Lies | Jenbum & Jaegi

three

"Jaebum? Is that you?" He turned around to see Jennie poking her head from her bedroom door.

"Yeah."

Jennie wiped the traces of tears from her face with her sleeves quickly and padded towards him.

"Why are you here?" She stopped right in front of him and tilt her head a little. "Did anything happen?"

"You must come with me Jennie. We'll catch the earliest plane tomorrow so you better get ready now."

"W-what? Why so suddenly? Did anything happen?"

"Don't worry. It's nothing serious. Just believe in me, okay?"

Jennie look puzzled but she still nods her head reluctantly. She wrapped her arms around him and rest her head on his chest while muttering in her breath,

"Of course I do."

She glanced down at his hands to see that he's holding some takeout food from nearby restaurant. Jennie's lips curved into a little smile -pleased to know that Jaebum still remembers that she loves jajangmyeon made by the chef there.

"Let's eat first and you can pack later. Did you have dinner yet?"

Jennie nodded slightly, her eyes caught the movement of his hands subtly touching the gun in the holster around his waist warily.

As Jaebum put down the food on the coffee table, she finally noticed that something's off about him. The tension is praticalling rolling in waves from him. His broad shoulders stiff and leaden, two pools of eyes darting at the big windows in the living room, as if searching for something -or someone outside.

"The helpers prepared dinner earlier before I dismissed them. But I'm still hungry though."

He hummed as an acknowledgement but doesn't say anything else.

***

Jaebum disappeared again in the bleak night.

"I need to go out for a moment." he said. He also told her to lock the doors and wait inside.

And so she waits. An hour turns into a few. And by three in the morning, there's still no sign of him at all. She sat on the couch and flipped through the channel mindlessly -her bag of clothes was already tucked neatly beside the shoe rack.

Sleep doesn't come to her so easily these days and her fingers start tapping at her thigh, a habit surfaced whenever she's blank. Or paranoid. She doesn't know which one is worse in this situation.

Not long after, her phone started ringing -the ringtone sounded loud and screaming at her in the silence of the house. Jennie ignored the unknown number but she couldn't deny the uneasiness that had started to crept inside her. She doesn't know why she's been worried about Jaebum more than herself.

She stared at her phone, hands trembling and slide the red button hesitantly.

But the call doesn't stop. It keeps on coming, one after another. And time ticks away slowly, a waiting game had started.

Suddenly someone is banging the door very hard -it rattled violently as if about to unhinged from its place. At that time, Jennie could feels that the sirens and alarms inside her head went off all at once.

Don't panic. Don't panic.

But it's not working. Her breathing turned into desperate gasps as the trauma and flashes of blood and dead bodies invades her mind. Her anxiety is eating her inside out again.

She dialed Jaebum's number.

But the call went unanswered after endless ringing. Cold sweat started to bead on her forehead.

Her instinct is kicking at her to do something. Anything.

She ran inside the monitor room to take a look at CCTV recording and almost felt sick when almost all of them were either disconnected or turned off.

Glancing at her bedroom door, Jennie bit her lips. There's a hidden exit behind her closet leading to a secret passage and she could use it to escape.

But he told me to wait here. He told me to wait. I must wait here.

She took a few shaky breath, trying to calm down.

The knocking stopped abruptly after that. And the deafening silence that comes after didn't prepare her for the oncoming danger.

And then it happened.

A scream. A gunshot.

And the door unlocked from outside.

Her vision became blurred when someone had hit her head with something hard. She could't run away. Whoever that is, he's too fast for her. Everything became slurred as she struggled to hold onto a thin thread of consciousness.

She doesn't know what happened next.

***

Jaebum grabbed her shoulders and shook her a few times. Jennie opened her eyes. Traces of tears mixed with metallic liquid stained her cheeks and she look so shaken out. But they don't have the time for that now.

Two bodies sprawled on the floor. Blood spreading beneath them like shadows at night.

Unmoving. Unbreathing.

He scooped her in his arms and went out of the house.

After Jennie was seated at the back seat, Jaebum stopped to stare at her with an unreadable expression.

"Why you didn't run just now, Jennie? Why didn't you try to save yourself?"

That's not usually the first thing he'll ask. Jennie frowned.

She clenched her teeth and willed her trembling hands to stop. But her body betrayed her, her head is spinning and it hurts to even breath. Her lungs felt as it is on fire. Her throat is dry as she croaked out an answer.

"What are you saying? Of course I'm waiting for you."

"That's what I mean, why are you still waiting for me, when it's clearly dangerous?"

"I know you'll save me."

Jaebum shook his head. "How are you so sure about that?"

Jennie tightened her grips on her own hands.

"Because you never broke your promise." Because I believe in you went unsaid but Jennie thinks that Jaebum knows it nonetheless.

"Don't say that." Jaebum grits out those words, he sounds like he is really angry and mad.

And disappointed.

Jennie didn't understand what she did wrong.

"I hate it when you said that. Really hate it." She threw him a puzzled look. Everything coming out from his mouth doesn't make any sense.

"You're not a fragile glass, Jennie. You're not that weak to be broken so easily. Run when you need to run. Hide when you need to hide. Don't follow everything I said. You are the one who need to save yourself."

Save yourself from me, from everyone else. Before it's too late.

sooooo who are you rooting for?