It was colder than it had been in the days before. Jimin hugs himself, dressed in all layers on this chilly morning. The smell of rain was on the horizon, much to the pair's dismay. They talked about it in the morning, deciding to try the jungle region if it rains in the forest. If they were lucky, the rainforest would be dry—ironically—while rain comes down in the woods.

For now though, they stayed in the region they were most comfortable in, staying close to the rainforest ring, but not straying over the line just yet. Jungkook walks close next to him, their arms brushing as they go. He was cold too. Any touch, however small, warms them up, if only a little bit.

"It's been too silent," Jungkook remarks. "I'm surprised..."

Jimin looks at him softly. He knows why Jungkook feels that way. He was incredibly surprised the game makers would let uneventful days pass so late into The Games. Capitalites were probably getting bored.

"It'll come soon enough," Jimin answers. "Let's just stay far away from it."

Jungkook nods in agreement.

The rainforest gives the pair a bit of extra warmth. The humidity makes it marginally warmer than the rest of the woods. Jimin pauses at one point, putting his hands out, and warming them like he would over a fire. It actually does help.

Wind tugs at Jimin's hair. It stings his face a bit. The change in temperature was starting to bring Jimin anxiety. Were they putting the tributes into more discomfort to make them more irritable? Jimin knows there are still tributes in the arena who would kill over something so trivial. It was such a small thing—the change in weather...but they've been in the arena for so long. Tomorrow will be two weeks.

"Okay, I want to rest for a second," Jungkook takes a deep breath. "Just for a second."

"Alright..." Jimin trails. They've had to stop more frequently than in days past. Jimin can feel himself getting weaker.

"Only for a second," The taller repeats. "I promise I'm good to go."

"Koo, it's okay," Jimin rubs his back. "It's good to take breaks."

"Sure," Jungkook sounds a bit dejected. "But-"

"You traitor!"

Jimin and Jungkook don't even stop to look at each other in shock. Jimin swiftly leads his lover to the bushes.

"How dare you keep this from us!" A female voice rings through the trees. Jimin peers out, and his eyes widen.

Five girls and a boy are grouped together. Jimin immediately recognizes them as Careers. One of the girls kicks another girl in the chest, and she stumbles to the ground. The first girl looms over her.

"You don't hide sponsor gifts from us," She holds up an empty canister—obviously a gift from a sponsor—before thrusting it to the floor. The container and lid clang together loudly. "Those were the rules. You hide resources, you die."

The other girl in the conflict glares up at her. "You say that as if you haven't been hoarding resources yourself."

Her gaze hardens. Thunder rolls in the background. "...What?"

"I've seen it too," Another girl confronts her. "You always take more food when divvying it up. You're not as smooth as you think you are, Atalanta."

The girl named Atalanta steps forward. "Don't you dare speak to me like that."

"Or what?" The boy speaks up. "You think you're so much better than us because you're from District 1. You're not special just because you came from more."

"That's rich coming from a kid from District 4," Yet another girl—probably also from District 1—pipes up. "You shouldn't even be able to call yourself a career! You don't train as hard as we do—no district does!"

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" The girl on the ground stands. "District 2 is the strongest out of all 12 and you know it! No one trains harder than us! It's why we always have and always will have more victors than you."

"You're playing with fire, Minerva," Atalanta tenses up, stalking up to her and pinning her against a tree, thankfully far away from where Jimin and Jungkook were hiding. "I should've just killed you the second I found out what you did."

Minerva starts to get nervous, but she continues to glare.

"Let her go, you pretentious snob!" The other District 2 girl shoves her away. Atalanta grabs Minerva as she's shoved and they're both propelled to the ground. Almost as if a button was pressed in the sky—perhaps it was by the Gamemakers—rain stars pouring down on them.

The other District 1 girl grabs the second District 2 girl, dragging her away from the original two in the conflict, who were now scuffling on the ground. The District 4 girl joins, targeting Atalanta. She and Minerva work together to pin Atalanta to the ground, slipping on the mud starting to form beneath them. Minerva grabs a dagger and stabs her repeatedly. A canon goes off.

It's loud, full of screams, and grunts, and moans of pain. "No!" The remaining District 1 girl shrieks. She tries to run to the two on the floor, but she's held back by the last District 2 career. The District 4 boy finally joins in, trying to aid the girl from his district, but getting shoved away by Minerva. She's still angry, her face splattered with her victim's blood. The District 4 boy slips on the mud and falls to the floor ungracefully.

The District 1 girl manages to strike down the girl she was fighting with a mace. Another canon goes off. Jimin tenses. The District 4 girl tries running up to her but gets stricken down as well—a third canon. The careers were all dying in front of his very eyes! The District 4 boy looks angry, but he backs off, weapon up just in case. He was obviously staying only for the abundance of resources that was attracting even Jimin.

Minerva and the District 1 girl have their eyes on one another, focused on nothing else.

"I'm going to kill you, Sirena!" Her voice is loud and raspy, the sounds coming from her throat. She swings the dagger towards the girl, but Sirena dodges. The District 1 career tries to attack as well, to no avail. The District 4 boy is staring at a spear on the ground. He darts for it. Minerva throws a knife she had, but misses.

