They would execute him in two days.
Jungkook was in his cell, nearly starving, just waiting for his head to be chopped off by sword in a matter of hours.
And you, in Namjoon's home, only a matter of feet from him.
You couldn't let him die. You were too close.
You watched the flag of the emperor fly over the prison building. Even in the darkness, it was clearly waving above the prisoners waiting for the execution block. Each snap of the flag in the wind wound up your heart a little more.
Until it completely snapped.
You waited until Namjoon slept, until the night was the darkest. You couldn't slip out the front door or your bedroom window, but the main room had a larger window you could squeeze through. With every stealth technique Hoseok had taught you, you moved down the hallway past Namjoon's door and into the main room. In the pitch black, you felt your way to the window, separating it from the wall and slipping through.
You fell to the ground, flat, waiting for any indication that Namjoon had woken up. You kept a close eye on the guards as they stood to their posts, remembering that if any of them saw you, they'd kill you per Namjoon's command.
After a minute of silence, you crawled away from the house on your elbows, the dirt shifting ever so slightly under your toes. You had no shoes - it was easier to control your sound that way - so the dirt dug into your flesh. You kept your eyes on the guards, pausing every few moments to make them doubt their senses if their eyes caught any movements.
The only things close to Namjoon's house were the training field - a wide-open space - and the main hall. You watched the guards and judged the distance between yourself and the main hall. If you could get to the walls and crouch low enough, they wouldn't see you through the windows. On the other side of the hall, the prison was a straight shot. Maybe five hundred feet.
You waited until the guards had turned to each other in conversation, then sprinted across the training ground to the hall. The adrenaline took over, but you couldn't give into it. There was a sharp pain of fear in your stomach as you dropped to the ground next to the hall, checking to see if the guards at the gate had seen you.
They were still talking.
With a quiet breath of relief, you crawled under the windows, still keeping your eyes on the guards. If you could sprint just as fast down the main path to the prison, you could --
A woman laughed.
You stopped.
You raised your head to the corner of the window, taking care not to be fully visible. You looked in the window to see a group of guards and a half dozen hostesses. They were drinking and laughing, playing in their own personal brothel. Some women even walked in and out of the main hall without any fear, stepping out into the night as if they owned the stars. The guards didn't seem to pay any attention to them.
You had seen unfamiliar shadows walk in the night before, but you were never able to identify them. You thought they were guards released from duty or some type of servants. They were hostesses? Namjoon actually allowed hostesses in the prison?
And what was more frustrating was the fact that they had more freedom than you did. They walked in the night while you crawled on the earth.
"You can join them if you want."
You spun around to the voice, meeting eye to knee with a shadow. You immediately went to sweep, and the shadow stumbled. You jumped from your position to run, but the shadow already had you by the arm.
You knew the fingers.
Namjoon spun you to look at him, and even though the moon wasn't out and the darkness was heavy, you could see the white of his skin and the frown on his face.
"I told you to come up with a better escape plan," he said.
He slid his hand down to your wrist, gripping tight, but pulling you gently towards the house.
"Wouldn't you be better off with me dead anyways?" you replied, somehow angry and defeated at the same time.
He stopped and turned to you. "Do you think I would have gone through all this trouble if that were true?"
He pulled you back into the house.
"My guards would have killed you if they caught you, Y/N," he said. "Didn't you think --"
"By your orders," you replied. "You told them to kill me if I left the house."
"If I didn't, you'd be dragged into that hall right now with the rest of the whores. I had to separate you from them so my men wouldn't take you for themselves."
You clenched your teeth. "You could stop them from coming at all."
Something gripped your stomach as you said it. The idea of Namjoon surrounded by women... women who were willing...
"They're gifts from the Emperor," he said flatly. "I couldn't ban them if I wanted to."
He hissed out the word gifts like a swear word.
Your body suddenly ached, the frustration and exhaustion overwhelming you.
"Do you really care if I'm dead or not?" you whispered.
With only the lighting from a single lantern, you couldn't tell if he was surprised or angry. By the tone of his voice, maybe it was both.
"You think I brought you here and set up a way for you to escape this hellhole of a country because I had nothing better to do with my time?" he spat.
