Making the decision to die was one thing. Getting drowned by someone else's hand was another. 

     Jin's body reacted instinctively to this aggression and put its last strength into a fierce struggle to escape Lee's grasp. He struggled and clawed as best he could at the hands and wrists that kept him underwater. Unwittingly, Jin let out a howl that was engulfed by the sea and caused him to lose all the oxygen he preciously kept. Large bubbles rose to the surface of the water, making the icy water appear to be boiling.

     Jin thought it was over for him because he felt the salt water rush into his throat and then into his lungs and burn him everywhere insinde of him in the process. Yet, in his fury to live he miraculously managed to get his head out of the water in a last ditch effort, pushing against Lee's hand and coughing violently when at last he could breathe. 

      "Damn!" shouted Lee who couldn't believe it and who tightened his grip on Jin collar to prevent him from moving away from him.

     However, Jin had no chance at the moment to swim to get away from Lee. He was exhausted from his struggle and completely blinded by the salt water that had burned his eyes from keeping them wide open. His salt-scorched eyes couldn't stay open now that they were in contact with the icy air.

    Jin was shaking all over his body. His whole being felt that he had just escaped death and the first breaths he took were so violent for him that it immediately made him cough and spit water. Looking at Jungkook who was on all fours on the bank in a painful attempt to regain his senses and get back on his feet, Lee yelled at him:

     "Hey, Jungkook look at this! I never would have believed him capable of it but Seokjin is fighting to survive, it's amazing, right?!"

    Eyes wide open, Jungkook who had attended the scene, could not believe it either. Jin was fighting to survive, he still had a chance! He sighed in relief, but his relief was short-lived when he heard Lee yell at him:

      "It's over, did you have time to hope? Now, take a good look at his face because that's the last time you'll see him alive!"

     "NOOOOO!!" Jungkook yelled reaching out a helpless hand in Jin's direction, meeting Jin's terrified gaze who understood that this time, he wouldn't make it out in the end and that it was a vain hope he had felt when he managed to come back to the surface.

     Jungkook's cry of distress was ignored by Lee who, while Jin was still coughing and trying to catch his breath while clinging to Lee's wrist which held him, once again dunked his head under the water in a splash of water. This time the singer didn't have enough strength left to fight and, in a few minutes, he had neither strength nor oxygen left anymore.

    "It's time to die Seokjin, let yourself go," Lee said from across the surface of the water. 

    Jin couldn't hear him and yet, as if he heard, it was at that time his body left him and stopped fidgeting. Slowly, his hands that were holding Lee's released their grip and closing his eyes, he realized that it was the end. Lee had finally killed him, as he wished. All he hoped now was that Jungkook could escape Lee. He had to. It was on that thought and on Jungkook's face that his spirit finally shut down, and he sank into nothingness...

     Feeling Jin's body become inert and release him, Lee, breathless from what he had just done, waited a few moments before releasing Jin's head. As he did this, Jin's back slowly rose to the surface and Lee rotated his body to gain access to his face. He took the time to observe his death-pale face, his closed eyes and his half-open mouth. 

     "Phew!" he sighed as he observed his quiet face, "You really gave me a hard time Seokjin. You were a good boy, you have the right to rest forever now! I'll go take care of Jungkook now, he will very soon keep you company, don't worry."

     He ended up letting go of Jin and abandoning him to the waves, taking the time to watch Jin's body being slowly tossed about by the current in direction of the beach which was near.

     Those few moments that Lee's attention remained focused on Jin suddenly allowed Jungkook to split the surface of the water behind him after he had covered the distance between them under the freezing water invisibly like a discret yet dangerous shark.

      Lee whirled around as he heard the water splash behind him followed by a howl of rage, but the moment he did, Jungkook threw all his might and rage against his face the crutch used earlier by Lee on his own head.

     "AAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Lee yelled holding his eyes and staggering in the water. 

     Despite his condition, Jungkook had managed to deliver a terrible blow to Lee's face. But that wasn't enough. Lee was still on his feet and it wouldn't take him more than a few seconds to open his eyes and throw himself on Jungkook to drown him in turn.

     So, the singer immediately landed another blow on the top of the head which caused Lee to drop his face to reach out his hands blindly and this time, Jungkook half knocked him out. 

