♡
"Where did he go?" Pouted Minjun as he rolled over onto a vacant pillow, cold and neat where Seokjin had resided throughout the night. Jimin, who had stayed on his left overnight, sat up and ran his hand through his hair.
He yawned, "Jessi came earlier and asked him to drive her to her friend's house," Jimin then patted Minjun's head, "she is pet-sitting for a few hours." The younger drowsily nodded and pressed his face into the pillow. He smiled and inhaled the masculine scent that the chef had left behind.
"What do you want to do today?" Namjoon asked as he cautiously sat down beside Minjun. The bed dipped, causing the youngest to lift his face and watch the leader. He shrugged, a sleepy smile over his face.
Minjun hummed, "I was hoping to visit Jungkook," he scanned the room with his eyes and watched each of the boys as they prepared for the day, "If I'm allowed."
He felt the lack of heat as Jimin stood up behind him, likely to get himself dressed. Namjoon chewed hesitantly on his lip, staring down at the puppy-like youngster with adoring and uncertain eyes. Ultimately, he petted Minjun and extended his hand for the boy to use to get himself out of bed.
"That's fine," he said, "but I don't want you staying there for too long. If you get upset, I want you to come straight back up he-"
"I know, I know~" Minjun sang, standing dwarfed below the leader's collarbones, "I'm going to be fine."
Minjun let his fingers rub Molang behind his gentle, white ears before ricocheting away to the closet. He practically clutched the first fleecy material he could reach, that being Jin's hardly-worn sweater in a charming flamingo pink shade. He shovelled a folded pair of black shorts from beneath the clothing shelf and vaulted into the bathroom just as Hoseok slowly rambled out.
After dressing and brushing his teeth to perfection, Minjun kicked his nightwears into the laundry basket and made his debut back into the bedroom - where Jimin, Taehyung, Namjoon, Hoseok and Yoongi all stood waiting for him.
He was smiley and ready to go when Yoongi stopped his lanky legs from sailing off out of the door.
"Breakfast first."
The boy would have sulked and protested at such a compromise, but the low-lying rumbling underneath the pinkish sweater made his mouth drool at the thought. He hardly sighed or frowned as he inhaled his stack of heated pancakes, wiping the residual maple syrup from his puffy cheeks with the back of his hand.
Sitting at the dinner table, his legs subconsciously rubbed together, the feeling of his bandage-wrapped shins an amusement to him. Minjun traced his index finger over the centre of the ceramic plate, collecting a bundle of treacle that was soon loaded onto his tongue. He hummed in content and gave a syrupy grin to Jimin.
"Can I go now?" Minjun whispered to Namjoon as a maid came to retrieve their plates. He watched the leader take a lazy sip of his black coffee, staring back at him with anxious eyes.
Namjoon drew the mug away, "go ahead, we'll be upstairs when you're ready to come out."
The hallway leading to the infirmary was cold. Colder than ice, it seemed. Minjun held his arms tight to his chest, maintaining whatever body heat he could hold onto. He could see his breath forming clouds of steam in front of his face.
When he reached the door of the clinic, after what felt like an hour of walking throw a snowstorm, Minjun could hear the well-known voice of Hyungwon and the other specialist in the building, IU. A little courage surged through his frail body and he nudged open the door.
His eyes immediately settled on Jungkook. He was, after all, there to see him.
His peripheral showed the two surgeons gallivanting around indifferently as if nothing was disfigured in the room. But there he was, motionless and wrapped up like a mummy. Minjun crept closer to the bed as if an abrupt noise would frighten the gangster.
The heart rate monitor taunted Minjun from the other side of Jungkook's body. It sang unwaveringly in the boy's ears until it became much like the ticking of a wall clock, out of mind unless he thought about it too hard. It wasn't until a weight on his shoulder presented itself that Minjun noticed the attention on himself.
"Are you okay?" He turned to see IU costumed in her pristine lab coat. She was smiling at the boy and he halfheartedly grinned back, easy on his neck as he happened to be the same height as the woman.
He sniffled, "yeah, I'm good."
"Is he okay?" He then asked as he pivoted back to face the coma-ridden boy.
"He's stable," IU too looked down at her patient, "skin grafts are mending well and the burns that we didn't operate on are healing too - just a little slower. He'll wake soon enough and as long as you can all work around his asthma, everything should go back to normal."
Minjun blinked, "asthma?"
The doctor nodded and gave Minjun a comforting back rub, "the smoke intake he endured was sure to have done some damage so naturally, we cleared his airways, gave him clean oxygen, and did some asthma diagnosing tests on him. There are only so many tests we can carry out when he's unconscious, such as a FeNO test and a bronchial challenge test.
We'll do more when he wakes up, for now, we're confident he has asthma."
It was only an hour before Minjun swiped away his burning tears and carried his heavy body out of the infirmary. It was a little warmer on his way out, barely discerning the bite that slipped beneath Jin's sweater.
He roamed out of the bleak corridor and into the lobby where the environment was much more peaceful. For example, the enthusiastic voice of Jessi could be heard from just around the corner. Bubbles of excitement popped in his abdomen, eager to meet with the lady and his Seokjin once again.
With a quickening hop in his step, Minjun bounded closer to the convivial chattering and a pleasing smile overhauled the pout he had sustained when weeping over Jungkook's body.
He rounded the last corner with his hands held out, ready for a bone-crushing hug that the elder woman would always supply. His eyebrows were high in the sky and each of his teeth was presented inside of his extensive smile.
It wasn't until he caught a full view of Jessi and Seokjin that Minjun realised he should have been more attentive. He would have seen the puppy's paws on the ground if he hadn't been so thrilled to see his friends.
Minjun hacked out a gasp and fell powerfully onto his back just as Jessi ripped back the leash of her friend's Doberman. It was the start of a manic time period and Seokjin could only hope that one of the people in the building knew how to console the hyperventilating boy on the floor.