CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE, WEAPONS, MENTIONS OF A HANDGUN, & ANGST
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Rachel heaved her suitcases from out of the backseat of her car, hauling them up the sidewalk and to her front door. With an irritated huff, she unlocked her door and scooted the bags across the hardwood floor, stopping at the edge of her kitchen countertop and dropping down onto the ground. Her back ached from sitting in her car for hours in traffic as she drove home from Busan. Her legs tingled as the feeling slowly began to seep back into them, the brunette running her red acrylic nails up and down her smooth skin.
Reaching for her phone, Rachel scanned over the missed calls from Sejin that had recently been blowing up her notifications. A streak of anxiety shot through her stomach; what if Jungkook had told him what she'd done? After a brief moment's thought, a grin plastered itself on her painted face. He wouldn't dare. Her threats were enough to keep him silent and if Jungkook wanted his family to remain untouched that's exactly what'd he do. Rachel glanced up at the ceiling as she noted the placement of her weapons, claiming to use them for her own protection when in reality all she wanted to do was force them against Yumin's trembling body. The pink taser, resting snuggly in the back of her nightstand drawer. Three pocket knives, each full metal with intricate designs along the handle. And her favorite, shoved into the bottom of one of her suitcases; Yura's black handgun, gifted to her two days prior when she had stopped by to visit for the last time before leaving town.
Yura knew Rachel's plan to seek revenge. He himself had conspired to get his fiancé back but had run into a delay when she'd moved with the others to Seoul. But, with Rachel's inside knowledge working at BigHit, she'd given the brunet Yumin's new address and welcomed the unprepared visit her rival would receive. Maybe once she was out of the way, she could have Jungkook all for herself. Or maybe even one of his hyungs.
A sick smirk played at Rachel's lips as she sent a voicemail to Sejin telling him of her arrival back home before pushing herself back to her feet. She lugged one of her bags upstairs with her, the one with the handgun, before collapsing on her bed. The clock ticked by at almost 11 PM, but no matter how badly Rachel wanted to pass out under her comfy blankets, she kicked off her shoes, changed clothes, and began unpacking her suitcase from her vacation.
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I stared blankly up at the ceiling with my brow furrowed in disgust, thinking about Rachel and her alone. It was almost 11:30 PM and with Jungkook sound asleep beside me, I knew I should've already been long unconscious, but thoughts of the older brunette kept me up as my skin crawled with unease and bile rose in the back of my throat.
Seokjin's words rose from my muddled thoughts like a spark of light in the dark. I remembered him pulling me away from Jungkook and into the office downstairs, shutting the door and locking it behind us. My skin had prickled with gooseflesh as I stared deeply into the oldest's gaze, hard as steel, as he took a step towards me. His hand had reached out and gently placed itself upon my shoulder, trailing lower and lower until he could clasp my hand in his.
"Thank you for being there for Jungkook, Yumin. I...I really appreciate it."
I'd stayed silent, unsure of how to respond, as Seokjin pressed a chaste kiss against my forehead before exiting the office. Had he not expected me to try and protect Jungkook after everything he'd gone through in such a short span of time? Of course not. After seeing the way I reacted to the maknae's presence during my two weeks of isolation, I didn't expect anyone to think I was still on his side. But, I'd long forgiven the brunet and now there was nothing that was going to stop me from keeping him safe.
Nothing. Nothing was going to stop me from protecting Jungkook. I glanced down at the brunet beside me, his face buried partially in his pillow as he cuddled my comforter against his chest. For the first time in a while, he looked completely at peace, fidgeting every so often as he dreamt. My gaze traveled from his face down to his neck, his rumpled shirt pulled to the side to expose his hickey-stained collar. My possessiveness served no benefit to us. I needed to do something else. Something that would guarantee Jungkook's safety, along with the others.
Throwing the covers off of my legs, I sat up and snatched my phone off of my nightstand. The lighting of the device blinded me for a moment as I squinted down at the screen, clicking through my apps until I could find my and Freya's texts from weeks ago. My eyes settled on the message I'd been searching for, a sickening smile lighting up my face as I quietly jumped out of bed.
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I pulled into an empty space against the curb, nearly a block away from Rachel's property. I stared at the two-story house, illuminated by the floodlights she had yet to turn off for the night. It was mere minutes into the next morning, the moon hanging like a spotlight in the sky as I settled back in my seat. In the inner pocket of my jacket, I could feel my pocket knife resting against my chest, settled in the same place as my heart. It was cold against my shirt, the feeling of the metal seeping into my skin beneath.
A truck pulled up a few spaces away and parked against the curb, its front lights flicking off and the driver's door opening in the dark. I watched the driver through the rearview mirror until they stepped out of the vehicle and disappeared into the shadows, shifting my gaze back to Rachel's house. All the lights in her house were shut off, save for one; her bedroom. The blinds were shut, and I could see no movement from inside, but I knew she was there. Rachel could've been changing, having a conversation on the phone, watching TV, pleasuring herself, and I wouldn't have known. After a moment, the floodlights flicked off, leaving the front of her house in swathed darkness. A few silent minutes later, her bedroom light flicked off, her entire house like a looming brick giant in the night.
Slowly, I clicked my seatbelt off, moving my knife from my jacket pocket to my hand. I weighed it on my palm, twirling the sheathed blade between my fingers as my other hand reached out to grip the door handle. It was now or never; if I chickened out and drove home, no one would be none the wiser, but Rachel would have every opportunity to strike again.
