You let Taehyung drag you towards the lounge, your mind set on coming up with your escape plan. He was a surprisingly fast walker, even with the boot that he was wearing. It took all of your concentration to keep yourself from tripping over your own two feet.
"Taehyung, please slow down!" You begged, trying to pull your arm away from him. "I have short legs, and I can't walk that fast!"
Taehyung turned to look back at you, and realized that with every other step you took, you were practically tripping over yourself. He slowed down so that you could keep up with him, and you let out a sigh of relief. He let go of your arm, and you quickly massaged your wrist where he had been holding you.
"I'm sorry, I forgot and got excited," Taehyung apologized, wrapping his arm around your shoulder. "Most of the boys can keep up with me, except for Jimin. He has short legs too, so I'm used to dragging him around with me."
You smiled, the picture of an overly excited Taehyung dragging a less-than-thrilled Jimin through the hallways of the safehouse playing in your mind. Your mood dampened when you remembered how Jimin had tried to rape you only a couple of days ago. The smile left your lips entirely as you rounded the corner into the lounge.
"What the hell happened here?" Taehyung stepped forward into the room, and pointed a finger at the broken pool cue. His arm left your shoulder, and you could feel the could air tickle your back. You could see glass shards glinting up at you from the carpet, and you realized that you hadn't quite gotten all of them. The pile that you had set on the table was still there, but it looked as though some of the glass had fallen off into the carpet just beside it.
"Is this what you were talking about earlier?" Taehyung asked in a shocked tone, turning towards you. "I've never seen him be this destructive, at least not on purpose."
"Yeah, I tried to clean some of the glass up, but I guess I didn't get all of it," you said, shaking your head and covering your mouth with your hand.
"It's alright, I can take care of it," Taehyung said, patting your shoulder and moving forward to sweep the glass off the table into his hand. With most of the glass in his hand, he quickly stepped into the bathroom to dispose of it. You watched as he skillfully picked the rest of the glass out of the carpet, and did the same with it.
I still want to help, even if you don't want me to.
Once Taehyung was out of the way, you quickly moved to pick up the two pieces of the broken pool cue. You carefully turned one half of the cue over and over in your hands, scanning for the initials that you knew were carved into the side. You felt an indent in the wood underneath your fingers, and you flipped the cue over in your hands.
Oh no. He's broken--
"Hey (Y/N), I told you that I would take care of it," Taehyung said disapprovingly, shaking you from your thoughts. "You don't need to be cleaning up after us. You're not a maid, and you don't need to act like one."
"Oh, sorry," you said, a light blush of embarrassment coming across your cheeks. "I was just curious whose it was."
"It's not mine, is it?" Taehyung asked, his eyes widening immensely and his annoyance at you disappearing almost entirely. "If it's mine, I swear to god I'm going to--"
"Don't worry, it's not yours," you interrupted, shaking your head and handing him the remains of the cue. "But it's not his, either."
"Then whose cue is it?" Taehyung asked, curiosity taking over him entirely. He accepted the broken cue, and turned it over in his hands until he found the initials that were scored into the side.
"Oh."
Taehyung silently stood over you, letting the cue rest gently in his fingers. Neither of you made an effort to say anything, but there was nothing to be said. Taehyung quickly disposed of the broken cue, and you could hear the hollow clanking sound of the broken cue hitting the metal trash can just inside the bathroom door.
"Well, I'm going to go downstairs and get the pool ball that Namjoon was talking about," Taehyung awkwardly said, pulling the set of keys out of his pocket.
Wait, that's right, I need to go down to the garage too.
"Wait, I think I should go too," you said, hauling yourself to your feet and stepping between Taehyung and the door. "It might be hard for you to get around down there, because of your boot leg." You pointed to his foot.
"Nice try, but I'm not going to let you go into the garage with me," Taehyung patted your head lightly, and gently pushed you out of the way. "You already know it's off limits, and you don't need to be getting yourself into any trouble."
Crap! I'll have to sneak down there while he's not looking.
You watched as he unlocked the door, and gave you a smug smile before descending down the steps. You heard the wooden stairs creak beneath his weight as he got closer and closer to the bottom of the stairwell. You looked up at the ceiling of the lounge, and started plotting how to get down into the garage without him noticing you.
It wasn't long until you heard one of the steps creak a little bit too loudly, and the sounds of pure chaos echoing up from the bottom of the garage. You heard all of the noise stop after one final crash. Taehyung let out a pain-filled sigh, and you could hear him slowly starting to shift in the garage below you.
"(Y/N), I changed my mind," you heard Taehyung weakly call from the bottom of the long flight of stairs. "I think I want you down here with me."
Or, that works too, I guess.
You grabbed the handrail, and safely descended into the darkness after Taehyung. Once you were at the bottom of the stairs, you felt around the wall for the light switch. It wasn't long until you felt the switch resting just underneath your fingers. You flipped the switch, and light flooded into the room.
"Tae, where are you?" You asked, suddenly realizing you had no idea where he was. You stepped forward, and found that the floor beneath you was oddly soft and squishy.
"I'm down here," Tae said, plopping his hand onto your leg. You jumped at the sudden touch, and looked down. Your foot was planted almost directly in the center of his soft stomach.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" You instantly recoiled and took your foot off of him. "Are you alright?"
"I accidentally tripped and I fell," he said, scratching the back of his head and giving you a pained smile. "Do you think you could help me up?"
