Warning : violence

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As he ran through Saengson, Seokjin noticed that people didn't seem worried, and even seemed annoyed to see him. When he shouted to the people to flee because the pirates were coming, a woman shouted at him from the window:

"Oh, shut up, we've heard enough of you and Jungkook today!"

"Do you know where Jungkook is?!" Seokjin asked briskly, not taking offense at the woman's annoyance.

"Nah, haven't seen him in a while, he came by earlier, yelling the same thing as you, I guess this is your new game, you little rascals."

"No, it's not a game, it's the truth, the wakos are here in Eobu, everyone must evacuate and go to the assembly points," Seokjin asserted.

"Go play somewhere else," the woman told him, slamming her window.

Seokjin was disappointed. These people risked dying if the pirates decided to force the doors of their houses. He felt helpless.

"If only I had been a good son of an admiral, people would have taken me seriously right now," he lamented before letting out a cry of surprise. "Aah!"

Someone had just pulled him into an adjacent street by the collar and slammed him brutally against a wall. It was Ihnkyang and over his shoulder, Seokjin also caught sight of Sanghoon.

"How we meet again, little admiral!"  Ihnkyang sneered, "and alone, in the midde of the night, how convenient!"

Seokjin was going to warn them about the pirates when he noticed in amazement that Ihnkyang was wearing the short pants he had stolen from him earlier. He had probably kept them because it was of good quality compared to the rags he usually wore. But the teenager was so tall compared to him that that the pants were way too short for him and he couldn't even fully close them at the waist. That made Seokjin giggle against his will despite the urgency of the situation.

"I make you laugh ?!" the other annoyed, tightening his grip around his collar. "You dropped me with those pants on earlier, and you stayed in the air squirming like a worm, I should be laughing at you!"

"But you don't realize how ridiculous you look with my pants and with that grotesque haircut," Seokjin continued to giggle.

The other was so humiliated and irritated that he punched Seokjin in the stomach. The boy gasped and fell on all fours but still laughed erratically as he tried to catch his breath. But Ihnkyang didn't let him do it and slammed him against the wall again.

"Where is Jungkook, I have scores to settle with him too and I would like him to see me beat up his pet!" Sanghoon interjected, cracking the knuckles of his fists.

Seokjin immediately stopped laughing and quickly explained:

"Jungkook is telling everyone to flee, because a ship of wakos has landed, it's too dangerous to stay here. We too must leave before they come and find us. We are all in danger, I swear I'm not lying!"

Unlike the other residents, the two teenagers didn't seem to take him for a liar, at least that's what Seokjin understood when he saw them exchange a look. Despite everything, Ihnkyang did not loosen his grip around his collar and continued to hold him against the wall without him being able to free himself.

"You are funny, you know? Evacuate where? Who will want to welcome Saengson's vermin and protect them? Your dad? don't make me laugh," Sanghoon replied, "anyway, we are Saengson boys, we are not afraid of anything. And you are going to stay here too."

"No, I don't want to stay here!" Seokjin shouted while struggling, "I have to find Jungkook and we'll leave Saengson."

"Oh don't worry about Jungkook, he'll find you, believe me, he does that very well," Ihnkyang scoffed.

But Seokjin had no intention of waiting, it was up to him to find Jungkook, it was his personal mission.

He was about to attempt a desperate escape when suddenly, chilling screams rang out a few blocks away and made the three of them turn their heads. The street they were on was still deserted, except for the half-asleep curious people who were starting to stick their heads out the windows trying to figure out what was going on. 

But instead of ceasing, the screams doubled in number and intensity and soon, fear spread through Saengson. They understood then that Jungkook had not lied: the pirates were there.

Seeing that the two other boys were focused on the screams and the panic and no longer on him, Seokjin took advantage of it. The same way he had already seen Jungkook do it while fighting, he slammed his knee into Ihnkyang's crotch who cried out in pain and immediately let go as he fell to the floor.