Sirena takes that time to strike—her third victim of the day. A canon goes off once again. She then turns to the boy. But by that time, he had the spear up, and it impales her abdomen.

Her eyes widen, and she coughs up blood. The District 4 boy takes no time, rounding up all the stuff quickly, stuffing what he needs into bad and taking valuable items off of the bodies. Sirena's cannon goes off.

And then he runs straight towards the pair.

Jimin gasps. Before he can even think, he's standing, knife out of his right pocket. He throws it at the career—now at an arm's length from the two of them.

It lands in his neck.

Jimin shakes as he watches the tribute fall to the ground. That was the first person he had killed himself. He thought he was desensitized...he had watched so many children die in the past two weeks. But...but he wasn't. This was different. This...was so much worse.

"Come on," Jungkook snaps him out of it, grabbing the things the now dead District 4 boy had rounded up The shorter hadn't heard the canon...but it had to of gone off, right? "We gotta get going before other people come by. Someone has to have heard what went on."

Slowly, Jimin nods. His bangs are wet, dropping over his eyes. He wipes them away from his face. "Y-you're right."

Jungkook takes his hand, and they run off.

*

They run for quite a long time—as long as their bodies allow. The rainforest was dry for once, so they slipped into that biome both to dry off and warm up. Jungkook could not process what had just happened—his mind was not functioning. The Careers just took themselves out—all of them! Every single career in the 100th Hunger Games was now dead.

Winning just became that much more plausible.

Jungkook had always wanted to get this far in The Games—of course he did. He wanted to do everything in his power to make sure Jimin won. He was convinced that no one who had stepped a single foot into this arena desired anything as much as Jungkook desired Jimin to win The Games.

However...did he truly believe before The Games started that he and Jimin would make it this far? Truthfully...he wasn't so sure he knew the answer to that. And he didn't like that he didn't know. He wanted to be confident in his abilities—and he definitely was in Jimin's...but there were just so many factors in The Hunger Games—even some he didn't account for until within the arena. And they were untrained tributes from a lower district. The odds were definitely not ever in their favor.

But they did make it this far. Seventy-two people entered this arena, and yet they were two of the eight remaining. No careers were left...no one who illegally trained for The Games beforehand was alive.

Jimin really could win.

The thought warms Jungkook—along with the warmer climate the pair now found themselves in. It was a comfortable, dense, humid warmth. It almost makes Jungkook drowsy. But he shakes his head, trying to remove the feeling from his mind and body. He has been so much more tired these days...so much weaker. The Games were weighing on him so heavily.

Jimin suddenly wraps Jungkook up into a deep hug. Slightly surprised, Jungkook hugs back tightly.

"I love you," Jimin murmurs. "Hold me tight, hug me, please."

"Of course," Jungkook whispers. "Always."

"You still trust me?" Jimin questions. "Can you even still trust me with so little people left?"

"What?" Jungkook pulls back. "Of course I can, Mimmie. That's such a terrible question."

"I was just checking," Jimin pulls him right back in, squeezing him tightly. His abdomen wound was obviously feeling much better if he could hold the younger this closely. "I just wanted to know if you were blindly trusting just like me...Koo, I don't think there's anything you could ever do that would make me not trust you. Not one thing. If...if you wanted to kill me, I would let you."

"Jimin, don't talk like that!" Jungkook steps back. "I'm not going to hurt you. I would not even consider that for a second. Get that notion out of your head."

"...Okay," Jimin sighs. "I just thought I'd be transparent with you."

"Oh..." Jungkook stops to think for a second. That was exactly what he wanted from Jimin, after all. "Well, okay then. Thank you for telling me. But that's not going to happen. I trust you, and you trust me, and we're going to get to the end together."

"And then?" Jimin stares at him. "When we get to the end? What then?"

"We're not there yet," Jungkook shakes his head. He doesn't like talking about it. Because every time the end is brought up, Jungkook gets nervous Jimin wants to sacrifice himself for Jungkook just as much as the taller wants to do for him. And Jungkook will not let Jimin do that. "There's no real way to plan for that. So don't talk about it."

"...Alright, Koo," Jimin looks down—slightly dejected, Jungkook notices. He tries to disregard it. That was a problem for a later date.

"...What do you think is going to happen now?" Jungkook questions. "Now that the careers are all dead?"

"I'm not sure," The smaller shrugs. "I wonder if things will accelerate at all. I've heard nothing about the other tributes...I'm not sure what they're like. I'm not sure if they've killed anyone, or if their survival skills are superior to ours, or if they're just plain lucky...I don't know."

"Our survival skills are just fine," Jungkook reminds. "And we've both proven we can kill if necessary. I mean...you moved so quickly today. I was shocked."

"...I was too," Jimin admits. "By the time I made a conscious thought, he was on the floor."

"You saved us once again," Jungkook kisses him. "You work so hard."

"You too," Jimin stares at him. There's a bit of honey in his eyes. Jungkook missed that warm gaze. "You're just an incredible human being, Jungkook Jeon. A life that shouldn't have to be wasted on a tragedy like this."

"I feel the exact same way about you, Jimin Park," His voice is tender, though only translating a minuscule fraction of the deep, unconditional love he feels for the man in front of him. "What a waste it would be for so much good to be gone in only eighteen years. The world would truly be lost without you."

Jimin only kisses him in response.