Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Blood, Sweat and Tears

The darkness didn't stop Joon from finding his target.

His right fist made fast, hard contact with Hoseok's cheek, then his left drove up into his gut.

Shae felt a body wedge itself between her and Hoseok. She felt the vice grip on her throat fall away, and she heaved heavy breaths and stumbled backwards, her hands clasping at her bare throat where Hoseok's hand had just been. She couldn't see what was happening in that pitch black ballroom, but she recognized the sound of Joon's voice.

"That's enough, Hobi."

"You're not the boss of me anymore!"

Hoseok recovered himself. He sensed Joon's voice, his proximity. He took a breath.

Then Noon Mool's former combat specialist rocketed forward. He dug an elbow into the side of Joon's neck in the blackness, and with his free arm latched onto Joon's forearm--flipping and twisting and digging his legs into the back of Joon's knees--until Joon was face-down on the floor with Hoseok on top of him, pinning him into place.

"Still need to work on those moves, eh," Hoseok said with a sadistic laugh.

Joon groaned and twitched, but Hoseok had him successfully pinned down. Joon noted that the room was a roar of screams, shouts and rushing bodies now. If they weren't careful, they were going to get trampled in the dark.

"Hoseok, listen to me."

"I've spent my whole life listening to you. Look what that got me."

"LISTEN TO ME!"

Joon rocked and flipped himself over, and Hoseok lost his leverage. Joon burst up, shoved, and hooked an arm around Hoseok's neck and locked him into a firm choke hold from behind.

Hoseok body slammed backwards and drove Joon into the floor again, his elbow digging deep into Joon's gut as he fell on top of the leader of Noon Mool with a heavy thud. But this time Joon was on his back instead of his face and he held his choke hold on that red headed combat specialist, firmly.

Hoseok squirmed and kicked and punched himself silly, losing his wits as he steadily lost oxygen.

Joon growled into Hoseok's ear, "I did what I had to do to survive! If you'd been there, you'd have done the same thing as me! If you would just...LISTEN!"

Shae could hear their bodies smacking into each other and into the hard floor. People were rushing past her, into her, through her, and she decided it might be a good idea to try and find a nearby wall to brace herself against--or else risk getting trampled in the dark.

Hoseok had no air to sass back with now. He was losing the edges of his consciousness.

Joon tightened the leverage of his arm into the chords of Hoseok's neck, making the combat specialist slap and struggle for air. "Yeah, I killed them. Dai Yu and Kiara. But you never stopped to ask," Joon's voice broke, "why. Why would I do such a monstrous thing? Because I don't give a shit?!"

Hobi flinched and squirmed even harder at the sound of Dai Yu's name. He arched his back, pinning his weight into Joon's chest. If he wasn't gonna breathe, he wasn't gonna make Joon any more comfortable, either.

"I did it because they were traitors, don't you get it! They were gonna turn over our security codes, our combat manuals, our playbook, our blueprints... they were gonna put thousands of Noon Mool lives at risk!"

Hoseok rammed an elbow hard into Joon's gut, making him groan. Joon's grip loosened just enough for Hoseok to squirm and roll away, out of his grasp. The feisty red head panted into the floor on hands and knees. "Liar."