chapter sixteen / shipyuk
Hold Me Tight
(016)

"Gavin, I'm home!" Yani calls loudly as she walks through the blue door of her home. She leaves the door open, an invitation to follow her inside. Jimin shyly peeks his head inside, hesitant to enter the foreign place, but an impatient Yoongi pushes him inside. As we all enter the house, I hear the patter of bare feet against hard wood floor. Suddenly, a small boy comes rushing towards us, a blur running into Yani. I fear that the boy, who I'm guessing is the person Yani referred to as Gavin, will knock the petite girl over, but it seems this sort of thing happens often, so she's already braced for the impact.

Yani's eyes crinkle as she smiles at the boy, who takes a striking resemblance to her. He looks to be at least twelve years old, which surprises me. You don't see very many kids here, the main reason being, no one likes to team up with people who are young, thinking they won't be very good players, so kids normally make themselves look older in the game. The younger boy is slightly shorter than her, but he also shares the same raven head of hair, his sitting in a ruffled mess atop his head as Yani has playfully messed it up. The boy's eyes shine a brilliant shade of light blue, standing out considerably next to his pale complexion and dark hair. That's not the only thing I notice about his eyes, I see something deeper, something fierce. There's a mischievous glint in his eyes, the same one I saw when I first met Yani at the museum.

"I told you not to call me Gavin here," the younger says with a scowl, though he just made quite the display of affection the girl.

She scoffs in response. "Sorry, kid, but I'm not calling you Kai. I just can't get used to it."

"Fine, then I guess I'll keep calling you Bea-" Yani quickly covers the boy's mouth before he can continue.

"Saying that name here isn't a good idea," Yani threatens through gritted teeth. The two continue to argue and bicker, not even seeming to notice our presence until Jin clears his throat loudly, trying to capture their attention.

"Oh, sorry," she apologizes, smiling sheepishly, "this is my little brother, Gavin." The said boy elbows Yani in the side, earning him a grunt and glare. "Kai. This is Kai." The boy smiles at us innocently, as if he hadn't just attacked his sister. We all greet Kai and introduce ourselves. He seems like a pleasant boy. Well, except for when he interacts with Yani.

"There's a bedroom down that hall, second door on the right and the bathroom is right across from it," Yani explains.

"Wait! That's my room. Why don't you offer your room?" Kai complains, crossing his arms.

"I just came back from a museum with flesh eating shadows. I think I've earned sleeping in my own bed," she argues. "You can sleep with me and... Kai," she cringes at the name, "in my room if you'd like?" She sweetly offers to me, most likely concerned that one girl wouldn't feel comfortable in sharing a room with seven boys. I give her a warm smile, but politely decline her offer. Yani seems like a nice person, but I can't tell her that I'm afraid to sleep in the dark, I can't tell her that I'm afraid to even close my eyes.

"That's alright. I'll share a room with the guys." Yani gives me a half smile and a slight nod, then leads her brother to retire for the night.

We all step inside the room that was offered to us. The light is already on, so when I lay eyes on how Kai's room is decorated, I can't help but laugh.

The bedroom is your typical prepubescent boy's room. Posters with different super heroes and anime characters litter the dark blue walls. Clothes are scattered along the floor, along with different games, a soccer ball and a basket ball. The blanket that lays messily on the boy's twin sized bed has a blown out picture of Captain America. Great, I've always wanted to sleep on Steve Rogers' face.

"There's eight of us, and one small bed," Jin announces the obvious.

"I think it should be first come, first serve." Yoongi runs over to the bed and flops on top of it.

"I think the oldest should get the bed," Jin says.

Jungkook laughs. "Yeah, I don't think Hyung could take sleeping on the floor. He's too old."

"Listen here, you little-"

"I think you should all be gentlemen and let the lady take the bed," I say matter of factly.

Jungkook looks around the room, a look of confusion on his face. "What lady are you talking about?"

"Listen, you little-"

"Jungkook, stop being a punk and just put more beds in here," Namjoon sighs, getting tired of our bickering.

Jungkook snickers before pulling up his holopad and replicating Kai's bed. He keeps adding the same bed until he runs out of space. A bunch of the twin sized beds are right next to each other, making one long bed for us all to get on.

We all settle into the beds and Jin goes to turn out the bedroom lights. I watch him nervously as he walks to the light switch. I clench the blanket under me. I want to ask him to keep the light on, but I don't want to be the reason the others can't sleep.

