Take Me to the Sky | BTS+

Drowning

Shae felt fingers clawing against her legs, curling up beneath the tight hemline of her black dress.

"That I want you."

"Joon, wait."

"To myself."

"Joon, stop."

A terrifying dullness had entered Kim Namjoon's eyes and, stop, he did not.

____

Jung Hoseok had watched the drugged Namjoon pull Shae into a storage unit and disappear.

Hoseok had watched, and then he had casually strolled away, dark satisfaction curling into the pit of his stomach at just how much more he could help make Kim Namjoon hate himself. Oh, glorious day.

A voice crackled in his ear as he was mid-step. He was surprised just who: "Hobi, are you there?"

It was Min Yoongi, and he sounded strangely rushed. Like he'd just been running.

"Here."

"Where are you?"

Hoseok didn't like the twinge of panic in his usually indifferent friend's voice.

"I'm on my way to the pits."

"So you didn't go through with it, right? You listened to Chim's advice?"

"With what? Drugging Shae and Joon? I think Joon's the only one who got any...."

Quite suddenly, the feminine voice of Lilith crackled over the comm system: "Turn the fuck around right now, Jung Hoseok!"

Hoseok stopped in his tracks. "Why?"

"What's happening?" Yoongi asked.

Lilith raged, "Shae just commed me for help but I can't make it there in time, and if you let this monster of Kim Namjoon that you've unleashed lay a finger on her, so help me I'll---"

Yoongi shouted over Lilith's vicious words, "Hobi, Joon isn't your murderer, and this ain't vengeance!"

Lilith practically screamed, "No, it's torture! Now turn your ass around and fix this shit. I don't care if you're late to the pits, Yoongi'll tweak the timer codes if he has to."

Hoseok was all kinds of confused. "The hell are you--"

Yoongi said in a rush, "It was Tae. It was Kim-fucking-Taehyung this whole damn time. They were lying through their teeth, and Tae's the one who offed Dai Yu and Kiara. It was Tae, not Joon--Joon was just taking the blame. I mean, the bastard is guilty in his own fucking right--but he's not guilty in this. So stop tryna torture Joon at this girl's expense. She'll get tortured enough today, you don't have to make it worse."

Lilith seethed, "Turn around and fix this shit or I'll fix you, dammit!"

"It was...." Hoseok spun around and looked over his shoulder towards the half-open barn door that was almost a block's distance behind him. "Oh God, what have I done?"

____

Shae was trying with all of her might to hold the door shut of the storage room she'd ran into to hide, but Joon was stronger. She leaned back, braced against the handle... but he gave one final tug and the door swung open wide, sending her sprawling forward and straight into Kim Namjoon's chest.

His hands were chain links circled around her wrists.

He pulled, her face inches from his.

"Joon, please...."

The look in his eyes was still that dull, empty void. It was a face she didn't recognize at all.

It was a version of Kim Namjoon she didn't know existed.

But there he was. And somehow he was smiling.

His voice sounded inhuman as he said, "I thought I made myself clear when I said--"

But whatever it was that he was about to make clear again didn't make it to his lips.

A hand clasped down tightly onto Joon's neck from behind. That hand glowed with a strange green warmth--and the more it glowed, the more Joon's muscles relaxed. His grip slipped away from Shae's wrists and she backed herself against the wall and out of Joon's reach.

Just as Kim Namjoon pivoted towards the figure behind him, he stumbled onto his knees--and his hands desperately clasped at the pinkish suit jacket that was now in front of him.

"Good God, I'm sorry man." Jung Hoseok looked down at Kim Namjoon with eyes of pity. Then Hoseok clasped one hand over his other, which was balled into a fist, and in a single heavy stroke he swung his fists in a downward angle into the side of Namjoon's head.

Joon twisted, fell, and lay unconscious on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Hoseok stepped over Joon's body towards Shae, who pressed herself even harder into the far wall. She seemed to be trying to pull her minidress down as far as was appropriate.

Hoseok gulped.

"Just you wait. Lilith is on her way, she's gonna--"

Jung Hoseok shook his head slowly, his expression genuinely melancholy. "No. She isn't coming. But I'm here to take you to her."

He could see the red claw marks along her legs, the hand imprints in her wrists and arms. Around her neck.

Shame washed over him.

Dear. God. What have I done?

"Here."

Jung Hoseok slid out of his bright suit jacket. Before Shae could protest, he wrapped it around her shoulders so that it was covering up more of her skin, and some of her fresh marks.

She tugged the front of the jacket together, as if trying to hide inside of it. Shae asked in a quiet voice, "What happened to Joon? That... that monster wasn't him." Shae's fearful eyes darted down to the floor.

"No, it wasn't. But that's a story for another day. Right now, we have to move quickly. Lilith is waiting for you."

Shae didn't know why she decided to put her trust in Jung Hoseok in that moment. Perhaps it was his sad eyes, or the warm comfort of his suit jacket. Perhaps it was her very strong desire to get away from Kim Namjoon as quickly as possible.

"Alright then."

Hoseok took her hand firmly yet carefully, and he led her out the back of that storage barn door.

And away they went.