Y/n's legs tremble beneath her. Her diaphragm punches her lungs over and over, forcing them to suck in air. The tears have finally stopped, but the emotion behind them remains. When the door in front of her opens, she doesn't think twice before falling into the man's chest and embracing him tightly. He doesn't stop to question her and gently wraps an arm around her waist. He pulls her inside his flat and shuts the door behind her.
Half supporting and half escorting her, he leads Y/n to take a seat on his couch. A blanket finds its way around her shoulders just as a glass finds itself in her hands. The man sits across from her. His black hair is out of place and his tie is missing from the front of his striped shirt. A meow can be heard from the kitchen. Jumin sits across from Y/n and fills her glass with one of his many bottles of red wine. "I said my door was open, but I didn't expect this."
Y/n gratefully takes a sip of the drink. It's exquisite. And utterly expensive. She's unable to even express its flavor with her simple vocabulary. "I didn't either," she sigh and pulls the soft grey blanket tighter around her. The tears well up again, but she blinks them away. "I didn't want for things to go like this..."
"Then how did you want them to go?" The question is so simple that it stuns Y/n into a silence. All she wanted was to be around him. To be able to pull him close and to have him be a permanent presence in her life. She didn't want to let him go. She wanted to be together.
Reason hits her like cold ice. If she felt that way, she should have told him. There's no way that he could've ever understood what she wanted if she didn't tell him. Jumin crosses his legs and puts his empty wine glass down. He didn't even have time to serve himself. "It seems you have found your answer."
Her fingers knot around the neck of the glass. Y/n takes a sip, then laughs. Did I really waste five months of my time over something so simple? She downs the rest of the glass in a single gulp and reaches for the bottle. Only, Jumin grabs it before her and takes it to the kitchen. "I'll bring you a glass of water."
"Thanks, that's probably for the better." Y/n sighs and sets down her glass. She was just a mess a few minutes before. Is this the efficiency of the infamous Jumin Han at work? "I didn't expect to stop crying this quickly. Do you always solve emotional problems this fast?"
"I wasn't the one who solved it." He comes back to from the kitchen and hands her the promised glass of water. "I merely gave you a question to lead you to introspection. Not everyone is able to find the answer within themselves that quickly." He takes a seat opposite her and a white ball of fluff climbs into his lap. "Consider it a compliment to your own character."
"You're kind, Jumin." The water is refreshing. Through a crack in the curtains she can see the city lights just like she could in the office. If she could go back to when she first saw Saeran today, would she have been able to do things differently? ...The answers to such kinds of questions hardly matter. All that matters is what she does going forward. "Did you help V like this too?"
Jumin shakes his head. "I've made my attempts, but it seems that he's decided on making himself into the villain." The cat puts as he rubs her head gently. "He's stubborn and distorts reality in his own head. The only one who will be able to help him is himself."
Before Y/n gets to ask more about that, her phone begins to ring loudly in her pocket. She sighs. "Excuse me." Y/n quickly pulls out the device flashing device and presses it to her ear. It's Seven. "Hello?"
"Oh, Y/n, thank god!"
Y/n's eyebrows immediately knot at the worry in his voice. The clicking of a keyboard can be heard in the background. "What's going on?"
"Do you know where Ray is? I can't find him anywhere and he's not picking up my calls."
"What? You don't think anything bad happened to him, do you?" Her mind runs a mile a minute and her heart begins a pick up its pace, adrenaline coursing through her. "I saw him at my apartment, maybe he's still there?"
"He's not. He left around fifteen minutes after you, but he wasn't acting normal!"
Y/n's heart sinks in her chest. "What's- What's the worst case scenario? He's an adult, he'll be fine, right? Maybe he just went out for a walk." She clutches the blanket tightly. Saeran. When she left, how did he look again? He was unable to say anything his eyes were blank. She left him alone. He looked broken. Broken. "Seven say something! Please tell me whatever it is you're thinking!"
Seven sucks in a breath in the other line. "I looked back on the footage outside your house and he was mumbling." A pause. His voice lowers. Softens. "He was saying that he didn't deserve to ———— anymore. That the only thing someone like him should do is ———."
She refuses to hear it. She refuses to let it be true. She refuses.
"Jumin, can I borrow your car?" Although his eyes widen slightly, the man gives her no resistance. He gently removes Elizabeth from his lap and leaves to fetch his keys. Y/n's fingers clutch her phone. "Seven, I'll be right there."