"Don't turn the light off," Yoongi mutters. I look to him, surprised that he was the one to make the request. He looks down at his hands, feeling embarrassed. I shouldn't be surprised though. He almost died today. If any of us should be afraid, it should be him.

"I'd rather have the light on too," Hoseok adds. Jin looks over at the boys, his face softening as he nods, leaving the light turned on.

He sits at the end of the beds, his face looking sullen. "Do we need to talk about what happened today? How are you all doing?"

Everyone looks down at their hands, avoiding contact, and keeping their lips pursed, unwilling to admit the impact that today had on them. I sigh, knowing that none of them will be open about anything. Maybe if I speak up first it will help.

"I'm horrified. Every time I close my eyes, I see those poor people," I bite on my lip, trying to keep from choking up as I speak of those who have passed far too soon. "I'm afraid that I'm going to be eaten if I step into any shadow. I'm afraid of the dark and that makes me feel like a silly kid." Despite my efforts, when I finally speak of my fears instead of keeping them bottled up inside, because I finally let go of them, so does all of the emotions and tears packaged with it. I feel stupid crying in front of the boys, I feel weak.

Jin stands from the bed he was sitting on, and walks to me. He wraps his long arms around me, pulling me into his chest. He traces small patterns onto my back, and whispers calming things to me. I feel the panic inside my chest subside with the sound of his hushed whispers. I sob into his shirt, but he doesn't seem to mind as the cloth becomes soaked with my tears, in fact, he encourages me to let everything out.

When I finally quiet down, I hear sniffles and small whimpers. I finally pull away from Jin's warm embrace to see the other boys crying. Jungkook immediately jumps from his bed to mine, tackling me in a hug. I feel my heart warm. Since our fight, the boy has been very distant to me, so having him show me this affection was like a breath of fresh air.

"I'm so sorry, Noona," Jungkook sobs, "it's all my fault."

"Don't put blame on yourself. You aren't the one that put us in that situation," I try to console him, doing my best not to bring up the hacker, knowing that's a sensitive topic for Jungkook. I don't want to push him away again when I've just gotten him back.

Jungkook rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to dry away his tears, but he only ends up smearing it on his cheeks. "You don't understand. All of this is my fault."

I raise my eyebrow. "How is it your fault? What could you have possibly done to stop what happened today?"

Jungkook hesitates for a moment. "I was the one that took the shadow off of Yoongi Hyung. I could've saved the others, but I didn't."

Silence engulfs us. I want to say something to comfort the boy dealing with guilt, but I'm not sure how.

"You saved my life," Yoongi speaks with clarity, "I owe my life to you. But just because you're good at hacking doesn't give us the right to rely on you to get us out of trouble every time. You're not a super hero, you're just a kid." I smile at Yoongi's words because I know none of us could've said it better ourselves. I just hope Jungkook can accept them. I hope those words help him get sleep tonight.

Jungkook's bottom lip starts to quiver as new tears start replacing the ones that had just dried. Yoongi stands to hug the boy, a look of brotherly concern painted on his features. Before long, we're all huddled together, holding tightly onto one another. Today was rough, we saw too much for kids like us. The worst part is, it's not over. As long as we keep going out to face the bosses in Elysium, I'm sure we'll see even more things that will haunt our dreams. I suppose that's the price that has to be paid for everyone's freedom. It's a hefty sum, but I'm fully prepared to give everything I've got for my freedom, for the freedom of the boys, and for the freedom of every player in Elysium. I won't let the deaths of the people who lost their lives today be in vain.

Even though my heart still twinges in pain, as I start to drift asleep, I feel Namjoon's arms wrap around my frame, pulling me close into his chest. He smells of lavender and wind, and as I breathe his scent in, it lulls me to sleep, clearing all the bad thoughts in my mind, at least for the night.

I'm woken up by someone jumping on the mattress I'm laying on. I'm not sure what time it is, but judging by the fact that the sun has barely risen enough to shine through our bedroom window, and how my eyes burn as if I've been awake all night, I'll go ahead and say that it's too early. I look above me to see that it's Taehyung who's jumping up and down on my bed, his silver, wavy hair flying up every time he starts to land. The adorable look of excitement on his face, like a child who just woke up to see an abundance of presents under the Christmas tree, is the only thing that prevents me from sweeping his feet from under him.

"Noona," he sings excitedly, "Come get breakfast. A special announcement is going to be made in a few minutes!"

