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damn-stark · 5 months

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Chapter 20 Intergalactic

Chapter 20 of Sugar

A/N- I know Uraume’s gender is not disclosed but they’re still mother, so, mother vs mother off this chapter

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!, fluff?, Violence, death, blood and gore, spoilers, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, Kenjaku being weird, long chapter, and we start switching to the manga now too!!

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- 2x22-2x23, and chapter 138 from the manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

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Breathe. Breathe…

Think with both the heart and mind, even if you’re pissed over Noritoshi Kamo possessing Suguru’s body, even if you’re in agony and mad at yourself for not being able to save Nanako and Mimiko. And even if you’re directing all that boiling anger to the man making a living hell you have to be rational just like you’ve been taught.

Yet when you step into the crater left behind by the chaos that transcended today, all you feel is raging anger at the sight of Noritoshi Kamo. Even if he’s in Suguru’s body and you love him, after what happened earlier, after he took Satoru, all you feel is hatred for this man.

It actually reminds you of a quote you like by Edgar Allen Poe, “years of love have been forgot, in the hatred of minute”, because all you want to do is kill him.

“You really are a relentless one, aren't you? It must run in the family,” Noritoshi announces your entrance and makes everyone's eyes that were trained on him fall on you, a ghost, the woman who is supposed to be dead.

“Smile,” he quips at you with a growing malicious smirk, “aren't you happy to see me?”

You stop striding and narrow your gaze to a burning glare. “No,” you grimace and curl your hand into a fist. “But when we cross paths in hell maybe then I will.”

Noritoshi snickers. “You’re going to have to wait a long time before I show up.”

You smirk and tap into your fire-cursed technique, causing the dragon mark on your arm to glow and making the veins under your skin glow as flames lick your flesh, craving to release.

“I don't mind waiting,” you counter.

“Y/N?!”

You drift your eyes to where your name is being called and see Itadori on his knee, covered in blood, and with half of his jacket torn. He looks baffled upon seeing you on your two feet and breathing—Which you’re surprised you are too, but regardless, past the blood and the determination painted over his face, you see relief and exhaustion. So you break the scowl on your face and offer him a small smirk.

Itadori offers you a small nod in return, and you proceed to look past him, catching Panda in his gorilla form, and another teenager you don't recognize. Past them, you see Kusakabe, Utahime, and two other students with them. All of whom look just as baffled to see you.

So it makes you wonder who all thinks you're dead; Nanami?

Where is he by the way you wonder since you don't see him here, and knowing him he'd be on the frontlines trying to protect who he can.

Unless he's hurt.

Is he hurt?

If he is, Shoko’s got him.

“Hey, Choso,” Noritoshi cuts you from your stupor, making you look to your side to see that Choso finally caught up.

When you made it past the veil and saw all the destruction, and the giant crater on the ground that looked almost apocalyptic, you went a bit overzealous and ran faster than you should have, leaving Choso behind.

“Looks like you’ve realized it,” Noritoshi adds nonchalantly, whereas Choso is panting and enraged.

So much so that you hear him grind his teeth from where you stand before he bellows, “so that's how it is! Noritoshi Kamo!”

Said man doesn't give any reaction, he doesn't flinch to start an attack, he's overly calm and collected.

“It's not above you to ally yourself with the stray, huh, Y/N?” Noritoshi directs at you as he drifts his eyes over to you.

You clench your jaw at the sound of your name coming out of his lips and snap back. “Don't talk to me like you know me, Kamo.”

Noritoshi huffs. “Noritoshi Kamo is merely one of the many names I’ve had,” he retorts. “Call me whatever you like.”

“How dare you,” Choso growls. “How dare you make me try to kill Itadori?! My little brother!

You watch him walk ahead without giving any thought to what he wants to do, which is dangerous regardless of how strong he might be, or how vengeful he might feel at the moment, so you try to interject, “Choso, wait.”

You go after him, but when you reach his side you both stop when a small figure with white hair, dressed in monk’s garments, menacingly slides in front of Noritoshi out of the blue.

They then quickly stand up straight and immediately imbue their hand with cursed energy.

“Stand down, third-rate,” they grimace. “Don’t keep me waiting any longer.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion to what they just said whilst you make your flames begin to lick the surface of your palm.

“Move it!” Choso exclaims angrily with a swing of his hand. “I’m his older brother!”

“Feeling scared there Noritoshi?” You tease the man in your husband's body. “You need a little nun to come fight for you?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Scared of what? You? I know all your moves, this body turned you into the sorcerer you are.”

You fist your hand and laugh. “Half true, sure, but you forget who really turned me into the sorcerer I am. She deserves the credit, she taught me a lot more than he could, but you can underestimate me if you want.” You sigh and rest your hand on your hip as you slide your eyes to the person with white hair and a red stain on their short bob.

“You,” you point your chin at them and shoot them a sweet smile. “Why don’t you come here and I’ll give you some sugar, honey,” you speak in a silky voice and raise your other hand to blow them a kiss.

“Huh? How dare you speak to me like half-wit,” they snarl.

You smirk and feel Choso’s eyes on you so you return his gaze, but then proceed to spare Itadori a glance, seeing him look baffled by who you're standing by and by what’s unfolding. Yet there’s no time to explain, just to demonstrate, so you look back at Choso and share a short determined look that makes him step forward and raise blood off the ground to spin it elegantly around him as he summons it all to his hands.

When the blood is in between his palms, you see steam rise out of the gaps between his hands before he suddenly shoots it in the blink of an eye, managing to impale it through the hands of the person beside Noritoshi.

All while the man himself jumps out of the way, making you walk past Choso’s back to face Noritoshi with flames slowly imbuing your hand.

Noritoshi sees you and prepares to counter, but you discreetly use your feet on the ground instead and kick over spikes that move underground. And when they’re behind him they pop out and shoot at him from behind, however, he dodges your attack just like you thought he would and slides away, right into the spot Choso carves out with his blood.

Which is fucking impressive. The magnitude and power of his blood are truly astonishing, and the fact that he uses it to shoot the earth beneath Noritoshi hundreds of feet into the air using just his blood is amazing. You can’t help but watch him with slight awe as he quickly chases after Noritoshi all the way to the top.

Albeit since he does leave, you’re left behind with the monk.

“It’s just you and me now,” you direct at them and slide one foot back to position yourself in a fighting stance.

“Let’s make this quick,” they quip and lift their head to blow out a mist into the sky.

You blink in confusion and lift your gaze. And just as you look up you smirk as you catch sharp icicles raining down.

Thus before they can hit you, you throw your hands up to shoot fire out and burn through the hard ice, making sparks fly out like fireworks at first contact before those icicles turn to water you pull down to form into an orb in between your palms.

“So it is true you are a pest,” they grimace and harden their scowl.

You hum in agreement and then break into a sprint towards them.

They don’t falter and mirror your actions.

Just as you’re going to meet halfway, you summon a gust of air to mix with the water and shape it into sharp needles before you blast it at their stomach, considering air and water don’t mix well and normally hurt when they’re both together and angry.

Yet they of course counter you perfectly and freeze the water before shaping it into a blade in their palm. And since you’re close to clashing against them you slide forward on your feet.

They quickly swing down when you’re close, but you meet their attack with your hands basked by flames, causing the ice to halt in your hands as it begins to melt instead of hurting you.

However, they are strong, and the ice they can make is a perfect counter to all four of your elements. Besides, it seems that they might be older than they look, so they’re wiser and stronger than meets the eye. Defeating them won’t be easy, even if you see their wounded hand falter and twitch.

“You know what, I like you,” you let them know. “You’re the first person I know with a technique similar to mine. It’s too bad we’re on opposing sides.”

They push you down harder, making your legs bend, but you continue trying to push their ice blade up.

“Do you usually talk so much?” They spat at you.

“Depends,” you say, and tilt your head while you pull back your fire-wrapped fist, making them ready to counter.

However, instead, you make a thin pillar of the ground blast out from beneath them and smash it over their torso, causing them to be thrown up a few feet in the sky.

Before they can counter you hastily gather the air around them, and then proceed to run a few paces ahead before you hop and flip in the air to whip the wind around their neck with a swing of your leg, and smash them on the ground.

When you swiftly land on your feet you move pieces of the earth around them to trap their body underground, and then use the air to boost yourself up the large pillar Choso impressively rose.

Once you make it above the surface you see Noritoshi has Choso’s arm twisted over his back, so without thinking you scowl at the sight, looking like a menacing shadow no one can see but you feel behind them. So before either man can see you when they look back, you blast towards Noritoshi and grab a fistful of his hair and the back of his neck.

He reacts with a groan and lets Choso go.

“My brother,” you sneer by his ear. “Give him back.”

Noritoshi snickers and twists one hand back. “I’ll have that curse back, thank you,” he interjects and suddenly you feel the weight around your shoulders lift off as the Worm-cursed spirit begins to float to Noritoshi’s hand.

However, he should’ve known better, Suguru said he did this too and just like then, the moment the Worm touches Noritoshi’s fingers, it ends up burning him and it bounces back to you.

“It doesn’t work like that,” you spat spitefully since he just tried to steal your Worm-cursed spirit.

“Tsk.”

You smirk smugly, and Choso sees that the Worm mimics your gesture as if you were one. You then snap your eyes towards Choso, and so does the Worm, but Choso only holds your fire-kissed eyes; which are filled with words not spoken, but speechless words he understood seconds before you shove your knee through Noritoshi’s back and slam him towards Choso.

And since he had read what you wanted to do, he throws Noritoshi a right hook and makes the man stumble.

You quickly try to overwhelm him, but Noritoshi snaps his head towards you and sends out multiple eel-like curses at you using a portal made in front of his feet, causing you to leave Choso alone to avoid the attack.

Which you only manage to avoid because you think fast and use slices of the earth to shuffle away.

The moment you’re at a safer distance, you pull down the moistness around you that's naked to the human eye and form the water into spears that you shoot through the open mouths of the curses.

When the water is inside you quickly begin to drown them from the inside before you make the water explode out of their flesh and exorcize them.

Yet now that you can focus on Noritoshi and Choso again, you see Choso throw punch after punch, but Noritoshi keeps dodging each swing with quite ease. He doesn’t let up one bit, and just as you try to help Choso, Noritoshi kicks his torso harshly, making you gasp as you hear the impact against his body.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Noritoshi tells Choso as he begins to fall down the pillar. “You’re exhausted, aren't you?”

“So what?” Choso spats, and you both jump after Noritoshi at the same time.

“Is that any reason not to risk my life for the younger brother right in front of me?” Choso adds loudly so his voice can be carried through the howling wind, making Noritoshi chuckle, while you smirk softly in admiration.

That is until Noritoshi snaps his attention to you. “I see you want to play Gojo.” He snickers. “I’ll play along. Remind me you like it rough don’t you?”

You scrunch your nose in disgust and spat back. “Don’t be a perv and poke around through his memories.”

“I say only what I see,” he counters and his response triggers you.

Who does he think is? Going through and seeing Suguru’s personal memories, talking to you like he knows you on a personal level as if he and Suguru are one now because he stole Suguru’s body.

Well he’s wrong, he’s not Suguru. He can never be him, and the way he talks to you is wrong.

He’s not him…

It’s why you tear three large pieces of the earth off the large pillar and hurl them at him out of rage.

Of course, Noritoshi misses the first two, but you manage to slam the third one at him and keep pushing him down. Before he can hit the ground, you tilt face down and boost yourself forward. When you reach the piece of debris you swing your fist and smash through the hard rock, breaking it into pieces and facing Noritoshi with your jaw clenched, your nose flared, and your lips curled to a furious scowl. He prepares to attack, but you beat him by a second and manage to grab his throat and slam him down on the ground, creating a small crater where he lands.

Right before he can counter you use water trapped underground and make it travel up. However, he hears the movement of the water rising, and just as the water violently blasts out of the ground he snaps his head to the side, missing being hit on the back of his head by mere seconds.

However, you’re relentless and rise up another blast of water, and he barely misses again.

“You’re starting to piss me off,” he grimaces and slaps his hand on your torso. “I didn’t want to kill you yet, but maybe then—“

Knowing what he can do with his technique from a close proximity like this, you don’t finish hearing what he has to say and quickly use the water you were just using to push away from him

When you’re close to Choso, you land on the ground and slide back.

Choso peers at you and you look at him, and from the corner of your eye, you see Noritoshi move, so you look back to where you left him, but he’s gone.

“What the,” you gasp and turn your head, and barely catch him above Choso with his fist raised.

“Choso!” You warn him and regardlessly blast him away using the air.

Noritoshi slams his fist on the ground but doesn’t get discouraged by his failure, instead, he follows by snapping his head towards you with a smirk.

You stand your ground and reach back to pull out a blade from the Worm’s mouth. Noritoshi gets close so you quickly bask your blade with fire and swing the moment Noritoshi swings, but he swerves you. Choso sneaks up behind him, and you see him try to reach over, but Noritoshi swerves and has Choso stumble towards you.

Before he can crash into you he balances back on his feet and you meet his intense gaze fueled with rage to share your thoughts with your gaze alone, hoping he understands even if you fear that he won’t.

Nevertheless, when you consume the flames on your blade to instead crack the ground with fire and aim it at Noritoshi with ease, Choso surprises you and lunges while Noritoshi is distracted, just like you wanted, and manages to hit his father with a sharp uppercut.

“Yes,” you whisper with pride and put the blade away to move your hand and counter with another attack using the elements.

However, before you can do a thing, suddenly hard and bitter ice grows around you and captures your entire body in place, leaving you only able to move your eyes, and see your failure to stop this sorcerer with the ice technique.

They captured everyone with their ice, Itadori, the students, Utahime, Kusakabe, and Choso.

Sure you can easily melt this way, but you still should’ve stopped them before. Damn.

Damn. Damn!

You exhale deeply and hear Choso complain near you too. “Tsk.”

“Don’t kill them,” Noritoshi tells his ally. “I need messengers.”

You slightly squint out of curiosity while you begin to use your fire through your arms to melt the ice into water.

“Is that any reason to leave them all alive?” The monk argues and lifts their wounded hand to show how they heal it.

“This ice isn’t enough!” Choso cuts in and puts his hand over the icy surface. “Flowing Red scale!”

Once again he surprises you by using his blood to melt the ice. Which, you never knew blood manipulators could do anything at the scale he does things. It’s so fascinating!

But regardless, as the ice around you now turns to a puddle because of your fire's intensity, the monk approaches you and points one ice-covered finger at you, and then another at Choso.

“Then how much is?” They threaten him and then look at you. “Let’s test it out on the both of you. Tell me when.”

The ice over their finger extends, but you grow flames out of the ground around Choso and you, to help him out of the ice and block their attempts.

Nevertheless, just as you get ready to blast them with fire, simultaneously, Itadori then runs through the fire at a speed you see almost as a flash, and kicks Choso out of the ice, leaving you baffled.

“Whose body do you think that is?!” The monk spats back, letting you fall back to where Itadori and Choso are to face the monk at a distance as you think of a clever way to immobilize them. Or kill them.

“You’re our ally, right?” Itadori asks Choso.

“No!” Choso shouts, making you twist your neck to side-eye him.

“Huh?” Itadori exclaims.

“I'm your older brother,” Choso reveals.

Itadori’s eyes narrow and his eyebrows furrow as he snaps back. “Could you please take this seriously?!”

You sigh in annoyance.

“Why don’t you try saying it once, for starters,” Choso rebuttals. “Call me, big brother.”

“Why don’t you both take this seriously,” you scold them as you keep your eyes on Noritoshi.

“I was just telling him the truth,” Choso argues.

“Are you working with him, Geto?” Itadori asks you now.

You nod. “He is your ally. I trust him,” you vouch for Choso without hesitation. “Talk later. Oh, and by the way do you know where Nanami is? It’s unlike him to miss this,” you change the subject and glance over at Itadori.

The shirtless boy meets your gaze and the annoyed scowl falls to a frown.

“What?” You press. “He doesn’t answer his phone.”

Itadori mutters your first name quietly, but that’s all he gets to do because you hear someone flying overhead. And when you look up you see some blond girl on a wooden broom, as if she’s some cartoon witch.

“Tool manipulation,” you hear her chant as she lands on the ground. “Wind Scythe!”

She blasts wind toward Noritoshi and the monk, but they quickly dismiss it. Which is predictable. They’re too strong, which means you need to fight with a lot more fiery.

You need to bring them out…

“Itadori!” The girl yells and catches your attention. “We’re the only ones who can move right now! We need to buy time for Utahime to finish her preparations!”

Preparations? What does that intake?

Whatever, you’ll help regardless.

“Supreme art,” you mutter under your breath and loosen your fists. “Hell—”

You cut yourself off as you see the monk bend down to press their palm on the ground, meaning only one thing; they’re going to use their ice. So you drop what you’re going to say and quickly bend down to mimic their actions, but instead, summon flames out of your palms whereas they bring out ice.

“Yuji Itadori, is the only messenger you need, right?!” They yell as a dangerous layer of ice begins to form out like a sheet at first before big icicles grow out and rapidly rush towards you.

You quickly counter by sending a hot wave of fire out to clash against their ice, causing the fire and the ice to sizzle and blast out thick steam.

Yet that doesn’t seem to be hot enough, the ice continues approaching at a slower pace now, but it comes, so you need to think bigger, and attack the source before they turn you into cute popsicles.

“Hm,” you hum and smirk down at the ground as your fire is suddenly being seeped by the ground, leaving Itadori confused.

“Y/n?!” He calls out as the ice intensifies.

You swing The Worm off your shoulders and place him on the ground to sway your hips as you slowly walk forward, and creep on a menacing smirk on your face as you look at the white-haired monk.

“I’m a special grade Yuji Itadori,” you respond and peer over your shoulder, letting him, the small blond student, and Choso see your red-orange colored eyes give off a spark as if the fire was alive in your eyes.

Itadori looks at you confused, just like the other student does, but Choso’s lips pull to a smirk and his eyes widen with awe you miss when you look ahead again.

“I’m fighting fire with fire,” you mumble and slowly put your hands out as you continue striding forward at a slow pace.

When your arms are spread out, a deafening silence settles for a second before suddenly the ground erupts as fire blasts out of the ground like an enormous geyser, burning away all the ice that spread on the ground, and the ice that was falling from the sky.

The fire captures you in the progress, but it only burns away the tight black uniform on your body, leaving light white linen wrapped around your breasts that travels over your shoulders to connect with the linen around your hips, and elegantly flows down over your lower body, leaving long slits over the front of both legs.

Which is practically inconvenient in any battle scenario, but you find this option helpful, you discovered that in your time with Yuki. This way you can move a lot more swiftly like water, and without restriction. The fire can move through your body with a lot more vigor, and lastly, you can feel the wind over your skin.

Like now.

You raise your arms that are spread out as you begin to gather up a large amount of wind behind you that howls like if caught in a loud raging storm, that collects dirt and thickens the gusts. When you have enough, you smirk at the enemy across from you, making Noritoshi slowly frown, and infuriating the monk even more. And without warning, you snap your arms forward and blast the wind out towards them to enrage the flames you rose and mix it together to shoot it over at them too.

You continue to stride forward, and slowly close your arms together as you keep collecting more wind that Itadori, the student, and Choso have to shield against and fight to stay grounded as it flies past them to unfurl over your skin as it flies past you and hits Noritoshi and the monk.

The only reason why neither of them get thrown back by the force of the wind is because of the monk's ice shield, but your fire begins to penetrate through, so you tap into your fire and blast it out of your hands before you once again seep it through the ground, and have it erupt out of the ground around Noritoshi and the monk.

However, when they feel a blast building up beneath their feet, Noritoshi uses a curse to get out of the way, leaving the monk to shield themselves with ice all alone and leaving them open to you.

Which is why you drop the air and the fire and run forward to close the gap left between the monk and you by smashing through the ice and grabbing them by the throat. You then proceed to slam them against the ground and skid them forward until they manage to grow curved icicles around their fingertips and swing them at you, making you push yourself off them and slide back on the ground.

When you face them again you collect wind over your palm and summon fire out. You get ready to swing it at them, but then out of nowhere, you’re suddenly falling through a large gap in the ground that just appears out of the blue, leaving you enclosed by the darkness that only grows darker the further you get, and making you scream out of fear.

However, you then blink and suddenly you're hundreds of feet above around.

“What the hell?” You hiss in confusion and look at your surroundings as you’re falling back to the surface that isn’t broken anymore. It’s all intact.

So was that some effect of a curse?

It has to be. To catch you off guard…

“Ice formation: Ice fall!” You suddenly hear before you see ice grow over the surface again, and form into tall and thick shards.

“No!” You bellow and tilt your body as you’re falling down to try and blast fire down to melt the ice.

Yet the monk notices you and throws something out at you that you don’t see move through the air until suddenly you feel something sharp and burning cold rip through your arm.

You cry out in pain and reach over to hold your wound, but you see that your arm is ripped off.

“Y/N!” You hear Choso cry out.

“Fuck,” you groan and begin to pant as it burns. “Fuck.”

But the pain nor the bleeding stump matter. It hurts like hell but it doesn’t matter, you’re still falling. You’re still fucking falling and getting close to the damn ground.

You prepare for impact and protect yourself from getting more injured.

However, before you can hit the ground, strong arms catch you, and the moment their feet touch the ground they slide back on their feet with you to move closer to the glistening ice you see from the corner of your eyes.

Before you can look up to see your savior they carefully set you down on your knees in front of them.

Is it Choso?

It doesn’t smell like him…

They actually smell like—it can’t be.

You snap your eyes up and immediately smile when you see Yuki.

“Master,” you mumble with relief.

Her brown eyes fall on you and she shoots you a wink before looking ahead again to address the person a few feet away from where you are.

“Long time no see, Geto,” she interjects. “Could I get your answer to my question from back then?” She asks and puts her leg back as she leans forward with a smug smile.

“What kind of woman is your type?” She asks and blows Noritoshi a kiss with her finger.

“It’s not him,” you whisper.

“Gathered,” she says back in a whisper. “Now heal your arm.”

You hum and roll your shoulder back to start regrowing your arm with RCT.

Which, you should thank your jealousy for. Without you trying to impress your parents and get a sliver of their attention, you wouldn't have learned to use it and you’d be dead right now. So thank your jealousy! Thank you!

If only it didn’t take so much out of you though. You won’t be able to fight properly for some time now thanks to you needing to heal.

You have weapons, but your energy isn't any good either, you’re running on fumes right now—but even still you need to try and help.

There’s people trapped in the ice, students, and Choso. You need to help them…

“Do you remember,” Yuki interjects. “The ways to rid cursed spirits from our world?”

As she talks to Noritoshi and your arm heals you begin to drag yourself back towards the ice wall.

“Regardless of which method is pursued,” she continues. “It means advancing humanity to the next stage. Humanity’s next stage is freeing itself from cursed energy.”

Why can’t you have Satoru’s healing speed? He heals so fast whilst you take longer to heal, it’s so annoying! Especially in times like now! Damn…

But you’re almost done, and then you can help the others out of the ice.

“No,” Noritoshi argues. “It’s optimizing cursed energy.”

You stop moving and look over at Noritoshi with slight confusion. Yuki looks back, but since she’s peering over at Itadori you don’t see her reaction, you do however see her shrug, so you know she’s not necessarily completely serious.

So that means she’s got a plan.

“Uh,” you hear Itadori comment. “I don’t get it, either.”

“I thought you already gave on your plan twelve years ago when Toji Zen’in died,” Noritoshi adds, whilst you close that gap between the ice and you and finally finish healing your damn arm, which…yay, you have your arm, but…BUT!!

Your cute manicure didn’t fucking regrow! That’s money down the drain—well, not your money, Satoru paid for you to get your nails done, but still! Now you look lopsided with one hand well done and the other just simple looking. Tsk.

“I was talking to Geto, you know,” Yuki finally reveals to him that she knows he’s not Suguru. “Well, whatever. I went back to my original idea. Besides, there’s a big hole in your optimization plan. Extremely few sorcerers and cursed spirits emerge in other countries compared to Japan. So Tengen’s barriers should be indispensable to your optimization plan.”

You glance over at Noritoshi and see him slightly narrow his eyes on Yuki as he hears her out.

“Using Tengen to optimize cursed energy would mean only the humans of this nation would become sorcerers. Japan would practically have a monopoly on cursed energy. Other nations, especially that superpower, wouldn’t stand by and allow that. Flesh-and-blood humans would become an energy source. It’s easy enough to imagine what misfortune that would bring.”

Destruction, chaos, blood, and death…right?

Getting rid of non-sorcerers would be…well…

What would it mean to you?

Great…it’d be great…

Yet at the cost of what he wants? No.

“That’s a world far removed from the ideals I pursue,” Yuki finishes making herself clear, while you place your hand on the ice and use a little bit of cursed energy to summon flames to your palm and spread the fire out, like flames following a fuel line, and carefully melt the ice around the blond student with the long and stiff ponytails.

“So what?” Noritoshi rebuttals. “For one thing, our objectives are different. I don’t desire a world without cursed spirits or any sort of idyllic peace. Non-sorcerers, sorcerers, cursed spirits…those are all possibilities for the shape of cursed energy that is mankind.”

Hm…

You glance at Noritoshi and slowly narrow your gaze as he catches your attention.

“Though,” you hear him add a bit quieter. “That shouldn’t be anywhere near the full extent. I tried to give rise to other possibilities for mankind on my own…but that didn’t work out,” he shares and you get what he means…Choso.

So that’s why he left him and his brothers? Because they were his failures?

He made them just to leave them, all because he didn’t like how they turned out. All their suffering, all their loneliness means nothing to him. He’s no parent, he’s a selfish monster.

“Everything that I created myself,” he continues as cursed energy begins to rise out of his palm and flow up at an incredible amount, “was limited by the bounds of my own potential. The answer was always glimmering darkly within chaos. Do you understand?”

Hardly…but he won’t stop talking will he?

Whatever, it gives you time.

Now that you freed the student you make sure she’s fine.

She catches your gaze and offers you a thankful nod, causing you to offer her a sweet smile before you gently push yourself up, ignoring the ache on your arm, and walking over to Choso since he’s the only one you can reach. The others will have to wait.

“What I should have created was chaos that went beyond my own control,” Noritoshi says. “I’ve already finished extracting the technique.”

You come to stop by Choso and look at Noritoshi with surprise.

“There was a cursed spirit called Mahito, right?!” Yuki asks over her shoulder. “The one with the technique that let it interfere with souls?!”

“That guy absorbed it earlier,” Itadori informs her.

“Seriously?!” She exclaims and then snaps her eyes to you. “And where were you?”

You point at your chest with slight shock and quickly respond. “Me? I was getting my throat stabbed and my neck snapped,” you snap back annoyed. “Oh, and I was getting tortured by curses from my past. If you had answered your phone you would have known! Did you even see it?”

Yuki shrugs as if it’s not a big deal. “I got your message and I’m here now aren’t I?”

You slap your hand on the ice trapping Choso, and scowl at Yuki as you melt the ice. “Great,” you answer sarcastically.

“I’ll say. You know what this all reminds me of?”

“Egypt,” you both answer at the same time and share a smile.

