#taehee

With an exasperated sigh, Taehee curled her legs even further into her chest. The stabbing sensation in her abdomen seemed to make a ripple effect through her entire body. She was almost paralyzed from the pain. A particularly noticeable bead of sweat had trickled down the back of Taehee’s head, making her realize, yet again, just how hot she was.

Taehee turned her head to glance at her nightstand, cursing to herself for resting her phone on the far side of it last night. From just how much not moving at all hurt her, Taehee knew that reaching for her phone would only increase that pain to an unbearable extent.

She turned her head back to face the ceiling with a huff. She didn’t know what to do. She was here, in terrible pain, and moving to try and get any sort of attention hurt like fuck. She was stuck. Trapped.

She turned her head back over to look at her nightstand. Her eyes landed on her purple water bottle that she always kept there. An idea struck her. The water bottle was closer to her than her phone, so it had to hurt less to grab that, right? Wrong. Taehee felt immense pain shooting through her from her abdomen when she had reached out, but that was already when her fingers were wrapped around the metal material. It was too late, now. She pulled her arm back into herself, hugging the water bottle close to her chest. She took some deep breaths before completing her idea.

With one last deep breath to build up her confidence, Taehee raised her arm into the air and chucked the metal bottle at her floor. The sharp angle at which her arm was thrown down hurt awfully, but the noise that the bottle hitting the floor made was a better feeling. Her plan was that someone would hear the noise and come check on her. Now she just had to wait to see if it worked. Eventually, she would run out of things to throw, so it wasn’t a very sustainable plan.

And so, she lay there, biting back the urge to scream. Screaming would have been an excellent way to gain the attention of her members, but she knew that it would hurt her significantly and that her voice would probably crack, which would ultimately make her efforts in vain.

A minute had passed by, and no one entered her room. Taehee thought that her plan had failed. That was up until her door opened slowly, and she saw a sliver of light begin to expand on her floor. Taehee turned to view the door, trying to see who had entered her room.

“Taehee? Are you okay?” Yoongi asked from the doorway. He was faced with Taehee’s scruffy hair and untidy bed, and if he craned his head, the water bottle that she had thrown. He didn’t walk into the room just yet, staying in the entrance of her room, obviously tired.

“No,” she answered blankly, yet truthfully. Yoongi entered the room, not bothering to close the door behind him.

“What is it?” he asked, coming over to her bed and resting on his knees in front of it. He placed the palm of his hand on her forehead. He was slightly shocked by the warmth that he felt; she had a strong fever. “You’re burning up.”

“You don’t think I noticed that? I’m drenched in fucking sweat,” she breathed out, not in the mood for dumb questions. Yoongi ignored her.

“What hurts?”

“Stomach,” she sniffled.

“And it’s not cramps or anything, right?”

“Are you fucking stupid? Have you ever seen me on the brink of death on my period?”

“Alright, take that as a no.”

“What’s going on?” Jungkook’s voice sounded from the doorway. Yoongi looked back to face him before turning his attention to the younger girl again. Jungkook got closer to them, trying to see what was happening in the dark.

“Jungkook, can you go get Namjoon?” Yoongi asked. Jungkook nodded his head before swiftly exiting the room, almost running out. “Does it hurt everywhere?”

“Mainly right there.” She pointed to the right side of her stomach.

“Here?” He ever-so-slightly touched where she pointed, causing more extreme pain to shoot through Taehee’s body. She shot up with a gasp before squeezing her mouth shut and suppressing the urge to screech. Yoongi’s hand retreated immediately.

“Shit, sorry,” Yoongi apologized in a much more hushed voice.

The door to Taehee’s room opened wider as three more people walked in. Jungkook, along with Taehyung and Namjoon.

“What happened?” Namjoon was the first over to Taehee’s bed. The small girl looked at him through squinted eyes as Yoongi explained the situation.

“I think she may be having appendicitis.” Namjoon studied her.