You nodded, and Taehyung took his hand away from your leg, and held it out just in front of you. You brought both of your hands out to meet his, and you gripped his hand tightly. He placed one hand firmly beside him on the floor, and forcefully pushed himself up off of the ground. You tried your best to keep yourself standing upright, but it was hard with Taehyung using you to steady himself.
All of a sudden, you could feel yourself falling backwards. Taehyung's hand slipped away from between yours, and you flopped back against the garage wall. Taehyung's hand planted itself just above your shoulder to keep himself from crushing you.
You both took a moment to catch your breath, neither of you truly realizing how you were standing. You looked up at Taehyung, who had unintentionally trapped you between the wall and himself. Taehyung was gazing back down at you, and you started to realize the lack of space there was between you.
I think I was pulling a little bit too hard.
"Hi, Taehyung," you said uncomfortably, letting your hand rest lightly on your collarbone.
"Hi, (Y/N)," Taehyung lightly whispered, a cute pink blush coming across his cheeks.
He didn't make any efforts to move, as if he still didn't realize how you were standing. You maintained his gaze, looking for any hints his eyes could give away. You awkwardly cleared your throat and lightly tapped his wrist, and his eyes widened in realization. His blush became a dark pink, and he quickly pushed himself away from you.
"Oh, um, I-I'm sorry," Taehyung stammered, keeping his eyes down to the ground. "I-I, um, didn't realize t-that I was--"
"It's alright," you softly chuckled, lifting yourself off the wall. "Let's just look for the missing pool ball, okay?"
"R-Right." Taehyung vigorously nodded his head, and then quickly stepped into the garage. You watched him disappear among the rows of various cars, too embarrassed to notice the hole in the windshield of the Eleven Ball just beside him.
I have until he finds that ball to go look around. I have got to find Jiyong!
You scanned the walls of the garage, looking for suspicious hallways or doors that could possibly lead to somewhere. You couldn't see any obvious places for you to go, and your heart sank in your chest. Determined to find something, you still kept searching. You stepped into the garage and peeked around the various cars next to the wall, trying to find something that would lead you anywhere.
Wait, that van wasn't over there when I came down here earlier, was it?
You stared at the black van, which was backed up so that it was practically right up against the wall. Out of curiosity, you slowly edged towards the van, and stared at it. You hadn't remembered seeing the van against the wall like it was now. In fact, you hadn't even remembered the van being on this side of the garage. You looked at the cars on either side of the van, and a funny feeling swept over you.
Why would you line a van up with a bunch of SUVs?
You peered across the garage, where all the other vans were lined up. Sure enough, right in the middle of the line of vans was a lone SUV. You focused back on the van, and noticed that it was tall enough to keep a doorway hidden, if anybody needed to do so.
There's something hidden behind this van, and I bet it's where Jiyong is.
You made sure that Taehyung couldn't see you, and you knelt down in front of the van. You quickly slipped underneath the vehicle, and crawled towards the back of the van. You kept your head low to the ground and you tried your best to control your breathing. You made your way past the back tires of the car, and took in a deep breath, glad that you could finally breathe again. You lifted yourself out from underneath the car, and looked at the dimly lit hallway that opened out before you.
The long, concrete hallway was lined with heavy, metal doors. A few of the doors were hanging wide open, but most of them were closed tightly. You looked at the doorknobs, and saw a weird assortment of locks on all of them. At the end of the hallway, there was a door that had several broken alcohol bottles resting just in front of it. You could still see the alcohol dripping off of the broken shards of glass.
That's where Jiyong is. I'm certain of it.
You scrambled to your feet and briskly walked to the end of the hallway. You could hear your footsteps echo off the walls of the dark hallway around you. You felt a smile start to form on your lips as you got closer and closer to the door. You gripped the doorknob and--
"(Y/N), where are you?!" Taehyung called, causing you to freeze in place, your hand just about to turn the doorknob. "If I can't find you, you're going to be in big trouble!"
Shit. I've got to get out of here. Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that he'd get in more trouble for losing me.
You hesitated, but you let go of the doorknob and made your way to the end of the hallway. You took a deep breath, and forced yourself underneath the van. You crawled forward, disappointed that you didn't get a chance to actually find Jiyong.
I'll have to find a way to come back later.
Before you crawled out from under the van, you checked the aisle to make sure the coast was clear. Once you were sure it was safe, you let yourself crawl out into the open. As you were helping yourself into your feet, Taehyung came darting around the corner.
"There you are!" Taehyung said, clearly relieved that he had found you. "Did you not hear me yelling for you? I found this ages ago!" He flashed you the pool ball.
"No, I couldn't hear you," you shook your head, avoiding eye contact with him. "I didn't think you had it, so I was still looking for it."
"You look like you were crawling around underneath some of the cars down here," Taehyung scoffed, inspecting your clothes. "It's no wonder you couldn't hear me."
"I couldn't find the ball anywhere else, so I wondered if it had rolled underneath one of the cars," you lied, pointing to the SUV next to you. "Where did you find it?"
"It went through the windshield of one of the fancier cars we have down here," Taehyung said, turning it over and over in his hands. "It's a shame, because I don't know if Namjoon's willing to shell out the money to fix it."
"Well, at least you found it," you said, even though you had known where it was the entire time. "We should go back upstairs and play now."
"I second that motion," Taehyung nodded, turning and leading the way towards the stairs. "Oh, (Y/N), can I ask you a favor?"
"What is it?" You asked, jogging a little bit to catch up with him.
"Can you hold my hand when we go up the stairs? I'm afraid I might trip again."