Joon didn't know who to strangle first.
Jungkook and Taehyung lumbered out of their fighter jets, looking sweaty and aged. Jungkook had wrapped a towel around his neck and was wiping his face down with it. Tae was running his fingers nervously through his sticky hair. Neither of them seemed capable of looking Joon in the face.
"Do you have...any idea...."
Tae and Jungkook stopped, folded their hands in front of themselves with their legs parted shoulder width apart. They stared submissively at the floor.
"We had a specific plan." Joon swerved. "How is it that you can never seem to stick to the script, Kim Taehyung?"
Tae swallowed.
Jungkook's eyes glanced to the left where his friend stood, then back down to the hangar floor.
Joon approached Tae. He sucked on his cheek as he searched for the right words. Joon leaned in over Tae, but didn't touch him. Joon began in a threatening stage whisper, "Do you have any idea what you've just done? Do you have ANY. IDEA. WHAT YOU HAVE JUST DONE?"
Tae didn't even flinch.
Jungkook looked up and started, "Joon-hyung, it wasn't just--"
"I wasn't talking to you," Joon snapped.
Jungkook fell silent and averted his eyes again.
Kim Namjoon turned back to Tae's drooped head. He put his hands firmly on Tae's shoulders.
"Kim Taehyung, your flight privedlges are being revoked."
"Wait a second...!"
Joon held up a hand, and Jungkook shut up.
"Your flight privileges are being revoked until further notice. Until you can prove that you know how to follow directions. Even if Essem Fortress declares war on our asses, you aren't touching a fighter jet until I give you the damn say-so. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir."
Guilt and anger swelled in the pit of Jungkook's stomach. It wasn't just Tae's fault! So why was Joon acting like it was?!
All three of their black wristbands vibrated and flickered with a small light, interrupting their tense moment.
Joon tapped his. A holographic notification peeled across his arm. Kookie and Tae saw it on their own forearms, too.
"We're being hailed," Kookie said quietly.
"By Petra," Joon clarified. "This day couldn't get any worse."
The three of them ran to the control room.
____
Petra had a sickeningly sweet smile on her face when it flashed across the control room's main screen. "Kim. Nam. Joon."
Jungkook and Tae stood just out of view, but they crowded near the doorway of the control room to watch the conversation unfold.
"What a pleasant surprise," Joon said, sounding neither surprised nor pleasant.
"Well when you didn't call like you said you would," she put a seductive whine in her words, "I decided to take matters into my own hands."
Joon didn't even flinch. "Let's arrange that meeting, then."
She gave a raspy, low laugh. "Next Thursday is grand. 3 o'clock?"
"Done." He was ready to have this conversation end.
"Great." She smiled wickedly. "I shall look forward to it. But, Joonie, before we go I do have one other question."
"Yes?"
"I just want to know...why you attacked one of my allies today? That certainly wasn't very nice of you to do." She giggled.
"Attacked?"
"Oh, I do love it when you play coy."
Joon cleared his throat.
Petra continued, "Essem Fortress is a part of my coalition. If you want to be, too, you can't be throwing stones back and forth on a whim, now can you?"
"No."
"And...if you're throwing stones, how can I convince them that we should let you in our little group? You've created a bit of a pickle for me."
"I'm very sorry. It was purely accident."
She smiled devilishly. "I was hoping that it wasn't. I do love a rebel."
"It was never our intention to do any real damage. Just responding to a threat they initiated. That's all."
"Oh, you mean that little drone? They may have sent that your way, but they didn't initiate it. I did." She giggled. "I like to know what I'm investing in." She crinkled her nose in a playful grin. "You understand, don't you?"
Kim Namjoon didn't know what to say to this.
She continued flippantly, "You passed the test, we'll say. Just do be a doll and steer clear of rattling Essem's cage until we meet next week, will you? Dee-Oh is quite the handful when he's upset." She sighed. "What's a girl to do?"
Joon answered sharply, "We promise not to engage in any more threatening behavior towards them henceforth. You can be sure of that."
She smiled in satisfaction. "Grand. Well, I look forward to spending time next week with you and your pet." She waved a hand in playful, girlish whimsy at the screen. "Until then, Joonie."
The screen BLIPPED into clear emptiness.
Joon sighed, his hands and shoulders falling forward as he leaned into the back of a control room chair.
"We really are sorry," Jungkook said.
Tae said nothing.
"Just. Leave me alone. Please."
Joon didn't look up from the floor as his hands gripped the seat back even tighter, his tanned knuckles turning white.
Tae was unmoving and blank faced, staring at Noon Mool's not-so-fearless leader.
Jungkook started pulling Tae out of the control room by the shoulders.
Tae shrugged Jungkook's hands roughly away. He turned and strode away in a brooding storm of his own, utterly silent.
Jungkook looked down the hallway at Tae's back, then into the control room at Joon and his slumping dissapointment.
In that moment... Jungkook deeply missed the rebellious Jung Hoseok and Min Yoongi. They would have been able to help him make sense of this mess, he thought.
They would have known how to fix this.
Jungkook? He wasn't so sure.