"I'm very sorry!" shouted Seokjin who didn't like to hurt others but who had found a new reflex in the emergency.

But he didn't wait for Ihnkyang to get up and took off like a rabbit. He knew, however, that the two boys would not let him go and that in addition to being older and having longer legs than him, they knew the neighborhood much better than him.

"Leave me alone! We're all going to die if we don't leave Saengson!" he yelled at them without turning around so as not to slow down.

"You are the one looking for trouble, so don't run away when you found them!" Ihnkyang yelled at him from afar.

As he entered a new street, Seokjin stopped short and the two teenagers soon caught up with him easily and grabbed him without him struggling.

"I've got you, you little shit! I'm going to make you pay for what you just did!" Ihnkyang spat.

"Let him go, IhnKyang!" Sanghoon suddenly exclaimed.

He had noticed that Seokjin was no longer moving and unlike Ihnkyang who only cared about the correction he was going to put on him, Sanghoon had sought to know what had made Seokjin stop. And what he had just discovered seemded to terrify him.

"Certainly not,"  Ihnkyang replied, "this time I won't let him go."

"You don't understand, you idiot, we have to get out of here, now!" his leader yelled, pulling him roughly.

Only then did Ihnkyang looked up and realize what was happening. Horrified, he immediately let go of Seokjin and fled with Sanghoon without asking for his rest, leaving Seokjin alone to his fate. 

In any other situation, Seokjin would have laughed at them with Jungkook, he would have ironically remarked to them, "So this is the bravery of the Saengson boys who do not run away from danger?", then would have burst out laughing and tell anyone who wanted to hear that the Sanghoon gang was just a bunch of cowards.

But at that moment, he wasn't thinking about that. Jungkook was not there and was alone with the danger coming at him with a quiet step, knowing that the little boy posed no threat. 

He knew he was in mortal danger but he was unable to move, paralyzed with fear as he saw the two pirates approaching him, each armed with a gun strapped to their belt and a sharpened katana in hand. A katana whose blade was covered in blood, like the clothes of the two men.

They had shaved heads covered in tattoos and wore a hostile expression that was nothing like the annoyed hostility of the fish mongers on the docks or the rascals who chased him endlessly ; Seokjin had never seen expressions so cruel and devoid of humanity. 

Everything about them screamed danger, but instead of running away, Seokjin, shaking, stood still watching them approach, as if his feet were rooted in the ground, mute with terror, unable to scream for help.

Either way, it seemed pointless: despite the screams that echoed through all of Saengson, who would come to save the wretches who lived there and whom no one had ever helped or even looked at? He had gone too far into the district now, into the jaws of the wolf, and his father didn't even know he was there. 

No one would come to save him. He was going to die, skewered by the katana of a Japanese pirate when he had always considered pirate invasions as tales to scare children and force them to behave. His worst nightmare had come true and that day would be the last of his life.

Arrived near him, one of the two men gave him a mocking smile revealing his spoiled teeth when he saw that he was not moving.

"You are a pretty boy, you, not like that vermin we just caught," he pointed out, sizing up Seokjin.

"And docile with that," the other added. "Unfortunately, he's obviously not the one we're looking for, so we're going to have to cut this little head off."

The education Seokjin received included Japanese lessons as it could serve the diplomatic interests of Joseon. However, it could also be used to understand the horrors uttered by pirates like at that moment. Understanding what the two men had just said, Seokjin, unable to speak, started to moan in fear but did not move.

"Oh, don't scare him like that, it must have another solution than kill him," the first bad-toothed pirate scoffed.

"Do you want to take him?" the other asked with boredom.

"It must be a rich kid who got lost among the fishmongers, you can get a hell of a ransom from him by sending pieces of him one after the other."

"Okay, why not! There is a dad who is going to be very afraid of losing his kid tonight. Go grab him, we're taking him."

One of the men whose hand was covered with excruciating burns came forward with his hand outstretched and was going to grab Seokjin by the collar of his jacket but a shadow suddenly appears from an alley and throws itself on the man, making him fall brutally with a grunt of surprise.

