Chapter Text
Bright lights, the sound of a heart rate monitor, the smell of disinfectant.
It happened rather suddenly, he had a headache, he was disoriented. Yoongi realized he was in the hospital, but had no idea why.
Nurses and doctors rushed in to check on him, he was so confused, why was he in the hospital? but more importantly, why couldn't he remember anything? not even his name "Yoongi?" he didn't answer
"Yoongi, I'm your doctor, I need to ask you a few questions"
"my name is Yoongi?"
The doctor nodded "Yes, did you not remember that?"
"I... I don't really remember anything, what happened? why am I here?"
"You had an accident, in the mountains, you hit your head really hard and they brought you here" Yoongi felt a really sharp pain, trying to remember was hard but he managed to recall the day of the accident.
He had left his house early in the morning, he was going to take pictures for the cover of a sports magazine and the photoshoot had to take place in a mountain, Yoongi was known for being a perfectionist that would do anything in pursuit of the perfect shot, climb trees, lay on the floor, anything. how could he know that the thing that made his work stand out would be the thing that would end up sending him to the ER, he wanted to take a picture from a different angle and decided to climb a little cliff but he lost his grip, fell, and then everything went black.
"I was working, I think I lost my balance, but I didn't break anything did I?"
"well, you didn't break anything but as you can tell the impact on the head was severe and..."
"I mean, it's just a headache, I'll probably be okay in a day or two"
"...do you remember what day it is?"
"hum... tuesday?"
"I need a specific date"
"tuesday July 24th, 2018?" the room went silent
"I have bad news, and I need you to keep calm when I tell you, today is June 27th, 2020, you've been in a coma for 2 years"
That couldn't be possible, yoongi refused to believe that he had been absent for 2 years, "that can't be real, is this a joke?, I need to go I need to leave right now" he started to panic and tried to get up so the nurse had to sedate him before he ended up hurting himself.
When he woke up he wasn't alone, a tall skinny guy wearing scrubs was sitting next to him
"WOW so it's true, you woke up, I thought they were messing with me"
"I'm sorry, who are you?"
"I'm the guy that's gonna take care of you from now on, you know, since you'll probably never walk again"
"WHAT?" Yoongi immediately patted his legs to make sure he could feel them
"I'm just joking!" he said while laughing
"WHAT THE HELL DUDE"
"I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm your physiotherapist, I've been taking care of you for the last 2 years, so I guess that the whole 'people in a coma can hear everything you say' thing is fake because I'm pretty talkative and you didn't recognize my voice"
"my physiotherapist?"
"yes, when you don't move your muscles lose tone and mass and by the time you wake up it'd be impossible for you to go back to normal but I came here every day and made sure that didn't happen"
"I- thank you"
"you don't have to thank me, that's my job, but at least now that you woke up I can actually get a response when I ask about your day" Yoongi couldn't help but smile, there was something about this guy that made him feel that somehow things would be alright
"and what's your name?"
"Eh, you can just call me Hobi"
"Nice to meet you, I'm Yoongi"
"I already knew that"
"right"
He offered yoongi a reassuring smile and started explaining how he'd be helping him adjust to his new life.
The next few days were the hardest, Yoongi still had trouble accepting the fact that he lost 2 years of his life, the first time he looked into the mirror he was scared to see someone he wouldn't be able to recognize, but the only difference was that he looked a bit skinnier and his hair was longer than ever, but nothing too shocking
"were you expecting to look like Robinson Crusoe?" Hoseok joked "nurses make sure to shave their patients, you know"
"You know what, maybe being asleep and not hearing you wasn't so bad after all" yoongi teased, they had a special bond between them and yoongi was happy to have someone to count on, when he asked the staff if anyone had visited him since he got admitted and they said that all they had from him was an ID they used to try to contact someone but no one answered so yoongi just assumed he had no family at all.
"So you really don't remember anything else?"
"no, just the day all of this happened"
"well sometimes that's good, you know, like a brand new start, a new life in which you're not crazy enough to climb a cliff to take a picture"
"hey!" They were walking around the hospital's garden, it wasn't exactly Yoongi's favorite place but Hoseok insisted that exercising outside would be better, but yoongi didn't need to remember anything to know he wasn't really an outdoors guy
"I bet the picture turned out great"
A month passed and the doctors told Yoongi he was ready to leave the hospital.
He was really nervous to go back to whatever was left of his life "what if I don't have a house anymore? what if I had plants and they died? OH GOD, WHAT IF I HAD A PET AND IT DIED?!" he thought
But there was no turning back, he had to move on, and so he looked through his belonging that the hospital had been storing, they gave him a wallet and a set of keys, inside the wallet there was an id, some money and credit cards but nothing really personal, there was no picture of a dog or any receipts that would tell him the places he used to visit, but the ID had his adress so he was hoping he would at least have somewhere to call home.
