Chapter 23 - (2.3K Words)

"Ow!" You yelled, pulling your hand away. "Stop it, that hurts!"

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt so much if you would stop moving," Jungkook said matter-of-factly, grabbing your wrist and pulling it towards him. "Besides, we have to get all of the glass out of your hand that we can, otherwise it will feel even worse. You don't want that, right?"

"No, you're right, I don't," you sighed defeatedly, and balled up your other hand into a fist. You knew Jungkook was right, but you didn't want him to be. It was just so unbelievably painful!

"That's what I thought. Now, brace yourself," Jungkook said, picking up the medical pliers that were resting on the counter. The tips were already smeared with blood, all your own. "It's going to hurt for only a second."

You squeezed your eyes shut and waited. It wasn't long before you could feel the soft skin of your palm ripping open. Your fist instantly tightened, and you could feel your sharp fingernails pressing deep into your skin. Your muscles were screaming in pain, but you did your best to keep yourself from pulling away and making things worse. The piece of glass slid loose from your skin, and you felt fresh air hit the open wound.

As soon as Jungkook pulled the bloody pliers away, you pulled your hand in close to you. You looked at the nasty hole that the glass shard had left in your hand.You softly cradled it against you, but you tried to keep your palm as far away from yourself as you could. You felt a new set of warm tears work their way down your cold and wet cheeks.

I'm definitely going to have scars from this.

"You're doing great," Jungkook said, encouragingly patting you on the shoulder. "There are only a few more pieces that we have to remove, and that looked like it was the worst one. They should get easier to remove from here on out."

"I hope so," you said, looking over at the pliers on the table. Just next to them, sitting atop a faded red rag were all the shards of glass Jungkook had taken out of you so far. They were all cracked, and broken at weird angles. The dark red of your blood coated each piece and hid their own light blue-green color.

"Just try to focus on something else," Jungkook suggested, picking up the pliers again. "It'll make time go by faster."

You nodded, and tried to distract yourself. It wasn't easy: The infirmary wasn't the most interesting room in the house. The room was very dark and you couldn't see much, mainly because Jungkook only bothered to hit one lightswitch on the way in. From what you could see, there were two cabinets full of medical supplies, tons of medical equipment, and enough beds for seven people. You were sitting on one of the beds while Jungkook was standing over you.

You felt your skin starting to tear open again, and you gritted your teeth to keep yourself from screaming. It was nowhere near as bad as the last one and it didn't last as long either, but they had started taking a toll on your hand. You were starting to get worn out because of it.

You heard a clanking, and soon enough, another piece of glass was being ripped out of your hand. A muscle in your hand twinged, and hot, searing pain shot through your entire arm. You threw your head back and punched the bed beside you, but the pain left as quickly as it had come.

"Please," you gasped through gritted teeth, "tell me we're done."

"There's just one more left, and you're doing great," Jungkook cooed, carefully moving the pliers towards you again. "You're almost done, okay? just bare with me for a little bit longer."

You nodded your head, and didn't even bother to wipe the tears away from your cheek. That could wait for when this was all over. You wanted this to be over with. You wanted the pain to stop. You wanted your hand back.

You felt the last piece of glass being pulled out of your hand. You squirmed as it slowly made its way out of layer after layer of muscle, turning your hand a dark red. You bit down hard on your tongue to keep yourself from screaming, but it was getting harder and harder for you to control yourself.

"It's out."

You felt the air attack each of the gashes on your hand. Your hand stung, your muscles were screaming, and your tongue was bloody now too. All in all, you felt awful. You leaned back against the bed pillow and stared at the ceiling.

Why am I so weak?

"I'm going to wipe off your hand," Jungkook said, approaching you with a white washcloth. "Just to make sure that I got all of the pieces, even the tiny ones. I can't see anything through the blood, but I need to be sure."

You nodded and let him take your hand. He gently ran the towel over your hand, trying to shake loose any glass pieces that he could have missed. You felt a slight discomfort as the towel passed over each of the cuts You saw parts of the towel that were turning bloodred, and you winced at the sight.

Jungkook held your hand by the fingertips and placed the towel off to the side. He grabbed a large spray bottle and took off the lid. He moved the spray bottle closer to your palm, and you began to feel uneasy again.

"This is going to sting really badly for a little bit," Jungkook said, lightly stroking your fingers. "I promise you that you're going to be fine."

"Are you sure?" You asked, slightly skeptical.

"Yes, I'm sure," Jungkook chuckled. "You can trust me."

Jungkook pressed down on the cap, and sprayed your hand. You jumped when the liquid hit your hand, because Jungkook was right; it did sting, and very badly. It didn't take long for the stinging sensation to to die down, and soon enough all you felt was just a dull ache.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Jungkook asked, recapping the spray and setting it down behind him. "I told you that you could trust me."

You tiredly nodded and smiled, glad that your hand was now numb. You didn't understand why he numbed your hand after taking the glass out of it. It would have saved you a lot of suffering had he done it before.

"Can you move your hand at all?" Jungkook asked, carefully setting your hand down on top of your thigh.

You focused yourself, and tried to move your hand. No matter how hard you tried, you could only move one of your fingers and your thumb. The rest of your hand was practically dead.

