Behind the Mask

~Chapter 25~

~Jennie's POV~

I was running out of air.

My eyes were teary and I couldn't think straight, the only thing on my mind was getting out of here. They were trapping me, and I was scared. I.. didn't know what to do.

I leaned down on my knees and begged for them to stop, to let me breathe, but they kept getting closer and closer, trying to touch me, my clothes, my body, not noticing that I was nearly blacking out right then and there.

I closed my eyes, foolishly hoping that this would all end soon. My hands were shivering as I slowly placed them on the ground, attempting to get up, but the people around me just pushed me back down. They were trying to keep me down, so that I could never get up again. I began to cry, wondering what I had done so wrong that led me to this.

But then, in the middle of it all, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

And the touch was so warm and comforting, that it calmed me. It pulled me up from the ground and made those around me disappear, helping me breathe for once. I was then pulled into a pair of arms, that felt both familiar and strange at the same time, but as those hands began rubbing small circles on my back, slowly soothing me down, I couldn't stop to think about it any further, I just kept crying.

But I then heard a voice that began whispering something into my ear, and that voice, I recognized without a doubt.
I gasped for air one last time, and suddenly, the terrifying place I was in disappeared, replaced by the comfort of my own room.

And those arms were still there, holding me close and wiping off the tears that were staining my cheeks. And that voice, the voice that, for the first time, made my nightmare end, it was whispering softly into my ear :

"Wake up, Jennie.. it's just a nightmare, wake up.. I'll bring you choco ice cream if you do~ .. come on, I know you want it.. wake up, please.."

At the sound of the amazing dessert being involved, I finally opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was another pair of eyes, staring at me with a worried look.

"..Taehyung?" I mumbled, in confusion. In my dream, I had recognized his voice, but I thought it was only my imagination, he couldn't actually be there to help me. And yet, the eyes that were now staring at me through the dark were, unmistakably, his.

"Yes, noona?" He replied, sighing in relief when he noticed that I was finally awake.

When I realized that he'd seen me crying in my sleep, I felt a little embarrassed, but he was the first person who managed to wake me up from that particular nightmare, so I guess it didn't matter so much what he must've thought when he saw my tears.
After all, I'd seen him cry, too. More than once.

"How did you know I like choco ice cream?", I asked. Out of all the things in the world, of course this was the first one to come to my mind.

"Oh", he left out a quick snort, "Yoongi had this phase where all he talked about was you, so I guess I learned quite a lot.."

"...oh. Well thank you for waking me up then, it was one of the worst nightmares I've had. You- why did you wake me up, actually? Wait no, why are you even awake? It's.." I quickly glanced at the clock, widening my eyes in surprise when I saw what time it was. "It's already 4 am! Taehyung honey, you need to sleep!"

"Well uh, I kinda lost track of time.. I've been up until just now talking to Jungkook about maaany things" he said, tracing a large shape into the air to emphasize his words. "So I only came to bed a few minutes ago, and that's when I noticed you were crying. Of course I couldn't be a jerk and go to sleep."