As I gripped the door handle with white knuckles, finally feeling the urge to bolt from the car and creep up to her doorstep, the passenger door flung open and a hooded figure slipped into the seat. I made to click my knife open for defense when a tattooed hand wrapped around my wrist and stole it from my grasp. Jungkook ripped his hood off of his head, glaring at me through the shadows with his teeth grit in anger.
"What the fuck are you doing here!?" he spat, holding my knife up in the strip of moonlight that shone through the windshield. "Huh!? What is this!? What the fuck are you doing, Yumin!?"
I sat in silence, too ashamed to speak, with my gaze glued on the knife in his hand. How had Jungkook found me? I'd made sure to stay as quiet as possible as I changed into warmer clothes and snuck outside, and yet he'd still managed to wake and drive after me. A shaky breath pushed itself from my throat as our eyes locked, the brunet's narrowed with rage.
"What are you doing here?" Jungkook repeated, calmer than before.
"I-I have to protect you from her," I muttered numbly. "I want her dead."
The color faded from his face as the brunet lowered my knife against the center console. He gripped it tightly in his hand, thumb pressing into the hilt of the weapon as he pulled it closer to him. Away from me. I could feel myself begin to tremble, but couldn't understand why. I was growing impatient, and all I wanted was for Jungkook to leave as if he hadn't seen a thing and let me return to my business. I wouldn't be satisfied until it was over with.
Shoving my knife in the front pocket of his pants, he reached over and twisted the keys to the Bentley to start the engine. "Go home, Yumin."
"No."
"Yumin-ah." Jungkook wasn't messing around anymore. He glared across at me with so much fury that I pushed myself back against my door and screwed my mouth shut. "Go home. Now. I'm going to follow you to make sure you do." With that, he slipped from the passenger side, shutting the door loudly behind him and stomping back to his truck. I breathed shakily through my nose, slumping back against my seat with my hands fisted in my lap.
I watched Jungkook start the truck a few cars behind me, pulling out into the road and circling the culdesac. He drove up next to me, the tinted windows hiding his silhouette as he waited for me to pull out from the curb. Tears gathered in my eyes as I did just that, eyeing Rachel's house one final time before gunning it past Jungkook and out onto the main street.
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Pushing his way into her bedroom, Jungkook found Yumin stripping herself of her day wear and changing into the outfit she'd gone to bed in. His gaze burned into her form as she lazily hung up her coat, buttoning the front of her shirt along the way before shutting her closet door. She spun on her heel and stared back at him, each blink longer than the last as she ran her tongue along the inside of her cheek. She seemed completely unphased at being caught.
Jungkook pulled her pocket knife out of the front of his jeans, staring her down as he did so. "Why did you have this?" he muttered, his voice beginning to tremble. "What were you planning on doing?"
"I already told you."
Yumin padded over to her bedside and slipped beneath her ruffled covers, tugging them over her shoulder and turning her back to him. Jungkook ripped the covers off of her body and stared down at her until she looked over her shoulder at him. The brunette's face was pale from the cold, her eyes narrowed sleepily as she blinked up at him.
"Why do you have this?" Jungkook hissed. He was growing frustrated the longer Yumin refused to answer, his mind clouding over with exhaustion as the clock welcomed in the first hour of the morning.
Yumin's blank expression startled him most of all. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, eyes traveling from his face down his body and finally to the knife. "I want Rachel dead."
His immediate response was to hide the weapon from the brunette, but he couldn't bring himself to move. Jungkook's eyes stared in horror at Yumin as she turned onto her back, hooking her hands around the front of her knee as she watched him carefully. The maknae could hear the blood flowing through his head, his breathing growing heavy as tears stung the back of his eyes.
"What?"
"You heard me, Jungkook. I want Rachel gone. For good."
"Yumin..." His voice quieted to nothing but a whisper, no words forming in his throat. Jungkook couldn't think of a thing to say to her. Yumin wanted to go so far as to kill Rachel, and just the thought stole the breath from his lungs.
"I just want to keep you safe. If she's gone..." Yumin's gaze dropped to her bed, her fingers tightening anxiously against her leg as she kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.
Without much of a choice, Jungkook settled against the edge of her bed, gripping the knife tightly in his grasp. He wanted to reach out and clasp Yumin's hand in his, but her presence was beginning to scare him. How far would she go just to protect him? "Yumin, you can't do something like that. What about you? You're going to get in serious trouble!"
"So? At least you'll be safe."
"Yumin, I can't risk losing you, okay? You need to stop doing shit like this. Stop thinking about it. I'll be fine as long as I'm with you. Just don't do anything crazy, please?"
He was met with nothing but a blank stare, Yumin's tongue rolling about behind closed lips to prevent herself from speaking against him. Finally, Jungkook received a nod, to which he sighed in partial relief, running a hand through his matted hair and tugging gently.
"You should probably sleep in your room tonight," Yumin mumbled. She turned over on her side and brought the covers back up to her chin, letting her eyes flutter closed as she made to fall asleep. "I don't want to bother you anymore." Jungkook sat for a moment longer, flexing his grasp on the knife before standing up. He shook his head with a sigh before trudging to the door, hoping to every god there was that Yumin wouldn't try anything else before the sun rose above the horizon.
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HIII!! I'm so sorry I've been inactive these past couple of weeks. My work hours have been hectic and I've been dealing with a lot of personal things lately so my motivation for updating kind of tanked. But, I'm back -hopefully- and should probably be updating at least once a week if I can't meet the Tuesday and Thursday quota. Thanky you to the ones that checked in on me to make sure I was alright. I appreciate you<3