You bolted out the front door just behind Jiyong, waiting for an angry horde of boys to start following after you. You vaulted from the porch, leaving the door swinging wide open. You both ran like your lives depended on it--mainly because they did. You didn't know what would happen if the boys caught you. The only thing that you knew was that hesitation was going to get you caught.
You looked back at the house and saw several beams of light shining through the windows of the front room. As fear started to take over, you began to run even faster. Soon enough, you were running right alongside.
As you both got farther and farther away from the house, you relaxed and ran a little bit slower. You could see that the lights from the inside of the house had found their way outside, and they were moving quickly across the length of the yard.
"You can't slow down yet, (Y/N)," Jiyong whispered, grabbing your hand and forcing you to continue running alongside him. "We're not far enough away yet. There's still a chance that they can find us."
"Sorry, you're right," you said, disappointedly shaking your head at yourself for your laziness. "Wait--how do you know my name?"
I told him that I was Lim Chaeyeon. How does he know my real name?
"You'd be surprised how much talking Namjoon does when he's drunk," Jiyong snorted, amused by the memory. "He spilled the beans about your real name and quite a couple of other things about you too."
"Like what?" You asked, suddenly self-conscious.
"Something about how you had all of the boys in that house crawling on their knees for you," Jiyong said. "He made it sound like you were the center of everyone's attention."
You felt your stomach sink at his words. Over the past few days, you had been given three kisses, and it was like a part of your sanity had disappeared with each of them. You didn't know how many of the other boys wanted something to do with you, but it clearly wasn't just those three.
"That's why I didn't trust you at first," Jiyong said, tearing your attention away from your thoughts. "I thought you were just their plaything. I didn't think you wanted to leave."
"What made you change your mind?" You asked.
"You came back tonight, didn't you?" He answered you. "I thought you weren't going show up. But now I know better. I trust you enough for us to get out of here together."
You nodded and continued running. Your hand left his, and you pushed yourself to run even faster. You peeked over your shoulder and found that the lights had fanned out and were still searching the yard. You felt a bead of sweat trickle down your forehead, but you kept running.
They won't find us, will they?
"Uh, (Y/N)," Jiyong nervously said, and you turned your head to look at him. "We may or may not have a huge problem."
"Why, what's wrong?" You asked, peeking over his shoulder. Your heart sank in your chest as you saw what he was talking about.
A seven-foot tall chain-link fence stood just in front of you. You gawked at the fence, a million thoughts going through your mind. You looked back at the house and saw the lights were getting closer and closer to where you were.
"We need to go over, and then they won't be able to find us," Jiyong said, taking a hold of the fence. He started climbing and then gave you a confused look when you didn't move.
"Come on, we have to go!" Jiyong forcefully whispered, reaching down and pulling you toward the fence. "Why aren't you climbing?"
"I'm going to keep a lookout, in case they start coming this way," you said, pointing towards the lights. "We can't go over at the same time, something might go wrong."
"Then you should go over first," Jiyong said, jumping down off the fence. "You're the one who came and got me out of here. You deserve to go first."
"But you're the one who knows more about Korea," you said. "If something goes wrong, and only one of us could make it, you'd get farther away than I would."
"You still deserve to escape more than I do," Jiyong argued, pushing you closer to the fence. "Neither of us would have gotten this far if you hadn't been able to execute your plan so well."
"That doesn't mean anything," you shook your head at him. "You're the one who pushed the van out of the way. You're the one who kept us from getting caught after I bumped into the table."
"You should still go over--"
"Hey! There she is!"
A bright light shined in your eyes, blinding you. You panicked and watched as several more lights turned to you, followed by the boys that were holding them. You and Jiyong looked at each other, fear in both of your eyes. Without a word to each other, you both climbed the fence.
You watched as the boys got closer, keeping their flashlights trained on you. Jiyong swung his legs over the top of the fence and dropped down to the other side. Your eyes went from him to the boys, and back to him.
They didn't say anything about Jiyong. They're only after me. If I go over this fence, they're going to follow us. I'm going to be putting him in danger.
You looked over at Jiyong, who was now on his feet. He looked at you wit fear in his eyes and waited for you to drop down just beside him. You shook your head, making your decision.
"Jiyong, I'm sorry," you said, blinking the tears away from your eyes.
I want you to live.
Before he could manage a response, you faced the house and dropped down on the inside of the fence. You dropped down to your hands and knees and looked over your shoulder. Jiyong was pressed up against the fence, yelling something inaudible at you. You brought yourself to your feet and faced Jiyong.
"If you don't start running right now, I don't know what's going to happen," you shook your head. "But I know it's not going to be good. You need to go."
"What the hell are you doing?!" Jiyong sputtered from his side of the fence. "I'm not leaving without you."
"If you don't start running right now, they might kill you," you said, pushing yourself farther away from the fence. "I want you to live."
"What about you?"
"You heard what Namjoon said," you gave him a sad smile. "I'm the center of attention."
Jiyong nodded, completely silent. You both shared a long, meaningful gaze before he turned the other way and took of into the brush just past the fence. You looked over your shoulder and saw that the boys were hot on your tail, only a couple of paces away.
You turned around, and you were met with the glares of seven angry boys. Namjoon quickly stepped forward, but his focus wasn't on you. He pushed past you, purposely elbowing you out of the way, and made his way over to the fence. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun with a long, metal barrel.
