Code Black
chapter 1
(3rd person's perspective)
The fluorescent lights of the Seoul University Hospital emergency wing hummed with a low, clinical anxiety that Jungkook had long ago tuned out. At 3:14 AM, the air usually smelled of industrial floor cleaner and stale coffee, but tonight, the atmosphere shifted the moment the double doors hissed open.
Jeon Jungkook
Jungkook didn't look up from his clipboard immediately. "Vitals?" he asked, his voice raspy from a twelve-hour shift.
？？？
"Gunshot wound. Left shoulder. Through and through," a voice replied. It wasn't a paramedic. It was too deep, too steady, and laced with a cold, metallic authority.
Jungkook snapped his head up. Standing, there was a man who looked entirely out of place against the scuffed linoleum. He was draped in a charcoal wool coat that cost more than Jungkook’s medical school tuition, now ruined by a dark, blooming stain. His hair was perfectly tousled, and his eyes sharp, almond-shaped, and unnervingly calm latched onto Jungkook’s.
Kim Taehyung
"I don't have an appointment, Doctor," Kim Taehyung said, a ghost of a smirk pulling at his pale lips despite the blood soaking through his silk shirt.
Behind him stood three men in identical black suits, their hands resting pointedly near their waistbands. The ER nurses froze. The security guard at the desk suddenly found a very interesting paperwork task to attend to.
Jeon Jungkook
Jungkook felt a strange, electric jolt in his chest not fear, but a sudden, sharp awareness. He stepped forward, his professional mask snapping into place. "Trauma Room 2. Now. And your friends stay in the hallway."
One of the men stepped forward, his expression darkening.
Park Jimin
"We don't leave him—"
Kim Taehyung
"It’s alright, Jimin," Taehyung interrupted, his voice a low velvet command. He kept his gaze fixed on Jungkook, tilting his head slightly as if inspecting a curious specimen.
Kim Taehyung
"The doctor looks like he knows exactly what he’s doing. Don’t you, Dr. Jeon?"
Jungkook’s breath hitched. He hadn't introduced himself, but Taehyung’s eyes were locked onto the silver nameplate pinned to his white coat.
Inside the trauma room, the silence was heavy. Jungkook moved with practiced efficiency, snapping on latex gloves. The sound of the snap seemed to echo. As he reached out to peel back the ruined fabric of the shirt, Taehyung leaned back against the exam table, watching Jungkook’s every move with a predatory intensity that made the sterile room feel suddenly, claustrophobically hot.
Kim Taehyung
"You're shaking, Doctor," Taehyung murmured.
Jeon Jungkook
"I'm caffeinated," Jungkook countered, his heart hammering a rhythm that had nothing to do with espresso.
Jeon Jungkook
"Hold still. This is going to sting."
Kim Taehyung
"I like a bit of a sting," Taehyung replied, his voice dropping an octave as he watched Jungkook work.
Jungkook looked up, meeting those dark, dangerous eyes, and for the first time in his career, he forgot the next step of the procedure. He was supposed to be the one in control, but as Taehyung sat there bleeding, lethal, and devastatingly handsome…Jungkook realized he was already losing his grip on the professional distance he spent years building.
Chapter 2
The fluorescent lights usually felt like a safety net, but tonight, they felt like a spotlight on my own shaking hands.
I kept my head down, focusing on the silver tray of surgical tools. My heart was doing something it hadn’t done since my first year of residency it was hammering against my ribs, irregular and loud. I could feel Kim Taehyung’s eyes on me. They weren't the eyes of a patient looking for reassurances; they were heavy, dark, and entirely too focused on the way my fingers fumbled slightly with the antiseptic wipes.
Kim Taehyung
"You’re very thorough, Dr. Jeon," he murmured.
His voice was a low, smooth baritone that seemed to vibrate right through the sterile air. I didn't look up. I couldn't.
Jeon jungkook
"I’m doing my job, Mr. Kim. You’re lucky. The bullet grazed the deltoid. Another inch to the right and we’d be talking about a shattered bone instead of a clean stitch."
Kim Taehyung
"Luck had nothing to do with it," he replied.
I finally risked a glance. He was leaning back against the exam table, his ruined Dior shirt hanging off one shoulder, revealing skin that looked like polished marble. He wasn't winching. He was watching the pulse point in my neck.
Kim Taehyung
"I believe in surrounding myself with talent. I think I’ve just found some."
