ᴀɴɢᴇʟ ☑

26. Ice cold

Jimin

I was standing in front of the pole stage. Jungkook wasn't at the bar, and neither was he anywhere in sight. I was beginning to think that he already left for the manor, but then I smelled him. It was strange that I could recognize his fragrance amidst a pool of people, but as the realization dawned, I turned to see him glaring at me. "Who brought you?"

"Who brought me?" I got confused. "What do you mean?"

"Who drove you, Jimin?" He gripped my elbow tightly.

"I took a cab," I yanked himself away from my hand. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you acting all territorial all day?"

"Are you an idiot?!" He yelled. "There's a fucking psycho on the loose and you are getting into strangers' cars."

"You know what!" My brows raised in fury, my head shaking slowly. "Leave me alone." I pushed him away from my body. I wanted to run out of the bar, and I knew that he would follow me. I also knew that I'd fucking punch him in the face if he did. 

So instead of giving him a chance to corner me in a secluded area outside the bar, I stayed in the rush of people. Grabbing a table at the bar, I asked for the strongest drink to douse my anger in it.

To make matters worse, he had the audacity to stop the bartender from serving me. "Jungkook," I growled. "You don't control my fucking life. I'd have a drink if I want to."

"And I'd like to see you try." He screeched, his usual calm nowhere to be found. 

Astonished at his behavior, probably having never seen anything like this before, the staff stared at us. My eyes scanned the room quickly.

I caught the sight of pole dancer Kyla fancied looking towards us with inquisitiveness. Maybe she was interested in Jungkook after all.

I didn't care about any other emotion as indignation scorched me from toe to head. I stood up from the table, my legs killed the distance between me and Jungkook, who stood in a calm posture against the counter. "I don't belong to anyone. Not you. Not anyone." I spewed slowly. 

He smirked. "Fine," his tongue poked the inside of his cheek. "Have a drink then. If you do, I am fucking you right there." He pointed at the door of the sex club. 

The bartender, who was listening to us, decided to escape the scene. I knew he wouldn't serve me drinks anymore. My body was so full of outrage that if anyone touched me, I'd explode. My eyes were filled with tears of agitation, refusing to blink as I stared at him through my nose even if he was an inch taller than me. 

"Jimin," his voice lowered and he tried to reach for my hand. 

I pushed him hard and his back collided with the counter. I could see when he tilted his head once, scoffing in disbelief before turning and going straight to Anna, the pole dancer.

If he was retorting to make me feel jealous, I wasn't going to stand there and watch. Kyla was on her way here, and I was sure she wouldn't appreciate Anna's hands all over Jungkook, or vice versa.

I picked the glass from the random table, not knowing what was even in it, and gulped it down before moving onto the dance floor, looking at people's pathetic excuse for dancing. Their bodies moved as if they were stung by jellyfish. There was a tall man in a biker's jacket. I approached him without losing focus and gripped his collar. 

He looked surprised for a moment, his eyes having a look of shock, which was replaced quickly when he got a good look at my face. "And who might you be?" He drawled in my ear.

"Park Jimin," I extended my hand over to him. He stepped back, holding my palm and taking his time to check out my body.

"I've never been with a guy before." He told me, his palm feeling clammy in my hold. 

"And you'll never have a fortune to," someone said from behind him, hauling the biker dude with such force that I got lugged with him.

I looked at Jungkook with murder in his eyes. My gut was raw with apprehension and premonition. Something brutal was going to take place and I was going to burn in it, charred to a crisp until I'd be nothing but ash in the air. Amidst the chaos, I received a text, confirming my cynicism into reality.

You are making someone very angry as of now. 

The colors faded and the sounds turned to gurgling noises around me. The air around me turned to a vacuum and I heard my heart pumping through the riot. I heard it struggling and trying not to give up. My legs were buckling under me and I was waiting to be flatlined in medical terms. There was so much a heart could endure after all. 

And then my eyes fell on a bone sticking out of the man's black leather jacket. Everyone was running away from Jungkook, but I was petrified at the sight. The bile was rising in my mouth and I tried to focus, to blink away the tears that were stinging. 

What did Jungkook do? 

Fear gripped me from all sides. My body started turning ice cold. I could feel the awareness around me in slow motion as if I was being watched...as if that night had returned again...as if I would collapse any moment. 

And I screamed before everything turned silent. 

For a moment, I fooled my mind into thinking that we were in a safe place. The cold was hugging me from everywhere until it wasn't. 

The voices returned when I felt the warmth of Jungkook's body, his fragrance of Freesia engulfing me. I could hear Kyla arguing with him. There was another voice, but I never heard it before. It belonged to another female. She was asking Kyla to let me go, who wanted to take me back home, but I was being taken away from the noises.

My eyes opened and I saw Jungkook putting me in the jeep. My breath was barely there. I needed water, so I tried calling him, but he was arguing with someone outside. "Jungkook," I called with effort and banged on the window. 

The next moment, it opened and Jungkook was in front of my face, his palms framing my cheeks. "Baby, Jimin. Fuck, Angel. I am so sorry."

"Water," I mumbled. "I can't feel myself. I need water."

"Yes," he said. "Yes. One sec, baby." 

He was in the jeep in the driver's seat, and the sound from the outside blocked as I inhaled the fragrance of leather and air perfume. He was scrambling and then pulling out a cold water bottle. "Here," he put it against my lips. 

I was losing my pulse. Death wouldn't be as scary as it is with the human brain's intervention. Out of all the parts in a body, everything gives up when the calling comes without fighting, but one's brain.  After the body shuts down, the brain continues to live for another few minutes. Even after the heart stops, the brain tries desperately to survive. It feels the life leaving the body, making the dying person aware of the pain and horror.

Which side of the see-saw would one choose if they knew that one definitely would land them in lava? I was torn between the shackles of this life and the calling from above. If I wasn't holding on too strongly to the ropes of life, I'd have been pulled away to the underground a long time back.

My head was fighting against me, cajoling me, scaring me with pain, giving me hope that the days to come would be better, flashing me with the memories that were stored deeply and securely, forgotten on normal days, demanding me to take one more puff of oxygen, to flutter one more beat of my heart. 

Jungkook slapped my cheeks and I gasped, my body jerking back before I was coming down with severe stomach pain. I groaned, doubling over while gripping my abdomen with my fingers. "Jimin, baby. I am taking you to the doctor. Hang on, okay?"

I could feel my pulse getting stronger, but my brain was deciding that it needed rest. I was perhaps losing consciousness. I could technically speak. There was nothing wrong with my mouth, but when I tried, I felt fuzzy inside, all senses mingling together. "JIMIN!" He was shaking my arm while driving. 

I hummed to inform him that I was able to hear him before I raised my thumb and closed my eyes.