Royal Flush | pjm; jjk

Chapter Nine

The following weeks flew by in an instant. Nora was kept on her toes by the guys and their busy schedule. She was exceling with the sword and was progressing fast with Yoongi. Namjoon took her a couple more times to go through the history of the palace and basic education, and Jin started to work on her medical skills. Jin's school was the easiest for Nora. Living on her own and working in such a field left her taking care of her wounds often. She would always smile remembering how impressed Jin was at her stitching abilities, and she quickly showed him her scars on her body, where she performed these small-scale surgeries herself. Throughout all of the classes, Jin couldn't help himself and got attached to the girl. Firstly it was because he pitied her and kept comparing her to his sister. However, after a while he started to see her true persona shinning through and it kept impressing him every day. Nora returned his feelings quickly, finding herself comfortable in his presence. Every once in a while she would catch herself thinking, that given other circumstances, she could call most of them her friends. Most of them.

Although, he didn't wake her up with bangs anymore, ever since Nora kicked Jimin in the stomach, he's become more and more ruthless in her training.  Nora tried to convince herself that he was teaching her so roughly because that was necessary to get her into correct state, but sometimes she felt like he was taking revenge.

Nora was waiting in the inner yard for Jimin, when he called her over to his room. She followed him slowly, a bit afraid of what awaits. Jimin led her into his bathroom and pointed to the bath. His was much bigger than hers, and filled with water and ice. Jimin turned to Nora and smiled. "Undress." Nora widened her eyes and raised her brows so much, she swore they were hitting her hairline. "What?" She asked with a sarcastic smile on her face. "Undress. We don't want to ruin your clothes." Jimin repeated, smirk on his lips, eyes burning through her skin. Nora simply stood there with her jaw open. Scanning Jimin's face, she understood that he was not joking, but simply couldn't move. "Why?" She managed to mumble. Jimin sighed and leaned at the wall. "I know some things about the palace, and how they train their people. I'm pretty sure they will test your endurance to pain as well. We will start working on that. To ease your body with the least pain and quickest results we will be freezing you." He explained calmly, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

Nora kept looking at the ice-filled bath and Jimin, still unsure of how to proceed, his obscure eyes following hers closely. "Do you need to be in the room?" she mumbled under her nose. Jimin giggled, "Yes. I need to monitor you. In case anything goes wrong I'll take you out and will warm you." His discreet smirk now transformed into a wide flash of pearly whites. Jimin couldn't help but enjoy this. Nothing ever worked on her, she would always stay composed and contained. He really wanted to retrieve a normal, girly reaction from her. He wanted to see her flustered, shy and uncomfortable. He wanted to see her vulnerable. Even now looking at her, he couldn't wait to see her blush. Nora sighed and cleared her throat. "Fine." She exclaimed calmly and started to remove her belt. Jimin's eyes narrowed. He was getting annoyed again, Nora didn't show any indication of being flustered.

Nora, however, was boiling on the inside. She barely could keep herself from shaking, blushing redness kept crawling on her skin but she managed to subtract it. Jimin is training you, and you're getting shy? Get a hold of yourself, you idiot. She quickly swallowed the shyness and removed the belt completely. She wasn't sure if Jimin was looking at her, as she kept her eyes on the ground. Pretending that he was a statue, Nora quickly removed her shirt and her pants, leaving herself in her undergarments. Jimin exhaled quietly. He tried not to stare, he was controlling his eyes very hard so that they would not waver below her head, but his peripheral vision still saw her naked neck, the linear form of it lowering to her shoulders, exposing her collarbones. A sudden rush of blood surprised him, and he quickly bit the inside of his cheek to shake himself up.