Beneath the City ✔️

Auction

I stretched my leg out beneath me, standing on the other. It was back to working well. I glanced up at Jin.

'Good job.' I said with a sleepy grin. Jungkook had sedated me, and I was still feeling the effects. Turns out his special abilities in magic are sleep based, so he knocked me unconscious while Jin fixed my leg. He told me after it was also how he got the flag from Namjoon during the game.

Jin looked relieved. I think he was still worried about getting the magic wrong.

'Let me know if it gives you any more trouble, and Hoseok can find a trained healer.' Jin said. I nodded. Jin walked away leaving me with Jungkook. He was sat quietly in the corner reading a book leant to him by Namjoon. He looked up over the top of it at me.

'How do you feel.' He asked. 'Not too sleepy?'

'All good.' I said giving him a thumbs up. He laughed.

'You like you're gonna fall asleep.'

'I might.' I joked.

I walked over to the cupboards, and opened them all, looking for the glasses. I found some in a cupboard, and got myself a glass of water. Jungkook walked over and joined me.

'How's the leg?' He asked.

'Not bad.' I yawned. 'Like new.' I added, shifting my weight on and off it. 'I feel like I could fall asleep right now.' I joked. He grinned.

'You've spent practically all day asleep.' He laughed. 'Not to mention the lie in you had with Jimin.'

'Neither of us could sleep without the other.' I explained, scratching the nape of my neck.

'Cuties.' He murmured. I flushed slightly. 'How is he, he looked pretty rough when he woke up.'

'Honestly? Not great.' I told him. 'He's terrified of losing me. Turns out what the Night Guard showed him was my funeral. He was a little worse than shaken. I'm a little bit scared too.' I admited. 'They were threatening him using me.'

'Are you ok?' He asked.

'Yeah, I'll be fine, it's Jimin that needs to be looked after.'

'Do you know how it was linked to me?'

'Yeah. He said there were two of you, and that you make a mistake. He seemed a little confused though. I don't think what he was seeing was completely clear. And...'

'And?' Jungkook prompted.

'He said 'Jungkook doesn't cry"

'What do you mean?'

'I don't know, and I don't know if he really did either.' I said. I took a sip from my glass, and placed back on the counter with a shaking hand. 'He's scared both of you and for you. I don't know what you're doing, but you have to be careful.' I urged. He nodded, and swirled the water round his glass.

'Maybe I owe you an explanation.' He said quietly. I looked up at him. 'I've not exactly been open with you.' He took a long drink before speaking again, and I waited for him to continue.

'It started maybe a few years ago.' He told me. 'I was reading up a board for job requests and such, when I noticed an odd bounty. It was vague, and kind of strange. Details were missing, like height and hair and so on. Then I noticed it had a date, time, and a location, which was odd. I thought 'why would a bounty have a date attached?'. I decided to go to the location. It was in the next layer up in the city, and was an old warehouse or factory sort of building. I stuck around until the alloted time, then I hid away in the rafters. The place filled up quickly. Not regular people either, but Night Guards and gang members, getting along in the same room. Then I realised why they were there. The place was an auction. The worst part was they were selling kids. I just watched as they traded kids like animals. It was sickening.'

I stared wide eyed at him. This was disgusting.

'I had to do something, so I began to scour the notice boards for similar bounties, and then I began to realise just how common they were. I would go to the events, and knock people out as they arrived, to take the kids to somewhere safer. It's hard too, I learnt the limits of my magic pretty quickly. Now I'm trying to take down these events from the inside, but it's not exactly easy. I have to get in for starters. So that's everything I've avoided telling you.' He said.

I was at a loss for words. He nodded, sensing how overwhelming it was.

'What's next?' I asked. He shrugged.

'You said there were two of me?'

'I was thinking...' I faltered off.

'Hmm?'

'You said you had a brother?'

'He died.' Jungkook stated.

'Are you certain?' I asked.

'Yeah.'

'Did you see him die?' I pushed.

'No, but there was too much blood for him to have survived.' Jungkook argued.

'Not necessarily.' I said.

'You don't think he survived?' He asked.

'It's a possibility.' I said slowly. 'I don't know though.' Jungkook looked at me with his eyebrows furrowed.

'If he's alive what do I do?' He asked.

'You look for him.' I said. 'You have to.'

'What if he's dead?' He asked.

'I don't know. Nothing changes. You keep going as usual.' He nodded seriously, staring at his drink.

'It took you years to find Tae.' He said lowly.

'I didn't have a starting point.' I pointed out. 'If he's alive you can find him.'

'Yeah.' He said. 'Did you ever think you wouldn't find your brother?'

'Of course. But I couldn't give up. Then I definitely wouldn't've found him.' I said, thinking back to when I was most hopeless. I was more than glad I'd kept going.

'That's a good point.' Jungkook said. 'I should get to it soon, start searching in Night Guard offices.'

'Do you need help?' I offered.

'No, you have to stay with Jimin.' He said. 'He needs you right now.' And he was right. Leaving Jimin now would be a huge mistake. He was at his most vulnerable, and I'd promised not to leave him.

'I'm going to get some sleep.' Jungkook said. 'And you should too, you still look tired from my magic.' He told me. I nodded.

But a part of me still felt like I could do more to help.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Wattpad deleted like half of my chapter, and the serious bits too. Had to rewrite, instead of updating. My heart is crying.

I think this was better this time round though, I knew where I was headed.

All my love,
Blue