"Why isn't he waking up?"

"The doctor said he'd wake up any time now. She said from the sound of his symptoms he seems to have gone into shock."

"Shock?"

"It's okay, Jungkook. He's fine, they would have told us to bring him in if he wasn't."

"When he woke up he was acting like he didn't even know me, hyung."

"It's okay, he must've just had a bad dream or something~"

"Hey, I think he's waking up."

Taehyung exhales, his throat dry as he tries to swallow.

"Taehyung?" Jungkook's voice says.

Taehyung scrunches eyebrows as he tries to open his eyes against all the light flooding into the room.

"Are you okay, Taehyung?" Namjoon's voice says.

Taehyung blinks a few times to clear his vision before looking around.

"Hobi." His voice comes out cracked and strangled.

"Yeah?" Hoseok says appearing from the other side of the couch.

Jungkook frowns as Taehyung holds his hand out to his friend. He looks up and makes eye contact with Taeil who looks away quickly.

"What's up, Tae? Haven't seen you this bad off since we were younger." Hoseok tries to joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

"Hobi." Taehyung croaks again.

"Yeah?" Hoseok asks again. "What is it, Tae?"

"Hobi." He repeats, tears forming in his eyes.

"Tell me what's wrong, Taehyung." Hoseok says more serious now.

Taehyung tries to speak but it's like the words won't come out no matter how hard he tried.

"Come on, Tae. Snap out of it, talk to me." Hoseok says squeezing Taehyung's hand.

"Hobi." He says again. "Hobi."

"What's wrong with you, Tae?" Jungkook speaks up.

"Joon." Jin says starring at Taehyung. "I think we should take Jungkook upstairs."

"What?" Jungkook asks looking at his hyung.

"Come on, Kook." Namjoon says taking Jungkook by the arm. "Let's go upstairs real quick."

Jin stands leading the way upstairs while Namjoon pulls a protesting Jungkook along.

"What's wrong with you, Tae?" Hoseok asks as his friend pushes himself up into a sitting position.

Taehyung tries to force himself to form words but he can't, the only clear thing he can say is "Hobi".

Hoseok looks at Taeil with panic in his eyes. "What do I do?"

"Don't panic, Seok." Taeil says. "He'll snap out of it in a second. Just give him some time to wake up."

"He's awake already!" Hoseok shouts in panic as he takes Taehyung by the shoulders and shakes him. "Snap out of it, Taehyung, I swear to god~"

"Hobi!" Taehyung shouts pushing him away, tears forming in his eyes as he starts to panic.

Hoseok starts to breathe heavily. "Say something else, Tae. Say something else."

Taehyung starts to cry, shaking his head. "Hobi."

"Maybe we should take him to the hospital." Taeil says trying to stay calm for the sake of his boyfriend.

"Hyung! Jungkook!" Hoseok calls, standing and bringing Taehyung up with him.

The other three rush down the stairs, Jungkook running over to Taehyung immediately.

"We have to take him to the hospital. We should have taken him straight away." Hoseok rushes to the door pulling Taehyung along to put his shoes on.

"Easy Hoseok, he just woke up." Jungkook says pulling Taehyung back to his side.

Taehyung closes his eyes trying to calm his dizziness.

"What's wrong, Hobi?" Jungkook asks as Taehyung puts his shoes on. "Why is everyone acting like they know something but me?"

"Everyone just calm down, Taehyung just woke up. All this commotion is too much right now, alright?" Namjoon says.

"What's wrong hyung?" Jungkook asks Jin who just shakes his head.

"I don't know yet, Kook." He says. "Let's just hurry, okay?

Jungkook nods taking Taehyung's hand and following everyone out of the apartment.

-

"Mutism?"

"Yes, Psychological Mutism. Usually directly associated with trauma, brain trauma in some situations. That's why I wanted to run the CAT scan." The doctor says looking at the results he got back from the scan.

Jungkook looks outside the window of the office to where Taehyung sat with Hoseok.

"I asked Mr. Kim to leave because I need some honest answers from you and I don't want to ask him about past trauma, especially when it could be related to his Mutism." The doctor says. "Does Taehyung have a history of traumatic experiences?"

Jungkook exhales. "Yeah. He does."

"Does this date back all the way to his childhood or has anything more recent happened?"

"When we were in high school, some things happened." He answers looking down.

"I see. You said earlier that Hoseok is his best friend and has been since they were in middle school. That may be the reason he is only speaking his name, because he's been his support system since they were kids. He's always been there so his name was the first thing he called out when he came to. It's not personal at all, it's psychological." The doctor says looking back at his computer and typing a few things. "There isn't any medication we can prescribe him but we can offer him treatment with one of our speech therapists and maybe some therapy to help him cope with the past."

"Okay. Thank you so much." Jungkook says standing and forcing a small smile.

"The front desk will check you out and give you the dates for his meetings with the therapists. I wish you both the best of luck in the future." He smiles as Jungkook turns and leaves the office.

He walks over to everyone else, trying to keep a neutral expression.

"What'd he say?" Hoseok asks looking up hopefully.

Jungkook smiles sadly and turns to Tae. "Come on, lets go home."

Taehyung feels the atmosphere drop even more and he knows that there isn't any good news coming out of this visit.

"We'll see you guys later." Jungkook says turning to his friends. "Thank you for sticking around with us."

"You don't have to thank us, Jungkook." Jin says stand and hugging the younger.

Jungkook feels himself about to cry into the embrace so he cuts it short. "We'll see you all soon then."

Taehyung hugs Jin and Namjoon before hugging Hoseok.

"I love you, Taehyung." He says making Taehyung smile a sad smile.

They pull away from the embrace and they all head out as Jungkook checks them out at the front desk.

As they are walking out Taehyung hums pulling at Jungkook's hand.

"What's wrong baby?" Jungkook asks looking at him.

Taehyung smiles and points across the street.

"What?" Jungkook asks, Taehyung's smile making him crack one.

He follows Taehyung's outstretched hand to a bubble tea shop across the way.

"You want tea?" He asks to which Taehyung nods pulling him along. "Alright, alright. Be careful."

Jungkook orders Taehyung's favorite flavor before finding somewhere for them to sit.

He doesn't get one for himself, the news of Taehyung's Mutism completely making loose his appetite for anything.

Taehyung's content smile is enough to make him happy.

"I love you, Tae." He says to which the other smiles wider and nods.

Jungkook's heart sinks as he realizes he probably won't hear those words from him ever again.

Why hadn't they exchanged more I love you's?

Why was their fate so crooked?

Jungkook found himself wondering what he did in his past life to deserve such cruel fate.

Why couldn't he ever be happy with just him and his Tae?

———-