The Siren's Song

Chapter 111- undoing shackles

KOOK POV:

Jin hyung and Joon hyung step back first.

Step back through the living room, eyes searching and drifting across us, pausing at the unfamiliarity of the other sirens before stepping through.

(Y/N)'s not with them even though they'd left with her and her absence makes my body tighten, hand clutching tightly at Jiminie hyung's; his grip equally as fierce and tension thrumming in his taut posture and worried expression.

"She's with Habaek." Joon hyung says softly, his and hyung's hair damp and hurriedly towelled, clothes changed into unfamiliar ones. Habaek's.

Both of them sport reddened eyes, a sorrow and agony in them that isn't masked as they sink down, hovering and trying to lend support and comfort when it's clear something's tearing at them.

But neither Habaek nor (Y/N) appear.

And the other sirens' gazes focus back on us, Mi-sun eyeing the two groups on opposite ends, worriedly taking in the stiff postures before she speaks.

"They're.... they're with (Y/N)." she introduces, voice lax, void of it's usual warmth. There's a heaviness to her words even if her tone softens slightly.

The eyes that focus are curious and intent, there figures wrapped in towels and slowly drying themselves off.

"We've all heard of Jungkook... from... the competition." The woman hedges carefully, eyes soft as she thinks of (Y/N).

I duck my head in greeting, feeling put on the spot.

"They're with (Y/N) how?" the second man asks, eyes drifting across all of us, contemplative and intrigued.

"(Y/N)'s... she's... she's our missing puzzle piece." Hobi hyung says, voice aching and raw, eyes haunted and hair dishevelled, fingers trembling as they sink against his legs, try to still.

But the words ring out to an empty room.

Puzzle piece isn't emotion enough.

It isn't answer enough.

Not when she was everything to us.

When she meant the world to us.

And right now we were seeing that very world shatter and fall apart, we were seeing our world submerged into salty waters that gripped at her relentlessly and refused to let go.

We were seeing our world crumble because she wasn't sure of her own place in ours, because she was drowning and it was beyond the hold the ocean held over her as a siren, it was her getting lost in her grief and agony and anger. It was her drowning in her life as just (Y/N) when she couldn't escape the label of being a siren.

"She's... everything. (Y/N) means everything to us." Tae hyung echoes, words propelled by bitten red lips, cheeks blotchy with tears and a shakiness to his words, a relief in her being safe, in her being out of the same waters Jin hyung and Joon hyung had watched her sink into. Resurfacing hours upon hours later, chilled to the bone, slick with water and body bare; the thin clinging layer of clothes doing nothing to hide or protect her body.

There's a taut silence, fragile and dangling over us before it shatters.

Shatters not by their words or voices.

"Don't interrogate them Chang-Wook oppa." A voice ragged and hoarse.

Shaky but firm.

And (Y/N) steps through to the living room, a dangerous swaying tilt to her body as she takes staggering steps, Habaek's hand curled protectively around her.