My eyes shoot open, the sleepiness seeming to leave immediately. I rip the covers off of myself. Namjoon, who had somehow managed to sleep through all of Taehyung's racket, flinched and curled up into a ball as soon as the covers left his body. He groans and whines.

"Jagi, you're taking all of the covers!" I giggle at how he sounds like a kid with the way he's whining. I also feel my heart do a flip at what he called me.

"Come on, Nams," I urge him, trying to shake him awake, "let's go get breakfast."

I manage to drag Namjoon out of bed, but he whines and throws a tantrum the whole way to the dining area. I only laugh at him as I sit down at the table everyone is already seated at, eating their breakfast.

"Kai cooked us pancakes, and they don't taste like your poison ones," Jungkook announces, excitedly shoving another bite of pancakes into his mouth. I want to glare at his comment, but I can't deny that the food I made with Namjoon was a monstrosity.

I have to bite my tongue to hold back my laughter when I see the boy who made our breakfast. While everyone is still dressed in their pajamas, with extreme bed head, Kai is quite overdressed. He wears large and clunky armor, the metal almost eating his small body. His hair is now a bright green, and he wears red goggles over his eyes.

"What's with the get up?" I ask the boy as I take a seat at the table and grab a plate of pancakes.

"Kai thinks he's going with me to take on the next boss," Yani answers for the boy. I can tell from the way her eyes are hooded, the flatness in her voice, and her tangled mess of hair, that Yani isn't much of a morning person.

"That's because I am," Kai protests.

"I already told you no."

"I won't get in the way Yani, I-"

"No," she shouts, causing Kai to flinch slightly. Her face immediately softens when she sees the hurt look on the younger's face. She sighs. "I'm sorry, Kai. I know you would go out there and kick butt, I just don't want to let anything happen to you. I've seen too much, and if something did happen to you, I'd never forgive myself."

The boy looks down in defeat, but doesn't push the issue any further. A few moments of awkward silence fills the air, the only sound to be heard is the sound of our metals forks hitting against the plates as we eat our meal. Kai abruptly pushes his plate away and stands up, the legs of his chair making a loud sound as they slide against the wooden floor.

"Kai, please don't be like this," Yani sighs as the boy walks away from the dining room. She starts to go after him, but then a screen in her kitchen turns on, a toned bell going off, meaning an announcement is about to be made. She looks back and forth from the screen to where Kai had gone to, having an inner conflict on whether she should listen to the announcement, or go after her younger brother. She must've decided to check on Kai later because she finally sits back down at her seat and turns her attention to the screen.

"We have a special announcement for you today," the usual man from Yugen addresses us excitedly, "we've made arrangements to allow each player to send a message, either by video or written, to any person on the outside world. We do require that you only send one message. It will take quite a while to send each message to it's recipient, so to make sure we can get to everyone's messages we can only allow one message from each player.

"If things go well, we will try to make this a scheduled event so that you will be able to keep in touch with your families. We ask that you have your message ready by 8:00 p.m, and also give us the contact information for whoever you want your message sent to. Thank you." The screen goes blank, but so does my brain, and I'm sure that's also the best word to describe the look on my face; blank.

I can send a message to whoever I want. There's no doubt in my mind who I'm sending my message to, no other person even entered my thoughts. Of course I'm sending a message to Mama.

The only problem is that I have so much to tell her. How do I put it all into one message? How do I send a hug through a message? I shouldn't complain, the fact that I can contact my mother at all is such a privilege, and I won't let it go to waste.

"Who're you going to send a message to?" Namjoon inquires.

I can't stop a grin from plastering my face, so wide that my cheeks hurt. "I'm going to send a message to my Mom."

Namjoon smiles at my excitement, but seems a bit puzzled at the same time. "I'm sure if you sent a message to your mom, you could get her to show your dad if you want to tell him something too."

My smile falters immediately. "I don't have anything to say to my Father. Not that he'd be there to listen to me. I'd be surprised if he even knew I was stuck here."

I never really met my Father. It was always just Mama and me. As soon as my Dad found out that I was going to be born, he left my Mom. She didn't have anywhere to go. She worked day and night just to get enough money to take care of me. My Dad just let her suffer by herself while he probably went off to get drunk and mess around with other women. He never deserved someone as precious as Mama. She's beautiful, inside and out, she's caring, and so intelligent. She's the most lovely person I know, and I'm so glad to have her in my life. I don't need a Dad when I have her.