"Leave him alone!" You pleaded, jumping forward to stop him. A set of arms wrapped tightly around your midsection, while another hand clamped down over your mouth. They both pulled you backward, away from the fence.
Namjoon raised the gun from his side and fired six shots out into the forest. You struggled against the boys, the tears falling freely from your cheeks. Namjoon snapped his fingers, and the boys let go of you and let you fall onto the hard ground. You gasped in pain as you hit the earth, Namjoon moving to stand right over you.
"Jin, tomorrow morning, before we leave, I want you to take Jungkook and search the woods for a body," Namjoon said, sliding his gun into the holster. "It's too dark to do anything now, and we have other problems." His eyes flickered down to look at you.
You held your breath as the boys stepped farther away from you, making room for Namjoon. He sauntered closer and moved to squat just in front of you. You didn't dare blink--you were too afraid to do anything.
"You're a smart little bitch, aren't you?" He asked, lazily tilting his head.
You didn't answer.
"I knew we shouldn't have been taking you so lightly," he forced himself to chuckle. "Once we turned our backs, you took the keys from us. You let Jiyong escape. Why didn't you go with him, huh?"
"I wanted him to live," you whispered.
"You wanted what?" Namjoom asked, cupping his hand around his ear.
"I said that I wanted him to live," you said again, louder this time.
"I still can't hear you," Namjoon teased, leaning down even closer to you.
"I wanted him to live!" You spat, pushing yourself off the ground. Namjoon leaned back and put his hand on his chest as if he was offended by your words.
You looked away from him and focused on your feet. Even if those bullets hadn't hit Jiyong, he wasn't coming back for you. That was something you came to terms with before you jumped down from the fence. You slowly fell back onto the grass and stared up at the night sky.
He could be dead right now.
"So you wanted him to live?" Namjoon asked, putting his hand on his chin and faking concern.
You ignored him and kept your eyes on the sky. You could feel the tears plaster themselves to your cheeks, because they had nowhere else to go. You moved your hand away from your side to wipe the tears away, but Namjoon reached out and grabbed your hand before you could. You looked up at him and tried to pull your arm away, but he was too strong for you.
"Do you know what I wanted?" Namjoon asked, making sure that your attention was on him. You silently stared up at him with hateful eyes, but let him continue.
"I wanted a lot of things," he said, staring right back at you. "I wanted everything to go smoothly this week. Do you think that everything went smoothly?"
You looked up at the sky and thought about the past events of the week. You carefully shook your head, unsure if he wanted an answer.
"No, things didn't go smoothly this week, did they?" He asked, mainly to himself. "That's all because I decided that I wanted to keep you happy, Princess."
You looked up at him. His facial expression had softened and he was lightly stroking the palm of your hand. He didn't seem angry, but you knew that he could still explode.
"I decided that keeping you happy was more important than doing what I wanted to do. Although, I will admit that some things I had to do were just for business," he cooed, still stroking your hand. "I wanted to bring you with us instead of having you go through Daegu, but it was too dangerous for you. I didn't want to give you up to Mark and Yugyeom, but I did."
You were silent. Namjoon continued to play with your fingers, as if distracting himself from getting angry at you.
"I don't think you understand how much I wanted to send a bullet through Mark's head," Namjoon said, his grip on your hand tightening. "But I let them live because that's what you wanted. I let them walk away because it would keep you happy."
Again, you were silent.
"I was so angry when Yoongi's dish hit you by accident," he said, bringing your hand up to touch his face. "I wanted to take you somewhere and make sure that you were okay, but I couldn't leave the boys alone like that. I had to let Jungkook take care of you and walk you up to your room."
"And that night, I wanted to stay and talk with you. Do you know how hard it was for me to stop in, say one sentence, and then leave?" He asked, letting the palm of your hand rest on his cheek. "The next morning, I had to keep myself from strangling Hoseok. I knew he was teasing me, but that didn't change how I felt."
You remembered how Jin had been cooking while Hoseok was nuzzling into your neck. Namjoon was clearly bothered by Hoseok's actions the entire time.
"I wanted to make you feel comfortable around me, but that didn't happen," Namjoon said. "I wanted you to open your eyes up after that kiss. But you didn't, did you?" You were already asleep."
Without giving you time to respond, he continued.
"I didn't want to hurt you that badly," Namjoon said, taking your hand away from his face and holding it in his hand again. "I didn't want you to be upset and me, I wanted to talk to you. But you didn't want anything to do with me after that, did you?"
"What are you--"
"I had to give up a lot of things just to make you happy," Namjoon interrupted. "I had to give up a lot of things I wanted to do for business reasons, too. How much did you have to give up for me? How much did you have to give up for business?"
You were silent.
"You had to give up Jiyong, and that was it," Namjoon said, letting go of your hand. "You wanted a lot of things, and you got them, didn't you? It's only fair that you should give something up for me, too."
That wasn't my life to give. You had no right to take it.
Namjoon stood up, and you drew your arm back in to your side. He stepped over you and went towards the other boys, while you continued to look up at the sky. You felt genuinely awful. You were starting to become one of them.
"Jin, Hoseok, I want one of you to go inside and find a pair of handcuffs for (Y/N)," Namjoon said, rubbing the back of his head. "Whoever doesn't do that needs to take everybody else inside and gather some blankets and pillows, then bring them downstairs."
"We're all going to be sleeping in the front room tonight."