"There's a traitor among us."
Before anyone had time to properly consider that possibility, Chaeyoung felt a strong arm grasp her neck and pull her forward. She tried to wriggle and kick her way out of his hold, but he fired a bullet through the ceiling – drawing everyone's attention. She felt the hot tip of the gun pressed against the right side of her head and grew completely still, her blood running cold with fear.
"Yoongi," Jimin said sternly, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Everyone drop your weapons," Yoongi – the man holding a gun to Chaeyoung's head – commanded, standing in front of the rest of their 'team'.
Everyone looked absolutely shocked at his words, freezing in place as they tried to make sense of what was happening. To make matters even worse, the gang of intruders walked through the door at that moment, standing behind Yoongi – fully armed and ready for battle.
"Just let Chaeyoung go and we can talk about this," Taehyung said calmly, but Chaeyoung knew he was trying to hold back his anger.
"Did I fucking stutter?" Yoongi snapped, shooting another bullet towards the roof and causing Chaeyoung to flinch, "Drop. Your. Fucking. Weapons. Or the girl dies."
Jungkook had never looked as furious as he did at that moment. When Yoongi tightened his hold along Chaeyoung's throat, causing her to gasp for air, Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook collectively lunged forward. But, that only caused Yoongi to press the gun more firmly against her head.
"One more step, and I will shoot. All of you may love her, but I sure as hell don't," Yoongi warned, his voice low and threatening.
That caused all of them to stop in their tracks, each of them throwing Yoongi the most hateful looks Chaeyoung had ever seen from any of them. She tried to take a deep breath and calm down before meeting each of their eyes to communicate that she was okay.
"Why are you doing this?!" Jennie exclaimed, her gun still held firmly and aimed towards the large group of people in front of them.
"Once everyone drops their weapons, I'll tell you," Yoongi smirked at her.
Slowly, Jimin placed his gun on the ground and held his hands up, causing everyone else to reluctantly follow. In the end, there was only one man who hadn't surrendered.
Jungkook threw a confused glance over his shoulder at Hoseok who was still grasping his gun, "Hoseok, put the gun down."
When he didn't respond, Jungkook's voice became much more demanding, "Hoseok. I said, drop the fucking weapon."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Hoseok replied, turning the gun so it was pointing towards Jungkook and causing his eyes to grow wide in shock. The rest of the Phoenixes looked at him with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment, looking completely betrayed. He continued aiming the gun towards Jungkook while backing away from the Phoenixes and Griffins to stand beside Yoongi and their other men.
"You guys have been in on this together?" Jungkook asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Since day one," Hoseok replied with a cunning smile.
"Oh my God, that morning on the camping trip," Jennie gasped, "it wasn't just a coincidence that you two were walking and laughing together so early in the morning."
"And that entire trip, you two were practically attached at the hip," Jungkook nodded, realization starting to dawn on him, "I knew something was off, but I never would've expected this."
Hoseok laughed lightly, "too bad you guys were stupid enough to look past it."
"Why are you guys doing this?" Namjoon demanded, his eyes hard and his jaw clenched.
Yoongi chuckled, "because the Park and Jeon family need to be stopped. They need to crumble and break down the same way they cause hundreds of other families to on a daily basis. You wanna know how Hoseok and I met? We grew up together in an orphanage where we would spend every single minute discussing how much we despised the Parks and Jeons and plotting revenge for not just our own parents who were murdered by them, but for the countless other families that have to surrender their pride, their joy, and even their life for the sake of these two families. We're sick of the power differentials that exist between the rich and the poor and we want justice."
"And how long have you been planning all this?" Jimin demanded, his eyes glinting with rage.
"Since way before you picked me up off the streets and asked me to join your gang," Yoongi smirked, "from that point on, though, I had you in the palm of my hands."
"What about you?" Jungkook scowled at Hoseok, "did you plan all this too before joining the Phoenixes?"
Hoseok nodded, "at first, we thought we'd find ways to sell you out to the police by doing little things like orchestrating break-ins and robberies. But, the police couldn't do shit. Your families and gangs were much too powerful and resourceful for them."
Taehyung's brows knit together and it looked like his brain was working at a million miles per minute, "so the bank robbery and the break-ins that happened on the East side – those were all your doing?"
"Along with the imposter Phoenixes on the West?" Mark demanded.
Yoongi and Hoseok looked at each other and nodded in satisfaction.