Yuki winks at you and nods in agreement before turning away, letting you face Choso, and see that he’s studying you in your light and exposing gown. Which makes your face burn, and makes you feel a soft fluttering in your stomach.

“Your arm,” he immediately points out but glances at the scar across your torso before he finally looks at your arm. He wasn’t looking at your arm before. “It’s healed.”

You glance down at your arm regardless and move your fingers. “Yeah,” you let him know the obvious. “I’m all good. I can’t say I’m in any state to fight anymore though, so, if anything happens will you have my back?”

Choso slowly drags his eyes up, and you mirror his gesture and finally lock eyes when he lands on your face.

“Of course,” he doesn’t hesitate to immediately assure you, making you smile at him and feel relief.

“You,” he interjects and digs in his pocket to pull something out. “Will be needing him back either way.”

Choso opens his palm and when you look down you see The Worm unfurling himself now that he senses you.

“Oh!” You exclaim gleefully. “You kept him safe! I was wondering where he had crawled off to. Thank you!”

“Mommy!” The worm yells out in a broken voice.

You grin at it and take it from Choso to wrap it around you, making it snuggle tightly around you.

And now that you have that resolved, and helped Choso out, you shift your feet to turn.

Yet before you can look over, a large glowing purple symbol rises in the sky and castes over your heads, stealing your attention and completely casting away the fluttering in your stomach to drop an eerie feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“You have my thanks, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects. “A cursed spirit’s mastery of their technique ceases to progress from the moment they’re absorbed by the Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Mahito truly matured through his fight with you. To be honest, I wanted to have Jogo, as well, but no matter.”

“What did you do?” You snap at Noritoshi and drop your gaze to glare at him.

“I remote activated Idle Transfiguration on two types of non-sorcerers that I marked ahead of time,” he answers without any hesitation, which should worry you.

Who goes around spilling their master plan?

“One type was people whom I had absorb cursed objects like Yuji Itadori did,” he continues to say. “And the other was people like Junpei Yashino who have cursed techniques, but whose brains were structured like non-sorcerers. Now I’ve adjusted their brains to match those of sorcerers. For the former, I gave them the strength to be vessels, and the latter have obtained the ability to activate their techniques.”

Why? What for?

“And now…” he trails off and pulls on a seal. “…I’ve released the seal on those cursed objects. Some of them have been in deep sleep after being exposed to my cursed energy when I marked them, but they’ll soon awaken. So, starting now, I’ll have them kill each other in order to deepen their understanding of cursed energy.”

What the hell! What’s wrong with him?

“I’ve carefully hand-picked these people and cursed objects,” he keeps on going, which you’re grateful for. Otherwise, you’d be left confused. “Think of it as unleashing a thousand malevolent Yuji Itadori’s.”

“A thousand?” You ask in disbelief.

“That’s conservative,” Yuki continues. “You’re also underestimating human rationality. Do you think people will start killing each other just because they were granted power?”

“There’s an order to everything,” he says, “I certainly didn’t cut corners like that when making my preparations. Your questions are starting to become shallow.”

You scoff, and Yuki looks back and points at Noritoshi.

“He’s pissing me off, so let’s all beat him up together!”

You have little energy, but you can pull off something big; maybe your domain expansion, or your supreme art.

“I can’t move right now, though,” Itadori says and as soon as he does the ice suddenly turns to water and begins to fall like rain.

However, you manipulate the water and collect it over your head to swiftly and elegantly move it around Choso and you keep it on standby, whilst you watch the person who had created this fall to their knees.

“What’s the matter, Uraume?” You manage to hear Noritoshi ask.

“Poison?!” They struggle to say.

“My blood got mixed with yours through Piercing Blood,” Choso’s voice startles you. “Of course it is,” he spats.

You steal a glance at him and the corner of your lips lifts to a smirk before you look back at the person Noritoshi called Uraume, with a prideful smirk.

“Wait,” the blond student cuts in. “We’re not getting cover from Mai. They might still have more allies over there.”

“My ally is protecting Aoi, the girl with the gun, and that suit. They don’t belong here.” Yuki lets the student know.

“Wait,” you probe with concern at what you heard just now. “Aoi? What happened to Aoi?” You step forward. “Is he okay?”

Itadori looks back at you and answers for Yuki. “He will be. He got hurt, but he’ll live.”

You blink in confusion.

Ever since you’ve known Todo, he’s hardly someone who’s ever needed much help, he accepts it, and he can be a good team player with people he likes, but he’s not one who's ever needed help. He’s strong. He’s smart too, and for him to need help means he’s badly hurt.

You should have gotten here before, damn it!

“We were in the middle of our talk,” Noritoshi interrupts and actually sounds annoyed that he can’t keep yapping his evil monologue. “The cursed objects that I distributed are what’s left of the sorcerers I’ve been secretly making pacts with for a thousand years. Of course, I forged my pacts with more than just sorcerers, though my pacts with those were annulled when I obtained this body.”

“You don’t mean—”

“This is the world of the future,” Noritoshi cuts Yuki off and begins to look pleased, but in such a menacing way.

And only seconds later you know why. He opens a large portal and has dozens of curses come out of it, making Choso step forward and put his arms out to block Itadori and you.

The dark portal spreads and you reach back to take out a blade, while you also drag the same water you had kept floating around, and hover it over your palm.

Choso gets closer regardless of what you’re doing, to do more than what you asked of him earlier, and continues to secure you, and Itadori behind him.

“See you later, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects smugly as he shows off the box Satoru is trapped in.

“Gojo!” Itadori yells and breaks away from Choso to lunge forward and desperately reach for something that can’t be retrieved anymore.

“I have high expectations for you,” Noritoshi adds as he begins to disappear through the shadows of his portals—of Suguru’s cursed technique.

That’s Suguru’s technique he’s using. That’s his body, his face. That’s his face and body that you see leaving in ways he’d never leave you.

“Suguru Geto!” You cry out desperately in hopes you can reach a fragment of his soul so he can fight back, so he can at least help enough to clear a path, and so he can come back.

Noritoshi freezes and slowly begins to peer back. You don’t move and stay behind Choso to grab onto his arm still guarding you from danger, and just start hoping, even if you make no attempt to go forward you start hoping.

“Suguru Geto is dead,” Noritoshi announces what you knew, but hoped was somehow not true. “It’s just me now.”

Tears fill your eyes, but instead of feeling sad over what you heard, you feel a burning rage that makes you want to use what energy you have and fight against him.

Yet before you can even attempt to act on that fury directed at the wicked man using Suguru’s body, Noritoshi disappears within the shadows, leaving the curses to spread out to the darkened city like wildfire.

——

*LATER*

“Kento please answer your phone, Shoko says that the last time Fushiguro saw you, you were okay, but if you’re in trouble call me, text me, or yell, I don’t know, just let me know you’re fine or I will go out and search for you myself,” you leave what feels like the hundredth voicemail because just like every other time he doesn’t answer his damn phone.

Maybe his phone is dead?

“Sorry,” you direct at Choso as you finally put your phone away. “I hope my incessant phone calling hasn’t annoyed you. I’m done now.”

Choso shakes his head stiffly. “It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me.”

You hum in comprehension and slide your eyes over to him with a worried look. “Are you doing okay? I haven’t asked.”

Choso’s eyes dart to you but when he meets your gaze he looks away as he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me.”

You roll your eyes. “You’re my friend,” you counter. “I’ll worry if I want to. So answer me, and don’t give me that nonchalant crap. No one is here, it’s just us you can tell me.”

Choso slowly slides his eyes back to you and lets the silence linger as he holds your gaze for a moment before he answers. “I’m fine. I’ve been healing, but they’re all minor injuries I got from fighting Itadori and you. Which, you lied, by the way, you held back, your fight with Uraume proved it.”

You scoff softly and let a smirk tug on your lips. “Yeah well, I told you I didn’t want to kill you. My fight wasn’t with you, but you were in Satoru’s way, so I had to help him,” you tell him as you mindlessly start fiddling with your fingernails. “And by the way, I still didn’t even show off my full potential with the monk. There were too many people in the way to do that.”

“Well,” he says. “Perhaps I’ll see what you promised soon enough.”

Your face burns and you can’t help but share a faint and bashful smile. “Well now that we’re not on opposite sides, I’ll be happy to show off.”

Choso hums in comprehension and keeps his eyes on you as you look at your path ahead to look out for Itadori whom you lost in the chaos Noritoshi left to escape.

“Are you okay? Are your wounds healing? You should've gone to your doctor friend,” he interjects almost in a scolding voice, as if your stubbornness to see Shoko annoyed him.

“I'm fine,” you assure him with a faint laugh. “I used RCT, I’m healing, all I need now is a good meal and a good night's rest.”

Choso hums and doesn’t seem convinced, but he leaves it, letting you turn to grab his arm, and causing his eyes to snap down to your touch before he meets your gaze.

“Thank you for earlier,” you tell him softly and slowly come to a stop together. “You put your own life at risk to look out for me when you could’ve gone after your brother. You stayed behind for me. Thank you Choso.”

Said man draws in a deep breath and steals a quick glance down at your hand still around his arm before responding softly. “I’m in your debt, this was a simple repayment of that.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion and part your lips to press on that. “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything. You’ve saved me more than once, for example when I woke up, with that curse outside the station, and against all those curses just a few minutes ago. I owe you.”

“No you don’t,” he argues without any defense to back him up.

“Oh shut up,” you cut him off and let his arm go. “Please take my gratitude,” you scold him, making his face twist with confusion. “It’s the polite thing to do. Acknowledge what I’m saying. Thank you, Choso.”

Choso exhales and hesitates before he retorts. “You’re welcome.”

You offer him a tired but genuine smile before you flash him a grin. “You know,” you add. “For someone who says they’re not human, you surely do have a heart ten times bigger than a lot of others I know.”

Choso’s cheeks immediately grow a tint of red, and you hear his breath just slightly hitch, making you insanely proud and yet also deeply flustered that your words could make this nonchalant man express so much.

Is that why you also linger there before him, just looking into his sun-kissed eyes? Because you’re flustered by how you make him feel? Or is it because it’s easy to get lost in his eyes?

Both?

Even so, you can’t stay here forever even if it feels like the right thing to do. You still need to find Itadori.

“Come on,” you break the silence and blink to tear your eyes away. “We’re reaching an exit here just around this corridor. Maybe Itadori is outside.”

Choso hums and you both continue walking—“he’s near,” he cuts in. “I feel it.”

You groan out of exhaustion. “Great! My feet are starting to kill me.”

Plus you just want to lay down and…cry. Now that it’s quiet all you can think about is what you lost and the fact that when you go home you’ll be going without the twins.

“Just around here,” Choso announces and picks up his pace to do a little jog to round the corner that leads to a staircase.

You don’t rush albeit since you don’t hear any danger, or sense any curses.

Plus, you’re immediately assured about Choso’s finding when he speaks up. “Yuji, how are your injuries?”

You hold your breath and regardless of your comfort, you still worry because he might sound like he’s in pain.

“I’m good somehow,” you hear Itadori’s voice travel around the corner, and it sounds fine. But emotionally, you can sense his agony—“despite being hit by a black flash.”

You finally reach the stairs and you see Itadori sitting down in the middle of the last flight of stairs with his back hunched, and his head down. Oh, and it seems he found new clothes to replace his torn ones and exposed upper half.

“I think it’s because of Sukuna,” Itadori adds. “I can tell that his strength is growing.”

“Yuji,” Choso adds as he comes to a stop a few steps above Itadori. “Don’t worry about me. You can return to Jujutsu High. I have to collect the remains of Shoso and the others anyway.”

Instead of stopping behind Itadori, you continue to walk down.

“I’m not worried about you,” Itadori rebuttals honestly. “The problem isn’t whether I want to return or not. Sukuna is plotting something involving Fushiguro.”

You slow down and listen more intently now.

“Besides,” he continues. “I killed too many people. I can no longer stay with everyone.”

You reach the floor and turn to watch the boy with pity.

“Are you fine with it?” Choso asks.

“I also killed your little brothers,” Itadori brings up, but without hesitation Choso tries to assure Itadori.

“It’s fine. That was a misunderstanding. If Eso and Kechizu were in my place they would say the same thing.”

You look at Choso with a soft look because of his kind words.

“It isn’t about forgiving or not forgiving,” he says. “Brothers are just like that.”

Your face falls and you drop your head to look at the ground and think back to your brother and the night you told him you’d try to forgive him.

You’ve tried so hard to just forgive him, but it’s never that simple. And now he’s gone…

“Let’s go...”

…and even then you find it hard to just forgive him because you think back to what happened when he left and it hurts all over again.

“Y/N?”

You snap your head up and notice Itadori is off the stairs now too, and behind you. “Yes?” You probe.

“I said we should go and take care of the curses—”

“No,” you deadpan. “We won’t do that—”

“But—”

“Regardless of how fast you’ve healed,” you cut him off again and narrow your gaze to a pointed look to make yourself clearer to him. “Regardless of how much willpower you have, we are in no state to go curse hunting at this moment. I have a place nearby that should be backup generated, we’ll be staying there. Patch face and the disaster curses my brother told me to protect you from may be dead, but now your death sentence is up once again because of Satoru being sealed away. They’re going to send someone after you, someone strong. And just to be sure, they will send bounty hunters.”

Itadori nods. “I know that, but I can fight. Or let them kill me.”

You shake your head and argue. “No, you will not,” you sneer. “I made my brother a promise, I will keep it. Which means I’m still looking out for you. And I say we can save the curse hunting for later. No matter how many people they send, they’ll still be plenty enough for tomorrow, and the next day. We’re going to rest, understand?”

It’s not actually a question, but he still answers anyway. “Yeah.”

“Aren't you going home?” Choso interjects.

You look over at him and watch him descend the stairs. “No,” you let him know. “Now that Satoru is gone, my family will come after me to try and kill me. And the higher-ups will send someone to complete the death sentence my brother never executed. I won’t put my people at risk by being there. I'll stay hidden with you two.” You sigh deeply and continue softer. “And in regards to your brothers…with everything that happened the school will be filled with more people than usual. We have to wait to go there. I’m sorry.”

Choso swallows thickly and drops his eyes, but he doesn’t argue, he answers stiffly. “All right.”

You hum with pity and keep your eyes on him for a second before you point your head at the exit. “Come on. I’ll lead the way.” You turn, and just as you take a step forward, Itadori interjects.

“Y/N?”

You come to stop and peer back. “Hm?” You probe curiously and see him watching his hands before he fists them and lets out a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry about your daughters. It was my fault…”

Your curiosity falls and sorrow and confusion slowly take over.

“They’re dead because of me,” Itadori shares in a shaky voice.

“Yuji,” Choso tries to stop him, but Itadori continues.

“I lost control of Sukuna, and I killed them because of it. I’m sorry, I don’t deserve you to look out for me, I don’t deserve your kindness, just leave me behind and don’t worry about me.”

You knew he would never be capable of killing Nanako and Mimiko, but when he started to confess you feared the worst and doubted him because of the agony you’re under. But now that you manage to understand what he said, you know that nothing you say will ever let him change the way he thinks.

The guilt he holds should not burden him, he shouldn’t have to bring himself down because of something he didn’t do nor had no control over.

You wish you could make him understand that, but you know that there’s nothing you can say that will make him understand. All you can offer is your kindness and reassurance in hopes it eases his grieving heart.

“Yuji Itadori,” you whisper and get closer to him to grab his arm.

Itadori lifts his eyes the moment he feels your touch, and looks at you confused.

“My girl's deaths are not your guilt to carry. Just like the destruction that happened, and all those deaths you mentioned are not your fault either.” You say so he can at least hear. If he doesn’t want to accept it, he can at least hear the truth. “I know it doesn’t feel like that because it was your body Sukuna was using, but it was not you, not your soul, nor your will. I don’t blame you and I never will. And I know that,” your voice trembles. “Nanako…” you swallow thickly as you struggle to say their names. “And Mimiko would feel the same way. So don’t apologize.”

Itadori drops his head and lets out a deep breath without adding anything to the matter. So you give his shoulder a soft and comforting squeeze. You’d hug him because it looks like he needs a good hug, but you don’t want him to feel uncomfortable, so you just squeeze his shoulder and part away.

“Now,” you sigh and lift your eyes, catching Choso’s gaze that had been watching you interact with his brother the entire time—“Let’s go. We could all use a good warm meal, a nice shower, and a good rest.”

“Wait,” Itadori cuts in again.

“Itadori it’s okay,” you assume it’s about the same thing.

“You asked about Nanami before,” he blurts, making your hopes rise.

However, as Itadori lifts his head, he looks at you with his eyes glossy with tears, and with his lips trembling and dropped to a sorrowful frown, making your heart sink, and the realization of what he was saying in his silence slowly hit you.

It explains why he wouldn’t answer, why he didn’t just send at least a short message to assure your worry or stop your incessant calling.

Yet you can’t accept what he’s not saying and what your heart is grasping.

“No,” you deny him as if it was a choice you could take.

Tears roll down his cheeks, and you feel your inkling of hope shatter.

“I’m sorry,” he continues. “When I found him it was too late, Mahito had had a hold of him and…killed him. I’m sorry.”

You slowly lift your hand to clench onto your burning chest as it feels tight and heavy as if the news had stolen your ability to breathe.

“Y/N?” Choso calls out with his voice filled with concern. Yet through all the noise in your head, you don’t actually take in his voice.

All that runs through your mind is how; how could he—how could Nanami have died? He was strong, he was smart and skillful. If anything you always thought he’d outlive you. How could he have died?

It can’t be true. You can’t accept your best friend's death. You can’t accept that another one of your best friends died and that you lost someone else on this fucking horrible day! You can’t accept it.

“Where?” You ask Itadori in a quivering voice.

“What?” He probes.

You draw in a sharp breath and your chest hurts. “W-where?” You breathe out. “Where was he last? Kento? Itadori, where?”

Itadori tells you and you quickly and sharply turn on your heels to storm in the direction he gave you.

Itadori and Choso followed after you, but neither of them try to stop you. They just try to keep up with you, basically running over to where Itadori told you Nanami was.

And yet no matter how hard they try, they still get left behind as you manage to get ahead. The only time you slow down is when you reach the floor Itadori pointed you to because you begin to hopelessly hope that he’s somehow wrong. You desperately hope that it’s some stupid joke.

Alas, when you enter the hall Itadori mentioned, you come to an immediate halt and feel your body stiffen, and those already short breaths feel as if they completely stops the moment your eyes land on…him; the lower half of his body recognizable by the tan dress pants he wore as his uniform.

In truth it could be anyone, you desperately want to believe it’s someone else, but this is where Itadori said he’d be. The hall is all battered by a battle as well. And the floor around the body is stained with thick blood, proving to you with each fact that what you see isn’t some trick or a stranger, it’s him.

Plus, no one else carries a cleave wrapped with a printed cloth around the blade, only he does.

And that hand, that single hand still wrapped around the handle; that pale and big hand further proves Itadori right.

This body you see is Kento Nanami, this is your best friend, and he’s…dead.

“Kento?” You still call out quietly and desperately regardless of what your heart and mind are forced to accept. “Nanamin?”

There’s no answer, you didn’t expect an answer, but you still wanted one even if you just saw the lower half of his body.

“Ken,” you whisper hoarsely and slowly walk to what remains of him. “Not you too. Please not you too,” you mumble. “Nanamin?”

When you reach his body you stare blankly at his legs and it begins to feel as if you’re being dragged down into a darker abyss by a stronger grip of grief.

First the twins, now Nanami too. Your daughters and your best friend. And what’s worse is that you couldn’t save either of them, you only found what was left of them; corpses.

You’re strong, yet you keep losing and failing those you love. They keep dying and you’re never there, you can never try to help. or at least say goodbye.

They’re gone and all you’re left with are pieces of them, memories, and agonizing pain that leaves you unable to breathe. You can process the truth before you but you have to clutch onto your chest as it burns with the inability to breathe.

You try to draw in breaths, but it feels like all the pain you feel heightens within you, squeezing your throat close, leaving you weak, and causing you to fall on your knees by what’s left of Nanami.

You don’t know how you’re still conscious but you still are, you can still see him, and you can still feel your agony sinking you further down into darkness and away from that light you had found after Suguru’s death. You had barely held on when you found the twins, you didn’t want to lose yourself, and there was a pull, a source that didn’t let that light flicker off, but now it’s all gone.

Now with Nanami gone, it all crumbles because he was your best friend, he was someone who gave you a second chance when you thought you had none. He was someone who was always there when you needed it, he never judged you on anything you did, and he never hated you for leaving everything and everyone with just a simple text. He loved you unconditionally and never asked for anything in return.

He was your best friend, someone you fought alongside with, someone you grieved the loss of Haibara with, someone who you went to when you felt hopeless or scared, and now he’s gone. Your best friend…your loyal and greatest friend is gone. Forever…

They're all gone…

Haibara, Suguru, Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami are all gone…

And it’s just now as you keep repeating that in your head over and over again that your entire being is slammed with a wave of crueler pain of realization, and it feels like you can breathe again.

But maybe that’s because you begin to weep over Nanami’s body.

Everything around you disappears, and the sight of Itadori and Choso finally catching up drowns out, leaving only Nanami and you in this hall.

“I’m sorry,” you mewl as you try to reach for some part of him, but end up empty-handed as there’s nothing for him to grab. “I’m sorry.”

You hug yourself tightly and begin to rock back and forth as you continue to sob over your friend's corpse.

“Please,” you plead but don’t ask out loud for forgiveness or for him to not leave you alone; he’s gone you know, but you still plead for that in your head again and again for who knows how long.

Neither Choso nor Itadori try to get you up. There’s a looming threat everywhere now that curses are reigning over the city, but they don’t try to cut your grieving short, they let your sobs fill the room, and leave the chill of solitude continue to embrace you.

Neither of them knew you craved to be held, or comforted, neither of them knew how much you wanted someone to take you away from there, or simply hold your hand as you grieved for Nanami and the daughters you lost on what’s supposed to be a good day; your birthday. Itadori—no, Choso mostly just watched you, while Itadori began to quietly get lost in his own sorrow himself.

There does come a moment, a sudden feeling in Choso that makes him want to approach you. His hand twitches your way, and he moves his leg to walk over, but then he stops when he hears multiple approaching footsteps. One even sounds like they don’t have shoes on, so he grows cautious and gets ready in case it’s a threat.

Nevertheless, what enters the hall is no threat.

Not like you register any of it either way, your eyes stay glued to the corpse in front of you until you feel a hand grab your shoulder.

You look back immediately and gasp with relief when you see Larue.

“Larue?” You whisper and push yourself up to your feet.

Said man looks at you with pity and you don’t wait a single moment to throw your arms around him.

“I’m here now y/n,” he says as he presses you against him.

You hold onto him and cry harder into his bare shoulder.

“Tsukumo is here too,” he shares, making you open your eyes to see the woman he mentioned.

“I couldn’t leave without making sure you were okay,” she says softly, which is a tone she rarely uses.

You part your lips but you don’t actually respond, you can’t find the energy at the moment so you just nod in comprehension before you hide your face again on Larue’s shoulder.

“Who is that?” You hear Itadori ask.

“Larue, her family,” Yuki answers his curiosity.

“A Gojo?”

“No,” she quickly corrects him. “Family she's made along the way.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t we go home, y/n?” Larue suggests as he rubs your back. “You need rest.”

You pull away from his embrace and face him with even deeper sorrow. “Nanako…and Mimiko,” you break the news before you can protest. “They’re…they’re gone too. Larue…Sukuna…he…he,” you gasp for air and drop your head as you can’t muster to finish the sentence.

“Oh,” Larue gasps. “Oh.”

You lift your watery gaze and see his face show his heartache instead of the pity he feels for you.

“I’m sorry,” you murmur and hold your hands together. “I'm sorry.”

Tears fill Larue's eyes but he still shakes his head and corrects you. “It’s not your fault and they wouldn't want you to blame yourself either. You know that. It’s not your fault,” he repeats harsherly so you’d understand.

“How can I go home and tell Satori?” You ask desperately. “It’s…It’s my fault they’re not going home. I should've turned them away when I ran into them.”

Larue grabs your jaw and leans in closer. “They would’ve stayed either way. It’s not your fault. I’m sure they tried to fight, you taught them too. Don’t blame yourself y/n, don’t do that to yourself.”

You swallow thickly and you still don’t feel convinced but you don’t argue.

“And Suguru,” you mention and fiddle with your fingernails. “I should’ve taken his body home to cremate him, now…some bastard is using his body. Did Yuki tell you that?” You ask and look at him. “Did she say it was not him that did all this? It was someone else.”

Larue drops his hand from your face and exhales deeply as he nods. “Yes, I know.”

You lick your lips and bring up something that comes to mind. “Manami and Toshihisa must not know though, that’s why they work for him. That’s why they betray us. We have to help them.”

Larue clenches his jaw and his eyes fall to hide his emotions, letting you figure out by that simple action that you’re wrong.

“They…knew?” You ask with disbelief.

Larue nods stiffly and you begin to realize something…how does he know that they knew that truth if Noritoshi barely dropped his farce? If he barely showed himself to the Jujutsu society?

He just revealed who he really was in that fight moments ago, so Larue knows about Manami and Toshihisa because…

“You…knew?” You ask and hope you’re wrong.

Larue drops his head and clenches his jaw harder, letting you know with his silence that you’re unfortunately right.

“You,” you gasp and step back in disbelief. “You knew?”

Larue slowly lifts his eyes and swallows back thickly. “We didn’t want you to suffer more than you already were. And the twins...they wanted to get Suguru back first before they told you.”

You’re slammed with a pang of pain that hurts your heart even more.

Yet no matter how hurt you are there’s nothing you can do about the twins knowing and hiding that from you. They’re gone, but Larue isn’t. And Miguel…

“Did Miguel know?” You ask with a mix of anger and betrayal.

“He did,” Larue confesses.

There’s a deeper and sharper pang in your heart now.

“You had just lost Suguru, we didn’t want to tell you yet,” Larue adds as if that made anything better, but it only works to add to the betrayal because if you had known you could’ve told Satoru, and he wouldn’t be sealed away. You could’ve stopped Noritoshi together before he caused such chaos in Shibuya. The deaths of Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami could've been avoided if you had known.

Everything could’ve changed if you had known, but no, they chose to hide it, now your brother is gone, and Noritoshi is out there preparing to cause more disaster.

Nevertheless, you don’t tell him all that, you simply look at Larue with your eyes glossy, and express the betrayal, the fury, and the hurt you feel with your eyes alone. You can’t muster a word and he hates it because your silence hurts a lot more.

“Y/n,” Larue tries to make himself clear, but you push past him and walk to Yuki to speak to her.

“Satori and Belinda are leaving the country tomorrow morning, can you discreetly follow them and just make sure their plane departs without any trouble?” You ask her. “I don’t want to risk having the wrong people see me with them. And I can’t have Satori here with Noritoshi in her father's body. So if it’s not much trouble could you please do that?”

“Y/N,” Larue interjects. “I can go with them. And Miguel can catch up with us.”

You ignore him and narrow your gaze on Yuki. “Yuki?” you probe.