Namjoon's eyes soften. "I'm sorry, Wren, I didn't-"

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault that I have a good for nothing Dad."

"I wouldn't say he's good for nothing." I raise my eyebrows at him. "I mean, if it weren't for him, you wouldn't be here." Despite the bad mood mentioning my Father put me in, the corners of my mouth tug up into a smile. Namjoon looks pleased that he was able to make the brightness on my face return. He presses a small kiss onto my forehead, causing my heart to flutter like the wings of a butterfly.

"Who are you going to message?"

Namjoon thinks for a moment. "My parents will probably be outraged, but I'm going to send a message to my Grandfather." He smiles to himself. I wonder why he wouldn't send a message to his parents first, I'm sure they're worried sick about him. Maybe they don't have a very good relationship. I'm just about to ask about it, but Namjoon speaks before I can.

"If it's alright, I'd like to introduce you to him." I freeze, completely caught off guard by his request. I feel anxious to meet his grandfather, but seeing the hopeful look in his eyes makes it too difficult to say no.

I sigh. "Yeah, that'll be fine." Namjoon nearly jumps out of his chair in excitement. He throws his arms around me and squeezes me in a bone crushing hug.

The whole table talks about the family and friends that they're going to message, all feeling high on joy and cheer. All except for one. The only one at the table who has stayed quiet the whole time. The only person who doesn't have anyone who cares about him enough in the real world to be worried or want to hear from him.

Jungkook stares at the table blankly. I can't blame him for not wanting to go home. Who would want to go back to a place when there's no one waiting for you, or even worse, when pain and suffering is waiting for you. At least he has us here, but I know that doesn't completely fill the hole inside of him.

"Jungkook," I call out to get his attention, "would you like to be with me and Namjoon when I send a message to my Mom? I want to introduce you to her."

Jungkook stumbles over a response before Jin answers for him. "He'd love to!"

"You don't want to introduce the rest of us?" Taehyung scowls at me, obviously feeling jealous.

"If I bring all of you at once I won't be able to get a word in," I reply. Taehyung still looks disappointed, but he knows I'm right. "I'll introduce you next time." I know Taehyung will hold me to that promise, and I'm sure other boys will crash my next video message.

We record Namjoon's message first. He warmly speaks to his holopad, an image of himself being reflected. He tells his Grandfather that he's alive and well, that he has his friends, which I learn that Jimin is his Grandfather's favorite of the boys. He tells him that he's working hard to find a way back home, and that he hopes to see him soon. He kindly reminds him to take his medicine and not to stay up too late watching soap opera's. I watch him as he speaks with so much affection. His eyes start to get red and water the longer he speaks. I can tell he misses him a lot.

Namjoon motions for me to sit next to him so I can be in the video. "I'd like for you to meet my girlfriend, Wren," I almost choke at his words, "she takes good care of me. I think you'd like her a lot."

I wave awkwardly. "I make sure Namjoon doesn't destroy everything in his path." Namjoon chuckles and playfully nudges my side. "I hope to meet you soon. I can tell that Namjoon cares a lot for you, so you must be a great person." I catch Namjoon staring at me lovingly as I speak, as if he was watching a new born child. I almost think he's forgotten he's recording a message for his Grandfather, so I clear my throat to snap him out of his gaze, afraid that he might try and kiss me.

Namjoon clears his throat awkwardly and laughs as soon as he remembers what he's supposed to be doing. He says goodbye to his Grandfather and tells him that, hopefully, he'll be able to send him another message soon.

Once he's finished with his message, I grab Jungkook and let him sit next to me. I sit in the middle of the two boys as I take a deep breath and try to remember everything I want to say in my message. Once I'm ready, I finally hit the record button.

"Hi, Mama! I've missed you."

__________

A/N -

Lol I honestly didn't want to write Wren's message to her mom. I also didn't really think it was that important to the story so yeah. Sorry bout that.

I started my new job. Between that and school, I'm so flipping tired. Like guys, rip @ me.

On the bright side, Magic Shop has reached over 300 reads, and I'm so happy. It's been getting a lot of love and attention the past few days, and I just want to say thank you. Meraki, my poetry book, has gotten a lot of love too. Thank you to everyone who leaves such sweet comments on my stories. It means everything to me and I think about them all the time. I always read your comments to my mom and they make her tear up. Just wanted to let you know how much they mean to me. I love you all so much 😭

Peace out, my tortillas ✌🏻