Just A Few Numbers Away

Chapter 100

The Sound of Silence

​The drive from I'Park Mall to the HYBE building was a blur of gray pavement and heavy, suffocating silence.

Angel had bowed out gracefully at the mall entrance, her eyes soft with a mix of worry and understanding.

​"Go," Angel had whispered, squeezing Aen’s hand.

"I have some things to pick up anyway. We’ll have our date another time. Just... be okay, Ate."

​Aen had barely been able to nod.

Her body was on autopilot, her legs moving only because Yoongi’s hand was a steady, guiding force on her back.

He didn't speak a word as he maneuvered through the Yongsan traffic, his jaw set in a hard line, one hand never leaving the steering wheel and the other gripping hers so tightly she could feel his pulse.

​He didn't take her home.

He knew she couldn't be alone, and he couldn't leave her.

The shared apartment at Hannam felt too exposed right now—too many windows, too much space.

​Instead, he swiped his security badge at the private garage, led her through the restricted elevators, and didn't stop until the heavy, acoustic door of Genius Lab clicked shut behind them.

​The moment the lock engaged—the "thud" of the soundproofing sealing them off from the world—the adrenaline that had been keeping Aen upright vanished.

​She broke.

​Aen’s knees gave out first.

Her hands began to shake—not just a tremor, but a violent, uncontrollable shivering that seemed to radiate from her very bones.

She clutched at the edge of Yoongi's desk, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps.

​"Aen. Aen, look at me."

​Yoongi was on the floor in an instant, his hands catching her shoulders before she could collapse.

He didn't try to pull her up; he stayed down there with her, anchoring her to the carpet.

The cool air of the studio, usually so comforting, felt thin as she gasped for air.

​"I'm... I'm terrified, Yoon," she choked out, the words stumbling over the sob rising in her throat.

"Seeing him... seeing that boy... it was like  the Taboo was screaming at me in the middle of the mall. I felt like I was back in that room in the Philippines, watching him walk out while I was pregnant and alone."

​She buried her face in her hands, her shoulders heaving.

"He probably saw the ring on my hand. He saw you and heard you say 'my wife.' But all I could see was the ghost of who I used to be—the girl who betrayed you before the numbers on my wrist showed up."

​Yoongi didn't interrupt.

He simply pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her like a shield.

He let her shake, let her tears soak into the shoulder of his jacket, and let the silence of the studio absorb the trauma she had been carrying for over half a decade.

​He stayed there, a silent mountain in the dark, until the violent shaking slowed to a dull tremble.

​"You aren't that girl anymore," he whispered into her hair, his voice low and vibrating with a fierce, protective heat.