"But those little things weren't very rewarding. It didn't leave an impact. Little by little, we began recruiting help. People who hated the Phoenixes and Griffins almost as much as we did. Thankfully, that wasn't a hard thing to do, considering your reputations," Hoseok said, glancing over his shoulder at the group of men behind him – some of which Chaeyoung could recognize from the morning she was almost attacked on the West Side, "And once we had the numbers and combined our resources, we could plan larger scale events and be more ambitious. Our next goal was simple: revenge. We wanted to show you what if felt like to lose a family member – we wanted you to suffer the way we had. So, we planted a bomb."
Chaeyoung gasped at that, her heart feeling heavy when she whispered, "the HIV clinic."
"I should've guessed when I saw that surveillance footage the night of the bombing," Jungkook muttered, spacing out, "it was a male around 1.75-1.80 metres tall with a slim and athletic build. The body looked so familiar, but I didn't want to believe it was someone I knew. Someone I trusted."
"Not to mention, he tried to stop us from listening to the vintage record before it could reveal the location of the bombing," Jin pointed out, looking appalled.
"So, this entire time, you have been playing both sides and trying to make our groups suspicious of one another. And to be fair, you were doing a good job at it. We probably would've went after each other if we weren't forced to work together on this current mission," Jimin said.
"Ah yes, the current mission," Yoongi laughed, "let's talk about that. You see, we could've continued planning little events to seek little bits of revenge at a time, but that wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as possessing a piece of evidence that contained every single one of your secrets. Evidence we could use to cleanly and lawfully bring you to justice and burn your companies to ashes. So, imagine our excitement when the National Intelligence service came to you with this mission."
Taehyung sighed, his eyes looking distant as he began talking as if he was reciting something, "'the only thing I know is that they're looking for a piece of information that can destroy the Parks and Jeons. It's not just the Parks that are being targeted but a national agenda.'"
"That's what our hostage revealed that night," Jennie said, understanding beginning to colour her sharp features.
"And just as he was about to reveal more information, you shot him," Bogum stated, his expression cold.
"That dumbass was about to ruin our entire plan, of course I had to kill him," Yoongi replied almost proudly.
"So, is this what you want?" Jennie asked, waving the hard drive up in the air like a toy.
While the groups were talking, Chaeyoung could feel Yoongi's grip around her neck become looser. The more he talked and focused on explaining their 'genius' plan, the more wiggle room she had.
While this was all happening, with her peripheral vision, she could see that Chanyeol, who had been silent all night, had sneakily picked up an extra gun from the corner of the room and held it behind his back. Eventually, she managed to make eye contact with him and tried to send a silent message. He caught her eye and she nodded, as if signalling for him to shoot.
Two seconds later and he shot a bullet straight through Hoseok's chest, causing Yoongi to whip his head around in disbelief. Chaeyoung took this opportunity to elbow him in the ribs as hard as she could, sending him wavering back and allowing her to wriggle out of his hold to run free.
It was chaos after that. As soon as Chaeyoung managed to escape, the Phoenixes and Griffins hurled themselves towards Yoongi and his pack, tackling them to get rid of their weapons. Some of them picked up their weapons and began shooting. She'd never heard so many bullets being shot at once, as she took cover in the corner of the room. Placing her hands over her ears, she watched in horror as bodies fell to the ground and fists flew everywhere. The cement ground and the white walls soon became splattered with ruby-red splotches of blood and the smell of gunpowder overwhelmed her senses. It was absolutely terrifying.
~*~
~*~
Eventually, most of Yoongi's men had been defeated, while most of the Phoenixes and Griffins were still standing. Namjoon, Baekhyun, Bambam, and Bogum had been injured pretty bad, but none of their injuries seemed fatal.
Taehyung had just shot one of the Pharmacists and turned around to find himself face-to-face with their leader, Junho. They both had their guns pointed at each other, their breathing heavy and laboured from the longevity of the fight.
"Somehow, I knew we'd meet again," Junho stated with a bitter laugh.
Taehyung shot him a glare, "I was hoping we would. I have something to give you."
With that Taehyung dropped his gun and swung his fist directly to the left side of Junho's face, catching him off guard and causing him to stagger backwards against the wall. After that, it was a raw fist fight – with no weapons.
Taehyung could feel the bruises forming on his body as he suffered blow after blow from Junho. It was a pretty evenly matched brawl, with Taehyung throwing a punch and Junho returning it promptly. After a couple minutes; however, Taehyung managed to tackle him to the ground, hearing Junho's back slam against the hard concrete and his head strike the ground with a revolting crack. A couple more punches and Junho was completely unconscious.
"I told you, you'd regret that punch that day," Taehyung shook his head, beginning to rise to his feet – feeling a little dizzy as he did so.
