Jungkook might just start soon enough.

Seokjin didn't have to shift to see Taehyung because the boy was lying on the floor a few feet away. He hadn't decided to sulk like he had just last night, refusing to move off the floor and use the bed, but rather he was attempting to play with the little girl. Her presumed father looked a little weary of the strange boy sprawled out on the floor by his daughter, the one that stunk of cheap booze and was slurring his words like an old drunk, but the man didn't tell her to move away or ask Taehyung to leave her alone. The boy's hands were fumbling as he tried to make something to impress her, having to try several times to get the snap-together pieces to click in place even though they were designed for preschoolers.

What were they supposed to do about Taehyung?

Seokjin knew that what had happened wasn't over yet. Their intervention had been interrupted by the argument and subsequent bottling, but that didn't mean that it was finished. They still needed to get the boy to admit his problems and seek help, and after what had happened perhaps Taehyung would finally wake up and realise that he was in trouble; serious trouble. He should have been in the back of a police car right now and yet they had saved his ass once more, but Seokjin didn't know how much more of this they could all take.

Taehyung needed saving but so far he had refused to grab the ropes they had tossed to him. The boy seemed rather set on drowning and there was very little they could do to stop him.

"What is it?" the little girl asked in a lisping voice as she looked at the creation in the boy's hand.

"It's a unicorn," Taehyung replied as he held it out to her. It didn't really look like a unicorn but a child's imagination might just see it if they tried hard enough. Her eyes scanned it and then she accepted it from him before moving it along the floor: clip clop just like a unicorn would prance.

"It's pretty."

"Just like you Princess Soo...bin." The little girl didn't look up at this and the boy reached up to rub at his forehead with the heel of his hand. He muttered something under his breath as he watched her playing with the creation. "Just like you." Taehyung shifted to pat her head, fingers moving through her hair for a few seconds before her father cleared his throat loudly.

"Eunji, let's go get some snacks, hmm?" the man said as he got to his feet and the little girl put the 'unicorn' down before jumping up and racing over to grab hold of his hand. Her father shot Taehyung a look before escorting her across the room and Seokjin watched them both go in annoyance.

"Tae," he said quietly, "if they come back don't play with her."

"Huh, why not?" The boy shifted to look back at him and Seokjin just told him not to. He didn't have the energy to explain that he was drunk and that his affections seemed to greatly piss the girl's father off. Taehyung might have meant no harm but it was just best to avoid causing even more trouble.

"You're too old for toys anyway," Hoseok said after a moment, dropping his eyes down to his lap rather than stare across the room.

"You're never too old for toys," Taehyung countered. "You just switch Barbies and Kens for...cock rings and handcuffs."

"You had Barbies and Kens?" Hoseok asked, eyebrows lifting in mock surprise.

"Yeah, maybe I did. Maybe I liked dressing 'em up and putting 'em in funny sex positions, why'd you care, huh?" Seokjin caught sight of movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head just in time to see a nurse coming over to them. She had a clipboard tucked into the crook of one elbow and she came right over to them.

"You came in with the boy from earlier yes? The boy with the throat injury?"

"We followed the ambulance," Seokjin said as he sat upright. "Is everything OK?"

"Yes yes, everything is fine. The boy-"

"Jimin," Jungkook interrupted as he rubbed at his eyes, "Park Jimin."

"Jimin suffered a horrible accident but thanks to your quick actions you helped ensure that his accident didn't result in a much worse scenario. A lot of times people panic and remove foreign objects from injuries, inadvertently causing more damage in the process. You did not, which was a very smart thing to do for had any of you pulled it out too quickly, too nervously, you could have severed his jugular and caused massive hemorrhaging." They all listened to her talking in silence, hardly blinking and seemingly not even breathing. "As luck would have it the shard missed his artery and instead got lodged in muscle, causing some minor damage but nothing dangerous. A few inches to the left and it would likely have killed him. A little deeper and to the right and it could have severed his spinal column, so yes, Park Jimin is a very lucky boy."

"So...he's OK?" Namjoon asked.

"He's currently still under anesthesia as a result of his surgery and should be coming around in a couple of hours. The surgery was minor, he should be able to be discharged this afternoon, a few hours from now..." She flicked through her clipboard. "He had stitches, dissolvable, but he did not require a transfusion of any kind because he did not lose much blood, again thanks to none of you removing the foreign object."