"So, you can move your thumb and your middle finger, the most important finger, in my opinion," Jungkook said, a light blush coming to rest on his cheeks. "Nothing else?"

You shook your head no, and Jungkook grabbed a bandage roll that was setting on the table behind him. He partially unraveled it, and then took the bandage and started going around your lower arm and wrist. You watched as he expertly wove the bandage around your arm and between your fingers.

"I'm sorry I acted so childishly before," you said, lowering your gaze because of embarrassment. "I was scared that I was going to get hurt even worse. It all seemed stupid of me, now that I think about it."

"Oh that? That was nothing," Jungkook snorted. "Jimin and Taehyung are worse than you when they get paper cuts. I actually didn't expect you to control yourself for as long as you did. That gets pretty hard to do, even for people like Namjoon and myself."

"I just feel so weak and powerless compared to everyone else," you said, dismissing his compliment. "But I guess it's designed that way, right?"

"You may feel powerless and trapped, but we're all here to take care of you," Jungkook said, cutting the roll of bandages off of your arm. "We're supposed to protect you from things like what happened out there. This time, things just got a little bit messy, and you got involved."

I'm just a victim...

"There you are," Jungkook said, tying the bandage tight around your arm. "I'll replace your bandages tomorrow, but these should be just fine for tonight."

You nodded, and lifted your arm out of Jungkook's hands. You bent it at the elbow several times, making sure that you could still move the rest of your arm. You tried wiggling your fingers again, but once again, only your middle finger and your thumb were working properly.

"I think that some of the glass cut deeper into you than I expected," Jungkook said, cleaning the pliers in a nearby sink. "I think you might have some minor muscle damage, but I'll have to wait and watch how your hand heals, just to be sure."

"Are you sure about that?" You asked, instinctively pulling your hand towards you, as if it would soothe the sincerity of his words.

"I'm not certain, but there's a chance it could have happened," he said, setting the clean pliers down on the counter. "Besides, you shouldn't take what I'm saying to heart. I've been wrong before."

I hope you're wrong, and my hand is actually okay.

"Let's get you out of here," Jungkook changed the subject, holding his hands out to help you off of the bed. You gladly accepted his help, and it wasn't long before you were both out of the infirmary.

Jungkook lead you up the stairs in the front room. You looked over to the kitchen and saw that the lights were out, and the other boys were nowhere in sight. You tried to look around the room for them, but Jungkook quickly steadied you.

"You shouldn't be worried about them," Jungkook said as you reached the top of the stairs. "If they're not in the dining room, that means they're all well enough to move around."

Jungkook lead you down the long corridor, past several closed doors. There was a light on behind one of the doors, but you didn't bother stopping to figure out what or who was behind it, or why the light was on. You didn't want Jungkook to leave you behind. Finally, you both stopped at a large door that was at the end of the hallway.

This room looks special.

"This is where you'll be staying," Jungkook said, twisting the doorknob. You peeked over his shoulder, and tried to see what was inside the room.

Even though the lights were off, and one of your contacts was still missing, you could see the soft outline of a bed. Suddenly realizing how tired you were, you rushed forward and flopped down onto the bed. You heard Jungkook chuckle behind you, and he stepped forward into the room. His shadow loomed over you, blocking out the light from the hallway.

"Do you want me to keep the lights off?" He asked, sitting beside you on the bed. "You seem like you've had a rough day, and you look fairly tired."

You moaned in response to him, and closed your eyes. You were so comfortable, and you were ready to go to sleep. Taking the glass out of your hand had tired you so much more than you had expected it would.

Suddenly, you heard loud footsteps working their way up the stairs. You picked your head up off of the pillow, and looked out the door into the hallway. Soon enough, Namjoon was standing in your doorway. Even though you could hardly see, you could tell that his hair was ruffled, and he was stressed about something.

"Jungkook, we need you downstairs, immediately," Namjoon said, running his hand through his hair. "You need to be finishing up here."

"Alright, I was just about to leave anyway," Jungkook said, patting his pockets, and then pushing himself off of the bed.

I don't want you to leave yet.

"Wait, before you go," you lightly touched his arm, "can you get me a glass of water? I'm thirsty."

I hope I didn't sound too needy. That was probably a bad move.

Jungkook sighed, and looked up at Namjoon, or where he should have been. Namjoon had already left, and you could hear him making his way back downstairs. Jungkook shrugged, and turned away from the empty doorway.

That was kind of strange. Maybe somebody's not okay.

"Okay, I'll get you a glass of water, but then I have to go, okay?"

You nodded your head, contented by his answer, but also wondering if you had maybe gone a little bit too far. Jungkook walked into the darkness on the other side of the room, and you heard the turning of a doorknob. You saw a light turn on, and illuminate that half of the room. You heard the sound of rushing water, which was quick to end.

The light flipped off, and the door closed. You heard Jungkook make his way towards you, and he slowly made his way out of the darkness of the other side of the room. He carefully set a glass down beside you on the nightstand, and then made his way over to the doorway.

"Make sure you don't crush your hand while you sleep, otherwise it'll hurt in the morning," Jungkook said, slowly closing the door behind him. "If you need anything, I'll probably be downstairs in the infirmary."

"Goodnight, Jungkook."

"Goodnight, (Y/N)."