"For five years, you did nothing --"
"I had no power!" he said, cutting you off. He stepped forward, taking your face in his hands. "I'm so sorry about your mother, Y/N. I'm so sorry. I couldn't do anything. It took me three and a half years to become Captain. By then, she had --"
"What about after?" you said, throwing off his hands. "For the last year and a half -"
"- for the last year and a half I've been bribing Jungkook's boss to pay him extra. And he wasted it!"
He stopped, taking a long breath.
"I thought of all people, he would take care of you," he continued. "Then, a month or so before I arrested him, I saw you in the market."
He swallowed, looking at you from head to toe.
"You were so thin. So was Jungkook. I couldn't understand it... Until I found the gambling ring inside the Red House. I spent a month going to that disgusting place to find a way to get him out."
He stared at you for a long moment, either waiting for your response, waiting for you to understand it, or both.
Suddenly, you remembered what Kana said about Namjoon.
That old wet blanket? Why would you ever put a beautiful girl in his company? Every time he comes in, it's like talking with a tombstone.
"Jungkook isn't your innocent little brother anymore," Namjoon said. "He's a compulsive gambler. He owes a lot of people a lot of things, and he probably did before I even got to him. When I found out that he was a regular, I went to find him." He paused. "When I did, he --"
"Stop. Stop!" you said, covering your eyes and dropping your head. It was too much information, truth or not.
It was silent for a moment, until Namjoon's warm hands came to your shoulders.
"Maybe I'm not innocent," he said, "no one is. But I don't want to be blamed for his mistakes anymore. You need to see Jungkook for who he really is. I want you to see me for who I've always been."
Taehyung's voice rang through your ears.
Don't play with the snakes, princess. You're not experienced to know which ones are harmless and which ones have venom.
Suddenly, the scar on your arm ached. You glanced at it before looking Namjoon in the eyes.
"You sent Jin to kill Kana," you said. "Why?"
He sighed. "Kana sent the ambush against the Rebellion."
"What do you mean?"
He shifted his weight. "A woman like Kana doesn't get into her business based on morality. I don't know if you've noticed, but the emperor has a high reward for the heads of the Rebellion."
You were starting to get nauseous.
"So you had her killed?" You shook your head. "You killed a woman?"
He gave a sharp nod. "In my business, an evil woman dies for her sins the same as an evil man. If I let her free, then eventually you... eventually, the Rebellion would be slaughtered."
Your knees started to slack. Namjoon held you up, looking at you with concern. You looked back, trying to figure out who you were looking at.
"...who are you?" you asked, voice cracking.
He smiled, his warm hands squeezing your shoulders gently. "I am who I've always been."
You shook your head at him again, the last bit of resistance dissolving. "No. Namjoon is dead."
He grabbed your hand and put it against his chest, his heartbeat pounding against it.
"I'm very much alive," he said close to your ear. "Even more now that you're with me."
His fingertips traced your jaw, the touch burning your skin. His arm wrapped around your waist and he pulled you closer, his hair brushing against your cheek. When he leaned in, you pulled back.
"Don't..." you said, softer than you wanted.
His fingers dug into your back.
"Why?" he growled. "Because I'm not him?"
There was a string of pain mixed in with the anger in his voice. Part of you wanted to explain your real relationship to Hoseok... but the other part of you didn't know the answer either.
"It has nothing to do with him," you said honestly. "It has to do with you. In all the time we spent together, you never acted like this. You never said these types of things or touched...like this..."
You stumbled through your words as his fingers ran through your hair.
"That was before I lived in a world where there are no chances for last words," he said.
The lantern caught his eyes - eyes that were so harsh and deep in the daylight. But in the night, this close to you, you saw the deep pain in them; the exhaustion, the determination, and the fear.
You saw Namjoon.
"I have to be more dangerous than the wicked to survive," he said. "One day, they'll find my weaknesses and tear me apart. Before that time comes, I want to show you how I feel. How I've always felt."
He leaned in again. You shut your eyes.
A knock pounded the door.
Namjoon's breath pulled back, and you opened your eyes again as his arms released you.
Namjoon threw the door open. "What the hell —"
A wave of heat hit you as the door opened. The room filled with light.
Fire. Everything was on fire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOUNDTRACK: On His Knees by Danny Elfman