Mafia's Caretaker; The Devil's Cure

#32 Mafia Seeking Warmth

Edited version 🖤🦋

The next morning, Jungkook woke with a dull, punishing ache lodged in his skull. His eyelids felt heavy, weighed down by the restless night he’d spent turning over her words in his head, again and again, until they carved themselves into him like scars. His throat was raw, his body sluggish the physical exhaustion almost a relief compared to the war still raging in his mind.

For a few minutes, he lay there staring at the ceiling, listening to the faint hum of the world outside his room. It felt distant, muffled, like he was trapped underwater. But the silence was dangerous it gave the thoughts room to creep back in.

With a sharp breath, he forced himself up, ignoring the way his muscles protested. The shower’s scalding heat did little to wash away the heaviness clinging to him, but it gave him time to think to rebuild the mask he needed today. When he stepped out, towel slung low around his hips, steam still curling around him, he wasn’t thinking about the headache anymore. He was thinking about her.

Minutes later, dressed in crisp clothes, he stood before the mirror, fingers brushing through his hair until each strand was in place. His reflection stared back eyes dark, jaw tense. a man trying to control something far too big for his hands.

He inhaled deeply, holding the breath until his chest burned, then let it go. He couldn’t afford to lose control again, not today. He’d replayed last night enough times to know he had crossed lines. He’d seen the fear in her eyes, the way her voice cracked. And the truth was… he hated himself for putting it there. That wasn’t what he wanted. He hadn’t set out to scare her.

But when she’d told him she already had someone that he could never have her it had been like someone reached inside him and twisted until something broke. He couldn’t blame her for having a life before him. He couldn’t even blame her for loving someone else.

The only thing he could blame… was himself. For falling so hard, so recklessly, for a girl who wasn’t his to fall for.

Yet even now, staring at himself, he knew the madness wasn’t gone. He still wanted her. No,needed her. And this time, he told himself, he would talk. He would be calm. He would make her see reason.

But deep down, a darker truth coiled in his chest  if reason didn’t work, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk away.

On the other side of the city, Y/n sat at the breakfast table with her family, hands folded neatly in her lap as the untouched food in front of her grew cold. She had slipped out of the mansion early that morning, long before Jungkook could wake, her heart still pounding from the memory of his voice, his eyes, the suffocating closeness. She had quietly informed Yuna of her early departure because there was no way she could face him after last night. Not after the chaos he had left in her chest.

Mr. and Mrs. Shin exchanged worried glances. Their daughter’s early arrival was unusual enough, but the silence… the silence was something else entirely. Y/n had walked in without so much as a greeting, gone straight to her room, and emerged only when called for breakfast. She had never behaved like this before.

“Y/n, are you okay, dear? Is something bothering you?” her mother asked gently, concern knitting her brows.

Y/n blinked, snapping out of the storm of thoughts in her head. For a brief, dizzy moment, she had forgotten where she was.

“No, eomma. Nothing like that… just tired.” She forced a smile, stretching it across her lips like a mask she’d worn too many times. But it was brittle so fragile her parents could almost see it cracking.

Mr. and Mrs. Shin weren’t convinced. They could read their daughter like an open book, and the chapters they saw now were heavy with something unspoken. Still, they didn’t press. Not yet.