Before The Shadow: White Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chapter 20: Regrets

YOONGI POV

Yeong throws several jabs at me, I block them and grab the scruff of his clothing and throw him hard onto the ground. Where is Hailey? Is she okay? I frantically search the crowd for her and I spot her next to Jieun. My eyes trail down and I see the dagger in Hailey's stomach.

"HAILEY!" I scream and cock my gun, ready to run towards them but Yeong stands in my path. Seriously this guy.

"We're not done yet," Yeong says in a dark tone and I grit my teeth together. I don't have time for this!

He rushes towards me and aims for my head. I block and push his legs away and he stumbles as he tries to find his footing again. I pull him to me and bash my head into his and he staggers back in surprise and he tries to get a sense of his bearings again. I quickly spin on my heel and land a hard kick into his chest and he falls to the ground. I swiftly crouch over him and shove my gun into his mouth and his eyes dart around in panic "See you in hell," I pull the trigger and blood spits across my face. I wipe it away from my mouth and stand to my feet and see Jieun looking at me, her face contorts in pain before she turns around and runs away.

My eyes fall to the floor and I watch as Hailey's motionless body becomes surrounded by blood. FUCK. I run to her side and lift her up from the ground and into my arms, she winces in pain at the movement. The dagger is still stuck in her stomach "Yoongi?" She asks quietly and outstretches her hand for mine and I grab it tightly.

"Shh shh, it's okay. You're alright. I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" I wrap my arms around her but she grunts loudly in pain.

"Wait, Yoongi. We need to stop the bleeding first," Jin says as he appears at my side, throws his jacket off, and carefully wraps it around Hailey's abdomen.

"What about the dagger?" Namjoon asks in a concerned tone as he crouches down next to me, his arm has been tightly wrapped in cloth. I guess Jin has already patched him up.

"Leave it, that's actually preventing her from bleeding out right now," Jin says in a serious tone.

I hear footsteps approaching us and I turn my head to see Hobi and Jimin running towards us "That's all of them boss," Hobi says.

"What about Jieun? I saw her ditch, should we follow?" Jimin asks and I shake my head at him and turn my attention back to Hailey.

"No. Our priority right now is Hailey, get the car ready." I say sternly and lift Hailey carefully off the ground, she's panting heavily. We're gonna get through this, she will get through this.

"Jimin, start the car," Jin throws the keys to him. "The rest of you, douse the place and burn it then follow us up," Jin instructs and leads me to the car. I run as quickly as I can to not put Hailey in any more pain than she already is in. She doesn't make a sound on the way to the car but I can see her face scrunch up every time her body is jostled. With the help of Jin, I carefully slide into the car with Hailey and Jin sits up front with Jimin who starts the car.

"Hang in there baby," I cradle her face in my hand and she grips my arm tightly.

"I'm good...don't worry about me," she says through her teeth.

Jin turns in his seat and looks at me "Keep her talking Yoongi, she needs to stay awake."

"Hey babe, look at me" Hailey turns her head but I can see that she's struggling to keep her eyes open and her grip is starting to loosen on my arm. "Hailey, Hailey?" I tap her cheek.

"I-I'm...tired," she says slowly. I can feel myself start to panic. No Yoongi, keep your cool.

"Jimin, how much further?"

"We're about ten to fifteen minutes away from the clinic boss."

"Make it ten," Jimin revs the car and speeds down the highway. I look back at Hailey "Hey, hey, don't go to sleep. Let's talk...what's the first thing you're going to do when we get back to the Dojang?" I say trying to sound overly curious.

"Mmm...make everyone do...their patterns."

"Good, good. What else?"

"The plumbing..."

"What about it?"

"It needs...fixing...o-one of the guys...blocked the toilet," I chuckle slightly, at least she's still in a good enough mood to make jokes. Her lips curl up at the sound of my laughter.

"Boss, we're here," Jimin says and pulls into the car park of the small clinic. This is the clinic that we always use when we need more extensive patching up, it belongs to Jin's older brother Seok-Joong. Jin jumps out of the car and helps me get Hailey out. I cradle her in my arms and make my way inside the building, Joong comes running up to us.

"Hey, I saw the car and-" Joong stops speaking as his eyes fall onto Hailey. "Who is that?"

"No time to talk hyung, we need your operating theatre," Jin says.

Joong nods and gestures for us to follow him "Right this way."

I follow Jin and Joong as they lead me into the sterilised operating room, a single bed lies in the middle of the room with a light above it. Medical equipment and tools lay littered around the bed on a table. I lower Hailey onto the table, her face is pale and her breathing is quiet. Jin places his hand on my shoulder "Yoongi, I need you to wait outside."

"What!? No-"

"Yoongi, please!" Jin says loudly and my eyes widen in shock. He's never raised his voice at me before and even though he's older than me he's always respected me as the authoritative in the group. "I will operate on her myself but you must wait outside," Jin says in a sympathetic tone. I turn and look back at Hailey and lean down to kiss her forehead. I push past Jin and made my way to the waiting room, the operating room light buzzes on.

I stand there for a moment and listen to the hum of the light above the door. The boys walk into the waiting room "Boss!" They all talk over one another but I can't think clearly right now. I push past them and make my way outside to the car, rain starts pouring down from the sky. Is the sky crying for her? I feel my anger begin to boil inside of me and I scream aloud in frustration and give the car a few good kicks before leaning my back onto it and sliding down to the ground. I pull my lighter out from my pocket and rest my arms on my knees and flick the lighter on. My hair dampens from the rain and sticks to my face as I watch the flame from my lighter, it dances for a few moments before being extinguished by the rain. I throw it away from me.

I can't lose her. I just can't.

This is all my fault.