Diamond in the Rough (Seventeen and Bangtan Fanfic)

55: We're all here

"Let's go," Jun says firmly as he strides bravely and purposefully towards Rika. Both Jungkook and Mingyu silently snap their head over with a dreary look in their eyes. At the same time as they were wishing they had taken the first step towards her, they didn't have to courage to see her reaction. Jun carefully grasps her hand, pulling Rika gently to turn away from the piercing white hospital bed, and that piercing white hospital room, and that piercing blankness.

"Look at me," he says gently, "Nareul bwa, chaebal?" 

Silence fills the room.

"Fucking let me go," Rika spits her words out venomously like wildfire to the boy who cared for her so much and shakes his hands off her shoulders so roughly that he stumbles, still weak from the thunderstorm night on the rooftop. 

An expression of hurt flickers across Jun's still sickly pale face as Jungkook and Mingyu both snap their head over in a grimace, knowing how hurtful hearing those words from Rika would've been. 

"No, Rika, look at me." Jun bravely continued.

Rika merely turned her head to stare each of the boys in the eye. It was one of those frightening blank stares— a stare of someone whose soul was torn apart, scattered to the wind. 

"Get out," she breathed, "Naga. All of you get out." 

Mingyu looked at Jun uncertainly and Jun looked towards Jungkook. Even without speaking, the three boys were talking through their gazes. Were they really going to leave Rika alone in the emotionally vulnerable state she was in? What if she did something silly? 

"Let's just go," Jungkook whispered after a long hesitation, shaking his head sadly and leading the boys out. 

Inside the room, as soon as she heard the door slide close with an empty thump, Rika slid to the ground next to her mother, lying lifelessly in bed. 

"Eomma..." Rika whispered, as she shook her mom, "Eomma...Eomma...Eomma..."

For the next three hours, that was all the boys could hear: the sound of Rika's lifeless whispers escaping from the room they were all standing anxiously outside, her voice whispering the same word again and again, her voice calling someone who would never answer her again. 

.

.

.

"Hyung!!" Dino's voice bounces off the white walls of the hospital as the shuffle of boys all gather in the hospital once again, "Wh-what even happened? Did noona get sick again? Was she still injured? Hyung??" 

Jun only looked at the boys quietly, a broken expression on his face before turning away. The sight of the three boys looking ghastly pale and distraught sent a flurry of anxiousness into the group of boys who had just made it here, who started a barrage of questions.

Mingyu bravely stepped forward. "Ani," he said quietly, "Rika's eomma passed away." 

At this, Ae Ri gasped and breathed hard, knowing how much Rika's eomma meant to her. Rika's eomma was Rika's life— Rika's everything. 

"How...how is Rika doing?" Ae Ri asked breathlessly, as Taehyung places a hand on her back quietly to reassure her. 

"She's not...Rika..." Mingyu said, looking distressed.

"Hyung?" Jungkook breathed helplessly as he looked towards Namjoon and Jin who had made their way to his side. He was looking at them, searching their faces for an answer. What could they do now? Suddenly the golden maknae was at a lost. Seeing their friend in so much pain, no one had any idea how to respond, or what to do next anymore.  

"Maybe we should-" Seungcheol started, only to be interrupted by a crash from inside the room. 

"Shit." Jungkook cussed and immediately slide the door open with a crash only to find an unconscious Rika curled up on the ground around a broken flower vase, one arm cut from the glass, one hand still tightly holding on to her mother's. 

Jun pushed forward and slid next to Rika, not caring about the broken glass. Cradling her in his lap as the other boys and Ae Ri watched tearfully and painfully, Jun tried to pry her hands away from her eomma's, but it just wouldn't free.

"Rika, just..." Jun pleaded to the unconscious girl in his arms as he pried her fingers free one by one, "Let go. I— no, none of us can stand to see you like this. No one is saying you can't be sad, but you have to accept it." 

When Rika neither responds nor frees her hands, the group just silently stares at the distraught, pale Jun cradling a pained and unconscious Rika, most of them discreetly swiping away the tears that were already rolling down their own cheeks. Heaven knows how painful it was watching the two who had just survived a night out cold on a rooftop in the thunderstorm, now suffering like this. It was just one tragedy after another, enough even to break the will and soul of a god. 

 "Rika," Jun tried to steady his voice wavering from the threatening tears, "Eomma's gone, Rika, but you have us. You have me. We're all here for you— all of us." 

It was only at this that Rika finally loosened her grip from her mother's hand, and finally let her mother's hand go. Rika had gone through too much this week— how much can one girl take? And now, she was so emotionally unstable, weak, and sick, and spent so many hours staring at her lifeless mother that she was now unconscious. 

Immediately, Jun tried to lift Rika to bring her to rest, only to stumble with dizziness as he stood up. 

"Jun-" Mingyu started forward.

"No it's okay Mingyu-ah, I'm fine." 

"Hyung but-"

"Jun, just let Mingyu carry her," J-hope nodded gently, "You're still running a fever. Don't think we don't know." 

Jun nodded silently as Mingyu lifted the unconscious girl away from his arms. Suddenly, the dizziness and nausea took over and Jun stumbled, his eyes fluttering close.

"Hyung!" 

.

.

.

"Why does Rika had to go through so much in life? It's just so unfair," Ae Ri bawled, tears streaming down her face, "How could the heavens be so unfair to an innocent, kind, strong-willed girl? Did they think it was funny, testing to see how strong her will was? It's just so UNFAIR!" 

"Ae Ri-yah," Taehyung's deep voice was soothing and gentle as he hugged her, "Everything will work out fine. Even if everyone feels tired and gives up, we have to keep believing that everything will be okay someday, okay?"

Ae Ri looked up through teary eyes at this childish boy who was suddenly a beacon of hope. 

"Okay?" Taehyung prodded, looking at her with hopeful eyes.

"Okay." Ae Ri nodded slowly, and added almost silently afterwards, "Okay, oppa."