Said woman glances behind you but quickly looks back at you and nods. “Of course, just let me know the rest of the information later.”

You nod. “I’ll text you, and you call me if somethings wrong, please.”

Yuki assures you with a nod, letting you offer her a gentle smile before you look at Itadori and Choso. “Are you two ready to go?”

Choso and Itadori nod, so you move away.

However, Yuki interjects before you can get any further. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

You look over your shoulder and part your lips to answer with a sly smirk.

A/N- Mc: *does nothing.* Choso: “😳😍”

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

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loveforsatoru · 2 months

Text

Loved You Then, Love You Now- Satoru Gojo x Fem Reader (Chapter 5: Contract)

It’s almost 1:30 in the morning, and neither of you noticed how much time had passed, which is exactly why you’re both sitting in Yaga’s office while he scolds you.

“What were you thinking? Going off campus at that time? What if there was a cursed spirit and one of you got hurt because you were being reckless?” He rubs his forehead in frustration, obviously disappointed.

Satoru speaks up, not wanting you to take any of the fall for this, “If anything happened, I would’ve done whatever I could to look after y/n. I’m strong enough to protect the both of us.”

“Satoru, you need to wake up. Open your eyes. You especially need to keep your guard up. You know you’re a target, and it’s dangerous for you to wander off like that, especially with a new student who isn’t accustomed to how we do things at Jujutsu Tech. I’m not doubting your strength, but for all you know, she could’ve been killed right next to you. What would you do then?” Yaga has to hold himself back from shouting. Time and time again, he’s calling out Satoru for being irresponsible, but this could’ve put the both of you in danger.

You only watch with wide eyes, not knowing what to say in this situation. From the way Yaga is speaking, you can tell that he cares deeply about Satoru and his wellbeing.

Satoru’s expression turns to grimace, he doesn’t want to think about that possibility and it being his fault, “Well, it didn’t happen and I’ll make sure it never does. I can cross my heart on that.”

Yaga’s worry and anger don’t die down. He feels he has no choice but to punish you two for your immaturity, “You are not to see each other off campus until the semester ends unless it’s a weekend or holiday. Even then, a driver will accompany you to make sure you’re both back in your dorms by curfew.”

Satoru immediately stands up, hands nearly slamming on the desk in front of him, “Are you serious? That’s completely unfair! I screwed up once!”

“No, Satoru. You’ve screwed up a lot. You’re lucky I didn’t punish you months ago. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Should you break these accommodations, you’ll be suspended for a period of time.” Yaga turns to look at you, “And y/n, you don’t want to have to go back to the Zenin Clan, do you?”

You release a breath you didn’t know you were holding, “No.. I don’t.”

“Then the decision is made. Y/n, you can go back to your dorm. Satoru, I want to talk to you.

You nod and stand up, look back at Satoru who mouths an “I’m sorry,” before walking out of Yaga’s office and shutting the door behind you.

Yaga crosses his arms, holding a stern look while he stands in front of the door to prevent Satoru from leaving.

“That girl will be the death of you.”

“I don’t care if she is. You don’t know the lengths I’d go to make sure she’s safe.” He says.

“I can only imagine, but you don’t know the lengths people would go to make sure you’re dead. And who would get caught up in the midst of that? She would. Get your head out of your ass. Life isn’t a game.” Yaga feels bad about scolding him like this. He knows Satoru hasn’t had an easy life, and he can tell from the look on his face that you make him happy, but he needs a reality check. He can’t let Satoru risk everything for you even though he would in the blink of an eye.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Satoru snaps, tone sharp and rigged.

“No, Satoru, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Being involved with a troubled girl from the Zenin Clan will only make things harder on you. Not to mention, your family would never approve of whatever you have going on with her.”

“I won’t let them find out. I don’t care about getting their approval. What are they going to do? Throw me onto the streets? They know they can’t because I’m the one with the inherited abilities. It’ll be worse on them than on me if I get kicked out.” Satoru hates talking about his family. They’re insufferable, especially when it comes to his love life and who he’ll marry in the future.

“I doubt they would do that, they’d do worse. They’d get in the way and make sure you two stay apart from each other.”

Satoru knows the harsh reality, but he doesn’t want to accept it, so he’ll run away from it for as long as he can, “Whatever, I’ll deal with that when I have to. I’m going to sleep.” He makes his way to the door and twists the knob open.

“Don’t get carried away!” Yaga calls out, but he’s met with the sound of the door slamming shut. Satoru isn’t having any of it.

He’s no stranger to being scolded and yelled at by Yaga for the things he does, but this struck a nerve in his brain. He hates when people try to dictate his life for him. It’s all he’s ever known since he was little. He would grow up to be the strongest sorcerer, become the head of Gojo clan, get married to whoever his family approves of, and have kids. But that’s not what he wants. He doesn’t want to be burdened by responsibility even though it’s getting worse with each day that goes by.

He sees you sitting by the fountain, about to get up, but he runs after you, trapping you in a hug from behind. You’re startled at first, but your mind is put at ease when you realize who it is.

“I’m sorry..” He murmurs into the nape of your neck.

“It’s not your fault. I had fun tonight. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.” You reassure him.

“Are you sure?” He sounds like a kicked puppy, sulking more into your touch.

“I’m sure. It’s not like we have to follow what he says anyway.” You say.

You can feel him smile into your neck before lifting his eyes to meet yours, “Yeah, you’re right, but I don’t want to risk having you sent back home.”

“It’s fine. We just have to be cautious so we don’t get caught.”

…

6/21/07:

It’s the first day of summer. Over the course of the last couple months, you and Satoru have managed to sneak off to spend time with one another, going back to the house in the flowerfield nearly every week, almost getting caught a few times, but it’s been going smoothly for the most part. Every memory holds a special place in your heart.

...

Flashback- 5/11/07:

When he asked you to officially be his girlfriend. It was the most romantic thing you’ve ever experienced. He had everything planned, consulting the help of Shoko and Suguru (who did not want to be there, but he wanted to be supportive of his two friends.)

You thought it was going to be like any other day, sneaking out once everyone was asleep and spending the rest of the night at the house, but you couldn’t be more wrong. When you walked in, you were met with the sight of a small candle lit dinner that he cooked himself.

He put a hand on the small of your back, leading you further into the large living area and pulled out the chair for you to sit in.

“Do you like it?” He asked, anxiously chewing on his bottom lip. Is the food too salty? Does it taste burnt? Have you had better? Is the set up too much of a cliche? He would be lying if he said he didn’t mess up a couple times, having to start over from scratch.

“Satoru, it’s amazing.” And it truly was. A meal cooked just for you and nobody else.

You talked over dinner, almost choking on your food a couple times from his corny yet funny jokes. Any attempt he made to make you laugh was successful. He would say whatever came to mind to elicit laughs or giggles from you because the sound of your voice was like music to his ears.

He listened intently whenever you talked, picking up on every single word. Whenever it got quiet, it wasn’t awkward. Silence with you was nothing except peaceful. All he needed was to be with you.

After you finished eating, he led you into the living room and turned on a record player.

“Where’d you get that?” You asked, cheekbones sore from smiling the whole night.

He wrapped one arm around your waist, the other holding your hand, “I dug it out of a couple boxes. I thought it wasn’t going to work, but I got lucky.”

You place your free hand on his shoulder and sway your bodies side to side to the beat of the music.

Once the song ended, he cleared his throat, nervousness settling into his veins. And that’s when he popped the question.

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

...

Flashback-5/17/07

It was 8am, you and Shoko were running late for class and were scrambling to get ready. You came back late the night before because Satoru had taken you out on a date and Shoko decided to wait for you to get back since she was worried, which resulted in you both oversleeping and missing the first period.

As you were in your little dilemma, throwing your uniform over your head while Shoko hogged the bathroom, there was a knock on the glass sliding door of your dorm. Of course, it was none other than Satoru.

You quietly walked over, opening the door to stand with him out on the porch, “Satoru! What are you doing? Why aren’t you in class?”

His lips curl upward, leaning down to peck your cheek, “I have something planned for us today.”

You look up at him, an eyebrow raised with an unamused expression, “Are you asking me to skip class with you?”

“Maybeee,” He says, pinching your side.

You look into your room where Shoko is putting her shoes on. You try to maintain your unamused expression and tell him that it’s too risky to sneak out in broad daylight, but the gleam in his eyes and excitement when he spoke to you made your resolve crumble, “Fine. I’ll ask Shoko to cover for us. But are you sure Yaga won’t find out?”

He mentally pats himself on the back. He thought it would be way harder to convince you, “Nah, I paid our driver to keep quiet incase he’s asked anything.”

“Wait out here.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

You walk back inside, slowly closing the sliding door before taking a seat next to Shoko on her bed.

“Sooo, Shoko. You know how we’re super good friends and only want the best for each other..” You start a poor attempt at buttering her up.

She scrunches her face, already having an idea of where this conversation is going, “What do you need me to do for you?”

You clasp your hands together and bat your lashes at her, “Could you pretty please cover for Satoru and I today? Just come up with a lie or something to keep Yaga from suspecting us of doing anything we aren’t supposed to.”

She stares at you, deadpan, “Are you serious? Do you really want to risk getting suspended to hang out with your airhead of a boyfriend?”

“I heard that!” Satoru shouts from outside in which Shoko rolls her eyes.

“Alright, alright, but if I can’t stall him for the whole day, whatever happens won’t be my fault.”

You jump up from your spot, tugging her into a tight hug, “Thank you! You’re the best!”

She rolls her eyes, but deep down, she just wants you to be happy no matter what.

You’re quick to run back outside, but not quick enough to miss Shoko’s, “You owe me for this!”

Satoru instantly stands to his feet when he sees you, “So, what’d she say?”

“She’ll cover for us,” You smile and give him a thumbs up.

“Good. It’s nothing too special but I want you to see it.” He says.

“Don’t say that. Everything is special with you. I don’t care what it is.” What you speak is the undeniable truth. Being with Satoru is enough to make your day.

“Aww, I never knew you could be so sweet,” He teases, but his heart is thumping inside his chest.

You shoot him a half annoyed glare, “Don’t ruin the moment.”

He says nothing, only responding with a cheesy grin as he interlocks his pinky with yours, moving off campus once he’s sure nobody else is around. Once again being the only one of you two who can see the red string that connects you through fate and destiny.

…

You’re confused when you arrive at the designated place. It was an old, beaten up building, more than likely used to be a factory of some sort. It had to be at least 20 stories high.

“What are we doing here?” You ask, using your free hand to block the sun from your eyes. Now that it’s almost summer, the sun is out more often. A bad sign.

For the second time that day, he didn’t respond, but a warm smile stayed plastered on his face. He simply led you into the building, not letting you out of his sight for a second.

You walked in silence, the creaking sound of the stairs filling your ears. There was barely any light besides the crack of the tainted window allowing some in.

“Won’t we get in trouble if we’re here? Isn’t it technically trespassing?”

He chuckles and continues guiding you up the stairs to what he wanted to show you, “We’ll be fine. Stop worrying so much. You’re with me.”

You take his word for it, he’s right. There should be no need for you to worry when you’re with him. He would never put you in a position where you could get hurt. Right?

At the top of the last flight of stairs, there’s a door to the rooftop. He pushes it open and you’re hit with a gentle breeze and a view of the entire city.

“You like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” You say, staring back out into the distance. You could only dream of how amazing the city would look at nighttime from this view, “Where did you find this place?”

He sits down by the edge of the building, dangling his feet off. He gestures for you to sit down as well, “I don’t know, I was probably around 11, 12 at most.”

You take the seat next to him and he wraps an arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer, “You were out and about a lot as a kid, no? Considering you found a bunch of places in Tokyo that nobody would think of visiting.”

He shrugs, “You’re not wrong. I was always cooped up at home, smothered by my parents and the head of the clan. Any chance I got, I would take the opportunity to explore the city. Sometimes, I would hide away from them up here.”

You feel your heart break at his words, so much pressure for someone so young. Nobody should have to bear that amount of stress and burden as a kid. “I’m sorry.. That must’ve been an awful situation to grow up in.”

“You learn to get used to it. The constant nagging from my family is annoying, but I tune them out anytime they talk to me. I don’t really care about what they have to say. It’s just Satoru do this, Satoru do that, Satoru come home, Satoru the future heir of the Gojo Clan. I want to be able to make my own decisions.” He exhales a breath, “What about you? I can’t imagine what it’s like living in the Zenin Clan.”

“My family never had high expectations for me, but they were controlling about everything I did solely for the sake of making me suffer, not because they cared or because they would gain something from it.”

You spent the next hours talking to each other about your lives. The sun was even beginning to go down. You opened up to one another, being completely vulnerable and showing sides that nobody else had seen before. Despite growing up in completely different environments, you understood each other on an unmatched level. There was no hiding or running away at that moment.

You look down at where your feet are dangling off the building. Normally, you would be scared, but Satoru puts your mind and body at ease, causing your thoughts to evaporate into thin air.

“Satoru?”

“Hm?” He hums, his eyes focused on you.

“If I died right now, would you die with me?”

“Absolutely.”

…

Present time-

Satoru is fast asleep in his dorm, in the middle of a dream until he hears his phone ring repeatedly. He tries to ignore it, but whoevers calling must really want to talk to him.

He grumbles in frustration before throwing his arm over his nightstand, lazily searching for his phone. Once it’s in his hand, he sits up, rubbing the remaining sleep out of his eyes.

But when he sees the contact name, his heart nearly stops beating.

“Dad.”

The last person on earth he wanted to call him.

He gulps and presses the answer button with shaky fingers, “Hello?”

“Satoru, how have you been?” He’s making small talk. He does this whenever he needs to break some news to Satoru. A build up before it crashes down.

“I’ve been good…” He sputters, doing his best to conceal his nervousness. Something his dad told him was to never let others see you when you aren’t at your best. Wear that front for as long as you have to.

“How’s school?” His dad’s voice is rough, a hint of anger mixed in.

“It’s great. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Suguru and Shoko,” A lie.

“Are you sure? Just Suguru and Shoko? You haven’t made any new friends?” The tone of the older man is taunting, trying to get him to talk.

Satoru feels like he’s being suffocated, “Yeah, this years class of second years is small.”

There’s a short pause before a sigh that can’t be described as anything but full of disappointment, “What did I tell you about lying to me? Did you think I wouldn’t find out you’ve been seeing that Zenin girl?”

“How did you even find out about that? It’s not what you think it is. I didn’t want to bring her up because you’d overreact about her family.”

He raises his voice, instantly shutting Satoru down, “I know a lot of things, Satoru. Things you wouldn’t expect me to figure out. Bring her over for lunch today to meet the family. It’s the weekend, so I’m assuming you don’t have any classes. Don’t be late.”

Satoru’s head feels like it’s spinning, “Yes, dad..”

“One more thing.. don’t forget about the contract.”

The call ends and Satoru flops back down on his bed, burying his face into his pillows. He’s worried about how this is going to go, but he has some sort of an idea and it isn’t good.

…

You’ve been up since early in the morning. Shoko went out, so you found time to clean the dorm as a way to pass time.

Just as you plug in the vacuum, your phone pings with a text.

Satoru: Morning, baby. I got a call from my dad and he wants to meet you today. Sorry it’s out of nowhere, I hope you don’t have anything planned.

In all honesty, you’re terrified of having to meet his family. After hearing Satoru talk about them, they don’t seem like the best people, but you’ll try to leave a good impression if that’s even possible.

…

The getting ready process took longer than usual. You don’t know what time it is, but hopefully you aren’t running late. You doubt they’d forgive you.

A dress, heels and the nicest jewelry you could find. You’re having second thoughts, wanting to go back and change your outfit for the third time, but the knock on your door pulls you out of your indecisive trance.

The second you open the door, Satoru’s jaw drops and he stares at you in adornment and admiration while you look back at him with an unsure smile, a pink hue coloring your cheeks.

He turns his head away, “Wow..”

Naturally, you begin to overthink, “Why did you turn your head away? Do I look bad?”

“No, no. It’s nothing like that at all,” But he’s still not looking in your direction.

“Then what is it? You’re making me nervous.”

“You’re just too pretty. I think I’ll pass out.”

His answer gets a small laugh from you and he slowly looks back up. His heart begins to beat rapidly at the sound coming from you. He’s so in love.

He clears his throat, tugging on his shirt collar, “Are you ready to go? There’s a limo out in the front waiting for us.” It’s the weekend, so Yaga’s rules don’t apply for the day.

“Oooh, a limo? Fancy,” You say as you hook your arm around his and begin walking to the front of the school.

He playfully rolls his eyes, “Tell me about it. My dad insisted on sending one for us.”

You nod in understanding, you know how his dad is.

You’re met by the driver who greets you both with a smile, but it instantly drops when he sees you. He doesn’t look at you with a face of anger, it’s filled with sorrow and pity. It makes you uneasy.

Satoru opens the door for you and gets in right after you do. He doesn’t say anything and only keeps a hand on your thigh as he stares at the floor of the limo. He’s not being himself. Come to think of it, he even sounded off over text. He usually spams your phone or sends random pictures from his camera roll. You tried not to think too much of it, but considering the way he’s acting right now, it makes you worry.

“Is everything okay?” You ask.

He peels his gaze away from the ground, eyes meeting yours, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just nervous about you meeting my family, that’s all.”

You want to believe it’s just that.

…

After what feels like forever, the limo comes to a stop and the driver moves out of his seat to open the door. Satoru helps you out and keeps you close to him.

His house is huge. There’s a large white gate wrapping around the entire thing, tons of cars fill the garage, and the land is bigger than any you’ve ever come across. You knew the Gojo Clan was rich, but this goes beyond what you expected.

The sound of the gate opening grabs your attention. A tall man walks through it, hand in hand with a shorter woman.

He comes over with his arms raised in the air, going in for a hug, “Satoru,” The man pats him on the back, “And you are?” He asks, looking directly through your soul.

“I’m y/n, it’s nice to meet you,” You hold out your hand to shake his, but he ignores you, walking ahead into the yard with Satoru who keeps his head hung low.

“Dad, try to be a little nicer,” You hear him whisper.

They look similar. Both have white hair and blue eyes, but everything else Satoru got from his mother. Nose, lips, eyebrows. They’re all her.

You feel a little embarrassed. It seems his dad automatically doesn’t like you.

“I’m sorry about Satoru’s father. He can be a little hostile with new people, especially friends of Satoru,” Satoru’s mother says.

She’s beautiful, “It’s okay, I’m not sure he’d react differently no matter what I did.”

She chuckles softly, “You’re right about that. What did you say your name was again?”

“Y/n.”

“Y/n, I’ve heard a lot about you. Satoru never told anyone about your relationship, but I was the first to find out,” She motions for you to follow her, “Come on, the entire family is here.”

You walk sheepishly behind her to the backyard, green filling your vision. There’s a large dining table set up with decorations and tons of food and even more people.

Satoru is conversing with herds of uncles, aunts, and cousins. He doesn’t look comfortable in the slightest, but his head perks up when he sees you.

There aren’t enough seats. A perfect number for everyone else, but only one is missing. Weird, but not unexpected.

Satoru doesn’t miss the deliberate and asinine scheme set up by his father, so he pats his lap, and you walk over, making yourself comfortable on him. Strong arms wrap around you.

Whispers of “Is that Satoru’s girlfriend?” “She’s pretty,” “I thought he wasn’t allowed to date,” and such fill your ears.

“Don’t worry about them, they like to talk,” He whispers. His relatives are overflowing with loudmouths, and now that the prodigy of the family is in a relationship? It’ll be the main topic for the next couple reunions.

You turn to face him, “It’s hard not to. I feel like everyone is looking at me strangely. Not to mention, your dad clearly isn’t the biggest fan of you being with me.”

Speaking of his father, he’s the first to (surprisingly) ask you a question.

“So, y/n, tell us more about yourself,” Everyone else at the table goes quiet and faces you, eager to hear the mystery girl talk.

Satoru squeezes your hand in hopes of easing the tension, “Well, for starters, I’m a third year at Jujutsu Tech. It’s my first year there.”

They all nod in unison, one of his cousins shouts out, “Do you love him?” The little girl’s question makes you and Satoru chuckle while her mom pulls her to the side.

“Yes, I do. A lot.”

Satoru’s dad stands up, a wine glass in hand, “A toast to Satoru and his girlfriend. I do hope you won’t hurt my son.”

Just as everyone is about to raise their cups and cans, he cuts the toast off with another question, “But before we get too comfortable, there’s one more thing I should ask. What family do you come from? You know, it’s only natural for me as a parent to ask. I wouldn’t want my son getting involved with the wrong people.”

Satoru tugs his father down by the wrist with a threatening hold, “Dad, what do you think you’re doing? Stop it. This isn’t the time or place.” But he doesn’t listen.

Your mouth goes dry, “Uhm, I don’t really like talking about my family. I haven’t talked to them since I moved to Tokyo,” You make an effort to ease the situation away from this topic, but it’s no use. Satoru’s father is persistent.

“Are you sure? Nobody enjoys talking about their dysfunctional family or is it because you were born into the Zenin Clan?” Shocked gasps circulate around the table.

You stand up from Satoru’s lap, tears beginning to form and pool in your e/c eyes, but it doesn’t stop.

“I’m certain that’s the last thing we all expected. Satoru’s sweet, perfect girlfriend is a Zenin.”

Satoru spins you around by your waist, wiping your now spilling tears, “Y/n, I’m so sorry. This is why I was nervous about bringing you here today. If it were up to me, I would keep you a secret from them for the rest of my life.”

His father continues on, “I don’t think you’re good enough for my son. You’re a filthy Zenin and that’s all you’ll ever be. We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, so say your goodbyes because it’ll be the last time you see him.”

Your eyes go abnormally wide, and Satoru almost lunges at his dad right then and there.

A quiet, “What?” is all you’re able to muster.

“Don’t tell me Satoru hasn’t told you yet? He signed a contract about a year ago that whenever needed, he would be called and sent to work in the United States for some time. It just so happens I spoke with them this morning and they would like him to go in by Monday.” His tone is full of mockery, and disdain. It reminds you of Naoya feeding off your misery.

“Satoru, is he serious? This has to be a joke,” You’re doing all you can to stop yourself from breaking down in front of all these people.

He shakes his head, his words failing him.

That’s the confirmation you needed to bolt out of the yard to the front of the gate. Satoru and his mother call after you, but you can’t register what they’re saying.

Satoru is right behind you, reaching out for your hand.

“Don’t touch me!” You shout, pushing him away.

“Y/n, please. I’m sorry, I didn’t know I would be called in so soon.”

“It doesn’t matter! You couldn’t have talked about it with me beforehand?! We could’ve figured something out! I could go with you! We don’t have to break up!” You sound like a different person. Begging to not be left by him isn’t something you’ve ever had to do.

“Y/n, you can’t. They won’t allow it, my dad won’t allow it. I don’t even know how long I’ll be there for. It could be anywhere from a week to 5 years. It just wouldn’t work,” His chest tightens at having to tell you like this. He never wanted to hurt you.

You scoff through your pouring tears, “So that’s it? It’s over?” Your voice goes small. He’s never seen you so hurt, but he knows you have every reason to be.

“I’m sorry. I signed up for it before I met you. If I knew, I wouldn’t have done it, but I can’t go back now.”

“I can’t believe you! You’re an asshole! How could you hide something like this from me? What about our plans for the future? What about everything we wanted to do together?” You’re sobbing at this point, warm tears flooding your cheeks, “Do you not love me anymore?”

It could never ever be that.

“Y/n, I wouldn’t stop loving you even at the expense of my own life.”

“So why? Why does this have to happen? I don’t want to lose you.”

His head hangs low, he can’t even look you in the eyes, afraid of what level of pain he’ll see if he does. “I don’t know.”

And so you run, far, far away. You run as far and as fast your legs let you. You dont know where you’re going, but before you knew it, you were falling apart in Shoko’s arms like putty. She holds you up, unsure of what’s happening. “Y/n! what’s going on! calm down!”

You begin hyperventilating, shouting, “No, Shoko! You don’t understand! Nobody understands how much we loved each other! Shoko, I don’t know why he did this. Please, I can’t live without him, but I couldn’t get through to him. Shoko, please. please please please.” You don’t know if you’re asking her for help or begging the universe to give you back the only thing you’ve ever wanted, cursing at it for taking him away from you. Those are the effects of the red string. It hurts, it pulls, it tugs, it tangles, but it never breaks even if it feels like your pinky is about to snap off.

Summer has come and dried out the flowers that bloomed happily during spring.

40 notes · View notes

leewriting · 2 years

Text

Things that matter more

Roommate au Mafia au

Roommates to lovers

Jungkook x reader

At first, getting a new roommate after your friend had moved out appalled you. Just thinking about sharing your space with a stranger put you on edge, but as the weeks went by and the rent went up you had no other choice but to post that stupid ad. In many ways living with Jungkook is perfect for an introverted med student like yourself. He pays rent on time and is seldom home leaving the apartment quiet and clean. On the other hand, there is the small problem of him stumbling in at three in the morning, hurt and letting blood stain your new carpet.

Wordcount:32k

Warnings: Mentions of death, abuse and dead bodies, blood and injuries, angst

A/N, okay so I have become so attached to this story. I hope you all love it as much as I do. Please let me know what you think by commenting. I love you all and I hope you enjoy the story.

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“I hate you.” You glare. You can feel the absolute rage build up inside you until you finally explode and hit the stupid printer. It still doesn’t want to print your assignment.

“Okay, I’m sorry I promise I won’t do that again.” you plead, close to tears. “But it is kind of your own fault.” You bite your lip, are you really trying to gaslight your printer?

“Okay you win, see” you start backing up, hands held in front of you. “I’m going to leave, and we can try and work this out when I get back.” You turn and retreat from your room.

You sigh. Okay, maybe you’ve finally gone crazy, but you are at your wit's end. You need to have this printed before tomorrow because your professor apparently still lives in the dark ages and wants everything to be submitted in hard copy.

It’s 3 am and the apartment is dark and silent. You feel a tingle travel down your spine and you race down the hallway for the light switch next to the front door.

Breathing a sigh of relief with the lights officially on, you turn to the kitchen ready for a cup of coffee. But you freeze when you see the figure standing behind the island. The scream leaves your throat before you have a chance to think.

The man in your kitchen swirls around and your scream dies down immediately. It’s just Jungkook.

Jungkook your roommate for the past 6 months is home earlier than you expected. He must have gotten off early from work. You’re not sure what his job is, hell you’re not even sure what his middle name is or if he even has one for that matter. He showed up at your doorstep after you posted the ad. At first, you were apprehensive of course about him being a man and all, but you didn’t really have another choice unless you wanted to live with Becky a girl you can’t stand, so you agreed.

Living with him is much better than you expected, he cleans up after himself, and as mentioned he is almost never home meaning you get the rent paid without having to deal with petty roommate drama. It’s a win-win situation.

“You okay?” Jungkook asks his eyebrow raised and surveying you after your little freak out.

You blush, feeling foolish. “Yes, sorry I didn’t know you were here.” You look away trying to come off nonchalant even though your heart is still racing from the fright you had.

