Marked (BTS Taehyung)

Chapter Eighteen: Include Her

The boys left for their next tour location a few days later. There were no changes in Jade's condition, and it was very obvious that that was taking a toll on Namjoon's performance and relationship with the fans.

He was snappish, over exhausting himself, and sleep deprived most of the time, too busy researching comas and trying to figure out a way to wake her up to bother with a trivial thing like sleep.

The fans couldn't tell anything was wrong, however. As far as they knew, he was just tired, and he was very good at acting fine.

But at the end of the day, that was all it was: an act.

As soon as the cameras went away and the last fan went home, he sank into silent contemplation, ignored the rest of the members, and laid awake in bed.

Hoseok and Jimin called Dinah and (y/n) on a nightly basis to check in on Jade's condition and see how Min-Jae was doing.

In fact, the only times that they saw Namjoon smile when he was away from the cameras was when Dinah sent them pictures of whatever cute thing Min-Jae had done that day.

Jin called Jane daily, their bond still new and fragile and weak. Weak enough that phone calls and video calls weren't enough to completely dull the buzzing in their ears and headaches that they both got every once in a while.

Jungkook and Yoongi had only been able to try to keep the group sane. The tensions between Jin and the other members was so thick it could be cut with a knife, and it was all they could do not to ice him out completely. Namjoon wasn't speaking to Jin; he wasn't really speaking to any of the members at the moment, excluding the few words he exchanged with Yoongi on a regular basis. The beta had essentially taken over the pack since the battle, claiming the usual responsibilities and struggles that Namjoon normally dealt with.

All in all, this tour was becoming the most uncomfortable and least productive time they had ever spent together.

The headlines weren't helping:

"Rap Monster's Mysterious Girl"

"BTS in the Hospital: You Won't Believe Why"

"A Baby Momma: What Else Could Rap Monster be Hiding?"

Some of the worst went so far as to accuse Namjoon of abusing the 'mystery girl' that he carried into a hospital.

And none of them really knew how to deal with this much bad press. There had been other things in the past that had compromised their image, but the ARMYs had stood with them every time.

This time was different. The ARMY were as supportive as ever, but the vibe off of them was different this time. A bit awkward, if anything, but still supportive.

If only the cookie had crumbled a different way... 

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Jane was beating herself up over how everything had turned out. If she'd known that she and Jin were bond mates...

But that didn't matter now. Her old pack had disappeared, with the exception of Gun Ho, who was still deader than a doorknob. Karma was apparently playing fair when it came to him. She didn't know who was alive, who was dead, and what they thought she was.

As soon as Jin marked her she had disappeared off of her old alpha's radar, appearing instead on Namjoon's.

She was now a part of the Bangtan pack, the only female wolf (at the moment), and the other mates didn't trust her.

It hurt, as they were now supposed to be like her sisters, but she couldn't blame them. It was her fault that Namjoon was the way he was, and the reason that their alpha female was gone. If Jade died, she would probably never forgive herself. Nor would the pack ever forgive her.

Karma had a way of being a bitch, however. She and Jin's relationship was progressing surprisingly well, considering her past and Jin's future. They had almost a comical amount in common, almost as though they had been created for each other.

Oh, the irony.

The irony that to have the perfect relationship, she had to destroy the perfect relationship.

And she felt terrible. She didn't want Jin to have to choose her over his packmates, his bandmates. But her situation forced him to.

But she had a plan, the ace up her sleeve thatno one was expecting.    

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You were currently seated in Jade's hospital room, Dinah seated on the other side of her bed, bouncing Min-Jae in her lap.

You had both sat in silence for a while, not willing to break the pattern of heart monitor beeping and the flicker of fluorescent lighting above your heads. A lot of things had been left unsaid when you had said goodbye to the members at the airport a few days previous.

Of course, the headlines were all over the place. Every few nights Hoseok or Tae would send you the most ridiculous sounding ones, hoping to force a laugh, or at the very least a smile, out of you or Dinah. So far, the only one that had was 'Rap Monster: A Monster of a Man?' which had called into question his abilities in the bedroom and his ideas of fun past times. The sheer ridiculousness of what the author had implied was truly what had made you laugh; nothing about the situation was comical.

Nothing about the way Namjoon looked was comical. He skyped Jade's hospital room every night, and the bags under his eyes were beginning to show, even in the poor quality of the video. There were a lot of nights where he would fall asleep before you or Dinah had left, and you had ended the calls, only to be accosted through text the following day.

Looking at the boys from an ARMY standpoint, it was hard to see anything wrong. But, there was an extent to which makeup could hide the bags appearing underneath all of the members' eyes. You had started to understand what Jade had meant by an empathy link; you had noticed that you were far more exhausted than usual, though it wasn't exactly her exhaustion.

None of the pack, including you and Dinah, were sure how to deal with any of what had been going on. Jade was already a center point in your life, and not having her threw both you and Dinah into a spiral of concern.

Hoseok had a heat coming, and you had all guessed that it would arrive just after they had arrived back in Korea after their final tour dates.

And after spending three days cleaning up the studio Jungkook had stayed in, the Big Hit building was very obviously not a good choice for Hoseok to stay.

Jade, for all her skills, was the best at sensing the heats, how long they would be, when they were over. It was a skill that the bond gods had given her after she had been marked, a skill that had come in very helpful when it came to scheduling interviews and appearances.

But there was only so long that they could wait for Jade to wake up before they would have to start doing things for themselves.

"(Y/n), we need to talk," Dinah said, putting Min-Jae back into his carrier. "And this conversation needs to include her."

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I'm not going to lie to you guys, this chapter is just filler before some more shit goes down. So strap in, and get ready. Virtual cookies for everyone!