P1ecemaker

16- Never shine as bright as your eyes.

January 26th 2022

It was a quiet wednesday night, not in the sense of actual silence, the streets were still full of life, traffic packed bumper to bumper with the shops bustling with shoppers both young and old, nothing new in the never sleeping city, but for Jongseob it was quiet, in an eery way.

He hadn't heard from Jiung since their alarming phone call an hour beforehand, Soul was radio silent the moment he boarded the plane heading back to Korea and Intak was as of his message fifteens minutes ago..

🐶🖤
Stuck in traffic!!!
there's a road closure on the inbound lanes 😒
i wont be at Jiung's for a while, just check in and make sure he's okay.. his messages are just a little weird you know?

And that was exactly what Jongseob was doing on behalf of his bestfriend, he wasn't really complaining, the boy didn't actually have anything better to do and having just moved in to his own apartment to start feeling a sense of responsibility and independence, things were quite boring and lonely there.

"SERIOUSLY?" the orange haired boy groaned in annoyance as he read the sign attached to the metal doors informing him that the elevator was under construction which now meant Jongseob had to walk up 12 flights of stairs.

Inhaling a heavy dose of air as he held onto his side finally reaching the floor he needed, Jongseob leant against the wall catching his breath for a moment before walking down to his friend's apartment, he firmly knocked on the door with a slightly stern "Choi Jiung." following, no response however was given as the younger waited for the door to open and welcome him inside.

About a full minute had passed when Seob had begun to feel uneasy about this situation, having his phone in hand ready for anything needed he entered the lock passcode that Keeho gave him last time and entered the apartment.

it was cold and quiet.. too quiet.

~~

The wait for the ambulance was painfully long, Jongseob had no idea what to do and he didn't really have a clear thought train happening at that moment due to crying and the stress of trying to keep his friend alive.

~~

The ambulance ride itself also felt like a lifetime passing, all he could do is sit there and watch as the paramedics kept the older boy stable until they reach the hospital, despite the pain he was in and the genuine fear running through his body, Jongseob's only thought right now is how hard it's going to be to get the blood stains out of the carpet..... out of everything..that should have seemed like the least important thing on his mind, but he knew how much Jiung was struggling to even keep the apartment, now what was he going to do?

~~

A hospital waiting bay at 10pm at night is not the most ideal places for a sixteen year old boy, but he was accepting his fate right now, however busy hospital's may be, Jongseob still wasn't prepared for the absolute onslaught of patients coming through the emergency doors, a sight that was putting him even more on edge than he already was.

It was the emergency broadcast on the television hanging on the wall that broke him out of the confused state, the reporter on screen talking about a ten car pileup on the inbound freeway, and as if the universe wasn't being cruel enough, Jongseob felt a sudden rush of fear and panic, despite not eating recently, once he had seen the images on the tv screen, the contents of his stomach were rushing up in seconds making him run to the toilets.