Let Go

Chapter 11- Asylum

The sun had risen up. It's cold, but it's bright outside. There were no signs of snowfall or rain to come. Hoseok headed out and checked the surroundings. It was dead quiet outside. The sun mildly hit the ground, melting some of the snow that had piled up from yesternight. He stepped on the wet ground very cautiously. His eyes scanned the entire area. He wanted to make sure no one else came close to where they were. He came back inside, "We should be safe by now." he spoke in a low voice. "Jimin, you went out with Suga-hyung yesterday. How far have you gone from here? Tell me what you guys have seen."

"There's a pier South of here. Four and a half hours of walk. There were two cabins past the frozen lake. One has pyrotechnic emergency signal kit and a few first aid equipments inside. The other has ammunition and life vests. About another three to four hours of walk from the cabins is an abandoned trail. We can't figure out if there's a mining area near here or if that's an abandoned train railroad. We didn't get that far. We had to go back after we heard some screaming and we saw the other two survivors got killed." Jimin explained.

"The two survivors were Donghyuk and Ikje... They told us about this... Slow Rabbit guy who runs the ferry out." Suga added. Jungkook was wide-eyed again, smiling "I told you, Slow Rabbit will bring us out. I was supposed to meet him in the forest. But mom will be mad, so I said I will meet bwii-hyung."

Yoongi raised his right eyebrow. "He's losing it again. Jimin, do you have his ampule?" Jimin rushed to scramble inside his bag but Jungkook was quick to flee. "I am not insane! Why don't you guys believe me? I told you, it was the people on that Asylum that want you to believe Bwii-hyung is dead! I can see him! He's not dead! He's not dead!" Yoongi sprinted towards Jungkook and locked his arm behind him. "Jimin, quick! Inject him the ampule!"

Jungkook flinched violently and Yoongi pressed on him tighter. Jimin injected the serum on Jungkook's nape. Soon, Jungkook fell silent. He became calm and looked more focused.

"What was that?" Hoseok asked reluctantly. "It's an ampule from the Psychiatric Facility where we were held for a while. After the Dalbang incident, we all tried to enlist for the government support agency where Jin-hyung and Randa stayed. But we failed the psychological examination and we were sent to this facility to get us "straightened up". They taught us to work in a patternized behavior which is deemed "normal behavior" in the society." Suga responded. "Tell me more..."

Suga sat beside Jungkook and began to tell his side of the story...

"Jin-hyung and I went to Hannam Support Agency to be registered as Abandoned and orphaned individuals. We got the name of the agency from the ledger I stole. Jin-hyung seemed to have a stronger mental state than you think, he was accepted in the facility long with Randa. But Jimin, Jungkook and I failed the psychological examination. I was diagnosed with OCD, Social Phobia and Anger management issues. Jimin was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Post-traumatic anxiety. Jungkook was too young to be enlisted on any other programs at the time so we brought him to children's protection center. He was supposed to be adopted but when he was brought home by the couple who wanted to adopt him, he was found out to have post-traumatic amnesia but it was not confirmed because he developed Munchausen Syndrome at the time. We were sent to Gangnam Psychiatric Facility for rehabilitation. We underwent hypnosis therapy and continuous therapy session for three years. Among us, Jungkook had suffered the most traumatic experience at a young age, therapy didn't seem to work with his case. The only option was to prescribe him antidepressant ampules that we inject to him once a day as maintenance medicine and sometimes a few more if he starts showing other symptoms of triggers or anxiety attacks. I thought we weren't going to be okay. The therapy became tiresome and we've become dependent on the medicines. Whenever we missed a shot, our depression feels worse than before. We all have our ampules by then. Even when we were released, we continued to take the ampules."