End of the Line | HyunChan

Chapter 1

TW: mentioning of self harm and suicidal thoughts and attempts

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"NO! NO... PLEASE... please..."

The screams slowly became quieter and yet Hyunjin decided to enter the room.

It was his second week of internship and you could have thought that he had slowly gotten used to the screams, but it still disturbed him sometimes.

Actually, he liked the night services, because mostly the more relaxed colleagues worked then, but some nights were still incredibly strenuous.

According to the file, there was a young man in the room he was reaching, who had lost his entire family in a car accident two days ago. He himself had survived almost unharmed, but his mental condition was very bad.

Hyunjin stumbled when he saw the age. He was only three years younger than the patient. But since Hyunjin had the weekend off, he hadn't seen him yet.

The file said that the young man was harmless to others, but had already tried to kill himself several times.

Hyunjin looked down at himself. There were several pens in his white work shirt, which he put quietly sighing on the shelf next to the door. Otherwise, he had no sharp objects with him.

Hesitantly, he finally knocked on the door and then entered the room by pressing his key card on the sensor.

It was dark in the room, only a small night light gave some light.

The patient- Hyunjin looked into the file again. Chan.

Chan was in bed. His hair stuck to his face, which was twisted into a grimace. The duvet had slipped down and revealed the upper body of the elder.

His arms were covered with cuts, which he obviously must have inflicted on himself. They were too straight and even than they could have come from the accident.

Hyunjin had to swallow.

In the first week he had always been on the road with one of the other nurses, but they were understaffed tonight and his colleague had sent him off alone to make the first round. With the words "call me if anything should be" and then had taken care of a patient who was just going crazy.

He didn't quite know what to do. The patient was asleep and it didn't seem to be a threatening situation.

But the older's facial expression almost broke his heart, which was why he finally went over to the bed and gently put a hand on his upper arm.

He was just about to shake him gently to wake him up when the older one opened his eyes and stared at him almost in panic.

"They are dead... THEY ARE ALL DEAD!" he screamed and the sheer horror was written on his face.

Abruptly he sat up and began to scratch almost manically on the barely healed wounds.

"Fuck," Hyunjin murmured and it took a moment to get out of his shock rigidity, but then he pressed the emergency button on the wall and ran to the bed.

For seconds he thought about what to do, but then grabbed the elder's wrists and held him tight.

For a moment, Chan just stared at the young man in front of him. He wore the same white clothes as all the nurses, but he had never seen him before.

His blonde hair was tied together into a ponytail and the night light behind him made him appear somehow blurry and unreal.

"Did I made it? Am I finally dead? Are you here to take me with you?" he whispered more to himself, as he was not entirely convinced that the young man in front of him was really there anyway.

"No! You're still here... and please stop hurting yourself..." the young man whispered.

Sighing, Chan closed his eyes for a moment.

Hyunjin watched the older uncertainly. He was afraid that if he let him go, he would only try to hurt himself again.

"Can I let go?" he finally asked and was annoyed that his voice sounded so insecure.

Chan wanted to nod. He wanted the younger to let go of him so that he could tear up his wounds again and maybe he would finally manage to kill himself. He wanted his blood to dye the white sheets so red that they couldn't do anything to save him.

He wanted to nod and say that everything was okay and it had only been the aftermath of his dream. But there came no sound over his lips.

"Okay... I'll let you go now.. please don't hurt yourself, otherwise we'll have to tie you up for your own safety..." Hyunjin said quietly and loosened his grip.

At that moment, the door opened, distracting Hyunjin and Chan tore himself away.

He drilled his fingers into his arm with such force that the blood actually drips onto the bed. But before he could tear open the wounds further, Yuna injected him with a sedative, which led to him immediately losing consciousness.

Shocked and with trembling hands, Hyunjin ran off to get bandage material and with a heavy heart also the handcuffs to prevent the older from injuring himself.

When he came back into the room, Yuna looked at him worriedly. "I'm so sorry.. I shouldn't have let you go alone," she said quietly.

With still trembling hands, Hyunjin handed her the disinfectant and then assisted her to take care of the wounds.

"I thought I could let go of him. I thought he would listen to me..." Hyunjin whispered and stared at the elder. He couldn't even say what he was feeling.

"He just lost his whole family... had to watch them get burned in the car... that doesn't go past you without a trace...," Yuna said quietly and tied Chan's hands to the bed frame with a soft sigh.

"Come on.. he's going to sleep for now. And you should change your clothes and sit down for a while. You look like you're about to break down," she said and pulled Hyunjin out of the room with her.

Only now did Hyunjin realize the blood on his shirt.

"Oh... yeah.. I'd better change..." he murmured and left Yuna, who looked after him worriedly.

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