Alexa groaned as she woke up.  Her body was throbbing from head to toe.  Someone was touching her, gently pressing something cold and wet into her back, with the highly concentrated smell of antiseptic in the room she turned her face to see who was with her. 

‘Relax, if you move too much you’ll rip them open.’  A kind female voice told her. 

She blinked, barely able to believe her own ears.  Focusing on a very beautiful woman, she was dressed in white, with plump full lips, large dark eyes and long wavy black hair the woman smiled at her kindly. 

‘I’m Seokjin, I’m a nurse.’  The woman explained as Alexa managed to focus her eyes.  ‘Taehyung called me to take care of you.’ 

‘Taehyung?’ she repeated disbelievingly. 

Seokjin nodded, before Alexa even asked she added, ‘This is Taehyungs house, you’re in his bedroom.’

A bedroom, not the prison.  The room she was in was no room she had seen before.  For one it was clean, bright white with large windows in a corn and she was on a bed, a real bed with a thick mattress and dark blue sheets. 

The room was littered with things.  A book shelves filled with books, trinkets and photographs, colourful paintings on the walls, a computer in the corner on a large clean desk. 

She tried to remember what had happened.  With her mind foggy she could only recollect the worst pain she had ever felt in her life and the echoes of her screams bouncing around her heard. 

Seokjin applied the last bandage to her as she helped turn her to her side. 

‘I know you have a lot of questions, don’t worry Taehyung will answer them.  But can you tell me, what happened to you?’  Seokjin didn’t appear to be violent, or have an evil look on her beautiful face, but Alexa was still scared, scared if she told the truth she would be hurt more.  She turned her face into the pillow and ignored the question, besides, her torture wasn’t something she wanted to talk about. 

‘Try and rest.’ Seokjin told her as she got up to leave.  Alexa closed her eyes into the pillow, waiting for the evil that was surely going to happen at any moment to her.  No one was kind to a criminal.

‘How is she?’  She heard the low tones of Taehyung floating into the room from outside.  Though they seemed far away, she could hear him without a problem.

‘She’ll be ok.  She’s black and blue but no lasting damage.’  Seokjin answered him.  ‘What happened?’ she dropped her voice a little, though it was not seemingly for Alexa’s benefit she could still hear every word. 

Alexa couldn’t see Taehyung, though she strained her ears to listen to their conversation. 

‘I don’t know.  I got there, at the prison, you know my – my,’ he faltered.

‘I know,’ Seokjin reassured him.

‘It was telling me to go to her, but when I got there, the cell was empty, but I could hear her screaming from outside, she was begging to die.  I had to fight my way inside to her.  I turned in the hallway from her cell and she was being dragged drenched in blood, she just collapsed in front of me.  I had to fight with the guards, and I just scooped her up, put her in my car and brought her home.  I didn’t even pause to think about it.  I just needed to get her as far away from there as I could.’  Taehyung’s voice became strained. 

‘I understand.  Some of her scars are old, really old. They’ve been doing this to her for a long time,’ Seokjin explained.

‘My bond, it’s been pulling me so hard. I knew it.’  Taehyung cried.  ‘I’m going to be in so much trouble.’

‘We all do crazy things for our soulmates.’  Seokjin said kindly.  Before Alexa knew it, she was feeling sleepy.  The bed was so soft and comfortable.  The sheets were warm and cosy, she could smell something sweet and husky in the pillows her face was buried in.  As she fell asleep she felt Taehyung enter the room and sit on the side of the bed with her. 

‘Please get better soon.’  He whispered to her before her body and mind gave in to the exhaustion. 

Alexa had been asleep for some time when she woke up, terrified at the sound that was ringing causing her to jump up in the bed.  Taehyung had wrapped his arm and a leg around her, and she was pinned to the bed underneath him.  That, in itself, was terrifying, but the ringing didn’t stop, her heart beating wildly with frozen fear.  It took her a few minutes to realise where she was and who she was with. 

Taehyung leaned up out from her neck and carefully dragged his limbs off her flapping around to stop the ringing. 

‘Hello?’ he spoke into his phone with a groggy voice. 

She tried to keep her breathing calm, worried about what was going to happen to her next.

‘What?’  Taehyung growled into the phone making her quake next to him.  He leaned up resting his weight on his legs with his back towards her. 

‘No, she’s with me.’ He said dropping his deep voice low, as he turned over his shoulder in her direction.  ‘NO!’ He yelled into the phone.  ‘No, she’s not going back.  I’m keeping her here.  No.  I said NO aren’t you listening?’ he said very quickly in a very angry tone. 

