Bangtan Universe • BTS oneshots

6. Evanescent • medical vmin

How he hates it all.

The hallways are impeccably clean, gleaming floors and pale grey walls with elegant abstract paintings. The fragrance of fresh flowers is mixed with the tinge of sterileness. Clear green glass doors swoosh open and close as well heeled clientals saunter through.

Jimin scrunches his nose and zooms his focus back to the paperwork at hand. Being the youngest doctor on staff, he's nevertheless well versed in the rules of the game. Here, at the most elite hospital of Seoul, the stench of excess fills every corner of the place. There's a huge wing built just for the VIP clients, separated from the rest, with the top doctors bowing down out of greed.

It's not what he became a doctor for, coming from a poor family and spending all of his youths studying and slaving away during residency. Jimin has always wanted to help people, to save the ones people deemed unworthy of saving. But he's not blind - you have to work the system to get ahead. In this hospital, he can perform every surgery with the most cutting edge technology, and the clients will agree to the most expensive prototype treatments without blinking an eye.

So Jimin finds another way to appease his mind. He finishes his shift and welcomes the tranquility of the night, when he comes alive, free to carry out what he really wants to do. He goes by the alias of Icarus at night, and for 20,000,000 KRW per patient, answers to any call.

Changing out of his white coat, Jimin soon finds himself at a familiar warehouse, backpack slung over his shoulders.

The smell of ferrous blood hits the moment he steps inside, accompanied by wailing and low sobs. Jimin pays them no mind and settles his bag on the large plastic folding table close by. Even the strongest tends to lose their shit when death looms near, Jimin's seen it countless times by now. He starts to lay all the tools on the table instead - scissors, forceps, scalpels, still in the packaging, gleaming dimly under the glaring fluorescent light.

"How many?" He asks, and hears one of the men responding hesitantly from behind him.

"Four."

"The money?"

The man walks up with a garbage bag filled with cash, and drops it on the floor with a resolute thud.

Jimin eyes the man, a timid looking kid really, scanning the blood smear on his body and his trembling hands, "You're Jungkook, the one that called me?"
The boy nods, eyes flickering under the dark bangs.

Jimin flutters his hand, "You'll do for tonight. Follow my orders, if you pass out and someone dies during the surgery, I'm not giving the money back."

He tosses a large roll of plastic wrapping to the man and gestures at the second large table next to them, "Cover it up and let's start with the gun wounds."

By the time Jimin walks out of the warehouse, the city is already lit by bright sunlight. He peels off the bloody long sleeve and tosses it into the bag, then checks his phone - still a few hours before his shift at the hospital, just enough for a shower. He sighs and relaxes his shoulders, at least there were no fatalities tonight. The weight of the garbage bag comforts him, but even he can't deny the other sense of satisfying in his heart.

They were criminals living outside of the laws, deemed to be unworthy to be saved by the likes of the hospital he works at. But he saved them, and that's what a being a doctor is about, isn't it? To save lives without imposing judgment on them.

Back at the hospital, with sunlight streaming through the pristine oversized windows, and the fragrance of fresh flowers permeating the expansive lobby, Jimin is informed by the senior doctor that he's been promoted - all his shifts will be at the prestigious VIP wing from now on, with a fleet of nurses and attendance at his beck and call.