Jaebeom rushed Jinyoung in as blood rushed down his left cheek, like a tear. The younger man had a hold of the other side of his face. "I guess I... fell?"
Yugyeom stood completely still by Bambam. He could tell, from the way Jinyoung moved, that the injury wasn't too threatening. It wasn't necessarily rare for one of their members to get injured, either, so he wasn't too alarmed at what had happened as compared to what could have happened. Jinyoung had been alone- Yugyeom considered him lucky to have received only a minor head injury (he now saw it was a scratch across his forehead, one that would scar).
Behind him, Mark finally peeked out his head with wide eyes. "Oh, no," he whispered, mostly to himself, "if we hadn't separated, this would never have happened." Bambam pouted, (quite adorably, Yugyeom might add) and squeaked "Awe, no way!" to Mark. Yugyeom knew one of Bambam's most basic desires was to be a person capable of comforting anyone. While Yugyeom found him to be the best medicine, Mark's unresponsive behavior implied that Bambam might need a little more practice before mastering this 'skill'.
Jinyoung, now more alert, rolled his eyes dramatically at the once again receding Mark. "Don't say that TV drama bull crap. If you had been there, you just might have gotten hurt too. It's a relief that I was alone."
Bambam rose and paced to Jinyoung, sitting beside him on the bed where Jaebeom was cleaning his wound. "What happened?"
Jinyoung cast his eyes upward, in deep thought. "I suppose it could have been an ambush. It might have been an accident just as easily, though." He shook his head. "I don't want to think about it. There's no valuable information to take from it, so don't even try to pry."
Mark came out from under the table and hoisted himself up to sit on top of it, his small frame not causing much distress on the weak legs of the furniture. At about the same time, Youngjae stirred and poked his head out from under the blanket, a drowsy, lost look on his face.
"What happened?"
Jaebeom rushed to Youngjae's side and explained things to him as the younger rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Jinyoung, meanwhile, was twiddling his fingers with deep contemplation written over his features. Yugyeom couldn't tell if he was worried, scared, indifferent, or anything else.
"It's gone to hell in a hand basket around here..." Bambam muttered, raising his hand to gesture Yugyeom toward the open spot beside him on the bed. Yugyeom complied obediently, relaxing beside Bambam as if it was second nature. And it was.
He couldn't-- wouldn't-- didn't want to think about how things had gone to "hell in a hand basket". He had gradually gotten used to the feeling of a teammate coming back partially injured, or even drastically as he had been, but being with Bambam made him feel different. Before they had revealed their identities, Yugyeom had felt comfort knowing he could go home and temporarily forget all the pain with Bambam.
Now, that wouldn't be possible.
Bambam, seemingly reading his expression, tilted his head in such a position that he looked at Yugyeom more directly. "Hey," he said, "You okay?"
Yugyeom put a hand to his forehead and nodded. "Yeah. Just... overwhelmed." He knew, reasonably, that things had been worse. There had already been times where there seemed to be no hope on missions before. But this one felt different. He felt that every detail he didn't know- Mnet's plans, Jackson's true intentions- would contribute to another lost life.
This was a big deal they had been entrusted with, and he was beginning to feel that they weren't ready. If Jinyoung could be so dazed, if Mark and Bambam could be so easily charmed by Jackson, maybe they weren't ready to be South Korea's super heroes quite yet. Maybe the battle against corruption would have to wait.
But it couldn't. And as Jaebeom's work phone began to ring, Yugyeom knew that his gut feelings would have no significance in this matter.
"It's headquarters." Jaebeom buried the phone in of the pockets on his black cargo pants, and buttoned it. "They sent information about Mama. Looks like the event has been pushed up- we leave for mission in two hours. Prepare yourselves"
"Kim Yugyeom. Look at me right in the eyes." Yugyeom, sitting on the edge of the bed in his and Bambam's hotel room, turned from packing his gear into a backpack and looked at Bambam.
