Fight for You | JJK

17

A few weeks pass and Jungkook has gotten used to what was normal before he met you.

He's got a busier schedule but is usually done with his shift by 10PM, as your father tends to retire much earlier than you do.

It's all meetings and out-of-city conferences and events that Jungkook details him to. None of the parties or trips to the orphanage or family-run restaurants.

It's silence in the car that he hears when he's with the other bodyguards. Not your laughter or your flirty teasing or your weird dreams. Not your high-pitched voice or soft humming to the music. Not your thoughtful questions or your prodding for him to eat or get some rest.

It's the same serious faces that greet him when he starts his day every morning. Not your expressive eyes or warm, sweet smile.

Jungkook doesn't miss you, he tells himself.

He doesn't miss the unpredictability that being with you brings - not in terms of the level of threat or danger, but in finding different layers of you that are equal parts kind and playful and smart and gentle.

He doesn't miss the sound of his own laughter that he'd forgotten about, nor the feel of his lips turning upward because he'd forgotten what it felt to genuinely smile. He doesn't miss that part of him that automatically turns to you in a crowded room, checking to see if you're okay.

Not at all.

"Trying to take over my assignment?" Namjoon chuckles next to him, similarly dressed in a formal attire fit for tonight's fellowship dinner celebrating the closing of the billion-won deal your father has been working on. "Your boss is on the other side of the room but your eyes keep wandering here at the back."

"Oh, uh..." Jungkook stammers. "Just assessing the area." He peels his eyes away from your direction, briefly catching you talking with Jimin, your family friend and date for tonight. "It's a large ballroom and I want to make sure all bases are covered."

"Right. I did hear you're very thorough." Namjoon laughs again.

"Yeah? From whom?"

"From Mr. Han. It was part of the turnover, which was really just for formality since I was ___'s bodyguard for a time."

"Right, in London," Jungkook hums.

"You heard that from Mr. Han, too?" Namjoon cocks an eyebrow.

"Mr. Sim, actually. I, uh, asked him. I thought you were new and I just wanted to make sure that, uh..."

"That I can protect ___ as well as you?"

"I didn't mean that, I just—"

"Hey, don't worry Jungkook. I didn't mean that in a bad way," Namjoon affirms. "I've been working the backend of security so I know all about you, even if you haven't heard about me. You're the first one that ___ never had a negative thing to say about."

"Really?" Jungkook asks, certain that his coldness may have turned you off at some point.

Namjoon nods, turning back in your direction. "She said being with you was the only time she ever felt safe."

**

"I'm seriously tempted to start charging you or you know, not letting you in the next time you come here at 11 in the evening," Jin threatens, arms folded across his chest as he watches Jungkook attack the punching bag, the younger man's grunts echoing throughout the empty gym.

"Don't you dare. I'd die without this place," Jungkook says in between bated breaths. "Plus, you like having me around."

"Please, I've got enough clients ranting to me about their own miserable lives. I don't need to hear that from you," Jin bitterly laughs.

"I'm not miserable."

"Uh-uh, I'll have my punching bag be the judge of that."

"I just need to let off some steam," Jungkook whines.

"And you've been doing that for how many weeks now? Please remind me."

Jin is met with more grunts and the sound of leather hitting leather.

"Just apologize to her," Jin urges, knowing that his friend has been acting this way since that day he shouted at you over the phone. "I know you're guilty and it's okay to admit that. She clearly had no ill-intent in having you replaced."

"It's still not good to have on my record," Jungkook scowls. "I see my assignments through, Jin. The fact that I know why she really had me replaced just makes it worse."

"And you know this, how? You didn't even give her a chance to explain"

"I already know what she's gonna say."

"Yeah? Because you know what it's like to tell someone you like them only to be rejected? And then to be shouted at over the phone and be told they're only paid to be with you? That they only tolerated you for months, which, by the way, I know is a lie."

The recollection of the things Jungkook told you that day causes a pang in his chest that he didn't expect. He admits to himself he went out of line, not just as your employee but as a person who'd spent so much time with you, who'd seen you at your lowest and happiest moments.

That night at your house, you bared yourself to him and he turned you down, and as if that wasn't enough, he did it again.

Truth be told, you could do anything if you wanted to - you have the money and power to strip him of everything he's worked so hard for if you wished. But you haven't, a fact that Jin reminds him of every time. And deep inside, Jungkook knows you're not one to do that, no matter how hurt or humiliated you are.

"Look, I may not know her well enough, but I don't think she's a masochist who'd want to still see the person she likes everyday, knowing he doesn't feel the same way," Jin says softly this time.

"You don't have to return her feelings, but you could at least apologize to her. Heaven knows what she's been through."