Here's the bonus chapter I promised a while back! Sorry it took so long, but I was trying to decide what I wanted to do and then the holidays hit and I had to take care of my family. It's fluffy, so I hope you like it!
Also, thank you guys so much for getting Bulletproof up to almost 6k reads! I can't believe this little potato of a story has had so many people read it! You guys are the best!
The next morning, I discovered a downfall to sleeping in the countryside.
Nature was fucking loud.
I had grown accustomed to the sounds of the city during my year on the streets and had to adjust to the relative silence that surrounded me at the mansion. Which meant my ears were no longer used to noise so early in the morning. Especially birds. And squirrels. The noisy little shits. It was sometime around sunrise that I struggled out of the sheets and made my way into the kitchen where Jin was already up and making breakfast. Because of course he was.
I glared at his insanely broad shoulders for a minute until he turned and caught me staring. He lifted an eyebrow and quirked a little smile before turning and grabbing a cup of what I assumed was coffee.
"Morning, Sunshine," he said with a smile in his voice. He was annoyingly chipper for so early in the morning. I just grumbled in his general direction and took the coffee while trying my best not to spill it on either of us.
"I wish you'd knocked me out last night, too. A coma would've been more restful."
"Aw, nature doesn't agree with you?"
I glared at him over the top of my coffee. "How does it agree with you so well? Didn't you grow up in the city?"
"Well, yes and no. After my father was killed, my mother and siblings had to leave because of the bounty on our heads. This was the cabin we came to. I lived here for about two years before going back."
"Oh, I didn't know you had other family around," I said, leaning back against the counter as Jin turned away to focus on the food. His shoulders slumped just slightly and the coffee I'd just gulped down hit my stomach like a rock.
"I don't. Not anymore."
His words were pained and raw. There was no sadness in them, or even anger, but they were full of emotion that I couldn't begin to understand. If I had to guess, it was regret. Which was the closest emotion I could empathize with.
"They found you."
His head bobbed up and down, but he made no sound for a few minutes. When he spoke again, his voice was softer like it was a thousand miles away.
"We were happy here. Almost like a real family. We could have stayed forever if they had never found us. But they did and I was the only one to survive. And that was just by accident. If Suho's father hadn't come when he did..." Jin shrugged.
"Wait. Suho from the auction house?"
"Yeah," Jin said as he pulled a couple plates from the cabinets. "He took me into his house and brought me back to life. I spent a few months in their house, which is why we're allies. I couldn't bring myself to fight them if I had to. They saved my life."
I took the plate he offered and followed him into the living room where we sat and ate in silence. I couldn't imagine what he'd been through. After we finished, he leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. He propped his elbow up on the arm of the chair and held his chin between his fingers as he stared at the wall. Finally, he blinked and rubbed his forehead like he was just remembering where he was.
"Anyway. When you're ready, I've set something up for you in the other room."
Jin always seemed so put together. Even after talking about something as painful as losing his family, he was calm and collected. Well-adjusted. At least for someone who could kill as easily as I'd seen him do it. I wasn't nearly as sane. How he could go through that and still be such a warm person was impressive. He was my new role model.
I cleaned my plate quickly and got a glass of water before motioning for him to lead the way. He smiled shyly and walked through a door off the kitchen that I had assumed was a closet. It turned out to be a small office set up with a state-of-the-art collection of computer equipment. A CPU hummed to life next to the desk while a computer screen clicked on. Jin motioned me forward, so I sat down in the seat provided. I let out something like a squeak, though, when he dropped to the floor beside me without warning and crawled up under the desk.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I figure you'll need all the screens to go through all the information on that drive, so I'm hooking them up."
I looked up at the single screen glowing in front of me and let my mouth drop open as one-by-one five more screens popped on. I hadn't even noticed them in the dark room. Most screens were made of TechGlass that was relatively thick, but these were made out of a material I'd never seen before. They were paper thin and glowed to life without the need to frost over. I touched the one closest to me and it burst to life with a series of colors and prompts. Jin's hand on my calf made me jump, but when I looked down and saw his grinning face between my knees, I almost had a heart attack.
"What the fuck, Jin! You can't just pop up like that out of the blue! It's fucking dark in here!"