Just as he got up, with the corner of his eye, he noticed Yoongi holding up a gun. Taehyung whipped his head around, his eyes growing wide when he saw who the gun was aimed at. Without a second of hesitation, he hurled his body forward, in front of the gun, just in time for Yoongi to pull the trigger.
A loud gunshot echoed through the room and rang in his ears. At that point everything seemed like it was moving in slow motion. He thought he faintly heard another gunshot but didn't have time to process it as he looked down in shock at his bloody chest, where the bullet had pierced through him. He brought his hands up – staring at the blood that soaked them in astonishment. His eyes searched the area for a pair of chocolate brown eyes, relieved to finally find them in the back of the room – among a pile of dead bodies. Except, her eyes were wide with fear and clouded with tears. He'd never seen them bear such pain before, and he hated that he was the one who'd caused it.
"Tae!" she screamed in horror just as he sank to the ground.
~*~
Chaeyoung's worst nightmare had come true. With a feeling of doom, she watched Taehyung throw himself in front of Jimin's body, where Yoongi had his gun aimed. She wanted to scream at them to get out of the way, she wanted to kill Yoongi with her bare hands, and more than anything she wished she were the one standing in their place. But, she was completely paralyzed, refusing to believe what was happening, and trying to convince herself that things would be okay. She felt like her world was ending when she saw the bullet pierce frighteningly close, if not through, Taehyung's heart. The sound echoed in her ears like a deafening song of death – a sound that would haunt her for the rest of her life. It was only when he met her eyes across the room that she began to truly grasp the reality of the situation. Taehyung had been shot.
"Tae!" a painful scream managed to escape her throat when his body fell to the ground.
Right after Yoongi fired that bullet, Jungkook shot him in the chest – causing him to fall down immediately with the rest of his men. At that moment, everyone realized what had happened and gasped in horror. Jennie covered her mouth with her hand, tears springing to her eyes as Jimin caught Taehyung's body – supporting his head against his legs while his eyes filled with tears of their own. The rest of the Griffins sank to the ground beside him, concern and fear evident on their faces. Even the Phoenixes crowded around him, looking distraught.
Chaeyoung walked towards the crowd like a zombie, her steps feeling heavy and her heart dropping the closer she got. Her throat felt tight and complete sorrow flushed through her veins. Flashbacks of the camping trip when he'd dislocated his arm invaded her thoughts. She remembered how scared she was back then, but this feeling was a hundred times worse.
'You, stupid little piece of – how could you even think of dying?'
'It's going to happen eventually.'
'You're not going to fucking die. Not today."
When she finally reached him and saw the amount of blood soaking through his shirt, the wind got knocked out of her and her knees became weak. She slumped to the ground beside him, automatically placing her hands over his wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Her chest trembled as choked tears continuously streamed down her face and dripped on his chest.
"Chaeng," he said with a weak smile, covering her hand with one of his, his blood staining both their hands bright-red.
"Don't talk," she whispered, looking up at him but only seeing the blurry outline of his features through her teary eyes, "you're going to be okay. We're going to be okay."
"Chaeyoung," he said, beginning to gasp for air, "every day I've spent with you has been the greatest day of my life."
She closed her eyes, her chest feeling heavy and her eyes burning as her body shook with uncontrollable sobs, "Tae, stop trying to say goodbye. You're not going anywhere."
"Shh," he hushed her gently, "just let me finish. I don't have much time."
"Tae!" her hands clutched his chest and her body trembled, the tears bursting through her eyes like water from a dam.
"I've been lucky enough to love you for half my life, Chaeyoung. And now, it's only fair to allow someone else that pleasure," he said with a bittersweet smile, his eyes glossy as they bore into hers, "I'll look for you first in my next life."
"Tae," she shook her head at him, her eyes desperately searching his for a thread of hope, "don't leave me."
He smiled at her sadly, his hand shaking as he raised it to gently stroke her cheek, "if you're still Park Chaeyoung in the next life, then I'll still be your Tae. I love you."
And then his hand dropped and his eyelids fluttered closed.
"No, no, no!" Chaeyoung screamed, trying to shake his limp body, feeling like she was suffocating and unable to breath when he didn't respond. Complete and utter pain overwhelmed all her other emotions. She felt like her world had just crumbled right in front of her.
"I love you too," she whispered.
But it was too late. He was gone.
~*~
~*~
A/N: I was sobbing the entire time I was writing this. Please don't hate me! But, the story isn't done yet, so keep reading to see how everything comes to a close.