Hoseok: That's why they call me Master, sweetheart. Now it's your turn. Say it.
Yoongi: If you want my help that badly, you need to give me something in return. Something I can't get anywhere else...
Namjoon: If they want to take you back, they have...
He shook his head. "They won't kill me. Not if I'm careful."
He stepped in close to you, the scent of mixed lavender from the fields and his sweat mixing in the air. They were two smells you still remembered quite vividly.
"I can't watch our families and the townspeople die off so easily. At least one person I know dies every week from starvation or flogging. I can't take it anymore."
His chest heaved as he dropped his head again.
"So you'll join them?" you asked. "You'll become one of them?"
"I'll change things," he replied. "I promise you."
"You're largely outnumbered. In the end, you'll be the one that changes."
You tried not to cry. Imagining Namjoon in the midst of the guards, demanding taxes and crops from the farmers and arresting innocent citizens was more than you could bear.
And worse, he would be leaving you. Just like your father did.
Suddenly, your hand was warm. His fingers had wrapped around yours, and he brought your hand up to his chest.
"Let me speak with them tonight," he said. "It's a long shot, but we're running out of options."
You turned your head away from him, not knowing what to say. Silence passed between you as the wind grazed over your hands.
"No matter what happens, Y/N, I'll come back to you," he said. "Please believe me."
He lifted your hand higher, staring into your eyes. He brought your knuckle to his lips and pecked it softly, then let your hand fall back to your side.
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You believed him.
But he never returned.
Not until the night he arrested Jungkook for murder, and put you under house arrest.
Your fingers grazed the knuckle Namjoon had kissed five years ago. You wished you could wash away the memory. Every memory.
Maybe you couldn't rinse your brain of him, but you could at least wash away today's training.
Hoseok had forbidden you from training after hours, but he said nothing about bathing. And even if you wanted to be considered an equal, you weren't going to bathe in the same place as the men.
So you went to the one place you knew there would be no interruptions - the lake where Hoseok trained you.
The men wouldn't go past the gardens after certain times, and since the training ground was off-limits after hours, they were sure not to come by. It was the perfect place to clear your head.
You disrobed and slid into the water, letting the cool water lap at your collarbone. You dipped under a couple of times, trying to get the stench of the day's training out of your hair and skin.
