Chapter 5

"Please pick up. Please pick up. Please pick up." Jimin mumbled in his state of fear.

The sound of the phone against his ear was tortuous. He didn't want to hear this sound, he wanted to hear his friend answering the phone.

It may have been the fact that it was too early for Taehyung to be awake, or the fact he was angry at his friend. Either way, he hadn't picked up the two calls Jimin had left so far.

"What do you want Jimin? It's too early for this." Taehyung's annoyed voice said through the receiver. Relief filled Jimin upon hearing the other.

"Please help me. I can't breathe. I need- I shouldn't of- Please help." Jimin sobbed through the mic on his phone.

"Jimin, calm down, you're not making any sense." Taehyung said, trying his best not to panic.

Jimin was on his bed, on top of his messed-up sheets. The grey of the clouds outside matched his covers. His hair was flying everywhere. He had dark circles under his eyes, so dark they made his delicate skin even paler in contrast.

"I'm going to die. I don't want to die. Help me. I can't do this. Please, I can't take it." Jimin said between deep breaths. "I can't- I can't breathe. Help me, please"

"Jimin, can you calm down for me please?" Taehyung asked slowly. "Tell me where you are."

"I'm- I'm at home. In my-" Breathe "I'm in my-my bedroom. I need help. I took-" Breathe "I took too much of the- I had too many- I don't want to die. Save me, please. I didn't want to, I just did. Please help me." Jimin's voice was strained. He sounded so desperate for help it was painful to hear.

"I'm on my way, don't leave your house. I'll be there in ten minutes. Just try not to hyperventilate." Taehyung hung up, leaving Jimin alone to try to calm himself down.

Nails dug into the skin on Jimin's biceps, scratching violently up and down. It caused red streaks to cover his arms, his short nails strong enough to leave damage behind.

Breathing in and out at a steady pace, Jimin tried to not think about anything, only about concentrating on his lungs. He could feel his lungs get filled with air, and once they reached their full capacity, he would contract them so nothing was left inside.

The pitter patter sound of raindrops on the window created an acoustic distraction. The thin glass allowed cold to pass through into the warm room, the contrast producing a fine layer of condensation to cloud the window. The slight draught coming from under the door made the curtains sway gently and brush the glass lightly, taking some of the condensation with them.

Faint shouts, down the hall, could be heard after a loud thud of a door opening. Then, Jimin's door swung open and slammed against the wall. Thin yet warm arms wrapped around his frame and pulled him close.

"Don't cry please." Taehyung's deep voice said into Jimin's hair. 

Jimin hadn't realised how cold his body had been until he felt the other's body warmth. He also didn't know he was shivering so much.

"Help me, please. I need help. Help me. I'm dying." Jimin sobbed into Taehyung's chest. "I'm so sorry, help. I don't want to die."

"What's wrong, Jimin? I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." The panic behind Taehyung's voice could be heard, but he tried his best to hide it under a calm aura.

"I to-took too many-" Jimin paused to breathe, feeling ashamed of his actions. "I took too many paracetamols. I overdosed, Tae..." He said softly, guilt running through his veins.

He could feel Taehyung's body tense at what he had just said. The lull in words meant the boy was processing everything.

"Okay, let's go to the emergency room." Taehyung said and stood up, pulling Jimin with him. He had tears in his eyes and Jimin felt terrible for forcing his friend into this. "Good job I drove here." He mumbled to himself.

At that moment, Jimin regretted his hasty decision to call Taehyung over. Taehyung shouldn't have to take care of Jimin. Neither should doctors at a hospital. Maybe he could back out and stay home. Either way, Jimin wanted to stay back and not bother his friend.

"Wait... I don't wanna go. I'll just stay here and wait for them to exit my system. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Jimin tried to reason.

"We're going, Jimin. Sorry, but I'm not about to leave you here to die. As much as you hurt me the other day, I'm not going to let you suffer. Now, let's go." Taehyung tugged on Jimin's hand and pulled him out the room. Jimin couldn't be bothered to put up a fight, he felt weak.

Taehyung looked and acted as if he knew what he was doing, confident. Jimin, however, knew he was only doing that to make Jimin feel safe as Taehyung was a very emotional person. 'He must be scared right now, I shouldn't have called him...'

