Master's ( Jungkook / BTS )

Episode III: The Heart Speaks Volumes

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After the intense day that I had, I decided that a nice warm shower was needed to help ease my body. I left Jungkook to sleep soundly on the couch and went upstairs to shower. As soon as the steaming water hit my skin I felt all the chaos of the day wash away, the heaviness was lifted off my shoulders, but there was still this lingering uncomfortable feeling sinking in the pit of my stomach.
Images of Jungkook struggling to breathe kept playing out in my head, I had never witness anything quite as terrifying than what happened tonight. For a brief moment there I really thought he was going to die and the more I thought about it the angrier I was with myself for feeling so useless in the moment. There was someone dying in front of me and my body froze up out of fear and almost let him die. I can't make that same mistake again, no, next time I'll be ready, I'll know exactly what to expect.
If I had to be honest, seeing him like that reminded me too much of my own mother's death. I was young and naive, I heard what the doctors told me but I never believed them, it was easier to think they were all lying to me than to accept that my time with her was quickly dwindling as the days passed. When the day finally arrived I realized how unprepared I was and how dumb I was for denying my mom's deteriorating condition. I saw it, everyday I witnessed a small piece of her fade away until there was nothing left of her. The fact that I would be losing my mom was an inescapable truth and there was nothing more painful than being able to do absolutely nothing except for watch as someone I loved died, but I realized something today, it's a lot worse watching someone die knowing there's something you can do to save them.
I turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. As I dried my hair I looked into the mirror and for a split second I thought I saw my mom. Of course it was just me, but growing up people always liked to say that I looked just like her. As a kid I never saw it, but as I grew up and became older I saw the resemblance between us more often.
My mind was settled down but one thing still irked me, Jungkook's reaction to touching cotton was too severe to be normal. When I read on the list that he was allergic to cotton I thought he would get some kind of rash or mild irritation, nothing life threatening. He was definitely a special case, I understand now why Dr Jeon was so animate on doing research for the allergy projects and now I have more of a motive to go back down there and continue her work.
I put on my pink wool sweater and as I was about to get into bed I heard footsteps from above, which was weird considering that the only thing up there was Jungkook's bedroom and he was down stairs sleeping, unless he woke up. Looking at the time I realized that it could be one of the staff, given that it was almost midnight, it was about time they all came home from a long night out. I just couldn't think of any other explanations as to why I was hearing something from upstairs. But when I stepped out into the hall and called for someone it didn't seem like any of the others were home. All the lights were off like I left them and I would've heard the big front door if anyone had came home, but I didn't hear anything.
Now, if this were a scary movie, I knew not to go upstairs alone to check on the noise, but that's exactly what I did; I walked over to the east wing, to where the stairs up to the third floor were. I could hear Jungkook's voice mocking me in my head 'aren't you supposed to be the smart one?'
     "I don't think I am anymore," I whispered into the darkness.
     I peered up the stairs and didn't see anything, maybe I didn't hear anything after all. I turned around but clearly heard something coming from upstairs. This time I knew for sure I had heard it, a sound of a door being opened and slowly being shut, as if whoever it was up there was being careful not to make any noise.
     "Hello?" I called out quietly. No answer. I took a step up and tried again, "Hello, is anybody up here?" Still no reply. Despite everything telling me not to go I went ahead and made my way upstairs. "Master?" I clearly heard a door and last time I was here I saw that there was only one door on the third floor and it lead to Jungkook's room. Who else could it have been? I lightly knocked before entering, but before I could even open the door the door swung open and I was shocked by who it was.
     "Mr Lee, what are you doing up here?" I asked, my mind trying to find a good reasonable explanation as to why he was in Jungkook's room. He reached for something in his back pocket and stepped closer to me.
     "What are you doing up here, Miss Ah. It's late for someone as young as yourself to be up" His voice gave me chills down my spine.
     I staggered backwards and watched as he pulled out something shiny. A knife? No, he wouldn't.
     "M-Mr Lee," I could feel myself start to panic, but I knew that if I wanted any chance of getting out of this I'd have to stay calm and composed.
     "Are you afraid, my lady?" There was something malicious sounding about his voice but it didn't sound like a voice of a man that would hurt someone. That's when the lights to the hall turned on, "Then you should turn the lights on, madam."
