We might die

Chapter 14

When big, beefy and bald Commodore Beom comes storming into the control room, Namjoon knows the jig is up.

Well, it will be sooner or later, he just wishes it could have been later. He is exhausted out of his mind and all he wants is to get some very good coffee and pass out, not to be yelled at by a fuming Commodore Beom.

"Your bandmates have all disappeared," he booms. "Our men found no body."

Namjoon puts on a dimpled smile. "Uh, nobody nobody but you?"

"Stop quoting Wonder Girls you little shit!" Commodore Beom hollers. "I bet you have something to do with it." He glares at Damien, who happens to be standing by the door looking innocent. "And you too!"

"I don't—" Damien begins, but in a swift move Commodore Beom has shot the poor dude in his head.

Namjoon stands rooted to the spot, shaken to the core. He never liked Damien, but honestly the guy did nothing at all. He wouldn't say that Damien doesn't deserve death, but this—is this even allowed?

"Don't fret, your death won't be that quick and painless," Commodore Beom assures. He turns to some of the soldiers who are standing outside looking vaguely horrified. "Tie him up. We'll figure out how to make him suffer."

Namjoon gulps. He has accepted death, but he would really prefer not to suffer. Several soldiers come piling in, probably the late Damien's Mahjong buddies. One of them kicks Damien's lifeless body to the side. Okay, maybe not buddies.

"That's some pretty good shit your team pulled," the soldier comments, as he ties up Namjoon's wrists with thick rope. "Everyone thinks they've died, but there're no bodies. It's like some kind of twisted movie thing."

"Um, we're Beyond the Scene after all, so..."

The soldier whacks Namjoon on the head. "Stop smart-mouthing me, dumbass. At least no one else knows what's happened yet. They probably won't ever know, we don't want to lose face. Wouldn't want our civilians knowing that some stupid idols managed to trick the program. And heck, if the Government knows we let shit like this happen, we'd be fucked."

Namjoon tries to hide his delight. This is actually really good news. If the soldiers don't want anyone outside of the current fleet knowing about this, then they can't call for reinforcements. They can't alert the officials and border patrols. This drastically increases the possibility of his team making a safe escape. All they have to do is avoid this fleet and drive their boat according to the map for a couple of hours. They can do that. Surely they can do that.

He prays with all his heart that his team escapes. Maybe a Japanese ship will pick them up. They can settle down in Japan—most of them know a decent amount of Japanese—or maybe they will move on to some other country. It won't be home, but he is sure that his team will continue to thrive, as long as they are alive and together. Perhaps they'll even still stay as BTS and go on making music. They'll need a new leader, but really Jungkook is more than capable of being one.

"Commodore Beom would probably want to have some fun with you before throwing you overboard to feed the sharks," the soldier continues, picking up a roll of duct tape, all done with the rope. "Are you a good swimmer?"

"I'm Rap Monster," Namjoon says dryly, "not Swim-with-my-hands-and-feet-tied Monster."

"You're smart-mouthing me again," the soldier grumbles. "I'll just tape your smart mouth up so that doesn't happen again." He does exactly that. Namjoon isn't too happy to be forced into silence, but not being able to talk he soon notices shouting and sounds of rapid gunfire outside.
The soldier hears it too. "Something's going on out there," he states, tongue slipping out in concentration as he pats around to make sure that Namjoon is securely tied to his chair. "Probably Commodore Beom. He always goes on rampages when he finds out we'd been drinking. But he can't blame us to be honest because he's always drinking himself too, just not on this boat, and it's annoying because he's got ridiculous biceps and when he goes on rampages someone always ends up injured—"

The soldier only gets this far. The next thing Namjoon knows, the door to the room flies open and an arrow is lodged right in the poor guy's head. He stumbles forward wordlessly, and slides down to the ground in a heap. Namjoon looks up, eyes wide.

Standing in the doorway in all his glory is a wondrously beautiful human wearing black all over, with a dark, spiky mask covering his nose and mouth. He reminds Namjoon of No More Dream era J-hope.

And J-hope it is.

"Wow I'm good at this!" Hoseok cries out in genuine surprise as he throws down his bow and rushes to Namjoon's side, making himself busy untying the knots that have literally been done just seconds ago. "Did they hurt you? Oh my god, did they hurt you?"

Then he realizes that Namjoon can't answer with duct tape over his mouth, so he decides to solve that problem first.

"It's gonna hurt," he warns, looking very uncomfortable. "You can scream all you like, everything's loud outside anyway so no need to keep it down."

Namjoon nods, fear in his eyes, and Hoseok pulls. And screams. Namjoon ends up laughing because Hoseok is screaming louder than he is and if that's not typical Hoseok he has no idea what is.

"Are you all right? You look like shit," Hoseok whispers once the deed is done and he gets his own screaming under control. He stoops down to work on the binds on Namjoon's wrists.

"I..." Namjoon chokes on his words. "I'm fine. But how did you get in here? You shouldn't have, it's dangerous, the soldiers—"

"The others are dealing with them, no worries," Hoseok says dismissively. "We caught them by surprise so they're mostly unarmed. And let me tell you, Jungkook is a beast with twin machetes."

"But Commodore Beom," Namjoon sputters out the first thing that comes into his head. "The soldiers say he's got ridiculous biceps."

"Oh, the big bald dude?" Hoseok finishes untying Namjoon's hands and moves on to his feet. "I think Jimin's handcuffed him and is riding on his back."

Namjoon tries to not imagine a happily giggling Park Jimin on Commodore Beom's back, spanking the larger man and squeezing him with his thighs, but fails miserably.

"We'll need to get out of here fast." Hoseok's voice is gentle. "Think you can walk?"

"I... yeah? I'm just tired, I definitely can walk."

"Good. Yoongi-hyung's waiting on our getaway boat. He's taught himself how to work a boat from the instructions we found in your man-hole room. Taehyungie wanted to drive too but Yoongi-hyung said he should wait until we've picked you up at least, and they started arguing so they ended up holding hands."

"Uh, good for them?" Namjoon says meekly, not quite sure how to react to this info-dump. Hoseok finishes releasing Namjoon's feet and extends his arms towards him, offering support.

"Come on. We'd better go fast, Jin-hyung's likely setting the boat on fire with his supply of Molotov cocktails as we speak."

Hoseok smiles at Namjoon and he has shadows under his eyes and his face is stained with blood, sweat and tears. But his smile is heart-shaped and Namjoon thinks wow damn, this is the face of an angel.