As he was putting his wet coat back on, Taehyung ran back to Jimin's room to get a coat for the latter. He returned hurriedly and placed a jacket over Jimin's shoulders. They both exited the apartment and set foot into the frosty air. The cold drops of rain fell onto them but they luckily reached the car rather quickly.

Once the engine was running, the vehicle's inside started to warm up. The drive to the hospital was spent in silence, the sound of cars and rain falling the only things that could be heard. Thirty minutes later, they arrived in the car park. Taehyung sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"Let's go in." Taehyung said tiredly. He opened the car door and got out. Jimin then followed suit and they walked into the hospital. Neither felt like running even though they were getting soaked.

Walking through the automatic sliding doors, Taehyung told Jimin to sit down in the waiting room chairs while he spoke to the receptionist.

The plastic blue chairs felt uncomfortable to sit on and Jimin wondered how long they'd have to wait until they'd get attended to. Last time he was here was a year ago when Jeongguk broke his finger by falling over face first. He'd been chasing Jimin and tripped over a cable, using his hands to protect his face. Apparently, Jeongguk chasing Jimin was a regular occurrence. They waited an hour in the waiting room and spent a total of seven hours in the hospital, all because of Jeongguk's pinky finger.

The hospital smelled like cleaning products, overpowering Jimin's nose. The walls and floor were all white tiles and the only other colour that predominated the place was blue; there were blue curtains, chairs and a lot of blue accents on mainly white furniture. The room was quite full, many different people occupying the chairs.

Quite a few of the people were of a younger age, children accompanied by their parents, the kids crying in pain. Others were middle-aged, sitting alone. There was such variety, everyone here for their own reason.

Taehyung returned and sat down beside Jimin. He put his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his thighs. He sighed heavily and looked up at Jimin, analyzing his face.

"How are you feeling?" Taehyung asked. He had dark circles under his eyes which were red from crying secretly when Jimin wasn't looking.

"Scared..." Jimin answered though it was a lie. He actually didn't feel anything right now. Not sadness, nor anger, nor happiness or regret. Nothing.

Taehyung straightened his back and reached his hand to Jimin's thigh. He squeezed it lightly and smiled a bit. "Please stay strong." He whispered and let a tear roll down his cheek. 

A doctor came into the room and called for a name neither recognized. They sat there for another minute until a different doctor came out.

"Park Jimin?" The female doctor shouted and Jimin stood up suddenly. The doctor saw this and motioned for Jimin to follow. 

Jimin was shocked since last time he waited a lot longer, but now understood that even though the waiting room was packed, his case was probably the most urgent. As he walked in the doctor's direction, Taehyung trailing behind, he could sense people glaring at him in envy. They probably waited a lot longer than him and still hadn't gone through. To say he felt guilty was an understatement.

The doctor walked into a room and the two boys followed. She sat behind a desk and they were seated opposite, a computer separating them from the woman.

"Which one of you is Jimin?" The doctor asked. Her hair was a light brown shade, and she seemed to be in her late forties-early fifties. She was typing things into her desktop.

"I am." Jimin said as he fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt he wore all night. He only just remembered he was wearing the same as last night but with a coat around his shoulders.

"Okay, could you tell me why you're here? It seems you've taken paracetamol, how much?" She asked. Jimin suddenly felt extremely nervous having to answer.

"I took thirteen pills in total, I think." Jimin said clearly but lowly. She continued typing things into her computer, a neutral look on her face. 

"And what dosage were they? Do you remember?" The doctor said, no judgement in her voice.

"They were 1,000 milligrams." He answered and saw Taehyung tense in the corner of his eye.

The woman typed more things, her fingers moving fairly quick, obviously used to writing things on a keyboard.

"At what time did you take them?"

"I-I don't know the exact ti-time. It was when the sun st-started to rise, I don't know what time it was." Jimin stuttered. The doctor proceeded to ask a few more questions and led the boys out of the room. They walked through the hallways, but Jimin kept his head down the whole walk. She took them into a room and told Jimin to change into the dressing gown that was set on the bed. 

Jimin took off his clothes, leaving only his boxers on, and put his arms in the gown. He pulled it over his shoulders and tried to tie the back of it since it only covered his front. Taehyung shooed his hands away and tied it up for his friend. Jimin then laid down on the bed. The sheets felt stiff and not very comfortable.