"He's OK..." Taehyung breathed out before closing his eyes.

"There's just one issue," the nurse said as she stopped flicking through the clipboard. They all stared at her and waited for her to speak, the air going so silent that Seokjin could hear wheels squeaking on the linoleum flooring outside of the waiting wing.

"Payment."

He could hear the sound of voices and yet he couldn't see anything at all. Loud, angry voices that seemed to echo around his skull over and over until he couldn't even think and could only listen to the chorus. It was so tangled that he wasn't able to differentiate the words or voices but rather just hear them all together. It was like standing out in the street and listening to all of the conversations of passing people, or sitting on a packed subway, and part of him didn't even want to understand what he was hearing. He could let the noise drift off into silence and not care at all.

Right now he felt very calm, very still and peaceful, and he thought that he would happily stay that way for a while.

It was almost as if he was detached, floating above everything like a strange balloon, and though the sensation was unusual and a little frightening he did not seem to mind it. It wasn't like sleeping but at the same time he felt like he was. It wasn't unconsciousness because he was aware of himself; he could hear and almost feel. It wasn't just blackness, empty blackness without feeling or sound, but rather a form of conscious paralysis that seemed to be like a deep grey fog instead. But despite the fact that he could hear and feel he was still pretty certain that he was unconscious though he couldn't figure out why.

What had happened to him? Where was he exactly? Was he still in the hostel room? Were his friends still fighting each other and getting very close to physical brawling? Was that why he could hear voices?

He couldn't feel his limbs because they felt weighed down but he was aware of them, could feel them beside him on something that felt like a bed. Why was he on a bed? Or was it a floor? But if it was a floor then it was the softest carpet he had ever felt, most certainly not the stuff that had been in the hostel room they had been staying in because that was always so dirty and itchy. But a bed...a bed just didn't make any sense.

Suddenly the voices seemed to be fading, seemed to get rather distant and turn into echoes. He could hear one voice more louder than the rest and it was Taehyung's of course: Taehyung because they had all been talking to him, had been having an 'intervention'. But it hadn't ended well at all, for it had started a massive argument earlier in the day, one that had escalated and turned into a full scale fight by the evening. That was why the voices were shouting of course, at least he had an explanation for that even if he didn't have one for the rest of it all.

If the voices were fading away then they were not in the room with him. That meant that he was hearing them in his head rather than his ears, and that just solidified the idea that he was unconscious. Was he coming around now? Was that why he was starting to feel heavier once more, starting to feel like he was back in his body rather than floating above it?

Grey fog in front of his eyes getting lighter and lighter, limbs no longer useless and dead. Why right now he could feel his fingers moving slightly across the sheets, sheets that were soft and very different to the starched ones back in the hostel that stunk of bleach. He tried opening his eyes and he couldn't just yet, but he could move his tongue around his mouth. As he did he detected a scent in the air: strong antiseptic that seemed to cling to everything like a pungent perfume. Eyes still refusing to open but wrist managing to move rather than just his fingers. More bed sheets against his palm, rustling softly. He inched his hand along inch by inch until his fingertips brushed against something else, something that felt soft just like the sheets. But it was warm and somewhat strange. He moved his fingers along the bumps before figuring out that he was touching a hand, that he was running them along knuckles. Not as soft as the back of the hand but rather grazed. For a moment he thought that it was Taehyung, with his skinless and bruised knuckles like always, but then his fingers carried their exploration and he felt the sharpest jut of bone under skin, the curved knob of a wrist bone. There was only one friend with wrists as slight as that.

Yoongi.

He established that he was not alone and yet he didn't know where he was. Why couldn't his stupid eyes open? He wished that he had the energy to reach up and force them open but he couldn't possibly do that, just moving his arm over the bed seemed to drain him enough for him to feel like he was floating again, getting distant and more faint.

"...wanna die, I wanna feel alive! I wanna fucking live!" Taehyung's voice shouted at him, hoarse from a mixture of yelling and trying to not cry; a horrible sound that made a shiver run all over his skin.

"You're a fucking train wreck! A car crash! You're the fucking Titanic!" More shouting voices mixed into a load of nonsense, words lost and gone into oblivion, unable to discern a single thing.

"Seriously guys! Stop it!"

He could feel his limbs getting heavier now, a weight on his chest seeming to lift. He was waking up, he was starting to come around and-

"...kill you instead!"

Jimin opened his eyes.