Chapter Text
Technically, it was a car accident.
Technically, it was a lot of things.
Technically, Jungkook's boyfriend had hit him clear across the face, then had been distracted while driving, and hit something -- Jungkook is a little fuzzy on the details. But he remembers being pushed from the car, remembers lying in the road, disoriented and hurt.
When the man who stopped to check on him had asked what happened, Jungkook had said it was a car accident.
Which, again, technically it was.
Jungkook is having a hard time sitting up. He's lying near an intersection between two streets; he's not sure how far from his home. His head hurts, a consistent pounding pain that's making looking at anything for more than a second, focusing his eyes, hurt. His knee hurts too, throbbing in time with his head. His hands are scraped with road rash, his cheek hurts where his boyfriend had slapped him before the collision.
The man is crouched next to him, hand on his knees. When Jungkook blinks up at him, he looks concerned, looks like he already said something, and is waiting for Jungkook to respond. Jungkook already said it was a car accident, didn't he?
He might as well say it again if the man didn't understand the first time. Jungkook can sympathize; it feels like thoughts are sliding through his head like a rushing waterfall. Nothing will click properly, nothing will stay. His head hurts.
“I - I was in a car accident.”
The man's face doesn't look less concerned; his brow furrows more, like what Jungkook said just made him more worried.
“Ok. Alright, I understand, sir. Can you tell me where the car is? Did you get hit? Do you need medical attention?”
That's a lot of questions for Jungkook all at the same time. He tries to shake his head no, but it feels like he's shaking his brain loose. The motion shakes a pained moan from out of his mouth before Jungkook can even think to hold it back.
“I - - I don't know. The car -- the car is gone. My boyfriend, he was driving. I think I need to go home.”
The man doesn't look less concerned. He also doesn't look like he's going to help Jungkook get back to his house. He probably shouldn't have said the thing about his boyfriend, but he was driving, wasn't he? He was, and he's gone now.
“Your boyfriend was driving?”
Jungkook has learned from his past mistake; he does not shake his head yes, but he tries to convey an affirmative with his eyes, even though he can't quite get them to focus on the man's face.
“Okay. Yeah. Okay,” the man still looks very distressed, potentially more so. “Okay. I'm going to call an ambulance. I'm also going to try and sit you up, okay? We need to sit you up so you don't get stepped on, I think.”
Jungkook tries to reach out, to help in the sitting-up mission. His arms feel heavy, though, like a thousand pounds that he can’t quite direct the right way, and he misses. The man just holds him gently under the arms and helps to heave him to a sitting position. It feels terrible. The world is tilting and tilting and tilting, and Jungkook feels like it'll never stop tilting around him. It’s like Jungkook is already sitting perfectly still, and the world hasn’t stopped tilting to catch up with him, like he’s moving at lightning speed and the world around him is syrupy slow.
The man leans Jungkook's upper body back and braces him with an arm, sitting down beside him on the sidewalk and pulling out his phone. Jungkook feels floppy like a newborn baby, like his neck muscles are underdeveloped. Jungkook feels stupid in a way that's starting to make him scared.
“Okay,” the man says, pocketing his phone -- he must have already made the call, Jungkook wasn't even paying attention, “Okay. An ambulance is on the way. I’m - I'm supposed to talk to you. Keep you alert, the operator on the phone said you probably have a concussion.”
Jungkook is looking at the man now, trying his best. The man has a nice face, and he's being so nice to Jungkook. He still looks worried, but under that, Jungkook bets he's handsome, bets he's kind and gentle all the time.
“Hey, are you understanding me? I know you're in a lot of pain and confused, but I need to know you're with me, okay?”
Oh, right.
Jungkook nods, feels the world turn with the movement, groans around the pain.
“Hey, don't move if it hurts. Just try to answer as best as you can.”
Jungkook hums this time. The man looks like he's attempting to smile, but is so concerned his facial muscles won't cooperate. It's almost charming.
“Okay. Can you tell me your name?”
Jungkook hums an affirmative. “Jungkook. Jeon Jungkook.”
“Okay. Good. I'm Min Yoongi. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
Jungkook tries to chuckle, it comes out choked. “Hi, Min Yoongi.”
Yoongi makes that same strained expression again, like he’s trying to smile but can’t quite get it right.
“Did you say it was your boyfriend who hit you?”
Well, that's complicated, isn't it? More complicated than Jungkook can verbalize, at the moment. He did, but he didn't. He did, but what does it matter, right now? He did, but how much should he tell Yoongi, a man who has been kind so far but is still a stranger?
“No? He hit something. He threw me out of the car. I hit my head. He didn't hit me with his car.”
The man - Yoongi - looks sad, terribly sad, like it's the worst thing he's heard all week.
“That’s awful. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that happened to you, Jungkook.”
Jungkook feels tears start to well behind his eyelids, unbidden.
“Hey,” Yoongi says, and starts to reach to wipe away the tears.
Just then, an ambulance roars around the corner, lights and sirens flashing.