‘I’ll take responsibility of her.  Don’t call me again in the middle of the night.’ He growled as he hung up the phone and threw it back on the bed side table with a thump. 

He would take responsibility of her?  Why? She couldn’t understand why he would say that, but he seemed angry, and she prayed he wouldn’t hurt her now.  Had he kidnapped her to personally abuse her at home?    

Watching Taehyung, he scratched at the back of his head, fluffing up his hair before he threw himself backwards on the bed, curling himself around Alexa just like before.  The heat of him felt nice, cosy, but the weight of him was scary.  The guards were bigger than Alexa, but Taehyung was all muscle besides the fact he was tall.  His hair floated around her face, the smell in the pillows was his smell.  Her breath caught in as he snuggled up to her side, wrapping his arm around her waist. 

She didn’t move nor dare move him for fear his anger would then get directed towards her.  She was so very confused, the confusion seeped into the forefront of her mind, why was she in his bed, why was he sleeping next to her like this?  The confusion mixed with her fear made it hard to think clearly.

‘Alexa?  Did I wake you?’  He whispered into the dark night, suddenly breaking the silence around them both.  His voice was much softer than the tone he had used with the person on the phone, though still deep and disconcerting. 
He pulled himself up on his elbow looking down at her, she caught his eye in the dim light and looked away quickly, shaking her head a little at his question.  She didn’t want to get into trouble. 

‘I’m not mad at you, I’m mad that they called me at this time.  I mean what are they thinking of?  What time is it?’  he turned looking at the clock on the bed side table.  3.51am.  ‘4am?’ he said blankly, mumbling about idiots waking them up.

‘I’m sorry you woke up.’ He said turning back to face her and reaching out his hand to hers.  She jumped at the contact, briefly meeting his eyes again, looking away embarrassed as soon as it happened.

‘Please, I’m sorry.’  He said softening his voice even more.  ‘I’m not going to hurt you.  I promise, don’t be afraid of me.’ He told her.  She wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t.  Officers had abused her over half of her life.  People just like Taehyung.  How could she be sure he wasn’t going to snap and do the same thing.  How could she believe the handsome man, the most handsome man in the world was going to be kind to her?

She kept her eyes down, though she could feel Taehyung’s on her, burning a hole in her side.  Unsure what to do she thought about trying to sleep again, but she knew that would be useless besides she was shaking too much to sleep.  Her lip trembled at the effort it took not to cry.

‘Let’s get some food, since we’re awake, you must be hungry.’  Taehyung said kindly, getting up and pulling at her wrist to get her up too.  She winced, though his gentle tug was nothing like the guards, it pulled at her wounded skin. 

‘I’m sorry!’ he exclaimed quickly, placing his large hands around her waist.  His face was very close to her cheek.  ‘I’m sorry I forgot.’ He repeated even more sincerely so close to her ear she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. 

His hand rubbed gently down her side, under the shirt she was wearing along the bandages.  ‘Can I see?’ he asked, pulling her shirt up tenderly.  Blood was already seeping through the bandages Seokjin had wrapped around her, she could feel it.  Taehyungs fingers traced over the bandages where the worst bits seemed to be.  Alexa seemed to quiver even more, waiting for him to stop, the anticipation of what he was going to do made her body twitch uncontrollably. 

‘I need to change these,’ he told her, ‘I’m sorry, I know it hurts, but it won’t take too long.  It might sting a little.’ He explained.  She held still, keeping her eyes tightly shut, waiting for it to be over as he took the shirt off her and over her head.  He left for a minute and came back, placing something on the bed before he began to take off the bandages.  from the waist up she crossed her arms over her chest, though she had been many times before in front of the guards, she felt embarrassed.

Taehyung seemed to sense this, wrapping a light sheet around her front he whispered, ‘Try and relax,’ as he took off the bandages.  She could hear his gasp of shock as her skin was exposed to him.  Undoubtedly her skin was every colour under the sun, raised and broken, her milky white skin probably didn’t even resemble skin.  He was probably disgusted by her, the thought made her cringe even more

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered again, his words seeming to catch in his throat as he lightly touched over her scars, avoiding the more painful gashes.  He had something, some lotion, something wet and cold with a strong smell he dabbed into her wounds before he wrapped fresh bandages around her. 

‘This was my fault?’ he asked her, as he got a long shirt from somewhere and placed it around her, helping her guide her arms carefully into the arm holes. 

