hopeless | jean kirstein

16 | safe with me

Jean trudged through the dimly lit hallways dejectedly, muttering things under his breath and cursing himself silently in his mind as he passed. His plan to somehow talk to Mikasa had backfired terribly and now he was forced to retreat. Really, he shouldn't have expected much, but it still felt very discouraging.

Running his hands through his hair, he made his way over to the bench where he and Taryn had been sitting. Jean remembered her proposal to eat something and he figured that the two of them could go looking for food already, since he was growing hungrier by the second.

He turned a few corners and walked down a few hallways, before finally arriving outside. He was expecting to see the girl in her spot, but was instead surprised to see the bench empty. The sight made him furrow his brows in confusion, leaving Jean to wonder where she had gone.

It has been a while since I left, he thought, so he just shrugged off her absence and figured that the girl had went out to eat before him. He approached the bench, choosing to wait for her as he settled down on the wooden surface. He let his mind wander, thinking about all sorts of things. Whether it be stupid and pointless or deep, saddening thoughts, he entertained them, one by one, as it was his own little way of keeping himself busy.

He hadn't seen Taryn after a while of waiting. He eventually grew tired of just sitting there so he stretched out his legs and began to lie across the whole bench. If she comes back and starts begging for a place to sit, it's not my problem, he thought bitterly. Her fault for taking so long.

Jean sighed loudly, squinting as his eyes traveled towards the broad sky. His eyes were looking up with awe as he watched the heavens turn from a clear blue to a pale orange, the fading rays of the sun silently telling him that night was about to fall. His lips twitched into a smile at the sight, allowing himself a moment of peace to just admire the view and worry about nothing else.

But a frown easily made its way to his face as he was overcome with thoughts of Taryn and her whereabouts. It had almost been an hour and the girl still hadn't showed up yet, and that alone was enough to make him agitated. Where the hell is she?

Moments passed and there was still no sign of his friend. Admittedly, he was starting to get a bit worried. He immediately racked his brain for an answer, recalling their last conversation and wondering if she had said anything else other than getting food, only to come up with nothing. He let out an irritated sigh, standing up and urging his legs to get moving. Fine, he was going to look for her, finding Taryn's sudden disappearance very unusual and suspicious.

He bolted outside, not really paying attention to where he was going. This caused him to bump into someone, and the person's small frame and short hair told him that it was Armin. The blond glanced up, albeit surprise, before a confused smile began to form on his face at the sight of Jean.

"Oh, hello Jean," He began to say. He took note of Jean's worried expression, and how the boy couldn't seem to stand still in one place. "Did something happ—"

"Armin, have you seen Taryn?" The taller male breathed out, brows knitting together in worry. He quickly glanced behind Armin's back, a pitiful attempt to try and locate the girl. "She's been missing for hours."

"Taryn?" Armin raised his brows, before a certain look spread across his face, as if remembering something. "She's being detained."

His words made Jean's eyes widen, his eyes almost bulging out of its sockets. "Detained? What—why?"

"Well, she's one of the people whose suspicions aren't exactly cleared yet," Armin said, deep in thought. "The other recruits are too. I think they're being kept somewhere down the south."