“Well, I do live here you know.” He smirks, pouring milk into a glass.

“Yeah, I never see you so I forget.” You blurt out. You didn’t mean to say that. You guess your mouth is just running away on its own now. Maybe there is a medical condition for it. You should look it up, you bet it’s called being stupid and unable to function late at night without coffee.

He just hums and nods, taking a sip of his milk, not bothered by your statement.

“Why were you in the dark anyway?” You ask, realising how weird it is that he didn’t turn on a light.

“Working on my night vision.” He smirks and struts to his door. “Goodnight.” He gives a little wave before closing his room door behind him.

You stand there confused for a moment but you brush it off. It’s not unusual, this is how most of your conversations with him go. He always dodges questions with strange remarks. However, you still have a good relationship, maybe it’s more like a common understanding that just because you live together means you can be acquaintances without being friends.

Making friends with people isn’t really your strong suit. Mostly you feel too uncomfortable in social situations to really talk to others, and when you do start talking most people tend to stare at you as if you grew a second head. Someone once told you your sense of humour is apparently off-putting, whatever that means. Mostly you say the wrong things at the wrong time when meeting someone so you shy away from situations with strangers.

That’s why you don’t really try too hard to get to know Jungkook. You feel it’ll only make things more awkward if he knew that his roommate is an awkward human who thinks talking about true crime is the epitome of conversation.

You head to the kitchen still in thought, and magically you’re able to make yourself coffee without burning your hand off with boiling water. It’s a real accomplishment at this time of night.

You sit on the couch for a bit, rejoicing in the silence around you before you hear the printer you were abusing finally coming to its senses and doing its job. With a sigh you place your cup in the sink and head back to your room, only to find your papers scattered across the floor as the printer keeps spitting out more.

“Fuck” You groan out in irritation and you swear you hear a giggle coming from the room next door.

“He chopped up his victims and buried them in the woods near his house.” The true-crime podcast is playing in the background while you make notes. You’re up later than usual, much later, but you need to get these notes done before class tomorrow.

You hear the front door creak open. You immediately stop what you’re doing, pausing the podcast in the process. You sit in silence waiting for the tell-tale sign of Jungkook walking to his room. The shoes he wears always make enough noise to be able to track every step. You once told him he can probably kick someone unconscious with his shoes. He only responded with a smirk.

You don’t hear him at all and you’re getting paranoid now. Maybe listening to a true crime podcast this time of night isn’t such a good idea as you thought it would be. You take a deep breath in, deciding what to do. You reach for your phone and dial Jungkook’s number.

He once told you that if there was ever an emergency you should call him. You scoffed at the time but now you hope that he counts a possible murderer as one of those emergencies. You press the phone to your ear but frown when you hear his ringtone blast through the apartment. You swear he is the only person you know who doesn't have his phone on silent all the time.

You get up hesitantly when he doesn't pick up. You follow his ringtone to the living room and freeze.

There on the floor laying face down on the new rug is your roommate. You frown as the weird red tye-dye on his shirt seems to be spreading onto said rug. Your eyes grow wide as the realisation hits you. It’s not tye-dye it’s fucking blood!

You rush to his side.

“Jungkook!” He groans, at least he is still awake, “Hey can you hear me?”

“No.” He groans out and you would have laughed if he wasn’t currently possibly bleeding out.

“What happened? Is there someone in the apartment?” Your frenzied mind immediately goes back to your suspicions of a murderer.

“No.” He says again and you feel a bit relieved even if he isn’t answering your first question.

“Okay, I need you to turn around.” You try to roll him over but it’s only with his help that you manage. You never guessed all that muscle would make him this heavy.

“Uhm okay…” Your hands hover over his torso. His entire shirt in the front is soaked with blood and he is too pale for your liking. “Okay, this is fine.”

You pull up his shirt and gasp at the cut on his side. “Okay, maybe this is not fine.” Your breath is haggard as panic sets in, but just as it does the med-student in you take over. This is just another emergency patient right? You can treat this, you’ve done it before. Just not alone without a supervisor to step in if you mess up, and not without the proper supplies. Still, you know what to do at least.

You pull your shirt over your head and press it onto the wound, making him wince. You press down hard but realise all your supplies are in your room.

“Okay Jungkook here.” You try to say it as calmly as possible, while you move his hand over yours. “Press hard okay.” You instruct and hope that he heard you because you’re up and running immediately.

You fly into your room and snatch up your first aid kit before you sprint back, sliding on your knees to him in your panic. Your skin burns from the friction, but you don’t have time to look.

You rip open your med kit and replace Jungkook’s hand on the cloth that was once your favourite baggy shirt. You cautiously lift it up and breathe out a sigh of relief when you see the bleeding has stopped.

“You’re okay, I’m okay we are all going to be okay,” you ramble while you pack out your supplies.

“That is very reassuring.” Jungkook jokes and you stare.

“How can you joke right now?” You almost scream out.

Jungkook rolls his eyes. “It’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad…are you looking at it?” Your eyes are wide while you survey his much too calm face. Why does he almost look used to this? “ Nevermind don’t look.” You’re afraid he’ll start panicking if he does.

You wet gauze with disinfectant. “ This is going to sting.” You warn him before pressing the gauze to the cut. He immediately groans and grabs your arm trying to stop you, before he realises what he’s doing and lets it go again.

Once clean, you can get a good look at the wound. If you had to guess he tried to dodge whatever it was by turning out of the way. Clearly, it didn’t work and now you have no choice.

“It’s going to need stitches.” You bite your lip.

“Great then get on with it please.”

“Get on with… Jungkook stitches.” You repeat yourself sure he didn’t hear. “ As in threading a needle through your skin and I don’t have any numbing agent.”

“Is your bedside manner always this calming?” He hisses through his teeth in pain. Your eyes are wide, and he sighs when he looks at your face. “Just do it okay, I can take it.”

You nod and bite your lip before threading the needle.

Throughout the procedure, he lies as still as possible but his constant wincing and the few whimpers that escape his clenched jaw give away that he is in pain. Overall you just try to work as fast as possible. For the first time, you’re glad for all the times your professor made you redo your stitches because now you at least know that you’re doing it right.

“Alright all done, let me just wrap you up.” You state after a few moments, snipping the thread. You place all your now blood soaked tools on the coffee table, you’ll clean it up later, and come back with gauze and bandages.

Jungkook is still breathing heavily from the stitches sitting up a bit now. As soon as you start wrapping the bandages you can’t stop your eyes from wandering. Yes, he has a nice body but the thing that makes you almost gasp is all the healed scars. The faint white lines contrast with his skin. Your curiosity about the situation is spiked.

“Ouch.” Jungkook let’s slip when you finish tying the bandage.

“Sorry.” You apologise. For the first time, you survey him further. His torso is bruised badly, and for a moment you wonder if his ribs are damaged. His cheekbone is blossoming with purple hues and his lip is split, dried with blood. You sigh and pick up a gauze pad wetting it with the disinfectant.

“What are you doing?” Jungkook asks, leaning back until his back meets the wall while you lean forward, the gauze held up in your hand.

“Will you please just hold still.” He hesitates long enough for you to press the gauze against his lip.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry.” You scoot closer to him so that you have more control and he looks at you.

“Thank you.” He says it softy and you nod, trying not to look at his intense staring eyes, you rather concentrate on his lip, dabbing it lightly with the gauze.

“Y/n” He encases your wrist with his hand making you stop and look at him in surprise. He is frowning slightly.

“Really thank you.” His face softens as he says the words, truly meaning them. Your brain struggles to come up with a reply but your mouth is clearly not affected.

“It’s a pleasure, I’m just really glad you didn’t die. I don't know how I would have gotten rid of your body.” You immediately mentally cringe. You always make stupid jokes like this in awkward situations. You had to learn to stop yourself for hospital practicals, but clearly, your training isn’t helping now.

Jungkook stares at you in shock and you’re just about to apologise when he starts laughing, wincing a bit but continuing.

“Yeah, I doubt you would have been able to drag me to the woods to bury me.” His reply surprises you, most people rarely appreciate your sense of humour.

“No, I would have probably had to chop you up.” You wait for his response, you’re sure he will change the topic but he just laughs again.

“O yeah, serial killer style okay.” He nods as if in thought and you frown, laughing at the twist the conversation has taken. “I don’t think that would be the best way though.”

“O and why not?” You have no idea why you feel defensive about the way you would dispose of a dead body.

“Because the mess would be way too much,” He says it so calmly, “Imagine the cleaning. You would definitely not get your deposit back on this place.” He grimaces at the idea and you laugh.

“You’re probably right,” You cave. “I’ll be sure to ask your advice if I ever need to hide a body.”

“I am nothing if not helpful.” He jokes.

You’ve never seen him smile this much, come to think of it you’ve barely seen him smile at all. It suits him, especially when his eyes crinkle up and his front teeth show the way it is doing now.

“Jungkook?” His name calls his attention to you immediately. You know it’s probably overstepping a boundary but you just feel like you need to know. “What happened?”

His face goes blank for a moment. He clears his throat. “ I was mugged.”

You don’t believe him, it sounds almost practised. He also doesn’t meet your eyes completely, but overall you can’t be sure he is lying. You don't know his tells, hell you don’t even really know him.

“I’m sorry that happened. I’m glad you’re safe.” You don’t push and you can see he appreciates it. If he was really mugged he probably doesn’t want to talk about it.

A lull falls over you two. You play with the gauze stretching it apart. You mentally chastise yourself. You just had to go and ruin the moment with your curiosity.

“I’m sorry.” He breaks the silence.

“Huh?” You frown at him and you stare even harder when you see his cheeks becoming a pinkish shade. At least you know he has enough blood to blush.

“I’m sorry about the rug.” He motions with his head to the big red stain on your once pretty rug. You can’t make him feel bad about it though.

“It’s okay, I like modern art anyway.” You awkwardly chuckle trying to reassure him, but when you see he is biting his lip still staring at the stain you sigh.

“You can make it up to me okay?” You say patting his shoulder. The movement feels very weird, out of place for some reason.

You watch his face morph into one of exhaustion very quickly. The adrenaline finally wearing off.

“I think you should go rest.” You say in your best doctor voice. Jungkook shows no resistance and just nods before slowly getting up, wincing with every movement and holding onto his injured side but he refuses your help.

You follow him to his room door. You worry that he’ll tear the stitches or what if you did it wrong and he bleeds out during the night? He turns around to face your anxious form.

“I’ll be fine Y/n don’t worry.” He says as if reading your mind.

“Call me if anything happens okay.” You get a nod in return heading to your own room, hearing his door close behind you.

Once in the comfort of your room, you take a second to process what happened, leaning against your door and counting the events on your fingers.

One, you had treated your first patient by yourself.

Two, unfortunately, it happened to be your mysteriously bleeding roommate at 3 in the morning,

Three, afterwards, you had the longest and weirdest conversation you’ve ever had with him.

And four, apparently, as you move further into your room and catch sight of yourself in the mirror, you did all this in your bra.

The morning light creeps into your room much faster than you feel necessary. Your head feels groggy as if every thought has to trek through mud to make an appearance. You rub your eyes and slowly open them, only to groan at the onslaught of the sunlight on your eyes.

You sit on the bed for another second, before the desire for coffee drags you out of it. You swing your body to the side standing up only to stumble. Why do your knees hurt so much?

You rack your brain for the possible reason for the bruises on them. You try to recall what happened last night before you .

You were making your notes when… o shit Jungkook.

You hurriedly walk out of your room, stopping at his door. You listen intently for any sign of him being in there, but you're only met with silence. Maybe you should go in, but you feel like that would be crossing a line, and you’re sure that if something was wrong he would have called for you. Or well you hope he would. So instead you continue to the kitchen.

Your sight is set on the coffee maker, it shines like a glowing beckon for your tired brain. You reach for it turning it on when you suddenly stop and backtrack. There on the black counter is one of your favourite cups filled with now lukewarm coffee. The coffee however isn’t what makes you smile. It’s the sticky note stuck to it. The letters were clearly written carefully, forming two words. Thank you.

You remove the neon pink note and stick it on the wall where it contrasts nicely with the white tile.

You wonder where your roommate is, it feels too quiet in the apartment for him to be home. Usually, there would be noise coming from his room. Games or something, but now there is absolute silence, which means he’s probably not home. You know he didn’t die through the night though because the coffee isn’t cold, so there is that to at least calm your anxious mind. You just hope that wherever he is, he is not tearing his stitches.

You take a sip of the coffee and wrinkle your nose at the bitter liquid. You can’t blame him that he doesn’t know to put sugar in your coffee. You drink it nonetheless, you can’t have the gesture go to waste.

You smile as you catch sight of the note again, picking up a sticky note, from the pile you usually use for grocery lists you write a quick “my pleasure” on it. Something feels missing though, so without thinking about it twice you add a small “Don’t die” at the bottom, hoping he would appreciate it. You stick it on his bedroom door to make sure he sees it as you head past to get dressed because you just realised that you are late, very late.

You don’t think you’ve ever gotten ready so fast. Your exciting 3 am seemed to have impacted your sleep a little bit too much and now you’re going to be late for class if you don’t leave. You barely remember to lock the door. Your last thought before you rush to the elevator is that Jungkook better not bleed out through the day.

“No mom I’m fine, I just had a bad day.” You have your phone pressed between your ear and your shoulder as you talk to your mom while walking through the aisles of the convenience store.

“No, there is nothing you can do mom, I’m just getting chocolate, and then heading home.” You bend down finally finding what you were looking for.

You had a very bad day, classes have been killing you inside, and today of all days your professor just had to call on you with a question you didn’t know the answer to. The embarrassment and your group’s decision to work on an assignment till late have mixed together to make you feel drained and just completely over today.

“Yeah, I’ll be safe,” You pack your things on the counter for the cashier to ring up. “Okay love you too.” You finally hang up. You don’t know how your mom just knew to call you but hearing her voice made you feel better.

“Bad day?” The man asks you while packing everything into a bag for you.

“That obvious huh?” You ask handing over the money.

“The amount of chocolate might have given it away.” He smiles and you blush and nod taking the bag that he hands over.

“Hey if you’re not busy later,” He continues before you can leave. “Maybe I can try to make your day better.”

You stare at him shocked, did he just ask you out on a date?

“O, uhm…” You’re not sure what to say, obviously you don’t want to go out with him but you don’t know how to turn him down.

“It’s alright I think the uhm… chocolate will do the job.” You say awkwardly, “Besides I can’t tell if you're an axe murderer.” He stares at you and you cringe inwardly, that might not have been the best way to turn him down. You guess after all the joking with Jungkook you forgot how people react when you say things like that.

So leaving the situation you turn and walk out the door without waiting to see if he’ll reply.

Blushing hard you walk down the street. How do some people react so well to your humour and others just don’t? Or well you guess only one person reacts well. But you mean you do have a point, he could be a serial killer or something, maybe it just wasn’t the best thing to say it out loud, to his face.

It’s already dark, but your apartment is only a block away so you decide to just walk instead of waiting for a bus. It’s a nice night out, not too hot or cold and the fresh air isn’t something you get enough of, so you continue down the street.

There aren’t many people out and soon a strange feeling of being watched takes over you. You turn around to look behind you but there is only a couple following you down the sidewalk. You breathe out, nothing to worry about. That is until they cross the street and the sound of footsteps behind you makes you aware of someone else following you.

Just relax Y/n it’s probably just another person like you walking home, you’re just being paranoid, that’s all, you try to convince yourself. But the feeling of being watched doesn’t disappear and you start walking faster. Your heart rate speeds up when the footsteps start becoming faster as well. You refuse to look back and let the person know you’re aware of them so you keep your head down and walk even faster. The footsteps are closer now and you can see an alley coming up. You’re just about to make a run for it across the street not caring if you’re jaywalking or looking foolish when a figure comes out of nowhere from the side.

You freeze in fear but when the light falls over the stranger's face you relax. It’s Jungkook.

“Hey what are you doing here?” You ask breathing out a sigh of relief and look back over your shoulder only to see the man that was walking behind you cross the street.

“I uh… got off of work early and saw you walking so I thought I’d join you,” Jungkook replies following the man with his eyes before he smiles and takes the bag out of your hand and carries it for you.

“O, well thank you.” You say falling into step beside him.

“Did you do grocery shopping?” He peeks into the bag and immediately starts laughing. “I guess not.” He chuckles.

“I had a bad day okay,” You go to rip the bag from his hand but he moves it out of your grasp, swatting away your hand.

“So your reaction is to buy half of the store’s chocolate?” He teases, smiling at you.

You cross your arms over your chest defensively. “Yes, it is a coping mechanism.”

He just giggles and the sound makes you stare at him, you’ve never heard him giggle before and it almost makes you want to laugh. You survey the way he’s limping a bit to the side of his injury making a mental note to check on it.

“I’m glad to see you’re still alive.” You state without thinking and he frowns for a second before realisation seems to dawn on him and he nods.

“I was planning on dying but then I saw your note and decided against it.” He smiles referring to the sticky note you left him. “I didn’t want to disobey my doctor’s orders.”

“Good, because that would really have tainted my reputation,” You state straight-faced, “ letting someone die before even graduating imagine.”

“Yeah, that would have been bad for you.” He agrees nodding profusely causing you to chuckle.

You fall into silence, and you breathe in the fresh air deeply, glad that he showed up so you don’t have to be so paranoid.

“Y/n.” He breaks the silence with a serious tone of voice. You look at him, his face is just as serious as his voice. “You shouldn’t be walking alone.”

You sigh. “I know I just really wanted chocolate.” You try to justify your actions even if the excuse sounds lame to your own ears.

“Next time, call me okay,” You frown at him unsure of what he’s saying. “I’ll bring you chocolate.”

You’re taken aback by his words. He’s offering to bring you chocolate so that you don’t have to walk at night?

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You mumble not knowing what else to say. You didn’t expect him to say something like that, you guess maybe the fact that you two seemed to be able to have a whole conversation made it easier for him to talk to you or maybe it made it easier for you. He does seem much more approachable than he use to. He always came across as cold, but now you guess you’re seeing his true personality coming out to you and you like it, or maybe he hit his head last night as well.

“I’m sorry you had a bad day.” He tries to keep the conversation going and you look at him in surprise. Jip, he definitely hit his head. But you don’t want to be rude so you answer.

“It’s okay.”

You reach your apartment door without saying another word, but the silence wasn’t awkward like you expected it was more like a comfortable one.

“Careful,” he muses when walking into the apartment, “The rug is wet.” He says it almost sheepishly but plays it off as nonchalantly as he can.

You look down to find the rug wet and the bloodstain now a mere trace of pink.

“You cleaned it?” You say in wonder, stepping over it so as not to get your socks wet.

“Yeah I know you said you like modern art but I assumed you were joking.” He puts the bag down on the counter. “Unless you weren’t in which case I can bleed on it again.”

You laugh at his serious face and it morphs into a smile.

“That’s okay.” You giggle, before saying very seriously, “Please don’t do that.” He nods.

You survey the way he is standing gripping onto his side.

“How are you doing? With the injury and all?” You ask trying to tread lightly in case he becomes defensive like some people do when asked.

To your surprise, he grimaces, “I was hoping you could maybe take a look at it?”

“Yeah of course.” You nod a bit flattered that he asked.

You lead him to the bathroom and instruct him to stand by the sink, that way you can easily throw the dirty gauze somewhere other than the coffee table.

“Uhm you have to take off your shirt.” You say awkwardly, fidgeting in your med kit even though you already have the supplies you need in hand.

You see movement in your peripheral vision and you turn around, blushing a bit at the sight of him without a shirt. Of course, you’ve always known he’s handsome. When you first met him you thought he must be some kind of demigod, with his sharp jawline and pretty eyes, so seeing him now you gulp. You saw him without a shirt last night but that was while you were panicking. Now it takes a moment for your brain to stop going haywire.

“Right uhm…” You clear your throat and the ghost of a smirk crosses his face.

“Aren’t you going to take yours off again?” He teases and your blush deepens, burning your cheeks.

“O uhm…” You stammer over your words.

“I’m joking, I know it was because you needed to stop the bleeding,” he reassures you, poking you on the nose and bending down a bit to look you in the eye. “Stop blushing.” He adds when he sees how flustered you look.

“It’s not really something I can control.” You mumble and unwrap his bandages. You’re very close to him, you can feel his body heat radiating off of him and you can’t help but wonder if he has a fever.

“You’re really hot.” You say without thinking and he stares at you in surprise lifting an eyebrow at your statement before you realise what you said. “I didn’t mean…uhm you feel warm, I’m scared you may have a fever.” You stammer to try and explain yourself.

“No don’t worry I usually run warm.” He says to calm you down and you just nod, sticking a thermometer in his mouth anyway even if it just to keep him from teasing you any further.

You can feel his eyes on you as you check his stitches. They are still intact so you can stop worrying about that at least. You disinfect the wound again before putting on the fresh dressing.

The beeping of the thermometer comes and a moment later he’s handing it to you.

“See no fever.” He triumphantly states and you look at the normal temperature flashing on the device.

“Well, then I guess…” You’re cut off by his phone ringing and he immediately picks it up.

“Yeah Hyung.” He answers and you turn away to put everything back into your medkit.

“I know I’m sorry but it was an emergency.” You frown. You don’t mean to eavesdrop but it’s kind of hard not to when he’s standing right next to you.

“I’ll be right there,” He nods while the person on the phone continues to speak. He moves to the side to give you access to the sink and you remove the gauze from it, to throw it away. “Yeah okay bye.” He hangs up.

“I have to go.” He states and you frown.

“I thought you were off tonight?” You remember he said that when he joined you on the street.

“Yeah but uhm… something came up, they need my help.” He pulls his shirt over his head again, letting a hiss through his teeth at the movement.

“O okay.” You don’t know what you were expecting. Him to be home tonight and what? You two sitting on the couch watching a movie or something? That is absurd. Just because you’re talking doesn’t mean you’re suddenly friends.

“Thank you for this.” He gestures to the medkit and you nod before he hastily leaves the bathroom. A few seconds later you hear the front door close, the “my pleasure” still on your tongue.

The heart is enclosed in the pericardium, which’s main function is to protect it and prevent it from over-expanding. The pericardium is

“Take that Jungkook!“

The pericardium is attached to the diaphragm and inner surface

“I will end you Jimin!”

The inner surface of the

“Listen you little fuckers I am the king you will tremble before me.”

Of the

“Taehyung that’s cheating.”

The

“Ha, you losers I win again!”

“The sternum!” You finally snap. You’re trying to study but you’ve been on the same paragraph for the last 20 minutes. You push your chair back from the desk, the wheels scrapping on the floor due to the speed.

You can still hear them shouting at each other as you stomp down the hallway.

You know they’re playing a video game. Jungkook moved his gaming system out of his room a few weeks ago because according to him the wifi is better in the living room.

You round the corner only to find the three on the carpet. On the screen Taehyung’s name is on top of the board, the other two’s names following. Jimin is on Jungkook’s back, who is trying to strangle Taehyung. The scene may look scary but you roll your eyes. They do this all the time.

The first time you walked out of your room to find two strangers on your couch you almost had a heart attack, but Jimin and Taehyung made a big fuss about how they finally get to meet Jungkook’s roommate. Apparently according to them Jungkook has been talking about you a lot. Jungkook obviously denied it, to his hyungs amusement.

Since then Jungkook’s friends seem to be here every day. Jimin and Taehyung could basically be living here but Hoseok sometimes drops by too. You know there are others you haven’t met yet because you picked up on the same names mentioned often. You would ask why you haven’t met them if you didn’t already have your hands full with the two currently trying to beat up your roommate.

“Hey, guys?” Your voice makes them freeze, all three heads snapping to you. With their eyes on you now, you lose a bit of your fire. Surprisingly you’re more comfortable with them than most people, probably due to the close proximity, but sometimes when all three very handsome men look at you, you end up flustered. Unfortunately for you that seems to happen quite often seeing as you have been spending more time with Jungkook, which also means spending time with his friends.

“If you want to kill each other, do it somewhere else, please.” You roll your eyes, playing off your shyness by walking past them, feigning disinterest.

“Sorry Y/n” Jimin laughs, getting up from the carpet, and joining you in the kitchen before Taehyung or Jungkook can even move.

“Were you studying?” He asks, sitting on the counter and watching you make coffee for yourself.

“Yeah, I was.” You rub your eyes until you see stars, your eyes burning from looking at your laptop for so long.

“What were you studying?” Taehyung leans next to Jimin making sure you pay attention to both of them.

“The heart.” You don’t know why they both look at Jungkook who is leaning on the back of the couch watching you three before answering.

“O well I can’t help you with matters of the heart.” Jimin states and you frown, you didn’t think he would be able to help you.

“I can however help you with something else that doesn’t require the heart.” He smirks at you and your eyes widen at his suggestive sentence, you still can’t get used to Jimin’s casual flirty personality.

“Hyung.” Jungkook’s voice is deep and the way he says it sounds like a warning.

“I’m only joking Kookie,” Jimin and Taehyung smirk at the younger boy and Jungkook glares at them before rolling his eyes.

You look away from whatever is happening there and instead look at the now dubbed sticky note wall.

It started with Jungkook’s thank you note and evolved from there. Now, whenever you leave, you leave the other a note, usually including a ridiculous reminder like don’t die, watch out for cannibals, don’t step into fairy rings. Stupid stuff like that. You both get teased by Jimin and Taehyung about it, but neither of you have stopped. Maybe the smile that adorns your lips every time you find a note stuck to the door or a coffee cup, if it’s in the morning, makes you ignore the teasing. In your defence, Jungkook doesn’t seem deterred by it either.

“Well, I’m going back to studying, try and keep it down okay.” You declare to the three, who were unbeknownst to you having a whole non-verbal conversation. You take your coffee cup and walk back down the hallway.

“Y/n” You backtrack at your name being called.

“Yes, Jungkook.” You wait for him to say something, staring at him, and he just stares back at you for a moment before looking away and clearing his throat.

“Uhm…” He looks to his hyungs standing in the kitchen observing him. “Enjoy your studying.” He looks like he wants to kick himself, but you do not have time to dwell on it now.

“Thanks?” You tilt your head in confusion, getting a nod in return and walking to your room to finally finish the stupid heart, having to ignore the way yours is pounding from Jungkook’s eyes on you.

“That test was so easy. If anyone does badly they really shouldn’t be studying medicine.” Becky boasts walking next to you.

You wish she would disappear and go bother someone else but she clearly can’t take a hint. The test she is referring to was actually hard for you and now her words are starting to make you feel worse than you did when you were struggling through it. You shrink into yourself chewing on your lip.

She’s the type of person who does well in everything and likes gloating about it. She somehow decided that you were her friend and now you have to suffer through her long rants about how perfect she is and how everyone else isn’t, including you.

“O my god.” She suddenly interrupts herself and you look up wanting to see what caused it. “Who is he?” she asks and you frown in confusion following her gaze only to land on Jungkook.

He’s leaning on the wall next to the gate of the university talking on his phone. He’s dressed in all black as usual and his hair is falling into his face a bit. You understand why she reacted the way she did because he looks extremely hot, and not in the having-a-fever kind of way.