The Thai boy had been standing by the desk, but was now walking to Yugyeom, his eyes full of an inexplicable emotion. He stood in front of Yugyeom and pressed his hands on the younger's cheeks, squishing them together fondly. "I don't want to lose you. Be careful out there."
Yugyeom released the knife from his hands onto the bed and instead moved them to rest on Bambam's own. "I won't let my guard down at any point, don't worry." He grabbed Bambam's hands and moved them down to his lap, holding them still in his. "But you... You have to be safe too."
Bambam nodded, but only slightly. "Of course." He pulled his hands out gently and didn't say a word until they had both finished packing and were heading to the door.
The others were already standing outside. "We brief in the van," Mark explained, seeing Yugyeom's confusion about why everyone was leaving with no explanation.
Mark drove, and Jaebeom sat in the passenger's seat, holding a large tablet up with a map on it. "First, Yugyeom and Bambam, you two will head here," he pointed to an alleyway beside the large stadium where Mnet would be held, "and take the side entry. Scout and report back to Youngjae and I what you see." Bambam and Yugyeom said "Yes, sir!" in unison, by habit more than anything.
"Mark, since you can speak Chinese, we need you to go undercover as a Chinese businessman, here for deals- Jinyoung will act as your foreign boyfriend. Jinyoung, try and remember at least the basic Chinese that we learned at the academy, okay?"
Jinyoung, sitting in the left of the backseat, rolled his eyes and muttered "of course," grabbing an envelope from Jaebeom that held information about his and Mark's new identities.
Jaebeom said a quick "oh, yeah," and handed a phone to Yugyeom beside the seat. "Call SKZ and Twice, we'll probably need the backup."
Yugyeom nodded and opened the phone (it was an old flip phone, probably a disposable one) and typed in SKZ number, one ingrained into his mind. "Hello?"
"Chan! This is Yug- Er, Browny." Yugyeom had forgotten that his time in incognito wasn't quite up yet.
"Did you need something?" Chan's voice was all business, as the leader of the other group.
"We're heading to the Mama meeting place right now, Jaebeom should have sent the details to you already. I just need to confirm that you're coming as back-up, because goodness knows we'll need it."
"We'll be right there."
"Thank you so much." Yugyeom hung up and quickly repeated about the same process with Twice's leader, Jihyo.
He handed the phone to Jaebeom, who flipped the top of the phone up and over the back, using his strength the split the phone in half.
Yugyeom snorted. "Was that really necessary?"
"It makes him feel powerful." Jinyoung snickered. "I am powerful, you fool." Jaebeom corrected, tossing the dinosaur corpse of the phone into the floorboard.
Yugyeom smiled and turned to see Bambam, who was sitting behind him, to make a joke or say something else along with the banter, but the older was staring out the window in deep thought.
"Bam?" Yugyeom asked, worried. "Are you okay?"
Bambam jumped a little and nodded quickly at Yugyeom. "Oh, yes, I'm fine." Yugyeom didn't believe him, and said as much.
"I'm just worried. Especially now that it's... you."
Yugyeom breathed out a little bit, and shook his head. "I already said I'll be fine." He reached his pinkie finger back to Bambam. "Pinkie promise?"
"That isn't good enough!" Bambam spoke with an angry harshness that caught Yugyeom off guard. "A pinkie promise won't deflect more glass or bullets or- or anything like that!"
Yugyeom sunk in his seat a little. "I don't know what else to tell you, though..."
Bambam was taken aback at Yugyeom's reaction, and shook his head quickly. "It's not that, I-"
Youngjae cleared his throat, staring at a bird out the window intently. "We're here."
"Oh." Bambam shook his hands out in front of him in preparation. "Well, let's go, then."
it's been a while! i just had a lil left in this draft so i whipped it out ;) i havent read the past chapter in detail in a while sooooo if things are inconsistent just yell @ me and hopefully ill see you in less than 6 months next time