Hoseok came into the room to say goodbye "I heard you're finally leaving"
"yeah, I know you'll miss me but you can always come visit if I still have a house"
"oh no, now that you're leaving I can finally get rid of you, I thought this day would never come" he looked dead serious, Yoongi didn't know if he was nice to him just because he was his patient or if he also considered him a friend.
"I-" but then hoseok laughed
"I'm just joking! of course I'll come visit, I'll give you my number and you can call me if you still have a house just to say that you're safe, or if you don't have a house anymore you can just crash at my place"
Yoongi smiled "thanks Hobi"
Yoongi took a taxi and gave the driver the address, soon he was in an uptown neighborhood, nothing too fancy but it was definitely nicer than he expected "You live here, boy?" the driver asked "I think so"
"we arrived, this is the building you're looking for" Yoongi got out and went to the apartment complex in front of him
He wasn't sure of what to do.
Should he ring the doorbell or try to open the door with his keys? He chose to ring the doorbell, if someone had already occupied his apartment the last thing he wanted was to walk in on them.
He rang the doorbell to the building's management office and a sweet lady answered through the intercom
"yes, who is this?"
"Hum hi, I'm...Yoongi"
"yoongi? yoongi? AH Yoongi! I'll be there in a second"
And before he could say anything else he heard the door being opened.
"Oh darling we thought you were gone forever!" She said immediately hugging him
"do we know each other?" Yoongi wasn't exactly subtle, he had a lot of questions and being nice wasn't as important as getting answers
The lady's face went pale "don't tell me that you don't recognize me? It's only been two years, I asked my husband I had more wrinkles and he said I didn't!" She looked worried "No no, I just, I had an accident and I can't really remember a lot of things"
"an accident?! This can't be discussed here, come in come in, let's have a cup of coffee"
After a long talk the lady couldn't believe what he was telling her
"Darling the last day you were here you told us you'd be going on a trip, that's why no one tried to contact you, we all just thought you fell in love with that place and decided to stay there" Yoongi tried to remember that trip, but he couldn't
"did I tell you where was I going?" He asked hoping some more details would help
"no, you weren't very open about your private life, sweetie, you just told us because you wanted to make sure we'd take care of you apartment while you were gone"
"Did you rent it to someone else?"
"What? Noooo, you're not renting, you bought that apartment already, we just made sure no one got in there while you were away, you can go back as soon as you want to" yoongi was relieved that he wouldn't have to look for another place to live
"Can you take me there?"
"Of course" they got up and headed to Yoongi's apartment
"it's probably a little dusty"
"I think more than a little" yoongi smiled and thanked the lady, he was nervous to do this alone but didn't ask her to stay
He grabbed his keys and opened the door
His apartment was very minimalistic, he had white walls and a wooden floor, and his furniture was modern and contemporary, maybe a few paintings on the wall, but the thing that stood out amongst everything else was a beautiful piano in the middle of his living room, se sat down and as soon as his fingers touched the keys, it all came back to him, it was as if he had never stopped playing, his hands remembered every movement and seemed to have their own mind,he started playing a song and the memory of a little kid taking piano lessons because his mom forced him to, but ended up falling in love with the melodies he was able to create, his piano was his first love, way before he even knew his passion for photography would take over it, there was something about it that made him feel like the world changed when he looked at it through his lens, and he loved that he was able to capture beauty, sadness, anger, every single feeling in one frame, just the same way you can put your feelings into songs. the song ended and he told himself that maybe he would remember everything someday, but until then, this was enough to give him hope.
He started exploring the place, when he got to the kitchen he realized any chef would be jealous of it, it was filled with all kinds of spices and he even found some handwritten cooking books "I guess I really like to cook" he thought, and that idea was actually really exciting, after a month of eating nothing but hospital food, there was nothing he craved more than a homemade dish, that would probably have to wait though, he didn't remember how to cook and after 2 years he doubted anything in there was still edible.
He walked into his bedroom and opened his closet, he had a lot of black clothes and everything in there was perfectly organized, Yoongi decided to take a shower before continuing, he had been wearing the clothes that the hospital gave him and he thought he'd be more comfortable wearing something of his own. fortunately his bathroom had a closet with everything he needed, he even managed to find clean towells, they kind of smelled funny because they had been there for so long, but he figured he could probably do the laundry afterwards.
He showered and as he was getting out Yoongi had a little flashback, a voice whining "no way, get back in there I was just about to join you!" followed by a very unique laugh, he foucused really hard but he couldn't make out a face for that voice, everything was just a bit blurry
He changed into some pajamas that he found, the fit was a little loose and the sleeves were slightly too long and they covered his hands, but that was okay, he actually liked that.