“He looks like he was sculpted by the gods wow.” Becky continues gushing. “Do you think I should ask for his number?”

“No.” The word escapes your mouth before you can stop it. For some reason, the thought of her asking out your roommate and him agreeing irks you a lot more than you thought it would. You’re sure it’s just because it’s Becky but the more you think about it the more it bothers you.

Becky however didn’t seem to hear you or maybe she is just ignoring you.

“I think I should.” She continues and you can feel yourself getting angry. “See he’s walking this way.” She sounds giddy about it, sure that he must have noticed her.

Jungkook, who hung up his call when he noticed you, is walking towards you two his smile fading when he sees the look on your face.

“Hi?” He phrases it like a question not sure why you’re looking like you want to murder someone.

“H…” You respond before getting cut off.

“Hey, my name is Becky.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and smiles at him.

“Yeah, uhm… hi.” He frowns and her smile falters. “I came to walk you home since it’s almost dark.” He explains himself to you turning away from the now seething girl.

“O, thank you.” You smile, feeling a little smug when you see the shocked expression on Becky’s face. He’s just about to reply when Becky worms her way in between you two again.

“O do you know her?” Her voice is high and she giggles, you roll your eyes. “We’re like best friends, I’m sure she must have mentioned me.”

“Not really.” Jungkook raises an eyebrow at her and for the first time, you see him getting irritated. His eyes go narrow and he sucks in his cheeks a bit staring at her. She shrinks under the stare.

You’ve never understood why Jimin and Tae said that people are intimidated by Jungkook but now you do. You feel bad for Becky because you know under that stare you would be running for the hills. So you step in.

“Becky I’ll see you on Monday okay.” You step around her and take Jungkook by the arm pulling him away, leaving Becky speechless probably for the first time in her life.

You walk fast to get away from the awkward situation.

“Sorry about her, she’s just uhm…” You try to make an excuse for her, not really sure why you are trying to do so.

“Spoilt?” Jungkook offers and you laugh and nod.

“Basically yeah.” That’s definitely one way to describe her.

“Thank you for coming to pick me up.” You steer the conversation away from talking about her.

“No problem, I didn’t want you walking in the dark.” His calm and smiley demeanor is back and you breath a sigh of relief.

You walk beside him in silence for a moment. You just can’t seem to shake Becky’s words, she makes you feel so inadequate most of the time.

“So how was the test?” He asks pushing you to the side so that he can walk closest to the road.

You groan and he looks at you, worried.

“It was awful and she said it was so easy, you know which just makes me think well, that I’m not good enough.” You don’t know why you’re pouring your heart out but right now you just need someone to listen and recently that someone has become Jungkook.

“Wow wait.” Jungkook stops walking causing you to do the same. He places his hands on your shoulders forcing you to face him. “Y/n, you saved my life, stayed calm and stitched me up, not to mention all the times you’ve had to treat me since.” He’s right, he’s probably the clumsiest person you’ve ever met. Always coming home with bruises or cuts.

“I’m sure she’s never done that.” He continues, pushing your head up to look at him with a finger underneath your chin. “You are going to be a great doctor.” His face is serious but he gives you a light smile when you nod.

“Thank you Jungkook.” You smile at him, feeling better after the pep talk.

“What are friends for right.” He smiles again, using his one hand still on your shoulder to take your bag off of it. He flings it over his shoulder instead and starts walking again, and you follow.

It’s the first time you’ve heard him actually say that you two are friends, it makes you glad to know he feels as close to you as you do to him. The space that was there for the first six months of him living with you is now completely gone, erased by the weeks you’ve been spending time together.

“Does she do that often?” He wonders out loud and you know what he’s referring to.

“Yeah sometimes.” You admit looking to the side ashamed to admit how you let her get to you.

“Do you want me to kill her?” He says it with such a serious tone that you laugh at him.

“No, I think I’ll do it if it gets too much.” You joke and after a moment he laughs.

“And how would you dispose of her body hm?” He keeps the joke going and you pretend to think, placing your finger to your chin and tilting your head up.

“I’ll get you to do it for me.” You declare pointing to him. He laughs shaking his head.

“No, your kill, your responsibility.” He says and you pout.

“That’s not fair.” The running joke of you finding a way to hide a body has been going on since the night of him almost bleeding out. You’ve been bringing up ways randomly but he shoots them down every time.

“How about a woodchipper?” You ask, already expecting his head to shake.

“Wouldn’t work, you know how strong a human body is, it’ll only cause a mess, and leave too much evidence.” He explains and you groan.

“How do you know all this?” You ask, glaring at him in feigned suspicion.

“Call it an educated guess.” He smiles and nudges you only to pull you out of the way of a pole a second later because you were still staring at him.

“I think you spend too much time thinking about this.” You huff, crossing your arms across your chest.

“Like you don’t.” He retorts and you gasp.

“Only because of you.” You exclaim, throwing your hands up.

“Besides,” he continues, “It’s fun to see your reaction when you're wrong, you don’t like being wrong.” he elaborates.

You pout again. “Does anyone?” You glare at him but he laughs at you.

“I guess not no.” He relents and you smile.

You look at him waiting for him to say something. You marvel in the way the last rays of sunshine bounces off his dark hair, painting his facial features in a soft glow.

He looks at you suddenly, you gasp and look away embarrassed at being caught staring at him. He chuckles and you cringe, looking down as you walk.

“Y/n?” He asks and you look at him only to find him not next to you but behind you standing still. “Where are you going?” he chuckles and you blush when you realise you just walked past your apartment building too busy chastising yourself for staring at him.

“O right.” you chuckle, trying to hide your blush from him.

He opens the building door for you and you enter.

“I was thinking we could watch…” You trail off when you realise he isn’t following you in.

“You’re not coming up?” You guess and he rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

“I have to go, sorry.” He apologises but you nod taking your bag from him.

He always has to leave, you’d think you’d be used to it by now but you always find yourself feeling disappointed because you can’t spend more time together. It��s a new feeling for you, being upset because you can’t spend time with someone. Usually, you’re upset when you have to.

“Okay, be safe.” You say sheepishly.

“Thanks, we can watch whatever you were going to say next time okay?” You nod and he walks off.

You stand there a minute looking at his retreating back before you turn to the elevator.

The elevator takes forever and when it finally does arrive you are horrified at what you find inside.

A stranger.

Shyly you walk in.

“What floor?” The man asks and you press your floor button instead of answering.

“Hi, I’m Damion.” You sigh, he’s the type to talk in elevators then.

“I’m Y/n.” You mumble, but he caught it.

“Hello Y/n, I’m new to the building, maybe you can show me around some time?” He says and his straightforwardness catches you off guard.

“O uhm…” You rack your brain for an excuse, wishing for the elevator to speed up. “I would but I’m very busy maybe you should ask someone else.”

“It’s alright I’ll wait for when you have time, Y/n.” He says confidently. You know he is just being persistent but for some reason the way he says your name gives you a bad feeling.

You’re saved from answering by the doors opening on your floor.

“Goodnight.” You say and try to rush out of the elevator away from him, but he grabs your arm stopping you. Your eyes grow wide and you look down at the hand encasing your wrist.

“See you around.” He says and lets you go, with a smile.

You immediately run out and only let out a sigh of relief when you lock your apartment door behind you. You shudder when you remember his gaze on you but it’s quickly pushed from your mind when your eyes land on the sticky note stuck to the door.

“Enjoy your evening, try not to get kidnapped by elves.” You laugh and stick it to the sticky note wall.

By the time you get into bed, the only memories playing in your head are of Jungkook’s face as he laughs. Your creepy neighbour is pushed from your mind.

Your back is killing you. You woke up seconds ago and found yourself not on your comfy bed but rather on your desk chair. You feel something sticking to your face and you wipe at it lazy. One of your pages of notes floats down onto the desk and you sigh. You haven’t slept more than five hours in the past three days and you can feel your head pounding from the lack of sleep. The past few weeks have been a blur of tests and classes so you haven’t had a day off. You look at your phone to find a few missed calls from your mom. You’ll have to call her back later after you’ve had coffee.

You slowly get up, stumbling a bit and having to support yourself on the wall. That’s how you walk to the kitchen leaning on the wall the entire time. You miss the three heads that turn to you, too focused on trying to keep yourself upright.

“Morning.” Jungkook’s voice breaks through the muddled thoughts in your brain. You groan in response, leaning against the counter to try and catch your breath. Was the walk to the kitchen always this tiring?

“Are you making coffee? ” Taehyung asks getting up from his spot on the couch, eager for a cup of his own.

“Yeah just give me a second.” You reply working up the courage to walk to the coffee maker a few steps away. You feel very dizzy.

“Hey, are you okay?” Taehyung asks, stepping closer to get a look at your very pale face.

“I’m fine.” No, you’re not but non the less you still have some studying to do and you have class in an hour. So you push away from the counter but as soon as you do you stumble and everything goes a bit hazy for a second.

“Wow okay.” Taehyung rights you with a very worried look on his face, the other two have stopped their game and are now staring at you in worry.

Jungkook jumps over the back of the couch and makes his way to you, replacing Tae’s arm around you. He is frowning at you and places his hand on your forehead.

“Holly shit Y/n you have a fever.” He exclaims, but you groan at the information.

“No I can’t have a fever,” You push away from him but immediately almost fall over, being caught again by Jungkook.

“Y/n I think you’re sick,” Jungkook says softly and you shake your head.

“I can’t be sick,” You feel like crying, “I have a class to get to.” You’re in denial, you know you’re sick but being sick right now is a big inconvenience. Becky has been boasting about how much she is studying and how prepared she is for the tests, you’ve been trying to keep up.

“Hey come on,” Taehyung says. “ Jungkook why don’t you help her sit down and I’ll make her some tea.” You still shake your head but gasp in surprise when you’re lifted off the floor by Jungkook. He carries you bridal style to the couch and gently puts you down where Jimin has made room for you.

“I can’t guys I have to go to class.” You protest making to get up again but you’re held down by Jungkook’s hands.

“Y/n your sick, you’re not going to class.” Jungkook orders. Why is his doctor’s voice better than yours?

“I’m fine okay, let me go.” You remove his hands from your shoulder.

“Clearly.” Jimin pipes up and you glare at him. “All I’m saying is, that if you go to class you’ll probably pass out along the way, and what then?”

“Then Jungkook will have to put his body hiding skills to work.” You state. The other two frown in confusion at Jungkook but he just shakes his head.

“I can’t do that, it’ll be too noticeable if I’m seen carrying you off of the street,” He smiles at you, leans in and tilts his head to the side a bit, “Too risky you know?” He whispers, and you look up at him, he’s frowning slightly at you in worry. You’ve gotten closer to Jungkook than you would have ever thought possible. He’s become a constant in your life like you never thought you’d experience and definitely not with your once elusive roommate. He’s the one you run to after a bad day and he always listens intently to your rants

“Besides what is going to happen if you miss one class?” Taehyung asks, making you tear your gaze away from Jungkook as Tae hands you a cup of tea that you wrinkle your nose at.

“I don’t know I’ve never missed a class.” You say frowning at the shocked expression on their faces.

“You’ve never missed a class?” Jimin asks in disbelief and you nod.

“Wow, just wow.” Taehyung shakes his head.

“Then I feel like this is a good excuse to miss one,” Jungkook states and pushes the cup of tea closer to your face, prompting you to drink but you grimace and shake your head.

“I have to go Jungkook.” You fight back. “I won’t be able to stand her if I miss a class and get a bad mark.”

“Who?” Taehyung frowns but Jungkook nods already knowing who you’re talking about.

“Is that why you’ve been overworking yourself?” He asks in concern and you nod your head slowly, looking away from him.

“Y/n,” Jungkook kneels in front of you so you're at eye level. “ You can’t let her get to you, you know she’s just trying to tear you down.”

“I know but still…” You trail off unsure how to voice your thoughts.

“Tell you what if you promise to stay home and rest,” Jungkook empathizes the last word, “ Then I’ll help you study okay?”

“We’ll help you study.” Jimin corrects him, already disliking whoever it is that is making you feel inferior.

“Sounds like a bad bargain.” You reply and cross your arms, but you know there is no getting out of it.

You know Jungkook well enough by now to know that when he puts his mind to something there is no turning back. You once saw him try to fit a whole orange in his mouth because Hobi dared him to. And if you’re honest with yourself even though you know that they won’t be able to help you study the fact that they offered to makes you feel all warm inside.

They all hold their breath ready to fight more but you sigh, leaning back onto the couch.

“Fine.” Is all you say and they relax.

“Keep an eye on her in case she makes a run for it.” Jungkook jokes poking your nose, before getting up.

“Yeah like she’ll be able to run in her condition,” Taehyung replies sitting down on the couch next to you.

You look around the room. Your apartment has become if you had to describe it, lively. Before the “shared” space in the apartment was clean and cold but since you and Jungkook have become closer the space shows that two people live here. Your textbooks and cups are on the coffee table where you were making notes while he played games, and two of his hoodies are thrown into the blanket basket because he was too lazy to put them away. The blanket that Jimin throws over your shoulders also belongs to Jungkook. It’s a thick fluffy blanket that you’ve been stealing from his room to lay on the couch with since you found out it existed. After a while, he just stopped taking it back to his room.

“Here you go.” Jungkook kneels in front of you with freshly made coffee, that you eagerly exchange the cup of tea for. He chuckles and place the cup of tea on the coffee table. You wonder how he knew to make you coffee.

“Thank you.” You clutch onto the warm cup and sink further into the couch. Jungkook sits down beside you and Taehyung takes a spot on the floor picking up the controllers they abandoned, and handing it back to them.

They continue playing their game, on a much lower volume, while you slowly drink your coffee. It’s black coffee. You used to drink it with milk and sugar but every time Jungkook made you coffee he made it black. At first, you didn’t want to say anything feeling too awkward but now you actually prefer it the way he makes it.

You never thought you would be this comfortable with people around in your apartment but their presence is soothing. You guess you’ve never realised how lonely you were before, now you recognise when they’re not here and especially at night when Jungkook is gone you can feel his absence. You still don’t like being around people but maybe the man sitting next to you checking every few minutes if you’re okay, putting his hand on your forehead to check your fever, is the exception.

The warm drink and background noise of the game and their voices are lulling you to sleep. You feel one of them remove the coffee cup from your hand as you fall to the side, onto Jungkook, your tired body finally finding the time to rest, and recover.

You wake up a few hours later. Your head feels foggy, your entire body hurts and you feel all hot and cold at the same time. You hear a voice coming from somewhere but they’re not talking to you so you keep your eyes closed and try to make out what is being said.

Jungkook is speaking in a hushed voice probably to try and not wake you. “I know hyung but I can’t just leave her.” You frown, is he talking about you?

“Jimin and Tae said they’ll take over for me today.” You can hear him pacing while he hums in acknowledgement at whatever the other person is saying. “Thank you hyung, will you ask Jin-hyung about the food?” You are getting very hot now, it’s like a hot tingle traveling through your body and you kick the blanket off you, sighing at the rush op cold air that envelops you.

“Hey,” Jungkook’s voice is right beside you, “you awake?” You must have not heard him hang up the call.

You slowly open your eyes, and you're met with his worried face. His hair is disheveled as if he has been tugging at it and in your fever hazed mind you reach out a hand to flatten it. He doesn’t acknowledge it and instead puts his hand on your forehead.

“You’re still very hot.” He frowns and bites his lip in worry but you laugh.

“Good to know I still got it.” You joke, but the words hurt your dry throat.

He picks up a glass of water on the coffee table that he must have put there earlier and hands it to you. “You have to drink all of this okay?” He gives you a stern look.

“Okay doctor.” You sass but take the glass anyway and start sipping. As soon as the water touches your lips however you can’t stop drinking, realising how thirsty you actually are, you gulp down the whole glass.

Jungkook stares at you in surprise. “Wow do you want some more?”

“No thank you, I think I’ll be okay.” You smile and readjust yourself to sit up.

Jungkook sticks his hand out stopping you. “Wait I don’t think you should get up just yet.”

You shake his hand off. “I’m fine Jungkook.” You roll your eyes at him and sit up. “see I’m completely fine I can even,” You stand up, but as soon as you’re up you see stars, your vision goes black and you fall into Jungkook’s arms.

“Maybe you shouldn’t do that yeah?” He laughs and you hit him playfully in the chest. “Don’t laugh.”

“How can I not when you’re being so stubborn.” He puts you back onto the couch and you pout.

“Don’t pout.” He smiles but you only pout more causing him to laugh. “You’re cute when you’re sick,” he teases and you look away from him crossing your arms.

“I’m not that sick.” You retort but you know you’re lying. Your head is pounding and everything hurts.

“Well in that case I’ll just return all this medicine that I got,” you nod and he gets up walking away but then he turns back, “ and I guess all the chocolates too.”

You swing around to look at him. He’s already smirking at you, getting the reaction he clearly wanted from you.

“You got chocolate?” You glare at him in suspicion.

“Yes and you can have some,” You smile wide but he holds up a finger, “after you eat some food.”

“Chocolate is food.” You retrot. Even though the thought of chocolate is alluring, the thought of food makes you feel nauseous.

Jungkook shakes his head crossing his arms over his chest, but just as he wants to reply there is a knock at the door.

You frown in confusion but Jungkook opens it with a smile.

“Hyung you're here faster than I expected.” Jungkook says to whoever is at the door and you lean over to see, expecting Jimin or Taehyung but the man that is standing in the doorway makes you gasp. He is so handsome it almost hurts. “I was already on the way when Namjoon called you.”

“This must be Y/n?” The stranger says noticing you before smiling. You openly stare at him and Jungkook clears his throat raising his eyebrows at you. You start at being caught and a blush rises in your face.

“Yes this is Y/n.” Jungkook says amused at your reaction. “Y/n this is Jin, he’s my oldest Hyung.”

You nod, “hi,” you cringe. You sound so stupid.

“Well here is the food Kookie.” Jin hands Jungkook a bag, “I need to get going, but it was nice meeting you Y/n.” He waves and you wave back awkwardly. He laughs and ruffles Jungkook’s hair before walking away.

“So that was Jin.” Jungkook smiles taking the food to the counter.

“He’s uhm very…”

“Handsome?” Jungkook offers and you groan.

“I didn’t mean to stare I promise.” You bite your lip but Jungkook laughs.

“It’s okay everyone has the same reaction, I promise he’s more flattered than anything else.” He chuckles and you cringe.

You really need to get a grip on yourself but you just don’t understand why all these handsome men are suddenly popping up in your life. It’s like someone is playing a stupid joke on you.

“Here you go.” Jungkook hands you a bowl of food that you wrinkle your nose at. “You have to eat.” Jungkook press but you shake your head.

“I really don’t want to.” You pout and he sighs.

He bites his lip. “Just a few bites.” You don’t budge.

“Please?” He pouts and holds up a spoon full of rice. You frown before rolling your eyes and taking a deliberate bite.

He smiles in victory. You have no idea why you gave in to him. You would blame it on your fever but you’re pretty sure you would have given in even if you weren’t as sick as you are. You take another bite that he holds for you.

“I can eat by myself you know.” You say after you swallow.

He chuckles. “I’m not taking a chance.” He lifts up another spoon full and you look him in the eye as you let him feed you.

He gets happier after every bite until finally you hold up your hand.

“I can’t eat anymore,” and he nods understanding, putting the bowl down on the table. You pull your knees closer to you and wrap the blanket around yourself getting cold again.

“How do you feel?” Jungkook asks putting his hand on your forehead. “You’re still very warm, if your fever hasn’t broke in a few hours I’m gonna take you to the hospital okay?”

You nod, feeling yourself falling asleep again. “Okay.” You lay down on your side. “Will you stay?”

Jungkook smiles softly and nods, “Yeah of course.” He strokes some hair form your face. “I’ll stay.”

You hum contently and fall into unconsciousness.

A ruckus in the kitchen wakes you up. You immediately shoot upright in bed, your body on high alert. You listen again but it’s quiet now. You pick up your phone looking at the time. It’s just past three in the morning, you should still be alone.

You debate calling Jungkook for a second but push the thought aside, you’d only feel stupid doing it, besides you don’t want to disturb him. He went out with his friends for the night, it’s the weekend after all so he is off work but he told you he’d be crashing at Jimin’s place. So instead you get out of bed and tiptoe to your door. You press your ear to it trying to listen for any movement but there is nothing.

You chew on your lip and decide to investigate. If this was a horror movie the whole audience would be yelling at you now.

You creep down the hallway and peek around the corner to look at the kitchen. The lights are on and you see Jungkook digging around in the fridge. You laugh at yourself for being paranoid.

The sound startles Jungkook and he spins around to face you. His face relaxes when he sees you and it morphs into a lopsided grin.

“Hey, did I wake you? Sorry.” He pouts and your eyes widen in surprise at him but you just shake your head walking to the kitchen island.

“What are you doing back?” You ask leaning over the counter to see what he was doing. “I thought you were sleeping at Jimin’s?”

“No, I wanted to come home because…” He is cut off by a hiccup. You look at him, he is leaning a bit to one side as if he is off balance and his eyes look glassy.

“Jungkook are you drunk?” You giggle when he shakes his head profusely, the movement causing him to grimace and fall a bit to one side, only to catch himself in time.

“No, I am not.” His words are a bit slurred and you laugh again.

“Then why are you rummaging through our fridge at three in the morning?” You ask lifting an eyebrow.

He opens his mouth as if to say something but he closes it again with a frown, unable to come up with an excuse.

“I wanted ramyun.” He says after an embarrassingly long time, through which you were giggling.

“Well, you’re not going to find it in the fridge.” You state and watch in amusement when he frowns and points to the cupboard, looking at you for approval.

“Sit down I’ll make you some.” You chuckle and move to the cupboard getting out the packet.

“Thank you.” He drawls out and sits down on the bar stool.

“I just don’t want to have to treat burn wounds tonight.” You explain and smile at him, which he returns with a grin.

You boil the water and look behind you to find him spinning on the stool. He stops when he feels you looking at him and he grins lopsidedly.

“I missed you.” He says and you frown. “I didn’t see you at all this week.” He pouts and you giggle at the expression. He looks so cute.

He’s right this week you’ve been missing each other the entire time. You had another group assignment and had to work in the library with them the entire day. When you finally got home he was already gone. His words do surprise you but you brush it off as nothing more than drunk rambling.

“I missed you too.” You say and he gasps in surprise.

“You did?” He sounds like a child that was just told something unbelievable, and it makes you laugh.

“Yeah, we’re friends right?” That word has been starting to leave a bitter taste in your mouth recently, and you have an idea why, but you keep pushing it down. There is no reason to be thinking like that part of you wants to think. “Friends miss friends.” You finish, turning back to the food you’re making.

“You’re right, I miss my hyungs when I don’t see them for a long time.” He rambles on behind you. “I think it’s because we all used to live together, but now I live here of course with you, right?” He sounds unsure and you chuckle.

“Yes, you do.” You confirm it for him.

“Okay great.” He sounds pleased about it.

He babbles on about stupid things while you cook, telling you about his night. He mentions a few girls that came up to him and you prickle a bit every time but he always rambles on not mentioning them again.

Finally, you turn around and hand him the bowl of food that he takes with a smile. You lean on the other side of the counter watching him eat.

“This is amazing,” he exclaims in between bites. “If this doctor thing doesn’t work out, you should become a chef.”

“You only say that because you’re drunk.” You explain with a laugh but he shakes his head, cheeks full of food.

The conversation dies down while he eats. You move around cleaning up and filling up a bottle with water for him to drink. You place it down beside his now-empty bowl.

“You have to drink all of this now okay?” You say in your doctor's voice and he groans.

“All of it?” He says in disbelief and you smile.

“Yes or else you’ll have a nasty hangover tomorrow.” He nods and picks up the bottle, you laugh at his dramatic show of drinking the whole thing.

“I like it when I make you laugh,” he says when he’s finished and you blush. He stares at you.

“I like it when you blush too.” He adds and you blush even more.

“I blush too easily when I’m with you.” You admit and he gets up to put the water bottle in the sink. He comes back without a word and stands next to you.

“Here.” He places his cold hands on your cheeks. “To cool them down.” He smiles and you gasp at the contact.

Another thing you’ve come to notice since becoming friends with him, other than that you felt lonely before is just how incredibly touch-starved you are. He is so casual with his touches, always hugging you or sitting close to you and you realised how much you’ve been missing human contact. You can admit to yourself the fact that it is coming from him does also impact the effect it has.

“There see all better.” He removes his hands and you cringe at how quickly you miss the contact.

He is standing very close to you, your chests almost touching and the realisation makes you blush again.

“O no, Y/n.” He moans and places his hands back onto your cheeks, stepping even closer. “You’re ruining my handy work.” He whispers.

You stare at him. He is so beautiful and you’ve never been so close to him before. His eyes are shining and his lips are pink and look so soft. You pull your eyes away from his lips only to find him staring at yours.

You bite your lip at the attention and he frowns moving his finger down to pull your bottom lip out from under your teeth.

“You shouldn’t do that.” His voice sounds huskier now and it makes your heart race.

“Why not?” You ask him softly.

“Because it makes me want to do this.” He says before leaning in slowly.

You stop breathing, your heart racing and you close your eyes in anticipation of his lips falling onto yours.

Just when you can feel his breath breezing over your lips, a door slams shut somewhere, breaking you out of the trance you were in.

You back away from Jungkook. You were just about to kiss him! You were about to kiss him and he is drunk! You chastise yourself, missing the hurt that crosses his face.

“I uhm… I think I should go back to bed.” You stammer out and rush out of the kitchen to your room.

You close the door behind you and sink to the floor with your back to it. You can’t believe you were about to take advantage of his drunkenness and why? Because you have a bit of a crush on him? It’s disgusting. You rake your fingers through your hair and focus on calming your racing heart. The blush is burning through your cheeks and you place your own hands-on them to cool it down.

You can only hope he won’t remember tonight.

“And that is the last time I’m asking your dad to make Lasagna.” You laugh and take a sip of your coffee. The café is buzzing with activity and your mom just finished filling you in on the antics your family have been up to since you last saw them.

Your mom came to the city for work but her last meeting was canceled so you had time to get coffee with her. You watch her add more sugar to her coffee and laugh. She’s always had a sweet tooth. You got yours from her.

“Do you want some?” She holds out the sugar pot to you after seeing you eye her coffee, but you shake your head.

“No thanks, I drink my coffee black now.” You watch her surprised face and giggle.

“Who are you and what have you done to my daughter?” She clutches her hand to her chest and you shake your head at her dramatics, smiling widely.

You’ve really missed her. You’ve always been close to your family, even if they drive you crazy. Even your little sister, who couldn’t be more different from you, always on the sports field, but despite your differences you’ve always loved her terribly.

“I just like it like this now.” You explain and she narrows her eyes at you in suspicion but eventually shrugs.

“How have you been honey?” she asks leaning forward with a caring look on her face.

“I’m doing good,” you smile and when your mom doesn’t seem convinced you place your hand on hers. “I really am mom.”

“Are you sure? You look like there is something bothering you, not to mention you look like you haven’t slept in a month.” Her voice becomes stern at the last part and you roll your eyes.

