Egotistic - J.JK.

Twenty-Six

"Hey, hey, calm down."

Hiccups and half breaths came in and out of me, my cheeks soaked with salt water from my tears. A mild headache was forming while my eyes burned, my whole body shaking. The back of my neck was still pulsing with extreme pain, nothing I had never felt before.

Jungkook sat in front of me, his hand on the back of my neck with a wet washcloth pressed against it. His other hand held onto mine tightly, his eyes trying to make mine focus on his face. Pure concern was there, nothing else to fight it off. All of his energy and mindset was pinpointed on me.

"You're safe now," he reassured me gently again, his thumb circulating my knuckles. "No one's going to hurt you. I promise. We're in the hotel room and no one knows where we are. Everything's okay."

It took me a few moments to make up some words, not able to think straight. The fire in my body was still lingering a little, but it wasn't as much as it usually was. It was a steady energy that kept me up with the pain coursing through me. Through numerous hiccups and sobs, I cried, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"What are you sorry for?" he asked, his eyebrows raising. His hand came away from mine and lifted to my face, wiping my tears away with his thumb. "You have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong."

"I'm sorry I worried you," I sobbed that time, my bottom quivering for a small moment. I reached the back of my hand up to my face and wiped at my nose. "I should've done better. I should've just ignored Seokjin and came with you to the booth. None of this would've happened if I just went with you."

"Don't say that," he said, shaking his head. His hand pulled the cloth away from my neck, bringing it to his lap. I caught the sight of red blood on it. "I promise you that things could've gone no better if that happened. You got out of the building the best you could safely. That's all I could've asked for."

"My body's screwed me over for failure," I sniffed, feeling the burning sensation on the back of my neck continue, but there wasn't the hot feeling of blood there anymore. "I wish I wasn't such a mutant so this would've never happened."

"You're not a mutant."

"I am a genetic mutation, Jungkook!" I cried, my hand reaching to touch the back of my neck for a second. I winced a little as I touched the cut and brought it back around, showing the blood on my fingertips. "I'm a freak to society! I bleed gold except for one spot! What the hell!"

"It's protection," he told me firmly, his hands grabbing onto mine and shaking them a little. "You were made this way for a reason. You've cheated death so many times and you've become someone that is worthy of that now. You're helping people, you've become a new person that is a hero. Mutation or not, you're an amazing human being."

"I don't even know what happened today," I murmured, reaching a hand up and pressing my palm against my forehead. I gave a sniff, trying to rid of my stuffy nose today. "Why did those windows break? What even caused me to have such perfect accuracy to hit that guy dead center in the throat with a knife? I have so many questions."

"Those windows breaking was something like out of a movie."

I turned up to look at Jungkook dead in the eye, a shaky breath escaping me. I whispered, "What am I?"

He was blank for a second, not saying a word. He then adjusted himself in his spot, clearing his throat. He seemed hesitant on his answer. "I . . . I have no clue."

The pain on the back of my neck still throbbed. I took the washcloth from Jungkook's hand and placed it back on the cut, shaking my head. "I want to talk about that later, but I feel calm enough now to clean up this cut and figure out why Yoongi and Hoseok weren't at their stand."

Jungkook's hand landed on my arm for a second, him asking quietly, "You sure you're okay now?"

"I'm fine," I waved him off, reaching up to wipe the left over tears away and to try and clean up my face a little. I was still frazzled from earlier, but I was ready to get back to business.

It took a few minutes for me to clean up my cut entirely with what we had with us, mainly myself trying to drown the cut with water to get as much bacteria as I could out of it. Since it was starting to quickly scab over(not as fast as it usually would with my entire body but still faster than a normal person) Jungkook said that I didn't need a bandage and to let it dry in the air. I threw my hair up after he said that to let it have some room to breathe.

After trying to get as much blood as I could out of the washcloth so the hotel staff wouldn't get suspicious, I hung up the cloth and walked back out to the room. Jungkook was folding some of his clothes that had spilled out of his bag to keep the room tidy. 

"I don't know where Yoongi and Hoseok would have gone," I started, leaning against the bathroom doorway while looking at Jungkook. "They're always at the market on the weekdays. Always. I don't know what changed that for today."

"Those guys had to be working for Taehyung," Jungkook looked up at me, throwing a folded shirt into his bag. "If your friends were doing business with them, then they must have found out we have close ties with them. They must have taken them and are holding them captive."

I held my breath at that, hating to imagine my two closest friends--practically family--being imprisoned and possibly hurt. It made my stomach churn at the sound of that. "They shouldn't have to go through this. This isn't their fight."

"What about the Defenders and the appendixes? They're still a major concern."

"If Yoongi and Hoseok are caught by Taehyung's men," I breathed, pushing myself away from the doorway, "I have two theories about them and the Defenders."

Jungkook's eyebrows knitted together, himself getting to his feet. He shoved his hands into his sweatshirt's pocket, cocking his head to the side. "Alright, hit me with it."

"One," I said, pulling out a finger and holding onto it, "Taehyung has all the appendixes he needs and is going to keep Yoongi and Hoseok, or two," I pulled out a second finger, "he's still holding Yoongi and Hoseok captive but he has a delay on his shipment of appendixes so he's not ready for all of the Defenders he has now."

"I'm really praying it's two," Jungkook whispered, looking down at the ground with a worried expression. 

I was hoping it was two as well. 

"If two is the option at hand," I said, trying to keep my voice chipper, "we have to find Taehyung fast before he can grab onto any more appendixes. We might have to go searching for another black market-organ harvester to get another location."

"Once you've healed up enough, we can go find another." Jungkook walked over to the bed and plopped down, a sigh escaping him. "You need to rest first, though."

"I'll try racking my brain for any partners Yoongi and Hoseok had during the time," I nodded, walking towards the bed to join Jungkook. "Until then, I'll rest. We both need it."