" What the...!"

"JIN, RUN!" Jungkook yelled pulling Seokjin by the hand and forcing him to run at full speed.

Seokjin followed him without resisting out of habit, his leaden feet finally managing to lighten up and come off the ground. Behind them, he heard the sound of wakos chasing them at high speed swearing in Japanese.

Jungkook had the advantage of knowing the neighborhood like the back of his hand and by dint of turning in the alleys and going through the breaches of the buildings that had long since collapsed, they both found themselves panting and collapsing from the back room of an old abandoned bakery whose windows had long since been smashed.

"Are you crazy?!"Jungkook exclaimed brutally while patting Seokjin on the shoulder, "were you really going to let them take you without doing anything?!"

But Seokjin, suddenly realizing what had just happened now that he was safe with Jungkook, burst into tears under the stunned gaze of Jungkook who had never seen him cry.

"J-Jin, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" He asked, worried, looking for a possible injury.

"N-No," Seokjin whined, wiping away his tears that seemed endless for the moment. "I was j-just s-scared..."

Jungkook, not knowing what else to do, hugged him awkwardly. 

"It's gonna be okay now, you're safe," he promised.

"N-no, it's not okay... Doyun was right, I'm r-really a c-coward after all," Seokjin sobbed letting his tears crash down on Jungkook's shoulder..

"He talks nonsense," Jungkook replied, "if you came here, it was to look for me, right? Even knowing that the wakos were there! You are not a coward, you are the bravest boy I know! No one else would have done that for me, believe me!"

"B-But I was unable to defend myself! I-I-I'm a good-for-nothing if I'm incapable of defending myself, I am useless!" he cried.

"Don't say that! I'm here now, you don't need to defend yourself anymore. I'll get you out of Saengson myself. It's up to me to protect you here, remember?" Jungkook said kindly.

"C-come with me," Seokjin stuttered.

"What?"

"Let's leave Saengson and hide at my house together, you and me," Seokjin said with conviction.

"But your parents..." Jungkook started.

"I don't care, I won't leave you here," Seokjin replied, wiping his cheeks quickly and regaining his his protective nature towards Jungkook, "the most important thing is that we both escape the wakos."

He sat up and extended his hand to Jungkook who looked at him, unconvinced but accepted his hand and stood up.

"I won't leave you anymore," Seokjin repeated without letting go of his hand.

This time, the Saengson boy smiled at him.

"Okay, let's go."

Jungkook guided them effortlessly through the maze of streets, seeking the shortest route while avoiding areas where screams of pain and terror were heard that seemed to terrorize Seokjin.

 The two boys ran silently, Jungkook in the lead, pulling Seokjin by the hand, and only the sound of their frantic breathing and hurried footsteps could be heard for anyone to listen.

There was only one street left for them to cross to leave Saengson, and as they entered it, Jungkook realized that it was the street of pleasures. But the show it offered had completely changed from the one before and that made him stop short. No seductive women or scalded clients on the horizon. At least not standing, not alive.

Because dozens of bodies lay on the ground, all along the street, some having been so disfigured that we could have recognized them. Red always predominated in the street of pleasures but this time, the curtains in the winds had nothing to do with it: it was the blood that smeared the ground, the walls and the bodies that had redecorated this street. Most of the corpses were mutilated and there were probably some in every house with wide open doors. In any case, no living soul was visible on the horizon. 

He suddenly saw the lifeless body of Youngim, his face eternally frozen in an expression of pure terror. She was lying in the middle of a pool of blood.

"Oh no, Youngim, I told you to tell everyone and leave," Jungkook lamented as he squeezed Seokjin's hand tighter, "why didn't she listen?"

He then felt Seokjin's hand tremble in his own and as he turned around, he saw that Seokjin was wide-eyed in horror as he stared at Youngim's body and seemed about to pass out.

"Don't look!" Jungkook shouted as he immediately clapped a hand over Seokjin's eyes.