“You sound like Jungkook.” The words just slip out and her eyes widen in surprise.

“Your roommate?” She asks and you nod your head.

“He’s always telling me I should sleep more.” Your mom nods.

“Well maybe you should listen to him he sounds like an intelligent young man.” She muses and you smile but at the thought of your roommate, your mood drops slightly.

After you almost kissed him a week ago there has been a small shift. Mostly things are the same but it’s like something is off. When you’re with his friends he’s his normal self but as soon as you are alone it’s like he becomes tense and soon finds an excuse to leave the room. He doesn’t seem to remember that night but you’re not so sure, why else would he behave like he is? Maybe he regrets almost kissing you and he is just pretending to not remember anything. You guess you should be glad he hasn’t brought up that night, it is what you hoped for after all. But it has left you more confused than anything else, why would he try to kiss you and then just not say anything after that?

“Earth to Y/n.” Your mom waves her hand in front of your face to get your attention.

“Sorry, mom, what were you saying?” You apologise. Pushing the thoughts bothering you away. You should be enjoying your time with your mom, not worrying about your relationship with Jungkook, whatever that may be.

“I was asking if Lilly told you she got first line for field hockey?” She surveys you worried while she repeats herself.

“O no she didn’t,” You smile trying to show your mom you’re okay. “You have to tell her I said I’m very proud of her.”

“I’ll tell her.” Your mom smiles. “She is very excited, she said she’s going to ask you to come to some of her games, you should try to come.”

“I will I promise.” You know it will be hard but for her, you will make a plan, maybe you can even invite Jungkook and his friends, she would love that. But as soon as the thought crosses your mind you dismiss it, you doubt Jungkook would want to come to anything with you right now.

The rest of the time you and your mom just talk about your studies and plans for after next year when you graduate and have to start your internship. You bask in the conversation until your mom’s phone rings, signally she has to head out.

“I love you, honey.” She hugs you tightly, “Make sure you eat well and try to get more sleep okay?”

“I promise mom.” You giggle in your mom’s embrace. She pulls away holding you at arm's length.

“We are so very proud of you, your dad loves boasting about you on a daily basis.” You both laugh. Your dad has always been the type to tell everyone about every small accomplishment that his daughters achieve.

“Thank you mom.” she pulls you into another hug just as her taxi stops outside. “Mom you have to go.” You giggle her hold not lessening on you.

“Just another second, I miss you.” She says and you hug her tighter.

“I miss you too mom.” She finally pulls away and with one last kiss on your cheek she gets into her taxi, waving at you as it drives off.

You sigh and sniff back the tears that threaten to fall. You shake your head and walk home.

You can already hear the sound of the movie from outside the door when you get home. You open the door to see Jimin and Taehyung spread out on the couch. Their heads turn to the door when you come in and they smile.

“Hey, Y/n.” They say in sync, you smile back, removing your boots.

“Hey guys, what are you watching?” You query closing the door.

“Some movie Taehyung chose.” Jimin sounds bored and Taehyung pouts.

“You told me I have to choose.” Taehyung defends himself.

“I expected you to choose something good,” Jimin says and is met with a pillow to the face in response.

You move to the kitchen filling up a glass of water.

“Where is Jungkook?” You ask when you notice that there isn’t a third person in front of the TV.

“O he went out,” Tae says not looking away from the TV.

“O” You feel disappointed before something dawns on you. “Wait if he isn’t here how did you get in?” You narrow your eyes in suspicion.

“O well…” Jimin and Tae look at each other.

“He let us in before he left,” Jimin says after a moment and you nod at the explanation.

“Do you want to join us?” Tae asks turning around on the couch to see you.

“No thanks guys, I have to study.” You shake your head and they groan.

“You always have to study. Come and hang out with us.” Jimin pleads and you have to giggle at his pout. You think about it for a moment, you don’t really want to study anyway.

“Fine.” You give in and they both smile making space for you on the couch in between them.

You walk over and sit down in the space. You lean back and make yourself comfortable.

“Here you can choose a new movie.” Jimin declares stealing the remote from Tae.

“Hey!” Tae exclaims before clearing his throat. “I mean sure Y/n you can choose a new movie.” He relents and you laugh but don’t take the remote from Jimin’s outstretched hand.

“I’m okay, making choices right now is only going to melt my brain.” You confess and Jimin nods.

“Okay, I’ll pick.” He says, exiting the movie and starts scrolling for a new one.

“So don’t you want to know where Jungkook is?” Jimin asks, a mischievous look in his eyes as he looks at you.

“Jimin.” Taehyung’s voice is stern but Jimin ignores him turning in his seat to face you.

“So do you want to know?” He asks again and you stare at him.

“Uhm… okay?” You look between Taehyung and Jimin, unsure about what’s going on.

“He’s on a date.” Jimin gossips surveying your face for a reaction and you stare at him in surprise.

“O…” You have to control your face to not show the disappointment that floods through you. “That’s good for him.” You say.

Jimin and Taehyung exchange a look.

“Does it bother you?” Taehyung asks and you look at him.

“Of course not why would it?” You ask surprised, your voice a little to high and Taehyung smirks.

“Just asking.” He turns back in his seat as Jimin’s movie choice starts playing.

You sink deeper into the couch and try to focus on the movie playing but your mind keeps going back to the information you just heard.

He’s on a date. It shouldn’t bother you, you’re friends you should be happy for him but you’re not. It hurts. If he’s on a date it means any feelings you deluded yourself into thinking he has for you aren’t real. You keep thinking about it throughout the movie and soon it morphs into anger. How dare he almost kiss you, not talk to you about it, borderline avoid you and then go on a date with someone else. The anger builds and by the time Jimin and Taehyung leave you are ready to scream.

You go to your room and try to cool down by focusing on studying, but you can’t. Every time your head goes back to imagining him with someone else and it makes you angry all over again. You finally give up on studying and just when you turn off your laptop you hear the front door open. You sit still for a minute weighing your options.

You can finally confront him about this and demand to know what is going on, why he tried to kiss you and smooth things over and go back to being friends. Or you can take the easy route out and just ignore him and things can back to how they were in the beginning. You frown, you know you don’t want that. You don’t think you’d be able to handle it if you never speak again, so instead, you get up.

He’s in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal when you enter. He stops with the spoon halfway to his mouth when he spots you.

“Hi.” He says and uncomfortably looks around.

“Hi,” you say back, walking into the kitchen. His eyes follow you as you walk, chewing slowly.

“Well, I’m gonna uhm…” He trails off clearly looking for an excuse to leave but you interrupt him.

“Jungkook can we talk.” You ask and he looks at you in surprise.

“Uhm, sure.” He puts the bowl done. “About what?” He isn’t looking at you.

You mentally prepare yourself for what you’re about to say. You hate confrontation but you know you need to do this.

“About what happened when you were drunk.” You start and he looks at you.

“What do you mean?” He sounds confused but you know him well enough now to know when he is faking. “I can’t remember anything from that night.”

“Are you sure?” You ask, crossing your arms. “Because you say that but you’ve been borderline avoiding me for the past few weeks and I need to know why.”

“O well..” He rubs the back of his neck.

“I think you remember and I get if you regret almost kissing me, but you could have at least told me.” You continue not giving him time to try and explain himself. “Then I hear you went on a date, and I mean I get it you can do what you want, but you could at least have talked to me and set things straight and said you were just drunk and not just leave me confused as fuck.” You’re getting angry again and he stares at you in surprise.

“Wait a date?” Is that really all he got from that? You narrow your eyes at him, why is he playing stupid.

“Who said I went on a date?” He asks confused and you roll your eyes.

“Jimin told me.” You answer him, getting irritated now.

“Fucking Jimin,” he mumbles before looking at you. “Y/n I didn’t go on a date.”

“What?” You frown in confusion, caught off guard.

“Yeah, Jimin,” He moves closer so that he’s in front of you. “He must have told you to get you to confront me because he knows how I feel about you.”

Your mind reels, and you uncross your arms in surprise. “Wait what do you mean how you feel about me?”

He groans.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” He says, running his hands through his hair. “I was supposed to come to you like we practiced.” He says without thinking and you frown.

“Practiced?” You’re so confused.

“I also wasn’t supposed to say that.” He blushes, and sighs. “I practiced with them how to do this but I guess that isn’t going to happen.” He bites his lip.

“Jungkook what are you talking about.” You don’t understand what is going on.

He sighs again.

“Y/n I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you but I didn’t know how to say this, and after you pulled away that night I thought you didn’t feel the same and honestly I was scared of being rejected, I know I was being stupid, I’m sorry if it hurt your feelings.” He steps forward, explaining.

“I just like you a lot, I mean since I got to know you, you’ve been on my mind the entire time, and I thought being friends would be enough but then I got drunk and came home and you were here, I knew I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you but I just couldn’t stop myself you were right there and I couldn’t muster up the courage to do it sober, and then you pulled away and I felt awful for putting you in that situation and…” He rambles and you cut him off.

“Wow Jungkook, calm down.” You don’t even have time to process what he’s saying.

“How can I calm down?” He says, his face red from blushing and working himself up. “Fuck Y/n I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long.”

His words finally start to sink in and you can feel yourself getting hopeful but you have to make sure what he’s saying.

“Jungkook are you saying you like me?” You ask stupidly and he steps closer taking your face into his hands.

“God Y/n I like you so fucking much, you drive me crazy.” He breathes out leaning in closer and your heart soars, beating unhealthily fast. “Please tell me if you don’t feel the same because then I will stop right now.”

“Jungkook.” He rips his eyes away from your lips and looks you in the eye. “Kiss me.”

He doesn’t need to be asked twice.

Finally, his lips find yours, and your heart and mind go haywire. You’re sure if you were hooked up to a heart monitor it would be going crazy. His lips move against yours and his hands move from your face to your waist pulling you closer. You wind your arms around his neck, and push your hand into his hair, pulling slightly and you smile when you hear the small moan escape his throat. You relish in his soft lips on yours and you melt into his chest.

Finally, you pull away a few inches. You both breathe heavily, chests bumping into each other as they expand. He smiles joyously, before pecking you softly again.

“Fuck,” he breathes out, “I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.”

“And I’ve wanted you to do that so long,” you confess and he smiles.

“Well in that case.” He leans in again and you gladly meet his lips halfway.

If the first kiss was sweet this one is intense. He moves his hands to the back of your thighs and picks you up. You gasp but wrap your legs around him before attaching your lips again. He carries you to the couch and lays you down on it softly without breaking the kiss. You make out until you feel like your lungs may implode from the lack of air, but even then you don’t pull away, his lips more of a necessity than oxygen. Your head spins, and you push him lightly making him pull away, but he catches your hand on his chest pinning it above your head.

“I’m not done with you just yet, princess.” His voice is husky and you groan.

“Holy shit finally.”

Both of your heads snap to the front door where Jimin and Tae are standing with bags of take-out in their hands.

You both scramble to sit up, Jungkook falling off of the couch in surprise.

Taehyung gapes at you and Jimin looks at you smugly.

You blush but the only thing that crosses your muddled brain is where the fuck did they get a key.

“A sewer?”

“Wrong”

“A lake?”

“Nope.”

“Ugh… just tell me.” You’ve been trying to guess the answer to this ongoing dispute and Jungkook has not given you even one hint.

“Where’s the fun in me telling you hmm?” He replies, where he is sitting behind you, his legs on either side of you.

You’re both on the couch, the TV casting a glow over the living room as you sit in the dark. It started with you watching a movie but when he finally came home it didn’t take 5 minutes until he pulled you into him, and started playing with your hair.

Ever since you two kissed and confessed, he’s been finding every excuse possible to have you as close as possible, it’s like he wants to be touching you at all times. One would think you’d mind but you definitely don’t.

“There I finished.” He proclaims happily, taking a picture and showing it to you.

On the screen is a very messy-looking french braid and you grimace in your mind at the untangling that is waiting for you later tonight, or is it later this morning?

“It looks great hey?” Jungkook asks for reassurance when you haven’t said anything. He looks so proud how can you not smile widely at him.

“It looks amazing Kookie.” You laugh, turning around fully and kissing him on the cheek.

You’ve both been making an effort to spend as much time together as possible. A very hard feat as he is away most of the day and night and you are studying most of the time. But you finally found the sweet spot just past 3 am. He tries to be home and you set an alarm to wake up in time.

It was one of the nights when he was late that you were sitting on the couch braiding your hair for lack of something else to do. He came walking in with a limp, he tripped and fell while chasing Jimin, you swear this boy is one of the clumsiest people you have ever met. When he saw you braiding your hair he immediately asked you to teach him. He’s still perfecting it, so he likes to practice as much as possible.

“I think I should grow my hair out,” He says, pulling on his hair as if it will become longer. “ Then I can braid my own hair.” The strands he was pulling fall into his face and he blows them away unsuccessfully.

“I think it’ll look cute if you did,” You push the hair out of his face, “ Then you can wear it in a lot of styles.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.” He smiles and takes your hand that was playing with his hair, turning it around and starts to pepper kisses on your palm.

“That tickles.” You try to pull away giggling but he just pulls you closer, until you are finally face level with him.

He cups your face softly and smiles, leaning in to kiss you. Your lips meet in a sweet soft kiss and you pull away after a few seconds. He follows with his lips and you giggle at him.

“That’s just mean.” He pouts and you smile, giving him a peck to make up for it.

Jungkook smiles widely, wrapping his arms around you and hugging you tightly. He sighs in content.

“I never thought when I met you that I would be lucky enough to be able to do this.” You look at him only to see him smiling softly, as he leans his head on top of yours.

“ I also never thought you would be lucky enough.” You joke.

“Is that so huh?” He laughs wrapping his legs around you as he starts to tickle you. His finger dancing over your sides.

“Never be this lucky huh?” He laughs while you squeal from his tickling fingers, squirming to try and get away. But his legs and arms are locking you in.

“Okay, okay.” You exclaim trying to breathe through the laughter. He stops his fingers poised to attack again mere centimeters away from your sides.

“ What?” He leans closer so that his ear is right beside your mouth, “ i don’t think I heard you.”

“I said, okay, you were always going to be so lucky.” You lay it on thick and he seems pleased, laughing at you.

He hums wrapping his arms tightly around you and pulling you into his chest.

“ Of course you wouldn’t be bale to resist my charms.” He kisses the top of your head when you scoff. “But truth is I would never have been able to resist yours.” You can feel his lips stretch into a smile on top of your head and it causes you to smile.

Your phone vibrates and you frown. Who would be texting you at this time? Jungkook hands you your phone and you check it.

“Why is she awake?” You mumble, and frown.

“Who?” Jungkook inquiries. Tilting his head to see your screen.

“My sister,” You turn the phone so he can read the message. “She is inviting me to her first game this weekend.”

“O, that’s nice are you going to go?” Jungkook asks seeing that you haven’t replied to her yet.

“I don’t know,” you groan. “I mean I haven’t seen her in so long and i miss her terribly, but I don’t know, I have class on Friday afternoon and getting there and back again at night is going to be a pain.” You wish you had a car but with everything so close to your apartment you never saw the need, until now.

“Hmm…” Jungkook hums. “You can think about it tomorrow.” he states and pulls the phone from your hand and tucks your head underneath his chin again. You decide he is right, there is no use in worrying yourself about it now.

You relish in the moment. In the feel of his arms around you, his skin on yours and his cheek pressed on top of your head. You close your eyes and breath in. You smile softly as his scent invades your nose. Jungkook smells just so Jungkook, his laundry detergent mixed with something else you can never place your finger on. All you know is that it smells amazing, and you nuzzle closer into his chest.

The warmth radiates off of him, keeping you warm and his sweater underneath you cheek is soft. Your eyes are starting to get heavy, the time catching up to you, you peak at the clock. Just past 4 am, you guess it’s okay for you to sleep now. You wiggle until you're comfortable. Jungkook’s chest is rising and falling rhythmically, giving away the fact that he is also sleeping. You lightly close your eyes, ready to wake up cuddling later today.

That thought is wrenched from your head just like your comfortable pillow, when Jungkook slips off the couch in surprise at his phone’s ringing, breaking the soft silence that occupied the space mere moments ago. You follow Jungkook to the floor, but quickly get up to help him search for his phone, that he finds a minute later holding it above his head triumphantly, before realising he has to answer the still ringing phone.

His expression changes from sleepy and smiling to cold and serious as he listens to the person talking on the other side. You frown in confusion but he shakes his head getting up from the floor all while talking low and in short sentences that give nothing away about what they are speaking about.

You know this routine, Jungkook’s work calls him at all hours of the day and night. You tried to convince him that he should quit but he refused, saying that finding a new job now is only going to stress him out. You don’t understand at all but you decided not to push, however the bunch of job ads on your laptop is ready when he is.

“Sorry baby, I have to leave, apparently someone disappeared while on duty.” He explains pulling on his jacket and racing forward to give you a kiss on the cheek.

“Okay, be safe.” You call after him. He gives you one last smile and disappears through the door.

You sit in the quiet apartment for a while, thinking everything over. The past months have really thrown everything around, but you couldn’t be happier about it. You can’t believe there was a time that you didn’t even speak to Jungkook.

Everyone always calls him intimidating but you so easily got the sweet side to him you can’t understand what Jimin and Taehyung means when they say Jungkook can be scary and people are afraid of him. Sure you’ve seen him irritated but what they’re describing sounds more like people are really afraid of him. He always denies it though and argues with them. They usually give up very easily, especially when they are reminded of your presence. You guess he doesn’t want you to think badly of him.

You don’t think it would be possible to think badly of Jungkook, he is so sweet, so compassionate and so understanding. He goes out of his way to help you study and supports you before tests by always making you coffee.

You get up, getting the sticky notes you now have an abundance of at all times. You write him a message for when he gets home, you know you’ll probably be asleep when he gets back.

The notes have morphed from just telling each other when you’re going out to becoming a full conversation tool. Since you both struggle to see each other, missing each other some days completely you started leaving notes as a way of saying good morning, reminding the other of something or just give them a nice message for the day. The warning to not die or to avoid something horrible during the other’s absence is still a necessity.

You smile and stick the note to his bedroom door. Taehyung has on multiple occasions double checked on both of your phones that you do actually understand the concept of texting. He gagged evey time at what he calls the “sickly sweet” messages between you two. Reminded of that, you do send him a text to be safe, before your get into bed.

In bed, cozy and warm you finally fall asleep after two true crime videos.

Becky is rambling again. This time about how her parents won’t buy her a new car after she crashed hers. You roll your eyes when she isn’t looking and nod your head when she is.

“I mean the crash wasn’t even my fault the other car wasn’t suppose to be there. Who parks in designated parking anyway?” She continues, even though you've long been blocking out her words.

You realise she is waiting for a response.

“Yeah definitely.” you say to please her and she’s off again.

Your mind wanders to your sister. You had to tell you couldn’t come to her game tonight and the sadness in her voice still hurts you every time you think about it. Maybe you should just go. You can take a taxi, but you already cringe at the amount of money that would be. You could ask your parents but you feel guilty. They are already paying your rent, and your studies prevent you from getting a job, so you can’t contribute to anything. At least you have a scholarship, you guess.

“O my god.” Becky exclaims and it takes you a moment to realise she’s stopped walking. You frown at her, wondering what made her stop. “He has friends!” She pulls you closer and you frown finally looking up to see what she is looking at.

Your eyes land on Jungkook, Taehyung and Jimin, who are all stood at the road, leaning against a car. When Jungkook sees you he smiles but the smile drops when he sees who you’re with. He whispers something to his friends who immediately look up from their phones.

“Come on.” Becky’s nails are digging into your arm as she pulls you forward to the three waiting men.

“I know you know that one but you have to introduce me to his friends okay?” She hisses into your ear, before throwing her brightest smile at the men.

You grimace a bit at the thought of introducing them, your worst fear suddenly becoming her dating Taehyung or Jimin. She pulls you along until you’re standing in front of them.

“Hey ba…” Jungkook can’t even greet you before Becky is chipping in.

“Hey I’m sure you remember me, we met a few weeks ago.” She smiles at Jungkook. “But I haven’t had the pleasure to meet your friends. Right Y/n?” She squeezes your arm painfully and you wince, smiling awkwardly.

“Right uhm..this is Jimin and this is Taehyung.” You gesture to the two men hoping she’ll release her hold on you now. You’re not that lucky.

“Jimin, Taehyung.” She smiles dazzlingly. “ it’s so nice to meet you I’m…”

“Becky.” Jimin finishes her sentence for her, glaring at her.

“We know.” Taehyung adds mimicking his friend’s expression.

Becky tilts her head to the side at their hostility, the smile still on her face as if cemented there.

“Baby why don’t we get going?” Jungkook asks you, placing his hand on the arm that Becky is still clinging to, forcing her to remove her hands from you. Jungkook pulls you to his side, wrapping an arm around you as soon as you're next to him.

“Baby?” Becky gasps in surprise. “Wow, are you guys dating?” Becky exclaims, her voice sickly sweet.

“Yes we are.” Jungkook answers with an eyebrow raised, irritation seeping out of him.

“You sure do have an interesting taste in girls.” Becky comments and looks you up and down her eyes judging you but as soon as she turns back to the men she’s all smiles again.

Jungkook must have noticed because his hold on you tightens.

“We should go on a double date sometime.” She winks at Jimin.

“Yeah you’re definitely not my type,” Jimin responds scoffing walking away from her to get in the car without a second glance.

Becky gasps, bawling her hands into fists. Her smile is gone and instead her face is screwed up like a toddler’s who is about to throw a tantrum. She gasps for words but in the time it takes her to arrange her thoughts Jungkook is dragging you into the car before driving off.

“Can you imagine the audacity of her.” Jimin rants.

“And the way she insulted you in front of us.” Taehyung adds.

“It’s okay guys don’t worry.” You try to calm them down. The whole situation makes you laugh. “Thanks for teaching her a lesson.” You look to the backseat with a smile and both men seem to be placated for now.

“Are you okay?” Jungkook asks, glancing at you before returning his gaze back onto the road.

You sigh, “yeah I’m okay,” you stroke your arm where she was holding you. “ who knew fake nails could hurt so much.” You chuckle looking at Jungkook only to see his jaw clenching.

“She hurt you?” He asks and you shrug.

“Do you want us to kill her?” Taehyung pipes up and you laugh at the suggestion.

“Thanks but Jungkook already offered.” You laugh and it makes Jungkook smile at the memory.

“Wait,” you frown suddenly realising you’re in a car driving somewhere. “Where are we going? And whose car is this?”

“We’re kidnapping you.” Jimin jokes and you frown in confusion.

“No really where are we going?” You chuckle but they shake their heads.

“Just trust us okay?” Jungkook says squeezing your thigh, leaving his one hand there while he drives, causing you to blush.

The rest of the drive is filled with you begging them to tell you where you’re going but they never budge.

When you finally arrive you frown. What are you doing at a school?

You hesitantly follow the boys’ lead and get out of the car. There are people everywhere, teenagers walking in little groups laughing, adults chasing after smaller children as they run to the food stands. There is excitement in the air you can feel it and it isn’t until a certain pair of faces catch your eye that you realise where you are. How could you not have figured it out sooner.

Your mom and dad come rushing towards you, smiles plastered onto their faces and you feel your face mimicking theirs immediately.

“Hi…” You barely get the word out before your dad pulls you into a bearhug. His arms tightening around your body and you let out a squeak signaling that you can’t breath.

“O sorry honey,” He chuckles and release you, giving your mom the chance to pull you into a less squishy hug.

“I can’t believe you came,” Your mother grins, brushing some of your hair back into place, “ Lilly is going to be so happy, what changed your mind?”

You blush. “ It’s less of my doing and more of theirs.” You point to the three boys behind your parents who have been watching the scene with pleased smiles. “Mom, dad,” You walk to Jungkook when your parents turn at your pointing finger, “ This is Jungkook, my… roommate.” You glance at him afraid he’ll be angry at you for not introducing him as your boyfriend or something but he just smiles brightly, his nose scrunching up and you almost melt.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He sticks out his hand for your parents to shake, your dad smile at him shaking his hand and your mom throws you a look. You groan inwardly you already know that look, it’s basically saying “ why didn’t you tell me he is so good looking?”. You give her a look back trying to prevent her from asking all her questions out loud.

“Well Jungkook it’s so nice to finally put a face to the name,” your dad says happily

“And who came with you?” Your mom asks looking past you at Jimin and Taehyung who has now taken a bunch of signs out of the back of the car.

“O this is my friends,” Jungkook gestures, “ This is Jimin and Taehyung, they wanted to come support Y/n’s little sister with us.”

“O isn’t that lovely,” Your mom says clutching her heart, clearly moved by the sweetness.

“Don’t get it wrong Ma’m this was all Jungkook’s idea, we just made the signs.” Jimin smiles and turns the sign in his hand around to show your sister's name in glitter. You look at them in surprise, they probably made all of this last night, and you can feel your chest getting warm from the emotions bubbling up in you. You turn to Jungkook and he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck.

He leans down to whisper to you while your parents fret over the Jimin and Taehyung’s effort. “They went a bit overboard.” He blushes slightly and you just shake your head. “I love it, thank you.” You want to kiss him but your dad is already there stuffing one of the signs in your hands.

“Come on you two the game is about to start.” Your dad proclaims, nodding to your mom who is already walking to the bleachers with Jimin and Taehyung in tow. You and Jungkook follow quickly and as soon as you find your seats, the teams come rushing onto the field.

“Which one is your sister?” Jungkook asks over the screams of the crowd and you point to Lilly.

Her hair is dyed blonde at the moment making her easy to find as the light bounces off it. She turns to the bleachers searching and you wave holding up the sign in your hands. You can see the exact moment she finds you because her eyes light up and a huge grin forms on her face, she follows the signs with her name on it and frown for a second at the three boys holding the others, lifting an eyebrow at you before her teammates drag her into huddle.

“She looks like you.” Taehyung leans over Jungkook to tell you and you roll your eyes. Everyone says it but you and your sister have never seen the resemblance. Maybe it’s because you’re both so different in personality that it makes you unable to see the physical similarities.

“Did you play sports in school Y/n?” Jungkook asks.

At his question your mom dad laughs. “ No, Y/n-bear has always been the studying type.” He ruffles your hair and you groan. “She fell asleep in the library so often the librarian had our number.” Your dad jokes and you cringe.

“Dad…” You whine and the three boys next to you burst out laughing.

“Y/n-bear huh.” Jungkook giggles and you cringe and stick out your tongue at him.

“As if your parents don’t have a embarrassing nickname for you.” You counter but his smile drops for a second, before coming back.

“We just call him Kookie.” Jimin pipes up causing Jungkook to blush.

“Or Bambi because when we met him he had these huge eyes.” Taehyung joins in smirking as Jungkook groans, clearly enjoying teasing the younger boy. Jungkook playfully smack him in retaliation and Taehyung is just about to fight back when the whistle blows, signaling the start of the game.

The game is a stressful one, the two teams keeping the score even. You cheer with every goal you’re sister’s team scores and you have to physically calm your dad down from yelling at the referee when he makes a bad call, only to find the other three men yelling along with him. At some point in the game, Jungkook’s hand finds yours and you intertwine your fingers together. You’re jumping up and down in celebration of another goal when you turn to him smiling wide to find him staring at you. The intense look on his face makes you blush.