As he was looking though a little bookshelf he found some scrapbooks that he made, one of them had his childhood pictures, another one had clippings from magazines and newspapers where they had published his work, yoongi smiled thinking about how these were an amazing start to get his memories back,but when he opened the third one it was filled with pictures of a beautiful boy.
Yoongi felt like his heart skipped a beat and then started racing to catch up, every single picture had something that captivated him, the guy had a beautiful face, but that wasn't what made him so special, he was attractive and Yoongi couldn't deny that but what made him so enticing was the fact that he made Yoongi feel like he had found home, that even if he still had to figure out a lot of things about his life he was certain of one thing, he knew he belonged somewhere, he belonged with him.
He took a look at one picture and a memory came to him
"what is this?" the boy asked
"I was organizing my stuff and I realized I have way too many pictures of you"
"hey! with this face no amount is high enough" he assured him and yoongi smiled at him
"I even have the one from when we first met"
"oh that's true, you stalker" he said with a smirk
"You should put them somewhere else, a shoe box feels like we broke up and you're about to throw them away"
"I would never do that!"
"Come on, just find a nicer place"
"maybe I could put them in a scrapbook, you know, the story of us"
the boy smiled at the idea "I like that"
Then they kissed.
Yoongi tried to remember more but his head started hurting, he knew he had to take things slowly, but he was way too curious to find out more about the myserious boy, he touched his lips and smiled thinking about the kiss, hoping it'd make him dream about him.
He went to bed, anxious for what was waiting for him in the morning, he wanted to make the most out of these newfound clues.
When he woke up, he took a taxi and went to the shop, he bought some food, stuff to clean his apartment, even a new cellphone since the old one was broken
Once he got home he pulled a little paper out of his pocket and called someone
"hey, hum, do you know how to do laundry?"
In less than an hour Hoseok was already knocking at his door "come in, it's open! I'm sorry you can't get rid of me"
"it's okay, it's saturday and I had a dance practice in a studio that's near, also I didn't spend years taking care of you just to have you kill yourself while washing clothes 2 days after leaving the hospital" he laughed
"yeah I would like to stay alive thank you" yoongi laughed and Hoseok started explaining how to do basic tasks, "trust me I've been living alone for years, I know all the tricks" They started talking while they were cleaning "So, did you remember anything new now that you're home?" Hoseok asked "I did! I remembered I play the piano, and I think I really like to cook because you should see the kitchen, it's a chef's dream
"well I haven't had breakfast yet so maybe we could make something to eat before I pass out"
They went to the kitchen and Yoongi sat down and let hoseok pick whatever he wanted to make But when he turned around and saw him cooking
He had a mini flashback to a saturday morning the mysterious boy was cooking for him, he kept testing the food and taking notes but wouldn't let Yoongi eat anything yet
"come on! I'm very hungry"
" you can't taste until it's perfect"
"you fed me an empty shell once. Let me eat"
"Trust me, it'll be worth the wait" the boy smiled
"fineee" He knew that he was right, he cooked like an angel, and yoongi loved to watch him, his face looked so focused and the smile on his face when he achieved a recipe would always melt his heart.
That's all he could remember.
"and my grandma said the secret is to season it while it's cooking, not afterwards"
"I'm sorry, what?" Yoongi said, realizing he hadn't been listening to anything
"I'VE BEEN EXPLAINING HOW TO MAKE THE PERFECT OMELETTE AND YOU WERE IGNORING ME ALL ALONG?" Hoseok looked so offended it made Yoongi snort
"I'm sorry! I was just...thinking"
"what were you thinking about?"Hoseok said and started eating
"I was remembering someone"
"who?"
"I think I was very in love"
"really? did you remember her?"
"ah hehe, fun fact, well actually last night I remembered I'm gay"
"okay, so you remembered him?"
Yoongi was surprised he got no reactions at all "I just told you I'm gay"
"yes, I heard, but what I'm really curious about is the guy you're in love with"
"I'm pretty sure there's a code on how to react when someone comes out to you"
"Yoongi, honestly, I'm your friend, you're more than just a label word to me, I support you no matter what, so instead of focusing on that I wanna focus on something that could make my friend happy" Yoongi smiled, he probably came out to someone before but this was the first time since the accident and he was happy it went well
"besides, I think everyone's a little gay, it's just like humans sharing 50-60% of their DNA with bananas, some people are just 10% more banana than others"
Yoongi laughed "what the fuck?! is that actually real?"
"YES GOOGLE IT."
After a long talk (and one google search) they finally got to the point
"I found this book filled with his pictures and I've been having all of these flashbacks" yoongi said as he was looking for a picture to show him, he kept smiling thinking about the fact that he was actually trying to pick one that would show him that his boyfriend was pretty damn cute, and that made him feel embarrased, but it's not as if he was gonna have a hard time finding one, after all, his boyfriend really was stunning. but before he could pick one a picture fell off the book Yoongi picked it up and as soon as he saw it, it all came back to him...
