ANCIENT | SEQUEL TO YOUTH | JJK

monster

Jeongguk drags Haneul through the throng of sweaty bodies, all too absorbed in their own fun to notice how hard she is pulling at her hand, how desperate she is to get away from Jeongguk. The way her hand fits in his like pieces of a puzzle warms her in ways she hasn't been in months, but she knows it's wrong. He doesn't want her anymore, this is all for show; all to cause a scene to get noticed by the bouncer's friends that might know where Taehyung is. This isn't because he loves her and wants to be close to her and dance like normal lovers would. This is for manipulative purposes only, and it replaces the warmth in the depths of Haneul's stomach with a sickening churning.

"Let go of me." Haneul says, voice weak and inaudible over the music. Jeongguk notices nothing, continuing to pull her through the crowd. The fluorescent lights make his obsidian eyes sparkle, but he's staring straight ahead with an intensity that scares her. "I said let go." Haneul repeats, willing her voice louder. Jeongguk stops now, but his fingers still stay firmly clasped around her own. This eye contact they have now, it's the same as back at Taehyung's apartment—he's waiting for her to back down, to get nervous and panic and surrender to him. But she won't, not this time. "You heard me." She says, standing her ground.

"Why should I?" He says, pulling her closer to him. The crowd jostles around them, but she stays perfectly still as she struggles to overcome the shock waves, body pressed to his. Their curves fit together—the way his arm gravitates around her waist and their hips notch together, her free hand's fingers splayed out over his toned chest. Haneul lets out a shaky breath, fighting the urge to decimate the already minimal space between them even further, to lean forward and kiss some sense into him in a way that words can't seem to. But her heart is as guarded as it is magnetized to him.

"Just let me go, Jeongguk." She chokes out over the lump in her throat. His breath is hot on her face as he laughs, a monotonous chuckle void of even the slightest residue of humor.

"Why? So you can go running back to Hoseok?" He practically spits Hoseok's name, such an unfamiliar connotation of the two familiar syllables coming from his lips. The guilt Haneul felt earlier returns, eating her from the inside out. "So he can hold you close to him, like this?" He says, pressing her even more firmly against him, his familiar scent intoxicating her. "So he can comfort you? Because I'm the bad guy now?"

"Jeongguk, stop it." Haneul says, tears accumulating in her eyes. Before, her tears would have saddened him, too. But now, his angry eyes bore into her own, unfazed. He smiles. It's built with the same components as before—bright white teeth, dimples bracketing his pink lips—but now it makes Haneul's heart rate accelerate with fear rather than skip a beat from how endearing it was.

"But he's nothing like me, is he?" Jeongguk continues. Haneul is starting to wonder if the hints of the man she used to know that she saw at the bar have integrity at all, because he seems like he's enjoying this. "He doesn't make you feel like I do." He murmurs, and leans in close to her, his lips featherlight against the shell of her ear, sending shivers up her spine. "He doesn't touch you like I do." Jeongguk knows Haneul's body too well, knows exactly how much pressure to apply to make her lose all sense as he glides his hand from the small of her back down to the curve of her ass and gives it a squeeze, kisses her neck. She can't help but choke out a moan of pleasure, getting caught up in the sensation of his touch, the heat of his body, the smoothness of his lips tempered by the wetness of his tongue—

And then his teeth mix with the pressure and suction of his lips, a lethal concoction of pain and lust that's enough to snap Haneul out of her daze. This isn't Jeongguk. He may look and smell and feel like Jeongguk, but inside, he's nothing like Jeongguk at all. She gathers all the strength in her and pushes him off. He knocks into a few of the surrounding club goers, and hardly notices their irritation. His eyes are trained on her and only her, and genuine surprise fills his eyes now.