      "JUNGKOOK, YOU FUCKING BASTARD, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!" Lee roared, opening his sore eyes and gaving him a glare filled with hate.

    Jungkook knew the strength of man better than anyone but he recoiled briefly when he saw him so quickly ready to pounce on him. Even though he didn't have much left, he had to use all his remaining strength to completely knock him out this time. Or kill him. At that moment, Jungkook did not have the luxury of questioning himself: he just knew that he had to get rid of the threat that Lee represented.

      If he didn't, he was going to die, he hammered it. Jin had given everything he had to escape Lee. Jungkook did not give himself the right not to do the same. 

      "LEEEEEEE!!!!" he yelled, while hurriedly knocking down the crutch a third time on Lee's face. 

     Then a fourth. 

     Then a fifth.

     Then...

     "STOP IT!" the former manager growled like a wounded animal.

     On the fifth hit, Lee's hand wrapped around the crutch to block it but Jungkook felt that Lee's grip was weak.

     Instinctively, his fist slammed into the bloody face of the person he hated the most with all his might and heard a horrible crack. Boxing had probably predisposed him to do this, but he never imagined that one day he would have such little qualms about breaking someone's nose. He watched Lee stagger like a drunken man holding his broken nose and screaming in pain and anger, as his his flowing blood spilled into the icy sea.

     Staggering at Jungkook's strength finally unveiled, Lee was stunned that he let himself be beaten in this way by the young singer who remained on guard, fists raised in front of him. However, Lee's towering body ended up falling and plunged into a resounding splash! 

      Out of breath, Jungkook thought he had managed to knock the man out and released his attention for a few seconds. But without warning, the man emerged out of the water breathing heavily, startling Jungkook.

    Screaming in rage, conscious despite the blood flowing profusely from his wounds on the back of his head, on his forehead and from his broken nose, coughing after swallowing salt water, he was struggling to keep his injured eyes open. So as not to take a hit from the singer again while he regained his senses, he pushed Jungkook away from him with a brutal blow that frightened the young man, thinking he still had the strength to fight while he felt his own leaving him.

     However, instead of throwing himself at Jungkook to take revenge as the latter expected and had prepared to defend himself against him, Lee rushed towards the bank, for fear of fainting in the water and dying drowned.

     The singer hesitated for a split second, wondering if he should stop Lee from running away and plunge his head under water to drown him as the man had cruelly done with Jin. Given his current pitiful state, Jungkook felt he would have had no trouble achieving this.

     However, his priorities were other and he immediately joined the body of Jin already carried away by the waves which was floating on the surface and of which he could only see the back. He hurried over to him and jerked his face out of the water and pushed back the strands of wet hair that hid his face. His blood seemed to harden in his veins when he found himself facing an lifeless face blued by cold.

     Panicked, he cried:

     "No, no, no, no, no, hyung, hold on, I'll get you out of here!!"

     Jungkook, shivering but completely unaware of the cold that was beginning to stiffen his body, as well as his head injury that was clouding his vision, hurriedly lifted Jin out of the water and carried him to the shore a few meters further. He had to immediately get him out of the freezing water that threatened to kill them both. 

     But when he reach the beach, Jungkook stumbled against a prone shape on the sand, sprawling full length and letting Jin fall beside him, in the sand.
    
     "Oh no, hyung, I'm sorry!" he said to Jin whom the fall however did not seem to have awakened.

     On all fours on the sand, Jungkook suddenly realized he had just tripped over Lee. The man, exhausted by his furious swimming to survive and by his injuries, had ended up collapsing unconscious on the bank. He had just had the strength to save himself from drowning but was now at the mercy of the cold. Jungkook's.

     Indeed, taken by an uncontrolled fit of hatred, Jungook wondered if he should not kill Lee while he was unconscious. His fingers moved to the man's throat trembling, but it was firmly as both hands wrapped around his neck, not squeezing it, not succeeding to do that despite all the will that he put into it.

    "You deserve it," he asserted, "you deserve to die!"

     Then why couldn't he squeeze that throat to take his life? Didn't he have the right, after all this monster had done to them? Who would blame him?

      Besides, Lee had made him a monster so it didn't matter if he killed Lee and became a murderer himself. He had to take revenge, he had to take revenge on Jin. And he had to protect him from this man forever...