“What ?” You ask a little out of breath but he just shakes his head.

“ I think I might be in trouble,” He whispers in your ear and you frown in confusion.

“Why?” You cock your head to the side, staring into his eyes.

“Because,” he tucks a strand of hair behind your ear, “ I can’t help but think every time I see you, how much I love you.”

The bleachers burst out in an eruption of cheers as the end whistle blows signaling your sister’s win. But all you can hear is Jungkook’s confession ringing in your ears. You’re both staring into each other’s eyes and you’re about to reply when your dad pulls you into a hug, cheering for your sister, and starts to drag you down to the field to go congratulate her in person. You look back to see Jungkook softly smiling at you as Jimin and Taehyung jump onto him for a group hug.

As soon as your sister sees you she is running to you at full speed, crashing into you and making you stumble back.

“Did you see I scored the winning goal!” she exclaims and her teammates burst into cheers again around her.

“I saw Lils I saw.” you lie, it’s not like you’re going to tell her you missed it because you just heard Jungkook say he loves you for the first time.

“O my god, I can’t believe you’re here, I’m so glad you came.” she gushes, shaking you and jumping up and down. In moments like these she reminds you a lot of a hyperactive puppy. She suddenly stops, looking over your shoulder and you turn to see what she’s looking at. “Who are they?” she asks and you smile when your eyes land on Jungkook and his friends.

“That’s…”

“Hi, I’m Jimin, wow I’m a huge fan the way you just scored that goal amazing, just amazing!” Jimin interrupts you before you can even introduce him.

“Right, that was awesome who knew Y/n’s little sister is such a badass.” Taehyung joins Jimin. “Im Taehyung by the way we’re Y/n’s friends.”

“I didn’t know my sister had such gorgeous friends wow,” Your sister blurts out without a bit of shame. “Did you make the signs? I loved them by the way.”

They both nod enthusiastically and she hugs them both. Your sister has never been the shy type, she shows how she’s feeling without a care, which is very nice when she’s happy but can be a pain in the ass when she’s mad. Jimin and Taehyung don’t seem to mind though and they happily accept the physical contact.

“Lilly this is Jungkook.” You finally get her attention back to you. Her eyes widen at the mention of his name.

“So you’re my sister’s roommate?” She asks and when he nods she jumps up an down clapping her hands. “She told me a lot about you, it’s so nice to meet you.”

Jungkook chuckles, glancing at you at the new information. “It’s nice to meet you too, I’d love to hear all about the things your sister has been telling you.” He smirks and she laughs.

“O yeah, I’ll tell you but come meet my teammates first they’ve all been distracted by the three hot guys on the bleachers.” Jungkook barely has a moment to react before Lilly is dragging him, Tae and Jimin to her friends. You just stand and laugh, ignoring their pleading stares for help as they are bombarded by teenage girls.

“Fancy meeting you here Y/n.” A voice next to you makes you jump and you look to the side, only to find a man who looks strangely familiar. You rack your brain and when you finally figure out how you know him, you freeze. It’s that creepy guy from the elevator.

“I haven’t seen you around the building, have you been avoiding me?” Damion asks his voice making it sound like he’s hurt but his eyes are as cold as ever.

“What are you doing here?” You blurt out, confused and you’ll admit a little bit scared.

“O my niece is in the other team, she asked me to come watch her game,” He waves his hand as if to brush off the accusatory tone in your voice. His eyes fall onto the scene behind you, “Is that your sister?” He asks innocently and you only nod. “She looks just like you.” He smiles but it sends a chill down your spine, he leans closer and you cringe back but his hand is holding you in place. “I’d love to meet her one day, “ he whispers.

“Y/n!” Lilly’s voice makes you look towards where she is beckoning you closer, you sigh out in relief to have an excuse to get away from Damion but when you turn to say something he’s gone.

You shake your head a little to clear it and plaster on a smile. You walk to where Lilly and your parents are standing.

“Hey you okay?” Jungkook asks when you’re close enough and you just nod.

“Yeah I’m fine, just a bit cold.” You lie, although the night has turned chilly and without missing a beat Jungkook takes off his jacket and drapes it around you.

“Y/n are you and the boys going to join us for post game celebrations?” Your mom asks, and you sigh.

“I’m sorry guys but I have a test coming up.” You bite your lip feeling bad.

“You can miss one night of studying right?” Lilly interjects, “ I still want to hang out with you.” She pouts and it breaks your heart to have to say no.

“Come now Lilly you know how hard your sister has to study, we don’t want to keep her out too late.” Your dad scolds her but your sister’s face doesn’t change.

“We’ll come visit again,” Jungkook says trying to soothe her and she looks at him surprised.

“Yeah and then we can go out to get ice cream or something.” You pipe up gratefully. “I promise.” You hold out your pinky finger and after a second she takes it in her own.

“Okay, fine but you all have to come again.” She looks to Jimin and Tae too and they smile promising her.

You all walk back to the together. Lilly who now seems much more satisfied is leading the way talking animatedly to Jungkook and Jimin while Taehyung is taking up your father’s attention , talking about god knows what.

“He’s a very nice young man.” Your mom says looping her arm through yours while she stares at Jungkook laughing at something Lilly said.

“Yeah he is.” You agree happy to know your mom likes him. If you were to tell her of your relationship with Jungkook you’re at least sure she’ll approve.

“You two make a good couple.” You look at her in surprise. “Mom…”

“ O please save it, do you think I’m blind?” She asks amused and you shake your head on impulse. “ the way you two look at each other is enough to make anyone see that you’re absolutely crazy for each other.”

You blush and she coos, “O my sweet Y/n has her first boyfriend.” She squishes your face in her hands and you shake loose of her hold. “Mom stop it.” you whine but she just giggles.

“I’m glad you’re happy sweety.”

“Me too Mom,” you smile, “and I am really happy.” She nods and you say goodbye quickly, the others already waiting at the car.

You hug your dad and with one last squishy hug from Lilly you get in the car. Although you love your family you can’t wait to get back to the apartment, because you have something very important to do.

Jimin and Taehyung say goodbye to you in the street because they have to return the car that they apparently borrowed from Hobi, though you don’t know how loosely they used the term borrowed. So it’s just you and Jungkook who goes up to the apartment.

“Jungkook…” The front door closes behind you. He turns around and you throw yourself into his arms. “Thank you so much for tonight.” You mumble into his chest, holding him tighter.

You feel his chuckle reverberate through his chest. “ It’s a pleasure, I’m just glad your parents seem to like me,” he pulls away so that he can see your face, “they do like me right?”

You laugh. Is that what he was worrying about tonight? “Are you kidding my mom loves you.”

Jungkook breathes out dramatically. “O thank god, otherwise we would have to be star-crossed lovers.” He smirks and you roll your eyes, earning a kiss on the forehead from him.

“I did want to talk to you actually.” You bite your lip, looking away feeling shy all of a sudden.

Jungkook lifts his eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound good.” He leads you to the couch to sit down, his hands holding yours.

“It’s nothing bad I promise it’s just after what you said on the bleachers well…”

Jungkook interrupts you. “Y/n it’s okay, you don’t have to say it back if you don’t want to.”

“No that’s not it I…”

“I didn’t say it for an answer I said it that you know how I feel.” He rambles.

“No Jungkook…”

He isn’t looking at you but he continues to talk. “I mean I know it’s probably too soon to say it, we haven’t been dating that long but…”

“Jungkook!” his gaze snap to you in surprise and you smile. “I’m trying to say that I love you too.” You watch in amusement as his face morphs from shocked to blushing and then it lands on something else.

“Say it again.” His eyes are hooded and he is leaning towards you.

“What?” You’re confused, your eyebrows furrowing.

He raises your hands over your head causing you to fall back onto the couch. He leans over you now, smirking and his stare intense.

“Say,” he kisses your cheek, “it”, he kisses your jaw, “again.” His lips find your neck and you squirm a bit.

“I love you.” You say breathlessly, he removes his lips from your neck to look at you.

“Good girl.” Is all he says before his lips captures yours. You can feel yourself melt and butterflies erupt in your stomach at his words. He bites your bottom lip lightly and you moan, causing him to smile. His lips are hot against yours, impatient in its movements as if he can’t get enough of you.

You tug at his hand that is still holding your wrists and he lets go, only for you to thread them into his hair pulling lightly. He groans and wraps his arms around your back pulling you onto his lap.

You’ve made out before of course but something was different tonight it’s as if you’re both starving for each other. You tug at his shirt’s hem and he gets the message because he rips it off before pulling you closer again. You place your hand on his chest and gasp at the warmth of his skin underneath your palms. You lightly drag your nails down his chest and he moans into your mouth when it rests at the waistband of his pants.

He pulls away slightly giving you both a moment to breathe. “ Baby wait.” He takes your hand on his pants in his own, holding it against his chest.

“Why?” You pout and he chuckles.

“I really want to do this, really want to, but we can’t on the couch.” He explains and your mind immediately goes to the many times Taehyung and Jimin have burst into the apartment and found you both on the couch in compromising positions like this.

“Fine,” You say and get up from his lap, holding out your hand for him, “Your bed or mine?”

He smirks and picks you up. You gasp and wrap your legs around his waist as he carries you into his room, making sure to lock the door behind him.

You impatiently tap your fingers on the counter waiting for the coffee machine. You were too lazy to put on any real clothes not seeing the point so you’re dressed in one of Jungkook’s hoodies and socks. A podcast is playing over your headphones and you already have a cup ready in your hand. You’re taking a break from studying but you know you’ll probably finish the coffee in your room in what is now essentially just your study, seeing as you don’t sleep in there anymore. You smile lightly at the memory of this morning, a relaxed sunny morning filled with soft kisses and cuddles. That is until you finally had to tear yourself away to go to class and Jungkook had to go to work. You got back from class a few hours ago but your boyfriend still hasn’t returned. His note had said he’ll probably be home late, so you’re not worried, but you wish you knew what he was busy with.

Even after all this time you still didn’t know what exactly his job is. He would always tip-toe around the question claiming that he does a lot of things, odd jobs really, but you feel like he isn’t telling you the full truth. You don’t see a reason to confront him about it though, because what job could possibly be a bad one right?

You’re so lost in thought you don’t even feel the presence behind you until arms wrap around you.

You scream, hurling around only to find a giggling Jungkook behind you.

Jungkook takes out the headphones in your ears. “ You should be careful, I could have been a murderer.” He jokes.

You roll your eyes. “I knew you were there the entire time.” Which of course is a lie, you had no idea that someone was in the apartment.

“Yeah?” You nod profusely.

Jungkook pulls you closer. “Then why did you scream?” He smirks knowing that you’re lying.

You open your mouth to reply but you can’t really think of anything to say so you close it again to his amusement.

“Yeah I thought so.” He smiles at you. You stare at his smile. It always makes you smile too, the way his whole face lights up and you’re sure you can stare at him forever when he looks at you the way he is now.

“That doesn’t matter anyway,” you pull him closer, “because now that you’re home, we can spend the rest of the night together.”

He raises his eyebrows, “Yeah? what did you have in mind hmm?” He is smirking again, backing you up until your back meets the counter, caging you in. His eyes are hooded, gone is the bunny smiling man and instead he looks like a predator, waiting for you to make the first move.

You smirk, and pull him closer until your lips meet. You kiss him sweetly but after a moment you rack your fingers into his hair pulling him even closer and deepening the kiss. He moans lightly into your mouth and you smirk pulling away.

“Maybe we should watch a movie?” You say innocently trying to escape his hold but he doesn’t relent.

“O no you’re not getting away that easily. I come home and you’re only in my hoodie,” He tugs at the fabric lightly. “I’m definitely not watching a movie with you like this.”

You shrug. “ Fine by me.” You giggle, leaning in for another kiss but he suddenly grimaces in pain.

“Jungkook?” You question as he grips onto his leg.

“Just give me a moment okay?” He says, his eyes a bit panicked, you nod and he backs away. You catch sight of his hand when it leaves his black covered leg and you’ve been patching him up so much you can easily see the red liquid that coats it.

Your eyes go wide. “Jungkook is that blood?” You move closer to him but he moves back.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” He replies, but you’re not so easily convinced.

“Let me see.” You command but he shakes his head. “Jungkook let me see.” You use your doctor voice and he sighs.

“We better go to the bathroom then.” He looks worried which makes you worry, but you help him to the bathroom where he sits down on the closed toilet. You kneel in front of him.

Now that you’re closer you can see the wet stain that is growing by the second. And you gasp when he removes his pants and you get a good look at the wound. The skin is peeled away on his thigh leaving a long deep gash and a bunch of bruising around it. It isn’t something you’ve seen before in person.

“Jungkook what happened?” You sound a bit hysteric even to your own ears.

Jungkook curses when he sees it. “I thought he missed.” He mumbles.

“Missed what?” You ask stupidly, staring up at Jungkook.

“I got mugged again.” He tries to explain but you see the way he looks away not meeting your eyes.

“Okay either you’re the most unlucky person ever that gets mugged a lot or you’re lying to me.” You know it’s the latter. Unlike the first time that he came home bleeding you now know him well enough to know when he is lying.

“Y/n…” He pleads for you to not press but you’ve had enough.

“Jungkook, I’ve been quiet every time you come home injured, I patch you up and let it go but this looks like a bullet grazed you.” There is no other injury you can think of that will look like this. You look at him waiting for him to deny it but he just sighs.

“Y/n can’t you just patch me up and forget about it?” He sounds angry but you can see that it’s just clouding panic.

“No, tell me what happened.” You demand. “I’m your girlfriend don’t you think I’m at least entitled to the truth?”

He shakes his head. “You shouldn’t know the truth.” He says it through clenched teeth and you frown.

“You really don’t think I deserve to know the truth?” You raise your voice, getting angry now. Why can’t he just tell you?

“That’s not what I’m saying, it’s just better that you don’t know the truth.” He is getting angry now too.

“That makes no sense, did this happen because of your job?” You can’t think of another explanation as to why he keeps getting hurt like this.

He glares at you and for the first time ever you see his scary gaze directed at you. “That has nothing to do with you.” He growls and you flinch. He looks like he regrets it immediately but you don’t look at him. Instead you start disinfecting the wound.

You don’t react when he tries to get your attention throughout the process, you just wrap up his injury and when you’re done you stand up without a word.

Jungkook grabs your wrist and you stare at him. “ Wait, I’m sorry. Can we just talk about this?”

“I don’t want to hear anymore lies Jungkook.” You retort but he doesn’t let you go.

He gulps and bites his lip, clearly struggling. “If I tell you what happen you’ll run away from me.” He says it with such certainty that you hesitate for a second. He sounds so sad.

“You won’t know that unless you tell me, besides you should know me better than to think I’d just leave you because you told me the truth,” you try to wrench your hand away from him, but he stands up winching a bit.

“Okay, I’ll tell you but all I’m asking is that you remember what you just said.” You nod, now a bit scared because Jungkook looks so anxious.

You wait for him on the couch while he changes into some pants. He comes out without a shirt on and you frown at all the bruises on his torso. There are some cuts too but they’re not very deep. Once again you see the white scars, you noticed that first time.

Jungkook stands sheepishly at the entrance to the hallway as if unsure whether to sit or run away.

“Do you want coffee?” He asks hesitantly.

“ Jungkook stop stalling please,” You sigh, “Just come sit down.” You just want to know what is happening.

He sighs and walks slowly to sit on the couch, keeping the distance between you two, which you’re thankful for.

You sit in silence waiting for Jungkook to say something but he sits hunched over scratching at his cuticles and avoids looking at you.

“Jungkook the longer you take the more my head is jumping to conclusions,” You break the silence trying to spur him on to speak.

“Yeah?” He still doesn't look at you. “Like what?”

You stare at him. “I don’t know,” You throw up your hands, “ like that you’re a serial killer or something.”

Jungkook chuckles humorlessly. “I’m not a serial killer Y/n.”

“Then what can be so bad?” You question, leaning in closer to him, not seeing a way that something can be worse.

Jungkook takes a deep breath in. “I’m in the mafia Y/n.” He glances at you waiting for your reaction.

To his surprise you laugh. “Okay, sure Kook you’re in the mafia.” You watch him, waiting for him to laugh too and give up the joke but he just stares at you seriously.

“O my god,” It takes a minute to sink in, “ that's how you know how to hide a body isn’t it?.”

“ Well I don’t actually do the hiding bit.” He chuckles again still glancing at you nervously picking at his fingers.

You just stare at him. Everything feels cold all of a sudden. “Then what bit do you do?”

But you don’t give him a chance to respond something dawning on you. “O my god, you’ve killed people before haven’t you?”

Jungkook just looks away, his reaction all answer you need.

You pull your legs further away from him, into your chest, moving as far away from him on the couch as possible.

Jungkook, your Jungkook is in the mafia, is a murderer. You can’t wrap your head around how the sweet, bunny-smiling man you love is capable of any of that. The man who showers you with kisses in the morning to wake you up. The man that makes you pancakes and coffee before a test, that braids your hair after you shower. You don’t know what to think or do. Should you run? Should you call the police? You just don’t know. All you do know is that you suddenly feel the need to be as far away from him as possible. For the first time ever you feel scared being in his presence.

“Please don’t run away,” he asks you, his hand twitching as if to hold onto you but he retracts it, “Remember you promised.”

“Yeah I promised because I thought you were going to tell me you're a stripper or something, not that you're in the mafia.” You sound a bit hysterical, unsure of what to think or do, your head running a thousand miles an hour.

Finally you decide. You stand up from the couch, and you can see the hurt written all over his face.

You sigh. “I’m not running away, I just… I need a moment to think okay?”

He just nods. “Do you want me to leave?”

You shake your head “No, I don’t know, maybe? I just don’t know anything right now okay.”

You turn on your heels and walk to your room, leaving him on the couch.

You close the door to your room and you sink to the floor. You have to process what you just heard. You finally found out the truth and now you wonder if your should have just been kept in the dark. Maybe it would have been easier. No, you decide it’s better that you know.

In some ways you feel stupid. All the late nights calls, him coming home with various injuries and vague explanations. Even the tip-toeing around what his actual job is. You feel like a fool for not at least expecting it to be a possibility. But how could you have it feels so unreal and yet it is the reality, no changing that.

You just have to decide what to do now, so you go sit down at your desk, throwing all your notes on the floor and pulling out a clean piece of paper. You draw a line down the middle. A pros and cons list.

You laugh humorlessly at yourself. You used to do this when you had to decide whether to join the debate team or decathlon team, not whether you should stay with your mafia boyfriend or not. Is he even your boyfriend anymore? Do you want him to be?

You sit with the pen tip pushed on the page but you can’t write. Of course the cons are obvious. You stay with him and know that he is doing illegal things every day. You stay with him knowing you could be putting yourself in danger as well. But you can’t come to a conclusion even though the cons outweigh the pros. The only pro is that you love him.

You’re a logical person, you always have been, so it should be easy when you look at the list, but you just can��t get the sad look on his face out of your head. The way he didn’t want to tell you because he was so sure you would leave him.

It’s happened before you realise. He wasn’t keeping this from you just because he didn’t want to tell you but because he didn’t want you to leave. You think of all the things he’s done for you, walking you home after class because it was getting dark. Taking you to see your sister’s game just because he knew you were sad to miss it. Taking care of you while you were sick. That man wasn’t someone malicious. So who is the real Jungkook then?

You start to look at it differently. From a different angle the way your dad always told you to do when you were struggling with something. You don’t know the full story, you don’t know how he got sucked into this life.

Finally you get up. If you’re going to make a decision you need to know everything.

You knock on his door a few hours later. You can hear shuffling inside and finally it opens. Jungkook’s hair is disheveled as if he’s been tugging at it and his eyes are red like he’s been crying. Behind him you can see bags half packed.

“What are you doing?” You ask, suddenly panicking that he is packing.

“You said you needed space so I thought I’d make everything easier for you and leave.” He says sniveling a little bit.

“Jungkook I didn’t mean you have to move out I just needed some time that’s all.” Even now you have the urge to hug him to make him feel better.

“Does that mean you want me to stay?” He asks hopefully.

“It means I want to know everything.” He frowns in confusion. “I want to know what happened how this all happened.”

He nods and step aside inviting you in. “Well then you better sit down it’s kind of a long story.”

You enter his room, that just a few hours ago was the room you shared with him. How ironic that just his morning you were tangled up in his bed with him and now you’re sitting on it waiting to hear him tell you how he got into the mafia.

He sits down next to you, still keeping space between you two as if too scared to sit near you.

He sighs and racks his fingers through his hair. “I haven't told anybody this, the only people who knows are my Hyungs.”

You frown. “ Wait so Jimin and Taehyung are also in this?” You can’t believe it. But he holds up his hand, stopping you from asking anymore questions, and even though your head is full of them, you keep quiet.

“I’ll get to that part but I guess I have to start at the beginning.” He sighs before looking at you.

“My childhood wasn’t like yours, there were no picnics and movie nights or family dinners. My dad wasn’t a good person. He would beat me up daily. I remember him locking me in a closet because I was afraid of the dark when I was 5, saying that it will teach me a lesson.” You gasp not even being able to imagine what that must have been like.

“He would punish me for the most basic things, and as I got older it only got worse.” He grimaces at the memories.

“My mom on the other hand was the best. She tried to intervene even if it meant getting hurt herself. She would sneak me food when my dad refused to give me any, and every year on my birthday she would make me a small cake, just enough for me and her.”

He smiles softly. “ She tried her best, always telling me stories of how we’ll escape and get a house near a river with wildflowers, and how she would bake me cookies and I can catch fireflies in the summer.” He sighs. “Of course that couldn’t happen, my dad kept her locked in the house and she had no money of her own but yet she tried so hard to find a way out.” He swallows hard. “ One night she came into my room and told me to pack a bag, that we were finally escaping.” His voice is almost a whisper at this point “We were so close, almost out through the small window in the basement when he caught us.” His voice breaks and you can’t help but put a hand over his. You asked for the whole story but now you wish you hadn’t, just so that he didn’t have to relive the memories.

“He killed her.” He looks at you with teary eyes. “Right in front of me.”

“O Jungkook.” But he just shakes his head wiping away the tears.

“So it was just me and my dad and well you’ve seen the scars.” You immediately understand where those white scars you were wondering about came from and you have to stop yourself from hugging him.

“I’m not telling you this to try and manipulate you into letting me stay, I just want to give you background information.” He says softly and you can't imagine why he would even think that you were considering him trusting you with this as manipulation.

“So anyway,” he continues. “ My dad at some point got involved with some pretty bad people and one night they burst into the house, demanding him to pay what he owed them but of course he couldn't. He gambled it all away.” He takes a breath. “So they shot him. They didn’t know I was in the house so I climbed through a window to get away,”

He chuckles lightly looking at you and it surprises you. “Let me tell you running away with a broken ankle isn’t easy.” You don’t know what to say startled by the way he laughs at this, so you just wait for him to continue, which he does.

“ I lived on the street for a while, trying to get scraps from dumpsters behind restaurants you know that kind of thing.” He looks to you as if you know what he means but you don't. You’ve never had to live like that before and knowing that it was what he was used to for who knows how long makes your heart break.

“That’s where Namjoon-hyung found me, I was 10 at the time, some guys were beating me up because I had wandered into their territory. He and the others intervened and after that he took me in.” He looks at you again. “I didn’t know what they were doing in the beginning, I was so skittish barely anyone could get near me, but eventually Jimin got through to me and slowly I learned to trust them all. When I was 13, Namjoon-hyung told me what they did. I was disgusted at first, but they had become my family. A real family, so how could I ever leave them.”

“Did they force you into it then?” You ask when he pauses.

But Jungkook shakes his head. “No, they never forced me to do anything, but I wanted to train with them and one night I asked Jimin if I could tag along on a mission.” He looks to the side as if imagining it.

“The mission was routine, just getting a shipment nothing serious, but on the way back we came across a man trying to pull a girl into an alley.” His face goes hard. “Jimin made everyone stop and we saved her. He told me after that we have a code.” He looks at you. “ We protect the people in our territory, that we may live in a world full of violence but we don’t have to let innocent people live in it too.”

You nod your head trying to understand what he means and you think you do.

He risks taking your hands into his. “Y/n I may be a bad person and I have done bad things but you have to know that I never acted with you, everything I did or said it was real, is real. Hell, I wasn’t even supposed to be living here anymore.”

You frown. “What do you mean?”

“When I came to live with you I just needed a place to hide for a few weeks, but this place became like a sanctuary to me away from all the violence, where I can just be myself, and after a while, I realised it wasn’t just the apartment it was you too.” He takes a deep breath and his eyes fill with tears.

“I understand if you want me to leave and never want anything to do with me again, I can’t ask you to still love me but I can only make sure that you know that I truly love you.” He waits for you to speak and you know he is waiting for you to kick him out.

“Jungkook, a rational person would kick you out right now,” A tear makes it way down his cheek, “Luckily I have never been a rationale person.” You pull him into a hug.

“If we met differently yes maybe I would be running for the hills but Jungkook,” You pull away a bit, wiping the tears from his face, “I love you for the person you showed me you are and I believe that, that is the real you, and that the only thing you ever wanted was a family, and now that you found one you will fight for them no matter what.”

Jungkook pushes his face into your neck and let’s out a sob. You place your hand on his back rubbing circles on it trying to soothe him as he lets it all out. You sit like that for what feels like hours, hugging and him just nuzzling into your neck even after he stopped crying.

“So I’m basically a mafia doctor then?” You joke trying to lighten the mood.

He chuckles. “Yeah, everyone is jealous that I can just get patched up by you without doing it myself.”

You frown. “Do you guys just, what ,patch yourselves up?”

“We’ve learned how to do the basics so we help each other.” He sighs and plays with your fingers. “I was suppose to go to headquarters that night you helped me for the first time but I guess my brain just wanted safety.”

You sigh. “ Well I mean I could help the others too if they want me…”

“No.” Jungkook interrupts you, and you look taken aback. “Not because I want to keep you to myself but I don’t want you anywhere near that part of my life, it’s too dangerous, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you in the first place even if some of the others said I should.”

You frown. “ Who said you should?”

“Jimin and Hobi hyung.” He mumbles looking away.

“Not Tae?” You raise an eyebrow at the information.

Jungkook shakes his head. “No, he said it would be too unsafe, Jimin didn’t want to keep you in the dark and Hobi said you deserved to know the truth.”

You look down at your intertwined hands as a thought dawns on you. “Are you going to get in trouble for telling me?”

Jungkook shakes his head . “No, the others were more indifferent than against it, so I should be fine.” He smiles lightly at you, placing his finger underneath your chin making you look at him.

“I’m glad you didn’t run away, I don’t know how I would have broken it to the other two. They like you too much.” He jokes.

“Well I mean I guess I knew too much anyway so you would have had to drag me back.” You play along as he leans in closer.

“Yeah probably would have had to tie you up too.” He smiles and you roll your eyes.

The moment is broken however by Jungkook’s phone ringing. He looks at you solemnly as he answers. For the first time, your heart skips a beat when you see him seriously listening to what is said on the other side, now knowing what is happening.