      In an instant the mood in the atmosphere shifted and Mr Lee was no longer a menacing murderer but his normal old butler self. I checked his hand and realized that what I thought was a knife before wasn't a knife at all, it was a big key. I couldn't tell you how relieved I was now that the lights were on.
     "What were you doing in Master's room?" I asked suspiciously as I eyed the key in his hand.
     "Oh, this?" He was all of a sudden very shy, "I just couldn't stop thinking about what he could be hiding up here, I just had a feeling the key would be up here and, look, it was." He handed me the key to see.
     "But..." I was confused. Why would Jungkook make everyone search for the key if it was right here in his room? "Maybe he didn't know it was up here," I tried to reason.
     "Or, he did this on purpose."
     "What do you mean?"
     "Think about it, out of everyone here, who would he want to make look bad?" He looked at me knowingly, "You."
     I was confused, "Me? Why would he-"
     "You spent the most time with Dr Jeon before she died, any son would be jealous of that. He wouldn't like someone who took his mother's time like that to work for him, but you've done nothing wrong Miss Ah, you've done nothing but excellent work since coming here, he can't fire you without a reason. What better way to make you look bad as staff leader than to make you and the whole team fail finding the key by hiding it." He explained. I thought back to when Jungkook and I were down in the lab, he had confessed to being jealous of me, but that didn't prove anything. If what Mr Lee was saying were to be true, the way Jungkook's face lit up down there just didn't add up. What I saw down there was not a face of a man who would lie and hide a key just to belittle someone out of pettiness, but a man who was finally seeing something he waited his whole life to see. It was just hard for me to believe that Jungkook could fake such an expression.
What was Mr Lee doing here anyways? If he went out with the others, why was he the only one back?
"Mr Lee, I don't think either of us should be up here right now, let's go." I turned and left.
"He's trying to get rid of all of us," He shouted. Could he not do that? I mean it's pretty late and the last thing I needed was for Jungkook to wake up and catch us both up here.
I snapped my head back around, "And maybe that's for the best," and quickly left.
I better be more careful around Mr Lee from now on, he was definitely up to something and whatever it was I didn't want to have anything to do with it. If he thinks I'd believe his accusations against Jungkook he's crazy, he's trying to get rid of us all? As if, Jungkook has a heart made out of stone and has no shame, if he really wanted us gone he wouldn't need a reason, he'd just fire us. I don't think he would've hired me in the first place if that was the case.
     For the remainder of the night I felt restless and unable to sleep, so I sat waiting in the living room for the others to come back home. Finally, at 1:30 am, I heard the gates open and saw a car pull up in front of the house. I ran to the door and welcomed them home.
     "Oh, Ah Lina, you're still up?" Chef was visibly intoxicated, stumbling in.
     I saw Soojin helping others that were also drunk get out of the car and I smiled and waved when our eyes met, she smiled back.
     "Sorry we came back late, there was a small incident that we had to deal with, but it's nothing you have to worry about. It's really late, Miss, you should get some rest," she said.
     "Was Mr Lee with you guys?" I had to ask.
     "Oh, funny thing is, while we were there he suddenly had somewhere else to go so he left early. Did he come home early?"
     "Um, yes." So he did get here alone. "Here let me help you," I helped her bring someone in. Together we managed to haul them to the living room and rest them down on a couch. Soojin noticed Jungkook sleeping on the other couch.
     "Master?" She walked over to check on him. "What's wrong with him?" She looked up and asked me.
     I had totally forgotten that he was still down here. What was I supposed to say? How was I supposed to explain that he touched something he wasn't suppose to and almost suffocated to death? I didn't know how to tell her the truth, so I didn't.
     "He's fine, he's just really exhausted from today." Technically, what I said wasn't not true. I mean, Jungkook wasn't fine earlier, but he was now and if I almost died, I'd be tired too.
     "So, he finally got to see Dr Jeon's lab." She patted his hair and smiled. "I'm glad. He's been wanting to go down there ever since he could walk, so going down there today, it must've meant a lot to him." 
     Yeah, a lot. Something he couldn't fake, I thought.
     Soojin reminded me a lot of a mother. I couldn't explain it, but there  was just something motherly about her and I couldn't stop thinking how amazing of a parent she would be.
     "Good night, young master." She readjusted his pillow. "You too, my lady. Have a nice sleep." We bowed each other goodbye and she left the room. I checked the time: 1:45 am. I sighed, I still had class to get to in the morning.