JUNGKOOK

Days on trial: 76

Trepidation made itself at home in my stomach, like a bear curling up to hibernate for the winter. As long I was in a medical environment, I think I would have been apprehensive. Fresh wounds that hadn't quite healed yet were still weeping in my subconscious. All it would take was a little knock to open them up again.

Vulnerability had never been something I dealt well with. Brave face on, I waited for my number to be called, and then proceeded up the long corridor like a robot.

"Jungkook, good to see you," my Doctor smiled warmly. He'd always been great at making me feel welcome. "We've got lots to discuss."

"Yeah," I nodded, clammy palms nervously resting on my knees. Like all of our meetings, he began with the colour flash cards. It was begining to get almost too easy at this point. I surely couldn't still see them all so well now that I had been without the pills for a week.

I'd barely even sat down before the door flung open behind me.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt-"

"Annie?!" I choked, shocked at the sight of her. She'd been working like crazy over the last couple of days, and honestly I hadn't expected to see much of her for the next few days - let alone at the clinic.

And definitely not bursting into my appointment.

"I'll explain," she gritted her teeth apologetically, tilting her head in the most endearing manner, puppy dog eyes and everything. Her chest was heaving, presumably from the fact that she had run from the office, and I had to stop myself from swooning over her being in one of my shirts. Now was not the time.

Turning her attention to the Doctor, I let her do her thing. I'd known Annie long enough to not get in the way of her when she set her mind to a task.

"Did you know?" She demanded answers from the man across the desk, who, like me, was staring at her with bewilderment. "Did you know what they were doing? Cait&Co?"

Turning my head to get a read on her, I frowned at the mention of the business name. Nothing positive had ever come from hearing those words, and I didn't imagine it ever would.

Reclining into his chair slightly, the Doctor had a look of perplexion on his soft features. His typically soft eyes beaded behind his half-moon glasses, a frown levelling his mouth out.

"I didn't," he replied. Her poised stance didn't shift, so I knew Annie didn't believe him. "After Jungkook had left his last appointment, I kept his notes up, as I was working on a theory we had been discussing."

I froze nervously. The theory had come to be after I had disclosed the fact I'd stopped taking the pills. With my record laid out in front of us, it was abundantly clear that nothing about my results seemed to be 'normal'.

It was just one tiny teeny thing that I hadn't told Annie yet, and I didn't particularly fancy telling her right now. I had wanted the moment to be just right, and in the clinic while I could feel rage radiating from her didn't fit the 'quite right' criteria.

One day I'd get better at admitting the whole truth in one go. One day. But not today.

"As I was inputting data, I could see it was being accessed internally. All of the neighbouring clinics have specific codes, including the university hospital, and more specifically, the research wing. BURW. Pretty straight forward," he shrugged, turning his screen as he pulled up the list. Behind the tab, I could see my file open. Dates, memos, prescriptions, it was all there. Me. Medical me in digital form. "They were inputting data into his file, but none that I could see. I tried to access it using several different methods, but it would always show a 'redacted' fault."

"So?" Annie questioned. "If it wasn't your data, then why did that matter?"

"All of Jungkook's data is my data. I'm his lead practitioner, and the lead researcher for the trial. There shouldn't be any data in his file that I can't have access to. His data rights were signed away to me, via the hospital. Not to the hospital via me."

Annie adjusted her footing, her shoulders relaxing. She believed him. I could tell. It was the same way her posture would adjust after we fought, once she'd calmed down or decided for some miracle to forgive me.

"Cait&Co are the main benefactors of the Research Wing," she announced. This was news to me.

"Correct," the Doctor nodded.

"And we already know they've been harassing trial participants," she declared. I shuffled a little uncomfortable, knowing that I was the aforementioned trial participant. The Doctor glanced at me as I moved, and I wondered if he could tell. "They've also tried to put a gag order on the story I'm writing."

The Doctor paused, inhaling a deep breath. His hand rubbed over his mouth, squeezing his nose slightly between his index finger and thumb, before letting it sink to his lap. As if a burden had washed from his being, his face softened.

"The medical staff who tampered with 613," he nodded towards me. "They were all directly recommended to the hospital by Cait&Co. Recruits from an old medical project that they had helped finance."

Annie nodded, her determined eyes softening. "So Cait&Co are tampering with the trial? To stop the drugs from reaching the final stage of approval?"

"I think it's highly likely you're correct."

"Will you go on record?" Annie made her request before he'd even got the last syllable out of his mouth. There was a desperation to her tone, a need for him to agree. Without him to back her up, all she had were a few allegations and some weak links. "I'm not asking you to go against your oath, I just need a medical professional to back up my claims before I tear them to shreds in my article."

