Stuck With You [Taekook ff]

35 | Field of Dandelions

A/N
Thanks for sticking with the story! We're a little past halfway. There's much story to tell!💜

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Jungkook's breath came in shallow gasps as he navigated the narrow alleyways of a now unfamiliar city. He called it unfamiliar because it was once the place of great promise for him in times past. But now it was like he was sucked back into a valley of death, both physical and mental death. The city didn't hold the promise it once had.

Every footstep he took echoed loudly in his ears, each sound a sharp reminder of the danger that was closing in on him. He was utterly alone, out in the open, with nowhere to run. No one to run to. Nowhere to hide. With that in mind, Jungkook kept his head low, avoiding the gaze of the few passersby who dared to walk these streets at such a late hour.

It had been over a couple of weeks since that night when the blood, the screams, and the life he once knew had been shattered into a million pieces. New York City, the place he once called home, had become a graveyard of memories. The faces of his parents, lifeless and cold, haunted him with every blink. He could still feel his mother's skin, growing cold to the touch. He still remembered seeing their bodies collapse as they were shot in their own home.

Probably, these same men who eased their way into their home that night may be the very ones after him now. In Las Vegas, they had been relentless. They seemed to have connections, power, and an insatiable thirst for murder and tracking.

Jungkook had been running ever since that awful evening, never staying in one place for too long. He'd been in D.C. the longest. At the moment, the country's capital felt more like home, an established emotional foundation than his birth city of New York. But no matter how far he went, the pull of Manhattan dragged him back like an iron chain. Or at least the advice of Yerin pulled him back.

Maybe it was better to return? He knew that someday he would have to come back to confront the demons of his past, both literal and figurative. And then he needed to give his parents a decent burial if he could find a way. It was the least he could do. Yerin had suggested not even try to give them a funeral. It would put him in too much risk. But leaving his parents without a permanent fixed place seemed more than cruel.

Revisiting the pain in New York City meant facing something far more painful than any hitman or bullet—leaving Taehyung behind. The image of his husband's face the night before as Jungkook watched him sleep, soft with peace in the early hours of dawn, haunted Jungkook as much as the death of his parents did. He could still see Taehyung lying there, without a care in the world at the time, his chest rising and falling with each steady breath, blissfully unaware that Jungkook planned to slip out of the condo after packing his things and disappear.

It had been for both his and especially Taehyung's safety.

Jungkook told himself that again and again. If Taehyung knew the truth, he would have followed him and fought beside him, and that would have gotten him killed. Jungkook couldn't bear the thought of that. So he'd left, without a word, except the brief note he'd left behind with his most prized possession—the casino chip from the Bellagio.

Thinking about the casino chip caused other memories to flood his mind. He allowed a brief memory to intrude his thoughts, the memory of the night of their first date so to speak. They had met at a poolside party after gambling for about an hour or so. They drank, flirted with each other a lot, and danced in an embrace that was new to Jungkook. He remembered then that it was the first time he'd felt safe since before his parents were brutally murdered. He sighed as he thought of leaving that casino chip behind, of leaving his life with Taehyung behind.