[ YOONGI'S P.O.V. ]

"I'm leaving," she says slowly, looking to the tree-line. I've been coming here a lot. Usually alone with a security and driver. Today I'm not, I'm with her as well.

"I think that's smart," I sigh, blinking tiredly while staring over at how bright the sky is. "It's getting messy with the headlines more and more as days go by. You'll be safer back home."

"Sometimes I wonder if I deserve to feel the heat...to just stay and take what they're saying about me." The woman's voice is hesitant and small when she speaks, "I do deserve it, who am I kidding."

I look at her, I look at Terin who sits next to me. Smiling lightly, I nod and then squeeze my nose together. "I want to be an asshole and say 'yes', but then there's the other part of me that feels what you feel. Every time I read anything they say about Hoseok, I get mad and think of it as my fault."

Terin purses her lips, "I wanted that for you, you know?"

"What?" My brows furrow. I want to darkly chuckle because even though I look confused, I know exactly what she's about to say.

"The big plan was to get to Hoseok so it all comes back to you," she sighs, hugging her knees to her chest. "My twisted games were going to end the moment I had you pay through the eyes of hurting another. Another you cared so deeply for."

"Didn't work out how you wanted?" I joke. She nudges my side, trying not to painfully smile and cry in one. She nods, "I didn't expect Julian to come blasting in, killing people. Never did I want anyone to die because of me."

"I feel at fault." I say.
"No, I feel at fault." Terin says.

Then I laugh and explain my conversation with Namjoon's girlfriend and her take on cross-fire. "She told me to not blame the victims, but rather, the gunman doing the crime." I continue, "Then I agreed and concluded that even if we hadn't slept together, even if you hadn't cheated on him, maybe he'd still have it in him...this aggression, this violence?"

Terin questions, "Would he?" I shrug, glance at her thinking to herself. I begin to play with the grass under me liking how it tickles. She says, "What if we drove him to insanity?" With a side-smirk, I ask, "Like I drove you into becoming who you became?" And she shut up.

Silence.
I like the silence, she doesn't. I can tell from the way she twitches on the earth.

"I don't like who I became," she whispers. Out and in the open. She says this slow, tears leave her awkwardly. Normally, I'd lean her into my arms and help wipe them away, but I can't. Not anymore. Not in this stage of such toxicity.

"If I'm about to be honest," I sigh, squinting my eyes so I can feel the burning at my pupils. I keep trying to challenge the sun with my vision. "I haven't liked who I've been for a long time...I hit a whole new level of despair once my parents started to play puppeteer."

"I can't believe you're married." Terin laughs, but then it dims again when I don't laugh. She says she's sorry and I say it's not okay. She smiles when I say that, and I smile back. Civil, kind, but not nice.

Silence. More silence.
I like it, but Terin doesn't. I know for sure now as she goes through her phone. She deletes every picture of me there is. I'm washed in relief, I won't lie.

"Thanks," I say, and she does nothing but close her phone and put it back into her pocket.

Silence. More more silence.

"Don't you just love the quiet?"

"No, it's too loud for me," she laughs.

I smirk, "Not many people like it." Then I think of you. I think of us. I smile larger.

The hesitantly beautiful girl, with loads of questions on her mind, gets up. She stands up, her bruised and naked face marked in cuts and scrapes from accidents both by Julian, and by another woman. She wears the injuries perfect, like a mask for a person she wishes to leave in the past. I respect it, watching her stand straight.

"Be good to yourself Terin," I whisper last, smiling up at her childishly.

She smiles back, nodding and apologizes once more. I don't do anything but rip the grass. She walks to the van that the driver starts. The security helps her in, closes the door behind her and lets the car go off. Sitting down in the grass himself, he makes sure to keep his distance from me. I smile over my shoulder, nodding over at him. He's been the same security watching over me for days.

"You didn't have to stay back."

The man, older, wiser-looking smiles with wrinkly patches by his eyes. He squints into the sun himself, shrugging, "Thought I'd watch over until the driver comes back for us."

I look away, back in front. My eyes are on the trees now. "I wouldn't mind if he never came back, I like it here."

"I've noticed," the man chuckles.

Silence.
I like the silence but can't tell if the man likes it. I can't tell.

"Congratulations on being an Uncle," he says, smiling as he speaks, "I heard the leader of your group is a father now?"

There's a warmth in my stomach. I nod, "Yeah. Thank you."

"May I ask why you're here instead of with the others celebrating?"

"Just need to clear my mind."

"Everyday?"

"Is there an issue with that?" I ask, teasing the sun with my gazes again. It burns.

"You don't talk about him much. I hear you mention everyone else but the leader...why is that?" he asks, and I cock my brow. "You've been eavesdropping every time I call?" I ask.

"You call your wife huh?" he says. "Yes," I say. "Keep her, hold on tight," he finishes this, mysterious and as if he's got a story I need to know.

"You got a wife?" I ask, looking over my shoulder in curiousity.

Then man blinks, unmoved, "That's none of your business." He grins.

I laugh, "You just asked me many questions and I can't even ask one?"

"You didn't answer my first one."

"I don't talk about Namjoon a lot because he's the only one that has his shit together," I lay out, back to fighting with the sun. "Namjoon's with his girlfriend and now his son, baby Kennah. Similarly, with Jin. He's with his girlfriend, happier than ever. They're all happy, they're all okay. That's why I don't talk about those two."

"I see...and the one that got beat—"

"I talk about him a lot in the messages because I should be in his place. He's in the hospital because of me—or so I used to blame myself over it. Not much anymore."

The man lays down on the grass. It's a funny sight, seeing the black suit and tie, classy pants—all dirty now in mud. I follow him, finding comfort on the green myself. "I see," he sings into the air, "Well it's nice to know that you're moving on from the horror slow."

"Time sucks with the healing."

"But it works out in the end, kid. It works out."

"I hope so."

Silence.
I like the silence and for some reason, now I know that he does too. With a smile, I poke my head up adorable to meet his shoes that are close to my hair. I ask, "What's your name?"

He smirks large, shakes his head and rumbles in laughter.

"What?" I ask confused.

"There's no fuckin' way I'm telling you my name. The last guy that gave away his position got killed."

My smile falls, but then it comes back to me when I joining his dark laugh.

Silence. More more more silence.

My phone rings. I jolt up from the ground when I see who it is. Breathing hard, cleaning my hands from grass on my laps. I slide to answer the call and shakily say, "Hi, I love you, hi." I'm a moron when it comes to you.

My large smile disappears when I hear you crying. "What's wrong?" I ask, but just as you wobble in words to answer, I get it. I hear them. I hear our parents shouting in the background, and what you clamber next makes it easy for me to run over. You say, "Please come home?"

[ YOONGI'S P.O.V. END ]

A/N: This ff will be ending very soon. 5-6 more chapters remain.