I felt the heat creep up my collar. I snapped my latex gloves off the sound, echoing like a gunshot in the small room, and turned to the sink to wash my hands, desperate for the cold water to ground me.
Jeon jungkook
"I’m a doctor, not an acquisition," I said, my back to him. I sounded braver than I felt.
I heard the shift of fabric behind me. Before I could turn around, he was there. Taehyung didn't just stand near me; he occupied the surrounding space. He leaned in, his scent…something expensive, like sandalwood and aged leather…overwhelming the smell of rubbing alcohol.
Kim Taehyung
"Everything has a price, Jungkook," he whispered, his breath ghosting over the shell of my ear.
It was the first time he’d used my name, and the way it rolled off his tongue made my breath hitch.
Kim Taehyung
"Some people just haven't realized what theirs is yet."
The door swung open, and the man in the black suit ,Jimin ,stepped in.
Park Jimin
"The car is ready. We need to move before the police start asking why a ghost is bleeding in the ER."
Taehyung didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on me for a lingering, agonizing second. He reached out, his long fingers grazing the pocket of my white coat as he tucked a heavy, black card inside. His touch was brief, but it felt like a brand.
Kim Taehyung
"Keep the change, Doctor," he said with a sharp, dangerous smirk.
As they swept out of the room, the ER felt suddenly, hauntingly cold. I pulled the card out. It was matte black with a single, gold-embossed V. No name. Just a number.
I should have thrown it in the bin. I should have filed the mandatory GSW report. Instead, I stood in the silence of Trauma… Room 2, my heart still racing, and slipped the card into my inner pocket, right against my chest.
I was supposed to be the one saving lives, but as I watched the tail lights of his black sedan vanish, I had a sinking feeling I was the one who was in trouble.
[if you can't tell Jungkook is the top ;]
Chapter 3
The next morning, the adrenaline had long since faded, replaced by the heavy, grit-behind-the-eyes exhaustion of a double shift. I was standing at the central nursing station, desperately trying to finish my rounds of charts, when I noticed the shift in the air.
It wasn't a trauma alert or a code blue. It was the smell.
The sterile scent of the hospital had been completely obliterated by the fragrance of hundreds of lilies and dark red roses. They were everywhere ,overflowing from the counter, lining the hallway, and piled high in ornate crystal vases.
nurse
"Dr. Jeon, you have a fan," Nurse Choi teased, though her eyes were wide with a mix of awe and suspicion.
nurse
"A delivery service dropped these off at 6:00 AM. They said they’re a 'thank you' for the exceptional bedside manner."
I didn't need to read a card to know who they were from.
The flowers were beautiful, but in this setting, they looked like a threat wrapped in elegance. I reached for a small, cream-colored envelope tucked into the center of the largest bouquet. Inside, the handwriting was elegant, slanted, and deliberate:
𝓘 𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓘’𝓿𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓭 𝓪 𝓼𝓾𝓭𝓭𝓮𝓷 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓽𝓱. 𝓘’𝓵𝓵 𝓫𝓮 𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪 𝓯𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀-𝓾𝓹. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓽𝓲𝓮, 𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓰𝓴𝓸𝓸𝓴. 𝓘𝓽 𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓼 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓼.
My breath hitched. I wasn't wearing a blue tie today,I was in my scrubs. That meant he had been watching me before he ever walked into that ER. Or worse, he had someone watching me now.
I felt a prickle at the back of my neck and looked toward the hospital’s main entrance. For a split second, I saw a black sedan idling at the curb, its windows tinted to an impenetrable void. Before I could blink, it pulled away, merging seamlessly into the Seoul traffic.
nurse
"Doctor? Are you okay?" Nurse Choi asked, noticing my pale face.
Jeon jungkook
"I'm fine," I lied, crumpling the note and shoving it deep into my pocket, right next to the black business card from the night before.
Jeon jungkook
"Just... tired."
I spent the rest of my shift in a daze. Every time the elevator dinged or the automatic doors hissed, I jumped. I was the Chief Resident. I was supposed to be in control of my environment, but Taehyung had turned my own hospital into a labyrinth of his making.
He was a ghost, a criminal, a man who dealt in shadows…and I was a man of science. We were parallel lines that were never supposed to intersect. But as I walked past the rows of blood-red roses, I realized that parallel lines only stay apart on a flat surface.
Taehyung was already bending the world around me.
Download NovelToon APP on App Store and Google Play
