RIPPLE | P.JM

9

SEVEN

"Full house. I win."

My voice is stiff and cold as I place down my cards, hiding a grim smile behind my mask. Memory didn't go anywhere, and so did my skills.

Two years had just rusted them a bit.

"Damn." He whistles, and I smirk at him as he sighs. "A deal's a deal, I guess. How'd you play like that, hm? How about a meal in exchange for some of those tricks?"

I shake my head. "Sorry."

Who knew what he might put in those meals? Besides, I still had one sandwich and a bottle of water left in my pack for dinner.

After that, I'd have to go hungry.

But better than being possibly drugged.

"Aw." He says with a disappointed look, and I bite my lip as he tosses me a key. "Room key for you. Had a nice time playing though."

"Me, too." I lie, and leave him in the room first to go up to mine. When I step in the door, I'm pleased to find two things.

One, the room isn't half-bad. It has a comfortable-looking bed in the middle, and I needed something like that after all that sleeping outside. And it's also clean, no insects.

And the second reason makes me very happy.

"Roll over, Jimin." Taehyung growls, and I can hear him almost clearly through the thin walls. It's actually so thin it literally sounds like they're here.

It must be Tae and Jimin in the next room.

I'd have to be careful not to say anything.

"Idiot." Jimin grumbles, and I smile softly as I scramble to a sitting position on the bed and lean my back against the wall. I hadn't realized until now how much I'd missed them.

And it had not even been two days.

What's gone into you, Seven. I shake my head, still smiling like an idiot as I listen to Jimin and Taehyung bicker to each other. You've let this people come so close.

"Kim Taehyung!" Jimin hisses, and I hear Taehyung grunt. "If you don't stop being annoying right now, I'll chuck you out of the window. And then I'll throw this lamp down after you."

Taehyung laughs.

"Stop hugging me!"

Was Jimin just cold towards me? His voice now was kind of like a child now, and I push back a giggle. I didn't realize he could be someone like this.

I snap out of it.

These damn assassins— they were making me so soft in the inside. They were so much kinder than I'd thought, and nothing was true about them in the books I'd read.

But I have to know they're going to leave me whether I'd want them to stay or not.

It was impossible— impossible for me to stay with them. I knew all of this was temporary, and they were going back to the North sometime.

Letting that harden up my mind and heart, I slip under the blankets. But everything I'm wearing is scented with Jimin, and I sigh deeply.

Remember. You're always alone in the end.

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