He threw his head back and let out this high-pitched, squeaky laugh that I'd never heard before. It was a little like dragging nails across glass. He rolled backwards into the floor, still cackling like a madman.
"Well, I'm glad to see you care so much about my well being," I grumbled. I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest as I worked to hide the smile that was trying to cross my lips. His laughter was as contagious as it was unusual.
"I wish you could have seen your face," he squeaked out, before launching into more laughter. I couldn't stand it anymore and kicked my foot out, hitting him in the stomach hard enough to make him roll back over, but not hard enough to seriously hurt him.
"Hey! That's not fair," he cried as he grabbed my legs and rolled me away from the desk. Before I could react, he pulled my ankles, jerking me into the floor as he climbed on top of me. His fingers were digging into my sides, but in an unexpected way. Tension rippled through me as I felt something I had never experienced before.
Jin was tickling me.
I wriggled and writhed under his strong grip, but his legs and his weight had me pinned down and the tickling sensation made it impossible to think clear enough to fight him off. Every time I swatted his hands, he moved to another spot and tickled harder. My whole body was a raw nerve and he was exploiting every bit of it. No inch of skin was safe. My sides, my thighs, under my arms. Even the backs of my knees. Nothing was safe from his assault.
I screamed and laughed so hard, tears were streaming down my face. I tried to throw my body weight into rolling him, but he was deceptively strong and held me in place. To my horror, it was getting hard to hold my bladder and I was worried I might pee on myself right there on that cabin floor. So I did the only thing I could think of in that moment.
I tickled him back.
Jin's eyes went comically wide in something between horror and incredulity as I took a lesson from him and dug my fingertips into his side. He jerked and twitched and tried to clamp his arms down at his sides, but I wouldn't let up.
"Payback's a bitch, and so am I," I said with a malicious grin on my face before I took the first opening I saw and slipped under his arm so I could roll over on his back and get him like he did me. I went after every part of him I could reach while his glass-shattering laughter filled the room. Finally, he got his arms under him and pushed up with me still on his back, throwing me off balance. He rolled over onto his back and tried to go after me again, but I caught his wrists before he could and pinned them over his head.
Of course, that changed everything because now my chest was pressed against his and our lips were so close together, our panting breaths were mingling between us. I stared into his eyes and saw the very moment when his emotions shifted from lighthearted fun into something much, much darker. They darkened and his lids drooped just slightly and I thought for a moment what it would take to just drop down and touch my lips to his. To kiss those lips that looked so soft and plump and full of possibilities.
But this was Jin. The leader of our group. The man who'd ridden through literal fire to save me and the men he considered to be his brothers. Even knowing that what I'd shared with Taehyung and Namjoon and Jungkook had been more than just some one-night, lust-filled moments, I couldn't be just some fuck to Jin. I knew too much else now. About them. About him. About Natalia. I just couldn't be something cheap to him. I couldn't let him think of me like that. I couldn't let him think that's what I saw him as.
Licking my lips and already regretting my decision, I took a deep breath and scrambled back off of Jin, holding out my hand to help him stand up. He cleared his throat and smoothed out his t-shirt and jeans. Unable to look at him anymore with what was going on in my pants, I turned and slipped back into my chair. Jin disappeared through the door and came back a few moments later carrying the mirror drive I had managed to save. He hooked it up to the main system and I watched in awe as the entirety of the Baron's digital archives spilled across my screens. Even Jin looked stunned by what we'd managed to retrieve.
With data streams still pouring out in front of us, he reached up and squeezed my shoulder in a move that had my heart squeezing, too.
"You did it, Morgan. It's all there. Everything we've been looking for. You did it."
"We did it," I corrected as I tried to hold my trembling hands still. As much as I tried to control my excitement, I couldn't help but think maybe this was it. That this was the moment I'd finally figure out something about who I was.
But even as the thought about my past crossed my mind, I realized that nothing on that drive could tell me anything about who I was becoming.
Another note: I've been struggling with depression lately. It's something I've battled since I was in high school, but with family and financial troubles, it's been really bad this holiday season. I take medication for it, but really, seeing your reads, votes, and comments have really helped me. I love each and every one of you for your support and hope that if you ever struggle the same, I can be here to help you the way you've helped me.
I PURPLE YOU!