Before the Fall

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Unravelling the Mystery

"But we do have a place for them to go, hyung. I made sure of it."

Thank goodness he stopped.

"What? What are you talking about?" His tone was frustrated and I understood that.

"I knew this day would come. Even before Aster was dumped here. Her coming here just confirmed my thoughts. He can't stay away from us. We're like his kids, right? And with her here, he was definitely going to want to see how she was doing...or rather suffering. Anyway, I had the people start digging underground. Right now they're about halfway done. If we spare some manpower, we can get it all finished by the end of the week and next week they can start moving down there. Hopefully it won't be for long, but you just sent extra supplies, remember? We just harvested a ton of meat. We will all come out of this unscathed. I promise!"

Namjoon watched me as I spoke and I could see the wheels in his head turning.

"I'm glad you thought ahead, Tae. But why didn't you tell me? Did you even tell anyone?"

I scratched the back of my head and looked down sheepishly. "N-no."

"Taehyung!" he roared.

I held my hands out and pleaded my case. "B-But its only because I didn't want to cause undue panic!"

"Panic? Among highly trained officers? But you risked creating a panic with civilians? Are you crazy?!"

"Yes, he is. But that's what makes him so useful."

I saw Jin and the others walking up to us and I tried not to get offended at his comment about my mental stability.

"This was reckless behavior, Taehyung. I appreciate what you've done, but you could have informed at least us about your plans. Do any of the lower ranks know?"

I shrugged. I felt stupid. I knew it was a good idea, yet these guys had a way of making me feel really dumb sometimes. "I'm sure some of them do. It's their families after all."

Namjoon gripped the bridge of his nose and shouted loudly as if releasing some pent up frustration. "If any of us make it out of this visit from Li with our skins intact, it will be a miracle!"

"Hyung, it will work!" I stepped froward but was held back by Jimin's firm hand. "Just have some faith in me!"

Namjoon shot me a stony glare and frowned deeper than I had ever seen him frown before. "I had faith in you once before. We all know how that turned out, don't we?"

I blinked back tears. He hit me in a wound that was still very much raw. "That was unfair."

"Yeah, well so was Moonsik's death."

I felt my chest tighten at his name.

I jerked my arm away from Jimin's hand and stomped off in a different direction from everyone else.

I needed to be alone.

* * *

Namjoon

I hated myself for what I just did.

Taehyung had been a young child. He couldn't be held responsible for what happened.

I showered in my private bathroom, then grabbed some fatigues out of a drawer in my quarters and pulled them on with force. I was angry.

Angry at Li.

Angry for being stupid to think he would never come here.