Stronger || PJM

Ch21: A Blurry Mess

"You guys are messing with the wrong ballerina boy."

The sentence is followed by laughter and cheers of amusement. Jeongyeon wipes at fake tears and grins.

"And who the hell are you? His bodyguard?" He says mockingly.

"I don't like labels," She says as she walks a few steps towards them, stretching her arms over her head, "I haven't kicked ass in a long time and I'm feeling it today, so if you b*tches don't f*ck off I'm gonna have to do something about it. And neither you nor your parents are gonna like it."

"I don't usually hit girls," Jeongyeon replies with a scoff, "So piss off before I hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Lee steps forward, now standing right in front of him. She cranes her neck to look him in the eye (she's about one head shorter) and furrows her eyebrows together. "I'd like to see you try."

Jimin gulps, watching silently as Jeongyeon hesitates before raising his arm to push Lee away. In one swift move, she grabs the guy's arm, twisting it behind his back before pushing him to the wall of the building on her right, pressing his face against the hard brick.

"Why don't you and your little gang get the fuck outta here before I demolish your asses one by one?" She whispers harshly as Jeongyeon winces in pain.

"What are you waiting for?!" He yells at his friends standing quietly, "Beat them up!"

Lee pulls Jeongyeon away from the wall and turns him around, kicking his back so he stumbles towards his friends. One of the guys steps forward and swings his metal rod at her but she holds it with her left hand and aims a punch at his face with her right one, letting him stumble back as his hand lets go of the rod which she holds tightly with both hands, swinging at the guy's head. He falls to the ground with a thud.

It's silent for a second or two as the other four flinch, their eyes widening slightly. Jeongyeon tightens his grip around his stick, glancing at his friends for a second.

"You two!" He yells, pointing at two of his guys, "Get him."

Jimin's heart drops to his feet, a small voice at the back of his head yelling at him to turn around and run away. He's good at running away, he knows he is, but he holds his ground instead, getting into a fighting stance as the two guys run at him with their rods raised in the air.

He dunks when the rod is swinged at his head and fists the guy in his stomach, making him grunt and hunch over in pain. As the second guy approaches, Jimin turns around on the spot, raising his leg for a roundhouse kick but the guy bends backwards and drops to his knees, striking Jimin's shin with the rod. Pain shoots through Jimin's leg. With one leg in the air and the other in pain, he immediately loses his balance and falls, his face smacking against the cold ground.

Ears ringing loudly, Jimin's head buzzes and swirls. He can't hear the yells and grunts anymore, and his vision is a blurry mess of moving shadows. The pain increases as he feels multiple direct blows to his leg, and for a second, or a minuteㅡJimin can't tellㅡhis vision goes black and he can't hear the ringing anymore. When he opens his eyes he's still on the ground, the coldness of it sending a shiver down his spine and allowing him to feel the pounding pain in his leg again. He hears a bang as his vision clears up and his eyes fall on an unmoving figure laying on the ground a few metres away.

He hears footsteps as someone walks closer to him and slowly knees down beside him. Jimin puts his hands on the ground and attempts to push up his body, but his head throbs and his leg twinges and he lays back again.

"Don't move," Someone says, the voice muffled.

Jimin blinks and looks up, and although he can't make out a face, he catches a glimpse of two long braids hanging down the person's shoulders, and his eyes flash in recognition.

"Where does it hurt?" Lee asks, gently placing a warm hand on his back.

"My leg, my head," He mumbles, "I feel... "

"Dizzy? Confused?" She asks, pulling out her phone from her pocket.

"I think so," He replies, shutting his eyes for a moment.

She says something again, but Jimin doesn't catch it. He asks her what she saidㅡ or did he? But she doesn't reply anyway, or maybe it's Jimin who didn't catch it again.

And next thing he knows, there are hushed voices to his left and the sound of shoes squeaking across the floor. A part of his body is numb, but he can't tell which. A nauseating smell wakes Jimin up, and he opens his eyes to blinding white lights which make him hiss and throw a hand over his face.

The voices grow quiet and he turns his head to the left to see Lee and Jungkook staring back at him.

"Are you okay?" Lee asks.

"Yeah," Jimin replies casually before his leg aches in dull pain, and memories slowly come back to his head.

"What happened?" He asks, eyes going back and forth between Lee's slightly concerned face and Jungkook's dazed I-have-no-idea-what-is-going-on face.

"What do you remember?" She asks.

Jimin thinks for a second. "Jeongyeon and some guys... you were threatening them and thenㅡ oh, did I hit my head on the ground?"

"Yeah," Lee replies, "I don't know how it happened, though. Guess some guy knocked you out. I saw you unconscious on the ground after they ran away."

Jimin doesn't reply and looks around instead. He glances at his leg the first thing, and sees it clad in a white cast. His eyes widen in terror and his heart beats fasten as he slowly sits up.

"You had a concussion. The side of your face is messed up, too. You must've scratched it across the ground when you fell. The doctor said that you caㅡ"

"My leg," Jimin cuts Lee off, turning his head to look at her, "It's broken."

His statement sounded more like a question, as if he doesn't want to believe that it's true. Lee stays silent for a few seconds and nods in confirmation eventually.

"This can't happen," He mutters under his breath, his heart hammering against his chest as his hands start sweating.

"Why not?" Jungkook asks after a few seconds of silence.

"The competition's finals," Jimin says, his jaw clenching, "They're in two days."

---

A/N:

Here's a visual representation of me rereading this chapter after I've written it at 4am while high on sugar

Anyway stream stay gold ✨