Soon after, a nurse walked in and introduced herself. She explained to Jimin how she had to take some of Jimin's blood so it could get tested. She inserted a needle into his forearm, but Jimin didn't know what precisely she was doing since he was looking away; he felt it pierce his skin but that was it. She took some blood and then attached a drip. She left the room and Jimin looked down to his arm.

"Ouch, that looks uncomfortable." Taehyung said from his chair in the corner of the room. He got up and sat next to Jimin's legs on the bed. Jimin agreed and smiled at his friend. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, a little cold but not enough for it to be annoying." Jimin answered. Taehyung pulled one of the bedsheets over Jimin, excluding his arm, and smiled back to his friend.

The two had some small talk for a few minutes, commenting on the situation they were in but never mentioning the reason behind it.

Two workers walked in, which Jimin could tell were nurses from their nametag, one male and one female.

"Hey Jimin, we're going to explain what we're going to do now, please don't hesitate to ask anything if you have any questions." The male nurse said and smiled at Jimin.

"We're going to have to put a tube down your nose and into your stomach. We need to pump activated charcoal into your stomach to stop your body from absorbing the paracetamol." The female nurse explained, then continued to describe the process.

When they put the tube down Jimin's nose, Taehyung was at his side holding his hand. It was extremely painful and Jimin groaned when they did it. He also cried a bit but that's a secret, don't tell anyone I told you. At the beginning of the tube they connected a container of black liquid, activated charcoal, and they left the room not long after.

The black slowly started going up the tube. Jimin explained to Taehyung how uncomfortable it was, he could feel the tube at the back of his throat and every time he shifted, he could also feel it move in his nose or at the back of his mouth.

"I'm going to need to call your parents to tell them what situation you're in." Taehyung said after an hour of Jimin being in the hospital bed.

"I know..." Jimin sighed. "Please tell them not to worry and that I love them." Jimin said and Taehyung walked out, putting his coat on.

The room Jimin was in was fairly small. It had a hospital bed in the middle, the one he was currently laying down on. He was facing the door and to his right was a counter with a sink and cupboards. There were many things on the counter that Jimin didn't what they were, medical supplies. To his left was empty space. 

In the far-right corner was a blue plastic chair. There were some machines around the bed that, once again, Jimin didn't know what they were. His bed sheets were white with blue highlights.

The room had slightly heated up from earlier and Jimin was thankful since the sheets weren't very thick.

Ten minutes later, Taehyung returned, slightly wet from the rain.

"All done, don't worry. They told me to tell you that they love you and to ring them when you can. I'll keep them updated over text but once you're discharged I think you should call them." Taehyung said as he removed his jacket. He sat back down in the same place of the bed that he had before.

"I will." Jimin mumbled and closed his eyes, tiredness sinking in. He suddenly felt like he was being sick, and reached for a plastic bag the nurses left for him in case something similar to this happened. Black flowed out of his mouth and into the bag, the sight somewhat disturbing, as if it was out of a horror film. Taehyung was by his side, rubbing his back soothingly. He coughed a bit after, and Taehyung wiped his mouth with a tissue he had taken off the counter.

Taehyung sat by his side after and the two just stayed in silence for a while.

"Wait, what about the bakery?" Jimin asked, his eyes widened.

"I'm staying here, it doesn't matter if I close it for a day. Don't worry." Taehyung said and grinned towards Jimin. "Get some rest, baby. I'll be here when you wake up, honey." Taehyung joked, kissed Jimin's temple (once again jokingly) and went back towards his plastic chair in the corner of the room.

Jimin fell asleep straight after.

The sound of feet shuffling woke him up, and he saw one of the nurses from earlier changing the drip that he was attached to. She left a couple of minutes later.

Taehyung was on his phone. Jimin started to feel really hot and the thin sheets seemed like they were trapping him. 

Jimin started thrashing around, trying to pull out the tube from his nose. Taehyung held his wrist, stopping him from doing so.

"I want to go." Jimin shouted, kicking his legs. "Let me out, I wanna go!" He said, panic in his eyes.

Panic attack time!

-

Now that was a long process... It took forever to write, kill meh!

The artwork at the beginning is from @NINA-SAN on Amino. I was talking to her and she is so sweet! She has a Wattpad too so go follow her Nina020410. It looks so good even though it's only her first official btsfanart. We stan <3

You should stan yourself btw cause you amasin! Like you a solid 69/10

*poofs out of existence*