“When did it start hurting?”

“Um… two days ago, I think…” Taehee spoke quietly, fearing that if she were to talk louder, it would aggravate her pain.

“Why are you just saying something now?” Taehyung questioned.

“I thought I was just sore,” she groaned again.

“But yesterday you-,” Hoseok started, having appeared in the room along with Jimin and Jin.

“It doesn’t matter now; we need to get her to the hospital.” Namjoon faced the group behind him.

“But hyung, we can’t go like this…” Jimin started quietly.

“For God’s sake-, fine. Put on a hoodie or something but Hobi hyung, you’re helping me with Taehee. I don’t think she can even sit up by herself.” Namjoon ordered.

“What’s she going to wear?” Taehyung asked. Hoseok quickly pulled off his own hoodie and slipped it over Taehee’s head, trying to be as careful as he could.

“Jimin-ah, grab me a jacket when you change,” Hoseok said as Jungkook, Jimin, and Taehyung left for their rooms.

“Jin hyung and Yoongi hyung, can you guys tell Manager hyung?” Namjoon asked. The two oldest members exited the room, going to call their manager. The leader shifted his attention back onto the maknae. “Okay, I’m going to hold under your right shoulder. Hobi hyung is going to hold under your left shoulder, alright, Taehee?” The girl nodded, preparing herself for immense pain.

Hoseok helped her sit up, slowly bringing her chest to a straight sitting-up position. Taehee bit down on her lip as she winced. Then, Namjoon placed her right arm over his shoulders, and Hoseok put her left arm over his shoulders.

“Okay, slowly. Tell us if you need to stop, alright?” Hoseok said. Taehee nodded, squeezing her eyes shut. “Okay, one, two, three.” The three rappers slowly stood up from the bed.

Taehee swore that she saw her life flash before her eyes.

The pain had become excruciatingly more intense than before. A single tear slid down her cheek.

“I think it might be better if you just carry her, Joon. It’s going to be too hard for her to walk to the elevator and the van,” Hoseok suggested, judging by how Taehee reacted to what happened. Namjoon weighed his options. He wasn’t worried about being able to carry her; he was just worried if carrying her could potentially cause her more pain.

“Is that okay with you, Taehee?” The leader asked, craning his neck slightly.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Okay.” Namjoon bent down a little more to slide his right arm under her knees. His left arm adjusted to be more around her back. He lifted her up slowly, Hoseok’s hands not entirely leaving her until Namjoon was properly holding her. Shaky breaths continued to leave Taehee’s mouth in agony. “I’ll take her downstairs. You make sure everyone is in the car in three minutes, or I’m leaving.”

“Mm-hm,” Hoseok answered in confirmation before Namjoon carried the girl out of the room, into the hallway, and into the elevator.

The two youngest members of the rap line were in the parking garage within a minute. Their manager’s car pulled into the spot nearest to them, hastily getting out of the vehicle to assist. He opened the door to the back seat. Namjoon crouched his way in, laying Taehee down in the middle row of seats. Her head rested on his thigh as her legs curled into her chest again.

The other members burst out of the elevator, running to the black car. They all crammed in, being careful not to touch Taehee. Yoongi sat in the passenger seat, Jungkook and Hoseok in the two seats in front of Namjoon and Taehee, and Jimin, Taehyung, and Jin sat in the back row.

The car ride to the emergency room couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes, but it felt like hours to Taehee. With every turn of the car, with every acceleration, she whined from the pain she would feel from the extra movement.

Getting from the car into the hospital was all a blur to Taehee. She remembered being carried from the car into the hospital and being placed on a bed. Tests had been performed on her, confirming that she was, in fact, experiencing appendicitis.

“Ms. Lee,” A doctor grasped her attention.

“Yes?”

“You’re going to go into surgery now. I’m going to give you this mask that will be pumping anesthesia, alright?” Taehee nodded, allowing the man to slip the elastic around her head.