‘They did this to you because I fell asleep there?’ he asked her again in a low whisper.  She bit her lip, not wanting to relive the experience.  She didn’t want to admit to him it was his fault and get another beating from him. 

‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ he began to cry on her, his arms had somehow wrapped around her waist, his forehead leaned heavily on the back of her neck as his tears dripped down on her.

Alexa had no idea what to do as he cried.  He kept apologising though it just rang through the empty silence.  He managed to get himself together, wiping his face, he stood and pulled her up, guiding her towards the kitchen with his hand protectively around hers.  She had no idea what she was wearing, looking down at herself, she realised her legs were , the only thing she was wearing was the huge white shirt with buttons down the front that fell to her knees. 

‘I’m sorry, it’s mine, I don’t have any clothes for you yet.’  He said, glancing towards her while he paced around his kitchen, pulling out different ingredients from different cupboards. 

‘I have some sweat pants that are a little small that you can wear if you’re cold.’ He offered eyeing her smoothing down the dress-like shirt over her legs.  She shook her head once to tell him it was ok.  She didn’t want to start demanding things and making him angry. 

He continued to stand and stare at her for a little too long that she began to feel awkward as she stood in front of him, so she turned to tentatively look around the rest of the apartment.  It was small, nothing fancy but it was clean and cosy.  The living room connected to the kitchen with a breakfast bar separating them with some stools. 

‘Here, have a seat,’ he offered, dropping the loaf of bread in his hands on the counter.  He moved around the bar and pulled out the stool for her.  Uneasily, she climbed up, it was tall, and she was quite small.  She slipped as she tried to get up.  Taehyung grabbed her around her waist before she fell, helping to pull her up and sit her down. 

‘Ok?’ he asked as he let go of her quickly.  She nodded once, averting her eyes from his again, too ashamed to look into them. 

‘Are you hungry?’ he asked, still standing close to her.  She felt like she shouldn’t answer every time he asked a question.  In prison she learned quickly if she answered she would be beaten, and most questions were rhetorical. 

‘I’m not much of a cook, but I can make some things.  Mostly ramen.’ He said going back to the kitchen and pouring through his ingredients. 

‘Oh, I can make pancakes.’  He exclaimed turning around to her.  She looked away as he looked at her feeling nervous every time he turned in her direction. 

‘Ok pancakes.’ He answered himself, sighing slightly, he turned back to the kitchen as he started cracking eggs into a bowl. 

As he started cooking, she turned to take in the living room again.  It was small but cute.  A tiny two-seater white sofa was in the middle of the room, with a white chair at the end, in front of a tv on the wall and a wooden coffee table, with a multitude of electronic boxes she didn’t recognise with wires poking out of them.  On the walls were paintings she barely recognised, but one was particularly pretty.  A swirling pattern of a night sky with stars and blue hues hung along the back wall.  Along the side of the room was a white tall book shelf full of different shaped books and pictures of Taehyung with his brother Jungkook.  The pictures were too far away for her to get a good look, but from what she could tell they didn’t look too similar.  Jungkook was still attractive though, he had more of a boyish charm to his features than Taehyung did. 

All too soon the apartment filled with the sound and smell of delicious pancakes cooking, which Taehyung then piled high on two plates for them both, placing hers in front of her along with a fork and a glass of orange juice. 

‘Please eat,’ he directed as he sat down next to her and began to eat his own. 

She watched him a little as he shovelled huge mouthfuls into his mouth.  Catching her looking he grinned at her a little, motioning for her to eat too.  Turning to the pile of food she picked up the fork and took a small bite.  They were good, sweet and warm, unlike anything she had tasted before. 

Looking up at Taehyung as she swallowed the first bite he smiled at her, ‘Is it good?’  he asked with a raised hopeful eyebrow.  His face looked nice like that.  

She nodded towards him, trying not to upset him, even though they were indeed good, before he went back to finishing his own food.  Taehyung finished his own plate a lot sooner than she did.  She tried her best to finish everything but there was so much it was impossible.  Keeping her eyes down she put the fork back on the table. 

‘Finished?’ he asked, taking the plate and fork from her and placing them in the sick.  Too terrified he was going to get angry she didn’t speak, as she bit her lip with her eyes trained down. 

He washed up as the sun began to rise.  The light gently filtered through the windows, illuminating the inside of the apartment. 

‘Oh, do you want to watch the sunrise?’ Taehyung enquired, watching her eyes carefully taking in the sunlight flooding around them.  He clutched her hand, linking his giant fingers between hers and lead her t