And it's just -- it's just too much. The noise and light and the movement some time ago to sit up. All of it is too much. So, held in Min Yoongi’s arms, Jungkook lets the wave of pain overtake his brain, and feels his body go limp as his vision goes dark.
***
When Jungkook comes to, he's horizontal again. Clearly, not much time must have passed. He's still outside, still under the night sky, still near the flashing lights of an ambulance. Taking further stock of his body, Jungkook decides he must have been loaded on a gurney. He's lying on something hard, there's someone by his head - two someones maybe - and someone else by his feet. He's feeling a little less confused -- still foggy and pained, but less like he has to fight through quicksand to get to every thought.
There's a hand on his shoulder, Yoongi's hand.
There's talking, there are people standing by his head, and someone else is by his feet.
“We're taking him to the nearest hospital. We should be there soon. There's not much for us to do on the way other than monitor and treat any symptoms as they occur. He'll have to have a CAT scan once he gets there; they'll probably keep him for a while for observation. Is there anything else you know that can help us treat him?”
Jungkook hears Yoongi's voice now, its low rasp pleasantly familiar compared to everything else around him.
“No. Sorry. I barely even know him. He just said he was pushed out of a car and hit his head.”
“Yeah, okay”, the other voice -- back again, “We'll take him then. Have a nice night.”
Jungkook startles. Is Yoongi leaving? He can't leave yet. Jungkook is confused. He needs to talk to Yoongi, not to these men, not when he is still struggling so hard to know what's going on.
“Wait--” Jungkook hears Yoongi say at the same second he hears his own voice say “No. Yoongi-ssi please. Don't leave me.”
Yoongi's face comes into view. Jungkook can't stop the whimper that leaves his mouth. “Please,” he whispers.
Yoongi leans over Jungkook and looks up at the man standing behind his head, the paramedic.
“Can I ride with him?”
The paramedic man sighs. “Yeah, fine. Get in.”
“Thank you,” Jungkook hears Yoongi say, his hand still on his shoulder as the two paramedics - the one who spoke before and the silent one by his feet - start to wheel him to the ambulance and load him up.
When Jungkook is settled into the back of the ambulance, Yoongi looks down at him, his face intense.
“I'll take care of you,” he says, whispering as low as he can so it's just for Jungkook. “Is that okay? I'll take care of you.”
“Please,” Jungkook whispers back, under the rumble of the ambulance’s engine starting up, even though he barely knows what exactly he's asking for, “please.”
*
Getting into the hospital itself is just more chaos. It's so bright and loud. It's more than Jungkook can take, really. He's in and out of it, flashes of understanding. The only thing he's completely certain of is the feeling of Yoongi's hand in his; it only leaves him when he's certain Yoongi isn't allowed to be there, confirmed by the exasperated voices of doctors and nurses around them.
It's official. Jungkook has a dislocated knee, some nasty road rash that's been wrapped up in gauze, and a fairly severe concussion. He's being kept for observation in a bright white hospital room. There's a chair pulled up next to his bed that Yoongi has been occupying since the nurses and doctors gave up trying to get him to leave. Jungkook wishes he were in a better way, so he could thank this near stranger properly. But mostly he’s just endlessly grateful that Yoongi hasn’t left him yet, no matter how much the tired nurses and doctors would probably like him to.
The police come by to ask Jungkook and Yoongi the same questions that every doctor has asked them as well. It's the same answer from Jungkook every time: “I was in a car accident. I fell out of the car and hit my head. The driver drove away. No, I don't know where the driver is now. No, I don't want to press criminal charges.”
Jungkook imagines Yoongi answers something similar; he hasn't been allowed to be in the room with him while he was being questioned.
Regardless, eventually the police leave him alone, and it's just Jungkook and Yoongi and the occasional nurse for rounds in the room.
The sterile white and silence aren't much better for Jungkook’s head. Even with the painkillers he was given, it feels like the pain reverberates around the room. It feels like it fills up the spaces left in the silence between the beeps of the hospital equipment.
It's maddening, and Jungkook keeps drifting off, the pain medication and confusion and adrenaline seeping out of his body making it hard to stay awake. Yoongi’s voice - talking to Jungkook or to nurses or into his phone on and off - provides a soothing backdrop for Jungkook’s brain to be lulled to sleep amidst the unfamiliar beeping and white noise of a hospital.
He’s pulled back into wakefulness by a gentle hand on his shoulder. Yoongi, again.
“Hey Jungkook-ah”, whispers Yoongi into the small space between them, “I have to go home now.”
Jungkook whines, more petulant than he means to sound, but in his defense -- brain damage.
“Will you come back?” he croaks, the first time he’s used his voice since talking to the police. Gosh, his voice sounds terrible.
“Yeah, honey,” replies Yoongi, still quiet and gentle, “if you want me to.”
Jungkook hums in response as Yoongi moves his hand and begins to pick his things up around the room, his coat and a bottle of water -- the little things he’s accumulated since Jungkook was brought to the room.
“I left you my phone number,” Yoongi says as he moves towards the door, “Just in case. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.”
Jungkook falls asleep, pulled deep under with the afterimage of Yoongi’s form in the doorway still imprinted on the back of his eyelids.