YOUMIN

"I'm sorry."

He looks shaken. After that man had left, he'd instantly dropped his gun and had made me stand— scanning my entire body for wounds.

He looks more shaken than I've ever seen him.

"Uh— I'm okay." I murmur, shifting on my feet. "You got me. He didn't do anything else."

"You don't understand."

I frown, confused.

"What?"

"You don't understand." He repeats, getting to his feet. "He's a damn psychopath that doesn't give up until he gets what he wants."

"And he wants you."

I blink.

"Come inside." He says, voice forceful. "I'm not letting you out of my sight anymore. I was stupid to do that."

"Who was he?"

His lips tighten.

"Someone we've been trying to get rid of for a long time." He says, voice low in his throat.

I want to ask more.

But it feels dangerous to push.

_________________________

"Taehyung—"

"Faster."

Sucking a harsh breath, I drive my feet into the sandbag. My entire body hurts, but he won't let me go. Not even a single bit.

We've been doing this for hours.

"Switch." He says, and I sluggishly change position. Sweat pours down my back, forehead.

Everywhere.

"Taehyung," I gasp again, my hands shaking. "I can't. It's— It's already m-midnight, and..."

"Hush."

Should I pretend to faint?

It felt close. I felt close to fainting anyway, but the sweet chance kept slipping away at my fingertips.

"You can drop the weights."

Thank God.

Coughing, I loosen the weights around my ankles and drop them to the mat. The skin is all irritated and bruised, but he looks like he doesn't even care.

"Put these on instead."

My mouth drops open.

He'd gotten heavier ones. Heavier ones— was he really trying to get me to break both of my ankles?

"I thought you said close combat wasn't my thing." I whisper, almost accusingly.

"That's why you told me I should snipe."

"Sniping doesn't keep you safe in short distances, does it?" He says, strapping the weights on. "But this will."

"You're killing me."

"Better than to be killed because you didn't know how to defend yourself."

The air rushes out of me when I try to lift one of my legs. It was like gravity itself was pulling down on my body.

It's so heavy.

I lose my balance when I try again, flapping my arms. He catches me immediately, straightening me back up.

"Do it."

You're killing me, Kim Taehyung.

__________________________

When he finally dismisses me to my room, I'm half unconscious and barely standing.

My head's so dizzy it almost hurts. And my ankles were so bruised that I didn't even want to look at them, not after the first time.

It's a miracle I can even walk a single step, and he tells me to go to my room.

My room was at the opposite end of the huge building.

"Tomorrow— at seven. I'll be expecting you at the shooting range, Youmin."

I can't even look up, my head feeling like it weighs a million tons.

"S-Seven?"

"I know we usually meet at six. But I have an all-night mission." He says, and that wakes me up from my daze a little bit more.

"What mission..."

"You're wasting your time." He says, not answering my question. "Go back and sleep."

Normally I'd keep pressing him. But right now, it feels like my soul's half-burned away from me.

I need to sleep before I collapse.

The halls are dark when I push my way out of the training room, dragging my feet on the floor. And for a long second, I pause.

I can't walk to my room.

I was almost a hundred percent sure that I'd faint on the way— I was barely keeping myself from doing that right now.

My eyes flicker to the other direction.

His room.

His room was just down the hall.

Are you damn crazy? Do you want him to rip you apart head to toe and run your body over with a car?

I can hear my sane voice yelling at me, from the back of my cloudy mind.

But he's gone all night.

Besides, it's his fault for doing this to me.

Pushing down the voice, I pull myself towards his door and slam it shut behind me. The room is chilly, and I stumble around until my feet hits the bedpost.

This place smells like him.

My breaths ragged, I climb onto the center of the mattress. And I don't even think to pull the blankets over me, or even search for a pillow.

I just curl right there in the middle and fall straight into sleep.

________________________

TAEHYUNG

A mission.

A meeting.

It's almost six when I come back to base, having finished all of those. I'm used to this exhaustion— but I knew I needed sleep, even if it was just an hour.

I couldn't let Youmin see me vulnerable in any way. Even if that was just being tired.

Silently, I click open the door to my room. I reach for the dark bandanna around my hair, about to pull it free when I stop.

There's someone on my bed.

My hand goes instantly to the gun strapped to my thigh, until I recognize the soft curves and too-small figure.

Youmin.

She's breathing quietly, curled up tightly into herself.

Why is she...

Then my eyes flicker to her exposed ankles. The skin there is shaded dark purple, completely swollen from the weights I'd forced on her.

Her feet are blistered as well.

My hand slowly drops from my gun to my side. And I stand there, watching her sleep until I come back to my thoughts.

Wake her up.

She shouldn't be here.

But I can't bring myself to shake her awake. It's wrong to let her keep sleeping, when she'd broken the rules and come in my room like this.

"Youmin."

She doesn't move.

It's almost six thirty in the morning now, and I realize I'd have to skip on sleep for the second night in a row.

I purse my lips.

Silently, I set my jacket down on the chair in the far side of the room and walk into the bathroom for a shower.

She should be awake by then.

_________________________

YOUMIN

My eyes flutter open to the sound of water running.

It's cold, half of my face buried into soft sheets. My gaze quickly finds a closed door, where the sound of water was coming from.

Then I wake up completely.

This was Taehyung's room.

I quickly try to stumble out of the bed. But then my throat clutches up with fear when I realize that I was practically paralyzed from the waist down.

I can't move my legs.

It'd honestly be a miracle to— after what I'd forced them through last night.

So I wait, bracing myself for how much he'd yell at me.

The door clicks open.

I'm more scared than I'd ever been when I see Taehyung come out of the bathroom. Instinct kicks up, and my first thought is to pretend I'm still asleep.

Like hell that'd work on him.

"I know you're awake."

I want to die. How did I even get here in the first place? I couldn't even remember— it was like I'd been drunk last night.

"T-Taehyung."

"Yes?" He says, and I'm taken aback that he's not yelling at me off the bat.

He's just drying his hair.

"I can't— I kind of can't move."

I push my head down to my lap. There was a lot of times where I'd thought something was impossible, yet I'd still done it anyways.

But this.

I couldn't move.

"I understand."

My eyes flash up in hope the moment he says that. And I'm praying— praying for a day off when he continues.

"But you can still practice shooting."

I blink. Of course.

Of course he'd say that.

"But I can't move." I say quickly, throwing anything I could find at him. "I can't get to the range—"

"You're lucky to have me, then."

He just lifts me right from the bed.

"W-W-Wait!"

My hands instantly scrabble, wrapping around one of his arms and the other around his neck. His jaw flexes, and I quickly stop touching him.

I squeak. "I didn't mean that."

A short burst of laughter escapes his lips.

To be honest, I don't even know if it was laughter. Because why would he be laughing in this situation—

His serene voice cuts me off.

"I know, Youmin."

And he talks again, voice quieter.

"I don't mind."