Taehyung stumbled into the apartment, trembling uncontrollably. He knocked a small mirror off the wall in his haste to get inside. His car keys clattered to the floor. The door slammed shut behind him with an alarming bang. Jennie emerged from the bedroom in his robe, eyes wide with panic at the noise. When she say the tousled state of Taehyung, she sprinted down the hall towards him, bare feet slapping the wood as she moved. She embraced him just as he sank to his knees and Jennie buckled underneath his weight. They slid to the floor in a heap, clutching at one another for dear life. Jennie could feel Taehyung's heart pound in through his clothing, racing at a speed fit to burst.
"Where have you been?" she cried, voice wavering.
Incapable of finding the words to respond, Taehyung drove his forehead into the crook of her neck instead, breathing heavily as he did so. Jennie stroked his hair. The overwhelming smell of fish and damp on his T-shirt made her gag. Unable to determine the origin of the scent, she pushed his hair back in order to examine his face
"Where were you?", she asked.
"The shipping yard".
"What, why?".
Taehyung pulled back to stare at Jennie directly in the eyes, the realisation that hed have to own up and give her an honest response terrifying him. Jennie noticed that his pupils were dilated, and that his T-shirt had been stained with dark spots. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat at the sight.
"I'll ask you again, where the fuck did you go?"
"I told you".
"Why would you go all the way out to the shipping yard, Tae?".
He scrubbed a shaking hand down his face, avoiding her gaze. Jennie places a firm palm on his cheek, forcing him to look at her.
"Well?" she pushed.
"I was there with Jisoo".
"Who?."
Jennie's tone leapt two octaves.
"A friend", Taehyung explained. "She needed someone to collect her from the shipping yard, so she called me and I went to get her".
He rose to his feet. Jennie did the same, letting his words sink in. She ran a hand across her torso to ease the weight of anxiety that had settled uncomfortably in her ribcage.
"And?", she quizzed.
"And nothing", Taehyung snapped. "I went to collect her and that was that".
"Why do you look all messed up then?".
"Jisoo.." he trailed off.
"Yeah?"
"She tried to kill me".
"WHAT?"
Taehyung whirled around, fixing Jennie with a hard glare. Jennie blinked back the tears in her eyes. Her hand flew to her mouth as Taehyung's revelation slammed in to her core.
"Why?" she choked, looking anywhere but at Taehyung, mind working to put the jagged puzzle pieces together, to make sense of all this.
"Because she's one of them" he spat. "One of yours".
"What do you mean, one of mine".
"Her boyfriend is the one trying to harm you, Jen".
Jennie couldn't breathe. She sagged against the wall, running her fingers through her hair twice before grabbing at it agitatedly out of reflex. Overwhelmed, she began to sob. Taehyung was in front of her in a blink of an eye. He grabbed hold of her wrist and yanked her hand out of her hair, uttering consolations in her ear in a last ditch attempt to get her to calm down.
"Why did you collect her in the first place", she cried.
"Because I thought she was in trouble".
"You should have said no".
"That's not my nature, Jen".
"Fuck what your nature is", she quipped. "Are you on my side or not?"
"Yes".
"Then prove it".
"I have been".
Jennie squared her jaw, glowering up at Taehyung with puffy, narrowed eyes. She was exhausted. Taehyung stepped closer, undeterred.
"I don't want you to see that Jisoo bitch again".
"Done".
"And it's better if she can't contact you aswell".
"She's dead, so don't worry about that".
"Dead?"
Taehyung's eyes were glued to his shoes. Jennie crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Her boyfriend shot her right in front of me".
"That's why there's blood on your shirt then".
"Yeah".
Silence descended on them like thick, suffocating blanket. Jennie sniffed, gritting her teeth the second another wave of tears threatened to spill. Taehyung brushed past her into the bedroom, removing his clothes as he walked, discarding them on the floor before disappearing into the bathroom. Jennie returned to the bed and lay down, the desire to relax stripped from her now that the unspoken stakes had been risen. Taehyung took his time in the shower, giving Jennie the time she needed to formulate a plan, an escape route. Mulling over the plausibility of her arrangement, she figured the money in the backpack hidden under the bed would be enough to get Taehyung and herself out of the city for good. Movement in the bathroom made her act quickly. She lay Kai's backpack down onto the messy duvet and zipped it wide, turning it towards her so that Taehyung wouldn't spot it at first. Eventually, he emerged into the bedroom with an towel around his hips. He cast a glimpse over at Jennie without a word. His eyes landed on the backpack and he sighed exasperatedly.
"What's that, Jen?"
"Our way out?"
Taehyung towelled at his hair before pulling on a fresh T-shirt. Jennie watched him move around the room.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"We can use this money to leave this city, Tae".
"No we can't".
"We finally have a chance to make a fresh start".
Taehyung pulled on tracksuit bottoms, muttering under his breath at Jennie's wild outburst. Jennie pulled wads of cash out of the bag and offered them to him.
"Don't you want that?" she asked.
Taehyung sat down at her feet. "We can't just leave Jen".
"Why not?"
Taehyung raised an eyebrow.
"Because I have a life here".
Jennie balked. "I know, but even if we go for a couple days, just until all this shit dies down".
"You're getting ahead of yourself Jennie".
She scowled. "No I'm not".
Taehyung rubbed her bare calf fondly.
"We have the money, so why don't we use it?".
"It's not that simple".
"It could be".
Taehyung grinned. "I don't think now is the right time for us to go anywhere to be quite honest".
"Now is the perfect time", Jennie replied. "I can't live in fear any longer, Tae. I'm starting to go insane".
"Let's decide in the next few days then, okay?".
Jennie put the money away without a word. She knew Taehyung was right, but the stubborn side of her didn't want to admit it.
"I just need time", Taehyung said, climbing into the bed beside her. Jennie nodded, gnawing on the inside of her mouth to ease the sudden discomfort in her stomach.
"What if we don't have time?".
Taehyung faced her with tired eyes. "We do, Jen".
"We don't know that for sure though".
"Trust me".
Jennie yawned in lieu of a response, and Taehyung cuddled into her embrace, desperate for warmth.
Jennie was aware that she was being selfish. It was unfair to assume that Taehyung would be wiling to upend his whole entire life for her just because she asked him to. Anxious, she held him close, feeling a strong sense of comfort now that he was by her side.
"Just give me a few days, Jen, okay?", Taehyung mumbled sleepily.
"Sure".
As much as it pained her to have dragged him into the destruction of her past life, she knew that she'd have to work alongside him if they were to come out of this alive.