But it was too late Seokjin had been able to see the butchery that had taken place in this street and one of the victims of which was a woman he had met that very morning. The smell of blood went to his head and sickening swirls went up in his body, he was seized with a retching. Suddenly, he doubled over and vomited all the contents of his stomach.

"Jin!" Jungkook exclaimed worriedly, gently stroking his back as he coughed and spat to get rid of the hot liquid.

Finally the admiral's son stood up, shaking and panting, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He stuttered looking at Jungkook:

"Y-Youngim...Is she d-dead?"

"Yes, the pirates have already been there. I knew they would absolutely try to come here first, that's why I told her to flee. But she didn't listen to me," Jungkook replied regretfully. "Let's get out of here now, we can't stay here!"

But Seokjin didn't seem ready to leave, he seemed traumatized and consumed with anguish. He grabbed his head in his hands and whined:

"They... they... they're going to slaughter us, make us suffer before leaving us to die in the street, like these people!"

"No, calm down and listen to me Jin!" Jungkook said by forcing Sepkjin to look him in the eyes to plunge his own into Seokjin's terrified ones. "I won't let that happen, I promise, but we absolutely have to keep running to get away from here, we are soon out of Saengson, we just have to cross this street!"

But Jin couldn't move, he couldn't cross this street filled with corpses.

"H-how can you feel nothing when you've known her for a long time? Youngim died in excruciating pain and so did the other girls, do you mind?" Seokjin whimpered.

He had the impression that the situation didn't scare Jungkook, that the sight of blood and death didn't do anything to him.

"Of course I do," his friend replied, "but we will have time to mourn them when we get out of here, if we stay, other people will take care of mourning you."

" But I can not..."

"Jin," Jungkook cut in grabbing his hand again, "I don't want to lose you, you have to keep moving forward with me, I won't be able to do anything if the pirates come to attack us. And this time, I don't think they'll just try to catch you."

"I...I can't walk down this street among the dead, I'm sorry, I really can't," Seokjin sobbed, lowering his head.

Jungkook was aware that Seokjin had fears that he hadn't told him about and no doubt related to things experienced in the past. But the same way Seokjin never forced him to reveal his past, Jungkook had decided to respect what he wanted to hide from him.

He was discovering how Seokjin was not the coward he played at being by saying that he would not learn how to hurt others and that he would not become a soldier: he was genuinely terrified at the thought of see death.

"Look Jin, we really have to cross this street, it's the shortest way for us."

"But..." Sekjin began.

"No, listen to me, I want you to trust me," Jungkook interrupted, "I can see you're completely freaked out but you don't have to watch, close your eyes, I'll guide you. I swear I'll protect you! Do you trust me?"

Seokjin was distressed, but there was no one he trusted more than Jungkook. So he nodded slowly.

"Good," Jungkook agreed, smiling reassuringly at him. "Now close your eyes, and don't let go of my hand, okay?"

"O-okay," Seokjin said closing his eyes as he squeezed Jungkook's hand tightly with both hands, terrified of letting go and finding himself alone among the dismembered bodies.

"Let's go!"

Very slowly at first then a little faster afterwards, Seokjin let himself be guided by Jungkook who made them weave between the bodies. Even though Seokjin couldn't see them, he could still feel and smell them and several times he felt the saliva rise up and he forced himself to swallow it regularly to suppress this furious urge to vomit.

"Is it still far?" Seokjin whined, hating walking blindly and feeling especially vulnerable.

"Hang on, we're almost there," Jungkook told him as he saw the end of the street that stretched out in an arc.

But as they reached the end of the street, Seokjin heard Jungkook let out an exclamation of surprise that almost made him open his eyes. Yet, he resisted it, thinking that Jungkook had seen a more mutilated body than the others and he was unwilling to see this.

However, the deafening sound of an explosion made him open his eyes suddenly.

BANG!

"NOOOOOOOOO!!"

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A/N : No reader has ever read beyond it. Are you ready to read more?