Holding up a weird little contraption from her pocket, Annie placed it on the desk.

"I have you on tape, anyway," she shrugged, a little smug. A journalist was only as ever strong as their sources.

The doctor looked up at her, his perplexion shifting slightly. I panicked, worried that she'd feel the wrath I'd seen him deliver to staff at the Research Wing - but he simply smiled.

"I can see why you like her," he cast his smile in my direction, before addressing her. "They're derailing my trial. I want them exposed."

With a tremendous sigh, Annie cast her head back. It was as if she hadn't been breathing the entire time she had been in the room. Swiping back her little contraption, she nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Annie beamed, before looking over to me.

She was golden, basking in the freedom of liberation, not just for herself but for the story that had been shackled by Cait&Co. Chains off, Annie was gonna let it run riot.

I was in complete and total awe.

"Sorry for interrupting," she squeezed my shoulder. "I'll wait for you in the corridor."

"No," I instinctively grabbed her hand, preventing her from walking away. "Stay, please. It alright if she stays, right?" I asked the Doctor, and, of course, he allowed it.

Taking the spare seat next to me, I entangled my fingers in hers, and placed my hand into her lap. Everything seemed to clear when I was with Annie; my mind, the air, even the clouds that had been floating on by in the window. The blue skies were now so bright that they almost hurt.

Nervously, and not really caring for the consequences anymore, I spoke my truth. "I'd like to formally withdraw myself from the trial."

"Hardly surprised," the Doctor nodded, having anticipated this. "How long have you been without the pill, now?"

Annie's grip on my hand tightened. From my peripherals, I could see her head turn to face me, as if to say: what the fuck?!

"A week."

I suppressed a smile. This isn't how I wanted to tell her, but it was happening now. No way to stop it - not that I even wanted to.

"You haven't lost your colours?" The doctor asked somewhat curiously. I wanted to tell him to mind his own business, defensive of the fucked up little brain that I seemed to have, but what was the point? He'd only ever helped me.

"If anything, I've gained."

"Curious," The doctor scanned his notes, jotting something down in his file. He'd taken to using his paper files again, not wanting any information about his patients to be relayed to undeserving eyes.

"What is?" Annie asked, her voice a little frantic. I turned to take her in and was surprised to see how wide her eyes were. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she looked scared. Turning her head to meet my gaze, I corrected myself; she looked hopeful.

I scrunched my face up slightly, lines forming around my nose and eyes. There was so much that I wanted to say, but not here, not now, so I simply stroked the top of her thumb with my own. She pouted, and my heart melted.

Turning his files round, the Doctor encouraged me to take them. Unclasping from Annie's hand, I took the documents in front of me and studied them with great curiosity.

"What am I looking at?"

"Your prescription," the doctor spoke soothingly, as my eyes frantically scanned.

Inert Pill

(SUGAR, 100%)

"Inert?" I questioned, unfamiliar with the term. It was about 12 characters shorter than the extensive pill name on the side of the bottles he had given me.

"Inert," he nodded.

"Which means?"

"You were on the placebo, Jungkook."

"The...," I paused, struggling to comprehend the information. I could feel Annie's eyes on me, burning into me red hot, but I couldn't look her just yet. "No, that can't be right."

I'd been a Mono my whole life. I had spent years searching it out, and it had never come my way.

But then again, nor had Annie.

She'd changed it all.

"You're a Multi of your own accord, Jungkook," he reconfirmed. "Our trials had nothing to do with it."

"But-," I stammered, unable to grasp what he was saying. "But my initial scans? The consultation? Everything pointed towards my eyes being defective in some capacity? I'd been in-"

What? The voice in my head teased me. Love? No you hadn't.

I looked at the papers.

Then I looked at him.

And then finally, I looked at her.

Oh God, I looked at her, and I saw her brighter than I'd ever seen anything before.

Ashy blonde hair, dark roots and far too many tones to even count. Ivory complexion, rosy cheeks and a blushed nose. Her eyes shared the same blush, reddened and on the verge of letting a tear or two escape. Though I hated to see her cry, the contrast made her eyes seem somehow even bluer, brighter, more beautiful. Refined peach lips and deep brown eyeliner offset her features and I was completely enamoured with everything she was. I'd have flown to Paris at the crack of every dawn just to see her painting hanging up in the Louvre.

My name is Jeon Jungkook.

I laughed, and so did she, a small sob choking her happiness.

"I'm a Multi."

A/N - YOU ALL KNEW FROM LIKE THE FIRST CHAPTER LMAO