Blood Ink ✔️

31: Insignificant

"Me?"

He's concussed.

He's got to be.

He must've gone through total and complete brain failure after smacking his head on the bad side of one of those branches as he fell to be looking at you like that. As is he's relieved to see you alive.  The rampant emotion breathed into that single word swirls around your chest in bewildering tornados.

Taehyung, AKA your human shield, leaves you to help his friend lift the injured man up, aiding him as his balance falters between the unsteady support of his legs. Between Hoseok and Taehyung, Jungkook slumps like a worn-out scarecrow. he takes a slow, shuddering step forward, then another, and another.

It seems like years ago that you thudded to the ground in a tangled heap of injuries and fear, yet, at the same time, it feels like it was only seconds ago. Recalling the look on his face, the abrupt streak of pain in his eyes seconds after he hurtled into that first tree branch flashes like a visual mantra through your mind.

He looks like that now, when he's simply taking a step.

This strong, virile young man that could lift whole people into the air days ago.

Hoseok is wincing at the snail-like pace of his movement. "Kook, I know you just came back from the dead and all, but...we have to pick up the pace."

A small exhale of air flees Jungkook's mouth at the words. You can visibly see him gather his strength up, straightening his back and lifting the slump of his shoulders. Gritting his teeth, Jungkook retracts his arms from around the necks of his older friends and stands independent, the only thing left holding him up being sheer willpower.

His eyes clash with yours. For a second, you could have sworn that a hint of a blush crossed his cheeks; but then it's gone. In its place is a familiar hard, mocking expression as he stares you down, as if trying to forget that he ever looked at you softly. "Now, Y/N. Did you really have to go and jump out of that freaking tree?"

Welp.

There goes your sympathy.

"I see the ground didn't knock any sense into you when you hit it," you sigh. "Pity. That whole leap was for nothing, then."

Hoseok intercepts your eye contact with his body and an eye roll. "You two can hash this out later. We're kind of in a situation right now."

Like it's been cued, a piercing whistle of warning rings through the air at that moment. The high-pitcher noise plays across the expressions of the men in the room with you, hardening them into masks of military-like preparedness.

Not military-like. Assassin-like.

You look at Hoseok's face, and notice with a jolt of shock that he looks ready to kill by any means necessary.

You're about to see a side of these men that you haven't seen before.

A dirty, nasty side, full of scars and pain and the determination of unfortunate souls who have nothing on this material world to lose. Desperate people, hungry for vengeance.

Those are the most dangerous kind.

Hoseok closes his eyes and stiffens a little, flashing them back open a second later. "Bathroom," he says. "First floor, under the staircase. Now."

A bathroom? You don't understand how that would be a good place to go in this situation.

However, Taehyung and Jungkook move without argument, Taehyung taking your arm and pushing you toward the door.