ICE CREAM [ completed ]

Seventy-Nine

"That's...insane, you realize that, right?"

"Yup,"

"Like, really insane,"

"I know, Jimin,"

Jimin is immersed in my story about the last several months regarding Namjoon, basketball, Jungkook and the whole nine yards. He's practically laying on the table with his mouth open, completely shocked by what I am saying.

"Yoongi hyung that's like weird underground, movie plot, dirty money, drugs and gangs sort of stuff," Jimin's eyes are wide as he looks at me. I roll my eyes with a little smile.

"It's not that crazy,"

"Isn't it, though?" Jimin sits up now with his chin on his hands. "This Namjoon guy has two other clubs that you don't even know about! He probably has people watching you right now. Aren't you worried about not playing anymore? Aren't you worried about what else he could be up to? What if they have a sniper on us! We should go inside..."

"Jimin," I reach out to shake him a bit from his paranoid ramble. "It's not that serious. Namjoon probably has hundreds of other ways to make money. He just so happened to find an outlet through me that didn't stick, and that's it. He's a business guy and the opportunity failed, no big deal. He hasn't tried to contact me. I haven't found any bombs on my doorstep. No one's been hurt. It's over,"

Jimin is still in awe and is shaking his head. He picks up his phone and starts to scroll through it casually. He's mumbling to himself. "Wow, that's insane, so scary..."

I take the moment with him being distracted to finish my coffee. I watch the people walking back and forth on the sidewalk outside the cafe. And of course that's when I see him.

"Jungkook..."

He strolls by hastily without noticing me. He's wearing his black hoodie and has the hood up and his hands in the front pockets, and I only catch a quick glimpse of his face behind sunglasses. I stand so fast that the chair nearly falls behind me. Jimin is on alert too. "What's going on?" but I'm already taking quick and frantic steps to catch up to him, with Jimin on my trail.

"Jungkookie!"

He stops abruptly and turns around to face me, and I freeze in my tracks.

His lip is busted and it's a fresh wound. And as soon as we make contact he's already spinning around about to run off again. "Hey brat, hold on!"

I grab his arm and he complies to my demand, but I can tell by his body language that he's not happy about it.

"What's wrong with you?" I reach my hand to address the wound on his face but he pulls away. "What the fuck happened to your lip?"

Jungkook doesn't answer. Jimin comes jogging next to me and this makes Jungkook turn away to flee. But I grab his arm again, and this time he yanks away harshly from my grasp. I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, but just seeing him in this state is driving me crazy. I reach for his glasses and pull them off his face before he's able to object.

"What the hell..." Jimin and I both say this at the same time.

Jungkook's eye is black and swollen, and I feel my chest crack from the visible damage on his body. But I don't stop there. I grab his hands from the pockets of his hoodie only to see the same bruises and bloody scabs against his knuckles that I recognized from months before after that night at the club.

"What happened to you..."

Jungkook is stagnant and there is an emptiness in his eyes that was once filled with laughter and youth. He's looking anywhere except for me. I try to reach for his face again put he turns his head from me as if I might burn him.

"Did Namjoon do this to you?" I can hear my voice shaking in both shock and pain from the situation. Jungkook releases a smug sound of air and shakes his head in disbelief. He looks down at his boots and breathes in deep, then finally he meets my eyes directly.

There is sadness there. I feel it connect with my own insecurities and for that second I swear I want nothing more than to protect him. 

"You should have just gotten the ice cream," he says, quoting the strange sentence that was on the back of the Polaroid I had long forgotten about from months prior.

"W-What?"

I'm standing there dumbfounded at his words. Jungkook gives me and Jimin one last defeated look before shoving his hands back in his pocket and turning to leave. This time I let him go. Jimin touches my arm.

"Hyung..." he says softly. "He's not okay,"

"I know,"

"I think..." he stops to gulp, and I turn to meet his eyes. I feel myself wanting to fall apart. "I think we know what Namjoon has been up to while you haven't been playing,"