“You have to go?” You guess and he nods sadly.

“I’m sorry, but it’s just a meeting okay no danger.” He tries to ease your worried look. You just nod and walk him to the front door.

But before he leaves you pull him into a tight hug. “Just promise to come home okay?” You almost feel like crying, is this how women feel sending their husbands off to war?

He pulls away and leans down so that you’re at eye level. “I may come home hurt,” He smiles lightly, “ but I will always come home, I promise.” He kisses your forehead before leaving. His words not reassuring you at all.

“Why can’t you guys just tell me?” You plead with Jimin and Tae who are sprawled out on the couch, barely glancing at you standing in front of them with crossed arms.

“Because Jungkook told us not to.” Jimin says lazily, not looking up from his phone.

You’ve been trying to get them to tell you the best way to hide a body for the past 15 minutes. The joke with Jungkook turning into a real competition after you found out he actually does know the right answer.

It’s been a few weeks since he confessed to you he’s in the mafia and you’ve gotten used to the idea now. You still worry about him but you’re more relaxed when he lets things slip about his other life. He still looks at you anxiously whenever he does slip up as if you are going to change your mind and run away at any moment, but you never do. You have to say after he told you a lot of things fell into place that you never really gave too much thought to, like the way he would smirk or smile at remarks you would make from time to time. Everything finally at least makes sense now.

Jimin and Taehyung acted like polar opposites to the news that you know the truth. Jimin seemed relieved before he started almost spilling everything about what they do before Jungkook had to drag him away by the back of the neck to make it very clear to him that he doesn’t want you to know any details about it.

Taehyung on the other hand seemed angry and didn’t talk to you at first, glaring at Jimin whenever he would make a joke about their real lives. After a particular joke about who is best with a sniper, he stood up and dragged you to the hallway.

“Taehyung I know you’re angry that I know but…” You were cut off by his arms wrapping around you.

“I’m not angry, I just didn’t want anything to change.” He admitted still hugging you. “I didn’t want to lose you as a friend.”

You pulled away slightly to look into his eyes. “Tae, I already made my choice, I’m not going to run away from you guys.”

After that, he warmed up again, happy to know his fears weren’t going to become a reality.

You did however have a small falling out with them when you learned how they kept getting into your apartment.

You had found them playing video games when you got back from class one day and knowing that Jungkook wasn’t home at all that day you had stepped in front of them making them pause their game and demanded to know how they got in.

Jimin had blushed profusely as Tae admitted embarrassed that they have been picking the lock. You had blown up at that, scolding them about privacy and personal space and yes, how illegal it is.

They had stared up at you like two naughty children the whole time. They tried to kiss-ass the entire day after that but you ignored them, and the chocolate and coffee they brought to you as an apology.

It wasn’t until later when Jungkook asked you what was wrong and you told him everything that he made you understand. To them, like Jungkook, the apartment is a place they don’t have to even think about their lives. In the mansion where they all live, apart from Jungkook, they always have to be reminded in some way or the other of the reality of their lives, but here they could just truly and fully relax.

You felt bad so to make up for it you had something made for them.

“A key?” Tae had asked confused holding it up and turning it around.

“Yes a key,” You had sassed, “I’m sure you’re not very familiar with the concept but now you don’t have to pick my locks every time you want to hang out here.” You had explained and were immediately pulled into a group hug, sandwiched between the two of them.

Of course, you had laid down some ground rules eventually like texting you before coming over so that they didn’t catch you in your underwear… again. But for the most part, they came and went as they pleased, happy to be trusted by you.

Which brings you back to the present, of them completely ignoring your wishes.

“I thought we were friends.” You pout making them at least look at you.

“No, don’t give us that face,” Taehyung physically puts his hand over his eyes. “We can’t tell you, we promised.”

“But what’s a promise really Taetae?” You know you’re playing dirty but you’re willing to if it means you can best Jungkook in your little game.

“Y/n what are you doing?” Jungkook’s voice comes from the front door, you didn’t even notice that it had opened.

“Kookie she is trying to get us to tell her how to hide a body.” Jimin spills the beans immediately and you glare at him earning only a smirk in return.

Jungkook gasps and walks to you. “Y/n that is cheating.”

You sigh dramatically. “You never said that I couldn’t get any help.”

“It is an obvious rule, besides they won’t tell you.” He glances at his friends lifting an eyebrow at them “Right guys?”

They both just nod, their attention back to their phones.

“Ughh that’s just unfair,” You whine and stomp your foot but smile none the less when Jungkook pulls you into his chest.

“No, that's the game and you should play fair.” he chuckles kissing the pout off your face.

“Ewww guys.” Jimin complains, at the show of affection.

“Hey, you're in my house.” You glare at him, kicking a pillow laying on the floor at him.

He just shrugs, “fair point.”

“That being said Y/n,” Taehyung pipes up, “What are we gonna eat?” He smiles a boxy smile at you.

You turn to him, Jungkook hugging you from behind tucking his chin in the crook of your neck.

“What am I your mother? Damn” You question rolling your eyes, “You can make your own food.”

“Baby we haven’t gone grocery shopping.” Jungkook whispers in your ear and you cringe as the other two laugh.

“Well, then you can order your own takeout.” You say instead, earning more laughter.

“Or better yet you can go get takeout for all of us.” Jungkook adds.

Jimin and Taehyung groan but gets up from the couch nonetheless. Grumbling about stupid friends, and third-wheeling they head out the door.

“We’ll be back in like 20 minutes so just keep that in mind.” Jimin yells as Taehyung pulls him out the door.

“20 minutes huh?” Jungkook whispers into your neck, “ we can do a lot in 20 minutes.” He lightly kisses your neck and you moan softly.

“Are you trying to seduce me?” You giggle and you feel him smile against your skin.

“That depends are you seducable?” He asks.

“No,” You lie, stepping out of his hold, his arms still in the shape they were when you were in them. He looks shocked. “You’re just trying to get out of doing the dishes by using your …” You wave your hands randomly trying to come up with the right word, “charms.”

“My charms?” He questions stepping forward holding you by your hips. “Well then do I charm you a lot?” He leans down to kiss you.

“Yes, but not tonight,” You lean back away from his lips even though they are hard to resist. “I have no coffee cups left.”

He laughs loudly throwing his head back. “Okay, okay,” he relents and lets you go, moving past you but not before whispering in your ear. “But I’m having you all to myself tonight.”

You feel a tingle travel down your spine and for a moment you regret your decision to make him do the dishes now, that is until you see the pile stacked in the sink and agree that you can wait until later tonight even if you have to kick Tae and Jimin out to be alone with him.

You wake up in Jungkook’s arms. His bare chest pressed against your back, his leg hooked over your hip. You smile softly as you feel his breath breeze over your neck, your gaze travelling from his arm that you’re using as a pillow to his hand. You place yours in his, playing with his fingers and running your fingertips over the callouses on his palm.

You giggle as you're pulled closer into him by his other arm his lips now right by your ear.

“What are you doing pretty girl?” He asks in his husky morning voice and you melt at the sound of it. You’re sure if you could you’d record it and put it as your ringtone. You’re also quite sure he wouldn’t mind.

“I’m just thinking.” You reply, intertwining your fingers with his.

“O yeah?” He asks, moving his lips down to your neck, not kissing just resting his lips against the skin. “What about?”

You smile wide and turn around in his hold to face him. His eyes are hidden a bit by his hair falling into his face. He wraps both of his arms around you at the change in position.

“I was thinking about how happy I am.” You tell him pushing his hair out of his face and revealing his relaxed eyes, the deep brown of them sparkling in the morning light.

He smiles widely at your answer, “ And what makes you so happy?” He asks scrunching his nose.

You place your finger to your chin to show you’re thinking. “Probably the thought of coffee.” You chuckle and he groans burrowing his face into the crook of your neck, knowing that this means he’ll have to let go of you.

“No,” He tightens his grip on you. “I refuse, I think you should just stay right here.” His words whisper over your skin and feel goosebumps popping up in their wake.

You pout. “That’s a bit selfish don’t you think?” You ask, pulling back so he has to look at you.

He shrugs. “Then I’m selfish.” He says before nuzzling back into your neck.

“Being selfish isn’t a good thing Kookie.” You giggle at him, running your fingers lovingly through his hair.

“I’m in the mafia I’m not supposed to be nice.” He mumbles into your neck and you laugh.

“But you’re suppose to be nice to me, because you love me.” You sing-song, making him laugh. His laugh reverberates through his chest and you can feel it vibrating against yours.

“You’ve got me there.” He admits, and sighs. But he doesn’t release you like you thought he would. He grips you tighter and sits up with you still in his hold.

“What are you doing?” You ask in surprise, before you let out a squeal as he stands up making you wrap your legs around him.

“I’m getting you coffee in a selfish way.” He smiles down at you and moves you up higher by holding you by the back of your thighs.

“You are such an idiot.” You laugh as he walks to the kitchen and without putting you down he turns on the brand new coffeemaker he got you.

“Yeah but you love me anyway.” He replies, walking over to the cupboard and waits for you to pick out a cup. He smiles at your choice. It’s one of those cups that has a printed photo on it. The photo is of you two when you went to the arcade, in it Jungkook is pouting while you hug a huge plushie he won for you instead of him. Jimin had taken the photo laughing his ass off at Jungkook’s expression. You had it printed on the mug as an accessory to the new coffeemaker much to Jungkook’s amusement.

He finally puts you down on the counter as the coffeemaker pours the coffee into your mug. He stands in between your legs playing with his shirt that you’re wearing.

“What’s the plans for today?” He asks you.

You tilt your head a bit. “ Well I have class,” You see his expression drop, “but, I think I’ll skip today.” You finish chuckling as his face lights up.

“Really?” He asks grinning widely.

“Yeah,” You nod, “I think I like how this morning is going too much to tear myself away from it.” You shrug as you admit it.

He smirks and leans in. “I think I’m a bad influence on you.”

“O you don’t have to think, you’re definitely a bad influence.” You laugh before meeting his lips half-way and pulling him closer with your legs to kiss him properly. His lips are soft against yours and you relish in the feeling of this domestic moment. Something you two don’t get to do enough.

You pull away. “But I do have plans.” You tell him.

“And what are these plans hm?” He smiles softly, tilting his head to the side in curiosity.

You smirk. “I’m going to kidnap you for the day.”

He holds up his hands as if your going to put handcuffs on him, pressing his wrists together. “Then I’m your prisoner for the day.” You both laugh happily.

You weren’t lying though you do have a surprise for him today so your excited to get going after your cuddle session on the couch while you drink your coffee.

“I didn’t think you meant we would have to go outside.” Jungkook whines as you drag him into the shower.

“You’re going to like it I promise,” you say while you wash his hair.

“If I don’t then you have to make dinner tonight,” he bargains and you only shake your head laughing.

You're both finally ready, after getting side tracked many times with kisses and hugs as you got dressed.

You hold hands as you walk down to the bus stop, making puns out of the different signs you see as you walk past. You finally get on the bus and you make up stories for the other people on it.

“I promise he is going to dispose of a body look at the size of that bag.” You whisper, gesturing to the man in front who has a bag so big it takes up a whole seat next to him.

Jungkook laughs and shakes his head. “ The girl behind him probably helped him kill the person.” He gestures to the person sitting behind the man.

You snort, “You mean the old woman who has a basket filled with flowers?”

“Hey, you should have seen the look she gave me when we got on.” He justifies himself, staring at you while you laugh.

“Why are you staring at me?” You ask, your laugh now only a chuckle.

“How can I not,” He wraps his arm around you and pulls you into him. “You’re just so god damn beautiful.”

You blush and turn your face away from him , but he already saw your blush and when you glance at him he smiles at you satisfied at making you blush.

You finally arrive at your stop and you pull Jungkook along down the street to your destination.

He gasps when he sees where you brought him.

You turn back to him smiling. “See I knew you’d love it.” You gloat.

The park is situated right by a river and the wildflowers are blooming in patches swaying softly in the breeze. The big trees cast shade over the green lush grass. You had remembered how he described what his mom told him so you had Google searched for hours to find the right place to bring him to.

You walk to a big tree close to the river and then demand the bag he has been carrying. You pull out a blanket and spread it onto the grass while Jungkook discovers the snacks you packed.

You spend the day laying on the blanket, eating the snacks and ice cream from a stall nearby. You try to find shapes in the clouds, and every now and again have to tilt the other’s head to make them see it the way you are.

“That is definitely not a rabbit Kook, that is obviously a duck.” You giggle from your spot on his lap as he keeps on insisting the cloud is a bunny.

“Just tilt your head more to the left and close your eyes and then it is definitely a bunny.” Jungkook says and you laugh hard.

You get an idea. “Here let me show you something.” You get up holding out your hand for him to take, he smiles and takes it happily.

You pull him over to the patch of wildflowers closest to you, and bend down starting to pick some. “What are you doing?” He asks but follows your example all the same.

“Just wait.” You say as you bring the bouquets back to your blanket. You sit down and pick out a few from different colours and start weaving them together. Jungkook just sits and watches you and when you finally hold up the finished flower crown he grins.

“Here,” you lean over placing it onto his head. “Now you’re my prince.” You laugh and he giggles when you take a photo of him.

You spend a few minutes showing him how to make one of his own and soon you’re sporting his creation too. You grin into the camera as he takes photo after photo of you. It turns into a mini photoshoot as he smiles and directs you how to pose.

Finally you sit leaning your head on his chest as you watch the sunset over the river.

“Y/n?” He says softly and you hum letting him know that you’re listening. “Thank you.”

His voice makes you remove your head from his shoulder looking at him. “It’s a pleasure Kook.”

He shakes his head bringing his hand up to cup your cheek. “No, not just for today for everything,” he lightly kisses your forehead leaving his lips against your skin as he whispers, “I love you so much.”

You grin at him. “I love you too. ”You whisper back. You sit like that for a moment until you hear him gasp.

You open your eyes and see the green flickers rising up from the ground.

“Fireflies.” Jungkook whispers and you smile softly at him.

You watch his eyes light up as they follow the little bugs. He turns to you with slighty glossy eyes. “You remembered?” He asks softly.

“I thought since she couldn’t take you some place like this I thought I would.” You say placing your hand over his.

He stays quiet and for a second looking out at the river as the fireflies light op the night and you start to wonder if you overstepped. But then he looks at you with a huge smile.

“She would have loved you.” He says a small tear escaping his eye and running down his cheek. You wipe it away with your thumb. You smile sadly at him, and he wraps his arm around you pulling you close to him as you both watch the little flickers dance across the water. The scent of the wildflowers entangling itself in the moment.

You sit like that speaking softly, as if you were to speak normally it would break the moment, until it starts getting cold. So you pack up and with Jungkook’s jacket over your shoulders you make your way back onto the bus.

The drive back is peaceful as you watch the scenery pass by the windows. He holds you close to him the entire time, talking about plans to go back to the park in a few weeks.

When you finally cross the threshold of your apartment, he pulls you into a soft hug and drag you to the couch for a movie. The movie plays softly while you two talk, talks about plans for the holidays that he wants to spend with your family, and if you’d like to meet his hyungs and spend new year with them. You talk about the future together like you never had before, long past the end of this year or even the years after that.

You lay with your head on his chest as you listen to his voice, and when you close your eyes you can see your whole life with Jungkook. Walking to him down an isle in a white dress, sitting and drinking coffee at little shops up and down the coast, travelling to different countries with him, and one day looking over a river on a porch somewhere with him by your side, grey haired and wrinkled faced. The thoughts of his job or the implications it may have on your future pushed away by the softness of the moment.

You smile as the last things you hear before you fall asleep is his whispered words. “I can see my forever in your eyes Y/n.”

You know you shouldn’t be walking home in the dark, but you didn’t want to trouble Jungkook. He’s on an important mission with Jimin and Yoongi apparently. The details you of course know nothing about, he never tells you anything of what they are doing. On some level, you guess it you’re glad you don’t have to hear it but on another, it makes you anxious to not know what is happening, and if he is in danger.

You scoff, of course, he’s in danger. Every time he leaves for missions or meetings he’s in danger and it makes you lay awake unable to sleep until you feel him crawl into bed next to you. Only then when he pulls you closer can you finally fall asleep.

Your phone vibrates and you pull it out of your pocket to check. You smile softly at your lockscreen the picture of him with his flower crown from that day at the park. You look at the text, it’s your mother reminding you of the games night tomorrow that you and Jungkook said you’ll attend. He confessed to you that he loves spending time with your family and although he doesn’t say it and you’ll never ask if it’s true, you know it’s because he never really had a family dynamic like yours.

So even if Lilly goes overboard and bombards him with questions and your mother fusses over him and makes him eat all the experimental food she made, or your father having long boring talks with him, he always smiles and when you look closely you see a sadness in his eyes when you have to leave.

He’s told you multiple times that the members are his family and that they can all be themselves at home, and you believe him fully. You just think that he finds some normality in spending time with your family that he can’t always find with them.

You reply your mom and put your phone away, you know you shouldn’t walk with it out, and it’s almost dead anyway.

With your focus back on the streets you can’t help but feel the forever paranoia sinking in. You’ve gotten used to walking at night with Jungkook by your side, swinging your intertwined hands back and forth and talking to you about his hyungs and what they have been up to. He only tells you the domestic things of course, but you sometimes wonder about what their roles actually are in the mafia. You know they are all part of the inner circle and that Namjoon is the leader but other than that he keeps the information about that side of their lives secret.

You sigh. Your life really is strange, but to be honest as long as Jungkook is in it you don’t mind too much. Which is probably a stupid thing, him being a criminal should be the biggest red flag you have ever seen in a person but you know what lies beneath it all so you don’t mind too much being a stupid bull and running into it head on.

You hear footsteps behind you and you sneakily look over your shoulder to see someone following you. No, they are just walking Y/n, not following, it’s okay not everyone is out to get you.

You turn back to the front continuing on your journey home. Your apartment only a block away and you know a sticky note will be waiting for you with a sweet message probably adding to not get kidnapped or something.

You smile, only to let it drop when you see a man lingering on the wall next to an alley. You still hear footsteps behind you too. You bite your lip and take a deep breath in deciding to cross the street instead just to be safe.

Just as you step off the curb the man in front of you starts walking towards you. You look back and see the man behind you walking faster now. You throw caution into the wind and quickly walk to the other side of the street, your heart racing when you realise both men are following you.

You decide fuck it and start running scared out of your wits now, you pull out your phone to call Jungkook, but just as you press the call button a van almost hits you as you cross the street. You stare into the headlights frozen and say sorry walking past quickly only for it to stop behind you.

Before you can react the door opens and hands grab you, pulling you inside. You scream but a hand over your mouth stops the sound. The door sliding closed.

“Hey baby, I’m on my way home.” You hear Jungkook answer your call. You thrash and kick at the man holding you, the van is moving now and you’re forced to sit down.

“Y/n?” Jungkook questions worry in his tone.

You bite down hard at the hand over your mouth. The man gasps and lets go of your mouth, startled by your bite.

“Jungkook help!” You scream before someone picks up the phone.

“Y/n ?!” You hear Jungkook scream over the phone before the person holding it hangs up.

You stare up as the phone’s light illuminates the person’s face and you feel a cold wave travel through your body.

“Well hello Y/n” he smirks, “Fancy meeting you here.”

You just stare at his face, Damion looking down at you. Before you feel a hard pain in your head and everything fades to black.

You're woken up by a fist hitting your face. You groan in pain, trying to move away, but you feel your hands tied behind the chair you’re sitting on. The rope cuts into your wrists as you try to move.

You open your eyes, your blurry vision taking in your surroundings. You’re tied to a chair in the middle of an open space what you assume is a warehouse. The brick walls and concrete floor give it away. You see it’s staring to become light outside now, the sun almost rising. That means you’ve been missing for about 10 hours now.

“Welcome back Y/n.” You look up at Damion leaning on the wall in front of you. He slowly make his way over to you and kneels in front of you.

“What do you want?” You glare at him but you can see that he is aware of the panic sinking into your bones. You have no idea how you’re going to get out of this.

“I just want to have a chat,” he grips your bruised face and you flinch as he turns it to the side, inspecting the bruises and digging his fingers into them. “Just like the one I had with your little boyfriend when he called back. He was so worried.” Damion pouts and wipes at something on your forehead, his thumb coming back red from blood that must still be there from when they knocked you out.

Judging by the pounding in your head you’re sure you have a concussion, if not you’re definitely on your way to one if they keep hitting you.

“Jungkook will find me.” You say, certain of your words as you rip your face out of his grasp.

“O no don’t fret, I’m counting on it.” Damion stands up walking a few feet back. “And what will he do when he sees you in this condition I wonder.”

“What?” You question before someone hits you again. You taste blood in your mouth and you spit it out to the side. Damion comes back kneeling before you again but this time with a knife, he presses it against your cheek.

“You see Y/n, we, as in my organisation, have been looking for a way to get to Bangtan for a while now.” He trails the knife down to your collarbone. “And imagine my surprise when I found you, the little weakness to the most feared maknae.” he presses down on the knife cutting into your flesh and you scream as he drags it down.

“You won’t be able to fight him off.” You say through the pain and he widen his eyes at you.

“O we’re not planning to fight him off Y/n.” You frown at his words, but scream again as he cuts into your arm deeply, dragging the knife from your upper arm to your elbow. You can almost count the number of stitches you’ll need as the knife tears through your flesh.

“You see,” he smiles at you as if he didn’t just cut you, “we want to do something much worse.”

He steps away wiping the blood off the knife with a cloth that one of the other men bring him.

“And you little dove,” He bends down to be on your eye level, “are going to help us break him.”

“I will never help you.” You spit out.

He chuckles as one of the men brings something over. “I think you’ll change your mind about that.”

Jungkook’s POV

His breathing is ragged as he slips past another guard. He feels the adrenaline pumping through his veins, his phone vibrating continuously as the others try to reach him.

He can still hear your scream for help ringing in his ears, and the taunting words of Damion after that.

How had he been so stupid? To let you out of his sight, no, how could he not have known one of their enemies were so close?

Yoongi had raced home faster than ever after Jungkook told them what happened. Jimin’s face was hard as he spoke on the phone to Namjoon. Everyone met in the library. Jungkook knows he had screamed a lot especially when they weren’t working as fast as he wanted them to. All he could think about was the fact that you were alone with those men doing who knows what to you. You could be dead for all he knows. The thought still making tears bubble in his sinuses. No, you’re not he will find you and take you, wrap you up and make you some coffee and hope with everything in him that you won’t leave him after this.

He runs past another hallway, flattening himself against a pillar as two men walk past going the other way.

He came alone. He knows the others are following but he couldn’t wait so when Yoongi had finally found your location from your phone Jungkook had rushed out without thinking twice. He ignored the others or the rational part of him that kept whispering that this was too easy. It was too easy to find you, but he doesn’t give a shit as long as he can just find you and have you in his arms again.

Even before you two were actually friends he had vowed to himself to keep you safe. His little roommate with her forever playing true crime videos and pens sticking out of her hair as she studies so hard. He always had a lower member follow you at night to make sure you got home safe. After you became closer he took over that role happily. You were so precious, so sweet how could he not have tried to keep you away from the bad things in the world, the girl who had patched him up when he came home half-dead, the girl that took him to see the fireflies, the girl that he loves. Even when he told you the truth he promised himself he will try to keep you as far away from everything bad surrounding him daily to, ironically, avoid a situation like this.

He peeks around a corner to see two men guarding a door. He assumes that’s where you are.

“She stopped screaming huh?” One of the men comments and Jungkook can feel anger like he’s never felt before rise up inside him.

He sneaks closer using pillars and shadows as cover until he is close enough. He jumps out catching them by surprise because they both drop to the floor a few moments later, knocked out or dead he’s not sure and he doesn’t care right now.

He slowly opens the door, scanning all around before realising it is empty except for you tied to a chair, your head hanging forward.

He rushes forward, you barely acknowledge his presence, only groaning lightly. He cuts the ropes holding your hands. The bruises are a deep purple around your wrists. He also takes note of the cuts on your arm and collarbone and it makes him sick. How could he have let this happen to you?

“Hey baby,” Jungkook kneels before you, lifting your head up to look at you, he bares his teeth at the bruises covering your face, you flinch away from his touch before opening your eyes. Recognition swim in them as you fall forward into his shoulder.

“O Jungkook.” You whisper into his neck.

“I know baby, but we have to get out of here okay, the others are on their way.” He says in a hushed voice, knowing that the sooner he gets you away the less violence you’ll have to see. And there will be violence, nobody touches you and gets away with it.

He tries to get you to move but you don’t budge.

“You have to leave.” You say softly, lifting your head up from his neck.

“What?” He frowns in confusion. “Y/n I’m not leaving you here.”

“Please,” You beg, “You have to go.” You shove at him to try and make him move.

“Y/n…” Jungkook stares at the state you're in, trying to shove him away from you before you still. He sees your pleading eyes move from his, to look over his shoulder. He follows your gazeand is met with Damion and about a dozen men standing with him.

“Welcome Jungkook.” Damion’s opens his arms wide, smiling. Jungkook moves infront of you to shield you.

“You have me now, so let her go.” He growls out to the narcissistic man in front of him. He knows he can take them all, he’s done it before. There is a reason people are scared of him. He just wants to make sure you’re safe first.

“She can go,” Damion waves his hand and smiles. “But you want to do something first don’t you Y/n?”

Jungkook frowns as you stand up behind him, you don’t look at him as you walk past him into Damion’s outstretched arms .

Jungkook is frozen as he watch you walk away from him. He doesn’t even realise the two men that are grabbing onto him before they force him to his knees. His eyes don't leave your figure in the arms of the enemy. Why would you go to him so easily?

Damion hands you something and it takes him a second to realise it’s a gun. “Now just like I told you to do okay?” Damion says into your ear, his arm turning you around and Jungkook struggles at the sight of his hands on you. Damion smiles sinisterly at him from behind you.

You slowly walk to Jungkook, tears stream down your face and Jungkook frowns. What are you doing? He struggles to get to his feet, now that you have a gun he can use it to help him fight these men off.

“Y/n?” He asks trying to have you explain to him what the fuck is happening, because he feels like he is going insane.

“I’m sorry Jungkook.” You whimper, and Jungkook stops struggling as you slowly, as if in slow motion, raise the gun pointing it at his head.

He stares at the barrel of the gun pointed at him and then at your face. You’re crying but there is a certain determination in them that he doesn’t understand. He can feel his heart breaking as he realise what is happening.

You are betraying him.

“Y/n why?” He asks his voice cracking, staring up at you. He is shocked, frozen in place. He knows he can fight back but it’s like all the fight has left him. “ Please I love you.” He begs.

You bite your lip, wiping your tears away with your cut arm streaking your face with blood. You cock the gun, it trembles as it points at his head, but your face is void of emotion now.

“I love you too Jungkook.” You stare directly into his eyes, “ but sometimes, somethings matter more.”

A/N Okay don’t kill me! I am planning a sequel so you can all stop screaming. I hope you did enjoy their little awkward strange love story.

Please let me know your thoughts!

taglist: @scuzmunkie

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