It was almost involuntary when Jumin inhaled sharply, almost as if bracing for the pitiful state his friend was in. To see him in such a state… It seemed unfitting. But he knew better than to ask if he was alright, the answer was one that was already before his eyes. (to summarize: no.) Whatever words he had in that moment were stillborn, none of them sounded right or they simply would not leave his tongue no matter how many times he opened his mouth to try and say them.
He turned, moved a few paces away, moved the chair closer to the bed. Within arm’s reach, nothing more or less. If V needed him he would be right there. Expecting mostly silence, slender hands picked up the book he had been reading and opened it up to the bookmarked page. Though this was not necessarily going to be proper reading - rather eyes glossing over the words while his mind was elsewhere. Ears were focused on a quiet voice, thoughts racing faster than he could put them together.
What would he tell the other RFA members? He did not want to risk too much - there would be certain distrust and weariness of the man. If Saeran was allowed around him… The thought is cut off by a click of the tongue - about the time of the apology had reached his ears. Calloused, it must have sounded, but it was far from directed at V.
That did not mean he forgave him, though, not entirely. Why did he not say something? Anything? Did he not trust him - were they not as close as he had thought them to be?
“Thank you,” Jumin replied, glancing over from the book to the man himself. He, like the other members, were not required to accept an apology. It was not okay, it was not fine by any stretch of the words. “As for the others, everyone is alright. I will better explain their statuses later, but now is not the time.” Not when everything was fresh, waking up from something that should have killed him to a hospital room.
The page turned, the story lost on Jumin, the book is only a space filler so he has something to focus his eyes upon.
“Please do not let it plague your mind too much, for the time being, focus on yourself and recovery.”
Jumin moving about the hospital room was the only noise tying V down to the present. He heard a chair brought closer to his side, the grating noise of its metal legs grinding against marble tiles capturing his attention. The subtle fluttering motions of pages turned came afterward, an indicator of his friend attempting to cope and distract himself with a book.
V knew Jumin too well to assume he was the least bit calm, even with the other's passive click of the tongue at his apology. Despite how far apart they were, there would most likely never be a time where he could not pointedly read Jumin's mannerisms whether the man demonstrated discomfort or not.
His friend's decision to remain silent on the details of everyone's' conditions made him shift uncomfortably. He knew it would be hypocritical of him to tell Jumin that to talk about everything now would be as good of a time as any given the severity of the situation. After keeping the other in the dark for such an unbearably long time, couldn't V handle not knowing everything for once? So instead of pushing Jumin to talk, V pushed himself further into the mattress.
"Seeing as how I can't move, I don't believe I have much of a choice," he told him, tone bland and leveled. His voice was hoarse, though, practically matching the grating noise Jumin's chair manifested earlier.
"You have such a simple way of looking at this, though... I will do my best to recover as soon as possible. But you must know that my mind will stall things. I won't be able to rest properly until I know how everyone else is doing."
